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Mario's Expedition - A metroidvania hack

Standard: Hard

Hi,
I'm almost done with my hack and I would need some playtest and feedback before releasing it.

Description:
In this metroidvania style hack. Peach has been kidnapped once again, but this time, not by Bowser. To be strong enough to rescue her, you'll need to explore the world to find some powerful power-ups, use those new skills to travel through dangerous paths and find hidden areas to reveal secret passwords.

There's also a super secret bonus level for those who wish to test their skills in a really tough challenge.

Length:
All the levels are connected so there's 0 exit, but there's the equivalent of approximately 20 levels.

Difficulty:
Standard - Hard to Very Hard (The bonus level might be considered as a Light Kaizo)






CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD


UPDATED VERSION 0.95 HERE


FINAL VERSION 1.3 HERE
I'm pretty much ready to release my hack. If someone is playing it right now with the intention of providing feedback, please let me know so I'll wait until you're finish. Otherwise, I will probably submit it around next weekend.
I'm about to start my playthrough. As a fan of metroidvanias, this concept seems interesting.
I've finished the hack now and I liked it. There were a few moments that I did find annoying, but that's what feedback's for.
Sorry for nitpicking, btw.


Let's begin with the graphics:


The upside down slope uses the wrong tiles.



There's a missing outline. I'd suggest simply making the leafs to the left slight larger at the bottom, so that the two half-circles are at the same height.



The transparent part of the corner clips through the leafs. It should be possible to fix this by using YY-CHR to create a suitable replacement tile.



Many of the branches throughout the forest lack a transparent bottom. The smaller branch is especially affected. At first I thought there was a lack of suitable tiles, but both of the examples shown in the picture have been made correctly elsewere, so it shouldn't be too hard to fix.



In opposite to the previous one, the mistake he is the usage of a transparent tile.



This one's especially noticable, but a YY-CHR paintjob should do the trick



The edges to some spikes are missing outlines, but I can't say how to solve it.



The bones have slight transparent outlines, but I think the background is too complex (especially around the upper bone) for this to be solved with a simple YY-CHR paintjob



The lack of a corner looks strange in of itself, but...



...it also makes it possible for mario to run out of bounds.



The beanstalk uses branch tiles even where there are no branches. Same problem applies to many other beanstalks.



These pipes look very strange. There are outlines that shouldn't be there, the tops look jumbled, and there's a color discrepancy between the very tops and the remainder of the pipes.



Now a couple of notes on grammar:


You're using the past tense "could", when the correct usage is the present tense "can".



"Each of those pipes" is technically not wrong, but since there are only two pipes, I'd suggest saying "Both" instead of "Each".


Two spelling errors were also made in the credits:

Gamma V was referred to as "Gama V".

Music was pluralized as "Musics", but there is no plural form of "music".



As for level design, the only major complaint I have shows up in the sunken ship stage.

At one point, you have to navigate through a bunch of ghosts during an air limit of 30 seconds. This isn't a problem in of itself, but at the end, where you switch screens to get air, this happens:

You're spawned right below circling boos, and if you keep mashing the A-button as you spawn (which you most likely are, since you're a few seconds from drowning) you run straight into them, taking damage you couldn't be prepared for.


I also suggest that you replace the Elite Ninji during the final phase of the boss fight with another one or two upside-down Ninjis. The Elite Ninji made the final phase too luck based, whereas two or three stationary upside-down Ninjis are much more manageable.



Let's end it with a few miscellaneous aspects, mostly technical:

The double jump sound effect is inconsistent. When you trigger another sound effect while you're double jumping, like collecting a coin, the sound is completely different.

When you enter water, the floaty water physics don't activate until you press the A-button to start swimming.

The large amount of fire pillars during the second half of the crystal cave level caused slowdown. (This one's easily patched)


If you double jump off-screen here, you'll be affected by the wind caused by the cloud.



If you go backwards when you enter the temple where an agressive red Grinder chases you, you fall into this unescapeable pit, essentially softlocking you. I'd suggest placing some spikes here.



Aside from these, I enjoyed my time with the hack. I do recommend including a mini-map with the official release though. While I liked the exploring aspect, I could see someone else not finding enjoyment in retreading their own steps several times over in order to find the next stage.
Thank you, most of these will be easily fixed.
I'm not sure if I will be able to fix the double jump sound and the water physics problem though. I already try to fix these two, but couldn't manage to find how. I surely will try one more time.
Thanks again for all your feedback, this is greatly appreciated.
Thanks. It's was a learning experience for me, finding out what to take into account when I design my own levels, and potential patches and items to utilize.

Standard: Hard