Game Reviewed | Mario's slightly Unusual Boss Rush (v2.0 Release), by OssieTheOstrich |
Review Author | Bstudios |
Created | Oct 17 2023, 1:05 AM |
Pros | Creativity: The game is overflowing with a wealth of bizarre ideas that truly earn it the title it was given. From Despicable Me, Ice Age, to Hilda: there's no end to the wild ideas that the game has on offer. Spritework: The sprite art of the game is wonderful. Each sprite is fantastically designed to faithfully replicate the look and animation of Super Mario Bros. 3 to a fantastic degree. Every stage feels coherently "itself" while never departing too far from the Mario style. Music: While not original-- the music is still well picked and fitting for the worlds and situations. There was never a track that seemed out of place or ill-fit to the area it was in. |
Cons | Poor Control: The issues with Top Speed, Acceleration, and your own Jump Fall Acceleration are insane. Controlling Mario can sometimes feel like watching an elephant plummet off of a trapeze. Poor Bosses: Despite the game being based around bosses, I assume: the bosses fall very flat. Each boss is reduced to 1 or 2 attacks with no variance no matter the hits. All of them take 3 hits, and poor design can result in them being either pathetically easy or nightmarishly frustrating. Special mention goes to the boss of Bridge Zone and the extremely poor hitbox communication. Severe Difficulty: Particularly in levels like Bridge Zone or Cog, you'll find yourself dying a LOT from a combination of bad enemy placements, bad enemy behavior, and Mario's poor overall control. Each of those two levels took me upwards of 20+ tries. Limited Options: There are no options for screen resolution, or sound, or music. This can get especially frustrating on a Desktop with a large screen: as you'll find yourself squinting at the very small natural resolution the game has. |
Gameplay 4 / 10 |
Poor Control ultimately brings down a generally solid experience: resulting in moment that can oftentimes result in it being a complete nightmare to even finish a level without any of the 3 collectibles in each. |
Graphics 8 / 10 |
Fantastic spritework lends an authentic feeling to the game that truly helps it stick out among its contemporaries, with particular talent for merging the styles of two different properties. |
Sound 6 / 10 |
Good music choices ultimately find themselves unable to cover for some very basic Sound flaws, as the game will layer sound effects rather then interrupt one for another to play. This can result in ear-splitting moments of bricks being destroyed or coin collection loudly blaring out in the style of a Youtube Dank Meme. |
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A game with a lot of unique ideas and creativity, marred by bad control and some glaringly poor design across the board. |
Comments |
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OssieTheOstrich Oct 17 2023, 6:27 AM |
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This is very well done and thorough review, I appreciate all the feedback you've provided. I've been given conflicting reports on Mario's control; some folks said he controlled well while others had issues with his movement (such as yourself). I have no idea why this is the case, but my guess might be some optimization issues. That, or I might've broke something between the 1.0 and 2.0 versions.. On the subject of the Big Eagle (the Ice Age level boss), this particular boss was based on one from the Ice Age GBA game, and most of his attacks are just ported over from it. About the options, I was actually planning on adding the features you bring up, but my game software license expired during it's production, which prevented me from properly adding new code. This might also explain some other issues that came up that I couldn't fix. |
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