What is the best/ultimate hack?

Hello, I love SMW, I played many romhacks, most of them not entierly, but I don't really follow whats going on inside the community, or how are things evolving, and haven't played many hacks released in the last 5 years.

I recently played the Super Mario /V/orld trilogy and was impressed by some graphics, musics, asm and all. I've also played Celeste smc and Casio Mario.
Everything seems to have evolved a lot in how the hack are made and on what is it actually possible to do.

So, I was wondering, what is considered the ultimate hack by the community?

I remember back then it seemed to be Brutal Mario. I remember this game was very impressive for its time, but I've seen better things now. So yeah, whats a hack who is as impressive and good nowadays as Brutal Mario was back then.

Thank you.

"Vanilla" means no ASM or custom graphix?

Also, I know there is no defikitive answer but... Mona Lisa, Zelda OOT, The Simpsons, Back To The Future...
All of these are considered masterpieces in their category. Isn't there a hack famous for being excellent?

The concept of "the best/ultimate" is irrelevant.

First: because fun is subjective.
For some players X hack will be the best, but not for me or for you.
Players search for new experiences and some of them already know what they want.
And fun is just a connection between you and the game.

Second: because ASM is acessible now.
ASM is tecnology and tecnology was made to be surpassed (year by year).
Back in the day Brutal Mario was great because people were easily impressed.
Today almost anyone can do something better and nothing impress anymore.

Third: it's a niche thing.
Everything here is made from players to players... some are very especific.
Nobody here is great enough to be put in the curated position of role model.
Sometimes the ego speaks louder than the hobby here.

This is a take but I don't entirely think the best hacks are 100 percent subjective. This isn't a knock on anyone's preferences (nor do I care for that) as you can like the hacks that are your personal best, I'm going to talk about what the community likes, which is different than what you individually like.

Throughout the years, the community does get hacks made that do stand out from the rest, for better or worse. Since this thread is about what is the best hack, then it would stand to reason that the best would have attention focused on the design elements that went together to make something fun, cohesive, creative, and memorable to play. Contemporary hacks like JUMP1/2, A Plumber For All Seasons, Mario's Mystery Meat, Sicari 2, Casio Mario World, Grand Poo World 2, and also historically most other hacks successfully nominated for the Featured Hacks section when it was still a thing such as The Second Reality Project 1 and 2 Reloaded, I find would generally be hard to argue against they being the best hacks the community has. Those are the kind of hacks that can set the bar for what one should strive to reach for in their own works.

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[19:43] <StrikeForcer> I also want to say that "because everything on the internet is definitely true!" is a derailment tactic that serves as a shorthand change for "I dont accept the facts"

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In fact I think I am just looking for a "modern Brutal Mario".

It's very hard to pinpoint a single hack as the "ultimate" hack cause there are many ways to gauge the quality of a hack. Are you looking for something that peaks at fun, looks, passion, or just raw ASM effort?

Despite saying it's hard to choose just one, I can't help but have APFAS come to my mind, as it is what I consider to be the most professional work done in recent years. It's well designed, looks gorgeous and has a large amount of custom code. It is the result of over a decade of hard work from the author so I think it deserves the shoutout.

As for a hack that peaks in passion, which is something that matters a lot to me, I would point out SMW: Gaiden, but I doubt that's what you're looking for.

Obviously these are merely personal opinions.

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It's easily the best thing I've done
So why the empty numb?

I think I am looking for something similar to Brutal Mario. Impressive ASM, graphics, musics... not hard diffictulty, and not a joke hack

Seawar Mario World and The Mario are about as close as you can get to hacks similar to Brutal Mario. If there was ever a hack that could be considered a "modern Brutal Mario", I think Seawar Mario World would probably be it.

Video of The Mario
Ldad has some videos of Seawar Mario World on his channel, here's a sample that showcases some of the ASM gimmicks

Here's Mine:

Rilla Roo's NSMW Duology
Piranha Island
Evil Conquest 1 and 2
VLDC11 and VLDC12 Collaboration Hacks
JUMP 1/2
Akogare 2

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