I'll state the obvious here: I love Mario games, and I love nothing more than a well executed classic Mario romp. Fundamentals are hugely important to a good gaming experience, and many indie Mario developers forget to realize this. They go out of their way to make the levels crazy and different, and in the process tend to lose focus and open up the door to many bugs, frustrating moments, and confusing graphical choices.



UPRC plays it safe with this release, and this works both to his advantage and to his disadvantage. Indeed, the first world shows a game that might be a little -too- safe, even though it combines elements of SMB2 in its design. It's a short demo, so my sample size is very small.

Graphically and musically, the game incorporates different or remixed music tracks from your typical SMB1-SMB3 fare. This is a nice departure from most other SMBX fangames, for sure, and the music matches the levels nicely. The graphics are also combined in a way that makes sense and is easy on the eye - color pallets match up, and the choices for NPC and coin graphics are not overly out of place. I would have used SMB1 coins instead of SMB3, but that's a nitpick. Some levels are lacking in "punch" - there are very few graphical surprises, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Still, a few twists to the typical formula are nice.

From a design standpoint, I like the use of buried vegetables and powerups. In future areas, I would like to see a larger variety of buried items, such as more POW blocks, dragon coins, etc. Of course, I don't recommend taking such a mechanic -too- far, as it would turn the game more of a pure mashup than a classically-based Mario game with twists. Most of the buried items are places logically, and some are placed cleverly, such as a fire powerup located in a 1-tile deep, 3-tile wide depression with enemies in it.

The levels themselves are short and straightforward. There are some secret areas, such as an unlockable path that leads to Yoshi, but they seem few and far between. And the rewards for such secrets are somewhat lacking - you'll mostly find coins, or in the case of Yoshi's house, his egg and nothing else. I like to see at least one secret area per level - and two if the level itself is fairly basic and straightforward.



The platforming is pretty much standard fare - enemies crawling along straight paths, plenty of pipes, and some jumping opportunities. As I said before, I feel that World 1 could use a bit more risk taking in the design. UPRC may have been trying to be simple for the sake of easy difficulty, but a few wrinkles are nice to see other than the "basic overworld, block-filled underground, overworld with water" pattern.

With that said, the levels themselves seem to be fundamentally sound. Enemies are placed logically, platforms are easily navigated, and there are well spaced powerups, checkpoints, and pits. I would say that UPRC has succeeded in creating a sound, old-school Mario game - and that alone makes this a slightly above average SMBX fangame, even if the enjoyability factor for me is average. Nevertheless, more wrinkles and secrets will be needed in later levels to elevate this game to the top tier of SMBX works. And since my sample size is that of only 5 levels, I'm sure this game has a great shot of getting there.

Pros:
+ Fundamentally sound game design
+ Good use of the SMBX graphic choices
+ Nice inclusion of remixes and imported tracks
+ Use of buried powerups and vegetables

Cons:
- Lack of secrets/underwhelming secrets
- Design is occasionally too conservative
- Levels are too short, though this is only World 1.

Other notes:
~ Small sample size
~ Lots of potential for secrets, if the areas are developed to their fullest