“Super Mario World: All-Star Edition” — Nifty Fan-game Demo!
I was recently contacted by Mikeystar45 on YouTube, who told me about a fan-game he had been working on for over four years. Only recently had he released the first major public demo, but he seemed really proud of it and asked me to play through it and, if I had the time, do a live-stream or video of the game.
His game is called Super Mario World: All-Star Edition, and despite the name, it feels more closely related to, say, Super Mario Bros. 3 or the New Super Mario Bros. games than its initial namesake would imply. The story draws on the mythology of Star Haven, and really, the story is very well-done and shines through. There’s a focus on good storytelling that I really like about this game.
Yet, it is the actual gameplay that stands out here. The game is challenging – even on the “Intermediate” setting (which I take to be “Normal” mode), I had difficulty with the first area. Maybe it was just my skills being rusty, but I still feel like the difficulty is turned up, obviously showing that the game is designed by a person who wanted to challenge others. The mechanics of collecting special coins throughout the stages is present, and the overworld is sprawling. There is a wide variety of power-ups (including some that are unique to the game), and interesting areas to explore. You can visit Toad Town and Peach’s Castle to pick up special items, interact with NPCs, and much more. All-in-all, the game gives you the feeling of actually getting a peek into Mario’s world.
The game isn’t without its bugs though. In fact, the video included with this post (taken from a stream done on the evening of December 2-3, 2014) ends with a bug that sends Mario falling through the floor to his death (and eliciting a bit of anger from me). I also had trouble getting the game to save via the menu, though I am unsure if I was just doing something wrong or if the save feature wasn’t working yet for manual saving (the save prompt when completing certain levels, though, seemed to work fine).
If you’d like to try the game out, you can find the demo right here in his video notes.
It looks ambitious I’ll give it that at least, looks a little unfocused though, SO many things chucked in I’m wary that they aren’t all going to be fully fleshed out .
I agree. I hope that they focus on making the game a solid experience. This problem with being unfocused is a biggie. There’s another fan-game maker called DJ Coco who made “Super Mario Country” and “Paper Mario Land,” and those were on the shorter side, but also really good. It shouldn’t be about length, but about making a solid experience, whether it takes 1 hour or 10 to beat 🙂
That’s what I’m trying to do with my Zelda fan-game – focus on telling a good story with some fun adventuring in the mix.
I can tell myself its the quality of the meal not the quantity that counts as much as I want, when you taste something good you want to have a decent serving. I’ll like a fantastic 5 hour experience, yet in the end I really want it to be 11 or 14 or what have you, I’m not full yet.
I think you’ll get that whenever my Zelda game is finished 🙂 I plan to have it be the best it can be before I consider that one “done.” 🙂