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I'm just to stubborn to give it the 5 stars it deserves


To see more reviews by Randomized Productions, click here.


A review by Ben_Random

Today I will be reviewing a Mario fan-game made with the Super Mario Brothers X development engine.
The review is split up into sections, Story, Gameplay, Graphics, Audio, and the Overall Rating.
Each section is rated with a THUMBS UP, THUMBS TO THE SIDE, or THUMBS DOWN. The game is also rated by the RMN 5 star system.
So without further ado, let's begin the review.



This is a Mario game, and you can't really give much of a story to it. True we have Mario RPG and Super Mario Galaxy, but it is obvious that the story is not really what draws people to the platforming genre.
MVMB (Mario VS. the Moon Base) is like other Mario games in which it has a simple, understandable storyline.

author=MVMB Gamepage
Bowser has stolen the Princess (*gasp*) and taken her to his MOON BASE....IN SPACE!


The first thing I thought when I read this was: Super Mario Galaxy: 2D Platformer.
To my disappointment, I figured out that this was a linear Mario game in which Mario must travel through five worlds of Goomba's and Koopa Troopa's and a Koopaling fight at the end, and then a sixth world, the moon in this case, where our plumbing protagonist fights through a small array of final levels, and then defeats the last boss.

This game's story is nothing amazing, but the whole "moon base" thing adds just a few sprinkles to a vanilla flavored game.

This game's story get's a:
THUMBS UP


Stuck on the last level.
That's right. I've never beaten this game. I got stuck on the last level of the moon.

But my lack of Mario skills aside, this game has been wonderfully done.
When I play a Super Mario Bros. fan game, I often find myself with 99 lives at the end of world one. I kept an approximate standard of 3 lives throughout this game, until one level in the sixth world where I got almost 20 1-ups at once.
I often found myself getting multiple game over's on one stage, but is difficult to take my opinion on this particular matter, considering my platforming skills are less than superb.
To sum this all up, I would say that if you want a Mario fan game with a fair difficulty, go with Mario VS. the Moon Base.

As far as the quality of level design goes, I give it an enormous round of applause.
As it is stated on the gamepage, this game was a community effort with level designers Kentona, Hexatona, Solitayre, and GreatRedSpirit.
However, the game appeared as if it was all designed by one person. Outstanding for a Mario fan game. One can tell that this game went through a lot of testing, and that's thanks to Shortstar, and MaxMcGee.

If I were to look at Super Mario Bros. 3, I observe that every level has a unique theme. For example, every level in world two obviously takes place in the desert, however, one level in this world is centered around chain chomps, one around Buzzy Beatles, and around an evil monster sun that chases you throughout the stage. MVMB accomplishes this sort of style beautifully.
True, some levels I found annoying or tedious, but this comes with every Mario game, even mainstream.

I love the game-play of Mario VS. the Moon Base. Bravo.

This game's gameplay get's a:
THUMBS UP


The graphics for this game are... Interesting.

MVMB uses a large array of Super Mario Bros. 3 graphics with a few customs, pallet swaps, and graphics from other mainstream games like Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario World.
And lot's of Metroid graphics.
At times, I thought I was playing Super Metroid. There is even a Mother Brain fight in the final world.

There is also a very cool (and difficult) level on the moon where everything is black and white (Lunar Eclipse) even the player. It reminds me of a level called sunset silhouettes in Talking Time Bros., another Mario fan game made with SMBX.

The graphics for MVMB were good, but not outstanding.

This game's graphics get's a:
THUMBS UP


I'm not going to talk much about the soundtrack, it was generally just some good Mario tunes with some impressive customs.

I did notice one thing that drove me a little crazy:
During a level, there would be dramatic, hopeful, inspiring music playing, and then I would enter a door and it would have a drasting change to a fast paced action tune.
This is something I don't like about almost all Mario games, especially fan games.

This game's audio get's a:
THUMBS UP


THUMBS UP

Overall this game is well done, fun, and challenging. I highly recommend this to fans of Super Mario Bros. 3.

However, I'm just to stubborn to give it the 5 stars it deserves.

Posts

Pages: 1
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
Y'know I tested the game and made a level too :p

Edit:
To answer your question, b_r I find your review layout and style highly obnoxious.
Decky
I'm a dog pirate
19645
You know, I tested the game and made a level too :P
I have updated the review. I know the y's and g's are cut off, but I'm to lazy to fix it now.
author=Pokemaniac
this one doesn't need it so much, but you should have an overall thumbs up/thumbs down, I think.


As our friend Jim Carry would say in ACE VENTURA, "alllllllllllrighty then"
this one doesn't need it so much, but you should have an overall thumbs up/thumbs down, I think.
author=GreatRedSpirit
Two things: The label should be text on transparent, not a white background. Just create a new image in your favorite image editor (that isn't Windows Paint as it doesn't support transparencies), delete the white so it appears like a checkerboard which is the default indicator of transparencies, and then write the label text and save!

Second is almost every sentence is its own paragraph. Combine similar sentences that follow each other into a paragraph so there aren't so many line breaks.

Thanks for the review!


Allright. Time to spend some more time in Gimp.

And, although I love to wright, I hate paragraphing.
Two things: The label should be text on transparent, not a white background. Just create a new image in your favorite image editor (that isn't Windows Paint as it doesn't support transparencies), delete the white so it appears like a checkerboard which is the default indicator of transparencies, and then write the label text and save!

Second is almost every sentence is its own paragraph. Combine similar sentences that follow each other into a paragraph so there aren't so many line breaks.

Thanks for the review!

However, the game appeared as if it was all designed by one person.

A friend who tested the game had some fun trying to guess who did what levels. He managed to find some details to identify who did what with reasonable success except Hexatona's levels. It's easier to do so when you got somebody to tell you when you're right with your guesses though.
Do you like this review. I'm thinking of doing more, but I want an opinion on the layout and style of the review first.
Pages: 1