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Kruela Mario by xHF01x

File Name: Kruela Mario
Submitted: 2017-05-31 04:55:38 PM by xHF01x
Authors: xHF01x
Demo: No
Featured: No
Length: 32 exit(s)
Difficulty: Kaizo: Hard
Description: Kruela Mario is a glitch-puzzle-kaizo hack containing 28 levels with 32 exits. Savestates and slowdown are highly recommended, Lua can also be useful for glitches that depend on sprite slots.



This hack requires you to use a *lot* of glitches, walljumps and cornerclips aren't necessary though.



Also, as a gimmick, I decided to make the entire hack in Esperanto - Use a translator if you really want to understand the message boxes. Note that I don't really speak Esperanto, so correct me if you find any grammar mistakes...



If you think that a level is impossible, take a look at this playlist which contains (although sometimes of slightly older versions) the solution to every level of the hack: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqChpNq3_nCU1O7pAtaYSjAtP76brVi8K





REJECTION: KRUELA MARIO

1. General introducing thoughts
2. Positive
3. Negative
4. Summed up reasons for my decision

________________________________________

1.) General introducing thoughts:

KRUELA MARIO claims to be a hard kaizo hack. I agree with this. It has many puzzles, hard jumps and requires many different (sometimes very difficult and/or frame-perfect) glitches. On the other hand this hack states no walljumps or cornerclips are needed to complete it (but a lot of other pixelperfect jumps). I´ll come back to this point later. At least this hack was able to become what it intended to be - a hard glitch-puzzle-kaizo hack. Also this is the 1st hack i´ve moderated and sadly it´s a rejection. Somehow i feel bad about this because this hack has some brilliant ideas on the other hand it´s tedious and repetitive, too sometimes. I´d say this famous quote from Gaius Valerius Catullus reflects my feelings pretty much:
"Odi et amo, quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.
nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior."
I hate and I love, perhaps you ask why I do it?
I don´t know, but i feel it happening and am tortured

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2.) Positive:

- Every level has it own little gimmick, which makes every level somehow unique and gives a feeling of variation

- Some levels are allusions to other hacks (mainly of the same genre such as Super Puzzle World 3, inferi mario, ...) and even if you can feel the comes inspiration from an other hack, the level nonetheless manages to be different and unique.

- The levels´ length is acceptable. Many levels aren´t larger than about 10 screen which makes it at least somehow possible to solve the abstruse puzzles and figure out the glitches you have to execute. This doesn´t apply for castles and the last world, though. Castles usually are about 2-3 times larger than the normal levels in their world.

- Normally the levels require different glitches. Usually it´s a mixture of "easy" and "hard" to execute glitches, which makes this hack quite outstanding in its genre, because it doesn´t only focus on one side (becoming either incredibly hard and almost pit-like or becoming boring and repetitive).
________________________________________

3.) Negative:

As mentioned above the hack does a quite well job at being a hard-kaizo-gltich-puzzle-hack. But simultaneously almost every level has a flaw that makes playing Kruela a bitter experience.

3)A) cutoffs:

This is the least thing i have to critisize, but some of the levels have minor cutoffs. They aren´t that bad usually. I give you some examples instead of words:


As said above usually they aren´t bad. But on the other hand - as stated above every level has its own gimmick - there´s one Level, which gimmick is to consist of hundreds of cutoffs. It features also bad, eye-searing palettes.
Here are some screenshots:

Even if the level´s name is "ERRARO 404" and obviously it just pokes fun at "not found tiles" i have no idea how i could justify such a level. As you can see it´s not only about awful graphics, but its level design is something between "bad" and "nonexistent", too. I think this is the perfect example to present, that even if some ideas are "nice per se" they really should be left out, because of their execution. if you really want to create an "error 404" level it should be something that doesn´t violate SMWC´s design- and aesthetics-guidelines in multiple ways.


3)B) repetitive obstacles:
Even if every level has its own gimmick per se there are 2 obstacles you can find in almost every single level. These are the following:
3.B)a)


This screenshot depicts a jump that the author calls "Zuenni"-jump (because it was MZuenni´s hack "Super Nerv World" where he saw it the first time). This jump requires you to jump over 2 Munchers while you have a ceiling 2 blocks above you. This jump isn´t that hard (depending how much running speed you can gain before), but it definitely isn´t easy either. But for sure it is quite a repetitive design if almost every level contains this jump (sometimes even multiple times). If you´re too unimaginative to create new kaizo-jumps for every level then some ideas should better be left out - especially this jump because it only has a width of 4 blocks, which really wouldn´t make a difference if this would just be "empty". But instead it is artificially "stuffed" with this jump again and again.

3)B)b)

The 2nd repetitive obstacle is the ground that has a width of 4-5 blocks and that requires you to gain running speed. I have to admit, that I haven´t seen many hacks before that make use of this mario-physic, but having to perform this trick (which isn´t really difficult but only costs you time) in almost every level gets repetitive, too since it doesn´t add anything new usually.

I know some people may call these things a "gimmick", but if gimmicks become annoying then they should be just left out. Remember that even if this is a kaizo hard hack, one of the main-intentions still should be "being fun" somehow.

3)B)c)
There are some other level design ideas i´d like to question if they really have to be as they are. This is one example:

I won´t complain about block-duplication in this hack, but is it really necessary to do it about 15 times? Of course this one example figuratively stand for many other obstacles that are constructed in a similar, unnecessaryly streched way.

3)C) Uncreative/bland level design:
Every level has its own gimmick and this surely is adorable, but some stages should be simply left out, because their gimmick doesn´t fit SMWC´s definition of good level design. I give you the YT-links (of the author´s playthrough) to some of the levels i have in mind:
ERRARO 404 (as mentioned before)
Mondo de tuboj (secret exit)
Domo de memoroj
Domo de malekzisto


3)D) Unfair level design:
I know this sentence is quoted quite often, but only because it is absolutely true: "There´s a difference between difficult and unfair. Avoid the latter!" I have to admit that this hack isn´t really unfair that often, but this doesn´t change the fact that it is at least sometimes. Examples again:

- I cannot reach the secret exit in "Nigra kaj Blanka" if i did the Normal exit first:


- Unfairly hidden mushroom-block in "Mallibera"


- This ExAnimation (e.g. in "Domo de memoroj" or "Turo de cent etaĝoj ") which only appears after x seconds for "1 animation" and then its animation-circle begins again. This is supposed to indicate that the ground/ceiling isn´t solid, but seriously a permanent animation would be more appropriate for this kind of indication.


3.E) Miscellaneous issues:

There are some other issues that evoke a bitter impression while playing, but aren´t too bad, tedious or outstanding enough to be worth an extra point.

3)E)a)
This hack claims it uses entirely esperanto as its language. Even if i don´t speak/understand esperanto it looks like the following 2 senctences were overlooked and are still in english (which is a bit inconsistent):


3)E)b)
This hack stated it doesn´t require walljumps. That´s correct and true, but it requires many wallgrabs instead. Of course a walljump is harder than a wallgrab because you have to jump frame perfect then, too, but since the amount of wallgrabs is quite high, the hack somehow destroys its own "feature". Additionally doing the same wallgrab again and again isn´t fun either. By this i mean several levels use the same wallgrab without adding any other idea of difficulty to it. Example (entering a pipe using a wallgrab):

________________________________________

4.) Summed up reasons for my decision:

- several cutoffs
- repetitive obstacles
- Uncreative/bland level design
- Unfair level design
- Miscellaneous issues

For a more detailed explanation for my rejection read point 3. I also like to emphasise that i only described/depicted several examples. There could be found more things, but i assume this justification for the rejection is sufficient. I also emphasise this review is that long, because my opinion of this hack is very split. It has it positive aspects, but sadly the bad points predominate in my opinion.

I´m sorry, but even if this hack isn´t consequently bad, it simply isn´t good enough to fit SMWC´s standards of quality.