Super Mario Bros. X - The Dark Emperor

The Dark Emperor is an old cancelled SMBX demo that shows some promise, but by this point has very little hope of seeing the light of day. The demo includes the first two levels and a few other teaser locations to visit. The game starts out as usual; Peach has vanished and Bowser's probably to blame. Mario and Luigi set out to give him what's for again. Along the way, it's alluded that Bowser is not actually responsible at all. Could it be...the dark emperor instead?! I GUESS WE'LL NEVER KNOW. Anyway, the game uses stars as its metric for progression, and the levels are meant to be explored more in-depth to find them. Each stage contains three stars, and stars can also be found in other locales sometimes. It's a neat idea in theory, but the execution could use some help.

Exploring each level more than once to find all three of its stars is a novel concept, but SMBX's style of level handling doesn't support it well at all. Having to find three stars in a stage basically means you're replaying the same level three times. Even a well-designed stage would lose its charm after that much repetition, and I'm sorry to report these stages are not that well-designed. They tend to be heavy on the number of enemies present with relatively few power-ups to fend them off. Speaking of, there are no actual power-ups to be found; only mushrooms dotted across vast expanses. It's not very forgiving. At least the aesthetics are good.

The stages also drag on far too long, which is partially due to their containing three stars each. While the stars aren't that difficult to find and have their own branching paths, you still have to replay the level up to the point where the paths fork. Factor in how much dying you're likely to do, and suddenly it's a chore to complete even the small amount this demo presents. There aren't even any checkpoints.

I don't know what could be done to save this formula. I like the concept, but the implementation needs work, and I'm not sure it could ever truly end up an enjoyable experience. The game's cancelled status makes the whole debate pretty moot, so I'll leave this with a rating of...

2/5