This is probably the best Super Mario Bros. romhack ever made. This is a Metroid based game, so it's not a linear game, you have to explore all zones to get items that will help you to beat the game, such as Space Jump, Ultra Fire, Technical Fire and more.
Games Objectives
- Manipulate luck
- Glitch abuse
- Complete the game as fast as possible
Death Abuse
At the very start of the movie, i lost 4 lives intentionally because later on the run, when you take the first and only item, you have to go back at the Area 1 to finally get your way to Area 5 (last Area of the run). This is the fastest way to enter the Area 5, otherwise i had to travel through the pipes to another section of Area 1 and finally to the Area 5, losing time.
Area 4 Water Section
This was probably the hardest section to optimize, on the first section of water i slow down a bit to get a good enemies RNG, the enemy that i need is the Green Fish to get to the top of a platform faster.
Space Jump
This is the first and only item that i need to finish the game as fast as possible, Space Jump is basically a double jump, you can do a second jump in the air, this makes the gameplay so much easier and it's needed for a glitch later on the run.
Death to Area 1
This game has a Continue system, if you passed to another Area (this saves your progress automatically) or if you hit the Save Block and then take a Game Over, you can continue with the items that you got. After taking the Space Jump the only thing to do is go back to Area 1, but first you have to save your progress, the fastest way to save and then take a death is getting your way to Area 2.
Wrong Warp Glitch to Area 5
As you can see on the run, there's a Wrong Warp that is needed to reach Area 5 as fast as possible, this Wrong Warp works exactly the same like SMB1 4-2 Wrong Warp, manipulating On-Screen X Position, then entering the pipe the game thinks that you take the previous pipe and takes you to the Area 5. Space Jump is needed to do this Glitch since there is no wall to perform the screen manip, doing the double jump at the very top of a ceiling pushes you to the right side.
Bowser
This Bowser has 32 HP, but his attacks and movements are not so different to the original game. You want to Fire the Balls as close as possible to Bowser, that way the Fire Balls dissapears faster and you can shot faster. This game requires you to beat the game with some Keys to unlock the Best Ending but this run literally didn't take any Key, so that's why the game shows you the Bad Ending defeating Bowser, but not rescuing the Princess.
Memory: Optimization looks fine.
So while on the surface this run appears ok entertainment-wise, the goal choice was a source of controversy. In my opinion this run doesn't really beat the game. The differences between good ending and bad ending are as follows
Bad ending:
- No true final boss
- Gets ???'s above Mario's head and asked where the princess is
- No completion time nor completion percentage
- After returning to title screen, hitting continue you seem to have all your previous items and progress. This is identical to a game over.
Good ending:
- True final boss
- Rescues princess and gets a "Thanks for playing"
- Completion time and completion percentage are displayed
- After returning to title screen, hitting continue you seem to lose all your items but have invincibility.
In my opinion there is a lot to suggest that the bad ending isn't really beating the game. To me it's a similar case to Igavania games where there is a clear fake ending of sorts. The fact that it is functionally identical to a gameover solidifies it for me.
Apparently the game does suggest you go to the final area before you get enough keys to get the true ending, but to me this doesn't really change things. As I see it, that could just mean they intended the bad ending as a sort of like half-way point for the game. The other indicators are just so much stronger.
However, we don't exactly have clear rules on this so admittedly one could argue that under the current rules there is nothing strictly prohibiting this. However, there is another problem.
The main thing this branch has going for it that true ending does not have is the wrong warp used, and I really don't see that alone as enough of a difference. Given that this is a romhack, it must be moons worthy in order to be accepted.
Rejecting.