MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Review Information

Game Reviewed	Super Mario Bros: Odyssey (Ch1), by smbmaster99
Review Author	TheTwelfthRocket
Created	Jan 1 2016, 12:55 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview

Super Mario Bros: Odyssey, the retelling of the story of SMB1, which has high praise by everyone!

Seriously, I don't get why the game gets such praise. It just...doesn't feel like SMB1 IMO, which is ironic, because I'm pretty sure this is a retelling of SMB1. Well, what does this game have to offer? Let's see.

Pros	+Graphics are pretty nice +The music +You can play as other characters at least
Cons	-The music -The level design -The wall jump is as bad as it was in SMB6 (Read review: Super Mario Bros. 6) -Why can I only speed up the cutscenes but not skip them? -Overall it doesn't feel like SMB1 (The physics, level design, etc. doesn't feel like SMB1)

Impressions

Gameplay 4 / 10	The story is just like SMB1: Bowser came to the Mushroom kingdom and he kidnapped Peach. Nothing else needs to be said. You also realize that you can't skip the opening cutscene, but you can only speed it up. And if you're a person like me who doesn't care about the story and only care about gameplay, this is a problem. But the only reason why smbmaster99 chose to do this instead was technical (which you could see in the comments of this review). The time you get into gameplay, you get a character select screen, which the characters have their own abilities. Mario Pros: Wall jumping Cons: None Mario is the only one who can wall jump strangely, but it is obviously a reference to the fact that Mario was the only one to wall jump in SM64DS, and unlike everyone else, has no cons. The wall jump doesn't really give you much height either; it honestly feels like SMB6's wall jump...which isn't good. Luigi Pros: Can jump high Cons: Bad traction Luigi is once again the person that can jump high and has terrible traction. Luigi is also another character that is unlocked from the start. He makes platforming somewhat easier due to his jump height, but on land he's hard to control on land. I'm not actually sure if Toad and Peach exist as playable characters in this chapter, so that's all I know. Now for the control. So since this is a SMB1 retelling, does it have the physics of SMB1? ...No. It's made with the Hello engine, but smbmaster99 used the Hello engine modification used in Super Mario Fusion: Revival, so expect the use of SMB3-like physics, which just adds to the difficulty because SMB3 physics are hard to use for me. As long as the game doesn't have bad level design, it's all good for me. However the level design is not really good. One of the reasons why I didn't like Yoshi's Island as much as others is because the levels take eternity to complete, and YI IS VERY BRUTAL WITH THE DIFFICULTY. Same thing here, except SMBO doesn't do it as badly. That doesn't change the fact that the level design isn't good. The levels are actually pretty long for a fangame, and the fact that each world spans to 8 levels...well, you're going to be in that level for a while. Also, checkpoints don't seem very abundant, which just adds to the difficulty. Not very good.
Graphics 9 / 10	The graphics are, sadly, the best thing about the game. If you are expecting SMAS graphics, you're wrong. Kind of, though. While most are just edits of original SMAS graphics, some, like the star coin (from Gatete's tileset I think) are custom, which are actually pretty good. Pretty good.
Sound 7 / 10	Now music is kind of a mixed bag for me. Some are remixes, some aren't remixed but still sounds HQ, and unchanged music from older games that sound inferior compared to the remixes. Smbmaster99, why exactly did you choose to mix HQ songs/remixes and also add the low quality music? I wouldn't say that's a good idea, aren't there remixes for the low-quality songs that you used? That kind of bothers me. As for sounds, unlike the music, they aren't a mixed bag. They are just normal Mario noises. Good.
Replay 2 / 10	You can collect all the star coins, but other than that, there's no way I'm coming back. The level design and music choices (quality wise anyway) is what is keeping me from playing again.

Final Words

Super Mario Bros. Odyssey wants to be a SMB1 retelling; but the flaws just kill the score. Sorry, I think I'm just a picky person.

No offense, but that's just how I feel about this game.

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Comments

	smbmaster99 Jan 1 2016, 7:55 AM
Your statement Quote (TheTwelthRocket) don't go crying to me saying that 6 is an understatement, because there is plenty from keeping it from a 10 is quite honestly the most generalizing statement I've read in a while :y What do you think I am, a 12 year old who can't take constructive criticism, or heck even a 6? Of course not lol. I'm an adult who's been through criticism much harsher than this and I took it just as well as I took this :v A 6 is on the upper half of a 5 so it could've been much worse. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and this review is exactly that: your opinion. Regardless I still see some errors in your review and aim to address them, but I am by no means attacking you or this review, for as I just stated, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I merely feel a slight need to defend this work of mine and address some things that stand out in your review to me. Giving only Mario the ability to walljump was supposed to be a throwback to super mario 64 DS, and to give him a way to reach star coins that only luigi may have been able to get. It would also be a tool with which to avoid death if you fell down death pits. And personally I like the idea of Mario and Luigi both having their own unique skills more than both of them sharing the wall jump ability. If Luigi had both this and his flutter jump, mario would be a heck of a lot less unique wouldn't he? Just a shorter red luigi without the flutter jump and better traction Yes, the game is a retelling of SMB1, which implies artistic liberties and creative freedoms were taken, not a remake, which implies a borderline 1:1 replica of the original, with improvements added. It may just be my poor way of handling words or I'm just tired because it's 1:15 AM in my area right now, but just from my point of view, I think you were expecting something entirely different than what you got, or perhaps I'm wrong and you were expecting something far grander as a result of all the praise this game has been subject to, both of which naturally would lead to disappointment if your expectations are not met. The cutscenes were added because initially there was to be a story arc connecting chapters 1-3, and quite honestly, a lack of story bores me, and I chose to break tradition in some ways and make a mario story similar how I had always interpreted them when I was a child. The only problem was of course not being able to skip the cutscenes. The way I had designed the cutscenes would have made it impossible to skip them without glitching up level progression, and by the time I thought of a fix I had already finished the final level and boss, and it would have taken a nightmare of re-writing code and fixing another large list of glitches that was still growing larger as I tested more and more. I openly admit the wall jump could have been done better. It was my first attempt at including wall jump mechanics and it came out "fine" I'll just say, but even then I knew it could be better, but I did not know at the time how to improve upon it so I left it as-is. I honestly am sorry to hear you did not enjoy the level designs, as I spent quite a bit of time on each level (entirely scrapping some designs that were 100% complete and doing them over from scratch because I felt they would not be satisfactory), making each one feel fresh, look pretty, etc., but hey you can't please them all. The level designs were made with moderately skilled players in mind, so the difficulty was meant to feel average, and become harder as you progressed. But that leads us to the only part of my response that is critical of your review: You really should have made a better attempt to either finish the game or at least play more than the first 12 level, and no, I'm not going to say "you would have enjoyed it more had you gone further" lololol it's obvious you didn't enjoy what you played so I'm not going to suggest you


	TheTwelfthRocket Jan 1 2016, 4:48 PM
Well, thanks for the comment still.


	TheTwelfthRocket Jan 1 2016, 7:12 PM
Oh, and by the way, the "don't go crying to me saying that 6 is an understatement, because there is plenty from keeping it from a 10" thing was not actually targeted to you, smbmaster99. It was actually targeted to anyone that loves the game, where it tells "don't complain about my review because 6 is too little for a game like this", not "you complaining about my review because I gave it a 6 and you can't take criticism". Sorry for any confusion.

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