Review Information
Game Reviewed Super Mario Prism, by Hello
Review Author Hypernova
Created Mar 16 2019, 8:01 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview
Hello what's this? A long time Mario engine developer made a 3D Mario Fangame? Well this is a step forward right? Well not exactly...

Although the previews looked appealing, don't be fooled. Never judge a book by its cover, and this game is within the line of that statement. Although I don't write a review that often, this game has managed to drive myself to the edge and write a review about it.
 
Pros + 3D models are quite decent
+ Decent lighting and shadows
 
Cons - Unpolished graphics
- Poor controls
- Very poor physics
- Poor collision handling
- Some part of the challenges are almost unbeatable
- Inconsistent music selection
- Lack of variety and uniqueness
- Motion blur is mandatory
 
Impressions
Gameplay
-1 / 10
I have played both the keyboard and the controller but each of them has advantages and disadvantages. With keyboard, you have more controls with the physics but the camera is difficult to deal with. While playing with a controller (I got a Nintendo Switch Pro controller), you got better controls with the camera but less controls with the movement.

The biggest issue with this game is its physics. I tell ya what man, it's like driving a 18-wheeler that has no threads (bald/smooth) tires with on an icy road that's also covered with butter. I thought the physics from Hello's infamous SMB1 engine is bad enough but this takes bad physics to the next level. If you're playing it with a controller, it's like running a muscle car on an ice skating rim: Mario's fast but he's even more slippery. Not only it's extremely slippery, the collisions are difficult to deal with as well. Imagine taking damages in some occasions even though you land on top of a Goomba. Good luck trying to land on a small area of solid surface! If you are not in the dead center, you will slip and fall off the edge. In some occasions, you will get stuck with moving objects. And speaking about that, would you feel comfortable pushing a box with realistic physics while the sides are laced with Polytetrafluoroethene (H2G2 or PTFE - the most slippery substance known to man)? Wall jump is very difficult to deal with, sometimes the game decides when to wall jump. Flip a coin to see if you are lucky enough to get a wall jump properly. Otherwise, Mario will hang in mid-air for a very short amount of time and reset his momentum.

The main room (overworld, lobby, hub, whatever you call it) has 4 paintings. Although there are some stuffs on the map. None of these are rewarding at all. Challenges with most of the level are very difficult to accomplish. You'd be lucky/good enough to get one star! For example, there are 3 purple coins that are placed in midair that would take me at around 5 trips with series of wall jumps to get them all.

Hello probably hired a discount Lakitu from the back side of Walmart and call it for the day. If there's something that's in the way of the camera, it may zoom all the way to Mario and we get to see the inside of him.
 
Graphics
4 / 10
Although the 3D models, lighting, and shadows are fairly decent. Majority of the graphics are poorly executed. Mario's animation are slow and sloppy, making it feel like he's clumsy in the game as if he did not signed up for this. Same for the Goomba, they felt like they are on their first day of their job as a Goomba. Some objects have too much light reflections as if I am staring into the sun. There aren't any fancy eye candies and effect for certain actions/events.

Even if I wanted to have simple menus, the menus are too plain and unappealing. Imagine a plain white background with some black texts and icons for a level selection screen. The dialogue box are more annoying that interesting, it would be better off if the player interact with NPC by pressing a certain button to start a conversation or so.

Unfortunately you are not able to turn off the motion blur effect. After you played the game for a while, to some players it feels nauseating.
 
Sound
2 / 10
First of all the sound effects are generic compared to most of the Mario games we all know and love. But there's not much of a variety that makes them stand out. In addition, certain actions/event don't even have audio at all.

As always with every single Hello games, voices. And yeah, unfortunately you cannot turn that off.

Last of all, the elephant in the room of the audio department is the music selection: you have remixed Mario music, Paper Mario 64 Chapter Intro theme, MIDIs, and an 8-bit rendition of the purple coin theme.
 
Replay
-1 / 10
Due to the poorly made physics, forgettable challenges, plain level designs, unfair gameplay with series of frustrations. I would rather forget that this exists and I won't even think about any means to replay it.
 
Final Words
1 / 10
I would still give this a D if this is a middle school game programming project.

Comments
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CM30
Mar 16 2019, 6:37 PM
You can give a score of -1/10 in categories now?

Either way, I think you summarised this game's problems pretty well. Only thing I'd add is that momentum seems to be all kinds of off when it comes to moving objects, with stuff like the tower of spinning platforms sending Mario rocketing into the abyss a decent number of times.
 
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