Permanent link to original submission[UPDATED 1/28/2013]
Something interesting happens during the introduction - you are prompted to choose between Dr. Mario or Wario. For the purpose of this review, I have chosen Dr. Mario. The story unfolds in illustrated cutscenes. The presentation is immaculate.
The overworld is presented as the file select implies; it is a paper checklist. It's a really unique idea. The music adds channels as you get to later pages, kind of like how the overworld music progresses in Yoshi's Island.
I check out Dr. Mario's House first. I notice blocks that only Dr. Mario can pass through so I figure Wario's experience must be different beyond just the story. Inside the house, I find pills to help me on my journey.
Cherry City 1 is a bright and colorful level. The concept was to find the P-switch in one of the pipes and use it to gain access to another pipe, which drops you on the Yellow Switch. The bonus room's background and foreground are the same colors, and the only thing distinguishing them is the size of the squares. I personally would've went with more contrast. Overall, the level plays out well. It feels like classic Mario.
Cherry City 2 had a wonderful rainy city atmosphere. I had to play it a few times to get an opinion on it; the first half is good but the second half's long slope and four Koopas in a row felt like a bland filler.
Cherry Pitstop is a "rest zone" where you can get more pills and save your progress. The counter goes above 99 in hex before resetting to 99 when it's finished "reloading" your pills.
Cherry City 3 is a lakeside level populated by Shy Guys. It has no gimmicks, and no repetition. It tries to be another simple, inoffensive world 1 level, which I respect, and enjoy.
Toad's House takes you inside a mushroom person's forehead to fight viruses. Enemies all look like scummy germs, and the foreground resembles body tissue. The level has vertical structure and some fluid through the middle. The focus of this stage was the boss virus, who plays out like Big Boo, rather than the level preceding it, which seemed to serve as a build-up more than anything else.
Apple Hills 1 has a humorous cutscene before the start of the level. The level introduces a whole new slew of enemies, such as Banzai Bill, Rex, and the Boomerang Bro. The Boomerang Bros are notably effectively used. Some of the Dragon Coin placement was clever - I really liked the one that involved walking over the ground at the top of the level, and it gave you a springboard so you didn't have to go through the pipe again.
Toadette's House puts you in Toadette's blue interior. It's filled with what I presume is acid. The level design here is actually really good. I liked the inclusion of throw blocks, as if you utilized them, they help the flow of the level so you don't have to wait around for an opportunity at some points to move on. I didn't quite get the purpose of that door with the huge virus, though. The boss was based on Reznor, but with no disappearing bridge.
Apple Hills 2 is the first level with a real gimmick. Birdo's eggs are used in the second half so you have to fly over the lake to reach the path to the goal. You do have to swim back to the start if you fall off the eggs. An obstruction is introduced in the third ride, demonstrating a clear increase of challenge.
Apple Hills 3 is Dr. Mario World's answer to Super Mario World's Vanilla Secret 3, complete with dolphins and Porcu-Puffers, but with more of a focus on raw platforming. The Koopa placement is terrific and the level feels like it flows perfectly.
Apple Hills 4 has a strong focus on climbing. The main enemies follow the ropes or throw baseballs at you. Pitchin' Chucks no longer have a silent throw, which is a helpful touch. The level design concepts are becoming more unique, and the design more creative and challenging as we go.
Apple Hills 5 has some strange Map16 going on with the boulders - you can walk through the part that acts like a slope. Other than that, this second mountain level played out problem-free. Falling rocks was a key element in this level, coming from holes in the wall. I liked the part where you had to kill all four Koopas on the net in one room to get a Dragon Coin. The only thing about this level that irked me was the fact that the foreground did not fit in with the sprites at all, which could be helped by having an outline.
Patient's House 1 starts as a shmup level with some bricks blocking your path, so it's important not to lag too far behind. Then, it leads to a room where you have to collect two Dragon Coins in order to pass the gold virus in the middle - both coins are guarded by giant viruses. The boss is fairly easy compared to the start of the level.
Banana Lake 1 begins with another cutscene. Wario is up to mischief... in any case, there's a glitch caused by having too many sprites onscreen where the vine block and the Sumo Brother are - sometimes while there's fire, hitting the vine block causes nothing to appear. Thankfully, all that is missed is a Dragon Coin. I stupidly managed to get my self permastuck in the area with the blue P-switch and springboard because I had moved the springboard to the bottom left part of the level and the timer didn't kill me. The regular level music also plays if you get the goal while the P-switch music is playing. Other than the bugs, this was a fun, atmospheric level... and the first to remind me that I actually have vitamins I can throw at the crabs.
Banana Lake 2's section with the midway level kind of just... ends, like it's been sliced in half with a knife. Some of the foreground blocks also blend in with the background; they should be red like the foreground instead of blue.
Banana Lake 3's mushroom platforms can glitch dramatically if the player goes back to them after they have scrolled up or down quite a bit, and generally play best when scrolling is disabled.
Banana Pitstop's got a couple of spelling errors: it's should be its, and pratice should be practice.
Patient's House 2 is strictly timed at 100 seconds to beat the level or else you fail. As long as you kill the enemies generated on the sides of the screen, you should be able to get big pills to throw at the boss.
Banana Lake 4 is a fun cave/water hybrid and a good follow-up to Banana Lake 2 without being too similar.
Banana Lake 5 is a cool ship level that moves up and down, crawling with Ninjis. I liked the design, but it doesn't match the graphical style of the rest of the hack.
Sickness Source is a noticable step up in difficulty. Mario has an air meter, and only some black rectangles of space underwater is keeping him alive. The major obstacle each time between air spaces was aBoo virus ring, which was effective, but repetitive. A little more variety would have been welcome.
Vs. Mad Scienstain could use a bit more polish. I think it'd be better if he made a sound effect when he was hit and disappeared in a puff of smoke - I didn't like him disappearing and reappearing because it was so sudden and I got a cheap hit from when he respawned.
Berry Mountain 1 starts with a cutscene - this time, it's the enemies who are talking. The level itself is the first slippery level in the hack, and introduces Dino Rhino and Dino Torch. Most of the terrain is slopes, and the latter half seems to have a more thought-out design. The small ice cube near the end blends in with the background.
Berry Mountain 2 is a well-designed ice cave. No complaints about this one, just compliments.
Patient's House 4 (What happened to Patient's House 3?) is another shmup level that ends with a Reznor clone. While shorter, it's definitely harder, as there are some dead ends you have to work around before they crush you.
Berry Mountain 3 has the ice thing again where it doesn't look like a solid FG object, but the snowman Pokey also looks like a prop rather than an enemy - I ended up dying because I thought I could jump through it. It should be outlined and shaded to show that it's not a decoration and so that it doesn't blend in with the mist. The third platform didn't spawn when I was holding a throw block, either, so beware of that. I loved the design of this level, though = the Super Koopas coupled with slippery platforms was a brutal move.
Berry Mountain 4 presents you with a blocked-off pipe at the beginning. You have to go all the way to the bottom of the level, grab a P-switch, and bring it back up to the top. Admitably, it is a tiny bit easier going back up than it is coming down because some of the fish strictly swim left, but that doesn't take away from the decent design.
Berry Mountain 5 is another level with the boulder tileset. This one's slippery, and instead of falling rocks, Chucks are pretty much the only enemies you'll be fighting. They're used very effectively. Music note block jumping is another key element of this stage. I had fun with this level.
Patient's House 5 plays out with the same idea behind Marching Milde's Fort in Yoshi's Island - you have to grab four "keys" to be able to access the boss in the "middle" of the level. The rooms are in all 4 corners, and each have different concepts behind them. For example, one uses the Boo room generator, and another makes an invisible maze. Annoyingly, the boss is able to hide himself when he gets low on HP, but he was pretty easy overall.
>seperate
>seperate
SEPARATE
Coconut Cave 1 leads Mario into a hole in the ground. Guess who's back. Back again. Sci is back. Tell a friend. Anyways, this creepy-crawly cave is more puzzle-oriented than most levels in this hack. You'll have to carry a throw block all the way to the other side of a lava pit with sinking layer 2 in order to get a P-switch to proceed, then you'll have to reveal a block bridge using your springboard. The theme and the level are well-constructed. Those crystals are blood red. There are some blocks near the end that fade into the BG a lot, though.
Coconut Cave 2 is an On/Off line guide level where you're expected to hit the block each time you pass it in order to stay alive. The layout and the execution of concept are fantastic; it's full of variety and obstacles. There is no guesswork.
Coconut Cave 3 is strongly vitamin-oriented. You have to shoot pills at walls in order to progress. Though the concept could've been taken further for a little more variety in level design, the level itself wasn't bad. It was decently challenging.
Coconut Cave 4 is a vertical cave level that makes great use of the Mega Mole, using him to be a ferry over spikes and as a moving roadblock. The P-balloon task at the end included spikes to kind of tie it in with the rest of the level so it wasn't too much of a conceptual deviation. It also worked as the climax of the level. Powerups were given as needed.
The second fight against Mad Scienstain had a feeling of impending doom with the volcanic activity. He jumps now, so he's a little harder to beat. I feel like you're doing a good job of creating "escalating conflict" with this bad guy.
Grape Forest 1 makes use of a small set of enemies effectively. I feel like the lake part overstayed its welcome a bit, but I really liked the use of tree-climbing Lakitus in general. Stationing them near small platforms is the biggest threat this level has to offer. Otherwise, I'd say it was pretty easy.
Grape Forest 2 has some symmetrical structuring going on. I liked the placement of that sky room next to the P-balloon instead of just using a "reset pipe" in case the player missed it. The Bowser statues were used well. The green flying Koopas, on the other hand, created a mindless cluster. Overall, it wasn't a bad level.
Grape Forest 3 takes place inside a giant tree. There is a fork in the ascent. Going up the right way takes you to a blocked-off pipe, which can be seen from the left way so you don't waste the P-switch, and I like how there's always a ledge to land on before you'd fall into the enemies on the left side. That's intelligent design.
Patient's House 6's Toad speech bubble has a typo ("paitent") but anyways... the level here seems a lot harder than what Grape Forest presented. There are no hearts after the checkpoint, and one would really be useful before the boss. I feel like more could've been done with the layer 2 falling sweets (e.g. the inclusion of ? blocks.) The fact that the whole first part was boxed in by a ceiling and floor of moving acid made for a unique experience within this hack.
Grape Forest 4 doesn't look like a proper night level because the background trees are really bright and the sky is deep blue. If the trees were darker, it'd look better. Anyway, I'm not a fan of the design pre-checkpoint as there didn't seem to be anything to it. Inside the honeycomb was designed quite nicely. The honey was well-utilized at the end of the level.
Grape Forest 5 takes me way back to the mid-late 2000's when everyone and their mother made a brambles level. I thought this level started harder than it finished. Boomerang Bros are evil when you're in something as slow as a Lakitu cloud. ><
Patient's House 7 is a nuisance. The boss throws hammers at random intervals and you have to jump on him, but there's no telling when he will spawn a hammer, so this is kind of luck-based. I'd recommend you having a frame where he holds out a hammer for at least a half second so the player knows it's coming.
Grape Forest 6 has a drastic change of tone. Most things in this level are undead, and the difficulty has been stepped up, mandating more caution and effort from the player's jumps. The theme is well-executed and the level design great - I liked the part with the P-switch sitting on lava that you had to grab, since you're forcing the player to take a scary move in an aesthetically "scary" level.
Cherry City 4 reminds me of a dream I had several years back about flying oil drums. I loved this level, climbing the poles, and going into quiet houses. The huge leap of faith at the end is kind of interesting... let's see where it goes.
Cherry City 5 contains a plot twist. After defeating Wario, I lose my megavitamins. How the hell am I supposed to get my daily value of B12 now? Anyways, the level seems like a lot to replay if you die.
Omega Labs 1 has sample rooms of many environments, with variable difficulty. For instance, the grassland room is fairly easy, but the forest one is quite difficult. The nurse's store has an issue with the message; she talks about the mountain "enviroment" (sic) instead of the shop. After getting the four golden pills, we have another dark level with foes hiding behind tables, and we need to get 3 throw blocks to destroy some bricks to move on and save a patient. I liked this level overall.
Omega Labs 2 is a boss rush level like in the Kirby games... heck, it even has Kirby music. Not much to say about it, other than it's cool to see in a Mario hack.
Omega Labs 3 has more spelling error in "corperation" (Corporation*) and "untll" (*until) but the way this played out was like the finale of SMW and YI - there are multiple doors you can take with different traps in them, but they all lead you to the same checkpoint. This level's boss room had great stormy atmosphere, and you essentially had to fight your own shadow clone.
Final Battle's music while the building is collapsing doesn't seem to fit the direness of the situation. You have a strict 100 seconds to get out or else. It's a great buildup to a really difficult boss. The end was a little glitchy, with Mario's lower half of his body appearing at random places onscreen until the next cutscene. Also, *"for a doctor's job is never done."
Rainbow Road 1, having the stars so close to the edges of some of the platforms, annoyed me because of knockback. I guess I can't complain too much since this is the post-game and it's meant to be hard.
Rainbow Road 2 requires a Megavitamin, but it's not all fun-and-games because some of these jumps toward the middle are genuinely tricky. Also >>> 'certain';
Rainbow Road 3 taught me something about myself that I should take to heart and think well of myself for. Thanks.
Top Secret Area is the ultimate reward... access to every powerup, cost-free. Excellent!
Most of the problems with this hack are aesthetic. While there are some spelling nuances, the hack's storytelling is completely understandable. The story presentation doesn't get in the way of the gameplay. It starts easy and ends hard, with the cream filling being balanced in between. This is a hack I feel has aged well over its long development - the level design has a nostalgic, old-school hack feel, but there is more modern technology implemented like the cluster sprites for weather effects. I want to accept this hack. It's also a hack I'd genuinely replay - this feels like a product of passion rather than a hack for the hell of it. While Banana Lake 2 has a pretty severe problem, I think the hack's positive qualities more than balance it out. I'd love to see an update with that fixed. Most of the levels were a pleasure to play.
Side notes: I'm also wondering if you or anyone else could make up an interesting story for what happened with "Patient's House 3" here, like a creepypasta... The overworld theme is also the catchiest thing. I found myself humming it tonight at work.
I rate this hack five ♥s out of 5.
+1
Just look above you...
If it's something that can be stopped, then just try to stop it!
Quote
There is an HDMA effect for the logo. The title screen has a green tiled background with a large pill at the top stating the title. Dr. Mario and Wario stand at opposite ends while a creature walks back and forth under the Press Start window. The music is very fitting and it's a pleasant introduction to the hack. The file select calls each file a "Log Book".File Name: Dr. Mario World Redrawn 1.1
Submitted: 2014.01.21 ~ 16:49:15 by B.B.Link
Claimed: 2014.01.22 ~ 14:04:05 by Counterfeit
Rating: 0.0
Authors: B.B.Link
Demo: No
Length: 60 exit(s)
Difficulty: Normal
Description: Here is Dr. Mario World. 7+ years of off and on work. I still didn't get to do the stuff that I planned to do and was officially done with this back in early 2012 but I lost all my data on a HD crash and had to use a really old backup to restore the hack, so here it is.
1.1 Fixes a bug towards the end making it impossible to finish the game.
Tags:
Download: Download - 0.99 MiB
32 downloads
Submitted: 2014.01.21 ~ 16:49:15 by B.B.Link
Claimed: 2014.01.22 ~ 14:04:05 by Counterfeit
Rating: 0.0
Authors: B.B.Link
Demo: No
Length: 60 exit(s)
Difficulty: Normal
Description: Here is Dr. Mario World. 7+ years of off and on work. I still didn't get to do the stuff that I planned to do and was officially done with this back in early 2012 but I lost all my data on a HD crash and had to use a really old backup to restore the hack, so here it is.
1.1 Fixes a bug towards the end making it impossible to finish the game.
Tags:
Download: Download - 0.99 MiB
32 downloads
Something interesting happens during the introduction - you are prompted to choose between Dr. Mario or Wario. For the purpose of this review, I have chosen Dr. Mario. The story unfolds in illustrated cutscenes. The presentation is immaculate.
The overworld is presented as the file select implies; it is a paper checklist. It's a really unique idea. The music adds channels as you get to later pages, kind of like how the overworld music progresses in Yoshi's Island.
I check out Dr. Mario's House first. I notice blocks that only Dr. Mario can pass through so I figure Wario's experience must be different beyond just the story. Inside the house, I find pills to help me on my journey.
Cherry City 1 is a bright and colorful level. The concept was to find the P-switch in one of the pipes and use it to gain access to another pipe, which drops you on the Yellow Switch. The bonus room's background and foreground are the same colors, and the only thing distinguishing them is the size of the squares. I personally would've went with more contrast. Overall, the level plays out well. It feels like classic Mario.
Cherry City 2 had a wonderful rainy city atmosphere. I had to play it a few times to get an opinion on it; the first half is good but the second half's long slope and four Koopas in a row felt like a bland filler.
Cherry Pitstop is a "rest zone" where you can get more pills and save your progress. The counter goes above 99 in hex before resetting to 99 when it's finished "reloading" your pills.
Cherry City 3 is a lakeside level populated by Shy Guys. It has no gimmicks, and no repetition. It tries to be another simple, inoffensive world 1 level, which I respect, and enjoy.
Toad's House takes you inside a mushroom person's forehead to fight viruses. Enemies all look like scummy germs, and the foreground resembles body tissue. The level has vertical structure and some fluid through the middle. The focus of this stage was the boss virus, who plays out like Big Boo, rather than the level preceding it, which seemed to serve as a build-up more than anything else.
Apple Hills 1 has a humorous cutscene before the start of the level. The level introduces a whole new slew of enemies, such as Banzai Bill, Rex, and the Boomerang Bro. The Boomerang Bros are notably effectively used. Some of the Dragon Coin placement was clever - I really liked the one that involved walking over the ground at the top of the level, and it gave you a springboard so you didn't have to go through the pipe again.
Toadette's House puts you in Toadette's blue interior. It's filled with what I presume is acid. The level design here is actually really good. I liked the inclusion of throw blocks, as if you utilized them, they help the flow of the level so you don't have to wait around for an opportunity at some points to move on. I didn't quite get the purpose of that door with the huge virus, though. The boss was based on Reznor, but with no disappearing bridge.
Apple Hills 2 is the first level with a real gimmick. Birdo's eggs are used in the second half so you have to fly over the lake to reach the path to the goal. You do have to swim back to the start if you fall off the eggs. An obstruction is introduced in the third ride, demonstrating a clear increase of challenge.
Apple Hills 3 is Dr. Mario World's answer to Super Mario World's Vanilla Secret 3, complete with dolphins and Porcu-Puffers, but with more of a focus on raw platforming. The Koopa placement is terrific and the level feels like it flows perfectly.
Apple Hills 4 has a strong focus on climbing. The main enemies follow the ropes or throw baseballs at you. Pitchin' Chucks no longer have a silent throw, which is a helpful touch. The level design concepts are becoming more unique, and the design more creative and challenging as we go.
Apple Hills 5 has some strange Map16 going on with the boulders - you can walk through the part that acts like a slope. Other than that, this second mountain level played out problem-free. Falling rocks was a key element in this level, coming from holes in the wall. I liked the part where you had to kill all four Koopas on the net in one room to get a Dragon Coin. The only thing about this level that irked me was the fact that the foreground did not fit in with the sprites at all, which could be helped by having an outline.
Patient's House 1 starts as a shmup level with some bricks blocking your path, so it's important not to lag too far behind. Then, it leads to a room where you have to collect two Dragon Coins in order to pass the gold virus in the middle - both coins are guarded by giant viruses. The boss is fairly easy compared to the start of the level.
Banana Lake 1 begins with another cutscene. Wario is up to mischief... in any case, there's a glitch caused by having too many sprites onscreen where the vine block and the Sumo Brother are - sometimes while there's fire, hitting the vine block causes nothing to appear. Thankfully, all that is missed is a Dragon Coin. I stupidly managed to get my self permastuck in the area with the blue P-switch and springboard because I had moved the springboard to the bottom left part of the level and the timer didn't kill me. The regular level music also plays if you get the goal while the P-switch music is playing. Other than the bugs, this was a fun, atmospheric level... and the first to remind me that I actually have vitamins I can throw at the crabs.
Banana Lake 2's section with the midway level kind of just... ends, like it's been sliced in half with a knife. Some of the foreground blocks also blend in with the background; they should be red like the foreground instead of blue.
Banana Lake 3's mushroom platforms can glitch dramatically if the player goes back to them after they have scrolled up or down quite a bit, and generally play best when scrolling is disabled.
Banana Pitstop's got a couple of spelling errors: it's should be its, and pratice should be practice.
Patient's House 2 is strictly timed at 100 seconds to beat the level or else you fail. As long as you kill the enemies generated on the sides of the screen, you should be able to get big pills to throw at the boss.
Banana Lake 4 is a fun cave/water hybrid and a good follow-up to Banana Lake 2 without being too similar.
Banana Lake 5 is a cool ship level that moves up and down, crawling with Ninjis. I liked the design, but it doesn't match the graphical style of the rest of the hack.
Sickness Source is a noticable step up in difficulty. Mario has an air meter, and only some black rectangles of space underwater is keeping him alive. The major obstacle each time between air spaces was a
Vs. Mad Scienstain could use a bit more polish. I think it'd be better if he made a sound effect when he was hit and disappeared in a puff of smoke - I didn't like him disappearing and reappearing because it was so sudden and I got a cheap hit from when he respawned.
Berry Mountain 1 starts with a cutscene - this time, it's the enemies who are talking. The level itself is the first slippery level in the hack, and introduces Dino Rhino and Dino Torch. Most of the terrain is slopes, and the latter half seems to have a more thought-out design. The small ice cube near the end blends in with the background.
Berry Mountain 2 is a well-designed ice cave. No complaints about this one, just compliments.
Patient's House 4 (What happened to Patient's House 3?) is another shmup level that ends with a Reznor clone. While shorter, it's definitely harder, as there are some dead ends you have to work around before they crush you.
Berry Mountain 3 has the ice thing again where it doesn't look like a solid FG object, but the snowman Pokey also looks like a prop rather than an enemy - I ended up dying because I thought I could jump through it. It should be outlined and shaded to show that it's not a decoration and so that it doesn't blend in with the mist. The third platform didn't spawn when I was holding a throw block, either, so beware of that. I loved the design of this level, though = the Super Koopas coupled with slippery platforms was a brutal move.
Berry Mountain 4 presents you with a blocked-off pipe at the beginning. You have to go all the way to the bottom of the level, grab a P-switch, and bring it back up to the top. Admitably, it is a tiny bit easier going back up than it is coming down because some of the fish strictly swim left, but that doesn't take away from the decent design.
Berry Mountain 5 is another level with the boulder tileset. This one's slippery, and instead of falling rocks, Chucks are pretty much the only enemies you'll be fighting. They're used very effectively. Music note block jumping is another key element of this stage. I had fun with this level.
Patient's House 5 plays out with the same idea behind Marching Milde's Fort in Yoshi's Island - you have to grab four "keys" to be able to access the boss in the "middle" of the level. The rooms are in all 4 corners, and each have different concepts behind them. For example, one uses the Boo room generator, and another makes an invisible maze. Annoyingly, the boss is able to hide himself when he gets low on HP, but he was pretty easy overall.
>seperate
>seperate
SEPARATE
Coconut Cave 1 leads Mario into a hole in the ground. Guess who's back. Back again. Sci is back. Tell a friend. Anyways, this creepy-crawly cave is more puzzle-oriented than most levels in this hack. You'll have to carry a throw block all the way to the other side of a lava pit with sinking layer 2 in order to get a P-switch to proceed, then you'll have to reveal a block bridge using your springboard. The theme and the level are well-constructed. Those crystals are blood red. There are some blocks near the end that fade into the BG a lot, though.
Coconut Cave 2 is an On/Off line guide level where you're expected to hit the block each time you pass it in order to stay alive. The layout and the execution of concept are fantastic; it's full of variety and obstacles. There is no guesswork.
Coconut Cave 3 is strongly vitamin-oriented. You have to shoot pills at walls in order to progress. Though the concept could've been taken further for a little more variety in level design, the level itself wasn't bad. It was decently challenging.
Coconut Cave 4 is a vertical cave level that makes great use of the Mega Mole, using him to be a ferry over spikes and as a moving roadblock. The P-balloon task at the end included spikes to kind of tie it in with the rest of the level so it wasn't too much of a conceptual deviation. It also worked as the climax of the level. Powerups were given as needed.
The second fight against Mad Scienstain had a feeling of impending doom with the volcanic activity. He jumps now, so he's a little harder to beat. I feel like you're doing a good job of creating "escalating conflict" with this bad guy.
Grape Forest 1 makes use of a small set of enemies effectively. I feel like the lake part overstayed its welcome a bit, but I really liked the use of tree-climbing Lakitus in general. Stationing them near small platforms is the biggest threat this level has to offer. Otherwise, I'd say it was pretty easy.
Grape Forest 2 has some symmetrical structuring going on. I liked the placement of that sky room next to the P-balloon instead of just using a "reset pipe" in case the player missed it. The Bowser statues were used well. The green flying Koopas, on the other hand, created a mindless cluster. Overall, it wasn't a bad level.
Grape Forest 3 takes place inside a giant tree. There is a fork in the ascent. Going up the right way takes you to a blocked-off pipe, which can be seen from the left way so you don't waste the P-switch, and I like how there's always a ledge to land on before you'd fall into the enemies on the left side. That's intelligent design.
Patient's House 6's Toad speech bubble has a typo ("paitent") but anyways... the level here seems a lot harder than what Grape Forest presented. There are no hearts after the checkpoint, and one would really be useful before the boss. I feel like more could've been done with the layer 2 falling sweets (e.g. the inclusion of ? blocks.) The fact that the whole first part was boxed in by a ceiling and floor of moving acid made for a unique experience within this hack.
Grape Forest 4 doesn't look like a proper night level because the background trees are really bright and the sky is deep blue. If the trees were darker, it'd look better. Anyway, I'm not a fan of the design pre-checkpoint as there didn't seem to be anything to it. Inside the honeycomb was designed quite nicely. The honey was well-utilized at the end of the level.
Grape Forest 5 takes me way back to the mid-late 2000's when everyone and their mother made a brambles level. I thought this level started harder than it finished. Boomerang Bros are evil when you're in something as slow as a Lakitu cloud. ><
Patient's House 7 is a nuisance. The boss throws hammers at random intervals and you have to jump on him, but there's no telling when he will spawn a hammer, so this is kind of luck-based. I'd recommend you having a frame where he holds out a hammer for at least a half second so the player knows it's coming.
Grape Forest 6 has a drastic change of tone. Most things in this level are undead, and the difficulty has been stepped up, mandating more caution and effort from the player's jumps. The theme is well-executed and the level design great - I liked the part with the P-switch sitting on lava that you had to grab, since you're forcing the player to take a scary move in an aesthetically "scary" level.
Cherry City 4 reminds me of a dream I had several years back about flying oil drums. I loved this level, climbing the poles, and going into quiet houses. The huge leap of faith at the end is kind of interesting... let's see where it goes.
Cherry City 5 contains a plot twist. After defeating Wario, I lose my megavitamins. How the hell am I supposed to get my daily value of B12 now? Anyways, the level seems like a lot to replay if you die.
Omega Labs 1 has sample rooms of many environments, with variable difficulty. For instance, the grassland room is fairly easy, but the forest one is quite difficult. The nurse's store has an issue with the message; she talks about the mountain "enviroment" (sic) instead of the shop. After getting the four golden pills, we have another dark level with foes hiding behind tables, and we need to get 3 throw blocks to destroy some bricks to move on and save a patient. I liked this level overall.
Omega Labs 2 is a boss rush level like in the Kirby games... heck, it even has Kirby music. Not much to say about it, other than it's cool to see in a Mario hack.
Omega Labs 3 has more spelling error in "corperation" (Corporation*) and "untll" (*until) but the way this played out was like the finale of SMW and YI - there are multiple doors you can take with different traps in them, but they all lead you to the same checkpoint. This level's boss room had great stormy atmosphere, and you essentially had to fight your own shadow clone.
Final Battle's music while the building is collapsing doesn't seem to fit the direness of the situation. You have a strict 100 seconds to get out or else. It's a great buildup to a really difficult boss.
It was actually harder than the real final boss.
Rainbow Road 1, having the stars so close to the edges of some of the platforms, annoyed me because of knockback. I guess I can't complain too much since this is the post-game and it's meant to be hard.
Rainbow Road 2 requires a Megavitamin, but it's not all fun-and-games because some of these jumps toward the middle are genuinely tricky. Also >>> 'certain';
Rainbow Road 3 taught me something about myself that I should take to heart and think well of myself for. Thanks.
Top Secret Area is the ultimate reward... access to every powerup, cost-free. Excellent!
Most of the problems with this hack are aesthetic. While there are some spelling nuances, the hack's storytelling is completely understandable. The story presentation doesn't get in the way of the gameplay. It starts easy and ends hard, with the cream filling being balanced in between. This is a hack I feel has aged well over its long development - the level design has a nostalgic, old-school hack feel, but there is more modern technology implemented like the cluster sprites for weather effects. I want to accept this hack. It's also a hack I'd genuinely replay - this feels like a product of passion rather than a hack for the hell of it. While Banana Lake 2 has a pretty severe problem, I think the hack's positive qualities more than balance it out. I'd love to see an update with that fixed. Most of the levels were a pleasure to play.
Side notes: I'm also wondering if you or anyone else could make up an interesting story for what happened with "Patient's House 3" here, like a creepypasta... The overworld theme is also the catchiest thing. I found myself humming it tonight at work.
I rate this hack five ♥s out of 5.
+1
Just look above you...
If it's something that can be stopped, then just try to stop it!