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Spooky

  • Addit
  • 11/04/2013 01:09 AM
  • 2498 views


A Game Made By: Solitayre
Including The Assistance Of:
Blobofgoo, mordenglory, Ratty524, seiromem, nin8halos & wildwes
Created Using: Super Mario Bros. X
It's A: PLATFORMER PUZZLE Game
That Roughly Takes Around: 1 - 2 Hours To Complete
And It's A... COMPLETED GAME!!!


So last month I decided to give one of the RMN community Super Mario Bros. X games the old college try in Super RMN World – supposedly the greatest Super RMN Bros. game to date. At the time, I’ve never played a single game using the engine or even a Mario fan game in quite some time. The result, let’s just say that it was one of the best games I’ve played around here in quite some time; it was basically almost completely flawless and soooooo much fun that you wouldn’t believe. So, naturally so, when I heard that the community was about to embark on yet another “masterpiece” – I just HAD to get my bloody claws on it, hoping that the final product won’t get delayed as long as Super RMN World did. Well apparently Solitayre and company managed to stay true to their word and released the game on the appropriate date this time, all 15 levels in all. I was excited for this momentous occasion. So I decided to spend most of my weekend playing the next generation in the next game in the Mario’s Mansion series.

But enough talk! Have at you…a review, that is.

The Story


…God how I miss Kelly…


Compared to Super RMN World, there really isn’t that much of a plot in this game…well, at least on the outside of things. Apparently, Lord Kamek has been wreaking havoc all over the Mushroom Kingdom and all its habitants seeing how on every Halloween night the forces of darkness grow stronger and stronger while the forces of good grow weaker until the following day. Using this analogy, Lord Kamek wants to cause as much chaos as possible and maybe – just maybe – he might be able to defeat those lousy Super Mario Bros. once and for all! Of course, our heroes, Mario and Luigi, aren’t going to just sit idly by and let Lord Kamek do whatever he wants, so the pair decide to head on over to Lord Kamek’s mansion in hoping of stopping the evil wizard and put an end to this madness.

…And that’s about it. Basically, there isn’t any story, even any dialogue spoken at all – even when you’re about to face the final boss; not a single word. Compared to Super RMN World that just felt more…genuine and plausible for a Mario game with all its quirky characters and background, this one just feels more nonexistence. I suppose it works. And maybe I’m just feeling a tad bit spoiled here after being treated to a well more-rounded plot, but I never really cared for anything story related here. It’s almost like Mario and Luigi just decided to go out and vandalize someone’s house on Halloween more than anything. Anyways, it’s not a serious issue or anything, seeing how it’s a Mario game, but it would have been nice to have a little dialogue sequence here or there thrown in for good measure.

The Gameplay


Super Mario Belmont: Zombie Goomba killer.


Once again, the gameplay is as fun and as challenging as the last game I’ve played in Super RMN World but with a couple of added twists: First off, you’ll only be able to play as Mario or Luigi this time, seeing how, for some unexplained reason, Link, Toad and the Princess didn’t bother to come along this time (maybe they were out trick-or-treating). Also, the only power-up’s you’ll be wielding this time are your trusty traditional Mushrooms and a few new ones: The Magical Stopwatch, which freezes time for a short while, and the Magical Axe, which is basically like wearing a Hammer Bros. suit in the original games. Other than that, that’s basically all you got this time around as you make your way through the fifteen levels of the mansion.

Speaking of those levels, the levels in this game seem to have a strange difficulty curve to them, as I found that the first few levels were really short and easy, especially if you manage to hold on to the magical axe power-up the whole way through. Then in the middle, the game suddenly picks up in difficulty and can become a real challenge at times. Throw in the fact that extra lives don’t come by that often and you’ll see why this game is pretty tough. After that, the next few levels are incredibly short again before getting really, really hard again. I think I died more times in this game than I did with Super RMN World, and that’s the problem with this game: the difficulty curve. One of the things I liked about Super RMN World was that it was the right mix of challenge but also was pretty generous to give you a chance and earn plenty of extra lives to make things seem more balanced. With Mario’s Mansion 3 on the other hand, the change in difficulty spike and lack of extra lives made this one hard game, sometimes seeming a bit unfair at times (I’m looking at you, Crush Corridor). Although I was able to get through most of these levels eventually after many – many deaths, I can easily see other players get frustrated to the point where they just want to shut the game down and throw it in the recycling bin; it was that challenging. I remember first booting this game up with a big smile on my face only about halfway through having that smile starting to disappear the more times I died on each stage. I guess what I’m trying to say is that a lot of these levels needed a bit more tweaking and fine-tuning to balance out some of the difficulty issues.

But overall, despite the flaws, the gameplay is still as enjoyable as its cousins are. Even though that most of the levels here are somewhat forgettable, I really enjoyed what the creators were able to do with the whole overall ghost house theme. These types of levels are usually my least favorite in a Mario game but these guys did them some sweet justice. My favorites here have to be “The Clock Tower” from Solitayre, “Soul Drain” and “Science!” from nin8halos; I’d like to think that those two really stepped up their game a bit more in this one.

The Soundtrack


I didn’t think it could be done, but I actually HATE this place more so than the blasted Water Temple.


Creepy, ominous and…Castlevania? Yeah, most of the music used here are from the Castlevania series (whatcha expect) with the odd sprinkle of Mario tunes thrown in for good measure. A few of the songs I didn’t recognize, but I recognized most of the music here. The music works pretty good, I guess. Nothing really major to write home about but nothing really bad about it either. I guess the only song I didn’t think fit that much was the one from “Skeletal Foundations,” but that’s just me. Overall the soundtrack I like to think played it safe and really didn’t try too much to be outside the box but just played it status quo, which I guess is just fine.

The Aesthetics


Something tells me that those gears over there are going to hurt.


All I’m going to say about the aesthetics here is that Solitayre should stand up and take a bow, really he should! I found that all the levels that were done by him, including the mansion hub looked absolutely spectacular and almost breathtaking at times. I think in Super RMN World he only managed to make one level for it and I remembered how gorgeous it looked, so it’s nice to see a lot more from him this time than before. Other than Solitayre, everybody else did a nice job as well with the look of their levels. The gloomy atmosphere was definitely played out well here and most of the stages seem to fit the overall setting quite well.

The End Result


Well, he did work as an demolition man all those years ago…


While I kinda expected that this was not going to be in the same ballpark with the legendary Super RMN World because of the overall time difference and the huge difference in levels, I was kind of expecting maybe just a little bit more than just this… I dunno, but a part of feels a bit disappointed with this game compared to the last one I played. I suppose it isn’t totally fair to it, but it’s how I feel about it. It’s just…at least for me that Mario’s Mansion 3’s difficulty curve and shorten length is really what did it in for itself. Other than that, I felt that I still enjoyed the game but not as much as its counterpart did for me. I guess it’s true what they say about heightening expectations and what not, and I guess I sort of found that out the hard way today.

By no means is this a bad game but it’s nowhere near the same level as the legendary Super RMN World – still the greatest Super RMN Bros. game to date…at least, for now.

OVERALL GRADE:
3 / 5 - C ~ Just Makes The Cut.

Posts

Pages: 1
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
11/04/2013 02:24 AM
Thanks for the review!

Yeah, this game was never intended to be huge and epic like RMN World and didn't undergo the months and months of refining that RMN world had. The number one goal was always to release it by Halloween.

I actually usually feel like a lot of SMBX games have too much talking. The goal here was to emulate Castlevania and old-school Mario games with little to no text/dialogue. I did have ideas for a few cutscenes that weren't really feasible in such a short development time. Link_2112 also made a short little intro sequence that also unfortunately couldn't be made to work because SMBX is so rigid.
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
11/04/2013 03:53 AM
sometimes seeming a bit unfair at times (I’m looking at you, Crush Corridor)

Welp...
Addit
6394
11/07/2013 06:48 PM
If it makes you feel any better, Ratty524, I probably died a lot more times on “Science!” and “The Wizard’s Keep” combined more than Crush Corridor. I mean, don’t get me wrong – Crush Corridor was tough but still manageable if you approach the level v e r y c a r e f u l l y. I think the only reason I found it a bit hard was that it caught me a completely off guard because it was this game’s first real challenging level after going through four levels that were no sweat.

@ Solitayre – I completely understand. I’m just a bit surprised that for the final boss fight you didn’t have Kamek say something, like, from one of the more infamous quotes from Castlevania or something.



(This would have been perfect, of course, with a little “editing”. ^^)
Pages: 1