To all you collab hack lovers in the audience, stop me if you heard this one before: you're playing a level early on in a hack and you notice an above-average amount of dotted red switch blocks strewn around the landscape. There is allegedly a secret exit, but it's nowhere to be found. How jolly odd. You take a mental note of this (or if you're a twitch streamer, forget about it immediately) and carry on with your journey. Hours later, after finally finding the red switch, you return to that most mysterious of early-game levels, only to find that it has become brutally difficult thanks to the addition of the red switch blocks - and at the very end, you know that elusive secret exit is waiting for you.
Suffice it to say, this is a fairly well-established trope. You've got your Dynamic Dungeons, your Possibly Kaizos, your #bigsports, et cetera. Inspired by these levels, we (GbreezeSunset, lolyoshi, MiracleWater, and myself) have taken it upon ourselves to push this idea to its logical conclusion, in turn paying tribute to the OG switch-block-obstruction level. The result? This.
In REVENGE OF SWITCHES PRESSED, there are four levels you must conquer - each one ending with a switch palace. With every switch you press, the remaining levels become harder as the added switch blocks alter setups, block off shortcuts, and warp the level geometry - shaping the world, if you will.
Of course, you can beat these levels in any order you like. Each potential switch-pressing sequence results in a slightly different playthrough as you experience the levels at different stages of difficulty, with unique quirks emerging each time. Add limited lives to the mix and you've got a spicy little pseudo-roguelike experience.
Furthermore, after beating the hack once, you'll unlock a twisted take on a New Game Plus: the hard mode. In it, you must beat all four levels with all four switches already pressed - including each level's own color, which would normally never be filled.
Are you up to the challenge? Then grab the hack here:
DOWNLOAD
(Submitted for the Standard category.)
Alternatively, here is a playthrough video you can watch.
A couple miscellaneous notes:
- This hack is meant to be played in one sitting. You cannot save the game during a run.
- However, the game does save after you finish a run so that hard mode stays unlocked.
- Yellow and green switch blocks no longer contain powerups 'cause we're mean.
- You might be wondering what it's like to design levels when you have to consider limited lives AND 16 different color combinations at once. As it turns out: convoluted. We tried our best to make the most of this premise, even as we found that it gave way to rather controlled and technical platforming. The style of design in this hack could be compared to the likes of The New Mario World, Elastic Exorcism, and wagokoro's SUPER.
Suffice it to say, this is a fairly well-established trope. You've got your Dynamic Dungeons, your Possibly Kaizos, your #bigsports, et cetera. Inspired by these levels, we (GbreezeSunset, lolyoshi, MiracleWater, and myself) have taken it upon ourselves to push this idea to its logical conclusion, in turn paying tribute to the OG switch-block-obstruction level. The result? This.
In REVENGE OF SWITCHES PRESSED, there are four levels you must conquer - each one ending with a switch palace. With every switch you press, the remaining levels become harder as the added switch blocks alter setups, block off shortcuts, and warp the level geometry - shaping the world, if you will.
Of course, you can beat these levels in any order you like. Each potential switch-pressing sequence results in a slightly different playthrough as you experience the levels at different stages of difficulty, with unique quirks emerging each time. Add limited lives to the mix and you've got a spicy little pseudo-roguelike experience.
Furthermore, after beating the hack once, you'll unlock a twisted take on a New Game Plus: the hard mode. In it, you must beat all four levels with all four switches already pressed - including each level's own color, which would normally never be filled.
Are you up to the challenge? Then grab the hack here:
DOWNLOAD
(Submitted for the Standard category.)
Alternatively, here is a playthrough video you can watch.
A couple miscellaneous notes:
- This hack is meant to be played in one sitting. You cannot save the game during a run.
- However, the game does save after you finish a run so that hard mode stays unlocked.
- Yellow and green switch blocks no longer contain powerups 'cause we're mean.
- You might be wondering what it's like to design levels when you have to consider limited lives AND 16 different color combinations at once. As it turns out: convoluted. We tried our best to make the most of this premise, even as we found that it gave way to rather controlled and technical platforming. The style of design in this hack could be compared to the likes of The New Mario World, Elastic Exorcism, and wagokoro's SUPER.