DS Ultimate Forums- Nintendo DS forums - Blogs

VIP 5, My Findings

cheat-master30 — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:44:36 GMT

With VIP Mario World 5 easy to find online complete with numerous sprites and blocks used included, I have over the last day or so been playing through a lot of the content (and viewing the rest in Lunar Magic), and I now know many interesting new things that have debuted in, or are returning in VIP 5. Keep reading LPers, this information is going to be life or death valuable in a couple of months, and the bosses are of the level that if you don't watch out, you will really suffer fighting.

First of all, bosses. Well, they're far more custom this time around, and if you thought VIP 4 was pushing it to overkill with two custom bosses, you are going to absolutely HATE the bosses in this game. Yes, Tanasinn and Julius are in, albeit probably late game bosses due to their complexity, but now even the Koopalings seem to be custom bosses with multiple attacks and complicated attack patterns!

Ludwig for instance, has been made in a sprite that can be placed in a normal level. Yeah, it's the same mechanic they used in VIP 1's Laboratory level, so expect a difficult custom boss room far beyond the boring mess found in the original Super Mario World.

Roy however, is hell. He's a custom sprite now, and he apparently got a feather or leaf of some kind in the past, because he now sports wings! Yep, he jumps all around the room, stunning Mario as he hits the ground and shoots fireballs two at a time. Did I forget to mention he actually turns around instantly to hit Mario if necessary? I have never beat this boss yet, so be warned, and jumping attacks do not work! He also has multiple other types of fireballs that go diagonally, but I never really got to see much before Mario got brutally torn in half by the projectiles.

Similarly, the file lists hints at a lot of new custom bosses. One is called 'dragon.cfg' in the file list, which seems to make me assume something similar to this will be a boss in VIP 5:

TYK_nRwYbF8

See the last one, it's not looking to be a simple boss...

Similarly, the file list hints at a couple more bosses, such as 'boss_piranha' or something. It might be Petey, it might just be a massive Muncher, but I've fought this in another hack (where I tested it), and it's definitely a boss because the music starts playing when it comes on screen. Not sure how to kill it, since the graphics were messed up, but jumping and item throwing apparently don't work, and it's got an irritating, home in on your location type attack pattern.

Finally, Squawks from Brutal Mario looks to be returning. You know, the parrot from the Donkey Kong Country series? Because there's a sprite called 'squawks_the_parrot' and a block called 'quawks_support.bin'. Is it a boss? Does it hold Mario and help him through a Bramble Maze? Does it shine a light on a dark level? Maybe.

Other gimmicks are a plenty, although they're spread out over quite a few seperate ROM hacks and levels until the whole project has been completed and compiled. One level has the foreground turn to transparent crystal for reasons unknown, as I managed to replicate in one of my own works:

Same sprite as used as Syrup Castle.

The enemy front provided some interesting sprites too. Large Presses, maybe from Cave Story are in, as are homing Banzai Bills (32 x 32 pixels only). Laser generators are in, as are classic firebars (see later link to get them yourself) and some weird sprites I couldn't get to work like something called 'MagikoopaKai.cfg'. Whatever it is, it sounds very nasty.

Plus, remember Temple of Homing? The homing Banzai Bill from that seems to be back, since a sprite on the VIP 5 site is called 'MissileX' and looks near enough completely identical to it. Expect another version of this hellish level.

Missile X in a normal level.

Other gimmicks existed there, including a level which I found unplayably hard involving underwater enemies and gimmicks mixed with rainbow coloured foregrounds, a void like background and three clone Marios following behind. If you hit something, you died instantly, as you did if the clones hit anything. There are two sprites which I think are responsible for this, but they need more testing and likely strict level conditions to work.

Shooter sprites

arrow_shooter
bomb_shooter
h_cannon_shooter

Generator

negative.cfg

I have no idea what this is meant to do. Maybe for the holographic/multi Mario level?

Sprites

albatoss_bomber.cfg (boss)
Astop.cfg
badsword.cfg
bomb_banzai_bill.cfg
bonus_barrel.cfg
coin_greed.cfg (Money = Life original code)
countfloor1.cfg (to 4)
dragon.cfg (boss)
erasemario.cfg
fishbone2.cfg
gyro.cfg
hispeedbill.cfg
iruka.cfg
L3scroll+a.cfg
lightning_lakitu.cfg
ludwig.cfg (boss)
MagikoopaKai.cfg
Mario_x2.cfg
quawks_the_parrot.cfg (mistake included, maybe boss)
rocket_bullet.cfg
spotlight.cfg
thwomp_bullet.cfg (moves then falls on you)
zin.cfg (up to zin5.cfg)

Roy boss, Tanasinn and Julius not included above.

Blocks include Honey.bin, from the Hornet Hole level.

Interestingly enough, there's only about 8 ExGFX files included, so obviously the graphics come in last here. Also, many stuff not listed above can be found in seperate folders on the same site as VIP 5.

There seems to be an airship and a boat level too, similar to Super Mario Bros 3.

The overworld? Not done, all that's changed is a single area with two levels, possibly where Special World used to be. However, their site does have screenshots of the inprogress final version, as well as some goofy hand drawn/Microsoft Paint drawn sketches.

It looks fantastic though in the screenshots however. There's good old Vippers Castle in world 8, and what looks like Luigi's Castle from Brutal Mario in world 7. Indeed, it actually uses Brutal Mario graphics for the overworld, so it's all fancy and ultra realistic.

World 1 is grass land type stuff, world 2... not sure, world 3 is a forest, world 4 is a lava cave, world 5 is cloud tops, world 7 is a massive castle and world 8 is grim Bowser's Castle type territory. It will seriously be a sight to behold when it's done, and I think raocow will literally see his jaw drop just from first impressions.

All in all, it's an interesting, albeit very hard and gimmicky game from what i have seen, and I'll be interested in seeing raocow's playthrough when it's done.

In Which a Ridiculous Amount of Enemies Are Called 'Spiny'?

cheat-master30 — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:48:00 GMT

Indeed, Nintendo has a massive lack of originality when it comes to enemy design, but did you know that around six different Mario series enemies are called 'Spiny' or even look completely identical to them in all but name? Yes, the obvious one is the Mario enemy thrown down by various hostile Lakitus in the 2D games:

But that there's also an enemy in Donkey Kong Country with the same name?

That the Japanese name for Togezo is the exact same name as that for the Mario series Spiny enemy? The name actually means 'Them', which... isn't particularly descriptive.

Also, this hedgehog from Mario Kart 64 has the exact same name, and possibly style as the Donkey Kong Country version:

And finally, two enemies from Wario Land 4 look exactly the same as the Mario series Spiny. Their name actually means 'Needleface' though:

And that's it for Cheat-master30's random Mario trivia day! Tune in next time for the huge amount of myths and legends Mario enemies are based on! Oh wait, there won't be a next time, sorry.

Mario and Luigi 4; More of My Ideas in Detail

cheat-master30 — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:32:48 GMT

Remember last time when I came up with an idea about what the fourth Mario and Luigi game could be like, involving Wario and Waluigi as playable characters and having Midbus and Rudy the Clown as antagonists? Well, today I thought a bit more about what this game could have been like, and have came up with some new ideas for the whole thing. Nintendo, if you want an easy idea for a game, read this and use it!

Well, from where I left off last time, it's already established in terms of the storyline, but basically, Midbus teams up with Rudy the Clown (because the second in command to the villain usually gets revenge and becomes the main baddie, see Fawful), and want some [star shaped objects] found lying around the Mushroom World.

Now, different from before is that they've decided that the most important artifacts can be found in the Diamond City museum, a place which apart from Wario Land Shake It, is usually left untouched by most villains. So they send the usual demand to the town's management asking for the artifact, and as per usual, the authorities refuse. This is Diamond City after all! It goes on modern day systems of government, and doesn't just give random valuable objects to loons that mail in to the government building!

So they attack the city. Considering the place has already dodged two or three demon attacks, multiple end of the universe scenarios and Bowser's three hundred and fifty kingdom takeover attempts nearby, I guess this is kind of a first time situation. As you can guess, the defence forces lose badly. Because... you know, they're used to relatively mundane situations such as human criminals who pose only a minor threat, not a prolonged mass zerg rush of troops by a ten foot tall demon clown and an evil pig/dragon creature. Pizza Dinosaur was never this tough for them!

Ah well, they do better than Mushroom Kingdom, which under Peach's management, basically keels over and waves a white flag after ten minutes and four pulverised Toad guards.

So the town falls in complete anarchy as massive chunks are torn out everything. It's a bit like what would happen if a happy go lucky childrens show setting got invaded by the forces of Sauron or something, but basically, everyone bar many of the main WarioWare characters flee town extremely quickly. The local government building is reduced to a heavily armoured base for the invaders, in the style of Bowser's Castle from Superstar Saga, Peach's Castle from Partners in Time and the same place from Bowser's Inside Story.

Wario of course gets the rude awakening as much of his house gets reduced to rubble by Midbus/Rudy's army. He and Waluigi rush out the door, start fighting some small time mooks and end up facing off with a boss or two before leaving town for help. Or money.

Meanwhile, Mario and Luigi are the other side of the world, and they're starting on their own quest to save the Mushroom World from the forces of evil. You can switch between parties of characters by changing from the top screen to the touch screen, which changes your viewpoint from Mario/Luigi and places like Peach's Castle, Bowser's Castle, Desert Land etc to Wario/Waluigi and Diamond City, Kitchen Island, etc.

On the way, they learn various attacks and abilities, and puzzles have a more interesting style due to objects and items being possible to send between the two parties via some magical teleport system. So you'd get Wario and Waluigi to break some rock to unleash some water, which filled up a river and allowed Mario and Luigi to cross say, some lava or brambles the other side of Mushroom World.

You learn special attacks from the characters in each respective series (or part of the Mario series). For example, Mario and Luigi learn new attacks from characters such as Geno, Professor E Gadd and Princess Peach, while Wario and Waluigi learn them from characters like Mona, 9 Volt and Dr Crygor. When the parties meet, you can combine different attacks for more powerful special attacks, albeit those that are a bit more complex to use in the midst of battle.

Boss battle wise, it's mainly new characters, but old ones do appear. Bowser and Kamek are obvious villains at one point for Mario and Luigi, as are King Boo, Petey Piranha, and even Fawful (again!). For Wario and Waluigi, you've got Captain Syrup, Count Cannoli, Cuckoo Condor and a boss from Shake Dimension among their enemies.

The best part would also be the final dungeon areas. You've got your final dungeon for each team respectively in Midbus' Castle and Rudy's Castle, but then you've also got a whole new half the game afterwards when both teams help each other as one party, including yet another final castle, and eventually the fortified Diamond City Council Building. Each dungeon has a mini boss too, so Fawful and maybe some of the Shroobs might be fought in Midbus' Castle, while in Rudy's you'd have maybe Carpaccio and Mad Dr Sciencestein.

There would also be a few interesting sections, like one where Wario and Waluigi end up in the Diamond City Stadium, surrounded by the evil team and some Chargin' Chucks (come on, someone had to think of the Chucks as stadium enemies!), while a mini game might be in Luigi's Mansion and to progress, you'd have to catch like, four rooms of ghosts (two normal, one portrait, one boss) with the Poltergust and stylus controls to progress.

All in all, I think it'd be an interesting, and somewhat natural fourth game in the Mario and Luigi series if AlphaDream made it, and we can't forget how awesome the music would be, right?

So What Happened to the Dino Rhinos?

cheat-master30 — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:47:18 GMT

When it comes to reusing Super Mario World enemies, most of even the most uncommon ones haven't had it too bad. Banzai Bills made a recent comeback, Fishbones followed their lead and even our old hated enemy the Fishin' Boo reappeared by the time Super Princess Peach came around.

http://kidicarus222.blogspot.com/200...search-of.html

Indeed, at this chart from 'Back of the Cereal Box' shows, most Mario World enemies and characters have reappeared at least once...

Except these unfortunate creatures. Poor Dino Rhinos and Torches never appear in a Mario game again for some reason, and neither does Reznor.

Everyone above appeared before the Dinos...

Okay, that's a bit of a lie, an Albino version appears as a background puzzle object in the Crystal Palace of Paper Mario fame, but these things apparently just never caught on with Nintendo and got thrown out after their first appearances.

Never the less, what happened to the Dino Rhinos and Torches? All over Choco Island, then just never seen again. They appeared in the cartoons, they appeared in that one game, and they never apparently have appeared in a recent or even 3D Mario game.

Will Nintendo ever bring these guys back as Mario enemies? Will they ever menace Mario and co in a 3D Mario game for the first time? We may never know.

Next they'll bring back the Mega Mole before these guys get a look in!

Oh right...

Your Easy and Quick Guide to What the Hell the Super Mario World Special World means

cheat-master30 — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:49:53 GMT

When it comes to the old 90s classic Super Mario World, you'll probably remember that the final area in the game was a super secret set of levels called the Special World, which covered a wide range of hellish level topics for no real reason. You will also probably remember how each and every such level used a woefully outdated slang term as its name, and how nobody on the entire planet younger than forty years old even knows what the heck the names mean any more.

Well, fear not, in my usual style of ranting about random stuff maybe 1% of the population actually cares about, I'll try to answer the life long question that has likely bugged every Super Mario World player with any real common sense; what the bloody hell does 'tubular' mean?

First of all, Gnarly. Yeah, right off the bat you can see the kind of slang and 'hip' language the translators grew up with, since nobody currently alive at this point in time uses this word to mean anything related to 'cool'.

Never the less, as a quick glance at Dictionary.com and the Urban Dictionary should show, it means 'extreme'. At least in the concept the Mario World translators were intending it, although it still never quite answers who the hell thought the level was anything near to what anyone would think of as 'extreme'. Maybe it's extreme chess, or extreme crochet.

This is not extreme. Kaizo Mario World might be slightly closer, but a level completely devoid of any meaningful enemies or challenge is called 'pathetic' by most normal people.

Next up, Tubular. Now, this is where the outdatedness of the creator's comes in big time, since even Google's 'define' option doesn't bring up any slang definitions from major websites related to the term, and as far as I can recall, most explanations have something to do with either pipes or some kind of incredibly painful illness of some type. Or a hard Super Mario World level, which is likely what the kid of the 90s, millenium or 2010 would think you're referring to.

Apparently it's a more common word for a breast disease than any form of surfer slang. Never the less, I don't think that's the message they wanted you to get from Super Mario World...

But basically, it's 80's surfer slang. You know, 1986 era surfer dude lingo. It apparently means 'cool', or at least some ridiculous sounding way of saying 'beyond cool'. Don't know how anyone thought the level was anything other than freaking torture of the worst variety though.

On another note, it takes Google seven pages to get to any possible use of the word as slang. Whether that shows the word is dead to a modern audience is something you can decide for yourself though.

Next up, Way Cool. Which, in complete contrast to its name, is the literal most boring level in the entire Special World. Just a whole load of ropes, platforms and moving saws going in straight lines.

But according to the 80's glossary I was looking at, it means something favourable... yes, both words make up the same term, and the same list worrying comes up with two more slang terms I'm very much glad Super Mario World didn't use...

http://www.inthe80s.com/glossary.shtml

Totally Tubular

Oh God, there's a way to make the word 'Tubular' sound even more out of date...

Thankfully, looking up Totally Tubular gets less results for any option than looking up Tubular as a Mario level.

The fourth level, is thankfully a whole lot less embarassing to say than the preceeding three, with the very much still in use name of 'Awesome'. Again, I'd like to know who the heck thought this level was awesome, since every single person I've met online has thought the level was annoying as hell.

This is awesome to someone?

Really though, there's no point even bothering to give a definition here, the word is still actually in use.

Next up, Groovy. Also known as the title screen demo level, and unintentionally the likely most famous level of the entire game.

Again, no real need for a definition here, it's still fairly commonly used, and just means 'very good'. Or fashionable. Or amazing.

Level six on the other hand, needs all the explanation you can think of. Mondo...

But really, it means extremely. Or too much of something, and is nearly as completely extinct to modern speakers as 'Tubular'.

Outrageous... more fantastic meaning rubbish indicating Nintendo of America had drunk, surfing loving chimps for employees in the 80s. It's supposed to mean beyond what is normal, although unless they're trying to say 'beyond what is normally considered fun', the level name is about as misleading as anything.

It's also that one level with the hopping flame, just to make you realise how oh so very close you were to this never appearing in ROM hacks.

Finally, Funky. Yeah, it just means cool, if you really have been living under a rock for a long time and didn't realise where Funky Kong got his name from.

Never the less, after you realise how absolutely ridiculous the names were, you might well be wondering how silly they were in Japan. Well... good news, Japan didn't use slang terms that ended up outdated by the game's release date! Bad news though, their names were just as poor, and as completely dull as anything.

First off, the names were given for sets of two levels rather than individually, and whoever designed Tubular was a sadist. No seriously, the name for the first two levels?

Otanoshimi Kōsu

Aka, Pleasure Course. So apparently, some moron thought Tubular was a fun, well designed level.

Next up, the usual trend of having questions in level and title names starts up again, with the name:

Mario Sutaffu mo Bikkuri Kōsu

Or basically, 'Mario is Surprised You Got Here Level'. Almost as if they suddenly realise Tubular was as cruel as putting someone under water torture.

Supesharisuto no Tame no Kōsu was next. it means 'For the Specialist Course'. Something tells me they got the ordering mixed up here, considering how it would tie in nicely to the message 'You are a super player!'

Finally, you've got Chanpionshippu no Kōsu. It means 'Championship Course'. Bit like the whole 'Castles Masterpiece Set' from Yoshi's Island.

Hope that was somewhat informing, since the slang used by the translators has dated woefully since the game was originally localised, and is probably nigh impossible to understand for normal people in this day and age.

On Why Super Mario Galaxy 2 Isn't an Expansion Pack

cheat-master30 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:11:03 GMT

As someone has mentioned in the Super Mario Galaxy forum here at DS Ultimate, it seems like a few people have been complaining about the sequel being released as it's own, standalone game rather than just downloadable content for the original. How God forsaking stupid a complaint.

Super Mario Galaxy 2, a whole new game!

Indeed, recently there has been a mini glut of people online who are so absolutely sequelphobic they can't stand a video game getting a sequel rather than patches and expansions, and who don't get just how much work went into many of the games they're complaining about in terms of being released as standard games.

It happened to Left 4 Dead 2, and it's happening for Super Mario Galaxy 2. But let me put it nicely here... none of these games are mere mission packs which should theoretically have got released as just downloadable content.

Super Mario Galaxy for example is a massive game, with plenty of new mechanics. You've got a new hub world, map style, Yoshi with multiple new abilities and power ups, the drill mechanics, new bosses, new enemies, new levels and all new gimmicks. Freezing water from hitting a switch, clones following Mario for Purple Coins and platforms that change by you spin jumping anywhere in the level. These aren't minor edits. Sure, I guess to some degree the on foot gameplay is a bit like the original, the graphics share a general style and the music is still orchestrated, but it's not merely a new set of missions reusing the old gameplay mechanics.

In fact, I've got a nice test for the sequel hating 'this should be an expansion pack' folks... find a level editor for the game in question which is getting a sequel, buy the sequel, and see if you could replicate the entirety of the sequel in the game engine of the original, without major modifications. If you can, fair enough. If you can't, shut the hell up and stop complaining. Sure, it's kind of the old 'why don't you do better' fallacy, but I'd say a good test if whether a sequel is merely an expansion pack should be how easy it is to create in the original game's engine by changing as minimal stuff as possible. Hell, want something fun? If you want to prove New Super Mario Bros Wii isn't just New Super Mario Bros for the DS remade, get this level editor:

http://www.romhacking.net/utils/457/

And try to build the entirety of the Wii game in it. I'll be waiting, although like building Super Mario Galaxy 2 from the original game's engine, it'd probably require beyond Brutal Mario level ASM hacking.

Make this in the original game via a ROM level editor, I dare you!

But Super Mario Galaxy 2 isn't a mere expansion pack, it's a full new game, and it's well worth the money Nintendo is likely to be charging for it.

Note to Nintendo: Not encouraging illegal activity, merely shutting up idiots who underestimate the amount of new content in Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Why Strategy Guides Aren't That Great

cheat-master30 — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:59:51 GMT

Because they completely go against what a good video game player would advise you to do, and will get you absolutely crushed in the metagame.

Yes, they're nice as a wedge to hold up the leg of a table, or to put on your bookshelf with the glossy cover art and all, but they're just useless in anything they set out to achieve.

Indeed, the advice within will simply hamper any good video game player, simply because it's the complete opposite of what the pros advise you to do. Actually, that's like most guide books and '[Topic] for Dummies' level things, they look useful for beginners, but they fill the heads of beginners with all manner of bad practices and poorly thought out ideas that at best were possibly okay in the 90s, and at worst are just completely irrelevant to the game or topic they're supposed to help you with.

Take the Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros guides for example. They look nice, but the information inside is poison to a good video game player, and goes straight against all the advice you're given on sites like Smashboards and the Mario Kart Players Page (and DS Ultimate!). The Mario Kart one advises the Parade Kart in Double Dash. Pros know the best advice is to use light karts with good acceleration. All Kart guides say to hold mini turbos and drifting. Pros know that you need to mini turbo as much as possible round those corners (and on straight ways, aka SSMT or 'snaking')

Similarly, the Smash Bros guides ignore important things like what characters are higher tier, and often miss out vital information. Indeed, the Brawl guide is HORRIBLE here, it fails to even mention you can aim Fox's Fire Fox attack, which was around since the original game on the Nintendo 64 (at least, it was in Melee). It even says Meta Knight is a low tier (you kidding me?), and Ganon is a decent character.

See here:

http://super-smash-bros.wikia.com/wiki/Tier_list

Others are equally suspect. The Luigi's Mansion one fails to say how the Hidden Mansion is different in the PAL version (hint, you can't get an A rank in that version without realising this), and the Super Mario Advance 4 guide fails to say how the whole e-Reader feature was REMOVED outside of Japan and the USA (and how most cards were never released in the latter). Thanks for making me buy an e-Reader morons! On the bright side, I have nothing against the e-Reader, and Balloon Fight is pretty cool.

Canon abuse is worse though. You don't know how much crappy fanon these things get people confused with, and in the case of the Mario Kart and Mario Party guides, the in jokes must have been responsible for hundreds of n00bs on internet forums about Mario.

Some mistakes are just bizarre. They actually classify the Sunflower in Super Mario Sunshine as a boss for goodness sake! You know, the friendly NPC you save?

Waluigious says some others, which were likely made off the Japanese version (or even the debug menu). No joke here, the names are as bad as all come in the Super Mario 64 Prima Guide:

http://www.waluigious.com/2008/09/one-about-books.html

ob-omb Battlefield Bomb World
Whomp's Fortress Tower World
Jolly Roger Bay Water World
Cool Cool Mountain Snow World
(sensing a pattern yet?)
Big Boo's Haunt Ghost World
Hazy Maze Cave Cavern World
Lethal Lava Land Fire World
Shifting Sand Land Desert World
Dire Dire Docks Submarine World
Snowman's Land Snowman World
Wet-Dry World Water Puzzle World
Tiny-Huge Island Green Pipe World
Tick Tock Clock Clockwork World
Rainbow Ride Magic Carpet World

To be fair, some of those (bolded) are also the debug names, but the others look like a bored three year old came up with them. Actually, the company probably employs those, given the general lack of quality and skill...

Although Tower World versus Whomp King World... they're both as bad as each other for names.

And this is an awful name for a ghost level (Banshee Boardwalk):

Ghost House

Awkwardness too...

Moh Moh Farm

And Japanese machine translations:

Nokonoko Beach
Kinopio Highway

This is just the mistakes by Prima by the way. Others make many of the same, and often leave out whole chunks of the game in the walkthroughs. Or badly translate, the official Nintendo Super Mario Sunshine guide couldn't even be bothered to use the English level names...

This is not mentioning some examples which have the whole end of the game missing from the walkthrough, or info left out on developer request, or just flat out bad information based on the beta.

My advice? Give Strategy guides a miss.

In Which Official Nintendo Magazine UK isn't actually that Biased

cheat-master30 — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:21:55 GMT

In public opinion on the internet, there seems to be a idea going around that the mere fact that Nintendo gave it's license to Official Nintendo Magazine and Nintendo Power means that they're insanely biased in favour of Nintendo and against third parties. And same with the other official magazines. No one seems to even question this, assuming that 'official brand name in magazine title = biased to a ridiculous, unreliable degree' by default and that by merely name dropping these you give an example of an over the top bunch of drooling Nintendo/Microsoft/Sony fanboys constantly praising their respective companies with no general objectivity altogether.

But... here's the odd thing to consider, the Official Nintendo Magazine (and likely the others) are by general, not particularly biased, at least in their review scores. Indeed, on average, I have found that the scores that have been given to certain high profile games (and most criticised by their internet forum community) are actually extremely close (as in, one or two points away) from the average on Game Rankings or Meta Critic.

For the first example, take The Conduit. God this game gets a lot of criticism by some, and the review pretty much made most people consider the official magazine as the anti christ for being 'too harsh' towards it. But they're not. Their review score for The Conduit was 76%. But the average? 72.73%. They were in fact NICER to the game than most other reviews were, yet the incredible fan idiocy and hype followers seemed to think them not giving 80-90% was unfair bias. Sure, IGN may have gave it 86%, but let's face it, IGN aren't exactly the pinnacle of informed reviews about video games, and their scores are often led entirely by hype.

But take a look at some of the other, harsher scores for the game:

Gamespot gave it 65%.

NGamer gave it 70%

Gamespy gave it 70%

Edge Magazine gave it merely 40%.

And some sites even gave it 30%, or even in one case, TWENTY PERCENT. But the point still stands, their review is pretty fair as far as rating goes, given that 95% of scores for the game are either in the low 70% range or the low 80% range.

Scribblenauts, the next game many people seem to paint as getting a biased, low score. It got 82% from the official magazine, which is surprisingly near what the average is in general. Indeed, most reviews at Game Rankings say sites gave it between 75 and 85% on a 1 to 100% range. The average is actually just 78% for that matter, which is quite a bit lower than what the Official Nintendo Magazine gave.

And final example, Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing. Okay, they were possibly a bit harsh here, most reviews gave it 80%, but a fair amount gave it less or the same as they did, and for the whole Mario Kart comparison? I'm pretty sure no sites which have reviewed both games have preferred the Sega game. Sorry.

Mario Kart Wii: 82%

Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing: 79-80%

For that comparison, note this for a bit. Gamespot gave Mario Kart Wii 85%, IGN gave it the same, both gave the Sega game 80%. Seriously, saying Mario Kart Wii is better is not heresy for goodness sake! It's a simple fact if review scores are to be trusted.

Oh, what if this is biased because CNet, who owns Gamespot, also owns Game Rankings? Well here's the Metacritic average scores for comparison:

The Conduit: 69%

Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing: 79%

Scribblenauts: 79%

Oh, and a quick word about myself here, and my view on the actual magazine. I don't have any connection to the magazine. I just subscribe to it for information on Nintendo games and a few reviews. I don't think particularly it's the best magazine in the world, there are a lot of silly spelling, grammar and proof reading errors, quite a few more factual errors and some games were possibly rated a bit too nicely, but it's not a horrible magazine, nor is it biased beyond all possible use like some naysayers would have you thinking.

Nintendo, Accept Metroid Other M Has Been Leaked Online...

cheat-master30 — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:48:21 GMT

Another day, and more obsessive legal letter filing from Nintendo of America desperately trying to stop any information about the Metroid Other M trailer reaching the the masses online.

But why the hell are they even bothering? Do they not perhaps realise that in this day and age, trying to cover up anything is a one way trip to complete disaster, and that anything you really did want to keep secret will be all over the internet in about two or three hours? That's not something you can avoid by any means, and as anyone who saw the whole 'Luminoth Temple' chaos back in the days of the old Nsider forums will remember, it's inevitable of any 'secret' you can imagine. The cats been let out of the bag, and regardless of how many millions of dollars you may have in lawyer fees, it's not going back in.

This is not a highly guarded secret any more Nintendo. Stop trying to censor this information in your futile attempts at controlling the internet.

So what should Nintendo do now? Well, to put it nice and simply... accept the intro is now easily available on every single video site imaginable, and send the old secrecy plan back to the drawing board. Keep the public's interest via new footage of the game, new screenshots, new concept art, anything. Sure, they'll then possibly say it didn't live up to the hype in a few months, but at least Nintendo will get some pretty damn high sales figures upon the game's release date, and they'll be able to save their reputation better than say, Activision did.

In conclusion, Nintendo needs to just admit the intro was leaked, maybe punish the person who did so in the first place, and accept that like any celebrity or corporation who's been in the media, that they can't succeed in trying to cover up what's already known to the world at large.

Can we have less Indie Platformers Please?

cheat-master30 — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:14:32 GMT

What is with all the predictable indie games nowadays, and the 98% chance they'll be a platformer in the same style as either Super Mario Bros or Mega Man?

Indeed, it seems like nearly all independantly made games, or at least those by hobbyists are the same thing nowadays, despite the far greater freedom these people have when it comes to choosing a genre to make a game for. They're just always your standard 2D platform game, as if the idea of an RPG, fighting game, shoot em up game or whatever other genre you can imagine has apparently been forgotten about and they all want to ape off each other.

Yes, we get you like Mario, Sonic or Mega Man already. But we don't need more games along the style of I Wanna Be the Guy, and while some games with these physics tried to be unique (Karoshi has you kill yourself to win each level, and another game I know has you change gravity instead of jumping), many of them are the same old run and maybe shoot style that was oh so popular in the nineties but has been long out of fashion.

In short... New Super Mario Bros Wii and Mega Man 10 make most of these kinds of games redundant this year, try something new!

How come all the 'DS 2' Hype pics come with the same stock artwork?

cheat-master30 — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:38:45 GMT

Indeed, for reasons unknown, they always seem to either be showing Mario Kart Arcade GP on the DS screens, or Super Mario Galaxy.

But seriously, why? The former is barely a Mario game, and has very little to do with Nintendo proper, so why not show Mario Kart Double Dash instead which has the same level of graphics quality and is actually a plausible game to be remade on a Nintendo handheld or home console?

Actually, I never got the appeal in that game in the first place, it's poorly designed, has boring tracks with very few changes in elevation or obstacles (they look nice, but they're as tame as all come), yet media and news sites seem to act as if it's a good game.

That's the tamest version of Rainbow Road I've seen in my life... it doesn't even go back around to the start point, or have anywhere to fall off the track!

On the bright news, it does have a level based on Diamond City from WarioWare, which is different.

The other game? It's nearly always Super Mario Galaxy. Now, I'm not a marketing genius here, but wouldn't it be commercial suicide to release Super Mario Galaxy on a handheld just a few years after its Wii release, when the Wii is still in stores? Isn't it a bit early for a Super Mario Galaxy remake? And more precisely, what the hell happened to Super Mario Sunshine?

Wow, such originality!

Never the less, use some imagination people! Or at least, common sense, since ripping off popular tech blogs is a fast track to looking like a complete moron.

My Ten Favourite Mario Levels

cheat-master30 — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:25:38 GMT

Over the years I've been currently playing Mario games, I've played through a lot of interesting, well designed, and in many cases, just plain fun levels. But over time I've noticed ten levels, which I would most definitely count as my favourites and for good reason. These levels just inspired me, they felt fun to play, and many of them I will return to time and time again to replay them due to how well they're put together.

1. Level 8-7 (New Super Mario Bros Wii)

Okay, not exactly my original choice for the top spot, but it's a level I really enjoyed from New Super Mario Bros Wii. Basically, you're riding through the whole level on ultra fast rollercoasters made out of bones that scream as they shoot downhill and through lava and fire at breakneck speed.

Much, much more fun that it sounds, epic enough that you'd never have expected this in a Mario game, and actually far easier than the horrendous nightmare many people likely come into the level expecting.

2. Crescent Moon Village (Wario Land 4)

Possibly the best ghost house themed level of all time, this level from Wario Land 4 has great graphics, some catchy theme music, and is by far the most serious ghost house/ghost themed level in a Mario game.

Why? Because it's subtle, it's different, and it's very much unique. There's no overdone church organ/piano intro to the music, there's no blatantly ridiculous looking cartoon ghosts and skeletons like some of the levels in Wario Land The Shake Dimension, and it's not so barren as the 3D Mario game haunted house levels. Basically, it takes itself seriously, is just very well designed as far as the level itself goes, and is long enough that you can keep yourself amused for a good ten minutes of free time.

3. Big Boo's Haunt (Super Mario 64)

My favourite level in Super Mario 64, to the surprise of many, it's just a good, solid ghost house level with some well designed missions. Okay, the piano creeped me out a bit in the past, but there's just something here that I like when I play through Super Mario 64. Hell, I even know the max coin total in the level off by heart!

Heck, screw Bob-omb Battlefield, the overused Mario 64 level, this is my favourite by far. Plus, it's got some crazy merry go round music to drive you insane at the same time:

4. Bowser levels (Super Mario 64)

Another favourite, these are just what classic Mario platforming would be like in a 3D Mario game, straight forward, relatively difficult, and free of the item collecting and overly broad exploration some other levels boast.

The Bowser battles are good too, with the first battle and the first time you swing the guy by the tail being so fun to play, and the last one having some of the nicest organ music a villain could hope to have as a fitting conclusion to the whole thing.

Heres to the Dark World and The Sky. Not so much the Fire Sea, that had less jawdropping background graphics, and had Bowser teleport semi randomly.

5. Areas 2 and 3 (Luigi's Mansion)

Okay, Luigi's Mansion as a whole is a crowning moment of awesome at game length, and technically one massive level with about 30 boss battles, but these areas are best of all. The first area was creepy and atmospheric (and had a quite cool ghost scene with the portraits in the first room), but was over in a flash, and the final area, while having good boss battles, was too disjointed and didn't feel much like a new area of the mansion.

These areas however were when you saw the sheer scale of the haunted house you were exploring, wandered those creepy hallowed halls and fought numerous portrait ghosts. You got to mess around with the elements a lot here, which added to it all, and the two best boss battles in the game were to be found, Bogmire and Boolossus.

The scene where Bogmire attacks at the start is freaking cool as anything too, especially the whole lightning strikes method of how the shadows come to life.

6. Dreadnought Galaxy (Super Mario Galaxy)

In a rare case of the end game absolutely destroying the quality of the earlier levels, all three of the final main levels in Super Mario Galaxy were brilliant, and this was no exception.

Forget the Battlerock Galaxy, the Dreadnought Galaxy was hardcore space station exploring action, in the blockbuster movie sense. It was filled with difficult jumps and platforms to cross, dangerous electric fences, shockwaves and cannons. The second hardest purple coin mission took place here, as well as the most annoying secret star.

It was a test of your Mario gaming skills, and felt like you were blasting through a Hollywood epic in space as Mario rather than merely jumping and skipping through a serene field like some early game levels.

7. Syrup Castle Level 3 (Wario Land 1)

One of the best Castle levels in a Mario series game ever, Syrup Castle has a kickass theme tune (both map and actual level), as well as some great levels. But this level is the best. You've got a whole deal of jumping around outside across dangerous platforms and note blocks, a mini boss battle against a knight in shining armour, some exploration of a tower covered with laser shooting cannons, and then a boss battle against the Genie at the end. Oh, did I forget? Wario gets his face put on the moon!

8. The Potted Ghost's Castle (Yoshi's Island)

Surprising choice, is it not? Well, I just like this level, because it felt most like an epic castle raid to me of all the levels in Yoshi's Island. It had Yoshi transformations. Dark passages? Enemies attacking from all round. An outside area in the middle of nowhere and all manner of spikes and traps. And eh, the boss is pretty cool looking compared to most of the other bosses in the game (except Rapheal the Raven and Bowser's final form):

9. Airship Fortress (Mario Kart DS)

The possible best Mario Kart track ever? Indeed it may well be, being a whole metric ton of references to Super Mario Bros 3 and it's airship levels, and having some of the best background music of them all.

Sure, others inspired me (Waluigi Pinball is another great level), but this is just one of the best. Maybe it's the Bullet Bills, Rocky Wrenches and Jet Engines you have to dodge. Or the very much retro styled graphics the level sports, or even just the fact you get shot from a gigantic into a castle in a distance. Fantastic, and here's hoping it appears as a past track in the next Mario Kart game.

10. Melty Molten Galaxy (Super Mario Galaxy)

Another great Super Mario Galaxy level, also from the very last dome in the game. It's definitely the most cinematic level, that's for sure. Indeed, every time I want to just gape at how good the graphics and music is, I pick the first or second mission due to how visually impressive it is.

See for yourself:

So those are my favourite Mario levels, so what are yours?

Replying to Malstrom; Yet Another Who Fails to Understand the Mario Series

cheat-master30 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:26:29 GMT

Welcome back, to yet another day of replying to random internet loons on the topic of the Mario series and Nintendo games as a whole, where today I plan to destroy each and every criticism of the 3D Mario games by a strange individual called Sean Malstrom. You know, same kind of thing as Insomnia.ac, or the works by Tim Rogers, or the random internet folks who think psychological and sexual issues are in Super Mario Bros, or hell, the people coming up with insane timelines including multiple generations of characters called Mario and Bowser and multi reincarnations of a fictional universe.

But this time, it's a bit more interesting. You see, Malstrom's opinions, at least to me are not always completely incorrect, and his complaints about the Mario series, while often wildly off the mark and contrary to what 99.9% of the population thinks, are a bit closer to sane than the ridiculous timeline theories and political rants involving seventy two levels of hidden sub text in the NES original.

At least he also knows how much people dislike his rants and enjoy reading them for the sheer lunacy entailed within:

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/20...g-his-website/

First off, the Yoshi's Island criticism. I like Yoshi's Island, I think it's one of the most well designed platformers ever, and I greatly adore the art style purely for being so different to what is seen as standard on the market.

But it didn't do badly at market or what not. Four million sold copies on the original platform, while lower than other Mario games is still high, and the ratings have always been phenomenal in general (94% average as of this point, and straight 100% ratings from a few critics). It wouldn't have been wise to make it in the pre rendered style of Donkey Kong Country, in the same way making Donkey Kong Country in Yoshi's Island style would have likely been a bit of a disaster (Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is good indication of that kind of game misjudgement, along with not having anything from the past series). Miyamoto made it as it is because the executives wanted to basically copy Donkey Kong Country for their other games.

More on that note, I like the retcons from the game. Oh wait, no they're not retcons. Remember how the arcade games only mentioned Brooklyn in the translations? Yeah, that's something to remember, that's no mention in any actual game, or even in the Japanese versions of Mario being from the 'real world' and not Mushroom Kingdom. I love the whole 'fans did not like this' tone... strange, I've not met any who think Mario as from Mushroom World is bad as such, especially online.

Similarly, people disliked something in Super Mario RPG? That's new to me, that game has got to be the most overhyped video game on the planet, at least when it comes to games on the SNES console. It's basically like the Earthbound for the Mario series, despite being often little more than a Final Fantasy game with some Mario characters and a lot of characters which are more like that other series. Remember how popular Forest Maze is as a song? Or how popular Culex and his theme music is? Or how ridiculously popular Geno is? Heck, the latter had been suggested for inclusion in Super Smash Bros Brawl for months, and probably for inclusion in Melee back when that game was announced.

The different videos of this including the lyrics version have got most likely about ten million views on Youtube...

Okay, that's a bit beside the point, but I'm pretty sure very few people complained about Mario living in the Mushroom Kingdom in Super Mario RPG (and how the hell would that make any difference, people live in foreign countries for months if not years on end...)

But his other criticisms of Yoshi's Island are equally baffling. Hating the collectable stuff is fine, but saying how Yoshi's Island failed for it while ignoring how much of this Donkey Kong Country had (again, neither were bad games) seems a bit contradictory. Especially considering Donkey Kong 64 basically killed the genre of collecting fifty million shiny things to achieve objectives.

Banjo Kazooie too, although that series is still one of the best on the Nintendo 64 for it, which lampshaded it quite well:

Now then. In line with Banjo Tradition, your challenge will consist of collecting as many pointless items as possible

Now, onto his other, also quite ridiculous ideas about the Mario series. First off, the whole implication that the Mario series became 'lighter and softer' as it went on. Erm... Malstrom? Maybe you didn't notice this due to the sheer publicity put into happy go lucky spinoffs like Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, but none of the Mario games since those days of yore have exactly been some utopic candy land setting. The Mario RPGs for example are often ridiculously dark and grim in most aspects, and have generally been getting more and more depressing as the series goes on:

Is Mario getting sent to 'hell' dark enough?

UFO invasion, Christmas Eve?

This is supposedly to be all light and cheery?

Sadly, way too many people think of modern day Mario and think of this:

Rather than this:

Turning Mario into a 'citizen' didn't make him uncool. Maybe Mario Party and some of the sports games did, but people didn't leave because Mario was now from the Mushroom Kingdom. If it was due to him being unhip, they apparently missed the memo of the rather dark contents of many of Nintendo's other series, or those made by Rare for the SNES/Nintendo 64.

The conveniance store anime? As disloyal to Mario as the cartoon series and film was (seriously, it's not game canon, neither is the American stuff. Next you'll be saying the German comics are apparently 'canon').

But I have a deeper motivation for wanting this. I hate leaving a fictional universe dependant on Earth if it's not meant to be in the same dimension as Earth in the first place. I like stories to be self contained rather than rely on too complex a set of logic, and I dislike the concept partly because it allows nerds on internet blogs to imply Mario games happened on Earth (Wario gets this a lot).

I do have to give some credit to Malstrom though... he recognises Super Mario Bros 2 as a good game. God, the hatred of that game is damn unfounded, especially considering how little the Japanese 'original' Super Mario Bros 2 added to the series.

I also have to give credit for realising how absolutely idiotic much of the conventional big name video game media actually is and how corrupt the whole system is. Actually, that's a common theme in any 'intellectual' gaming blog... probably due to how accurate the view is.

As for his idea of a true platform Mario... Super Mario Galaxy 2 might be that, it seems a bit more linear in some levels, and even has New Super Mario Bros Wii style midpoints and such like.

No, New Super Mario Bros Wii ain't Super Mario Bros 5... it's Super Mario Bros 6. The fifth game in my opinion would probably be Super Mario Land 2, which is almost a hybrid of Super Mario Bros 3 and World. A lot of people fail to recognise this game unfortunately, likely due to the overwhelming popularity of lesser quality first Super Mario Land game.

But this is just a sample of the many issues in his articles, and I'll reply to any others I can find later. I don't think anyone here or at Waluigious, or at Mario Wiki, or a Boo Mansion or other such sites would share many of his sentiments, that's for sure. Although some good points can be found in some of his other articles.

P.S. Do you think he'll ever respond to my email about this? Probably unlikely, because anyone running a gaming rant blog usually has a tendency to ignore criticism or take it as a personal attack.

Why Super Mario Galaxy 2 Looks Rather More Interesting

cheat-master30 — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:36:23 GMT

When it comes down to it, there's no doubting the original Super Mario Galaxy was a massive success, and a work so epic, so well received and so... awe inspiring that the sequel will need to be extremely good to come remotely close to topping it. Think about it, the press was positive, the reviews were near enough all positive (currently third best ranked game of all time), the fanbase were over the moon (no pun intended) and there was very little dissent from this opinion even among the opinions of self professed professional game designers and such like. But on some scale, the second game looks to top the first... and in the process, likely divide the fanbase in terms of reception.

Okay, I won't kid anyone here. The media will snap this game up and tout it as the best thing since slice bread in seconds, and sites like Gamespot and IGN will likely be highly positive towards it. It will sell millions, and the music will probably be leaked on Youtube a week before the game's release date. But it's different from the first game, from what I can see in the trailers and screenshots, and may divide a few people there.

First though, there's no doubting the levels will probably be even better than the original game's levels, and you should have guessed this straight away by the screenshots of the fancy giant enemy and block galaxy almost too like Super Mario Bros 3. They also look far bigger than those in the original game, with absolutely massive landscapes to explore and numerous things to overcome.

The bosses look great too, and for some reason, look about twenty times bigger than the foes from every other Mario game to date. No seriously, the dragon and giant robot bosses would probably dwarf every single boss in the original except Megaleg (who's back anyway) and Kingfin.

But I still think there will be a bit of a split in the reaction to the story and such like, merely because Miyamoto has deliberately made sure it's not as complex at the first game (and that's saying something, all things considered). I bet that's annoyed a lot of internet gaming nerds and 'intellectuals', the types who want every game to have a ten hour over the top complex storyline in the sense of Lord of the Rings.

But hey, I'm definitely buying it when it's released, and I'm going to assume nearly everyone else at DS Ultimate will too.

As if things couldn't get worse for Mario already...

cheat-master30 — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:30:27 GMT

Apparently the cloud of deadly smog in 8-1 of New Super Mario Bros Wii has rubber band AI. Okay, it's already bad enough that your opponents in Mario Kart can go 200 miles per hour to catch up to winning players, and that the lightning from Lightning Lookout in Donkey Kong Country 3 pretty much has predictive aiming, but come on, a volcano fog cloud can apparently cheat physics to kill someone?

Run Mario, run!

Really sucks to be you Mario, as it's already devastating enough when you can run from a natural disaster.

Attached Thumbnails