Review Information
Game Reviewed Super Mario Lost World, by Neosalen
Review Author Vitiman
Created Mar 5 2019, 10:46 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview
I took a look at Super Mario Lost World 2 not terribly long ago. It was a buggy but highly creative fangame made at a time when Super Mario Sunshine and Wario Land 4 were the hot new Mario games (presumably then, the far off year of 2002), and although I didn't mention much about the original Mario Lost World in that review, I was well aware of its existence.

Buckle your seat belts, kids! Old Man Marios, Luigi hurling fireballs upwards, and RPG elements are what awaits us on this magical - and I do mean that sincerely - adventure.
 
Pros Extremely creative fangame
The ideas here still can work and are very fresh
The story is so incomprehensible that it's hilarious
Music choices are very sound
 
Cons Minor (but still significant) graphic clash ahoy
Engine really doesn't want to work half the time
Inconsistent rules
Sometimes the application will just crash on me outright!
 
Impressions
Gameplay
4 / 10
That last con is probably very worrisome to a lot of you. Yes indeed, I was not able to make it very far in this game. The save file kept corrupting, and would result in the executable bugging out and crashing. This made progressing straight up impossible, but I'll try to talk about what little I can of the game regardless.

First of all, the story: so, from what I can tell, Mario and Luigi were "shot" (a gun? Torpedo? Fireballs?!) while they were in their ballon [sic] with princess Peach, and were teleported to a lost world of sorts (hence the title). There, they meet a strange old man who is basically just a Mario recolour and is hilarious who assists them in the most absurdist way possible - Mario obtains hi-tech armour, and Luigi gets a freaking FLAMETHROWER (I usually avoid such exaggerated emphasis, but that genuinely caught me off guard when playing the story cinematic) to combat the terrible wildlife in this lost world.

So in the actual game, you find yourself on this circular island, surrounded by those squid blooper things from Yoshi's Island as well as various boos. When you touch one of them, you engage them in a Zelda II-esque battle, pitted against multiple enemies in a platformer setting. Your main line of defense is jumping - and for some reason you play as Luigi in these despite Mario being who you primarily control in the overworld - and while you *do* indeed have a fireball attack as the opening cutscene implies, it isn't of much use unless you're taking on a Big Boo, as it doesn't seem to do anything to other enemies.

Some enemies can spawn other enemies, which is an annoying mechanic but is surprisingly creative. You have to take out these enemies first and foremost before you can progress any further, which is actually a very smart idea!

Unfortunately, my save file kept corrupting too often and too frequently, and this was about as much as I got to see of the game. The engine was barely serviceable otherwise, working about as well as you'd expect from a Games Factory game that probably predates even 2002, but I was able to play through what little I could actually experience, so I'll cut it some slack.
 
Graphics
5 / 10
I'm biased here, as I think the minor graphic clash here is unique and gives the game a visual style wholly all its own, but I know many will disagree, so I'll try to be objective here. Most stuff is from Yoshi's Island/Super Mario World, but the HUD is from, of all things, the N64 entries in the Mario Party franchise, which were fairly new at the time. Why this choice? I really don't know, but I actually kind of like it.

I also appreciate the attempt at making a SMW-esque logo for the title screen, even if the letters look super wonky. It's the thought that counts, really.
 
Sound
7 / 10
Some pretty good MIDI choices, some state-of-the-art sound effects straight from the good old Mushroom Kingdom Dot Net! It's all so fascinating and wonderful, even if it's pretty run of the mill. Gotta love Ice Cap Zone as the battle music, I don't care who you are - that's a bitchin' choice of song.
 
Replay
4 / 10
I'll be honest with you and say if this game didn't crash so frequently on my computer, I would probably come back to it to see how far I could get. I really am that intrigued by it. I know many who don't feel that way about older, quirkier games like this... but I just eat it up. Especially if it proves to be even vaguely competent. I may have to look into getting this to run properly somehow - perhaps if I ran it on an older version of Windows?
 
Final Words
5 / 10
This is easily one of the most inventive titles I've seen on MFGG to date, and while it lacks a fair engine, proper grammar, or even enough stability for the game application to actually run - I still recommend trying it out. Not because it's super playable, but because the ideas and presentation are more fresh than stuff that's even coming out today.

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