Looking for testers: Mario and The Mysterious Island - Hack Testing

Length: 13 levels, 14 exits (currently)
Difficulty: Normal

Hack I'm working on. Not the most advanced but I'm mainly making it for a hobby and the eventual satisfaction of hopefully finishing it some day.

Character graphics are mostly vanilla aside from a few edits both custom made or taken from this site. A mix of custom and vanilla bg/fg graphics will be used. Music is mainly custom.
Stages have a simple, traditional platforming style.

The hack is still in its early stages, but I'd still like to share the demo in order to recieve some very appreciated feedback as I'm still not the most experienced. Anything from level design, mechanics, graphics, sound... if you have something to comment on, do. I'm open to all criticism and suggestions.

Latest Demo

The .bps file doesn't work properly.

Originally posted by crocodileman94

The .bps file doesn't work properly.

Is it the download or the patch itself? And if it's the latter, what emulator are you using?
I've been using Snes9x 1.60 for testing and it works

I can confirm the patch does not work for me either.
Are you making sure the unmodified ROM you're using to create the patch is an actual unmodified (clean) ROM, instead of an expanded clean ROM, or if you aren't swapping the ROMs (selecting the hack as the clean ROM, and the clean ROM as the hack)?

Weird... I tested the patch with my clean rom before posting and it worked perfectly.
Either way, it's updated using a new base rom now, wanted to make a minor change to a level anyways. Sorry about that.

Edit: now it should work

To check if your clean ROM is actually clean, use Romhacking.net's online hasher. If your ROM doesn't output the exact same info as shown below (for example, if it says "Database match: not found"), then it's a modified ROM:

Code

Database match: Super Mario World (USA)
Database: No-Intro: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (v. 20210222-050638)
File SHA-1: E7C9D2954AED2814FBB43F259AEFC25404DA8463
File CRC32: B9B52E0F
ROM SHA-1: 6B47BB75D16514B6A476AA0C73A683A2A4C18765
ROM CRC32: B19ED489

And I just tried downloading the new patch, but my browser only redownloaded the old patch that got deleted before the new patch was uploaded. This is due to CloudFlare caching, since the new patch has the same file name as the deleted one.

I've played through the demo now and made some notes:

some notes: Show/Hide

In Yoshi's Island 1, unless you run and jump on the platform below, the camera won't scroll enough for you to be able to see the vine that comes out of this block. I'd suggest reducing the height of this platform as well as the one below by one tile.

In Yellow Switch Palace, if you spin jump on the flies, you fall right through them and get hurt.

There is cutoff surrounding the pipe at the end of the stage.

The midway point is also broken and has you restart the stage from the beginning. To fix this, you need to redirect the midway entrance in the main level to the sublevel where the intended midway entrance is. Otherwise, you end up at the midway entrance of the main stage, despite the midway point being located in a sublevel.

The end of Yoshi's Island 2 is almost identical to the original game.

Yoshi's Island 3 has minor cutoff here.

I'll suggest moving the jumping Cheep-Cheep generator to the next screen, as its current placement causes the first few fishes to jump out of the ground.

These blocks look a bit out of place and should probably be replaced with clouds. The stage also has some inconsistency in terms of which blocks work as ceilings for the rain, and which don't.

In Yoshi's Island 4, there are some coins that lead you into a pit. My suggestion is to either move the coins further to the right, so that they're above the ground, or move them to the left, below the falling platform, so that you can't collect them unless you're standing safely on the platform.

I'll also recommend using this patch to make the Bullet Bills slightly more predictable.

There's some cutoff in Iggy's Castle, and the ceiling should be extended a bit further upwards.

A more general criticism is that most of the stages had several sections that consisted of nothing but flat ground, with neither enemies nor blocks to fill the void. Even some sections that did have enemies felt a bit flat and could benefit from uneven terrain to spice things up.

I liked the music choices though, so keep doing what you're doing on that front.

Everything noted, thank you very much!

A few comments: Show/Hide

I will fully admit I considered a few of these things before (such as the block/rain interaction and the Cheep Cheep spawner) but decided they were very minor and wouldn't be noticed. From now on I'll adapt to the mentality that if I think a change should be made, it most likely should. The smaller level design and miscellaneous suggestions will be applied as well.

The Fighter Fly problem bothered me as well, but that seems to be an issue with the sprite itself. I'll definitely look into that.

All the cutoff was stuff I missed, I appreciate you letting me know and will be sure to fix it and be more attentive of it in the future.

And as for the end of YI2, I totally see now how that can be seen as lazy even if the main intention was to ''homage'' the original level (as I also intended with keeping the platform at the beginning even if I replaced the Koopas with a Disco Shell). I'll see about changing it, though I was pretty proud of the secret I hid in that section.

Gonna see how I work that into something new.

Finally, addressing the empty spots in levels, my mistake is that I usually run at full speed through levels so I don't notice it as much, I don't look at how a different kind of player might interact with the level. I did make a mental note to vary the terrain while working on the levels so I might go heavier on that.

And a quick thank you for the music compliment also, I really appreciate the acknowledgement! $#smw{^_^}$

Think that would be it, thanks once more~

Now, here's something I haven't seen noted yet which has been on my mind so I thought I'd just ask about it directly

Is the difference between small Mario and Luigi too jarring?

This combination of proto-small Mario and (as of this moment) SMM2 small Luigi (Yes, I have a version of the hack from before the Separate Luigi Graphics patch was added on hand to make the change with) was something I decided on since the start of this hack, but the obvious style difference between them was something that was considered as well. Part of me wants to justify it with ''Luigi's the taller one anyways'' but I'd like to know what others think regarding this.

I'm even considering giving Luigi eye-whites to match Mario having them.

I know there's a proto-style small Luigi in the Graphics section, while I'd rather keep what I have I'd also consider replacing them with it.

What is you guys' opinion?

Update: New demo release!

Overview: Two new stages have been added, old ones have been tweaked, previously unchanged aspects (such as the title screen and intro text) have been modified and there's been a start on creating a new overworld.
A title and simple story have been created.
All available stages were renamed as well, though said names are most likely not final and subject to change.

Regrettably I wasn't able to do everything I wanted with the overworld (Couldn't get the exit after the castle or a pipe to a different overworld to work) so that's in a much less advanced state at the moment. I'm hoping to get someone else who's more experienced to help me with this part of the process.

Also, as an update to my last post, I decided not to think about it too much and kept Luigi's graphics unmodified.

Check the top post for link.
Hope you enjoy it, and as always, any feedback is appreciated.

Demo 3 out now! Check top post for link
Including new levels, minor tweaks to old ones, more progress on the overworld, and other small changes and surprises I don't wanna spoil.

I'm extremely proud of this build. I figured out new features, made what I think are some of my best levels, and fixed old, minor mistakes that bugged me. I hope development can continue smoothly and I'm able to do everything I want with this endeavor.

I want to make the experience the best I can and as always any feedback and pointing out errors is greatly appreciated. Hope you guys like it!