| Name: | Storks and Apes and Crocodiles |
| Author: | Morsel |
| Added: | |
| Version History: | View |
| Demo: | No |
| Hall of Fame: | No |
| Length: | 17 exit(s) |
| Type: | Kaizo: Expert |
| Description: | Dear victim, In the process of making this hack, I have come to hate it. I hope you, gentle player, will come to feel the same way. There is no overworld to this hack (automatic saving), simply 17 + 1 levels of bullshit from a sadist. The hack is directly inspired by the Luigi's Adventure lost levels and incidentally inspired by the Hyper Mario World special worlds, and so occupies the border territory between very hard and kaizo, depending on whether you view kaizo as a genre or a difficulty, or just think it's a Japanese magazine. There are few if any of the traditional kaizo traps (invisible blocks, post-goal deaths), or techniques (shell-jumping), but the expectation that the level be played in a strict way, and the certain necessity for trial and error or familiarity with the course lay-out, lead me to feel the classification I've given it (kaizo light) is accurate. I hope you have fun. Love, morsel. v1.14 In an access of merciful feeling, this version prevents the slow slope speed in pertinent levels, makes the fishin' lakitu better behaved and changes the platform room in the castle to its rng castle squared equivalent. v1.13 This post-seppuku update fixes the two game crashes in stage 5. I also raised a ceiling in room 3 of Motor Skills. v1.12 I apologise for updating this again, but in the last update "-Stage 13: fixed a sparky so he doesn't despawn," I used red spikes which are empty tiles instead of kill ones, creating an accidental softlock. This is the absolute final version--rather than update this again, I will commit seppuku. v1.11 "I shouldn't have to update this again." When I said this, a nasty little god laughed. Hence "stabilised max sliding speed"--this was well motivated but completely idiotic; not sure how to fix it without breaking other things, so it has now been reverted to normal. Also forgot these changes: -Stage 13: fixed a sparky so he doesn't despawn. -Stage 15: in boss, set layer 2 to interact with sprites. Version 1.10 I wanted to update the hack as there was a bug in stage 10 whereby the p-switch occasionally wouldn't spawn. I still don't know what causes this, but I put in some code to take account of it happening. I took the opportunity to go over the hack and fix some other things, viz.: -Stage 1: stabilised max sliding speed (to $30, instead of values between $2F and $31). This also applies to other stages with sliding obstacles (stage 2, stage 12, some stage 17 sublevels). -Stage 3: made one jump easier and added a hint for a blind thing. -Stage 5: fixed the part where you can go under everything. -Stage 9: made football player kick consistently. -Stage 10: fixed disappearing p-switch bug. -Stage 12: changed music. -Stage 13: changed music and palette for second half. Everyone seems to find the second half pretty hard so I made it more lenient. Also disabled the killing of thwomps and thwimps with blocks (it is unreliable and confusing). -Stage 14: made the first half more streamlined to reduce potential waiting. -Stage 16: fixed the jump where you can skip one of the disco ball obstables. -Stage 17: changed boss music. -Motor Skills: fixed beginning of room 4; made first hit of boss more consistent; fixed final hit of boss so you need to be standing on ground for it to count. There are miscellaneous other changes for small graphical anomalies and text box messages. I shouldn't have to update this again. v1.06 Thanks to linkdeadx2 playing this hack, we have: Changes -stabilised position of hammer bro. in level 3 -forced collection of star in level 4 Not changed -while you can double hit switches in level 6, by aiming for the centre of the switch, you can reliably not do so; there is code in a later level preventing double hitting when you can not reliably avoid it. |
| Tags: | asm exgfx music story |
| Comments: | 36 (jump to comments) |
| Rating: |
Download
739.89 KiB | 2,173 downloads
Comments (36)
The third level's first half took me way longer than it should've, and then the second "half" is free in comparison, then level 4 is easier than level 2, and this is the point I realized the difficulty is all over the place in this. Level 6 is a lot harder and I am absolutely amazing at double hitting the on/off blocks in the tunnel, so that's great. Level 7 is just weird. The puzzle is stupid and I used cheese (I seriously have no clue what the intended solution is), and the second half is uncharacteristically long, as most levels before this have been very short. Then we have level 8, which is probably the second easiest level in the game immediately after one of the hardest levels in the game. Level 10 is an insane level but it's definitely fun. Level 12 infuriated me to no end.
Then we have motor skills. It's a pretty cool level, but I raged a bit as I was all out of patience after the previous level. Good level, though I really didn't like the boss.
5/5, very good overall though many questionable decisions. Would only recommend to experienced players or those who are willing to go insane. Beating a level after 10 hours is very satisfying, though. After RNG castle boss was the first time I loudly shouted "yes" after beating a level.
However, Storks isn't without flaws, though they're all things you've probably heard before.
maybe go back to akogare, casual??
This hack is both extremely fun and difficult. Every level is fair while still being incredibly tough, and very satisfying when you beat each challenge.
RNG castle is probably the hardest level I have ever played, with an incredible boss fight.
Good work Morsel.
If you like games that are equally beautiful as they are well designed, play this game.
If you like obstacles that are both challenging and rewarding, play this game.
If you're the type of person who likes getting kicked in the nuts and then says "Thank you sir, I would like another," play this game.
Storks and Apes and Crocodiles is in my top 3 hacks of all time (if not my favorite) - it's fun, aesthetically pleasing, extremely challenging, and incredibly rewarding to play. The levels are unique, and nothing is legitimately frustrating about the game - you are more likely to get mad at yourself rather than the obstacles.
Absolutely wonderful work, you owe it to yourself to play this game.
10/10 would stork again.
Like I said to Linkdeadx2, placing this hack in the 5/5 bin, where hacks like this and people like you belong.
Pls no second seppuku.
Edit: solution
That level features unnecessary items/enemies or allowed multiple strategies in order to finish the level, this includes the blue throw block that can be avoided using cape Mario, and the 2 extra koopas in the left room that have 3 koopas. This is very strange as most kaizo hacks have strictly one solution of a given obstacle.
i was horrified to read in your review of the troubles you had with this hack. however, when i watched one of your videos i noticed that the wrong music was playing and the midpoints were saving to sram or something, which made the game much less of a sadistically difficult experience than it ought to be. i fear, whatever you thought you were playing, it was not my hack; perhaps you picked up a copy of that notorious bootleg, chinese storks and apes and crocodiles. please re-download the hack from this page and try playing it again.
questioning your commitment to masochism but with much love and big kisses,
morsel
The aesthetics are very nice and a lot of the level design is quite creative. There were even a few fun levels, such as the first castle (level 5) and the cape level (level 8).
Some levels had the potential to be fun, but were ultimately ruined by "that one obstacle" which was disproportionately and unnecessarily awkward and difficult. Sometimes it's at the beginning of the level (e.g. the first jump in the game). Other times, it's right before a checkpoint or goal (e.g. the slope munchers in level 2), which devolves into a mind-numbing loop of playing the entire section just to have a shot at the obstacle, then dying to it.
Some levels are completely irredeemable, such as the rope level (level 11). Others are just too long (e.g. both halves of level 17).
There were also obstacles throughout the hack which required extremely awkward inputs seemingly for no other reason than to be awkward and mess with a Super Mario World player's muscle memory. Levels 11, 12, and 18 were littered with these.
All in all, this was the most unpleasant video game experience I've ever had. You mentioned in the hack description that you hoped players would come to hate this hack, and at this you excelled.
Love, BeeKaay.
This is my favorite SMW hack.
5/5
5 stars & no seppuku please!
Difficulty Rating: 5/5
Enjoyment: 5/5
No Seppuku
Difficulty Rating: 5/5
Enjoyment: 5/5
Yoshi Tunnel: 3/5
also if you use savestates you're banned
Now in all seriousness, what a blast! Definitely typical of your usual design style, and man, the difficulty really reaches its peak most of the time, although it can still be classified as Kaizo: Light. I like how inspired you were by hacks such as Luigi's Adventure and VIP 5 to develop this. I had a lot of trouble with very few levels, especially the ghost house. It took me like almost 2 days to figure out the solution, and I came up with one that may or may not be the gist of it. And the level that comes afterwards was pretty uncreative overall since all you had to do is to fly, but that's just my honest opinion.