Review Information
Game Reviewed Tanooki Mario Winter, by bigmariofan1.0
Review Author Roo
Created Aug 31 2021, 6:01 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview
Some people will live their entire lives content with the fact that they will never accomplish anything unique. That they will never innovate.

Others, however, innovate by making jumping optional in a Mario game.

's a bit hard to say which group is winning.
 
Pros + The in-game music is pretty good
+ It's got a weirdly unique atmosphere
+ The creator possibly tried to kind of innovate, maybe?
 
Cons - Two of the three cursors are basically useless
- The graphics are mostly pretty wonky
- The innovation didn't really pan out.
 
Impressions
Gameplay
3 / 10
The gameplay consists of walking around in front of a pipe that randomly spews out coins and Galoombas. You must avoid or kill the Galoombas and collect the coins, though only the coins give you any points, so you might as well just jump over the Galoombas.

However, you can't just "jump" in this game. Oh, no. Before you begin, you have to select your one and only ability in the form of a cursor; the statue cursor, the spin cursor, or the jump cursor. These cursors let you place blocks that make Mario do something when he touches them. Whether it's an attempt at innovation or some weird roundabout fix to a coding inability remains unsolved to this day, but what we do know is that it didn't really work out.

The statue cursor is entirely useless. When used, it turns you into an invulnerable statue for a moment. However, you can't collect coins in this mode and it doesn't kill the Galoombas, so while you can stand around being invincible as long as you can mash the left mouse button, it's not going to get you to the top of the scoreboard.

The spin cursor is pretty naff too. It actually lets you kill the enemies, which is nice, but in return, you must awkwardly stay still for a moment, and if you mistime the click even a bit, you're liable to get hit.

The jump cursor is indisputably the best one. It lets you easily kill the Galoombas without sacrificing mobility. If you absolutely must play this disasterpiece, pick the jump cursor.

The randomization of the stuff coming out of the pipe is a bit out of whack too. Sometimes you get large stretches of nothing, sometimes you get four Galoombas in a row. You can also sometimes get a Galoomba behind a coin, which is a "fun" surprise.

I have to very, VERY mildly commend the creator for trying something different, but it just doesn't work very well. Either you use the jump cursor and become basically undefeatable (apart from those times when the hit detection fails and I die even though the enemy dies too), or you use the other cursors and "fail epically," as they say.
 
Graphics
5 / 10
Almost every graphic in the game is from something different. The self-made (?) coins look pretty bad (and are partially in the ground for some reason), the Tanooki Mario sprite is in the MLSS style (I'm not as much of a stickler for "no MLSS sprites in platformerzz!!1" as some people are, but it does still look a bit odd), and the Galoombas use their parachuting animations instead of having a normal bloody walking cycle.

Oh yeah, there's also the background which is... just a photo. I mean, it doesn't look BAD and kind of gives the game a pretty unique atmosphere, but... come on.
 
Sound
7 / 10
The title screen music is too loud and kind of meh, but the remix of the SMB3 World 6 map theme used in the game itself is a certified banger.

The sound effects... are.
 
Final Words
4 / 10
I would recommend a single, quick playthrough with the jump cursor just to soak in the atmosphere, but other than that, not worth it.

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