Partially ghost-written by Bones

Previous editions of Super RMN Bros featured a mass collection of levels, coming in all shapes and sizes. When dozens of developers slap together dozens of levels, cohesion is naturally sacrificed. Despite the best efforts of project managers to limit this, the reality is that accepting almost every submission will make creating a cohesive game near impossible. However, I know what I’m getting into when I try a community project.

Unlike those previous editions, All-Stars features levels handpicked by a panel of judges. This greatly changes my expectations for the end product.
I maintain that the success of a project, especially a community project, needs to be evaluated based on its mission statement. While the spirit of collaboration still applies in this project, the quality of the levels is being held to a higher standard. Consequently, the resulting Super Mario game needs to be held to a higher standard.

Now, I’m not an aficionado of SMBX projects. There’s quite a few out there, including one I reviewed in the past. But I’ve played enough of them to see some of the common issues: inconsistent difficulty, unintuitive hubs, clashing graphics. I felt like this world map was an improvement. It was fairly straight forward and easy to navigate. Compared with earlier editions, I was impressed with how well the difficulty scaled. There were a few levels later on that felt a little easy, but otherwise pretty smooth throughout. The music selection and clashing graphics still left a lot to be desired.

Now some comments about the levels. No arbitrary ratings for individual levels, just notes.

World 1

Wood in World One

- Good layout for an opening level (I dunno if it is, since all the paths are open from the start, but it’s first one I played). Good enemy variety and a couple secrets in the sky/ pipes.

Green Goomba Hills

- Hitting the pink block in the beginning denies you access to the secret room near the halfway mark. Goombas everywhere could lead to 1ups with some crafty jumping.

Green Greens

- Nimbus Land music doesn't fit too well. Nice variety of secrets on/ near the ship at the halfway mark. The first section of changing water levels feels incomplete, but it has Yoshi toward the end, which greatly increases fun factor.

Pondville

- Very basic in the beginning. There seems to be an unlimited coin dispenser in the beginning, too. The underwater sequence at the end can be skipped via racoon flight, but you'll miss out on the last Yoshi coin. There’s lots of fire flowers out in the open in somewhat offbeat paths.

Giga Underground Way

- The change from the upbeat SNES quality SMB2 music to the 8 bit world 1-2 when you go underground is too drastic. This is multiplied again when emerging at the surface at the end, the music changes to upbeat Super Mario World world 1-1. Very few pitfalls in the whole level.

Creation Alpha

- This has some nice platforming for an early level with numerous pitfall opportunities. Nice secrets in the sky can be accessed with racoon flight or a shell kicked upward in some cases. Music fits the stage well.

Supra Mairo Bors: Boswer's Castl

- Nice choice of music. The inability to have the screen scroll back to the left can make some jumps trickier, especially the beginning with the Bullet Bills. Nice mix of increased platforming difficulty (in comparison to the other levels in the world) and timing runs through the rotating fire beams in the castle. One issue is that Bowser can do a jump high enough through his movement pattern to get onto the floor with the axe and evade falling into the lava. This makes him tricky to kill after that.

World 2

Green Suede Shoes

- This is a cool concept to have a whole level devoted to travelling in the green boot. Nice use of hazards that the boot can pass but are normally impassible.

Picky Picky

- Blew myself up with a hidden bomb. Hilario. The alternate world puzzle side was interesting.

Ghost Circle

- If there was a circle, I never ran into it. The secret blue doors were pretty easy to find.

Supra Mairo Bors 3: Pippes

- Lots of alternate routes via pipes. Good enemy layout.

Woodcutter Castle

-There feels like there was more than one way up the castle. Nice use of sawblade traps, moving platforms, and hammer(axe) bros.

Piranha Palace

- Timing the vine jumps was very entertaining. The boss is easy. Weeding through the other piranhas makes it a slam dunk.

Castle Notsobad

- Easily has the most challenging platforming out of any level in World 2. Lots of lava and spike hazards. Very well done.

World 3

Supra Mairo 3: Agrny Sun

- Somehow glitched out the sun. It stopped chasing me for the first part of the level. Coins were not very abundant outside of POW switching breakable blocks. Yoshi coins were very well hidden or nonexistent.

Underground we go!

- Lots of opportunities to get 1-ups from coins/ enemies.

Sunken Desert

- The two level design in the beginning is cool, but it doesn't carry throughout the level.

Supra Mairo 2: Dessert

- Nice challenge. Birdo fight in the condensed area provides an interesting pitfall consequence when trying to grab the eggs she shoots.

Lakitu's Playground

- Link runs train on this level. It can get hectic in a fun way for the other characters when there are a lot of Spinies on the ground.

Batty Bungalow

- This had good cave atmosphere between the music and the shapes on some of the floors. Dodging bats, fireballs, and Snifit shots in the condensed areas was a good challenge. Surprise bat at the end almost got me.

Koopa Bros. Tower

- The multiple routes idea is great. Koopa Bros. were pretty easy, since they can't pass through the infinitely spawning enemies. They can trap the bros in a corner, and you can safely stomp the bros from one of the high platforms.

World 4

Crabby Coast Crossing

- I feel the bottom portion on some parts of the level would be impassable without fire/racoon/Link. There’s good enemy spacing otherwise though.

Kentonee Floodplains

- Abundance of 1-ups and coins. This is a good place to grind for these. Alternating water levels combined with cannons make for great fun. Character control is nearly impossible when skipping on the top of the water as it is falling.

Starlight Lagoon

- Very standard level: no gimmicks or funny business. There’s a good number of coins to collect. Dyer Dyer Docks music was quite fitting.

Ghost Wall

- Nice pace to this level. My only gripe is that climbing through the vines is slower than the ghost chasing you. So if you don’t build up a good lead before the vines, death is guaranteed.

Oasis Ruins

- Good variance of sandish desert outside maps with interior maps. The platforming is very basic with no hard gaps to cross. Multiple hidden 1 ups.

Ruins of Muda

- The level aesthetics are great. The collapsing environment gave the level that underground/underwater ruins feel. Dyer Dyer docks music again; this time it doesn’t work well.

Mairo vs. The Tree Baes

- Jungle Japes music is supreme. The level layout is great. Nice platforming sections with spike traps. Raphael the Raven boss provides a challenge, because the fireballs travel quickly.

World 5

*The overworld music doesn't loop well.

Crystal Forest

- Level layout, pace, and the music are amazing.

Precarious Platforms

- This level had a neat layout of moving platforms. The enemy placement makes you think a bit along with hitting the on/off blocks to change the tracks.

Ghost House Blues

- The beginning is awesome. I was fooled by the flashing platforms... The dual tower climb at the end was some crazy platforming. My favorite level overall. Very well done.

Whale Whale Whale

- Ice path dodging swarm of incoming enemies was quite entertaining.

Frosty Tower

- The upward scroll is somewhat hasty. You really need to find a good rhythm to get through this. Solid design, though.

Supra Mario Bors 3: Clowds

- It took me some time to find the secret blue door to move on. Level seems to get easier as it progresses.

Mr. L

- This had a good bonus level vibe to it. Being forced to play as Luigi is a nice change of pace, if you don't use the other characters that often. The clown copter parts were very fun.

World 6

Supra Mairo Wrold: Crush Cavs

- YOOOOSSSHHHHIII!!!!!!! Other than that, it was a pretty standard level. The moving yellow ground over the lava pit section was neat.

World of Hurt

- Spikes on spikes on spikes. I wish I was exaggerating. Nice platforming challenge with plenty of power-ups to keep the frustration factor at a manageable level.

Triad Airship

- The wrench throwing moles can’t be stomped. This was kind of annoying. Dodging everything on the swaying airship is good fun. The Koopa kid (don't know which one) boss is a decent challenge thanks to some wrench throwing moles on either end.

Blood Ocean

- The scrolling is at a good pace. The enemy layout provides some nice swim skill requirements. The high road demands power-ups or Link.

Crimson Slipper

- Forced play as Peach is cool if you don’t use other characters often. There’s some solid platforming elements between lava (when bootless), moving platforms, and spinys.

Fortress Aflame

- Not particularly difficult. The pipe side routes possibly skip the challenging parts. Red Bowser seemed unstompable. Axe made short work of him, but denied me the ability to grab the POW block to get to the pipe below the star.

Other Star Road/ Bonus Room

- Sounds like there is more to do, but the details explained aren't too clearly. Still exploring.

Pit of Challenges

- Not sure how to open this. Still exploring.


Conclusion

Super RMN All-Stars is a step in the right direction for this franchise. It's more fun, less frustrating, and somewhat better put together than previous editions. Some people have considered the first three games a disaster. Then, you can call this one less of a disaster. I'd go as far as calling this a pretty good game. Well done, RMN.