Review Information
Game Reviewed Super Bowsette, by bowsette_game
Review Author Fizzy
Created Dec 26 2018, 1:47 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview
Super Bowsette is overall pretty generic. I can excuse it for being short, considering it's only a beta; but this fangame doesn't do much to stand out from the rest of the others on the site. I understand that it's becoming difficult for the community to keep coming up with new mechanics, and ideas to keep the mario platforming formula fresh, but you should of at least took concepts that are less well known, or ones that haven't been fully explored, because the levels showcased here feel like the same iterations played on this site time after time.
 
Pros - Bowsette's sprites look nice.
- Controls are responsive.
- You can breath fireballs.
- You have peach's float ability.
- Bowsette's animations are nice. The
animation style harks back to titles
such as SMW and SMB3.
- Game feels polished and competent
overall.
 
Cons - Levels are generic. While each level
level does have a theme that plays
around with a specific enemy, I
feel that platform mechanics
themselves feel generic and don't
stand out from other mario fan games
I've played.
- It would have been nice to have
peachette's double jump ability.
Now that I'm on the subject of
Bowsette's abilities in general, I
felt like maybe you could've spiced
up gameplay a lot more by
incorporating mechanics into the
levels where you had to...for example:
Use you're floating and peachette's
double jump ability to get across
larger gaps, or use it to land on
trickier platforms, such as the
rotating ones in level three. Maybe
you could've also used Bowsette's
fireballs to interact with the level
by activating certain platforms, for
example: Maybe blowing up explosive
obstacles to set off a chain reaction,
or melting icy platforms or ice cubes.
- Graphics are inconsistent. It's fine
to take them from the expansive
library of sprites from MFGG, but
all the different color palettes and
overall look of each sprite makes them
all clash with each other.
 
Impressions
Gameplay
6 / 10
Gameplay plays out like any traditional mario platformer. You can jump on enemies, hit blocks for coins, and reach the goal at the end of the level. This is all fine and dandy, but as mentioned before, the levels in this game are as generic as a mario platformer gets. Each level does just enough to keep you going, but the level mechanics is nothing I haven't seen already. Level design doesn't go far beyond moving platforms in level three. Despite this, while platforming in this game is lacking, it shows it's true potential through enemy variety. The swooping bats in level two proved to be quite challenging, and enemy placement was what you expect; but it kept me on my toes. The final level with the magic jester's (Was that what they were called?) also proved to be a challenge and spiced up the gameplay a lot more, and it's clear that these types of levels in Super Bowsette follow the design philosophy of many mario platformers: introducing a game mechanic, and building on it overtime. A concept is introduced, where a theme in the level revolves that mechanic, and it's expanded upon in progressively more challenging platforming sections throughout the level. While this is a highlight of some of the levels in Super Bowsette, platforming mechanics are pretty boring, and some of the levels don't do enough to consider it unique enough; or fun for that matter.
 
Graphics
6 / 10
Graphics are inconsistent. I understand that not everybody can take the time to learn the skills to do pixel art. However, if you are going to use graphics from MFGG's sprites section, at least try to establish a consistent color palette for the game, and stick to that, seeing as the many different colors of all the different sprite work clashes with each other, which leads to the overall amateur and crappy aesthetic of many fan games. On the other hand, while the sprites themselves don't look bad, the overall art direction of the game is really inconsistent, so it's best you find somebody to do the game's sprite work for you.
 
Sound
5 / 10
Sound in this game at best is ok; sometimes good, and grating and screeching on the ears at worse. The music in level three is the worst offender of this. Level three is also a reference to the Beatles for some reason (Haha, funny.), and the song might even be a possible reference to the song itself; I don't know, but it's definitely not pleasant to listen to. The first level and title screen also use the classic old MIDI sound font, which I guess is something that fan games will never pass on from. Yes, this also means that the music in this game is also inconsistent, going from MIDI, to music that sounds 8-bit inspired. Sound design is also 8-bit inspired, which is fine, but in this regard they sound out of place with some of the sound effects that are supposed to sound more mario-esque. Some of the sound effects are also somewhat generic as well. You'd been better off just ripping sound effects from other games, since this is already a fangame, can't go much further than that.
 
Final Words
6 / 10
Super Bowsette is overall generic and much of the same of some platformers on the site. While you don't need to be entirely original, the game isn't very unique either, and it's level design is more or less unimaginative unless when it occasionally introduces a new enemy, which is where the game should focus some of its potential at. Super Bowsette is a polished and functioning fangame, but what it actually provides isn't all that amazing.

Comments
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bowsette_game
Jan 13 2019, 10:38 PM
Thanks for taking your time to write this. Just wanted to know that your review is being taken into consideration as we work on the next beta.
If you have the time, could you please point out which graphics you felt were inconsistent? Just asking because no one else pointed that, so we might be missing something.

Thanks again!
 
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