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Overall a Really Fantastic Game, Even Though the Final Level Wasn't Very Fun

  • Frozelar
  • 08/31/2013 04:11 PM
  • 495 views
Just in case anyone cares, I played through the game on YouTube. Yep.

Overview:
Overall, Super Mario Eternal Chaos really impressed me. It was creative and fun. If you're looking for a SMBX game that you can enjoy and have a good time with, this is the game for you. However, I really don't blame you if you decide to quit without completing the final level in the game. It is insanely difficult, and its second half is, in my opinion, designed more to be hellishly challenging rather than fun.

Expect minor spoilers in the rest of this review!

The Good:
- Originality: Super Mario Eternal Chaos features quite a lot of custom music, graphics, and even enemies and bosses. There is a lot of attention to detail in this game.
- Nice Difficulty: The game has a nice difficulty curve. The early levels were easy, neat, and VERY enjoyable, while the later levels were somewhat challenging, while still maintaining a fair and enjoyable difficulty.
- Great Focus: The levels are focused around their unique concept well and an overwhelming majority of the levels revolve around one thing: fun level design.
- Cool Story: The story is neat, while also not being taken too seriously.
- Variety: The game explores many design ideas and features many different environments. Each level feels fresh.
- Fun Secrets: While I played through the game, I was only able to find a couple secrets, but they seemed well-hidden and I felt accomplished when I found them.
- Awesome "Green Star" Update: I really enjoyed searching for the secret green stars (I collected all of them). They were hidden in places that made you do some searching, but were never insanely difficult to find.

The "Meh":
- Very Hard Final Main Game Level: The final level in the main game, Castle Catastrophe, is designed very well. The level design itself is very fun and creative. The boss, however, is highly difficult. I spent about two hours on the level, just because of the boss. The good thing about the boss, though, is that it felt doable. A lot of my problems came from me making silly mistakes. I must admit that when I beat it, I felt very accomplished. It really felt like a final level.

The Bad:
- Major Flaw in One of the Levels: One level in the game, Dark Dungeon, has a large error in it. There is a pipe that, as you exit it, are literally forced to take a hit from an enemy (a skull that appears to be eating the floor). As far as I can tell, there is simply no possible way to avoid the damage.
- Awfully Hellish Final Level: The final level in the entire game, Swap Sward, is way too hard, I feel. I'll be honest... the first half is designed in a neat way, even though some parts can be overly demanding. It's the boss rush in the second half that kills the level. It consists of three phases. The first phase is just a huge waiting game, the second phase is a bit of a luck game, and the third phase is a huge game of luck. I consider this boss rush to be impossible unless you take a hammer brother suit into it with you.

I go into more detail about the boss rush below, however these details are more for the creators. Some things I mention probably won't make sense to the average reader.

The first stone boss is just a huge waiting game. You need to wait a very long time (about 30 seconds) for everything (the alternating spike floor, the bomb generator, and the boss itself) to be timed perfectly, or else you are guaranteed to get hit yourself as you try to hit the boss. Considering the boss takes many (8 I think?) hits to kill, the boss can take you about 5 minutes or more to beat (where about 95% of the time, you are standing in one place, waiting for the timing to be right). I understand it's not possible to customize the amount of hits a mother brain takes, but still. I feel that you could have figured out some sort of better alternative to make the boss more fun.

Now for the second phase of the boss, a big boo that acts as a lakitu. This boss isn't as bad as the stone boss, but it still can be unfair. There are times where you are forced to take damage from the big boo if the alternating blocks' timing doesn't work in your favor.

The final phase, a large mechanical goomba that acts as Lemmy, is extremely luck-based. Considering how fast it goes once you hit it, and how the alternating spike floor's timing often isn't in your favor, it makes this phase feel like a huge game of luck. I must admit that I never beat this phase without a hammer brother suit.

I hope this review was helpful. Great job on making this game. I really hope the creators are proud of it.