I wanted to post a pretty picture here of myself in a booth surrounded by all my female cartoon characters, but I gave up drawing by hand back in June of this year, in response to the Great Analog TV Shutdown in the United States. I want to draw things using a Wacom tablet from now on...but I currently don't have one! ^^;
But that's not what you came here for, is it? =P You came here for hacks and/or shit you can put in hacks, and that's where I think I CAN deliver!
With that in mind, I'd like to present two things to all of you this C3.
The first is already up on this site: A-l-e-x-99's Custom Beehive GFX
Now, why, you ask, would I show something that I've already submitted to the site? Simple. I uploaded it here without showing it off in the appropriate thread first, and since there's no comments section for the ExGFX, but I'd like to know what people think of it...well, here we are.
The second thing is something that I will submit to the site if enough people here like it:
Bowser's Grudge
This is my hack.
It's nothing much. It's SUPPOSED to be a vanilla hack, but I added a bunch of ExGFX (and made some, too; that beehive ExGFX is in the hack, but it's currently unused!), music, and a few custom blocks and sprites.
The story is somewhat disorganized, but the short version (and the reason why this hack has its name) is that, after rescuing Peach for the umpteen trillionth time, Mario decides to capitalize on his success by going on the offensive, and invading Bowser's castle. Bowser, meanwhile, is so pissed off by Mario defeating him time and time again that he launches a counterattack. But this time, it's personal. He doesn't want Peach this time; he wants Mario! Obviously, you, as Mario, have to confront your rival one more time and kick his ass for good.
I've tried as hard as I can to give this hack a military feel, but...let's face it. There's only so much you can do without having to do ASM hacking, which I'm a complete moron at. Mario is portrayed here as an army general, and almost every single message box you hit begins with "-DEBRIEFING-", as if a fellow or lesser general is talking to you. Other than that, it's the same game of Super Mario World 1 that we all know and love.
Every level from 0x1 to 0x24 is hacked and accessible to you, and they're arranged in hexadecimal order, so that gives you the first three worlds and half of the fourth to play around with. There are a LOT of levels in this hack; the average is about 11 levels per world (though you only need to complete about 5 or 6, the others are secret levels), and the original blueprints used every level except 0x13A and 0x13B, which totals up to 93 out of 95 possible levels!
The levels also tend to be long, and this is intended to be up there in difficulty, although not TOO hard. You should be able to complete these levels without savestates.
Here's what the world layout will look like:
- Mushroom Mountains, a rocky world (instead of a grass land like so many other hacks).
- Cheep-Cheep Lake, a water area with lots of underwater levels.
- Pipe Desert, which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. You'll have to put up with LOTS of Piranha Plants.
- Goomba Woods, a forest area that's being burned down.
- Temporal Cave, a world where you have to travel through time to clear levels.
- Bowser Badlands, a grass land with a twist: it's very rough and craggy. There are also some beehives.
- Mt. Koopatoa, a volcano land.
- Mushroom Mines, a cave world.
- Koopa Battlefield, an endurance area that features levels longer and harder than the others.
And now, just in case the mods actually enforce that rule on this forum, here are some screenshots:
There are other Switch Palaces in this hack besides the original four. This is the Brown Switch Palace. You get a Yellow Yoshi here.
The White Switch Palace is just like the Top Secret Area...but it collapses after you use it!
Here's some action from one of the few World 2 levels to be above the water. If you look closely enough, you can see a gray P-Switch. ;) By the way, I <3 Edit1754! Seriously, his online background ripping utility helped save my ass when the Super Mario World 2 ocean background already on this site ended up being a worthless piece of shit for me.
In World 2, there are also some sunken ships you'll have to plunder through.
These Charging Chucks forgot to pay their electric bill. Also, that bright red ground they're standing on is very, very hot and will hurt you if you touch it.
Part of the second castle. This section is much easier than you might think it is!
World 2 features an iceberg. The blue Munchers you see are the Super Mario Bros. 3 Nipper sprite available on this site, but instead of using the GFX and palette provided, I made my own! ^^
Here's some action from the first castle. The vast majority of the level is made of revolving blocks...and a Magikoopa's after you!
Another sunken ship. By the way, this is Level 0xE0, which was part of Vanilla Fortress in the original game, so it is my sincerest hopes that anyone who accuses me of making blatant level edits gets 24h-banned by a mod!
Something's fishy in the water here. Can you get that Dragon Coin? If you look closely behind the item box display, you'll see a Cheep-Cheep guarding it. I don't think it's anything Yoshi or a cape can't handle, though...
I bet you didn't know Lakitu could fly around in caves, did you? xD
A volcano level in World 1. There's another view of that bright orange ground I was talking about earlier.
Here's the first level! Those blue Paratroopas aren't custom sprites, by the way; I just simply tweaked the horizontally-flying red Paratroopa using Tweaker and Lemetaal.
Here's the second level. It's just a bit stormy out there...
Not much of a sawmill, now is it? Those are some pretty shitty water wheels...
Here's the Pipe Desert. Thank you, Map16 editor, for allowing me to make pipes that don't change color with every screen! Also, note the Venus Firetrap.
Grass? In MY desert!?! It's more likely than you think. By the way, that's Level 0x1A, so anyone who accuses me of a "blatant 105 edit" will get punched in the face!!!
An oasis in the desert. Boss Bass sure looks hungry...
A more generic desert level. I'm really proud of the palette here. This is Broozer's "Custom Desert Dunes" background; however, I think this palette, which I tweaked a little from one of the Super Mario Bros. 2 pyramid backgrounds, looks much better than the default one that Broozer provided! Also, note the quicksand pits.
Even Lakitu wants in on the pipe action!
Classic Doomship.
Here's another riverbank, this time with a Porcu-Puff.
Here's the "pipe" part of the Pipe Desert. As I believe I said, there are a lot of Piranhas here.
You like bullets? Then you'll LOVE this hack! Quite a few levels put you under intense Bullet Bill fire!
These woods are charred. Gee, I wonder why? ;)
The Yellow Switch Palace. Note that that red shell is actually a yellow Beach Koopa that climbed into a shell and is now spinning after Mario. You have to bring him down with a P-Switch and use him to kill the eight other Koopas in the room for a 1-Up. However, one of them is a yellow Beach Koopa, and some of them are Yellow Paratroopas (i.e. species that can jump over incoming shells). Be careful!
There's the goal...but how will you get to it? D:
Another desert oasis. Somehow, this one got overrun with brambles! However will you get through it? By the way, I'm swimming directly over a secret in this screeny! ;)
Part of the third castle. Holy shit, that's a lotta spikes...!
See, this is why you shouldn't store nuclear waste in a protected habitat!
And that's all from me. I hope you enjoy the show, because I don't! =P