A new ROM hack by programmer RainbowSprinklez introduces Mario as a playable character in the 1994 SNES classic Donkey Kong Country. This unique mashup, titled "DKC X Mario," brings the familiar plumber and his arsenal of acrobatic moves into the world of DKC, offering a fresh take on the beloved platformer.
Come join Mario on this unique adventure on DK Isle!
This is a hack of DKC for the SNES. As a big fan of watching Mario stuff, SMW Mario was added here. The physics engine is still entirely DKC. Just, some things were modified to work here.
Also, most of the music is changed here. All of the music done here was sequenced in the Rare sound engine. This is exclusive here. Music hasn’t been hacked to this extent in any previous hack.
The goal here was not a Mario hack. But a DKC hack with Mario playable.
RainbowSprinklez used a combination of the Lunar Magic SMW Editor along with custom coding to integrate the Mario and Yoshi sprites, while most of the games modifications were coded from scratch without referencing any of the original code from prior Mario games.
The hack also features an extensive music overhaul, incorporating tracks from Mario, Zelda and Mega Man games, all reimaigned using the Rare sound engine.
Features and Enhancements:
Mario's Moveset: Mario from Super Mario World is integrated into DKC, complete with his own physics and controls, such as spin jumps, fireballs, and the ability to ride Yoshi.
Modified Gameplay Mechanics: The hack retains DKC's original physics engine but adds Mario-specific abilities like throwing barrels upward and performing shell jumps using steel kegs.
Power-ups: Classic Mario power-ups, including mushrooms, fire flowers, and Yoshi, are incorporated into the game. Yoshi can eat enemies, store power-ups, and perform shell jumps.
Enhanced Music: The soundtrack features music from Mario, Zelda, and Mega Man games, sequenced in the Rare sound engine for a unique auditory experience.
Bug Fixes and Improvements: Various bugs have been fixed, and new features such as the ability to start-select out of boss fights and a keystroke to exit stages have been added.
Nintendo needs to start making their own rom hacks and putting them in NSO. Or maybe their own standard API or whatever for their own roms and let people make their own hacks to submit to NSO for approval in sort of a rom hack App Store. Kids would go nuts for it.
Wait... So this only requires the Donkey Kong Country ROM, but not the Super Mario World ROM? Therefore, the Mario assets are replicated in the ROM hack?!?
...
Get it while you still can. DMCA incoming. Not trying to be a doomsday predictor here, but you know Nintendo.
That's very common practice, a lot of patches have one or more assets from another game yet they don't require you to provide said game, either because people don't really care/don't want to overly complicate things or end up considering it custom anyway. Look at any popular Super Mario World hack, some of them are made entirely around the idea of porting content from other games and they already include all the ported stuff in their patches.
That's very common practice, a lot of patches have one or more assets from another game yet they don't require you to provide said game, either because people don't really care/don't want to overly complicate things or end up considering it custom anyway. Look at any popular Super Mario World hack, some of them are made entirely around the idea of porting content from other games and they already include all the ported stuff in their patches.
It's super impressive, but I would much rather have the original soundtrack though. I wonder if there's an option to play with the original soundtrack.
The DKC soundtrack is so good, and the Mario soundtrack really doesn't fit the theme. It sounds like somebody just overlaid music on top of the game.
I thought the 2D Mario sprites would look out of place in the prerendered 3D game, but it actually doesn't look too bad. Still, prerendered 3D graphics to fit the rest of the game would be a nice upgrade. There are enough 3D model rips of Mario, Yoshi and the associated objects like ?-blocks that could be used, but for authenticity, it would have to be rendered in an older 3D rendering program like an old version of Blender or something (which comes with its own problems, early versions of Blender were... rough) to get the right look.
I might've tried the Super Mario RPG sprites to see how they look in the game if I was the creator, I believe those are prerendered 3D (they're at the very least designed to look 3D) but it might not be an improvement since they were from a slightly top down angle. New Super Mario Bros has prerendered 3D graphics that could be a drop in replacement but they're far too modern looking to fit neatly.
It's quite obvious that these things have been hacked into the game. It doesn't have that official level of polish. There's a certain amount of jank to Mario's movement and how the added in objects function, like how items just appear out of thin air above the ?-blocks.
That's kind of the norm for extensive romhacks though, I've just been spoiled by the insane quality of a lot of SMW romhacks, as well as for things like Doom and SM64, but those are the exception. I suppose the DKC engine is not as well understood as some others, in fact I don't even think I've seen any other extensive DKC romhacks. I'm sure they exist though, I haven't really looked, but they certainly aren't prevalent.
Nintendo needs to start making their own rom hacks and putting them in NSO. Or maybe their own standard API or whatever for their own roms and let people make their own hacks to submit to NSO for approval in sort of a rom hack App Store. Kids would go nuts for it.
Isn't that what Mario Maker is?
Would be cool to see it for other IPs though. A Zelda Maker could be big. Not that crap that was in Link's Awakening but a proper one.
I could see a Zelda Maker happening but probably not a Donkey Kong Maker. Donkey Kong has been such an underutilized/underappreciated IP, and all the games are outsourced to other companies. Tropical Freeze is an excellent game, but for an actual Donkey Kong Maker I don't think Nintendo could trust another company with it and they clearly aren't willing to spend development resources on the franchise.
Would be cool to see it for other IPs though. A Zelda Maker could be big. Not that crap that was in Link's Awakening but a proper one.
I could see a Zelda Maker happening but probably not a Donkey Kong Maker. Donkey Kong has been such an underutilized/underappreciated IP, and all the games are outsourced to other companies. Tropical Freeze is an excellent game, but for an actual Donkey Kong Maker I don't think Nintendo could trust another company with it and they clearly aren't willing to spend development resources on the franchise.
Mega Man Maker is already an amazing project. Super Mario Bros. X was great for its time, but a DMCA and the release of Mario Maker really pushed it into obscurity. The reality is that a fan project wouldn't have the same red tape an official project would have, so it'd be more feature rich. With Nintendo being more litigious these days, I'm sure there's not much draw to large-scale fan projects like that.
A proper Zelda Maker would be a real trip. Lots of untapped creativity in the Zelda fanbase waiting for something like that. I never hear about the dungeon-maker in Link's Awakening, so I'm not sure if it gets much engagement.
Ha, this will come up with every DKC hack that replaces the music. Aquatic Ambience will always be one of the most low-key iconic video game tracks, but in my mind, it's acceptable to experiment in a hack.
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