Super Mario: Daisy's Kidnapping

Dearest SMW Centralians,

I invite you all to play a demo of Super Mario: Daisy's Kidknapping. A solid 32 levels of Mario fun!

What started off as me playing around with Lunar Magic 3 for a bit of fun, developed into a full-scale hack, full of new features but reminiscent of classic and modern Mario games. I left SMW hacking alone something like four years ago, and never even imagined I'd make a hack again. Alas, here we are - not made a C3 thread since forever.

I'm not really one to do demos, generally because I never finish hacks plus I don't like to spoil things. However, this is a project I want to get right and I feel by releasing something at the mid-point of development will help. And also, Noivern pressured me. And also also, it perfectly timed with C3 so... trophies, anyone? Although, I wasn't actually sure the scale of demo that I was going to release. It was either going to be the first four worlds, or an "arcade" demo (is that the right word?) where a few select levels are playable from a level select screen. Fortunately, for you guys, I finished stuff up in time, found myself a friend to test and play through for feedback (Lui37 and his magical flying pizza), finished up the bosses and here we are.

So, what's the hack about? Well... Guess by the name - Daisy (Princess, not a flower) has been kidknapped. But by who(m)? Bowser, of course! Why? Stop asking questions about detailedness of the plot. It's a mix of SMAS graphics thrown in with some new drawn ones by myself and various other sources because I wanted more flexibility and style. Full of new enemies, unique custom bosses, new powerups (LX5's) and modern abilities such as ground pounding (works with blocks properly, too!) and wall kicking. Nothing has gone in without thought, and I've made sure any ability, powerup or anything else goes in and has a purpose - not just there because I can! I've even implemented a custom Star Coin system for the hack, along side my own overworld status bar and even a new collectible - Hidden Marios! World's are playable in any order too, so you can mix things up.


Anyway, enough of my talking. How about, some screenshots - one from every level (and a bit more I guess?)
(Hover screenshots to make bigger)





And you can watch my C3 trailer here too.





So, I've tried to make this demo as polished as I can. However, there's a few completely minor, non-game breaking issues I want to make you aware of before you play:

(Assumed) V-Blank Overflow
Occiasionally (it's rare) the HDMA will glitch out for a frame or you'll get the better known black line appear at the top of the screen. It doesn't happen often, probably not even in every level, but it's there. I'm releasing with the bug because I've yet to find a way to fix it and have everything else work too (ExAnimation, powerup dynamic sprites, HDMA etc). I'm actively seeing if there is anything I can do to stop it though!

Bug's with LX5's Powerups
The version of this patch I'm using has an issue on the "fade to overworld" level mode where the bottom corner of the player tiles dissapear. I can fix this by upgrading the patch but it needs porting to a new ROM to fix, which didn't happen because it's going to take a while. Similarly, you may notice a tilemap glitch for a frame when changing to/from Frog Mario - I need to reinsert the powerup patch GFX, but when I did this it broke the ROM for whatever reason so again, I need to port.

Tide Level Transparency
There's an issue with level mode 0E where the tides are transparent but Mario going through pipes is weird. Ignore it, I just believe that to be a bug with that level mode.

OW Speed
I want to make Mario walk faster on the OW, but can't right now because there's some incompatibilities with other patches. Will be done for the final hack!


That's the end of me justifying why this quote from the tip box is invalid.

I'll fix it later



There we go! Thanks for all following the hack. I welcome all comments, bugs, or anything really. Got some great ideas planned for the next worlds, (though not enough time to do it by C3 Winter 2020). Would be cool to know if anyone 100%'s the demo, with all star coins, hidden Marios etc. Oh, and if anyone understands who the cameo is in one of the Toad house's, let me know.


Now go download and play.


DOWNLOAD NOW!

i feel like this hack was just announced yesterday and there's already four worlds worth of content here, a myriad of custom sprites, and custom graphics up the ass. your work ethic on this is pretty insane. tell me you'll release some of those cool sprites following the hacks release, yes?~

unfortunately i'm unable to check it out, but i hope others can give you some good feedback throughout c3 and afterwards.

from the trailer i noticed the koopa shell doesn't display as it did in smb3. I think you can fix it by switching the front facing frame whith the sidewais frame and mirroring the in beetween frame on the graphics file.

it's just a nitpick, tho. Seems great! Definitly gonna play this

Yep, this is going on my list of things to play this C3.

I've probably said this before: I love how your hack is SMAS styled but also packed with exciting new features that don't feel flashy or shoehorned. You're striking a really nice balance there. (and you've stricken it for 32 levels already? holy productivity.)

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@idol: thanks! i definately want to release some sprites and stuff down the line, but they just might need to be tweaked a bit to be fit enough for the sprites section. my work ethic is kinda weird, like i'll go for weeks where i do nothing, and then spend a solid couple of days on stuff and get loads done.

@Bernardo: idk really what you mean but if i did it doesn't bother me any, i'm not going for 100% accuracy on the graphics part. Glad you like it all though and have fun playing.

@WYE: thanks i'm pleased that with all the features, there is a balance and nothing's shorhorned in like you say, what I wanted it to feel like worked!

@Tahixham It's just nitpicking, it doesn't really ruin the experience
The game is great regardless.

I've played the grass world and a portion of the water world and I have to say that so far, this is a pleasant and very polished experience. I like the graphics, the added details, and the cutscenes. The unique progression structure makes progression a bit more interesting. I especially like how things are customized and edited to be more uniform and stylistically consistent.

My only complaints so far are nitpicks, really:

• Mario's missing a few sprites. His hitbox still changes when crouching while holding a shell or when small, but his graphic does not. His walk cycles look a bit choppy, and after checking out Mario All-Stars I'm not quite sure what's wrong. Maybe he's missing a frame or two? He looks "jumpy".
• The rounded mushroom ledges drive me crazy. Super Mario World's trademark collision detection lead to my jumps constantly being eaten when I'm trying to run and jump off the ledge of these mushrooms. Sloped edges of platforms tend to cause this issue and it's something you might want to be wary of.
• Buzzies on the ceiling should roll after you in their shell after dropping. It feels so weird that they don't.
• It's possible to activate the flag pole from beneath. In Verdant Green 4, I went under the flagpole platform thinking there was a secret only to find this bug.

You're doing something right if minor gripes like visual errors are all I can really think of.

thanks kyasarintsu, your feedback is appreciated!

yeah i had planned to disable the ducking thing while holding items, but couldn't figure it out before c3 and thought "gah no one will notice" - i was wrong! For the walk thing tho i hadn't really notice, the player graphics literally came straight from SMAS in some cases so idk, i'll look at it though for sure.


i hadn't notice but i can make them behave flat definately


this was planned, but i forgot. i started the sprite but never finished it. it's gonna take a bit of reworking in a couple of levels for it not to be weird but it'll be done.


i haven't tried it but can see how that would work, i'll probably move the goal into a sublevel or something to avoid it

I've been playing this demo as I've looked forward to it for a while, its extremely well made and seems like a fully high budget game already.
the only real issues I've seen aside from me sucking massively so far (only played the verdant green world so far) is that the wall jumps are a bit of a pain to work with, often times ill be up against a wall but Mario won't grab it to do a jump so I either fall or one of the special coins from one of the levels ( i won't mention which one) is really really obnoxious to reach because Mario falls more often than he grabs the wall which gets a little frustrating. this likely can't be fixed as its SMW mixed with wall kicking and that combo is always going to be mildly janky.

I also ran into a bug which almost soft locked my progress, in one level, the one where a p switch is needed to get a spring and said spring is needed to get to a pipe, I picked up the spring and tried getting it to the pipe, but it glitched into the ground right before the pipe just low enough that it couldn't be interacted with or picked up, I didn't want to lose a life so I had to wall jump in to the area with good timing but it was a small glitch which is a common SMW sort of thing (random stuff getting stuck in walls). figured id mention it in case anyone else happens to do that, so they know it can be beaten still without losing a life, but is difficult.

I will continue playing overtime and letting you know of any sort of issues I discover that arent just me being terrible.

but overall the game is really awesome and the level design is amazing, I actually liked the verdant greens fortress more than the level before it but that's a sign of good level diversity and the SMB3ish style is really nice.

and a side note, unless I haven't found the right area/powerup, it really does seem as if a few of the coins/ Marios are actually not in the levels, I have found all of them in most of the verdant levels ive gone through but two different levels I tried going through multiple times and never could find any hidden areas or pipes or anything to find that last coin/Mario and I know most of it is likely because I suck and haven't played mario games in a long time.

Thanks Flamesofshadow, glad you've enjoyed it thus far!

The wall kick requires you to hold the direction the wall is against the wall (if that makes any sense), it doesn't "stick" like modern Mario games. Though i'm sure it's possible to do maybe, so i'll look at the patch and see if i can make it work better. Not sure if that's why you've struggled with it or not, but seems plausible as i don't think lui had any troubles with it in beta testing? I guess you just need to know the trick to it maybe? not sure.

not quite sure what you mean with the whole p-switch/springboard part. i know where you mean but, are you saying the springboard got stuck in the p-switch solid on/off blocks when they went solid? If so, you can just hit the p-switch again to free it? Unless you mean something else idk

Thanks for bringing those bits to my attention though!

The star coins and hidden marios are definately there, some are more difficult than others. if you want a hint: and .

I'm aware of the wall kick mechanic, and it could be the control method I use (ps4 controller) but pushing into the wall tends to only partly work which is the issue, I can press right or left into a wall and mario won't actually interact with it a lot of the time. it could be something related to controller sensitivity I'm not sure.

and no the spring didn't get stuck in the on-off block, but the actual ground right before the pipe, there is the small slope, and then its flat beneath the row of on-off blocks, when I did it the spring somehow glitched into the floor (most likely the game might have thought I threw it somehow), and I couldn't get it out again so I had to wall jump to get into the pipe.


and ill keep checking for the coins and Marios, its a fun added challenge.

ah ok, i'll look further into those things flamesofshadow. thanks.



it's still offically c3 for another 2 hours so i'm showing off more progress

in other news, i've successfully ported everything to a new rom, fixed some bugs along the way, implemented the OW speed patch, updated the powerup patch from this C3 (i'd have been pissed if i'd have done that before C3 and then lx5 released an update like what happened lol). Powerups, lives, coins etc now save between game resets. This isn't a submission update btw this is just me informing you of progress now the demo is done.

I've also started work on this:

what do you think it is and why would I need them?




(also the hack got accepted thx lazy )

This hack is high quality
I am waiting for the final version