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[ACCEPTED] "A Hack Thing" by MercuryPenny

Attention everyone who intends to review:
Please
- go -
here
because
༼ つ ಥ_ಥ ༽つỏ̷͖͈̞̩͎̻̫̫̜͉̠̫͕̭̭̫̫̹̗̹͈̼̠̖͍͚̥͈̮̼͕̠̤̯̻̥̬̗̼̳̤̳̬̪̹͚̞̼̠͕̼̠̦͚̫͔̯̹͉͉̘͎͕̼̣̝͙̱̟̹̩̟̳̦̭͉̮̖̭̣̣̞̙̗̜̺̭̻̥͚͙̝̦̲̱͉͖͉̰̦͎̫̣̼͎͍̠̮͓̹̹͉̤̰̗̙͕͇͔̱͕̭͈̳̗̭͔̘̖̺̮̜̠͖̘͓̳͕̟̠̱̫̤͓͔̘̰̲͙͍͇̙͎̣̼̗̖͙̯͉̠̟͈͍͕̪͓̝̩̦̖̹̼̠̘̮͚̟͉̺̜͍͓̯̳̱̻͕̣̳͉̻̭̭̱͍̪̩̭̺͕̺̼̥̪͖̦̟͎̻̰̞̖̠̣̦̰̙͕ I SPILLED MY JUICE!


Permanent link to original submission (v1.0)
Quote
File Name: A Hack Thing
Submitted: 2014.03.12 ~ 21:01:20 by MercuryPenny
Claimed: 2014.03.13 ~ 06:59:52 by Counterfeit
Rating: 0.0
Authors: MercuryPenny
Demo: No
Length: 11 exit(s)
Difficulty: Normal
Description: Choconilla...sort of.

This is a fairly short hack that goes up in difficulty around the Level 5 mark, but it's only 9 levels long so it's not too bad. It's kind of a "short n' sweet" brand of hack, but the levels on average are pretty long. The only custom content is:

- Custom backgrounds
- Fake HDMA
- Custom Palettes

Give this hack a shot if you like short, fun pieces.
Tags: short, sweet
The title screen shows a brand new level with some strange ASM and music that freaks out if you let the title screen loop too much. It eventually becomes so fast that it overflows into the slowest thing ever. I find it rather funny and harmless.

The intro level basically says: I am a flying key. Your opinion is invalid.

I'm not exactly into the overworld. The cliff separating the desert and the grassland is really straight and boring. I am okay with yellow sand, but I think an earthier hue would be better. I think that the levels could've had decoration around them that corresponds to what kind of level you're entering, such as the forest level having trees around it -- I liked that the pyramid level actually had a makeshift pyramid for the icon. I am able to get into a neverending bonus game because sometimes the path from the forest level up the ladder to the slanted pipe level messes up.

Slow and Easy is a short level. The secret exit draws more attention than the regular exit does so naturally, I went for it first. Mushrooms are a really WTF replacement for the footballs, which I like. The design felt plain but appropriate for an introduction to the game.

Grassy Time Run's Mushroom graphics on Pokey make it look safe to touch. The midway point came awfully close to the end, and I feel like the time blocks were too liberally given out because I finished the level with well over 70 seconds left. This gimmick has the potential to create a lot of tension, so I would either reduce the amount of blocks or the amount of time they give.

Tower Terror! is an interesting level in that it makes use of a falling layer of spikes and line-guided Grinders, and 3 POW blocks as chances to eliminate them. What's funny is that Mario rapidly shakes during this level. The difficulty seems to peak in the middle, and I'm not really fond of how the castle blocks don't vanish in the Reznor fight since it's misleading.

Desert Dunes was made very easy by the availability of the cape. It looks messy when the Sumo Brother drops a lightning bolt onto slopes since the fire cuts off. There's also a blind jump near the beginning of the level where the two-tile-high cactus is on a one-tile-wide chunk of land. Overall, short level, fairly enjoyable, but dismissable and out-of-place challenge-wise.

Ghastly Pyramid really had to get me to think to get around that floating platform that blocked my way a little over halfway through because I hadn't seen that before. I don't really understand the coins being turned into Boos, but the level design here was probably the best in the hack.

Slanted Pipe Road made use of a less-appreciated type of platform, but it, too, felt like it was too easy for where it was, especially considering the level before it. It seems to be an easy coin spot like the first level, though. On the up side, the secret exit was well-hidden.

Sandstone Catacombs was all about sneaky fireballs. That one placed exactly on the midway point got me right when I touched the tape. There's a pretty disgusting bug here: Spike Top climbs on top of the lava slopes. I really liked the second half of the level, but the first half leaves something to be desired. The falling platforms, perhaps, could've been utilized a bit more?

Switch Castle disappointed in the sense that it reused the springboard concept used in Sandstone Catacombs, but what I really liked was the late introduction of the switches in the previous level to tell the player, "this is what's coming up." The use of the switches to create floors over pits and switch mazes was also pretty neat. I liked how the switches were utilized in Big Boo's room, although I felt like the sides were too close to the edge so they felt cramped.

Forest Tree Top Fun = bullets, shells, and woods. Finding all the Dragon Coins in here was pretty fun, and the sky yielded tons of coins. I would add more "windows" to that layer priority-enabled dirt so you can see the Koopas and the shells more often and be able to dodge them easier.

DONUT SECRET 1 was "nice." I wish there was more substance even though it was a switch palace. This hack gave me enough coins already. =(

Anyways, there were only two levels that impressed me both in concept and execution. Some levels feel like filler or underdeveloped, and others feel like they're okay at best. The hack's levels are often fairly short, although as a whole, the hack is a decent length. There were a couple of visually unappealing quirks, and a rare neverending bonus game bug. Some levels gave out way too many coins. The difficulty of the hack was unbalanced, but I suppose Normal is appropriate for a difficulty rating.

Verdict hidden unless needed for a tie-breaker. Get reviewing, guys.

(+1)


List of +1 users:
Counterfeit
Cousin Earl
Mirann
Everest
Wakana-chan
JackTheSpades

Just look above you...
If it's something that can be stopped, then just try to stop it!
This is a pretty nice hack, albeit a short one. It makes use of some interesting concepts.

"Slow and Easy" is a good introduction to the hack. However, the mushroom enemies can be a bit buggy. Sometimes when I jump on top of them I'll die anyway.

I like the time trial concept of "Grassy Time Run", where you have a short amount of time and have to touch certain blocks to gain additional time. It's a nice change from those hacks with 10 minute levels. There may be a few too many blocks though.

Having the players predict where things are going to fall is a good idea in "Tower Terror!". It offers an interesting gameplay aspect that you usually don't see in other hacks. The boss was cool too.

"Desert Dunes" is nice but nothing special.

"Ghastly Pyramid" has some issues. One thing that really annoyed me was this part right here. The block ghosts can trap you places, and since they're so close to those other two boos, you barely get the chance to jump on them. Also, there's some blind jumps and the suspended water can be irritating. (The floating platform that you had to jump on to lower was a neat idea though.) And in some parts you can't avoid the statue's fireballs. But the level design is still pretty nice.

The palettes are good too, but I'm not loving the overworld. It's too plain and the cliff between the grassland part and the desert looks odd. I also dislike the shade of yellow you used for the desert, it's a bit bright.


I stopped playing after trying to beat "Ghastly Pyramid". That level can be pretty difficult and unfair, even with the use of savestates.

Overall, some aspects of your hack need slight revamping, but all in all it should be accepted.
"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"
Layout by Hinalyte.

Originally posted by Alcaro
No more Frodo Baggins shenanigans
Done with this hack, nice 15 minutes of gameplay!

I'd say the hack is decent in general. Level design was okay, nothing impressive but nothing I would point as bad since nothing looked tedious at my end, although I find some levels could be reworked. The enemy placement wasn't the best though, I've got unfairly hurt by a green koopa that fell from the sky while I was climbing a vine in the first level, and a very unfair situation at a hole where there was a ghost coin placed with a wooden spike and three boo blocks, I got stuck there and I had to wait the timer end to restart the level. You should get testers to take a look on your hack so that they could tell you about unfair parts like those. Also the sprite header at the boss battle of the last level is surely set wrong.

But at least this hack has had more positive points than negative ones, the "Tower Terror!" is one of my favorite levels and even if that was a bit hard I think it's one of the best things I saw in the hack. The rest of the gimmicks and ASM stuff were well handled in the hack in general, so I think you did a good job in the hack.

I'd accept the hack, though I'm begging you to submit an update with those issues fixed, they would make me want to reject your hack if there weren't good points on this hack.
So I am more on the negative side than other reviewers? Hmm, standing out doesn't seem exactly good to me but at least I am getting my point out. Also another wall of text which I was hoping to avoid...

This hack felt slightly unpolished overall though it seems better than your previous hacks.

While I felt that this has been an improvement, there are still areas that you can improve on however I will get into that later. As usual, I will begin with the level design. When I first played this hack, it seemed like those hacks that have gimmicky elements in them though at the same time it felt quite different from them. The level length overall was shorter than what is described in the description of this hack. There are some long levels in the hack however and that is quite nice I guess though they did have problems that dragged them down through the mud. None of the problems are as severe as what you have designed in the past. The levels in the beginning of the hack felt fine and it had some unique elements that include a bouncing mushroom (which is a simple sprite replacement) and bonus time blocks that add 15 seconds to the game's clock (they are found in the levels Slow and Easy and Grassy Time Run respectively). One of the most obvious elements and things in this hack is that there are different colored coins that can add an extra 5 coins to an extra 20 (if I remember correctly since I was not paying close attention to the coin counter). While I did feel that they added something to the levels, you would want to be careful when you use them as it becomes pretty redundant bonus and also it can lead to life-farming (Forest Tree Top Fun - please also take into note that blocks inserted through MAP16 can be exploited if there is a reset pipe near as I found in this level). Other levels had some pretty interesting concepts however and one of the most notable levels in this hack would be Ghastly Pyramid and overall I felt it was executed quite well though there are the problem of difficulty spikes. You must have consistent difficulty in a level as it will help improve the experience of it. Towards the end, I felt that some of the design started to get a bit lacking though I did have some enjoyment in them due to the gimmicks present. Closing the design on a final note, all I can say is that the gimmicks kept this hack alive but a lot of the levels could have been better executed.

Moving onto the aesthetics, I did notice some custom graphics were present in the hack such as a modified SMAS SMB1 background along with some fake HDMA in certain areas. While nothing looked horrendous or horrible, I could suggest some areas where you can improve. Firstly, this may seem to be quite minor but I would like some of the elements that have the gimmicks (blocks mainly) improved. For example, the exclamation (!) point/mark one top of the bouncing mushroom's head could be made slightly more visible. Another one would be using custom drawn graphics for the unique custom blocks as it will give off a better impression. In Slanted Pipe Road, the foreground graphics did not seem the best to me so even replacing them with the default graphics and modifying the palette for it would do the job. Speaking of palettes, you would want to edit the palettes of certain objects and also of sprites and the status bar so they better fit into the actual palette of the level rather than sticking out like a sore thumb. Try messing around with the palette editor until you get better notes. On a final note here, the replacement of coins with boos in Ghastly Pyramid was quite amusing to me though I would like a smoother palette along the edges of some boos that are coin replacements in that level.

Now that I am at the final section of this review involving miscellaneous things about the hack, I would like to begin with the glitches as they are an important deciding factor on whether to accept or reject the hack and especially so in this hack. One of the most notable glitches is on the overworld. After beating a certain level (I don't exactly remember but I believe it is Forest Tree Top Fun - replay the levels and see where the problem is), the path there messes up quite often and it throws me into a never-ending bonus game. Walking to the right of Grassy Time Run also sometimes throws me into a never-ending bonus game. Those are the two most severe glitches in this hack. Two other things I noticed were some glitches with the pipes in Slanted Pipe Road and some sprite memory problems (notable in the final boss fight with Big Boo). Please fix the issues I mentioned above. The overworld does not seem bad though I felt it could be improved in some areas. The yellow palette could be changed more towards a light-brownish or earth color as the levels seem to reflect that. The "Nintendo Presents" screen is quite amusing despite not being exactly professional. The title screen was a bit empty in my opinion and the movements were not the greatest. Finally, the intro screen was not bad though I was quite surprised the flying key did not kill me as it usually does that when I jump into that unused feature of the original SMW.

DONUT SECRET 1 deserves its own little standalone bit here. It was pretty uninspired to me apart from the coins that gave you a certain amount of actual coins (by increasing the coin counter). The most notable part here is that you included that "nice" meme from SMW Central which was quite amusing to see in a hack and the reason why I noted it here in this short paragraph.

I am going to go with rejection as there are severe problems in this hack such as the glitches present (especially the overworld glitch and none of the other reviewers that posted so far apart from Counterfeit noted it? That is quite game-breaking in my opinion). There are other stuff that I can point out but what I said here is the pressing issues along with the good aspects of the hack. I would have accepted the hack were it not for some of the more severe problems in this hack such as that glitch but I would love it if you submitted an update fixing and improving the hack (such as areas including difficulty spikes). Good luck on fixing the hack if you decide to!
Nice short and sweet. I'm although unsure about accepting or not.
I'll start the review from level design, which from my point of view looks decent. The overall was good but I felt like levels were too small and very quick to complete; if you add this with the fact that there are just 11 exits, I'm not sure if this is worth staying in the hack section with such a lenght. I also got disappointed in the final castle's level, in particular, by the very low amount of sprites: since it's the final level, I'd have put more sprites in it, but instead, the button gimmick looks the only thing that stands out in it. It's a very good gimmick, but no sprites makes the overall rather empty.
I really liked the aesthetics: the choconilla graphics were really nice, the palettes were smooth and gave a nice atmosphere in each level. The replace of coins in the pyramid level was quite a cute idea, although they may be confusing with the hurtful boos (it's dumb to get confused with boo coins and hurt boo actually, since palettes are really different each other... but still...).
Before stating my decision, I'd like to point some things that will also justify it, and it's about both boss battles present in this hack. The first one has a glitch which keeps ground tiles when the bridge gets destroyed. In short, ground tiles seemed to be solid even after the bridge destroying routine. I'd suggest to fix this, it feels unfair to die just because ground looks solid when actually it's not. About the second boss battle, it was pretty cool, I really liked the idea. Although there are only 3 throw blocks, and if you lose just one, you're forced to die. I'd put a reset door at least (also why not using Boss Battle theme instead of Castle's one?)
Said this and considering the overall, I'm thinking to reject the hack: there are only few things to fix. If you submit the new version with the fixed issues, I'll be happy to accept it.
Uff, this is kinda a tuff one... So, let's just go at this one point at a time.

First off would be the level design. As far as this goes, I think it's actually pretty good in appearance. The oveall image I get when looking at them is rather nice and seems to match with the colors and background. Seeing how things are like that, I was a little dissapointed with the castle levels, as they were rather plain compared to the others.
The last catle especially. Most of the switches only had one block of free space above them, making me duck jump all the time to get them (as I found out later, I could also hit them from below). The boss battle was kinda very easy too. The idea behind it was nice, but the execution was rather poorly.
There also was this one level where all the enemies went behind the decoration which is kinda unfair if you suddenly get hit by stuff you can't even see.

Judging the gameplay... well, the most of the levels felt rather short and/or easy. I think you can actually re-lable the hack to be easy instead of normal becuase it really doesn't pose much of a challange. Not that lives were ever an issue given the infinite life support :3


Now for the gimmiks. I see you had some custom stuff in there, well, probably only blocks and graphics but whatever. First off, let's talk about the coins. I don't really get the point of them. Like, maybe it was explained at some point, but as far as I can tell, those puplre coins that were in the levels didn't serve any puprose, did they? Other than making a different sound. You also had these other custom coins in switch palace. I think some other custom stuff would have been nice if you already have custom blocks in your hack.
Of course, there are also these nifty switch blocks. They are kinda neat, though I'm not sure how much I like them. for one, I think they would be much better if they had the ON/OFF switch sound effect + maybe some earthquake like the P-switch. Not sure how much others would like that though. I also noticed, that while you can't run through them from the side, you can pass them if you hit them from below (also activates them).
Lastly, the elevator level you had, while using layer 2 is a nifty way of doing this the vanilla way, you already have custom stuff in, so no nead to not use custom sprites at this point, no? This one is what I'm talking about.

Now for the bugs:
You have some graphical issues like placing summo bros above not flat land (causing the flames to go cutoff) and using lava in levels with the wrong lava-particle tileset.


The one level with all the slender pipes in it looked really nice too, but onforunatly, you could still get into some of the pipes when they were placed above pits for example.

Also, after beating the blue switch (which's name you apparently forgot to change) there appears this random level tile below the first level. I couldn't seem to get there, so I guess it wasn't on purpose.


Lastly, the Reznor battle. I don't really get why you build a custom battle when you just make it kinda the same as the vanilla one anyway, but that's not the problem. The real problem is, that when the bridge starts disappearing (the sound and smoke effect) the floor too loses it's effect and you can fall through it. However, the floor doesn't really disappear itself, so you just have this expanding pit without really being able to see it.



I'm gonna go with rejecting this as well for now.
The hack looked nice and all but the bugs and problems really do annoy me a little, if you fix them, I'd gladly accept the hack too ^^
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Originally posted by JackTheSpades
First off, let's talk about the coins. I don't really get the point of them. Like, maybe it was explained at some point, but as far as I can tell, those puplre coins that were in the levels didn't serve any puprose, did they? Other than making a different sound. You also had these other custom coins in switch palace.

If you had payed attention to your coin counter, you would have seen that the purple coins gave you 5 coins, the green coins gave you 10, and the red ones gave you 30.

I'll go ahead and do my best to fix these bugs and shove a new version in the hacks section.

Also, it's a pretty slow paced boss battle, so I don't see why I should use such a fast paced song.

also that is in fact what i used what else could it be
The version which was undergoing moderation has been removed as an update has been submitted. I will edit this post with my new thoughts and reopen the thread in a bit.

Ok. The biggest thing I noticed was the Reznor battle room being adjusted so that you get a destructible bridge rather than castle blocks you fall through. There were a few changes made to where enemies were used, but largely, it's the same hack. The bonus game problem persists, and I would personally vouch for a redesign of the overworld to fix that issue.

Please post a new review for the update of this hack.

Permanent link to update (v1.1)


+1 users:
Everest

Just look above you...
If it's something that can be stopped, then just try to stop it!
Not much to say about this update.

The level design remains for the most part unchanged though I did notice some sprite changes from time to time. I did notice a few minor changes regarding the difficulty in a few specific levels (mostly the ones in the beginning). The major elements in this game remain virtually unchanged (they are the graphics, title and intro levels, overworld, the design, and so on...). Not bad when speaking about the hack in general but the main problem is glitches. One major thing I noticed is that Reznor now has its regular boss room which seems a bit lazy from my point of view since there are ways of fixing the earlier problem but the current solution is fine as well.

There are still glitches present in this hack which disappoints me to say the least. The first and most significant one is the overworld glitch with the paths. I would either say redesign that area of the overworld or implement straight paths which may seem to make the overworld a bit uninspired regarding path usage but I would rather have working paths that seem a little overused than a broken path that lands you in a never-ending bonus game. There are some other glitches still present such as being able to jump into slanted pipes in the level Slanted Pipe Road and minor slowdown towards the end of the hack. The most significant issue is the overworld one however.

Because I find that glitch pretty game-breaking especially in a small hack like this one, I would go with rejection. Redesigning that part of the overworld is a must for this hack.
COMING UP: Fixes. Again. I really need to work on this lazyness that plagues me way too often.
Sorry to do this to you Everest, but there's a new update. I'd be happy with a sentence or two in your case unless you really want another point.

Permanent link to update (v1.2)

This fixes the overworld bug, which a few of us have declared a major issue. Please revote based on this version.


+1 users:
Everest
ShadowAlexandre
Wakana-chan
JackTheSpades

Just look above you...
If it's something that can be stopped, then just try to stop it!
Loop...

Not really anything particularly changed in this version but I did notice some of the glitches have been fixed. The most significant one is the overworld one and I did not really notice any problems with it this time (I hope at least). Glad to see you also fixed (more like worked-around) the problem with the slanted pipes in Slanted Pipe Road and that is pretty much it for this hack. I did notice some extremely minor changes in certain areas but they are not really noticeable as a whole so I will not comment on them.

I have mixed feelings about this hack but I would say it is just acceptable in this form. I would have liked more effort to be put into it with certain areas but I guess it is fine for now. If you design any future hacks, please take everything into consideration as it can help you improve your design and inspiration for the future.

Also Cou it is version 1.2 and not 1.3
Ok, I've played the newest version, and that's what I have to say:

I have no problems with simple hacks. I really enjoy them. But I have mixed feelings about this one. The hack itself is very short, and various levels have almost no challenge at all. In fact, some of them are way too easy and short.

To be honest, I don't think I had fun playing it. There's nothing spectacular about it. To be fair, the Pyramid level and the last castle had some interesting ideas, but the rest of the hack failed to impress me.

Since I haven't found any problems playing it, I would Accept this hack. You still have to improve your level design and ideas though. Keep it up.
Played the new version, and...well, there are not many changes from the previous version, although good thing that the major ones have been fixed. I noticed you fixed the Reznor battle, you added a throw block in the Boo battle (I would've put a reset door, but that may work too, probably...), and fixed the OW issue (which I forgot to mention in my previous review).
There would be still a lot to fix: levels are still a bit short, some parts are annoying to pass and some palettes are still wrong. I would've appreciated if you fixed these too, but I guess this hack is decent enough to be accepted so far: not a masterpiece, but still a decent work.
So, I didn't find all too many changes here but it does seem like you fixed the bugs and glitches so it's alright anyway ^^.
The level where enemies go behind the szenary is still kinda unfair to me but what can you do ^^. I won't force you to submit an update just to suit my taste int things.

I already pointed out all the positive things in my last review, so I don't think I need to repeat those all here again.
There is just one thing that I couldn't help but wonder about... What the hell happened to this thwimp?




The thwimp kinda annoyes me but since it seems nobody else encountered it so I'll just ignore it for now.
With all that, while this may not be the greatest hack out there, I see no further reason to reject this, thus I accept this hack as well.
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