MFGG - Mario Fan Games Galaxy

Review Information

Game Reviewed	N/A, by N/A
Review Author	YoungLink
Created	May 25 2009, 1:30 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview

This game has a good premise, but there are a lot of inconveniencies that makes this editor difficult to use. The gameplay engine works funky too, which is bad for a Mario-3-wannabe platformer.

In overall, I consider this one of the "powerful but has bad user interface" apps, in line with the likes of YouTube and Flash CS4 - all are powerful, yet you can't work smoothly with them.

I don't know about others, but for me, a bad user interface is fatal. I must say that this app needs a lot of polishing, yet it does sound promising - very few other games have "make-your-own-level" features, needless to say apps dedicated to it (and is not a ROM hacking app).

Pros	- Does a lot of things - Mixes features of multiple games - Does not ask for any programming knowledges - Example file means you get to play the game even without making your own levels
Cons	- Bad choice of physics engine - Lack of detailed documentations - Inconvenient user interface - Constantly resizing window

Impressions

Gameplay 6 / 10	The idea of creating user's own levels has been good. However, the physics engine doesn't correspond well. The game itself is irresponsive, and Mario has a hard time stopping from running, which is a great departure from regular Mario games. Controls has not been properly implemented either. The use of WASD is ignorant as not all users use a QWERTY keyboard; and the only keys that can be changed is running and jumping - which can be improved further. There is also a serious lack of documentation, as all I have here is a single chink of text saying somehting to the effect of "you should know what to do". While trying around with an editor is absolutely fine, there are moments when I don't know what to do. I hope to see this addressed. Conclusion: Good idea, but the control is not smooth, discriminates non-QWERTY users and this app lacks documentation.
Graphics 7 / 10	A lot of graphics are missing. For example, the edges of ground ledges are missing; and the "rounded edge" graphics lack a backgrounded variation, making some ledge edges have a strange transparent background while it should be in other colours. Graphical imperfections also happen with its constantly-resizing window. It looks like the graphics keep re-initializing and even a maximized window can get its size changed. Graphical settings also don't save. However, this editor takes good choices of graphics from past Mario games. I do hope to see elements from newer games (YI1, SM64, LM, SMSun, MvsDK 1&2, NewSMB, YIDS, SMG, etc) though. Conclusion: Nice choice of graphics, but not considerate enough. Graphical bugs are found.
Sound 7 / 10	Default music is good. Allowing custom MIDIs is a plus. Not allowing non-MIDIs is a big drawback, though. What year is it now? Sound FX should be allowed to be changed. For me, SMB1 death sound is not the best choice, seeing this game is SMB3-based. Another problem whould be these sound effects are not smooth enough, and can be irritating with a higher volume. Conclusion: Nice choice of music and sound, but should be more flexible.
Replay 8 / 10	This is a create-your-level game, and this fact itself makes the game very replayable. However, the fact this game is not flexible enough is also a big con. You can refer to LunarMagic for this: Make an editor with standard API instead of your own limited-resolution UI, the game should run more smoothly without control imperfection, and so on. Replay value is a score that gets affected from the other aspects of the game. In the case of this editor, its very nature makes it deserve a full score, but user interface imperfections suggest otherwise. Colclusion: Good because it does a lot of things; bad because of bad user interface. I would like to use this app in a much smoother manner.

Final Words

good idea + bad user interface = bad app in overall
Can be improved upon, but as far as the current version goes, I'll favor ROM editors over this.

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Comments

	Pooka Jun 1 2009, 9:24 PM
You know, You CAN use the arrow keys to move...


	YoungLink Jun 2 2009, 7:01 AM
No. You can use it to move Mario during gameplay, yes. But you have to use WASD to scroll within the editor, which is kind of inconvenient if this combination cannot be changed.


	Grant Jun 7 2009, 4:47 AM
I believe 7/10 generally means a moderately good (positive) score. Seems to conflict a bit with your conclusion that it's a rather bad app.


	YoungLink Jun 8 2009, 2:37 PM
It's practically imperfect, but I didn't say things like "the game is unplayable". There are far worse things than this, believe me. And I tend to say the bad things out and keep the good things in (because I kind of take them as granted). So believe me, I did think this game's a 7/10.

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