Review Information
Game Reviewed Mario's Rescue, by Shadow
Review Author Q-Nova
Created Nov 26 2020, 5:36 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview
All the MFGG page has to say about this game is "Your average Mario fangame." To some extent, that is true. It's basically another attempt at recreating the Mario mechanics in TGF1, where Mario has to save Peach for the umpteenth time. In some ways though it isn't so typical, but most of that is for the wrong reasons.

I've played much worse, but Mario's Rescue is very sloppy nonetheless. If that's what you're into, you might have a blast; as long as you're not frustrated by the really high difficulty.
 
Pros +Cool MIDIs at the end
+Variety
 
Cons -So buggy you could hear them buzzing
-Aggravatingly hard
-Graphics clash
-Poor grammar
-Secrets are so easy to find, they're not really secret
-Menu by the window top is disabled by default
 
Impressions
Gameplay
1 / 10
As I said earlier, it's another old Clickteam game that tries to incorporate basic Mario elements. You hit blocks, jump on Goombas, and reach the goal (usually a door or fort) to beat a level. On top of that though, there is a variety of settings and enemies, plus some interesting ideas. When's the last time you've seen Mario -- in a Frog Suit -- chased by a Cheep-Cheep? Yes, Frog Suit! While the usual health-point system is used, this game has powerups -- a few of them!

Unfortunately, the positives are far from outweighing the negatives; it's actually the opposite!

This game is extremely hard! Sometimes you're expected to know exactly what to do. There's like a fly-sized room for error at the race against Coopa the Quick (Koopa the Quick's cousin maybe?). Boos have to be the most annoying enemies ever. They are even faster than in SMB3, zip across the screen for the whole level, and appear twice! Twice! Lives do not exist -- if you lose all of your health-points, then it's game over! The game has a lot of passwords, but only one is given to you, and it's for an early level! Note that the menu (where you enter passwords) is hidden until you press F8, so if you don't know that, then passwords are useless! That's just evil!

The engine is very awkward and poorly programmed. Yes, most old fangames have lots of glitches, but Mario's Rescue takes it to the next level! A very common glitch lets you hit Question Mark blocks at any side, but get teleported right below it no matter what! You collect coins, but I swear that after a certain level or boss, you lose them all, making the high scores pointless! The final boss is normally near-impossible, but exploit a certain glitch and the fight becomes laughably effortless!
 
Graphics
1 / 10
As with the glitches, Mario's Rescue takes clashing graphics to an extreme degree! 8-bit and 16-bit graphics get mixed with each other plus a lot of crude MSPaint drawings! The text is sometimes painful on the eyes because of clashing colors. (Pure blue on teal? Yuck!) Worst of all, it's sometimes hard to tell if something is either solid, in the background, or harmful! For example, I ran onto a SMB2 rib, thinking it would be harmless just like in SMB2, but ended up losing health!
 
Sound
6 / 10
The final boss and ending themes are really good! I have no idea where they came from! It's kind of sad that few people (if any) will likely hear them. (Psst, did you know that MFGG hosts a tool that can give passwords for games made with TGF1?)

The rest of the songs are just MIDIs from the Mario platformers, which isn't a bad thing. Some sound good while others are out of place, such as the SM64 final boss MIDI used for the first boss, who is just Kamek slowly moving under daylight! Sound effects range from 8-bit to SM64 voice clips, which isn't a good mix. Nevertheless, the audio is the game's strongest point!
 
Final Words
2 / 10
Sorry Peach, but it's too painful to make rescuing you worth it this time.

Comments
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Pedigree
Dec 7 2020, 9:19 PM
I'm surprised just how dedicated you were to completing this playthrough. I'm personally not a big fan of these meta fangames that make fun of the clickteam games era.
 
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