Mario has had enough of going to rescue the Princess EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. So much, that he's decided to get back to his old job: being an actual plumber. His brother Luigi can't really blame him, and Princess Peach has finally hired security guards. Everything is so calm around the Mushroom Kingdom now, you could swear it has always been like this.
But as you guessed, that's the calm before the storm.
One day, while Mario is repairing an old pipe by actively kicking the butt of the Koopas that are clogging it, he hears a loud mechanical whirring, and an earthquake takes place. Intrigued, Mario gets out of his pipe to discover... nothing. Like, actual nothing. The Princess's castle ? Gone. Yoshi's House ? Gone. All that's left of the prosperous Mushroom Kingdom is a large crater. Where could it have gone ?
The answer lies in the sky: an armada of giant helicopters is transporting what was the whole Castle area, which now looks like a floating island. On the helicopters, Mario spots a strange red invincibility star symbol, before they're all gone in the distance, his home land between their claws.
Not discouraged for one bit, our hero gets back to his house (whose half was destroyed in the process), tells his brother to come along with him, and rushes to the local airport.
He proceeds to find here Toads specialized in foreign countries, that tell him the red crest is the official emblem of the infamous Artijoke Republic, whose status of "republic" is only affirmed through its name. They're the kinds of neighbor countries you wouldn't have planes fly over unless you want them shot down for some reason.
After reuniting the few coins he had left, Mario pays himself and his brother a trip to the dangerous country, in quest for answers to many puzzling questions.
- A complex, exciting and 100% lore-friendly story !
- 110+ levels, scattered in 10+ worlds !
- 13+ brand new bosses for you to ragequit on !
- Powered by SA-1 !
- Enhanced with MSU-1, allowing CD-quality music and video custscenes* !
- Accompanied with an artbook once hack itself is finished !
- This hack should be heavily story-based, with custscenes and many character interactions.
- Aesthetics-wise, the whole thing should be very vanilla-looking, with various exceptions.
- This hack will use two enhancement chips: SA-1, for efficiency purposes, and MSU-1, for adding to the finished product CD-quality music and (maybe) video custscenes. Do note that while SA-1 isn't yet, MSU-1 is compatible with real hardware. Yes, you read that right.
- The difficulty is aimed to be like JUMP's: normal in the beginning, more and more challenging as the story unfolds, and really hard when it comes to post-game content.
- Many patches and modifications will be applied to the game to serve story and gameplay. This includes, among others, RPG Hacker's VWF dialogues
Here's the first showcase!
This world is the first one where the player actually begins his adventure, as there is supposed to be a World 0 (The Mushroom Kingdom), whose only levels are a tutorial one, Mario's house and the airport that acts as a teleporting point between the two worlds.
The levels here are somewhat of a mix between standard plains and forest areas. They're meant to feature the easiest-to-beat original enemies, and show that the Artijoke Republic means business when it comes to not letting pass intruders. Both OW and level decoration reflect that, with objects such as barbed wires (to replace munchers) or watchtowers.
This world also contains the first "switch palace" (they're based on different types of power stations, and this one's an electrical one).
The "castle" here is the actual border, where Mario will have to face many soldiers and confront the first boss that is Commander Guy (artwork coming soon), a Shy Guy hired by the main villain to handle all of the border military.
NEXT TIME: Map 3 - Park N' Theme Park !