MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Review Information

Game Reviewed	Super Mario Bratarsi Demo, by Jaklub
Review Author	Black Squirrel
Created	Sep 3 2007, 7:16 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview

Before we begin, I have absolutely no idea what a "Bratarsi" is. Neither does Google. My assumption is that it's from another language and means "Well made GameMaker game", because that's what "Super Mario Bratarsi" is. I managed to miss this one in the queue so I hadn't had time to play it until a few minutes before starting this review, and what a pleasent suprise!

Pros	- A GameMaker Mario game that a) Doesn't suck and b) Isn't a poor edit of an open source engine, unlike most of the stuff submitted here nowadays. - Original gameplay... sort-of. - Smooth engine - No MIDIs
Cons	- Throwing could use some tweaking so that it can hit enemies from a closer range - A tiny bit of sprite clashing

Impressions

Gameplay 8 / 10	The description clearly says "It's a mixture of SMB2, SMB3 and SMW". Nowadays I'd usually take that as being Ultramario's engine poorly edited and thrusted upon the staff in an attempt to get downloads. Not the case here. For once somebody's tried to make a platformer from scratch, and done a pretty damn good job of it. There's little to no lag, which is uncommon for a lot of GameMaker games and it plays differently than your average Mario clone. Rather than hitting boxes above you, items are found in the form of the weed-things you pull in SMB2. In fact, most of the gameplay's based around SMB2, as you pick up and throw objects (Koopa Shells, vegetables etc.) and battle Birdo at the end of the levels. However you can also do the job in the classic Mario fashion - stomping your goombas and kicking your shells. Only a handful of fangames have done this and so far and they all manage to do it well, and this is no exception. Bratarsi however, also shares the same problems with the throwing system as a lot of other games. It's not perfect. At the moment you seem to be able to throw a bit further than in SMB2, and the objects only do damage as they hit the floor. This is especially noticable with the Birdo battles, where you have to stand quite far away to hit her. Other than that it's pretty much spot on, although could use a system where you don't lose powerups after finishing a level. Bratarsi also offers a red coin system which is a nice touch. I always liked little side things like that. Also two playable characters increases the score.
Graphics 6 / 10	Graphics isn't something I like to review in these cases, partly because the first level of this game uses my two-year-old outdated Mario tileset, which looks mighty weak compared to my current spriting skill. It seems to fit I suppose, although I no-longer like it that much. Enemies are from your fair share of SNES games and your odd edit from 8-bit. I'll admit they don't match perfectly, but they don't damage your eyes too much. Likewise your backgrounds aren't always perfect but they do the job. My only real complaint is Birdo who just doesn't seem to fit in at all, but even then it's so minor it doesn't make much of a difference.
Sound 6 / 10	You can be thankful it's not MIDIs, but that doesn't neccessarily mean the music's brilliant. Yeah it's straight from NSMB and SMAS, but some of it seems to be a bit shorter than usual and it doesn't go unnoticed. The swarms of NSMB content after the DS release on this site has put me off the overworld theme altogether, but that doesn't neccessarily mean you won't like it. Personally I would have been a bit more imaginative - SMAS is a very old game now and it's music (and graphics for that matter) have been abused to death. Give it something fresh! =P
Replay 5 / 10	A demo's replay value will never be perfect as many reviewers before me have said. Bratarsi is no exception, although you could find yourself playing it a couple of times with both characters.

Final Words

I'll be honest and say I didn't expect this to be as good as it is. A fine example of what a Mario fangame should be like and most importantly, isn't a clone.

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