Review Information
Game Reviewed Mario's slightly Unusual Boss Rush, by OssieTheOstrich
Review Author SuperSledgeBro
Created Aug 28 2022, 5:11 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview
"Mario's Slightly Unusual Boss Rush" has what it promises on the title: unusual bosses. It's a regular Mario game with a lot of weird elements mixed in from start to end, like Angry Birds, Minions, Bonzi Buddy, Mega Man, and other things that don't fit together and I don't recognize. There are definitely a lot of in-jokes going over my head. It's the experience of a casual, unpretentious and silly fangame.
 
Pros + The game is short and easy to play.
+ It's weird (in a good way).
+ The physics feel neither stiff nor slippery.
+ Decent graphics.
+ Decent sound and music.
 
Cons - The game has a lot of (mostly ignorable) bugs.
- Some hitboxes are larger than they need to be.
- Bosses can be beaten too easily.
- Bosses can be cheated.
- Level design can be unchallenging, repetitive or annoying.
 
Impressions
Gameplay
6 / 10
Mario's physics are mainly based on the original Super Mario Bros. 3. He's easy to control, and he moves smoothly without being slippery. There are no big problems on that aspect, but I have nitpicky observations such as Mario hitting his head even on the very edge of a block, whereas in the original game you'd be pushed to the side. Not having that mechanic makes it more difficult to get through one-block gaps or to jump on a block that is short above.

The game has the mushroom, the carrot, the cannon block and the metal cap (the most rare to find) as powerups. The carrot works the way it did in Mario Land 2, and that powerup is overpowered here because, if you have it, you can skip over a great chunk of a level's obstacles, especially in one snow level that has a lot of pits and spike traps. The cannon block attaches to Mario's head and shoots cannonballs at your will. This cannon block is required to go through the first level, and I'm not a fan of having the player keep their powerup in order to progress.

Before each boss, you have to go through a level. At first, I viewed those as filler to extend the game instead of going straight to the main point. The level design isn't very imaginative, and I can't say that all of those levels were fun to play. I particularly found the one with an underground theme, Donkey Kong crocodiles and trampolines to be very repetitive, and got annoyed at level 3, which is a snow level with pits and spike traps. That level has sections with flat ground which makes me think they're meant for running, but if I go too fast, I end up getting killed because of the uncomfortable camera positioning. That was my least favorite. In general, most of these levels have features that you see in every normal beginning of a Mario "world 1". That is, the occasional vertical pipes, straight rows of blocks with free coins and powerups, and easy enemies.

The camera is not well fit for levels with vertical scrolling, because it's positioned in a way that you can't see much of what's under Mario's feet, even when jumping. Sometimes, you will have to do blind jumps.

But the bosses themselves are diverse and simple. Some of them are fought in a single-screen room and require stomps on the head to be killed, while others involve a chase with auto-scrolling and you have to toss objects at them. And yeah... You fight stuff like Angry Birds and Bonzi Buddy. They are all generally really easy once you know what you're supposed to do. They don't have more than 3 points of health and there is no cooldown when you stomp them. With that, you can kill them in 3 seconds. In fact, if you have a powerup, you can cheat and kill the boss before it even becomes active! I'm disappointed that the bosses can be so short in a boss rush game, especially when it takes much longer than 3 seconds to get to them.

I'm going to address one problem that I had with the "giant" boss: the hitboxes for its hands seem to be a little bigger than they should. Mario gets damaged by barely touching them.

I encountered several little bugs in a casual gameplay. The good part is that none of those bugs are complex or game-breaking:
- One time, the metal cap theme did not stop after the power had worn out.
- Kicking a Koopa shell inside a wall will get that shell stuck there.
- Enemies die when they touch a Koopa shell, even if that shell is stationary.
- Bosses can be killed before becoming active.
- Items carried by Mario have an odd turning animation.
- It's very hard to jump out of water, especially as Rabbit Mario. There isn't a lot of thrust when he comes out of the water, so it feels like trying to get out of quicksand. Not to mention the countless splash animations that are rendered when I mash the jump button.

Overrall, the game is short, simple and easy to play. The special collectibles add an extra challenge when playing the levels, but I didn't see if those collectibles reward anything.
 
Graphics
5 / 10
The game is themed after Super Mario Bros. 3 and uses graphics from that game. On top of that, the regular Mario characters and powerups are given modernized looks. Some of the custom graphics for enemies and bosses are very cheaply made, but that's not a bad thing because this is a weird game with weird things sticking out against Mario. Looks aren't the focus.
 
Sound
8 / 10
Beyond the original tracks from Super Mario Bros. 3, the game has some new pieces of music which are remixes of songs from other games and they still keep the 8-bit instruments. I had no problems with volume and sound quality.
 
Final Words
6 / 10
It is an unusual boss rush all right. You won't see many games with Mario, Bonzi Buddy and Angry Birds together.

Comments
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OssieTheOstrich
Sep 4 2022, 12:03 PM
Hey SuperSledgeBro, thanks for the review!

Like with Roo's review, I'm gonna respond to some of your points. I apologise in advance if some of these responses sound odd. A lot of these will be more properly addressed in a upcoming update which fixes these problems.

Quote (SuperSledgeBro on Aug 28 2022,10:11 AM)
Before each boss, you have to go through a level. At first, I viewed those as filler to extend the game instead of going straight to the main point.

Doesn't the Mega Man series do this sorta thing, having levels before fighting a boss? Yes, I know there are points where you just fight the bosses but this wasn't based on those points. Plus I thought, where is the fun in just fighting the boss? Wouldn't it be more creative to go through a level based on what media the boss is from?

Quote (SuperSledgeBro on Aug 28 2022,10:11 AM)
The level design isn't very imaginative, and I can't say that all of those levels were fun to play.
The camera is not well fit for levels with vertical scrolling, because it's positioned in a way that you can't see much of what's under Mario's feet, even when jumping. Sometimes, you will have to do blind jumps.

Yeah I know, the level design needs a lot of re-working. I think the camera issue will be mitigated once I fix up the level design, removing any blind jumps. Though, it would be nice to know exactly where you think there are blind jumps so I could easily chuck them out.

Quote (SuperSledgeBro on Aug 28 2022,10:11 AM)
I particularly found the one with an underground theme, Donkey Kong crocodiles and trampolines to be very repetitive, and got annoyed at level 3, which is a snow level with pits and spike traps. That level has sections with flat ground which makes me think they're meant for running, but if I go too fast, I end up getting killed because of the uncomfortable camera positioning. That was my least favorite.

Huh, I never thought that the DKC level was repetitive. With that said, I recently tried to fix the DKC level to be a bit more interesting, but I guess I'll have to try harder. Though, it's level layout was sorta based off one from a DKC NES bootleg, and maybe the reason this one is lacking was because I didn't add the moving Bee enemies.

As for the Ice level, um, I'm not exactly sure what to do with this feedback. I guess making the straighter areas have a few forgiving moments would help?

Quote (SuperSledgeBro on Aug 28 2022,10:11 AM)
In general, most of these levels have features that you see in every normal beginning of a Mario "world 1". That is, the occasional vertical pipes, straight rows of blocks with free coins and powerups, and easy enemies.

I honestly can't tell if this is supposed to be a bad thing or not. I guess I'm getting the implication that the levels need to be harder and not be very "world 1", as you say?

Quote (SuperSledgeBro on Aug 28 2022,10:11 AM)
(The bosses) don't have more than 3 points of health and there is no cooldown when you stomp them. With that, you can kill them in 3 seconds. In fact, if you have a powerup, you can cheat and kill the boss before it even becomes active!

The bosses having 3 points of health was done because that was done in the original Super Mario Bros. 3, as well as the SMB3 Mix ROM hack, which has various new bosses and most (if not all) of them have 3 points of health.

As for the cool down and cheating, this is something I've recently implemented (fixed in the case of cheating) in a forum post, as other people had brought this up before, especially Roo in his review.
https://forums.mfgg.net/showthread.php?tid=2903&pid=31688#pid31688

Quote (SuperSledgeBro on Aug 28 2022,10:11 AM)
I'm going to address one problem that I had with the "giant" boss: the hitboxes for its hands seem to be a little bigger than they should. Mario gets damaged by barely touching them.

I plan to fix this soon.

Quote (SuperSledgeBro on Aug 28 2022,10:11 AM)

I encountered several little bugs in a casual gameplay. The good part is that none of those bugs are complex or game-breaking:
- One time, the metal cap theme did not stop after the power had worn out.
- Kicking a Koopa shell inside a wall will get that shell stuck there.
- Enemies die when they touch a Koopa shell, even if that shell is stationary.
- Bosses can be killed before becoming active.
- Items carried by Mario have an odd turning animation.
- It's very hard to jump out of water, especially as Rabbit Mario. There isn't a lot of thrust when he comes out of the water, so it feels like trying to get out of quicksand. Not to mention the countless splash animations that are rendered when I mash the jump button.

Thank you for finding and supplying these glitches, it'll make the future release of this a whole lot better, even if these aren't game-breaking ones.

Quote (SuperSledgeBro on Aug 28 2022,10:11 AM)
The special collectibles add an extra challenge when playing the levels, but I didn't see if those collectibles reward anything.

The special collectibles don't reward anything at the moment. In the future release I was planning on making the collectibles do something after you beat the game, like making you play as another character like Luigi or something.

Quote (SuperSledgeBro on Aug 28 2022,10:11 AM)
Some of the custom graphics for enemies and bosses are very cheaply made, but that's not a bad thing because this is a weird game with weird things sticking out against Mario. Looks aren't the focus.

I know you said that some of the custom graphics looking wonky/cheap isn't a bad thing, and that, yes, looks aren't the focus, but this is something I also plan on updating since admittingly I was kinda rushing on the graphical side of the game when making it.
 
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SuperSledgeBro
Sep 25 2022, 11:45 PM
Quote
Doesn't the Mega Man series do this sorta thing, having levels before fighting a boss? Yes, I know there are points where you just fight the bosses but this wasn't based on those points. Plus I thought, where is the fun in just fighting the boss? Wouldn't it be more creative to go through a level based on what media the boss is from?

Fair enough! The thing is that, based on the name of the game, I initially thought that the central focus would be entirely on the bosses.

Quote
Yeah I know, the level design needs a lot of re-working. I think the camera issue will be mitigated once I fix up the level design, removing any blind jumps. Though, it would be nice to know exactly where you think there are blind jumps so I could easily chuck them out.

It's specifically on the level that has vertical scrolling, level 4. The spikes are placed far below what the camera can see, so, if I jump in what looks to be a pit, I won’t know what is down there until I’m already at the bottom. With the camera problem, even regular jumps are daring to make when the level wants you to go down some tunnels or ledges to progress, or to fall off a donut block to get a coin or a shortcut. If you don't manage to fix the camera, the alternative would be to push the deep spike traps up in a way that they’re easily visible.

I could add that level 9, the Mega Man one, did kill me once when I had to drop down to the bottom of the screen to warp to the next, because there was no knowing if I would be falling on a platform or a death pit.

Quote
As for the Ice level, um, I'm not exactly sure what to do with this feedback. I guess making the straighter areas have a few forgiving moments would help?

My problem is how the elements are spaced, but I confess that I was being nitpicky.
Quote
I honestly can't tell if this is supposed to be a bad thing or not. I guess I'm getting the implication that the levels need to be harder and not be very "world 1", as you say?

It's not a complaint or a compliment, It's just me summarizing the content of the game. I wrote the review making a quick summary of the contents while trying to include all the thoughts I had while I was playing the game.

Quote
I know you said that some of the custom graphics looking wonky/cheap isn't a bad thing, and that, yes, looks aren't the focus, but this is something I also plan on updating since admittingly I was kinda rushing on the graphical side of the game when making it.

Oh. But you don't have to. I kinda find it charming this way, it makes the game feel like a modest and simple fan project. It's up to you, though!
 
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