MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Review Information

Game Reviewed	Super Mario PC Challenge 7, by Ralph89
Review Author	Black Squirrel
Created	Nov 15 2008, 2:44 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview

So I'm surfing MFGG one day, right, and I come across Super Mario PC Challenge 7 at the top of the games page. Long time viewers of Black Squirrel will remember my review in April 2005 of Super Mario PC Challenge 6. I gave it a 4/10, though looking back it probably deserves a lot worse. But I was young!

Now Ralph89 has blessed us with a sequel, but is it any better?! Short answer, no. Long answer nooooooooooooooooooooo. And you can consider that last sentence the one and only time I'll ever steal a joke from Zero Punctuation.

Pros	-It's a platformer done in RPG Maker, which is probably a hard task to achieve
Cons	-The fact that it's a platformer done in RPG maker means it's practically unplayable -Various other annoying things that I'll list below

Impressions

Gameplay 2 / 10	Imagine that, in the early 80s when Nintendo were producing Game & Watch portables, that Gunpei Yokoi managed to create a Game & Watch game in full colour with side scrolling elements. Then imagine that he gave it a stupid title like [character] Game & Watch Challenge [number > 5]. Now you're beginning to see what Super Mario PC Challenge 7 is like. I think one of the greatest flaws of this game is that gameplay is still as bad as it was in April 2005. So even though we're talking three and a half years later, it's still awful to play. Sure the graphics have got an upgrade and there's more levels, but gameplay is still very poor. And this time I can't even give the guy credit for defying the laws of RPG Maker, because he did it three and a half years ago, so it's not a huge achievement anymore. There's been no major gameplay improvements... in fact it's probably got a bit worse with the inclusion of "short jumps" and "running". There's probably a load of levels in here so if you can master the terrible controls and physics you're probably set to have a reasonably good time, but anyone expecting a smooth, Mario like engine would be better looking elsewhere. Though don't do it quite just yet because we're not even half way through this review. One other thing that bugged me was the fact that every time you get a game over, you have to go right back to the very start, re-choosing text background colours and jump sounds, and skipping through the story you didn't want. It's great that there's some customisation in here, but it really isn't needed in a platformer like this.
Graphics 4 / 10	Graphics are average. You'll have seen them before - they're nothing special. Though they could be a thousand times worse, they could also be a thousand times better. But there's a catch, because all the graphics (and music) can be replaced! All you need to do is swap some PNGs around because all the graphics are saved externally, and presto - graphics problems solved. However saying that, I can't really bump up the graphics score on the basis that you can manually replace the boring default sprites. That's something Ralph89 should have done before submitting.
Sound 3 / 10	The sound can be replaced also, which I suppose is a good thing because once again we're treated to the dullness that is Super Mario Bros. 3 MIDIs. MFGG's been recieveing fangames using these tunes for SEVEN YEARS. Doesn't anyone have any imagination anymore? Now granted there are a few non-Mario musics that play later on, but with gameplay this flawed most of you won't get to those stages. Oh and by "non-Mario" I mean, "Donkey Kong Country".
Replay 1 / 10	I'm just going to say there isn't any replay value. There probably is if you're willing to put up with the gameplay, but I can't play this for long periods of time and I don't think many of you can either.

Final Words

Probably best if you avoid this one, seeing as it's still as unplayable as the prequel released three and a half years ago.

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Comments

	Ralph89 Nov 15 2008, 4:08 PM
Quote (Black Squirrel) One other thing that bugged me was the fact that every time you get a game over, you have to go right back to the very start Erm, it's possible to save outside the levels and to go back to the saved place ;-). Btw : What's so bad with the title? As there were 6 prequels (nr. 1-5 weren't translated into English ; they were also all in the same style as I didn't really try to improve them) it has the number 7 o_O.

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