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[REMOVED] "Super Mario World 1.5 - Return to Yoshi's New Island" by CrestedPeak9

Disclaimer: I tend to over exaggerate/nitpick quite a bit within my notes, so take the criticism of mine with a grain of salt. Anything that I written that seems to be within the realm of dickbagery is not meant to be an insult, and that I wish no harm to anyone. However if you plan to take anything that I say as a insult, then let it all be clear that you are only hurting yourself.



Hack Page
Permanent Link

Name: Super Mario World 1.5 - Return to Yoshi's New Island
Author: CrestedPeak9
Length: 5 exit(s)
Difficulty: Normal
Demo: Yes
Description: A somewhat semi-original hack for Super Mario World. No custom sprites were used as I intend for this to be as close to the original SMW as possible, but with a fresh twist.
Tags: bugs, demo, incomplete, need help

Review:

Before we dive into the hack at hand I need to ask you one simple question, and that is why exactly are you asking for help on your hack's page? Now there's nothing wrong with asking for help if you come across any roadblocks preventing you from creating your game, but it's much more ideal to ask in the General SMW Hacking Help forums instead. The reason for this is because when submitting your creation onto the database, it's pretty much a guarantee that everything is up to snuff in a functionality standpoint. By asking for help on the hack's page, it will push away any curious player from giving your game a try. Cause not everyone would want to play a Rom hack that is broken.

With that out of the way, I'm going to be totally honest with you; this hack wasn't really all that good. For starters, the majority of the levels are flat. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, I mean the original Super Mario Bros was pretty flat when it comes to it's design but yet it's really fun to play. However there is one major mistake that people usually do when making such flat levels, and that they lack any sort of unique set piece/set pieces to make said level a fun romp to play through. For example, one can simply look at “Yoshi Island 1” in Super Mario World to see all of the many unique set pieces that it has in store such as giant bullet bills and slanted pipes. Also, when making flat levels don't be afraid with adding a bit of variation with the height of the level. Adding a couple of hills here and there can make quite a difference.

Overall, the hack give me the impression that this was your first time creating anything Super Mario World related. If that's the case, then it's quite nice seeing that there are still people out there more then willing to give SMW hacking a try. However, it's usually is ideal to get the basics down of lunar magic first before submitting anything onto the database. Cause once one gets the basics down, then they will have a much more easier time creating levels that many can enjoy. But with this hack in particular, it's best to scrap the whole thing all together and start all over from step one. Even though I did wrote quite a bit that you can fix within my notes, but even by doing so I really don't see people willing to play this.

RECOMMEND DIFFICULTY: NORMAL
VERDICT: REMOVED



Notes:

General

* Way exactly are you requesting for help in the tags?
 - That is like one of the worst things you can do when submitting your hack onto the database.
* There is quite a bit of cutoff litter throughout the hack.
* Lacks bulid-up so that the player can overcome more challenging obstacles.
 - When creating levels, it's best to stick with a specific set of sprites.
 - "Yoshi's Island 6" is a excellent example of what NOT to do.
* Levels are pretty flat in general.
* Demos must have a proper ending to it.
 - Letting the player keep on playing isn't the best idea.
*Timer is way too low for most of the levels.

Title Screen

*When the level begins, the screen scrolls upward in order to catch up to the player.
 - Which gives off a extremely amateurish feel to it.
*The Player is behind the title screen text half of the time.
*It dragged on way too long.
 - It's usually ideal sync the duration of the title screen with the the music.
 - If the music has to loop multiple times for the title screen to be completed...
 - Then you're clearly doing something wrong.
*Why exactly is Mario going all over the place?
 - It's usually not a good idea to include backtracking within the title screen.
 - Considering that it could turn some people off from playing your creation.

Overworld

* There's a bit of cutoff where the ladders are.
* The overall perspective is kind of weird.
 - For starters, on the left side you can see that the main base of the Overworld is clearly one tile above the water.
 - But on the right side the main base is multiple tiles above the water instead.
 - It's usually ideal that when making overworlds with layers is that you keep the vertical distance from one layer to another the same.
*The location of the World sign and the two hillsides seems a bit strange next to the higher overworld layer.
* Some events tend to mess up at times.
* Lastly when making curves, it's best to make the bottom and higher layer symmetrical with one another.

--World 1--

Yoshi's Island 5

* Cutoff where the key hole is located.
 - There's a lot more then that throughout the level.
* Timer is way too low.
* The Goombas near the end of the level provide no threat to the player whatsoever.
 - They just fall down the pits like it's no big deal.
 - When it comes to enemy placement, you need to make sure that they have enough screen time in order to harm the player.

Yoshi Secret

* Really dislike the placement of the Goombas chain in the beginning of the stage.
 - The player has little space to work with when picking the shell up.
 - If said player did pick the shell up once they knock the Koopa out, then they run the risk of losing said shell cause of being way too close to the Goombas.
* Bullet bills that shoot out of nowhere with no sound is far from fair.
 - Use this Patch if you want to keep the bullets.
 - Have any trouble with it just ask for help here.
* Timer is on the low side.

Yellow Switch Palace

* Why is the switch green in the overworld?
* Also, it would be best that you changed the actual level itself then just leaving it unmodified.

Yoshi's Island 6

* When using layer 3 water, make sure that the vertical scroll flag in lunar magic is turned off.
* Lack of consistency when it comes to sprite placement.

Yoshi's Island 7

* There's quite a bit of leap of faiths here and there.
 - In which the player is unable to see what is ahead of them.
 - So they take a chance and try to land on something safe.
 - This is a big no-no when designing levels.
* This level is OK, but not the greatest thing either.
* The goal tape at the end rises too high.

#1 Iggy's Castle

* Net doors do not work properly.
 - Make sure you had inserted a net door’s sprite over-top of the net door.
* Where the P-swtich is, there is only one tile between the question block and ceiling.
 - Which is bad because the player can easily die from squeezing through if they are big.
* Also, it's usually best to not make p-switches a requirement to pass a level.
 - If you do want it to be a requirement though, make sure of two things.
 - First, the p-switch is not easy to be lost.
 - Second, the obstacle that the player has to overcome with said p-switch is within player's view where the p-switch block/p-switch was originally located.
 - Forcing the player to hike multiple screens in order to get to say obstacles while the switch is pressed is a big no-no most of the time.
* The climbing Koopas at the beginning of the stage are completely useless
 - The Player can just run under all of them.
* 2x2 nets are a just a pain to grab, should be a 2x3 at the very least.


Users Who Have Earned A Point In This Thread
notgoodwithusernames
Everest
Wakana
JackTheSpades

Thanks for the review, I'm working on the level redesigns right now. I am currently trying to fix the event cutoff, but to do that I need to draw an event tile, which I don't know how to. And yes, this is my first hack.

I should have mentioned this in the description, but the timer is meant to be low on these levels. Of course, this could be a very bad idea as rushing the player isn't good, so I'll see what to do.

The Title Screen was recorded in a hurry, so I didn't really bother about the aesthetics. Since I will redo the whole hack, I will redo it.

Overworld: Expanded too much, there is a waterfall to show that the water levels are different. Will fix.

Cutoff at Keyhole: I was trying to make something of a ledge on a hill. Going to see what I can do.

Green Switch: Lunar Magic messed up something.

Thanks for the advice, nonetheless, and I'll rework the hack.
First time hack is it?

That is what this hack seems to be. I could tell from a range of indications such as the levels, design and the overworld. You should avoid submitting first time hacks as they will probably not be accepted into the hack database (and that is usually due to flaws that are almost always present in such hacks). Instead, I would advise you to practice and play around with Lunar Magic, play other hacks and post in the appropriate thread for showing off what you have so you can receive criticism. With all of that said, I can now begin on the level design. The level design in this hack is not really interesting to me and as I said, this is usually a feature of first time hacks. Do not be discouraged though, I can give you advice to improve it. First of all, I would highly suggest avoiding creating flat areas. They tend to be pretty boring to the player and as such, people will lose interest quickly. Vary the structure of your levels and the player will find the hack more interesting. The same concept applies to all of the other areas that are complicit in designing the level. Sprites are one example of that. One way of getting ideas is to play hacks accepted into the hack database here on SMW Central. On a final note, please change the background and palettes of the default levels or else it will give a vibe that it is a level edit. Good luck!

Seeing as the hack is vanilla, there isn't much else to talk about except the level design. I will say however that you should avoid creating cutoff. Cutoff looks quite bad in cases where it is large and more severely, it can (in some cases) cause glitches. Avoid it. Using the MAP16 editor can help in regards to preventing cutoff. Moving onto other stuff, I have to say that you should not use vertical scroll in levels with layer 3 water (Yoshi's Island 6 is an example of this). A minor tip of miscellaneous advice I will add here is that you should use objects in a way that consists with the difficulty of the world or else you will have difficulty spikes that should be avoided. You have other glitches present in this hack such as #1 Iggy's Castle where net doors do not work (I cannot pass behind therefore). I would suggest getting testers before you submit a hack again as that will save you from a lot of pain of fixing everything yourself.

Difficulty: I found this hack to be Easy though there are some questionable parts that will not fit into that difficulty setting.

I will go with rejection however taking the above advice will help you whenever you are making a hack. Good luck on whatever you decide to do!
Hmm...for a first hack I must say that it's a nice start. Although there are lots of bad aspects...

Starting with the level design, your hack is the definition of flatness: all the levels were boring to do, with no particular and interesting designs. You should make a level actually fun to go trough, like, put obstacles, enemies and so on, rather than leaving a plain grass with few sprites that even have wrong placements. Maybe a subjective matter here, but I felt like you based your levels on the already existing SMW ones; if you did, please consider doing your levels from scratch.

As Mt. Everest said, since your hack is vanilla (both GFX and palettes) I don't think I'll be analyzing it, although sometimes you used tiles in a bad way, making ugly cutoff (for example in the first level in the keyhole zone). Besides the cutoff, nothing more to say...um, maybe try to decorate your levels more, with bushes and stuff. I'd also attempt a custom paletting, but it's not much a matter.

As glitches I haven't found any (except the already mentioned cutoff in a few levels).

The difficulty level is super mega hyper wonder easy, mostly due to the flatness.

In the end, I'm sad to say it but it's a rejection from me: I think the biggest error is the fact that you based yourself on the original SMW levels, which is not good. If I'm wrong, then I highly suggest you to play a few good hacks, so you can have more ideas for your levels in terms of design. Still, a nice first attempt for a hack, keep going~
This looks like a first time hack ^^

So yeah, this one sufferes from the common mistakes of a fist time hack.
The very first problem would be the blatand edited levels. When making new levels, you should first get rid the original SMW levels using Ctrl + Del and build your own levels from scratch. It's not good if people can still tell which SMW level that used to be.

You've tried to add some variety to the levels but most of them still look kinda flat. That is, they aren't "flat" persay, since you've add hills and some up and downs, but flat in the sense that I can just run through them without giving a care.

Another thing would be simple glitches that I blame you having no experience for. Like, not using layer 3 tide when the level has vertical scroll enabled, for the tide will scroll along with the screen. Or that you need an additional sprite for the climbing net door to work properly.

Lastly, you got some cutoff on those flying land masses in the ground. Like in the first level, where the keyhole is at. Thos should in general be avoided.



Verdict: Yeah, this hack has to be rejected, for it doesn't quite qualify. Don't let this discourage you though. If you keep on working, you'll find out how things work and how to make great hacks in time.
Anime statistic on MyAnimeList:
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... what even am I doing with my life?
This hack and small but has many errors. As the map shows 'yoshi island 5' in the first phase. Thing that I do not acccept.
In the Yoshi secret, leads to yellow palace but excess goombas in various parts of the level. And the yellow palace has not been edited.
In yoshi island has 5 floor without the 'tile 42 and 43'. In 6 yoshi island, has much the same appearance of the 'yoshi island 4' and that the difference in the 'layer 1 vertical scrolling' in this vertical scroll.In water levels need to put in 'vertical scroll not'.

I reject this hack for lack of creativity on the map, in design and excess sprites in some parts.
My Ports
@CrestedPeak9: Thanks for the reply, but nevertheless regarding some of your concerns (I'm going to use bullet points for this so bare with me):

* You don't have to draw a new tile for the path event if you wish not to.
 - In fact, you be much better if you just created a whole new path altogether.
 - However, if you do want to draw a new tile...
 - ...use this program.

* There's really is no need to rush your creations.
 - That's not to say one should take five months to create a single level.
 - But if you feel that you rush any aspect regarding your hack.
 - Don't be afraid to take a second glance.

* Lastly, with the regard of low timers.
 - There's really nothing wrong with rushing the players to an extended.
 - But levels with low timers should be on short side.
 - And be based on the idea of speed.
 - With that in mind, I'm not usually one to provide examples from my own work (because I feel it makes me into some sort of attention whore), but perhaps you can give this level of mine a try.
 - With that, take into consideration on how I design my level around the aspect of speed.

Have any questions or concern, you're more then willing to post in this thread or just drop me a PM.

@Daniel 115: Appreciate the effort, but I have a hard time giving you a point for the review of yours because it's really nothing more then a bunch of bullets cramped together to create a paragraph. That's not to say there's nothing wrong with using bullets to express yourself, but you also must create a review with it as well, as in one that is written out in complete sentences. Take a look at all of the other reviews that had received a point to get a good idea on how to properly write a review. If you need any sort of assistance when writing reviews or just have a concern that needs addressing, you're more then willing to drop me a PM.

@Everyone else: Thank you for taking the time at giving this hack a try, I really appreciate it.

And with all of that aside, the hack had been rejected from the database.