Language…
6 users online: Firstnamebutt, Golden Yoshi, GRIMMKIN, Mario's GameBase, Pink Gold Peach, qantuum - Guests: 245 - Bots: 386
Users: 64,795 (2,378 active)
Latest user: mathew

Same Sprites, Different Levels

Super Mario World Hacks → Same Sprites, Different Levels

This file is obsolete. The latest version is Same Sprites, Different Levels. For other versions, check the version history.

Submission Details

Name: Same Sprites, Different Levels
Author: eltiolavara9
Added:
Version History: View
Demo: No
Hall of Fame: No
Length: 92 exit(s)
Type: Standard: Hard
Description: "hmm what if i removed everything in a level except for the sprites and made the level around them" is what I asked myself one day, before deciding to do a whole hack about that for some reason.
-The name is pretty self-explanatory: Levels built around the sprites already in them.
-There have been some minor-ish changes to spice things up, also, and the star world & special world levels are completely original.
-This hack's aimed at people that haven't really played any SMW hack before, so it starts out pretty simple and easy, but the latter levels and especially the post-game are still hard.
Enjoy! I guess! idk!
-also this took like a year and a few months to make i dont have anything else to write here go get it go go go
-oh yea also this hack features no custom stuff like new sprites, blocks or exgfx (some sprite gfx are changed though)

v2.0: GOD DAMN

-SLOWDOWN IS GONE :crab: :crab: :crab:
-more than half of the levels in the game have changes ranging from really minor to complete overhauls, difficulty for the postgame and star world levels is less ridiculous overall and star road megamix is now a completely different level (lots of overall polish and stuff too)
-all the janky stuff and bugs have been smoothed out

v2.1:

-fixed misc cutoff issues, made bricks and gravitron easier, made a postgame level less precise and made the p switch blocks in crystal caves more obvious

v3.0:

-a TON of polish and smoothing out the difficulty curve, full changelog in the zip file if you have a few spare days to read through it
Tags: gimmick music traditional variety
Comments: 45 (jump to comments)
Rating:
4.4 (7 ratings)
No rating
Download 868.05 KiB | 878 downloads

Screenshots

View all

Comments (45)

NatsuFireball Link
A wonderful hack based on a great idea (same sprites with totally different graphics), which brings a mix of nostalgia and renewing =]

The difficulty is OK, starting from easy and reaching the hard level in the special world, with last level being even harder, however all 92 exits are beatable without using any savestate.

10/10 (5 stars) Thank you very much =]
eltiolavara9 Author Link
Originally posted by AlexMysterious
post

i was going to update the hack soon, so i'll add in a hint in the jk room while i'm at it
btw, the solution is to throw a shell through the red ? block, but i can see now why that's very hard to figure out
AlexMysterious Link
I started playing this yesterday and I was really enjoying it, until I got to the first ghost house (something hollandaise? can't remember the level name). I could not figure out how to proceed, so I finally looked up a video playthrough and I saw that you have to spin jump on the ghost(s) to get up above where a pipe leads to the exit. But this pipe is blocked off, with floor sprites. I've tried everything, hitting the red switch in the next room, taking the green shell with me through the door to the jk death room, all manner of random shit - and nothing unblocks the pipe. It's infuriating to me because I *want* to play the rest of the hack, but I can't, and the player in the video I watched just went straight up to the exit pipe without doing anything extra in the level. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Up until that point it was 4/5 stars.
eltiolavara9 Author Link
same!! also, if i made a update, would it have to be approved too or..? the self-made island guy made me realize the first level's bonus room is broken, which... isn't a good impression to be making
 Sayuri Link
Glad to see this finally accepted!
 BeeKaay Link
Fun hack. Accepted as "Hard" difficulty because late-game and star world venture beyond "Normal" difficulty.
Pitchin' Luigi Link
Is one of the best rom-hacks i've ever seen, the palettes, the overworld, the level design.

But the cherry on the cake is the music. I love it! My favourite ones are from the star world, special world, main overworld the rift overworld, it night and the bulletdome.

I dont only hope you make more like these, I also hope this gets accepted!
Adriel_Isaque Link
A very beautiful hack. Well built. Deserves much more than 5 stars
eltiolavara9 Author Link
unless a major issue pops up i'm happy with calling 3.0 the final version
niko Link
oh yea, forgot about that, you can't even update it if it's under moderation. however, i can remember one time messing up badly and posting the wrong rom and then messaging the moderator and sending the right one, because i realized VERY late i posted the wrong rom. (actually, a friend had to tell me)

but let's just hope that never happens to you lol
eltiolavara9 Author Link
..lavender lamination was fixed already, unless i'm missing something
 Atari2.0 Link
What niko said is right, you can update it how many times you want *before* it gets claimed. After it is claimed you can't update it anymore (like, not because there's a rule per se but because the claim prevents you from updating it), so get your updates out before the hacks gets claimed.
eltiolavara9 Author Link
ohh alright thanks for clarifying then
niko Link
i personally think you can update it 1000 times, if it's not under moderation, because we are not the testers and won't have to play it several times because of the updates to test it again, nor whould we need to stop playing the hack just because of an update. imo you should update it now BEFORE it get's under moderation, updating it again while it is whould be rude to the moderator.
eltiolavara9 Author Link
thank you!
but man i thought i fixed the slowdown with fastrom and all that, maybe i was too used to it from testing
what levels had it worse?

also i'll fix lavender lamination (if there's something else to fix, i don't want to get too spammy with updates)
kaitri Link
im almost done with the hack and i have to say its a beautiful one.
this "its familiar" feeling is really something positive. several levels have a "everything besides the outlines is black" design, indeed simple but effective.

some of the autoscrollers are a bit too slow, but other than that i really like it. i'd say its a bit harder than the original smw (but thats hard to judge as i played the original about 15 times) and the darker artstyle reflects that.

the music is also very beautiful, sometimes not quite fitting.

i dont think the special world will change my opinion so im going to say its a 4/5.


the biggest complaint i have is the slowdown. it happens OFTEN!
too often.
one thats not a complaint but i wanna mention it is that some levels have more than 5 yoshi coins

and "lavender lamination" has 2 exits but its a yellow level.
eltiolavara9 Author Link
Originally posted by ElpoderosoBv
en el nivel dry, dry mountain al entrar por el tubo (el unico que tiene) y salir de el te lleva a una muerte directa

ok lo acabo de arreglar gracias
ElpoderosoBv Link
en el nivel dry, dry mountain al entrar por el tubo (el unico que tiene) y salir de el te lleva a una muerte directa
eltiolavara9 Author Link
what part did you have the trouble with
CharginChuck64 Link
Normal?? more like very hard
niko Link
This comment section really shows what good critisism can do and reading it made me very happy.

After reading the hack now is really good, i give it a try also when i find the time.
eltiolavara9 Author Link
Originally posted by Sayuri
There's still minor issues like incorrect note block tiles when bounced on in several stages, incorrectly placed starting position camera in a level or two,

thanks! but also, the camera doing that on Totally Original is intentional
idk what other level has the wrong camera but i don't think i'll update this again, at least in a while, since these are some really minor issues (also fixing the note blocks in whoa what would break other graphics)
 Sayuri Link
I'm happy to say that my thoughts on Same Sprites, Different Levels has much improved now, with this update. I replayed worlds 6 up to special world - The endgame worlds are far better, especially for the Star World and Special World; slowdown is much better now, as in there's way less. It's still there in the worst levels, but it's nowhere near as bad as before.

There's still minor issues like incorrect note block tiles when bounced on in several stages, incorrectly placed starting position camera in a level or two, and some minor cutoff I spotted in the Special World - but those don't affect the overall gameplay experience and I would let those slide. But as far as this hack goes now, I'm very happy that I can call it a mostly enjoyable experience from beginning to end.

Changed my rating from 2, to 4 stars out of 5. This hack is totally going on my list of games I'd replay every now and then just for fun. #smw{:peace:}
eltiolavara9 Author Link
IT'S OUT!! hopefully this update fixes the bugs, ugly stuff, slowdown and everything people didn't like (not just that, there have been a lot of tweaks)
eltiolavara9 Author Link
that arrow sign has been fixed, also RGB-CMYK was also my least favorite one so i replaced it with Totally Original which i'm gonna make a little harder (nothing insane though), and i'll swap some stuff around
tubular 3 or whatever got made less obnoxious (aka there are like twice as much p-balloons and taking a single hit doesn't mean you have to do it all over again)
there is no switch is getting mostly remade
OEO6 Link
LAVENDER LAMINATION:


Don't forget that arrow sign problem.

This hack is good btw #smw{:D}
 Sayuri Link
Tubular 3 had some really tight spots in the middle, where it's sort of hard to squeeze through the barrage of baseballs in time. And probably my other least favorite level has to be RGB-CMYK. The look of the level is the whole point, that's not the issue. Rather, the Porcu-Puffer is extremely irritating to deal with. Basically, too many of the jumps from water lead me to my death because the gaps to get into are either too small, or I don't have time to think about them because the dang fish is seconds away from getting me. Call it my personal bias, I was never a fan of that sprite in the slightest, but I'd say its placement there was rather poor.
eltiolavara9 Author Link
right so sorry for being spammy with comments but aside from the star road megamix, which post-game level was the worst? i'm planning to replace one but i'm not sure which one i should
eltiolavara9 Author Link
ok i think the star world's better now, none of the levels have HUGE changes (except the end of that one castle with moving water) and the first level had some sense slapped into it
i added some more powerups to the second level and made the floor not bouncy
eltiolavara9 Author Link
Originally posted by Sayuri
And "AND BACK!" is just sort of there. But now that I replay the level, I notice it's literally the same as DO NOT ENTER!!! but with a different palette and enemies (and it actually has a normal exit, unlike DNE). Was this intentional? A little odd if you ask me.

it's really really not intentional, i'm very aware that level is broken, i accidentally pasted a copy of the title screen on that level's slot and didn't notice until it was too late :(
 Sayuri Link
INTO SPACE! aside, the cloud world was half and half for me. Right off the bat, it wasn't clear to me that you could pass through the walls of the clouds; I thought they were solid because I noticed the Koopas in the pit at the beginning would turn back at the walls. But no, they're passable, and I had a few deaths from that. Maybe make it a little more clear that you can pass through the walls?

And in "more clouds woah", I personally think the section around the middle with the Munchers on clouds is a little boring; it's just jumping from cloud to cloud. Not much better than 1-tile jumps. And "AND BACK!" is just sort of there. But now that I replay the level, I notice it's literally the same as DO NOT ENTER!!! but with a different palette and enemies (and it actually has a normal exit, unlike DNE). Was this intentional? A little odd if you ask me.
eltiolavara9 Author Link
it's fine
also what was everyone's opinion on the cloud world (aside from what's already been said)
 Sayuri Link
This is great to hear! I'm happy you're taking in our feedback. I apologize if my review came across as too harsh, but like I said, this is a really cool idea for an SMW hack and I really want to see this executed in the best way it can! I'll look forward to the first update.
eltiolavara9 Author Link
star road megamix will also be completely reworked, i had a level lying around that has the same difficulty but much better
eltiolavara9 Author Link
ok so i've been working on fixing all these issues
i put on the fastROM thing and a "optimized for speed" compression thing, along with removing some stuff from levels that slowed down the game to a halt
the last part of the first star world level now makes more sense and i'll touch up the second one a bit, third one i think is fine but i added some coin indications, No More Neon is getting a rename and a changed second section
NOW YOU'RE THINKING was moved to the final spot, made more fair (more than 2 capes) and i'll probably add something where you need at least 3 switches pressed, i have a cool idea
i'll try to get rid of all slowdown in into space, clean up reflux forest and improve mint athletic and slap some sense into the special world AND improve world 6
i've also fixed the last screen of the blue switch palace, removed the message box in thunderbumper, etcetc
 Sayuri Link
Originally posted by eltilavara9
what were your least favorite levels aside from the megamix?


INTO SPACE!, mint athletic, Reflux Forest- and most of world 7, honestly. The Special World, like Physicist mentioned, is very poorly designed especially. I think the Star Road is sort of mixed, it's okay, but I would put a lot more attention into the lategame levels, world 6 and beyond.
SMW Physicist Link
Okay, so there is a lot of stuff I love and hate to death in this hack. The concept by itself is very creative and has a lot of potential. Also, not being the biggest fan of humor in my SMW hacks, I actually appreciated the humorous messages in the message boxes. Your execution was spot until, well, world 5 and on. A good chunk of the late game levels seemed poorly tested and/or designed. Now you may be asking, what specific levels made you think that? Well, to simply put it, about 90% of the levels in the star and special world seemed rushed to hell. Not to be harsh here, but what were you thinking when you designed the Star World Megamix?!? My suggestion is just flat out redoing that level in its entirety. Another major flaw, as many reviewers of this have pointed out, is the SLOWDOWN. I lost count on how many times I've died because of it. The last problem I have to address is that Lavender Lamination should have a RED DOT instead of a yellow.

I was quite upset with how this ended up turning out. This hurts me to do this, but 2/5 for now.
eltiolavara9 Author Link
Originally posted by Sayuri
I was having so much fun in most of the first 4 worlds, and it sucked to see it nosedive so much. I can tell you put effort into this, I won't deny it. But it's misplaced effort. The idea is surprisingly great, executed nicely in the first few worlds, but then it's like you just lost your muster and started getting lazier, or overcompensated and made levels that are way too difficult, even for endgame (and especially for playing on console).

what were your least favorite levels aside from the megamix?
eltiolavara9 Author Link
Originally posted by Mogu94
Far as I'm aware that's correct so you'd have to patch SA-1 onto a clean rom and then port everything over from this hack to the SA-1 rom. At least it'd be worth it in the end though.

i enabled fastROM (somehow i had no idea that it was a thing you could do #tb{''}), hopefully it + removing some stuff will work, but if not, then yea it's the only option i guess
Mogu94 Link
Far as I'm aware that's correct so you'd have to patch SA-1 onto a clean rom and then port everything over from this hack to the SA-1 rom. At least it'd be worth it in the end though.
eltiolavara9 Author Link
Originally posted by Danielsonic 87
On SA-1, I wonder this too...
I tried to add SA-1 on my vanilla hack because the slowdowns on some point... but all now is glitched on the screen... so I used a previous rom to re-obtain my hack like before... why this happens??

the problem with SA-1 is that you can ONLY add it to a completely clean ROM i think, and this rom is the complete opposite of clean
Danielsonic 87 Link
On SA-1, I wonder this too...
I tried to add SA-1 on my vanilla hack because the slowdowns on some point... but all now is glitched on the screen... so I used a previous rom to re-obtain my hack like before... why this happens??
eltiolavara9 Author Link
thank you for your criticism! i did try to test this hack as much as possible, but some stuff either eluded me or i forgot about it, due to all the stuff in this hack
i'll release a update later today trying to address all these issues
EDIT: is it possible to just patch this with SA-1 straight up without having to do any weird workarounds? that's what i was worried about
EDIT EDIT: OH GOD I FORGOT TO REMOVE THE INTRO LEVEL COPY I'M DUMB
 Sayuri Link
I got all but two of the 91 exits (the remaining two are explained later). I want to like this hack, I really do, but it just has so many little things that I'm either not a fan of, are too frustrating, too obviously tested with savestates, or maybe not tested at all.

Now if there's something I can definitely say I liked, I do appreciate the humor in the message boxes, I got some good chuckles. The hack also certainly shows itself as a "remix" of the original game, for sure; it's very evident in the overworld especially, many of the core paths or design are the same, like how the Lavender Island is... just Chocolate Island. Now, you did switch some things around, like how the Top Secret Area is under Lavender Island instead of in the Donut Plains, which is appreciated as a nice change.

The core idea is very intriguing! The vanilla sprite layouts, but with different LEVEL layouts built around them? I genuinely think the first four worlds pull this off very well, and the levels are very fun! I had a great time. Unfortunately, the quality starts to take a dive at the beginning of Lavender Island. The levels are too obviously built from vanilla SMW. Like, the sprite layouts, sure, that's the point. But the level layouts themselves. Some of them are just sections straight from vanilla SMW, which wouldn't be a problem if they didn't stick out so much. The later levels aren't much to smile at either. They become frustrating slogs, more or less. One level that comes to mind especially is the "true" final level, STAR ROAD MEGAMIX. This level was clearly, so obviously tested with savestates. At least three of the jumps in it are SO precise, you're given SO LITTLE time to spin jump off the grinders (the level is auto-scrolling which does not help), and it was very irritating to play. As far as slogging through goes, however, it's made all the more worse by one of my biggest dislikes in this game - the SLOWDOWN.

Oh my lord. The slowdown in this hack is horrendous. I don't know how you could possibly bring yourself to test this in the state it's in. Half the game seems to suffer from it! I believe the absolute worst level for it is INTO SPACE!. I'm not kidding when I say nearly every screen had excruciating slowdown that eventually forced me to use fast-forwarding because I just couldn't take it anymore. But you know what really stung me the most? The fact that you were aware of this. Now, I am not a hack moderator, but, and please forgive my harshness, I must say that this is unacceptable. You have several means of mitigating this, none of which you seemed to bother with. FastROM, reducing the amount of enemies in levels (original sprite layouts be damned; removing slowdown is more important), using SA-1 (this hack is 90% vanilla so you can easily get away with just using that). It really makes me wonder what your testing process for this project was.

Before I get into miscellaneous errors, I want to address the biggest problem, section-wise, that is already going to get this hack rejected unless you fix them before a hack mod claims this. Two of them:

1. During my playthrough, I opted to get the secret exits in the cave world at a later time. But when I came back, the Red Switch Palace button ("THINE SWYTCH PALACE") was already pressed, locking me out of pressing it, and also out of an exit. Check your level events - this likely means that you mapped a later level's completion event to the same number as this palace's destruction event.

2. The normal exit in DO NOT ENTER!!! is impossible to get. The secret exit is fine, but the normal exit cannot be attained. I searched forever until I finally gave up and looked at the level in Lunar Magic- one of the screens has a screen exit set that leads to the room containing the normal exit, but there is no pipe or door placed in said screen. The rest of the level is a dead end unless you care about the Yoshi Coins.

Now, my final mentions: Examples of smaller problems that, while not game-breaking, are certainly easily fixed and indicative of the amount of time that likely went into testing this. These are in no particular order:

(1) Broken OW vine tiles after passing the Special World.
(2) The note blocks in "whoa what?!" have glitched graphics. This is a very common issue in many hacks caused by incorrect sprite tileset usage. This is actually in a number of levels, but whoa what?! is the level that comes to my mind immediately.
(3) Similar to the above issue, "#3 BOILING POINT" has bouncy turn blocks with glitched graphics.
(4) Another common error. Bonus levels (specifically level 0 in LM, I checked) do not have their cameras set properly, allowing Mario to see beyond the first screen. Either disable both vertical and horizontal scrolling, or get rid of every tile in screen 01.
(5) Incorrectly tiled Torpedo Ted launcher. EXTREMELY minor, but you can tell from the pure black squares, and this is in several levels.
(6) Don't use message boxes in levels with layer 3 crushers. Or layer 3 in general.
(7) Nothing but a sigh to give with the last screen of the Blue Switch Palace, as well as this.
(8) Whatever event that's supposed to spawn the level tile for THE GRAVITRON!!! is broken and does not spawn.


Like I mentioned, many of the above issues permeate throughout a lot of levels and makes me wonder just how much this hack was tested.

I was having so much fun in most of the first 4 worlds, and it sucked to see it nosedive so much. I can tell you put effort into this, I won't deny it. But it's misplaced effort. The idea is surprisingly great, executed nicely in the first few worlds, but then it's like you just lost your muster and started getting lazier, or overcompensated and made levels that are way too difficult, even for endgame (and especially for playing on console).

As it stands, I'll have to rate this game a 2 out of 5. I will certainly think fondly of the first few worlds, but the nosedive in quality and fun afterwards just sucks most of my enjoyment and chucks it out the window, and that's a damn shame.
peppebd Link
Good hack, great job!