Review Information
Game Reviewed Super Mario Pandemonium, by ShyGuy182
Review Author Thunder Dragon
Created Mar 14 2004, 7:09 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview
Imagine this scenario: you are walking across a narrow rope bridge, across a vast pit of molten lava. You watch as several planks of the bridge break off and plummet downwards into the lava - one wrong move could mean certain death. You carefully step over the pits, as you slowly make it across. You are almost there, your destination is now coming into view. Just 3 more steps to go until you reach it, and then... a gnat softly buzzes past you. You then spin around in shock, howling in horror, until the bridge breaks, sending you to your firey doom. Such situations describe Super Mario Pandemonium quite accurately.
 
Pros ...well, uh... at least some effort was put into it.
 
Cons The difficulty is aggrivating to no end, the control is a bit disorientating, the level design is poor, Mario dies in one hit, horrible collision detection, jumps across long pits with single-block platforms, no final boss, no bosses of any kind, unrewarding ending, and lacking in any fun whatsoever.
 
Impressions
Gameplay
2 / 10
Standard platformer, okay. Hammer-based fameplay, overused but okay. So, its basicly your standard Mario fanmade game. Except with more flaws than usual. You will get used to the awkward control of the game after a short while, then you will attempt to finish the first level. If you plan to continue, it is going to be a LONG night: the difficulty gets tough early on in the game, but make no mistake; it is not a satisfying challenge, it is AGONY. Thanks to poor collision detection, one hit from an enemy means the end of Mario, which means you must restart the level. Mind you, the levels are insanely long, and they aren't easy either. They have no checkpoints, and are comprised mainly of long pits with single blocks as stepping stones, placed as far apart as possible. If you find something like that to be fun, then you obviously haven't played a video game in your entire, pitiful life. Even Bokosuka Wars is more fun. Although, the game does have some variety. In the second level of every world, Mario gets some sort of new gear to complete the stage with. It is not a bad idea at all, however, it could have been pulled off better... a LOT better. For example, take the skateboard in level 2. It will move insanely fast, and you must jump over every little obstacle in the way. And here is where the bad collision detection really comes in: if the very edge of the skateboard touches an enemy, even if you are travelling as slow as possible, the board will be sent flying and Mario will be sent dying. Trust me, I could not even squeeze out the smallest amount of enjoyment from this game. All it results in is the yelling and screaming and smashing of things from the player. Super Mario Pandemonium is, indeed, aptly named.
 
Graphics
7 / 10
We have the usual SNES graphics, Ninja's Paper Mario sprite, poor mixes of resized graphics, and so on. Nothing out of the ordinary.
 
Sound
7 / 10
Not much to say here, but at least it has variety in music.
 
Replay
1 / 10
One word: Why?
 
Final Words
1 / 10
Nothing personal, but this game is rather poor. Do not bother with it unless you need an excuse to smash something out of anger.

Comments
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TheTwelfthRocket
Dec 20 2015, 4:23 AM
Fameplay?
 
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