Marisa and Reimu's Hack Beta by RussianMan
Tested on Snes9x 1.60
Pretty standard Nintendo Presents (unedited) + Title Screen.
Not sure if I'm the only one to think this, but their faces are kind of weird when looking up.
The cutscene system is REALLY cool, I love how the faces slide in and change expressions from each text box.
It's a bit odd how the background and overall terrain are quite basic, compered to the higher quality face portraits. (this applies to all cutscenes)
One small change that'd be neat to see is moving the text one or two pixels down, just so they don't overlap with the ground tiles.
A "the" between "change" and "hack's" is missing.
And here we go onto the overworld, off the bat I'm not a huge fan.
The jagged tilling used everywhere is rather unpleasant to look at, and creates cutoffs on the ladder, both at the top and bottom.
Also, there's a few perspective issues you have to keep in mind, mainly these two.
I'll point out more stuff about the overworld as I go along, mostly because the lack of the map scrolling.
Tutorial Level:
As said in the cutscene, the level is rather basic.
The control changing works as intended and the explanations were easy to understand.
Great tutorial level.
First Level:
Decently challenging first level, it took a bit to get used to the switching and combining but ultimately wasn't that difficult.
At certain parts there's a lot of Thwomps (and Thwimps) hitting the ground and causing earthquakes that gets really annoying after a while.
The stage clear is phenomenal, I like how the "Stage Clear" waves up and down. Really cool.
Beach Episode Level:
This level is somewhat easier than the first one, though I do have complaints about it.
It wasn't really as fun as the first level, mainly because of the urchins.
Most of the time, you'd get a bad pattern and have to backtrack (or die) for a better one, which I don't really find appealing.
The first urchin obstacle after the midway is the worst offender, because every time I tried it I got a bad pattern, and since it was a bit difficult to backtrack there, I took a hit and went on.
Otherwise, the water gimmick was pretty cool, took a tiny bit to figure out that you can jump out of the water and switch without having to land on the ground.
One more thing that caught me a bit off guard is how you have to hold up and jump to get out of the water, it's tiny, but gets really annoying at times.
Advancing the map more, there's more perspective issues and some rather questionable choices.
One thing I didn't touch on is the beach palette, sure, it looks nice but it's a bit too bright and doesn't show the edge shadows well.
The fact you used the ledge tiles also doesn't help, and makes the beach look like it's floating, rather than y'know, actually being a beach, lol.
You also have more ladder cutoff shenanigans, again, due to the odd tilling.
As for the perspective issues, these two at the edge of the screen. (the bridge not having a shadow also doesn't help)
Bad Weather Level:
Another missing two "the"s, between "in" and "previous", as well as in "in" and "water". (though I suggest changing that text box altogether)
The "a" here is unneeded.
Probably the hardest level I've played so far, the wind is just so annoying and sends you flying if you make a single mistake.
The only real way to get past the second section is in one semi-perfect run, and you have to be careful everywhere.
It's a bit reaction heavy (and I'm not the greatest at those) but it didn't take an extreme amount of time to beat.
Overall, pretty okay, though it is a big difficulty spike.
Ghost House Level:
"Sarcasm" spelled wrong.
This has to be my favorite level from the whole hack.
Automatic switching is, to me at least, way more fun that switching manually and makes for really intense gameplay.
The ending of the first section got me on my toes, it was definitely a great ending to such section, having to time it perfectly.
I adore the second section, with the switching and boo streams it made for a very fun experience.
The dry land in between the water is neat, though that section is a bit tighter than it should be, in my opinion.
Lava Level:
This level is really cool considering it's all about intensity and reaction time with switching and all, but there is a HUGE flaw in it.
As far as I am aware, you cannot beat this level.
After trying for about two hours to get past the very last section (even trying with slow down), I opened lunar magic to see what's going on.
In this picture, the very right X symbol which (I assume) is supposed to be a water bottle, due to the fires, despawns, making it literally impossible to beat this.
Anyway, I moved the starting position to the door, because there's still more hack to test.
Before we go to the last level, there's one more thing to mention, and it's this perspective issue.
With that out of the way, let's go.
Last Level:
I don't know if my lunar magic tinkering had anything to do with this, but the icon here is slightly glitched.
Same with this big boo(?).
The small blue pipes do... nothing, as well as the small green pipes, past the first one.
I think they're supposed to shoot small bombs or something, but something might've happened for them to be like this.
This jump to the midway point is
EXTREMELY precise, and for no real reason. The coin outlines don't help much either.
Fireballs have weird graphics, and this pipe shoots bombs. (still weird how the other ones don't)
This setup is also tricky, since you can't wall jump off of the same wall, making you do a really awkward jump to the right and back down the pit.
Random koopa here, for some reason...?
Honestly, I'm kind of blown away by how broken this level is.
Again, I have no idea if my lunar magic tinkering broke it or something, but it definitely isn't a good level to end off a hack (to put it bluntly).
Especially since the section past the midway is stupidly long, and I couldn't imagine how much harder it would've been with stuff working properly.
Ending Level:
And with that, the credits roll, which look awesome btw.
Though one small thing would be to make it slightly slower so you can actually read everything.
Should have an "a" (or "the") between "about" and "sequel".
But we ain't done yet, there's one more level.
Extra Level:
Pretty hectic level, it's basically a speedy version of every level.
I found this level really fun actually, aside from the broken ending section.
Although, it is surprising that one small blue pipe works, as well as one horizontal green pipe.
That's it!
I have to say, this hack has some really nice ideas but falls short at the end with rather unpolished level design and buggy enemies/obstacles.
It's really cool how the abilities work, as well as the switching, and most of the levels use it well.
Overall, the hack has huge potential, but still needs some serious polishing.
Awesome job, RussianMan!
btw, sorry for the rather long post, didn't really feel like sectioning this one off into chunks. =P