Review Information
Game Reviewed Mario Left the Cheese Out, by 4 Eyes
Review Author Vitiman
Created Oct 30 2016, 5:05 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview
The world of Mario fangames used to be a very odd and quirky one, but seldom would any polish be present alongside this absurdity. Well, in perhaps one of the earliest examples of polish meets strange (discounting unfinished efforts like Poochie), we have Mario Left The Cheese Out - a game with a premise so delightfully oddball you can't help but like it. As for the game itself though? Erm, my opinion is of the mixed variety.
 
Pros Graphics work surprisingly well!
Interesting new mechanic(s)
Hilariously stupid plot
Engine works alright, minus some frustrating bits
 
Cons Repetitive and dull, ultimately
Engine's few quirks really hold the whole thing back
No checkpoints (yet the levels stretch on for eons)
ONE hit-point, because why not?
 
Impressions
Gameplay
5 / 10
Ultimately, a fair effort we have going on here. It's neither overly complex nor blandingly (that's not a word? Should be a word if you ask me) simplistic, MLTCO is perfectly in the middle. Unfortunately, its level design is so broad and basic that often you'll find yourself being sensory deprived from the lack of any eye-candy whatsoever. Of course, that's mainly a graphical issue, but it also affects your trek through any given level: it's usually a drawn out, boring one.

As for the engine itself, it works pretty well! Unfortunately, some quirks can make it overly frustrating. For instance, the hammer in general just doesn't work well enough. You can change the direction it's going mid-attack, but this is actually a mark against it - see, you fight a Metroid for the first level boss (for some... absurd reason) and, combine that with one hit and you're dead, and no invincibility time and... uh, I think you know where I'm going with this.

Oh, did I mention you only get one hit point? Because you do. No way to increase health as far as I know either. No checkpoints too, so one hit and you have to do the WHOLE boring level all over again. Bleh, bleh bleh.

At least there are some unique bits, like the music box powerup that temporarily puts enemies to sleep while a calming lullaby plays. Very creative, I'll admit! Sure, it's technically an idea from SMB3 (right down to the same exact song - or a MIDI version thereof - playing), but that was a map item to let you bypass Hammer Bros, whereas this is an in-level item that lets you attack enemies more easily.
 
Graphics
7 / 10
The graphics are sourced from many places, but I'll fully admit it all works surprisingly well! Only thing I didn't like was the repetitive level elements, which were so bare-bones at times that it felt like I was wrapping around to the beginning with how often the same ground block graphic is repeated over and over.

Other than that, the graphics are integrated with each other quite nicely! Ninja's famous Paper Mario custom sprites have been given a beefier outline (and so have some other sprites), which allows them to fit in with the other graphics more fairly. Not a bad idea, actually...!
 
Sound
4 / 10
Eh, standard fare music and sounds. Nothing to write home about, but it works decently. General MIDI really doesn't do these songs justice, but like hell if I'm gonna try running this in my Windows 98 VM again, screw that. Maybe if I setup TiMIDIty or whatever that one program is called?
 
Replay
2 / 10
Couldn't make it past the second level, unfortunately. Shoddy moving platform (in that I was constantly bouncing on it which eventually launched me to my death) contributed to that. Amusingly enough, the first moving platform, one you have to move along with, isn't that bad to deal with since it's slow. But even though this one was slow too, it was also an enemy so it had to "behave" like one I guess?

Either way, my point is I gave up after that since there was no way I was going to put up with garbage default platform engine enemy shenanigans. Not again. Not ever.
 
Final Words
5 / 10
A very creative and unique fangame held back by some really questionable level design and, in spite of a general coat of polish for the time, some unfortunate bugs and default platform movement quirks that found their way in.

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