MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Review Information

Game Reviewed	Super Mario Flashback - NCFC 2015 Demo, by Mors
Review Author	DJ Coco
Created	Aug 28 2015, 11:25 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview

I heard lots of good things about this game, and it definitely does look very nice. But how good is it really? Let's find out!

Pros	+ Nice physics + Lots of moves + Excellent graphics + Nice choice of music + Lots of visual polish + Good level design + Lots of sound effects
Cons	- Tons of bugs - Walljumping feels a bit forced

Impressions

Gameplay 8 / 10	The gameplay was really nice and refreshing. Controlling Mario felt really good. Despite the game's mostly 16-bit visual aesthetics, the physics are more based around the modern Mario games, mostly Super Mario 3D Land/World. There's a lot of moves, including walljumping. Most implementations of walljumping I've seen so far felt rather clumsy, and it's sorta the case here, too. Sorta. The walljumping works well for the most part, but I just found myself clinging on to a wall too often, and sliding off the wall also felt too slow. But that's minor nitpicking. The third green star in the first level was also way too hard to get - in fact, I couldn't get it. The green stars might be intended to be for the pros, but newbies probably still want to get the collectibles that lie around, and if you see a floating green star, you just want to have it. That's a pretty bad design choice in otherwise mostly great level design. The green stars also reset in the other missions I played. I'm not sure if they should stay saved, or not. I guess each mission has its own set of green stars, and maybe I'm just blind, but I didn't see any green stars in the second or third mission. The game also features custom controls, which is nice, but the key configuration feels like a last-minute implementation. It looks very unpolished compared to the rest of the game, it doesn't immediately update the game, and it lets you configure the same key to multiple actions, with no choice of going back, either. The biggest complaint I have, whatever, is the sheer amount of bugs. The HUD seems to be jumping around a lot (I'm not sure if that's intentional but it was so weird to me I figured it was a bug). Mario kept behaving like he just landed on a vertically moving platform when they changed direction, when I got the first star, jumping through the flagpole he was stuck in his climbing animation, on the race with Lakitu I managed to glitch through the walls in a walljumping section, you can walljump off the boundaries of the screen, ... There's a lot. Despite the polish this game has, there are some major oversights. I didn't even have to intentionally search for these glitches. I hope these will be taken care of in the final version.
Graphics 10 / 10	The graphics are beautiful. The game seems to try to combine 16-bit aesthetics with modern effects. The game doesn't feel like an SNES game at all - instead it feels like some stylized indie game - which is not a bad thing at all. It's really beautiful to look at. All the effects and details really please the eyes. The menus are also very well done and very professional-looking. Various shaders have been utilized, and all in all, it just looks fantastic.
Sound 10 / 10	The choice of music is really good. It felt familiar and yet fresh, which is probably also exactly what you want to hear in a game that is all about Mario's past, while still maintaining a fresh breeze of originality. There's lots of high quality sound effects too, and it's hard to find anything to complain about in this regard, as well.
Replay 5 / 10	There's optional missions and green stars to collect, so there's that. It would be nice if they unlocked additional missions/worlds in the final version.

Final Words

While the game suffers from some technical drawbacks, overall it's still a very polished and fun experience, and definitely one of the best games you can find at NCFC this year.

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Comments

	Mors Aug 29 2015, 10:57 AM
Quote The game also features custom controls, which is nice, but the key configuration feels like a last-minute implementation. It looks very unpolished compared to the rest of the game, it doesn't immediately update the game, and it lets you configure the same key to multiple actions, with no choice of going back, either. I actually added it after NCFC so I didn't have much time to polish :D Anyways thanks for the review.


	CanofNothing Sep 2 2015, 5:52 AM
Yeah, I did a pretty good job at picking some music through my programs and synths and such. If only I made some original remixes for the game, though! That would've been rad.

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