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High quality Hacks

Hey folks,

As someone who's been following SMW hacking for ages, but kinda fell out of it during the last 3 years, I decided to come here and ask: What are currently considered the highest quality SMW hacks?

I generally like hacks that really feel like entirely new, official feeling games. Though I also enjoy it if they have new ideas, use custom assets, or if they twist around vanilla assets to really make things varied and interesting (I recall VLDC8).

One hack I noticed after some looking around was 'New Super Mario World 2: Around The World.' This is one of those hacks that really seems worth a try. I also like it if the hacks aren't much more (or any more) difficult than original SMW.

Lastly, a question: How is the VLDC9 collab? Is it considered even better than VLDC8?
Hey Thirteen, this is Bantyo. Being true to who you are makes all your dreams possible.

I'd say out of hacks I'd consider high quality, VIP3-5 are extremely tough but rewarding to play, VIP6 is of slightly lower quality but not too bad unless you go for postgame and VIP coins. Don't feel bad about using savestates, translations + fixes are available on talkhaus.

ASPE Mario is getting translated + fixed as well, though content warning, it contains rape jokes in one of its levels.

Super Mario World YEAH!! is also pretty good and has some interesting concepts. A translation (no fix) is available which I've just linked, but I don't know about it's accuracy considering vgperson's original text file had a lot more space due to being, a text file.

Romancing Mario is an interesting, somewhat easier, non-linear hack. I personally had a lot of fun with it and a translation + fix can be found on talkhaus as well, same thread as the VIPs.

As for western hacks, I'm not as familiarized with em, but JUMP and JUMP 1/2 are high quality collabs. JUMP1/2 has a slightly fairer difficulty curve, but is still challenging. For a less extreme experience (I've been recommending a lot of expert hacks, I'm sorry), you could also give The Second Reality Project 1 and 2 Reloaded a shot.

YUMP and YUMP 2 are also very unique. YUMP is basically a parody hack consisting of youtube levels mixed with creative if very dadaist levels that exploit the engine pretty well. YUMP 2 on the other hand is basically an anything goes hack that was made to cater to nobody but the level designers and as such can be quite extreme but incredibly creative. If the Kaizo label turns you off that's valid though.

/v/orld is also a neat hack by 4chan of all people. It has crude humor (one of the world 1 stages has I♥ロリ written in it for instance), but it's mostly not that very edgy apart from that and an instance of Pepe enemies in one level.

Something and Something Else are also really neat shorter hacks by yogui, featuring interesting gimmicks and high quality graphics. His test.smc hack should be pretty good too.

Sicari and K-16: Story of Steel I've also heard really good things about. Both original character hacks by Eevee, they're quite chocolate.

Super Isikoro Mario World seems to start rather simply but then adds some ASM wildness near the end according to Heraga so feel free to check it out whenever. It's currently in waiting so a mirror is here, just in case (you'll need an emulator that runs inaccurate hacks though).
HackPortsASM"Uploader"

Hi Leo!

I'm familiar with the VIP series (as you might already know). I played the entirety of VIP 4 and a huge part of 5 with heavy savestate abuse, years ago. The same goes for SMW YEAH!! In the end though, I heard that VIP, while creative and unique, isn't exactly high quality. SMW YEAH!! I personally consider to be so.

I am thinking of giving Jump or Jump 1/2 a try, but two things hold me back: Firstly, the difficulty and secondly, it all feels a bit incoherent in terms of world design. I really like context in games. When I enter a level located in a certain world, I like it showing what that world is like, rather than just being random ideas (that may work very well in and of themselves). A platformer I can think of that does this really well is Donkey Kong Country.

I might be wrong about Jump though.
Originally posted by Thirteen 1355
In the end though, I heard that VIP, while creative and unique, isn't exactly high quality.

You heard?

Since you played it you could just make your own opinion, but if you feel it's not high quality, there's really nothing I can do.
HackPortsASM"Uploader"

Yoshi's Strange Quest by yoshifanatic is incredible. The humor is somewhat niche, and there is a lot of text, but those "problems" never really bothered me. The game has so much ASM and charm. It is quite enjoyable (if you like yoshifanatic's level design style) and every level is unique. The music is great as well. Some are deterred by the game's difficulty, which is quite high. However, there is a way around that (kind-of). For a more casual experience, you can play Yoshi's Strange Quest Mellow Mode. Mellow Mode was made by me (sorry for advertising) with occasional help from yoshifanatic, who has approved it. You can find the original and newest version (which may be very slightly updated in the future) in my filebin.

As for VLDC9, I always liked the other two VLDC games more.
Nice! I should check out Yoshi's Strange Quest. Sounds a lot more like a full-on adventure rather than levels with fun but random wacky ideas along the lines of JUMP.
The Lost Adventure series by isax is a very interesting hack with many variety being a crossover of characters and many other things.


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