Review Information
Game Reviewed Mario For The Masses, by Nik Jam
Review Author Vitiman
Created Aug 4 2016, 3:43 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview
This game has something of a unique concept going on here: a fangame that's half an RPG (?) and half a platformer. In a sense, it's kind of like the evolution of Zelda II on the NES, albeit not nearly as well done or cohesive. But I'll excuse the latter for being a demo and an older fangame.

What I can't excuse, however, is the confusing platform guessing games and the general mediocrity that comes with a complete lack of polish.
 
Pros Interesting concept
World map that's actually kind of captivating in a weird sort of way!
"one of the first to include Super Mushrooms" is not only right, but they work well too
Can kill enemies without much of a hitch (yes, this is a pro - lots of games from this time couldn't even get that much right)
 
Cons What is and isn't a platform or solid or anything is entirely random
Have to manually collect coins after expelling them from their blocks
Sounds can also be confusing
Moving platforms are -horribly- coded.
 
Impressions
Gameplay
4 / 10
What can I say? It's a neat little concept - like I said in the introduction, the game is sort of a combination of your regular Mario fangame platformer from this era as well as what appears to be some sort of branching RPG story? There wasn't much at all going on in the RPG section aside from a sign I could read, though. I found myself on the world map not too long after, and soon enough the first level (and the only one I played, see below).

So the level starts and it actually has a cool atmosphere to it, in spite of the bad presentation so far. It was kind of difficult to navigate around the level though (see Graphics for more on that), but I managed... that is, until I got to the moving platforms. I died quite a few times on those alone, and by die I apparently mean "poof back to the beginning of the level with a life missing". Now before you so callously correct me by saying that pretty much -is- what dying is in most games, let me explain: that's literally what happens. The level doesn't restart, I just get pushed back to the beginning. All enemies I killed remain dead, all blocks remain hit and all items remain collected up to that point. Kind of crude if you ask me.

What was the last straw, and what made me close off the game in frustration, was the complete lack of tell regarding what is a platform and what isn't. You know those solid blocks from SMB3? You know, the wooden ones you couldn't jump through? Those are apparently jump through blocks in this. Okay, fair enough, whatever, not bad enough to quit out of rage yet, right? Okay, you know those elongated log-esque stumpy platforms from Yoshi's Island? You know, the ones you can JUMP THROUGH? Yeah, those are apparently just decoration. You can't jump on them... or so I thought. Seems only the first one is decoration, and there's another one a good ways through the level that you CAN jump on and it'll act like a platform all nice and well. Okay then, so that's a bit flustering, but it's not a big deal, right? Wrong: there's yet another one that comes up that seems to work fine at first, until I tried to jump BACK onto it from a lower height. I went right through it.

Oops, did I mean to hit the X button so soon? Oh yes, yes I did.
 
Graphics
2 / 10
Mediocre. End of story. Your typical clashing, bad, gaudy graphic combinations only games from this era (and some joke games from now) would get away with. The only thing worth complaining about on any significant level is that the ground in the first level is very difficult to make out from the background. It never cost me a life since it isn't THAT bad, but it's very annoying having to double check whether that's safe to jump on or not.

Then again, apparently even that's not an indicator of if a platform will hold you in this game.
 
Sound
3 / 10
Some MIDIs from games I've never played / cared enough to remember the songs. Then again, maybe they're all from classic RPGs that everyone fondly remembers, not that I'd particularly care either way. It's nothing offensively bad, just... eh. I'll commend him for doing something different with the music, though.

The SFX on the other hand... well, for the most part is your usual poorly ripped sounds from the era, but for some reason blue coins make a checkpoint sound when you collect them...? Confused me initially, I had thought I triggered a checkpoint and that this game had innovated well beyond a functional mushroom power-up, but nope. Just a poorly thought out sound.
 
Replay
1 / 10
Neeeeeooooooope. The uniqueness of the concept is not enough to play through this again, it's just too wishy-washy with its design and execution. Nothing terribly remarkable for a game of its time, but all the same I wish it were a bit more... fun? Amusing? SOMETHING to make it stand out a bit more after all this time.
 
Final Words
3 / 10
Mario for the Masses is a game that strives to be a lot, but winds up being a mere curiosity that has very very questionable design choices, both visually and audibly.

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