MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Review Information

Game Reviewed	Mario: The Last Castle, by JS Lemming
Review Author	ShadowMan
Created	Jan 2 2005, 4:34 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview

I've seen some hard fangames. Some that were just unfairly hard. Where you wished it would just stop. This game is extremely hard, but for all the right reasons. There's no dirty tricks to it or crappy level design. This is just ball-breaking, aggro, insane difficulty. Closest a Mario fangame has come to Contra. Addendum: I just learned that this game was made entirely in C++. Amazing.

Pros	-Difficulty. -Great level design. -Multiple difficulties -Good enemy AI. -Plenty of secrets. -Smooth engine
Cons	-No chance to get extra lives. -Could be longer.

Impressions

Gameplay 9 / 10	This is the meat of the game, and what a good tasting meat it is. The game is really, really, goddamn hard. But luckily, it's not "cheap hard". There's very few "small platforms" that you have to jump across. Instead, it's just the level design and amount of enemies that makes it so hard. There's a lot of games I've played where I've screamed in frustration and hurt things because it was too damn hard, but oddly, I didn't for this one. There's one stage with a "falling down and dodging spikey things", but you can get used to it fast. The game is really intense though. One stage pits you against an army of falling thwomps, and it's basically an all-out "Run like hell". My only problem is that even on easy mode, they didn't give you enough lives.
Graphics 8 / 10	Very very smooth. Lots of blood particle effects, and good animation on everything. The thwomps even look at you when you get too close. Paralax also. Fullscreen doesn't really irk me too much.
Sound 6 / 10	Same problem that Doom 3 had: "Weapon sounds aren't powerful enough". Besides that, decent all around. For some reason though, there's a Homer Simpson sound. That gets irritating. There's also only a few music tracks, and it gets repetitive.
Replay 8 / 10	Multiple paths in each level, which is good. Very good. Adds a lot of replay value. There's also a few secret areas, but I've only found one so far. This is also the kind of game that you'll want to play through just once, but you'll keep coming back and not abandon it.

Final Words

This game is hard. It's really hard. I'm talking "Where's-Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A-Start-when-you-need-it" hard. But it's worth it, because it's a blast to play.

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