Originally posted by S.N.N.I actually just played a bit of the version above out of sheer curiosity. I don't really play hacks too much anymore, but since this thing has been going on for a while, I figured I'd take a stab at the levels that were there. Sadly, I don't think you're going to like what I'm about to say.
To be honest, the project as a whole feels very sloppy. I recognize that the collab is going for a more Kaizo-take on things, and that's fine .. as long as you can keep the insane difficulty consistent throughout. The problem is, there is a difference between "fun" insane difficulty, and "artificial" insane difficulty. I took one level in particular which was mentioned somewhere in this thread .. Power Cut Peril. I couldn't even beat it with save states. The idea behind it is nice (flickering), but it's utterly seizure-inducing when it flickers every half a second, and I'm not even prone to epilepsy. It ends up falling flat, looking unappealing, and making the level an utter chore to play.
Don't worry, Power Cut Peril is meant to be hell. It's meant to basically be like this AR code:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpARVmz5tpA
meets Trauma Tower from VIP 4. Not a good mix, since the AR code and level end up causing severe eye strain and likely seizures. Sorry about that.
But the somewhat artificial difficulty is a fair complaint. Frankly, I agree, especially with some level ideas. And some bosses, the Thwomp boss I used from here is just really nigh unusable for a fair hack. I'd say it's really, really lucky you didn't even attempt Creepy Castle. I don't even try that level.
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There are some levels that look like a complete mess as well. "Creepy Cave" comes to mind. The ground looks like it is randomly thrown around everywhere - barely any tiles even connect in the first half, and it leaves the player scratching their head at the level. There were also a few cases of the standard blue Map16 blocks being thrown around (the first level in the hack comes to mind). Might want to look into this.
That level was rather rushed, and I should probably just use different graphics instead. In fact, do you want me to make that change today, just because I agree?
Yeah, some map16 blocks are due to fact this was ported from one ROM to another, and I haven't a clue what weird idea of level building Mariowings and co had.
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The graphics was another thing that sort of came to mind (though obviously, these were not as pressing as the gameplay issues). I was browsing a few topics on your forum, and it seemed like you were very interested in ensuring the graphics were top notch. Thing is, I didn't really get that vibe at all. A lot of the graphics clashed horrendously (the very simple Koopa edits with the elaborate Thwomps, for instance). Even the FGs and BGs didn't look that great or were tiled incorrectly (that level with the Boss Bass + death bat ceiling comes to mind).
The death bat one is an accident actually. At least, some graphics got accidentally deleted because I thought the ExGFX files weren't used. Bad decision.
The graphics by the Koopas and such are by another member, so I can't/won't comment.
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On a very quick side note .. I don't know who ported that Joke's End track, but I'd like to have a word with them. It needs quite a bit of work to sound like the original (by the sounds of it, dominant channels became sub-dominant).[/quote[
LinksDarkArrows from Youtube/this site. Not quite the best music porter, as some of his music got rejected from here before.
http://www.youtube.com/user/LinksDarkArrows
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I didn't play any of the bosses, so my stance will remain completely neutral on them. I've heard people say they are slightly easy compared to the levels though, but like I said, I didn't actually try any of them.
To be fair, the bosses are probably the best part. I'd consider myself a better boss battle designer than level designer, and they're all original.
Just blame dahnamics for the over the top Thwomp boss.
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I don't know. Reading your previous post, you mentioned that this is "one version" of the final release, so perhaps we can expect the levels to get slightly polished over before the hack is fully 100% done. As it stands now though, it's just not that great of a hack. It feels like there are some excellent ideas floating around in it (Power Cut Peril, as I said earlier .. also that FLUDD level shortly before it), but the execution of them is just too iffy to be fun.
Don't worry, your opinion is welcomed here. Keep in mind many of the level designers kinda either dropped out or ran in problems implementing their designs.
Mariowings77 literally vanished from the internet, some other people had school/work concerns, and people likes LinksDarkArrows had trouble actually implementing their levels.
So yeah, blame any errors on me having to either rush a bit or figure out how their levels would have ended. And me being rather new at Mario hacking (okay, ROM hacking, I'm fine at making AR codes).
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That's my stance on it. I hope some of the feedback here will help you and the others involved in this project.
e: for the record, I'm not even mentioning the loads of minor cutoffs and palette issues throughout the hack. I assume they would be trivial at this point, so instead of pointing the small things out, I'd rather get right to the bgiger picture.
Huh?
But don't worry, I'm perfectly open to constructive criticism, so your points are valid.
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