MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Review Information

Game Reviewed	Wario Bros., by Vitiman
Review Author	CM30
Created	Aug 26 2016, 3:44 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview

We've all seen Mario Bros, right? Whether in the arcade, or the NES, or as part of one of the Super Mario Advsnce games you can get on the GBA, this game has been everywhere in the last twenty or so years.

And if you've played the original WarioWare game, you'll also have experienced something called Wario Bros. Which as you may have guessed, is Mario Bros with Wario as the main character.

But none of them are quite like this. Because Wario Bros the fan game, is a sort of crossover edition of the arcade classic, with various other characters and monsters from other 80s Nintendo games acting as enemies!

But does this game do the concept well? Is it a solid clone of the original Mario Bros? Well, let's find out!

Pros	New enemies and gimmicks make for a very unique Mario Bros clone Interesting bonus games keep things going Generally good engine, with fun gameplay
Cons	Pacing is off. Sometimes you'll wait five seconds for a single enemy to spawn, sometimes ten will spawn in the same time. Random traps in the final level are cheap and come from nowhere No way to quickly restart the game

Impressions

Gameplay 7 / 10	It'a a solidly designed clone of the original Mario Bros, with Wario replacing Mario as the main protagonist. However, unlike either the original or the microgame it's based on, the game doesn't just stick to enemies and traps from the original. Instead, characters and monsters from various other games are mixed in too, with their own gimmicks. For example, Bomberman lays bombs that can kill you or other enemies, and has to be defeated by stunning him til his own explosion takes him out. The Condor from Ice Climber drops enemies from above. Ropes from the Zelda series drop rupees upon being killed, which can give you more points. It's a very interesting twist on the formula that adds a lot more than most clones and official remakes, and makes it very worthy of a playthrough. There are also neat bonus games after each level, which are based on other NES classics. They're quite good, though wildly inconsistent in terms of difficulty (the Balloon Fight one is much harder than the Wrecking Crew one). That said, it does have its issues here, mostly with the enemies. For one thing,pacing is very inconsistent. Sometimes, no enemies spawn for seconds on end, other times they'll appear every half a second or so. This means the game can get boring (when nothing is happening) or frustrating (when too much is happening at once). And then there are the Rinkas in the final level. These energy balls spawn randomly, and so it's possible for you to get killed after half a second by something you can barely see on screen. Or trapped in a corner by an incoming Rinka on one side and a normal enemy on the other. Either way, they're annoying and get in the way far too much in level 4. But for the most part? It's a fairly decent game that works as it's meant to.
Graphics 7 / 10	Well, the enemies all use eight bit graphics from various NES and arcade titles. So for the most part, they work pretty well together. Backgrounds and tiles are mostly from Mario Bros, with a few other NES era graphics mixed in. They work fine, albeit not really with enough variation between levels. Nothing much to say here.
Sound 3 / 10	Disappointing. Yes, I know Mario Bros had little in the way of music, but it really wouldn't have hurt to add some here instead. Maybe have an option to play some of the music from the GBA version of Mario Bros? The sound effects themselves are fairly typical, and the extra songs are true to the original game. Either way, it's a bit lacking in the sound department.
Replay 5 / 10	It's got a score system, so that always adds a bit of replay value to the whole deal. And there's more incentive to check out the four levels here than there is to check out everything in the arcade or NES versions of the game. But it is still a four level game, and its obvious a lot less 'deep' in its mechanics and level design than a normal Mario platformer. So replay value is obviously going to be limited here.

Final Words

Wario Bros is a pretty enjoyable twist on the original Mario Bros formula, with enough changes from the original game to make it worth a play or two.

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