Hello!
It's been a long time since I've been able to even look at Lunar Magic ever since my life has gotten so busy. The friend I had working on this with me lives in another state nowadays. Adult life is real, so I am officially cancelling this long forgotten project. Yeah, I'm one of those hackers now. haha In case anyone is interested, I am going to put up the latest build for download, and explain what my idea was in concept and story! The hack is open and anyone may use the resources. If anybody were to continue it, I'd gleefully let them do so.
Download the Final Build Here
Be sure to check every level! There's some fun design and themes, as well as some weird experiments. The rom also works on a real SNES, which I play every so often. Please play it, use the resources, and let me know what you think. I'm still curious after all this time, and I'd love to hear what you guys think of my old project.
The games core concept and inspiration is mentioned in the original post, so I'll just explain my idea for the story. Or, at least what I remember of it.
Story
At the beginning you were to replay the ghost ship level from Super Mario World (with updated graphics). Once you reach the Goal Point Sphere, rather than ending the level, there would be visions of the new villain in this hack, an Obsidian Castle, and Mario would awake in his bed from the nightmare.
Mario has been having the same nightmare for weeks now, and you find out Mario still has the sphere from that ghost ship. He wishes to find the Obsidian Castle with the Orb to get more answers.
Mario finds the Obsidian Castle. There he learns that there are more of these orbs, and they can be found on other crashed Doomships not far from Dinosaur Land. Turns out Bowser and the Koopalings were collecting the orbs, and the boos crashed these ships to protect the orbs. Bowser was going to use them to bring back the "King of Ghosts" (I forgot the name I gave him). Mario must find and return these orbs to the Obsidian Castle to be sealed away.
The "King of Ghosts" Concept
Each crashed Doomship was to be sort of the "castles" of the hack. One encased in ice maybe, another suspended in the air in pieces by Boo magic or something. There would be a fight with this "King of Ghosts" in the undeworld once all of the Orbs were collected. I forget why, but it my head it sounded cool. I suppose this is all I can recollect!
Please enjoy! I apologize to anyone who looked forward to playing a finished product.
Original Post
________________________________
Some of you may remember this hack I posted back in 2012. Well... I decided to pick it up again. It's a hack intended to combine SMW with SMB3. The goal is to take the best parts from both games, and create a new unique one with it's own story without any awkward clashing of graphics or gameplay.
I want to focus on great atmosphere, and fun level design/mechanics. Levels shouldn't be linear, and should relate to other levels in that world. I want everything to have purpose. Big coins collected will be counted between levels and worlds for worthwhile secrets, and certain areas will become easier or accessible with certain powerups and items. The item reserve will only collect items from SMB3 treasure boxes, and not from extras you pick up in the level. This will ensure that if you need a springboard in a level or something, you won't accidentally replace it with a redundant mushroom.
I don't have the story down 100% yet, but, I want it to be as Majora's Mask is to Ocarina of Time. Familiar, but unsettling and a tad dark. For now I'll just say, the Goal Point Sphere and Sunken Ghost Ship from SMW are big plot points.
I'll get more on that later. Here are some screenshots to whet your appetite. Comments and constructive criticism are appreciated and very much encouraged!
Projects:
- Game Night - Mario Party 3 Game Board
- 3+World (Cancelled - Download Available)
- Super Mario World Beta (2009)
It's been a long time since I've been able to even look at Lunar Magic ever since my life has gotten so busy. The friend I had working on this with me lives in another state nowadays. Adult life is real, so I am officially cancelling this long forgotten project. Yeah, I'm one of those hackers now. haha In case anyone is interested, I am going to put up the latest build for download, and explain what my idea was in concept and story! The hack is open and anyone may use the resources. If anybody were to continue it, I'd gleefully let them do so.
Download the Final Build Here
Be sure to check every level! There's some fun design and themes, as well as some weird experiments. The rom also works on a real SNES, which I play every so often. Please play it, use the resources, and let me know what you think. I'm still curious after all this time, and I'd love to hear what you guys think of my old project.
The games core concept and inspiration is mentioned in the original post, so I'll just explain my idea for the story. Or, at least what I remember of it.
Story
At the beginning you were to replay the ghost ship level from Super Mario World (with updated graphics). Once you reach the Goal Point Sphere, rather than ending the level, there would be visions of the new villain in this hack, an Obsidian Castle, and Mario would awake in his bed from the nightmare.
Mario has been having the same nightmare for weeks now, and you find out Mario still has the sphere from that ghost ship. He wishes to find the Obsidian Castle with the Orb to get more answers.
Mario finds the Obsidian Castle. There he learns that there are more of these orbs, and they can be found on other crashed Doomships not far from Dinosaur Land. Turns out Bowser and the Koopalings were collecting the orbs, and the boos crashed these ships to protect the orbs. Bowser was going to use them to bring back the "King of Ghosts" (I forgot the name I gave him). Mario must find and return these orbs to the Obsidian Castle to be sealed away.
The "King of Ghosts" Concept
Each crashed Doomship was to be sort of the "castles" of the hack. One encased in ice maybe, another suspended in the air in pieces by Boo magic or something. There would be a fight with this "King of Ghosts" in the undeworld once all of the Orbs were collected. I forget why, but it my head it sounded cool. I suppose this is all I can recollect!
Please enjoy! I apologize to anyone who looked forward to playing a finished product.
Original Post
________________________________
Some of you may remember this hack I posted back in 2012. Well... I decided to pick it up again. It's a hack intended to combine SMW with SMB3. The goal is to take the best parts from both games, and create a new unique one with it's own story without any awkward clashing of graphics or gameplay.
I want to focus on great atmosphere, and fun level design/mechanics. Levels shouldn't be linear, and should relate to other levels in that world. I want everything to have purpose. Big coins collected will be counted between levels and worlds for worthwhile secrets, and certain areas will become easier or accessible with certain powerups and items. The item reserve will only collect items from SMB3 treasure boxes, and not from extras you pick up in the level. This will ensure that if you need a springboard in a level or something, you won't accidentally replace it with a redundant mushroom.
I don't have the story down 100% yet, but, I want it to be as Majora's Mask is to Ocarina of Time. Familiar, but unsettling and a tad dark. For now I'll just say, the Goal Point Sphere and Sunken Ghost Ship from SMW are big plot points.
I'll get more on that later. Here are some screenshots to whet your appetite. Comments and constructive criticism are appreciated and very much encouraged!
Projects:
- Game Night - Mario Party 3 Game Board
- 3+World (Cancelled - Download Available)
- Super Mario World Beta (2009)