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SMW Central Hall of Fame - Community Nominations for 2024

We're over halfway into the year of SMW hacks and there's been several great hacks come out so it's time to do our first open call for community nominations since we launched the Hall of Fame. Going forward, every year we will be asking for your input on hacks that have come out (or will come out) this year that you feel the committee should keep their eyes on or check out.

What you nominated here must also be hacks that are published on SMW Central and available for people to play, which means we will not be considering off-site or "file bin" hacks as we cannot vouch for their quality or the intentions of the author regarding its publication.

The best use of this thread is to signal boost projects that might be overlooked, the HoF team is usually aware of high profile releases so you don't need to nominate things like that, but try to keep it to projects that are finished or near finished.

Also, I must stress that community nominations may not make it into the Hall of Fame for the year. This thread is mainly to gather input from you all to help out the committee, as they will have their own informed deliberations when the time comes to put together the Hall of Fame, and what is nominated here will help that.

Rules for Nominations

  • Do not nominate your own project
    It should goes without saying that this isn't a thread to promote yourself but to advocate for the projects of others.

  • Provide some project details
    When nominating a project, go into a bit of detail about what the project is, who is involved, and if possible provide a link to it.

  • Justify your nomination
    Provide a (brief) reason why you are nominating a hack and why you think or feel the hack should be in the Hall of Fame. Don't just comment "I love this hack please feature it!"


Importantly: do not argue against other people's nominations, if you do that we will simply remove your comment(s). You are free to support a nomination that has already been made by seconding it or providing a nomination of your own for the same project.

Here's to a continued great year! We look forward hearing what you have to say.


This thread is for nominations only, if you have questions or a point to discuss about this process please use the Hall of Fame's feedback thread or reach out to PR staff. If you're looking to make nominations for past years, you can do so in this thread.
I know that I am a figure of little note, but I just wanted to say that Super Mario World-2 by Easy Difficulty is an extremely high-quality hack. I haven't finished it and may not ever do so, but what I have played is exceptional in both quality and scale, especially for a single-author hack. The number of complex gimmicks easily rivals those of any large collab hack, and each level is exceptionally well-crafted.

These are common virtues, though; anyone can patch in a couple of neat gimmicks and sprites into their levels. If I had to say why I like this hack so much and why I consider it special, it's that it achieves great difficulty without being overly linear. There is no one "intended solution" for most levels, and the player is free to develop their methods as they see fit. The result is hard levels that continually reinvent themselves as you experiment with new techniques, which makes it much easier to keep coming back after you've died 50 or even 100 times. It's a really tricky and subtle aspect of level design, and SMW-2 absolutely nails it.

Me choosing this hack is not meant to denigrate the work of any other author. For example, ft029's "Attempt at a Normal Hack" is also great fun, and unlike SMW-2, I am actually close to finishing it. But ft029 does not need me to tell SMWC that they are a good level designer, or that their hacks are some of the best this site has to offer. I thought I would use this post early in the thread to give this nondescript-seeming hack by a lesser-known author some more attention.
the new standard hack of big brawler onegai my melody that hack is inspired by old school hacks like brutal mario the vip mario series the sig mario series among others more aside this hack has a good aesthetic and level design I feel that This is the perfect mix of the old and the new. I recommend that you give this one a check out.
https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=37004
The hack I would nominate the most from what I've played this year so far is What did Mario do? by eltiolavara9/woop. It's a standard Mario hack but all the levels are very good. As it's made from various unreleased level over years, it's very varied and all levels have something different to offer, still they all fit perfectly into the hack. The "plot" or more like aesthetic/atmosphere that slowly goes deeper and depper into the later levels is an interesting touch too.
I nominate the Intermediate Kaizo Hack "Tower of Glory" for its well-balanced difficulty and accessibility. It offers a nice challenge that encourages skill improvement without overwhelming players. The mix of single screen rooms and traditional level segments keeps gameplay varied and engaging, appealing to a wide range of players. This hack serves effectively as a warm-up experience. Its thoughtful level design and execution make it a good contender for the Hall of Fame.

https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=37779
I nominate Super Mario World-2 by Easy Difficulty Great hack with different JUMP-like challenges and great music choices that fits the vibe of the level it offers challenge there are some wild gimmicks that are hatable and likeable.
DO NOT
I nominate Chicanery Beginner Edition by Buflen.

In my opinion, it's the best Kaizo beginner hack in a long time.

Reasons for nomination:

- Especially high replay value.
- Fair difficulty level.
- Good game flow.
- Beautiful overworld.
- Peak level design.
- Secret world.

Overall a very good Kaizo Rom Hack.

https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=38058