[FEATURED] Cheep Cheep Challenge by zacmario

Link to submission.

For once, something pretty different.

This hack isn't an ordinary Mario game anymore: it became, instead, something totally different, yet Mario-styled. In this hack, you're one of his enemies, cheep cheep, which has to find 50 coins scattered trough one huge maze-y level. It's one of the hack which best fits the tag "exploration", and it's actually well done and fun to play too!

The level itself is indeed a bit maze-y, but it's designed in a way so that you can still orient yourself in it: the fg and bg will be the same, yes, but the arrangement of the fg will easily make you figure where are you and which zones are yet to be explored. You can indeed get lost sometime, but it's a matter of time that you learn the surrounding around you and orient yourself.

The elements that vary in each section are essentially enemies/obstacles. The way the author introduces them is very good and very well thought in each section: you get jelectros at first, then other cheep cheeps appear too, then rip van fishes, and so on. The addition of Cheep Cheep's ability also makes killing enemies and going trough the level particularly fun.

It feels like a very arcade-ish game. By chance, each live would be a token. Some small things could've been better, like avoiding some sfx issues at times with the new ability, or making the whole thing look like 100% 8-bit (aka making sfx 8-bit too, as well as other elements like the statusbar). But it's either way a very good game, something new and fresh, much different from the generic hack, which is why I want to separate this from the mass and make it featured.

What's your opinion instead? Make your reviews!

Deadline: 22nd January (reminder that extensions can be asked if needed)

Well, I never thought I'd end up playing as a Cheep Cheep, but now that I have, I must say this was an interesting experience at the least.

The theme that was given to the hack was the 8-bit version of Super Mario Bros. 1. The graphics and music really gave it that SMB1 feel, although it's kind of dissapointing the status bar didn't get that 8-bit feel, and the title screen included an image of a Cheep Cheep that didn't look 8-bit at all. I would also like to point out that the file select screen still showed Mario as a name, and MARIO START! could've easily been replaced with something like CHEEP START! It's also a shame the sound effects weren't replaced to include SMB1 SFX, I do know it's not the easiest thing to do however, so I don't blame the author for not doing it.

I'm personally not a big fan of underwater levels, not to mention not at all. Cheep Cheep Challenge on the other hand used this theme in a very splendid way by making you collect fifty red coins scattered throughout the entire level. For once I could actually stand an underwater themed level and enjoy it.

Every room looks significantly different from the others, making it kind of impossible to easily get lost. The normal coins were a good way to indicate whether you've been to a specific area or not, making it a lot easier to find and collect the red coins. It got noticeably harder to find the last few red coins upon collecting more of them, sometimes even giving you the feeling there's nothing left to find. Let me assure you, though, that there are at least more than 50 red coins to be found in the level. Collecting all of them will teleport you to a "Thank you" screen, meaning the game has ended.

One minor flaw I found during my playthrough is that the firebar could actually kill you even though it's off-screen. I used rewinds to try and get hit by it again, with success. This is most likely a bug due to how the custom sprite was built. Incase you're wondering, the firebar was located down below, relative to where I was positioned.

Seeing as this is very different from your everyday SMW hack, Cheep Cheep Challenge is definitely worth a shot if you're into collect-a-thons and exploring. The idea is unique and well executed and stands out amongst all the other hacks released so far. I'm voting for featuring it.

And it's a feature!