MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Review Information

Game Reviewed	Super Mario: Blue Twilight DX, by BlazeHedgehog
Review Author	Cruise Elroy
Created	Oct 31 2015, 5:01 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview

Seeing as Halloween has once again come to haunt us, I decided to play a Halloween fangame. Just not any Halloween fangame, however. I'm talking about Super Mario: Blue Twilight. The fangame that was so popular that it got featured on G4's Attack of the Show. Truth be told, I haven't played this before. So I downloaded it and...man, this hasn't aged well at all. I can see WHY this was popular, but I'm still clueless as to HOW.

Pros	+ It got featured on G4 once + A good soundtrack + Nostalgic
Cons	- Abysmally broken controls - Level design that doesn't mix - Iffy graphics - A few weird sounds - Not very approachable now

Impressions

Gameplay 4 / 10	The game has some questionable design choices to say the least. Since it's the first thing shown to us, let's talk about the controls. Let's see...what's one word I could use to describe them? Oh yeah, TERRIBLE. You have a Mario that falls pretty fast, weird jumping, no acceleration, and a collision engine that makes the default Game Maker collision engine look like a masterpiece. The controls are clunky and unpredictable, and I never have been able to get used to them. But get used to them you must, because this is a hard game. The level design would actually be pretty neat if the controls were much more suited for it, and the enemies are as unpredictable as the collisions. Thankfully, once you beat a level, your health DOES NOT replenish! I'm certain that there were different standards of quality back then, and I can accept that. But I'm reviewing the game I have now, not the game I had back then. And come on, is it really too much to ask for a full health bar after I beat a level? You can also grab a few powerups like in a traditional Mario game. There's the Fire Flower and the Carrot. They're both helpful when trying to fight off a large crowd of enemies or get over some platforms. I especially like the Carrot, because it means I don't have to do as much tricky platforming due to the controls. There's not much to talk about for the levels themselves, except for one. The ghost house was nearly enough to get me to quit. You need to have super precise jumps to get over the platforms (and the terrible controls don't really help), and you need to dodge through a swarm of enemies. If I had decided to let go of hope, the game would've effortlessly warranted itself a 1. And then there's the bosses. The bosses are...actually decent. Nothing special, but at least they were fun enough to make certain levels more than a complete waste of time. Each one requires a unique strategy to beat, but they're never so vague that you're left button mashing hoping you can beat them. If you die to them (which will happen a lot with the second one), their health also does not get charged back up after death. Huh, seems like everyone is suffering from Second Life Injury Syndrome. Not that I'm complaining for the bosses or anything, but this can be easily fixed too. This isn't 2005. Oh, wait... The game kind of goes through highs and lows like this for the rest of the experience, unfortunately with more lows than highs. I didn't beat it all the way through, if anything because the level design doesn't compliment the controls.
Graphics 3 / 10	Each sprite has either been taken from official games or sprited by hand. This isn't necessairly a bad thing, but there are three glaring problems with this. A. The sprites clash I know sprite clashing is an issue that you just gotta deal with for older fangames, but I can't help myself here. You have sprites taken from every Mario game under the sun from 2005, and only a few of them look like they mesh well. B. There's cutoff everywhere Ugh. One of my major pet peeves is when a ledge or wall is cutoff or isn't naturally connected to the rest of the level. Thankfully, this annoyance can be seen all over the levels. I wish I was joking, but there's a bunch of platforms that look like they were copy + pasted without trying to make things look more natural. C. There isn't a lot of consistency The biggest issue I had with the graphics is that there's no way to tell if something is solid or not. Most of the time you need to test it out for yourself, which can cause you to fall into a pit or a gang of skeletons. Sometimes you just have to be lucky. No, I'm serious! Some walls look identical to some background objects and you can't even tell the difference between the two.
Sound 7 / 10	The music is actually pretty neat. The music in each stage helps add to the Halloween atmosphere while remaining catchy. While most of the sounds are okay, Mario's voice, jumping into boxes, and killing certain enemies did manage to get annoying quickly. The sound balancing, by the way, is a complete crapshoot. There are sounds that you can just barely here (one just so happens to be the death music), while others will make YouTube commenters get off their seats and type "2:03 RIP headphone users". All in all, it's decent, but the volume levels need to be a lot more balanced.
Replay 5 / 10	Well, this part's a bit more tough. If you still like this game and want to finish it, by all means go ahead! I personally gave up just because it was too clunky and unapporachable for me. However, I have heard that there's some secret goodies to be found when you play the game on certain dates. That's cool...I guess?

Final Words

If you have a soft spot for this game simply by nostalgia, go ahead and play it. Otherwise, it's best to let this game continue to rest in peace.

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