[SMS:Eclipse 19] Peach's Castle Post-Game (Backlogging 52)
1Man, I could've just used this level for all the thumbnails...Also I think I missed a level that looked like it featured sky pillars.
Again, never played fully through SM64. Maybe I'll add it to a different backlog in the future. Lots of neat little levels here. I really like the triple scene Super Galaxy, and I feel like Starshine Beach was supposed to be a mini level like Red Lily and the like, but didn't make the final cut. I definitely think Isle Medusa was supposed to be a new main area like Erto Rock or Warship Island, but also didn't make the cut, which is a shame. I think Isle Medusa's pretty cool with an interesting layout, as evidenced by how long I was willing to spend on it. I would definitely be looking forward to maybe an Eclipse 2 or 1.5 that has all these levels fully finished and polished, and with more details/polish to the levels that are already included! I couldn't get the outro idea to pan out. Something about audio codecs not lining up or something, unfortunately.
I also really liked the smaller, unreleased secret levels. They had some really cool mechanics like the floating Lilly Pads for a platform. Those retextured floating wood blocks were nice to look at as well. I'm also of the opinion now that they should've just let you get the Red Coin AND regular Shine Sprites for secret levels in the same session to prevent backtracking. It must've been too hard to implement for the older levels in the game, so they opted for a stylistic choice for consistency with the main game. Definitely tried to get too fancy on Lily Pad Obstacle Course. Ate my words too, lol.
I wish the frames were a bit better in Waterpark. Seemed like a really cool level, but unplayable at 60fps. SMS doesn't seem to have any performance issues if you lock it to 30fps, but I'm kind of used to the smoothness of 60fps now. I liked the Monte Fruit poster they put in the Waterpark though, and man, False Block Nexus messed me up. That level's definitely the hardest platforming challenge for this game, imo. That coin on the side of the block is absolutely devious. I'd be interested in seeing people compete for fastest completion on that.
Lot of history in these levels as well, like how Delfino Plaza was originally Dolpic Town, or there used to be an event from Nintendo called Spaceworld where they originally unveiled a very alpha version of Super Mario Sunshine. Pretty cool slice of history I wouldn't have known about otherwise! I really like the Spaceworld Dolpic Town layout, I wonder why they changed it? Epicwade seems like another close to completion mini world that never made the cut. The cutoff in the middle was a bit awkward for traversal, but I bet it would look cool to see a TAS do crazy tricks by landing on the small poles for traversal. It seems like a lot of the basement levels were extremely experimental stuff compared to the normal main levels, and the original alpha/beta levels for the game. Super Monkey Ball was funny, I definitely nearly had a heart attack seeing AiAi almost fall off instead of going down the metal bars, whew. Very creative concept to basically use a Durian for it.
Overall: I had a lot of fun playing this! Thank you devs for the wonderful experience. I get the feeling the other backlog games aren't going to get to be nearly as fun because of the sheer amount of creativity and experimentation you can do with SMS's movement in comparison, but who knows?
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Chapters: 0:00 Intro And Getting Some Place One Last Time
3:30 Peach Castle Exploration
7:18 Starshine Beach
19:17 Beta Bianco Hills
23:28 Beta Ricco Harbor
29:58 E3 Dolpic Town
36:09 Super Galaxy
38:32 Beta Shell's Secret
42:16 Sunshine Isles And Piantissimo With Turbo Nozzle?!
47:32 Beta Delfino Square From Mario Kart Wii
53:54 Finding The Hardest Platforming Level: False Block Nexus
54:36 Trying The Hardest Level With Piantissimo Maybe
1:03:10 Isle Medusa
1:19:54 Exploring The Mirror Room
1:21:55 The Endless Void Of Vast Emptiness
1:23:30 Losing All My Lives To False Block Nexus And Eventually Giving Up For Now
1:38:53 Post-Game Session 2 Start
1:39:32 Spaceworld Bianco Hills
1:42:02 Lancia Fredda Peaks v1
1:44:45 Beta Yoshi Village
1:48:56 Upper Upstairs
1:50:13 Floating Island Floatilla
1:55:02 Lily Pad Obstacle Course
1:58:30 Pride Cometh Before The (Literal) Fall
2:06:23 Crash Bandicoot*(Not Banjo Kazooie) N. Sanity Jungle
2:08:42 Seeing If I Missed Anything Upstairs
2:10:20 Waterpark
2:15:40 Basement Time
2:17:32 Spaceworld Dolpic Town
2:20:51 Epicwade Easter Egg
2:27:03 SUPER MONKEY BALL?
2:34:41 Windfall Island
2:51:55 E3 Bianco Hills
2:54:25 Final Challenge: False Block Nexus
3:09:52 Final Wrap Up And Thoughts
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Here's the backlog/tracking spreadsheet if you want to check it out: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Gy7BoR1tceBkeXQ7C3Ghmv8IZ-dWOsjfrc-Fq4M2hzs/edit?usp=sharing
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Mod here:
https://gamebanana.com/mods/536309