MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Review Information

Game Reviewed	Mario in Hell, by Old Yuanxian
Review Author	Cap'n Coconuts
Created	Feb 17 2016, 11:46 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview

"NOTE: it may be hardly playable in the start, but you can get used to it and enjoy it."

Generally when I see someone try to make excuses for their games' shortcomings, I wind up expecting a game that is of poor quality. I also get annoyed at the developer because he is trying to justify the game's flaws instead of fixing them (or, in the case of scrapped submissions like this, at least being honest and up front about it).

And unsurprisingly, this game is bad. Apparently it's been shown to "a ton of people" who "liked it", but I get the impression these people have not played very many fan games.

Pros	+ The game title is actually kind of fitting, from a certain point of view. I feel bad for Mario being in this game.
Cons	- "Custom" content that is just rehashed from Nightmare Engine - Unfitting music for the alleged setting - Unfitting enemies for the alleged setting - Relies on enemy spam to make anything difficult

Impressions

Gameplay 1 / 10	So immediately upon startup, there's the standard Game Maker info pop-up. Here's just the start of it: "NIGHTMARE ENGINE By supmaster004" That alone raises a red flag, in that it indicates this game is an INCREDIBLY lazy engine edit. This info pop-up is taken straight from the Nightmare Engine without the slightest modification. There is no information on Mario in Hell in particular. HIGHLY unprofessional. So I'll close this pop-up and move on to the game, which conspicuously lacks anything resembling a main menu or an introduction. Mario is just plopped in a room that looks nothing like any Hell I've read about. The HUD is about as primitive and amateur as it gets, and a dialogue box with E. Gadd's face on its left is saying "an example room." It is at this exact moment when I realize this game is a glorified tech demo, and a lazy engine edit that--in my honest opinion--should never have passed quality control. I haven't even done anything in the game yet, and already the game is screaming its total lack of professionalism at me. So now that the very first impressions of the game have been absolutely appalling, let's get a move on for real this time. This is a 3D platformer with some first person shooting (I use the term loosely; there's not a lot of platforming to be had). The mouse (rather awkwardly) controls the camera angle and shooting, SHIFT (or right click) switches between camera views, CTRL throws objects if you are carrying them, SPACE jumps, and arrow keys move. I don't really care for this control setup, and it would have been great if there was a way to change it, but alas--there isn't. I've gotten as far as the third room. Given the amount of polish this game has gotten, I can't tell if it's meant to be a third level or a third part of one big level. Nonetheless, clearing each room replenishes health and takes away any items you've taken. This is apparently the only legitimate way to heal, which is bad when the game has a fatal error when you die (because it can't find a room to send you back to). Let's break down the contents of each room I've visited. == ROOM 1: AN EXAMPLE ROOM == Seriously, why in blazes is this text box with E. Gadd here? There's no E. Gadd in this room. Is it so difficult to modify or remove this kind of stuff? So the first part of this "level" is not exactly safe. If you're going to have wonky controls, you could at least have the courtesy to make the start of the level safe. There's a pipe spewing bob-ombs which explode upon landing nearby. Nothing in this level tells you anything about how to play the game, which is just wonderful. Despite the game allegedly being set in Hell, there is no new content to reflect this. Everything so far is directly taken from the Nightmare engine or a quick edit of such. The difficulty so far seems to rely on having you fight a massive quantity of enemies. There's little in the way of traps and stage hazards (bits of lava, bob-omb pipes, and saws notwithstanding). == ROOM 2: A ROOM WITH ENEMIES == That's what a new text box has to say, with a Shroob's image to the left. Naturally, there are no Shroobs to be found in this room at all. Instead, there are these peach and blue things (apparently "blobs" if Nightmare Engine's object names are anything to go by). What are these supposed to be, and why is stomping them ineffective? It's not like they have spikes on them. Anyways, the peach ones have to be shot repeatedly or blown up, while the blue ones will only turn to stone for a while if you don't use explosives, and their stone transformations break projectile physics for some reason. Fortunately, dynamite is plentiful in this room. The best way to handle this area seems to be by hit and run--approach enemies, drop the dynamite, and run before it explodes. This room is actually not terrible, considering that completing it required some thought. However, it still uses lots of stuff straight from the Nightmare 3D Engine, it still has an unnecessary text box, and it still looks nothing like Hell. Beat all of the enemies to unlock that extremely low-res door to the next area. At this point, I'm noticing this game is highly combat-oriented. There is almost no platforming, which is a waste of one of the engine's features and just one thing that makes the level design suck. == ROOM 3: LINK KICKS ASS == Those are Navi's words in a text box, not mine. And yet, there is no Navi or Link to be found. This room is especially annoying because now there are enemies that apparently shoot (I can't really be sure due to the chaotic mess this room is) and they all surround you. This level is packed with enemies. The only saving grace are three Arwings (!?) which you can fly to get away from that nastiness (if you're lucky). The Arwing fires with SPACE, because apparently we can't have one consistent key for attacking anything. This room has a magma blob, which is like a blue blob in that it turns to stone if you shoot it enough. The difference is that the magma blob is a serious damage sponge, meaning you'll need many sticks of dynamite to even freeze it. Other than that, there is nothing notable about this enemy. It is new and original in the sense that a Sonic recolor is original, and requires about the same level of effort to make (i.e. zero). MAGMA BLOBS ORIGINAL CHARACTERS DO NOT STEAL == ROOM 4: SOMETHING ABOUT MECHS == Falco, what the devil are you talking about? There are no mechs here. This room also introduces a "new" enemy, in the form of a giant blob. The giant blob is exactly the same as an ordinary blob, except larger and with more health. How imaginative. Once again, the room has a massive number of enemies, but at least has the courtesy of placing you in a safe spot with a full armory of guns. Nonetheless, dynamite is still the only way of permanently destroying blue blobs. == ROOM 5: most innovative boss fight evar == At this point, I don't really remember what the text box said. All I remember is the "custom" boss edeN mentioned in the comments. Apparently making an even bigger blob that randomly spawns blobs and sports a mushroom texture ring counts as "custom". Besides this and having enough health to survive being hit with a nuclear warhead, it is exactly the same as any other blob--and given the lack of blue blobs, you can just grab a gun and literally (PROTIP) shoot at it until it dies. It doesn't even have a death animation--you're sent directly to the sixth room when it runs out of health. What is this, the Miraculous Boss Battle 4? == ROOM 6: A cinema room?!?!?! == Hahaha there are no cutscenes. Just touch the Yoshi egg at the end and you are instantly warped to... == ROOM 7: shooter room which is EXACTLY the same as the one from the nightmare engine == At least have the decency to dummy this stuff out, for pity's sake. All in all, this is an unprofessional mess with the most basic and glaring of mistakes. It is a blatant engine clone: besides level design, there is almost no new content--and the content that IS new is just rehashed from the original.
Graphics 1 / 10	Legacy Game Maker has limited 3D capabilities to start with, so any 3D game made with the software is going to look fairly primitive. But with low-res textures everywhere (besides the blood which is higher-res for some reason) and a bright red "skybox", this game winds up looking just plain ugly. The text boxes (which are highly unnecessary, by the way) can clip into objects if you are close enough to them in first person view. The HUD is also graphically unappealing. Apparently the yellow dot is supposed to represent coins--but why is it represented by a yellow dot when Mario's SM64 head represents lives? And why does it use the default font? And lastly, Hell is supposed to be a dark, foreboding place--right? At the very least, this game should have had a fog effect--that's one of the very things covered in the Game Maker 3D tutorial. At least then, there would have been a token effort to make this game look like Hell instead of a generic level with lava and other stuff here and there. To my knowledge, all textures were either taken directly from the Nightmare Engine or were quite edits of such textures. Given the flagrant lack of effort in the graphics department, I choose to give this a 1.
Sound 1 / 10	The main theme is the title theme from The Legend of Zelda: the Ocarina of Time in MIDI form. Now imagine this playing 99% of the time in a low-res 3D environment that is allegedly Hell. Why couldn't edeN look for a DOOM midi or some horror game midi? Or, better yet, why couldn't FMOD or some other dll/extension have been used for some GOOD music? None of the music has been changed from the source engine. Because zero apparent effort was made to change any sound whatsoever, this category deserves a 1.
Replay 1 / 10	This game made no effort to persuade me to play it the first time, let alone play it again. I only played it again for the sake of being thorough.

Final Words

A textbook example on what NOT to do with a Game Maker 3D engine.

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