Game:

Super Mario Bros. (1985)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 12:30

649 views

4

(Please read the entire description, or at least the end.)

It's finally time...time for Mario to go kick Bowser's butt and take back the Princess! Bowser's Castle is actually relatively easy in this game and very straightforward. The first room pits you against standard castle enemies like Thwomps and Podoboos, plus the large smashing spike pillars. The second room has lava that rises and falls. In both rooms, the timing of your jumps is key. There is one more room before the boss, an auto-scrolling hallway full of fireballs that come at you. Upon reaching the end, we get a powerup and access to Bowser's chamber. Bowser in this game can be tricky if you don't know how to deal with each of his attacks. He takes 5 hits to defeat, but all you need to do is jump on his head. He starts out acting similar to his SMB1 incarnation like Mecha-Bowser did, though without the hammers or ground shaking and with much larger fireballs. After taking 1 hit, he walks a little faster and his fireballs go a little faster. After taking 2 hits, he starts jumping in place at one of three heights and spitting one or two fireballs upon landing. The medium and high jumps will also stun you. After taking 3 hits, he starts jumping across the screen trying to land on Mario, once again shaking the screen and spitting fireballs when he lands. After taking 4 hits, he keeps the same pattern, only he spits 3 fireballs instead. After taking 5 hits, well...he turns into smoke. Cue endgame cutscene and credits sequence.

And the curtain closes on another LP...ah. This is the first full-length ROM hack that I've recorded a playthrough of, and I probably won't do another one for quite a while. It is one of my favorites, I have to say. As I explained in the commentary, this hack doesn't seem to shine in any particular area, but neither is it deficient in anything either. The level design, the graphics, the music, the ASM...everything just works together. I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes Mario games, especially if they're interested in trying some hacks. It is a bit on the easy side compared to most hacks, but that's what we call a good thing in this case, considering the average hack seems to have such a ridiculous difficulty curve, I probably couldn't even get all the way through without savestates. Just the fact that I was willing to do a full LP of this hack should tell you something right there. I do wish it were a bit longer, though...I counted only 44 levels total, and the maximum is 95 or 96. I only had 15 videos, too; compare that to my Donkey Kong Country LPs, for instance. I can think of a few other things that could have been improved on as well, such as boss A.I. and lack of backgrounds in some areas. Ah, well, that's for next time. There's no sequel planned as far as I know, but it could happen. Why not? There are still plenty of games to play, though, so I hope you'll join me in whatever I decide to do next.

Also, at this point, I would like to mention that the creator of the hack also does LPs, and I suggest you check her channel out: http://www.youtube.com/user/TransSonic83 . For that matter, take a look at Entanma Project, a small indie game developing team, here: http://entanma.tumblr.com/ . They have some great games (well, okay, only one finished, but there will be more).

With that, I have nothing else to say. Thank you all for watching, and I'll see you in my next project!

- imamelia, a.k.a. TheMartianGeek

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