I've been working on a hack for about 6 months. I thought I'd share my progress with you guys on smwcentral!
Title: Two Minute Mario
My goal was to perfectly hybridize SMB3 and SMW. Savestates are not necessary, although thanks to an insane amount of playtesting conducted by myself and others (perhaps in the hundreds of hours on world 1 alone) enemy placement is extremely optimized. This means that the game is tough where I want to be but never unfair. There are no precision jumps or invisible coin blocks.
A primary gameplay mechanic is the timer. In every single level Mario has only 120 time units (construed as "two minutes" in the story) to reach the goal. In many levels this is literally impossible! Thankfully, there are many ways to add to your timer - these include timer blocks (the green clocks with spinning hands you see in screenshots), time pipes (blue pipes), and more. Time pipes are key to puzzle solving (manipulating "time," i.e. room resets). It is never necessary to find every time block or pipe.
Powerups are dispersed sparingly. Mushrooms are common, but flowers and feathers must be found. There is usually 1 flower per level, although the player must locate and usually solve a mini-puzzle to access it. Feathers are very rare and the subject of a coin-dispensing minigame. Feathers often unlock alternate routes.
Areas modeled after SMB3 zones are perfectly recreated. In the "HELP" room of the castle toad jumps up and down, the animal breathes/moves, etc. The toad house (not pictured) is almost 100% identical to its SMB3 counterpart, including the ability to get only 1 item from a box.
Graphics from SMB3 are self-ripped (which took ages).
It will be a while before this is released. I'm a law student and so it can be hard to find the time (especially now).
Ignore the Koopa Kids and the extraneous "help" bubbles
WORLD MAP (Worlds 1 and 4; Worlds 1 and 4 with paths)
Other screenshots:
Title: Two Minute Mario
My goal was to perfectly hybridize SMB3 and SMW. Savestates are not necessary, although thanks to an insane amount of playtesting conducted by myself and others (perhaps in the hundreds of hours on world 1 alone) enemy placement is extremely optimized. This means that the game is tough where I want to be but never unfair. There are no precision jumps or invisible coin blocks.
A primary gameplay mechanic is the timer. In every single level Mario has only 120 time units (construed as "two minutes" in the story) to reach the goal. In many levels this is literally impossible! Thankfully, there are many ways to add to your timer - these include timer blocks (the green clocks with spinning hands you see in screenshots), time pipes (blue pipes), and more. Time pipes are key to puzzle solving (manipulating "time," i.e. room resets). It is never necessary to find every time block or pipe.
Powerups are dispersed sparingly. Mushrooms are common, but flowers and feathers must be found. There is usually 1 flower per level, although the player must locate and usually solve a mini-puzzle to access it. Feathers are very rare and the subject of a coin-dispensing minigame. Feathers often unlock alternate routes.
Areas modeled after SMB3 zones are perfectly recreated. In the "HELP" room of the castle toad jumps up and down, the animal breathes/moves, etc. The toad house (not pictured) is almost 100% identical to its SMB3 counterpart, including the ability to get only 1 item from a box.
Graphics from SMB3 are self-ripped (which took ages).
It will be a while before this is released. I'm a law student and so it can be hard to find the time (especially now).
Ignore the Koopa Kids and the extraneous "help" bubbles
WORLD MAP (Worlds 1 and 4; Worlds 1 and 4 with paths)
Other screenshots: