Review Information
Game Reviewed Super Mario Adventure, by SkahottSan and EdweirdoDaRabid
Review Author VinnyVideo
Created Sep 14 2017, 11:30 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview
Super Mario Adventure is a platform game dating back to the early days of Mario fangaming - 2002, before some of our present-day developers were even born! Expectations have risen since this game was made, so how has it held up?
 
Pros + Some creative level environments
+ A variety of power-ups
+ Decent graphics
 
Cons - Unfairly high difficulty level
- Lives system makes no sense
- Stomping an enemy can hurt you
- Plenty of collision glitches
- No invincibility period after getting hit
- Soundtrack varies in quality
- Copious use of Mario fangaming cliches
- The most overused fangame title ever!
 
Impressions
Gameplay
4 / 10
Super Mario Adventure is a platformer that takes a lot of cues from Super Mario World. SMA includes 11 levels with a fair amount of variety, from grasslands to castles to lava worlds. Unfortunately, the game is marred by its unfair difficulty level, in large part because of its funky collision system. As an early Clickteam platformer, it is full of collision glitches - some trivial, some game-breaking. You know how in old Clickteam games you keep jumping as long as you hold down the jump button? Well, in Super Mario Adventure, if you jump on an enemy while auto-jumping, you'll get hurt, even if you land square on the meanie's head. The "can't jump over pipes when standing next to them" glitch also makes an appearance and will probably cost you a life at some point. You also lose all momentum when you hit a [?] block from underneath. While the game's "bouncing ball engine" was apparently praised during its time, it has all of the glitches of the regular Clickteam platform engine while introducing a slew of new ones.

Collision glitches aren't the only reason why the game is overly difficult. While the game gives you a generous health meter, there's no invincibility period after you get hit, so you can easily lose all of your health in just a second or two if you come in contact with a group of enemies. You're only given three lives at the beginning of the game, and there are no 1-Ups, checkpoints, or even continues to alleviate the game's unforgiving difficulty. When (and not if) you run out of lives, the game automatically closes - there's not even a Game Over screen. All this means you'll probably have to rely on the game's password system if you want to play beyond the first few levels - I've never made it beyond World 6 without using passwords.

Avi's review discusses this in greater detail, but there's no denying that Super Mario Adventure is replete with Mario fangame cliches. Fortunately, these cliches weren't quite as worn-out when this game was released.
 
Graphics
7 / 10
Super Mario Adventure looks quite nice, especially considering the standards of the time. There's some mild graphical clashing, but it is indeed mild - most of the game is a mix of Super Mario World, 16-bit Super Mario Bros. 3, and Yoshi's Island graphics. There's one rather garish level with a mix of yellow platforms and a lava background, and it's not easy on the eyes. Also, in the Ghost House level, I sometimes had a hard time telling the Boos from the background, but maybe that's just me.
 
Sound
5 / 10
As with almost all Mario fangames of its time, Super Mario Adventure uses a MIDI-based soundtrack. Some of the MIDIs sound pretty good, while others miss the mark. As with so many circa-2002 fangames, the soundtrack pulls music from an eclectic mix of game series, ranging from Mario to Castlevania. There were a couple of songs I didn't recognize.

The game boasts a reasonable variety of sound effects, mostly from Super Mario World.
 
Replay
4 / 10
This game holds a special place in my heart - it was the first Mario fangame I ever played. I find myself revisiting it every blue moon, and like many fangames of its era, it has a certain charm that's missing from the newer generation of Mario fangames. However, most people won't want to play this game over and over again, since there are much more polished fangames out there.
 
Final Words
4 / 10
It was a solid effort for its time.

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