Review Information
Game Reviewed NSMB-MarioVsLuigi, by ipodtouch0218
Review Author AveCoo
Created May 8 2022, 8:39 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview
I feel the nostalgia pandering a mile away! This take on the NSMB battle mode is beyond fantastic and has obvious love and care put into its craftsmanship. I would waste not as many hours as I would have liked playing this with friends over local play (and the SM64DS one too, no discrimination) and the experience here is just as rock solid. The gimmick of wifi enabled battles is the craziest addition of all and, as far as I can tell, feels very fleshed out and, for a lack of better word, good.
 
Pros - Faithful recreations AND new stages and power ups? Sign me up!
- Great care put into the presentation.
- Online and HTML enabled, the barrier of entry is incredibly low.
- Looks slick and plays even slicker.
- Heaps of servers - like seriously? That’s insanely useful.
 
Cons - Lack of notification for stars appearing on the map.
- SFX and music balance is a bit off.
- Mario’s model looks a bit too good for everything surrounding it.
 
Impressions
Gameplay
10 / 10
Even if I had no one to play with, just the act of moving around would be more than sufficient. Absolutely stunning gameplay - everything is buttery smooth. Fantastic options and the interface was extremely straight forward. The five original levels are still impeccably designed for this sort of game, but major props to the other 2 original levels. They feel in line with the design philosophy of chaotic fun and do not feel out of place for even a moment.

One little gripe I do have is with the stars showing up on the map. It seems odd having to look at the level progress line to see if there is a star or not consistently. I consistently ended up missing when they would appear as there was no notification to know they had shown up.

One thing I could not figure out also was the propeller suit. It’s such a shame to be surprised by such an amazing item (that would allow me up the leftmost wall of the pipe level perhaps???) that I can’t get working. Well done implementing it however, it feels like a cherry on top of a top-notch sundae.

I was consistently getting 30 - 40 ping too, which is amazing for where I am so nice servers!
 
Graphics
9 / 10
Mario looks SMOOTH. It almost makes everything else look a bit low res in comparison. There’s some overcooked (pun INTENDED) effects on the fireballs too, but that seems to be not-to-unuseful for visual clarity - just tone down its size a bit.

The graphics are really solid otherwise and are faithful. Great job on implementing a cool loading transition and varied title screens too, it’s great to see such care put into a game’s presentation.
 
Sound
8 / 10
The sound effects slider starts at 100% and they still get buried under the music? I know you have some banging tunes and even more banging remixes for the custom levels, but there needs to be a bit more balance.

A little notification sound for the stars showing up wouldn’t hurt either, it would certainly make the scuffles more intense.

Everything else seems on point and chosen well, so no real qualms outside of these two nitpicks!
 
Final Words
9 / 10
I need to get more friends who play Mario fan games.

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