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Bowser Stadium - levelengine

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Hack Name: Bowser Stadium
Author: levelengine
Description: Mario winds up on an island of Bowser's where he must compete against Bowser's 19 new courses.
The game is cleared when you beat Bowser, and to do so, you play all the other levels until you find 4 different switches to form the bridge to Bowser's castle, similar to EVW.

New tricks:
-Two-toning and new tiles (a spiky star in a castle works like a normal spike)
-Toxic water (you could only survive for 30 seconds)
-Evacuation (blowing up a reactor core then getting the hell out)
-Difficulty levels (explained in Introduction #2)
-3-Up Moons hidden in every level with a medium difficulty or higher.
-Variety of ways to finish the game.
-Major reduce of unfair situations, flaws, glitches, and failure to load sprites


General issues
I must admit this isn't an ordinary hack. At first I was surprised I was able to access every level on the overworld, but later I understood the mecanic of your hack. Maybe you could make it a bit more challenging, like having a normal exit i every level and a secret one that leads to the switch. This is just a random thought of mine though, so feel free to ignore it.

Most of the levels had a good design; unfortunately there were also a few levels that were poorly designed. Moving on to the issues:


Not a removal reason, but the title screen was really boring. Also the file selection menus has a bad palette.


This switch looks golden, but when I press it, it turn blue, this happened with all of your switches, use a custom palette and change to sprite color to fix it. Also, all the switches give me the same "you found a golden switch" message regardless of their color, and they all spawn yellow blocks on the overworld.


It's kind of weird to see Mario walking against the wall, you know.

--
Overworld issues

Minor, but this level could use an actual tile (Yoshi's House maybe?)


There are some cutoffs on the border, there are some tiles in the original SMW for OW borders with paths, why don't you use them?


What's with the pipe in the middle of the water?

--
Introduction #2

I'm sure you could have put this as a second message box in introduction #1

-Not pictured-
Overall this level's design was poor. It was very empty with almost no ennemies around; I know it's supposed to be easy, but easy doesn't mean empty and boring. If you want to make an easy level, think about something like the fisrt world of the original SMW.

--
Koopa peninsula
-Not pictured-
Once again, this level had a poor, empty and kind of repetitive.


The camera started a bit out low here. Check the F.A.Q. for info on how to set the camera correctly. This also happened in a few other levels, by the way.


Here I died because I thought the blue frame at the bottom was water. Place the background correctly.


It's kind of hard to get that Yoshi Coin without getting hurt.

--
Freaky Fantasy
-Not pictured-
The first segment of this level was really boring and empty.

--
Muncher Fears

Minor, but the background doesn't look good. Also, the cement blocks cutoff the bones.

--
Forest of pipes

The cement blocks cutoff the pipes.


This is kind of annoying with big Mario. I advise you to avoid these kind of situations in general.


This is where I ended up after taking a Yoshi Coin. Don't use these kind of traps.

--
Iceberg Passage

Cuttof between the foreground and the dirt because of bad corner tile.

--
Frenzy Plant

Don't use the bottom row of Lunar Magic, it doesn't appear in game.


Cutoffs bellow the slope.


The cement blocks cutof the FG.

--
Bouncy Trouncy

Bad buzy beetle pallete.

--
Mountain Trudge

This segment was made almost entirely of map16 inserted switch palace blocks. Why don't you use actual FG tiles for this? You can use the map16 editors to make skinny FG tiles. Same goes for other levels with these tiles. Also, there are some glitched BG tiles at the top, you can fix that by changing the BG scroll (boton with th fishes).


If I die after taking this midpoint, I reappear at the beginning of the level.

--
Valley Crash

Bad corner tile bellow the bone.

--
Switch it to me!

I was able to cross the coin path before the P-switch ended, so now I have to wait here...boring. This happened several times durring this level.


The red switch block cutoffs the ground. I think you should use something else to mark your reset pipes.

--
The hill

Bad dino rhino palette


Now I have to bring this P-switch all the way back. I advise you to avoid this kind of situations because most of the players don't like it. Fortunately I don't have to backtrack much, so this isn't a major issue, but I recommend you not to do this.


The lightning here didn't generate fire because of sprite memory issues. Change the sprite memory index (lakitu's head) to 7.


Floating fire never looked good.


The FG block cutoffs the pipe.

--
Haunted outpost
-Not pictured-
This level was way too long and hard compared to the rest of the "hard" levels. You should either decrease the difficulty or label it as "expert".


Great! Now I'm stuck. All this just for a powerup? By the way, this segment was pretty empty and boring.


The cobwebs and the boos don't look good. I know what you were aiming for, but this is not the way. The outline should be darker than the body.


Horrible cutoff between the pipe and the water.


I already read that in the other message box. Also, the pipe cutoffs the water.


The lakitu glitches because of sprite memory issues. Change the sprite memory index to C.


Bob-omb graphics are not a substitute for thwimps, it's not very logic since they don't actually explode. Don't do this.


The tiles below the triangle block don't look good. Use map16 to make a good looking tile that acts like 1EB.


More sprite memory issues. Change the sprite memory index to 7.

--
Dark path

The cement blocks cutoff the dirt.

--
Bullets and Moles

I can easily get stuck here if I don't have a mushroom.


Yeah...I already told you not to do this.

--
Diver Down

Slowdown. Reduce the number of sprites.


The P-switch sometimes refuses to appear because there are too many sprites around. I advise you to remove it, it's pretty pointless.


The jump here is quite hard to perform. I know this level is supposed to be very hard, but it shouldn't requite this kind of precision.


It's pretty easy to kill the disco koopa by accident with the throw block and get stuck here. Add a reset door.

--
Cloudy Heights
Ok, so this level (along with Entry of Bowser #2) is the main reason why I decied to remove this hack. I know the level is supposed to be hard, but this particular level crossed the line: I was unable to beat it without savestates and rewinds since it had a lot of segment that required high levels of precision.

-Not Pictured-
If I kill one of the disco koopas, or any of the enemies I need to proceed I can get stuck. Some of them can be easily killed by accident.


Whee! Let's break the level! Ok… this was the only easy segment of the level, actually.


Really? I have to jump on the exploding block goomba in the middle of the air before it falls down?


This jump is quite hard as big Mario


Just like this segment: I have to duck down in order to proceed, which slows me down so I have no time to reach the safe area and I die.


Ah, come on!

--
Entry of Bowser #1

If I enter the level without having all four switches pressed I'm forced to kill myself, add a side exit to the level (same goes for #2). Also, what's with the scrolling layer 3 rocks background? (not shown in the picture)


The floating spike looks kind of ugly. Sure, it's better than a floating muncher, but I'm sure you can use a better substitute. Also, the lava cutoffs the castle blocks.


This doesn't look like a waterfall, and it's horribly cutoff.

--
Entry of Bowser #2

I stopped here after trying this particular segment (with savestates) over 50 times; you seriously need to cut down the difficulty here. Also, the FG, BG and thwomp palettes look ugly, and the candles lack flames (use sprite E6).



Summary:
Overall, a few levels (most notably Introduction #2 and Koopa Peninsula) need to be improved level design-wise; and a few others (Cloudy Heights and Entry of Bowser #2) need to be cut down on the difficulty. There are a lot of cutoffs around the hack; while they're not major issues, you should probably fix them; try to edit the cement block graphics so you can give them square edges.

Fix the issues I mentioned (especially the ones related to level design) and I'll accept this. Read the Hack submission guidelines. I also advise you to read this and this to improve your level design skills.
Originally posted by Details for Bowser Stadium - Beta (2nd version)
Hack Name: Bowser Stadium - Beta (2nd version) - 97 KB - 39 downloads.
Length: 19 levels
Author: levelengine - Submitted by: levelengine
Description: Mario winds up on an island of Bowser's where he must compete against Bowser's 19 new courses.
The game is cleared when you beat Bowser, and to do so, you play all the other levels until you find 4 different switches to form the bridge to Bowser's castle, similar to EVW (plot is still the same).

New tricks:
-Two-toning and new tiles (a spiky star in a castle works like a normal spike)
-Toxic water (you could only survive for 30 seconds)
-Evacuation (blowing up a reactor core then getting the hell out)
-Difficulty levels (explained in Introduction #2)
-3-Up Moons hidden in every level with a medium difficulty or higher.
-Variety of ways to finish the game.
-Further reduce of unfair situations, flaws, glitches, and complete fix of failure to load sprites


Reasons for removal:

Although you've fixed most of the things aj6666 pointed out, there are still a lot of flaws/bugs you definitely need to consider fixing.


^ The player is not able to go forward without getting hit by munchers placed above him. Remove the munchers Mario got killed by in this screenshot or the cement block put on the ledge.


^ The turn block at the bottom-right of the screen is nearly impossible to hit. Get rid of some pipes on the ledge so that Mario can follow the shell a bit more easily.


^ This shell-less koopa went through the water as though he were falling into a pit. Make sure you enable sprite buoyancy whenever you use water tiles.


^ Things circled in red are cutoffs you should fix. There were many cutoffs in other levels, so be sure to look for them and fix them.


^ Sprites/objects circled in red have bad palettes. (Yellow circles indicate the palettes I think you used intentionally). These aren't the only things that use bad palettes. I have found things like these quite a lot of times in the hack, so yeah, be sure to fix them. Bad palettes by no means are acceptable so.


^ This fire flower will disappear if Mario hits any of the coin blocks placed next to it. Remove those coin blocks or move the block with the fire flower somewhere else.


^ What happened to the hand torpedoes get spawned from? D:


^ Poor placements of sprites. These were just hard to avoid. Why not make the cheep-cheeps in the first screen move back and forth vertically?


^ What is the point of putting bullet bill shooters if they don't shoot bullets? They are a bit misleading, so replace them with blocks you used as ledges.


^ I somehow got stuck into this layer 2 ledge. Not really a removal reason, but it makes things look weird, so you might want to spend some time figuring out how to fix this.


^ The player can get trapped here if he hits the blue P-switch, hits a few '?' blocks, and takes the coins the blocks have turned into.


^ Sprite memory error.


^ I am not really sure as to why an ON/OFF switch is placed there. I have seen ON/OFF switches placed over pipes in a few levels. If they are of no use, why bother putting them?


^ ..and now what am I supposed to do beyond this point?


^ Mario can get stuck in '?' blocks and die if he pushes the blue P-switch there.


^ That sprite that looks like a bomb-omb is actually a thwimp. Yeah, please don't use glitched/incorrect graphics as they can be confusing.


^ I highly suggest you remove the '?' block circled in red, because if the player doesn't hit the P-switch on the brown 'used' block (which has been turned into a coin in the screenshot, my bad), he will not be able to move on, and he will consequently have to die, and get to this part of the level again, which will be tedious |-O


^ Slow down caused by the huge number of sprite being drawn at once. Delete some of the hopping flames.


^ Bullet bills are being spawned in a weird direction. Not really a removal reason, but this is something that would be nice to fix.


^ Blind jump.


^ Bad placement of the invisible note block (The one circled in blue). The player can hit the block and possibly end up falling into a pit.


^ Although the player is not forced to take this path, this is still ridiculously hard to get past. Delete some of the munchers, and give the player more space so that he can perform jumps more easily.


^ This part was very difficult to beat. Reduce the number of moles (or bullet bills, up to you) to make this part easier to be beat.


^ Yeah, this part is really confusing unless the player knows what to do. Also, get rid of some boos, they're in the way. Most of them were insanely hard to avoid that I had no option but to take a hit to move forward.
The stairs get cutoff.


^ This level is just not nice. The player has to navigate the mega mole through the level which is a pain in the neck due to all the things you have to do in order to navigate it. I recommend that you re-design this level from scratch, because at the moment, this is just way too hard for the average player, and minor edits will not decrease the difficulty of the level.


^ These jumps were difficult to perform. You really shouldn't make the player perform these kinds of jumps because not exactly everyone can do hard things like these on their first try.


^ Did you read what aj wrote in his removal log carefully? The palettes of the FG, BG and thwomps look pretty bad. Use of ugly palettes like these are one of the reasons for a hack to be rejected, so please do fix them.


^ Make 1up mushrooms rare.


^ I am not really sure what the player is supposed to do to get up there. The only way I could get up there was to do a shell jump, which is VERY hard without using savestates.


^ The player can exit the level ...in the middle of a boss battle? Yeah, this happens because of the use of the 'side exit enable' sprite in the first area of the level. Remove that sprite, and use either this block coded by MarioE or this block coded by wiiqwertyuiop.


^ The tiles circled in purple need to be replaced with the kind of tiles aj said (Tiles with the border and paths).
There are also two small cutoffs in the blue circle, so you should replace them with tiles (Tile 0x11, was it?) that connect the border properly.

As aj6666 mentioned, you really need to do something to reduce the difficulty. The player had to do all sorts of jumps that cannot be performed easily in most of the levels.

I suggest you reread aj's removal log and my removal log. Also, try to find flaws and glitches as many as possible, and fix them.
Originally posted by aj6666

Bad dino rhino palette


I stopped here after trying this particular segment (with savestates) over 50 times; you seriously need to cut down the difficulty here. Also, the FG, BG and thwomp palettes look ugly, and the candles lack flames (use sprite E6).

The dino rhino pallete was not so bad for me, also the pallete made me think if it was a elephant rhino, HA HA HA HA HA! Get it? Elephant rhino? HA HA HA HA HA! *cough* Sorry for the laugh, though. Also the pallete of the BG, FG and thowmp weren't thatt ugly, its just more like it has blood on it, so shut up (no offense) #smw{¬_¬}
Mario's Return to Home progress:
Overworld: 100%
Levels: 53%


Its a 4 level hack (not counting Mario's house)
Fixed non-matching 3rd level from OW
1. You're being unnecessarily rude because of stupid reasons. Those palettes are actually really bad and it's an acceptable reason of removal. You can't treat staff like they're some kind of idiots or ignorants and much less to tell them to shut up because you say so. There's something called respect.

2. Posted on 20-May-2012

This thread is almost a year old and there was absolutely NO reason to post in an outdated removal log. Learn to post in the most recent threads because those are the ones that really would need some kind of feedback.
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Originally posted by ChileLIMO54321
The dino rhino pallete was not so bad for me, also the pallete made me think if it was a elephant rhino, HA HA HA HA HA! Get it? Elephant rhino? HA HA HA HA HA! *cough* Sorry for the laugh, though. Also the pallete of the BG, FG and thowmp weren't thatt ugly, its just more like it has blood on it, so shut up (no offense) #smw{¬_¬}


Oh, I didn't know you joined the staff team! Maybe you were the one who accepted the newest version! The one that was released before you even joined the site!
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