Review Information
Game Reviewed Super Mario PC Challenge 6, by Ralph89
Review Author CM30
Created Sep 6 2015, 11:59 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview
Let's cut to the chase here.

This game is virtually unplayable. The physics are so ridiculously broken that actually trying to complete a level is almost done to luck due to how poor the jump physics are.

But since that's not enough for a review on its own, let's look a bit deeper into why this game is so utterly horrific.
 
Pros Some levels look moderately decent
The music is okay, for the most part
It's... sort of a technical achievement to make this in RPG Maker?
 
Cons The gameplay/engine is horrifically bad. The jump mechanics are virtually unusable
The game's collision detection does not work properly.
Many levels look awful due to poorly chosen graphics
 
Impressions
Gameplay
1 / 10
Oh boy.

When the description said it was made in RPG Maker, you could already tell that this was not going to work. The mechanics of an RPG and the mechanics of a platformer are so many miles apart that you'd need to be a godly programmer to turn one into the another.

This game, is an example of how NOT to do this. It's not a platformer, it's an appallingly coded, utterly broken fascimile of a platformer that's rendered unplayable due to the jump physics and collision detection being crap.

For starters, Mario has no real control over his jumping. If he jumps, he either flies straight up in the air or in one direction without any control whatsoever. Want to land on enemies or clear pits? Good luck with that, these physics just make it near impossible.

The collision detection just makes this worse. You see, in a real Mario game, you pass through coins to collect them. Simple isn't it? Here, you can't do that. You have to be standing right underneath, and then jump, to get a coin above Mario. How was this messed up so badly?

The level design and enemies aren't much cop either. The former is flat and mostly uninteresting (though to some degree, it's a positive, since truly interesting levels would be unplayable with this engine), the latter act nothing like the originals and kill Mario in one hit. They also all die instantly if Mario somehow manages to land on one, which just looks jarring and wrong.

And in case you thought it couldn't get worse? The game has SWIMMING in it. Oh god help us all, the swimming controls make the land controls look amazing by how slow and unresponsive they are.

Honestly, this game just doesn't work, period.
 
Graphics
2 / 10
For the most part, they clash and look horrible. You've got default RPG Maker graphics, Mario Kart 64 portraits, JPEG pictures of Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario World sprites and Super Mario Bros 3 backgrounds among others.

The world 1 levels are the worst. The RPG Maker tiles are used in a horrible way where the grass tiles just lead straight into cliff tiles with no seperation, which looks like a horrible attempt at pseudo 3D and just pains the eyes even more.

Least the map looks nice enough.
 
Sound
5 / 10
You've got Mario music and RPG Maker music. Neither works well, but they don't hurt the ears at the least.
 
Replay
1 / 10
It's unplayable. You simply wouldn't ever return to this, unless you're an utter masochist.
 
Final Words
1 / 10
Trying to make a platformer out an RPG engine may be an achievement technically, but this game is simply too broken to be enjoyable. Play something else, it's not worth it.

Comments
No Icon
Dim_Yimma_H
Sep 14 2015, 7:47 PM
Reading PC Challenge 6... Feb 4 2006... 2.4 / 10

Why how on did you..? Haha you were mighty an optimistic fan!
 
User Icon
CM30
Sep 14 2015, 10:18 PM
I like reviewing random games. Double so if they're terrible, since that gives me more to write... okay, rant about.
 
Pages: (1) 1 | Last Unread