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Sprites (patches, graphics, music, etc.) that you've grown to hate (possible minor spoilers)

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Discuss sprites or whatever that you really started to dislike after playing certain hacks containing them. Perhaps you originally had no ill will toward them, or you only found them mildly annoying, or you thought they seemed pretty cool, but after having them in just the wrong kind of gameplay, if you never saw them again, it would be too soon.

Here are some sprites I could say that about:

Sprite: Boss Bass
Offending hacks: Any that contain it
I hated Boss Bass in the original game (SMB3), and I don't like him any better in SMW hacks. In fact, he's even worse in hacks, since you can't kill the custom sprite version with fireballs, shells, etc. like you can in SMB3. Then there was that horrible stage in ASMT with a super-fast Boss Bass that was apparently based off something in one of the VIPs...I never played the original VIP level, thank goodness, but I definitely didn't feel like trying to beat the ASMT version. (Boss Bass was bad enough at normal speed...WHYYYYY?!!)

Sprite: Fishin' Boo (boss version or not)
Offending hacks: Any that contain it
He was only in one level in the original SMW, and he didn't seem all that bad there. However, in hacks, he always seems to be placed in the most awkward and annoying locations, making it nigh impossible to get past him without a dozen or more savestates.

Sprite: Deadweight Bro
Offending hacks: Bowser's Valley
World 7 in Bowser's Valley was evil. EVIL, I tell you!! The Deadweight Bro and his kin, especially when more than one of them is on the screen at once or when one is placed in an awkward location, are very difficult to avoid.

Sprite: Cave-In Generator
Offending hacks: Super Mario World: Legend of the 7 Golden Statues
It was only used in one level (well, I haven't beaten the hack yet, but only one so far), but once was enough. The level wasn't *too* difficult before (not easy either), but having to dodge falling rocks that come down randomly made it MUCH harder. In some sections, if the rocks fell in the wrong place, it was literally impossible to avoid taking a hit. I really had to savestate-spam that section. It kind of reminds me of Blaze Heatnix's Nightmare effect in Mega Man X6...but Mega Man X can shoot and air-dash, and he has a health meter instead of having only 3 hits at maximum. It is just too dang hard to avoid the falling blocks when you already have a bunch of other stuff to worry about.

Sprite: Pitchin' Chuck
Offending hacks: Bowser's Valley, but probably others
I didn't have all that much trouble with Pitchin' Chuck in the original SMW except in two stages in the Special World. In hacks, though, I realized how easy it is to abuse this sprite...considering he throws a constant stream of projectiles that can't be spin-jumped or destroyed without a cape, there isn't enough space in between them to jump in between, and he only pauses his attack for a moment, he can easily be overwhelming.

Sprite: Venus Fire Trap
Offending hacks: SMW - 7 Golden Statues
I swear I didn't mind this sprite before playing this particular hack...this particular hack, however, really seemed to spam these things. Even SMB3 didn't have them in every level. He's kind of like a lesser version of Pitchin' Chuck, but his projectiles don't go straight horizontally, and he doesn't have to be standing on something. It's not hard to place one or two of these in a really nasty position.

Sprite: Thwomp Boss
Offending hacks: Almost all hacks that use it
I don't dislike the Thwomp Boss because it's overused...I dislike it because it is so flipping hard to hit! You have to be awfully precise with the Bob-ombs to avoid missing or getting damaged, and it only gets worse when the thing speeds up.

Sprite: Mouser
Offending hacks: A lot that use it, although I can't remember the specifics
See above. In SMB2, the bombs he threw didn't walk around, couldn't hurt you (except when they blew up), had longer fuses, and couldn't kill each other if they collided. He was also fairly easy to hit in the original game. In hacks...well, I think the Mouser boss I had the most trouble with was the one in The Tale of Elementia. It was positioned awkwardly way high up in the room, plus the thing took like 10 hits to kill.

I can't really think of any graphics or patches that I've grown to hate, although I can think of some music...I don't care much at all for most of the unsampled Yoshi's Island ports or any of the unsampled Super Mario Kart ports.

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I'm working on a hack! Check it out here. Progress: 64/95 levels.

Extras



I should have something witty to put here (even if it's just to update dated info), shouldn't I?

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Originally posted by Imamelia
Sprite: Boss Bass
Offending hacks: Any that contain it
I hated Boss Bass in the original game (SMB3), and I don't like him any better in SMW hacks. In fact, he's even worse in hacks, since you can't kill the custom sprite version with fireballs, shells, etc. like you can in SMB3. Then there was that horrible stage in ASMT with a super-fast Boss Bass that was apparently based off something in one of the VIPs...I never played the original VIP level, thank goodness, but I definitely didn't feel like trying to beat the ASMT version. (Boss Bass was bad enough at normal speed...WHYYYYY?!!)


He can be set to be taken out with fireballs and cape swings, but I believe the main reasons why nobody does is because there isn't a version out that allows him to come back in the level in the event of being defeated sometime before he's "set" to go away and I don't think anyone wants to deal with more than one Boss Bass in any given (sub)level.

Originally posted by Imamelia
Sprite: Mouser
Offending hacks: A lot that use it, although I can't remember the specifics
See above. In SMB2, the bombs he threw didn't walk around, couldn't hurt you (except when they blew up),


I'm pretty sure by default the Bob-ombs Mouser throws are already stunned, though the rest of what you said is true. The thing that gets me with Mouser bosses is that people either (1) increase his HP up to a stupid level, drawing out the fight longer than it needs to be and/or (2) don't really alter the terrain so the challenge is increased. The second point could also apply to the Thwomp Boss, though I don't think anything can really save that poor bastard in its current form.

Any boss that spams projectiles. Especially if they have no attack animation, meaning avoiding them is a matter of luck.
Luigi.

No no, I mean just a GFX swap of Luigi with Mario, it is more interesting if Luigi has different physics and the level design is made for Luigi (Higher jumps to make, etc)

If you just swap Mario's GFX with Luigi's, it gets boring. Just sayin.
smw redrawn #w{:<}
Originally posted by Volke
Luigi.

No no, I mean just a GFX swap of Luigi with Mario, it is more interesting if Luigi has different physics and the level design is made for Luigi (Higher jumps to make, etc)

If you just swap Mario's GFX with Luigi's, it gets boring. Just sayin.


Yeah, I get the same feeling :/

But on the music side,(not to diss the composers or porters because it is great music) SMRPG - forest maze and also the SMB - Metal version.
I love the second port but its been used in almost every hack I have played and with the first one... well you know...

fedit: well... you know, ninja'd
REMOVED
Ok, two word post.

Although, I do agree with UMA, smw redrawn and SMB3 stuff are overused as shit.
Originally posted by Volke
Ok, two word post.

Although, I do agree with UMA, smw redrawn and SMB3 stuff are overused as shit.

mehh, I guess I don't really notice the redrawn being overused...
and I really like the smb3 stuff, except the mario gfx... they annoy me a little.
REMOVED
Every man has his own opinion.
Originally posted by Volke
Every man has his own opinion.

Indeed, also... its not bad but the smb3 hammer bro is used EVERYWHERE personally i like it but it is overused so I'll just put that out there :)
REMOVED
Its not like the SMB3 hammer bro is all that bad, I do prefer it over the SMW hammer bro.
Originally posted by Volke
Its not like the SMB3 hammer bro is all that bad, I do prefer it over the SMW hammer bro.

Oi, I hate the SMB3 hammer bro. Easily the most difficult and annoying non-boss enemy to ever curse the mushroom kingdom. Two of those suckers together in a place where you can't kill them by hitting the blocks under them, try to get through that without getting hit or savestating.

Extras



I should have something witty to put here (even if it's just to update dated info), shouldn't I?

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Originally posted by OGS93

mehh, I guess I don't really notice the redrawn being overused...


Because only a small number of people make extensive use of SMWRedrawn. Off the top of my head, only FPI, Atma, Dakress, and myself predominantly use the graphics (I didn't count Icegoom since he went poof years ago.) Of course there should be a good amount of others, but not to the point of it being "Redrawn Redrawn everywhere.) SMB3 I'm more willing to agree with, but it's to be expected since it's more of an "official" alternative that's from a very popular game as well.

I agree with Kaijyuu on the aspect of sprites that lack any attack animations. In fact, he was essentially the main person that (albeit indirectly) convinced me to phase out the Newbie boss in favor of boss sprite that uses actual warning/attack animations. I'll probably have to cave in and make my own "base" boss sprite that does what I want.

Oh boy is that gonna be hell fun.

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Anyway, these are things I don't really "hate", but would like to see some more variety done with it in one way or another.

- Repeating palettes from level to level.
Too many games are content with keeping essentially the same FG/BG palette combo from similar levels without doing anything to freshen it up. Something as simple as changing the color of your levels from one to another can really go a long way in help making your game look unique and went that extra length to make it stand out more.

- Music that doesn't fit the atmosphere of the level.
Music is important to a game and having a song and the level clash can bring things down easier than you think. There should be no reason something "happy" should be playing during a tense storm or in the last world a game (Using Secret of the 7 Golden Statues as an example.)

- Over-reliance on spin jumping.
Spin Jump is something that should be a viable ability for Mario, not something that he should have to rely on from level to level or his primary form of moving across gaps.

- Fishin' Boo.
Placed in the most awkward positions that makes getting hit not a matter of if, but when.

- Power-up filters.
Mario shouldn't have to be forced to be small to complete the main route of a level just because the designer made the level with Small Mario in mind; save that crap for alternate/secret routes. It should be beatable with both small and Big Mario.

- Yoshi Jumping.
Mario also shouldn't be forced to get a Yoshi just so he can make a required jump that removes (kills) Yoshi from the level. Counter-Break Y is a different matter.

- Unnecessary gimmicks/difficulty increase.
The former is a case of people adding things for the sake of it and the latter is a case of people not fully testing out what they add to a level/game before committing to it. For example, before its gimmick was removed, there was a (sub)level in SMWCP that made the player get through the area without grabbing any coins or else they would have to start the thing over again. The level itself is already tough as nails and the coin gimmick that sent the thing into ridiculous territory. There's ultimately nothing wrong with adding a gimmick to a level/game if it compliments where it's placed well. Many people just simply don't do that.

- Unnecessary gimmicks mkII
Add something to your game because it helps enhance it to make it better/"better", not because it looks cool.

REDRAWN. I never liked them in the first place, but it feels like so many hackers use that just for the sake of having custom graphics. This is the only hack I've seen where I actually LIKE the usage of redrawn graphics.

SMW music. Too many times have I heard it, it just feels noobish now.
Good fucking bye.
Redrawn Graphics: Oh God I hate these. SMB 3 graphics may be boring, but they're from an excellent game and are actually something you can live with. These redrawn graphics though... have an awkward, not in the least Mario like style. The baby Mario for small Mario's graphics looks pretty stupid to be perfectly honest, and the actual sprite graphics range from excellent to incredibly poor and uncanny valleyish.

Wario enemy/grunt replacements: Oh, so misleading, oh so overused by wannabe Wario Land style hacks. Now, I like the Wario Land series to an extent, I thought the original and fourth game were two of the best games of all time, but these graphics look NOTHING like any sprites you'd see in a real Wario series game. Wario Land 1 has it's own style, Wario Land 2 and 3 have one, 4 has one and Shake Dimension has one. These don't, and look just like recoloured SMW enemies.

Skeleton Enemy graphics: Again, they look boring, and not particularly Marioish. Sadly, they're also overused to heck by Youtube hacks and even many hacks on this site. And how does a skeleton plant make sense?

I don't dislike any music though. Stickerbrush Symphony may be overused, but damn I still think it's a great song. Same with Krook's March, Welcome to Crocodile Isle, etc. Trust me, overuse will never make me hate decent video game music.

Homing Bullet Bills: I dislike these now, because I overused them myself and had to put up with them every second level and boss fight.

Scrolling levels (especially underwater ones): Good God, WHY? These aren't fun to play. They're just awful, take too bloody long to finish (and for someone who likes speedrunning levels, it causes me to hammer the fast forward key like there's no tomorrow). Trust me, as soon as I see a scrolling water level, I just activate a game genie code to instantly clear the level.

Multi-coloured rainbow block tool blocks: At least when people just mess around with default Map16 tiles for them. They just stick out like a sore thumb and make the level look amateurish and Youtube like if used poorly. Aka, like Mario's Wacky Worlds.

SMB 3 world themes: I bet at least half hacks ever will have a grass, desert, water, ice, sky and Bowser themed world. Most existing ones do, and boy is it a dull selection. This is why I personally wished NSMB Wii tried a bit harder for world themes, because it ripped about three quarters from SMB 3 and the entire lot from NSMB for DS. Change it up please! Preferrably kill grass land with fire!

Sky Pop/Marine Pop: Decent concept, executed in an awful way. It's just too slow to be fun, and there can only be about a few shots on screen due to sprite limitations, hence situations where a ton of enemies come by and suddenly Mario's defenseless...
For gaming news and Wario discussions, check out Gaming Reinvented and Wario Forums respectively.

As for Mario's Nightmare Quest? Well, it's currently on Fusion Gameworks, ROM Hacking.net or the GCN at the moment.
Originally posted by imamelia
Sprite: Fishin' Boo (boss version or not)
Offending hacks: Any that contain it
He was only in one level in the original SMW, and he didn't seem all that bad there. However, in hacks, he always seems to be placed in the most awkward and annoying locations, making it nigh impossible to get past him without a dozen or more savestates.


I would be a major offender of this if I didn't create the Fishin' Bones XD

Seriously though, I used this three times in the world 2 ghost house of Roy's Armada. It's annoying I'll admit, and that whole level is one huge hell fest, but I take alot of inspiration from TSRPR.

As for people who dislike redrawn... I think it's just an associational issue. How many hacks are there with these GFX? Plenty. How many good ones? Few. This makes people associate redrawn with a substandard hack.
Originally posted by Atma
As for people who dislike redrawn... I think it's just an associational issue. How many hacks are there with these GFX? Plenty. How many good ones? Few. This makes people associate redrawn with a substandard hack.


This.
Nobody can say that Redrawn graphics don't look awesome like hell without lying but sadly they are mostly used by newbies that can't make good hacks :/
Your layout has been removed.
Well, when it comes to music, I think that Stickerbrush Symphony--any version of it--is overused in quite a lot of hacks. It is a very good song, and some versions of it are frighteningly accurate, but I've heard the song in a lot of hacks.

Graphics-wise, Yoshi's Island foregrounds/backgrounds are used -way- too often. Seven Golden Statues pulled it off because it used the graphics in conjunction with the sampled YI tracks, but not every hack does this, and some just seem to throw them in as filler graphics.

Sprites? Well, that would have to be the Blargg Boss. Very unique but hard as Hell to kill. Seven Golden Statues made you kill it with ground-pounds? At least it also gave you semi-solid-not-instant-kill lava, but that's not the point.

And I have no problem with the Redrawn graphics. Frankly, I haven't seen a hack use them in a very long time. It was more the 2008-2009 hacks that used them.
My hack Super Mario: The Epic Journey uses them.

Code
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/FNbFdMwfaZ8?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/FNbFdMwfaZ8?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

Unexpected end tag (</param>) at 320, expected </pre>
Unexpected end tag (</param>) at 371, expected </pre>
Unexpected end tag (</param>) at 426, expected </pre>
Unexpected end tag (</embed>) at 663, expected </pre>
Unexpected end tag (</object>) at 672, expected </pre>
Check my page http://marioepicjourney.blogspot.com to find more updates about my hack Super Mario: The Epic Journey.
Originally posted by HuFlungDu
Easily the most difficult and annoying non-boss enemy to ever curse the mushroom kingdom. Two of those suckers together in a place where you can't kill them by hitting the blocks under them, try to get through that without getting hit or savestating.

Yeah...remember 8-3 in the original Super Mario Bros.? I HATED that wretched level.

Originally posted by -MrDeePay
Over-reliance on spin jumping.
Spin Jump is something that should be a viable ability for Mario, not something that he should have to rely on from level to level or his primary form of moving across gaps.

Very true. When I played the original SMW, I didn't even know you could spin-jump on certain enemies. I thought the only purpose of spin-jumping was to make honey smashing turn blocks.

Originally posted by -MrDeePay
- Fishin' Boo.
Placed in the most awkward positions that makes getting hit not a matter of if, but win.

I think you mean "when", but...yeah.

Originally posted by cheat-master30
Homing Bullet Bills: I dislike these now, because I overused them myself and had to put up with them every second level and boss fight.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention those...homing Bullet Bills freaking SUCK. They are SO ANNOYING!

Originally posted by cheat-master30
Sky Pop/Marine Pop: Decent concept, executed in an awful way. It's just too slow to be fun, and there can only be about a few shots on screen due to sprite limitations, hence situations where a ton of enemies come by and suddenly Mario's defenseless...

Ah, I don't know...I thought the way Bonni's Quest used it was creative.

Also, yeah...that Blargg boss battle in SMW 7 Golden Statues was annoying as all heck. It would have been plenty difficult enough without the Bullet Bill shooter; why did that even need to be there?!

I don't have any problem with graphics or music from SMAS or YI (except, as I said, most of the unsampled YI music). I like them better than vanilla SMW graphics. I do have to agree with Kadyastar on this one, though...they work a lot better when the music fits the scenery. When I use any of those graphics in a hack, I'm kind of anal about using the music that goes with it.

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I'm working on a hack! Check it out here. Progress: 64/95 levels.
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