Shooting Star - A chocolate Kaizo/Standard hybrid hack (C3 preview release) - Summer 2023

"You know what I got out of this, Hiro? That you need to make a whole hack! ... I think it's time to make a full hack!" ~ Juzcook, 2023, after beating Super Birthday World 2

About

Shooting Star, a romhack dedicated to Sye990, is my first serious attempt, at creating a solo SMW romhack project.

The hack itself is going to be a chocolate heavy Kaizo/Standard hybrid hack, meaning that elements of both will appear.
In terms of difficulty, I aim to make this the next reasonable challenge for Kaizo players, after they have conquered Invictus, so expect it to be around that level (or even a bit higher).

I am still working on this project, but I am offering you, for this C3, a way to play one of its levels.

Features

Unique hack expierence, which fuses elements from Kaizo and Standard hacks together

Retry system that allows to quickly retry the levels (similar to the one seen in a lot of Kaizo hacks)

This romhack uses the power of SA-1, allowing certain things, other hacks couldn't get away with

Heavy chocolate usage in most parts of the hack, ranging from enemies to gimmicks

A lot of custom graphics, some heavily edited, others completely drawn by yours truly

Autosave on overworld walk and midway saves (saves star cards also)

Star cards, which can be collected...
Note: Things may get added, removed or changed as development continues.

Screenshots

Note: Level screenshots are spoiler tagged. Move your cursor over it to reveal them.

Videos and Livestreams

I stream the progress on the hack on my own Twitch channel. Each stream is saved as a VOD highlight, so it can be archived and watched again: View the Lunar Magic streams

Note: Some offstream work is done... those offstream modifications aren't obviously included in this list.

Download

This C3 preview allows you to play the first level I created for this hack: Download the Preview

Note: This is still a prototype. Things may change as development continues.
Note: This hack has been tested on an SuperNT with an FXPakPro, the Snes9x ver.1.60 and BizHawk (using the BSNES core) emulators. I DON'T recommend playing the hack on ZSNES or other inaccurate emulators, as it will not run correctly!

Interesting to see what hybrid standard/kaizo hacks can offer to the community.

I do like the visuals with the titlescreen and tileset.

Modern Redrawn Mario Bros. 1.5 (last update - February 14, 2023, some new bonus frames, tons of minor touchups to various poses)

On Pixel Art Requests: Depends on what it is and if I have the time for it. If its complex and I don't have the time, don't expect me to accept it.

Projects I support:

Collapsed text: Show/Hide

[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"

[19:44] <StrikeForcer> When the information posted clearly is fact-based.

very excited for this. can't wait to test out the level.

@Hiro-sofT: I did see your features of the hack. While those are very promising, most people know I'm no kaizo fan. Still, this hack shows promise. I do like your title, especially its design and I also like the level design. It's very fitting for kaizo players.

That was fun, pretty hard in some parts. The spiny that I have to spin tap in order to make him move, he seems to react inconsistently and goes in the wrong direction sometimes, which usually proves fatal. Other than that, it's really pretty and I had a good time.

GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame

Incredible work Hiro - love all the custom gfx and all the little details really take it to the next level. Been keeping my eyes on this on your stream and watching some testing, can't wait to see where this goes. Also that title screen is *chefs kiss*..

It's a shame that Touhou isn't that famous in SMW hacks, but I loved the desert graphics. Everything comes together perfectly with the details, and also the parallax schemes help in this regard.

In the cave part, I liked the lighting scheme and the colors reminiscent of amethyst and various types of gemstones.

It reminds me a lot of Sicari 2: The Brink of Time! Good work!

The static screen shots really don't do this hack justice. It's a treat for the eyes in motion.

Having tested at least half the level, I'd definitely recommend giving this one a shot.

Thank you everyone for the kind words

!

I am doing my best to make sure that the graphics don't hinder the gameplay, yet so that they still look good and have that breath of life to them.

And as stated in the OP, I work on the hack on stream from time to time, so when you see me there and got something to talk or ask about (be it Lunar Magic or anything related to that), I am always happy to guide people to a direction and help out with knowledge where i can.

Originally posted by Ondore's Lies

That was fun, pretty hard in some parts. The spiny that I have to spin tap in order to make him move, he seems to react inconsistently and goes in the wrong direction sometimes, which usually proves fatal. Other than that, it's really pretty and I had a good time.

Glad that you enjoyed it

, I am actually thinking about making them always go the same direction or force the player to learn the mechanic somehow, because I feared something like that would happen. Currently,

they move left if you hit them on the right or right if you hit them from the left, while they sleep. When awake, it will just continue forward

, but since the level doesn't use it to that extend, I have to see, how I tackle this.

Originally posted by patcdr

The static screen shots really don't do this hack justice. It's a treat for the eyes in motion.

Having tested at least half the level, I'd definitely recommend giving this one a shot.

In hindsight, it was my mistake to not post some gifs of this preview... haha, oh well

.

But yeah, I agree. This hack uses Parallax HDMA and Gradients, to make them more alive/dynamic, than as they would be as static images. Obviously, the static pictures don't show the parallax, I have put into, or the animations of various things.

Here is a gif from the title screen as an example for this:

->

Excuse the "a bit scuffed and stretched" gif...

Hiro you continue to be one of the masters of attention to detail, this hack looks amazing. I look forward to seeing what comes from this project.

ampers.am • bdsmwcentral.net

I played it until the 2nd checkpoint:
Fun level! But the 2 sleepy spinies ride section is way harder than it should be because of the inconsistancy behavior between awake and slept, it became too frustating

I used 2 savestates before and after that obstacle.

Also I died at the 2nd sublevel just before the checkpoint

The aesthetics are of course amazing!

My 1st romhack in progress (testing avaiable)...
(beta)