Review Information
Game Reviewed Mariovania (beta), by KoBeWi
Review Author Quicksting
Created Feb 27 2022, 5:52 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview
Really fun game. I'd give it a try if you like Metroidvanias.

Spoilers ahead.
 
Pros 1) The world is big with lots to backtrack and get. Tons of secrets. It isn't quite up to par with the likes of the Hollow Knight world, but it is still really big. Backtracking doesn't feel so bad in this game.
2) Fun powerups. I find it a bit odd that the ability to gain jump off of enemies is such a late-game upgrade, but meh.
3) Lots of varied enemies. Fun boss fights, for the most part.
 
Cons 1) The controls, especially Jump, were not as tight as they could be. There are times where I went to jump and simply nothing happened. Mario just kept right on trucking forward and off the ledge. It works most of the time, but it always gets you when it doesn't. On a similar note, the double and triple jump controls are really...odd. You get them by tapping jump a few frames before your first/second jump hits the ground. It takes a lot of getting used to because the timing is so oddly tight. It would have been better if it had followed Super Mario 64 controls where the next jump itself was the double/triple jump if the last jump was made right.

2) The Thwomp boss in the Weapon Factory was among the most cheap and infuriating bosses I have ever fought. It turns out I was undergeared as I think I was supposed to go to another area first, but still. The sniper sight line is so hard to see amongst all the other things happening. The blue beam was so fast that I would just get insta-gibbed with it from off-screen. If something was on the wall you needed to run up to avoid being crushed, you were just simply dead through no fault of your own. The thing would knock you down and then you didn't have time to run back up before a guaranteed death. It just felt like a lot of my deaths to that boss just simply were not my fault and I may as well not even have been at my keyboard. I liked all the boss fights I've done so far (done most of Distortion Dimension), but that one was the only exception and the only one I genuinely thought was bad design.
 
Impressions
Gameplay
7 / 10
The only thing holding this back from being a great game is the not-so-tight controls.
 
Graphics
10 / 10
Awesome for a fanmade game. I enjoyed seeing all the classic enemies and then the upgrades from those (especially the little plants that shoot fireballs into the air from SMW, and then their upgrade where they shoot lasers).
 
Sound
9 / 10
Lots of classic music.
 
Final Words
8 / 10
Really fun game that is definitely not without its faults. If you can tough it through the not-so-precise controls, you will have a blast.

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