Super Mario: The Last GBA Quest v2.0

[archilolo]

but the sound and controls just plain suck!

Could you explain for the sound (I made the musics) ?

 

[megabug7]

Allow me to give you a idea, the third level music sounds like something from an RPG - and in my opinion not suitable for a Mario platfomer and also doesn't really fit the Pyramid level.

You used a sound similar to a woodwind instrument in this track which loops too much.

Being honest

 

[OrGoN3]

Not playing any GBA in the lat few months, and being a homebrew and Mario fan, I decided to give this a go. Unfortunately, the go only lasted a few minutes. Here are my thoughts.

To start off, props goes to the creator(s) as I'm sure it took many hours, most of which were listening and trying to incorporate feedback from users on their forums. While I would've posted this on their forums, I do not speak French.

So you start off with a nice plain title screen...that's cool, no need for fancy rainbows afterall, it is just a Mario side scroller. I start a new game and see the world map. My first impression was where's the rest of it, but then I remembered it's homebrew and thought nothing of it. 1-1, start! Right away I decided to enter the quicksave just to have a clean save state. I was using my M3 Perfect SD in my GBA, and had forgotten the key combination (L+R+A+B) and thus, went with the first key combination that came into my head: L+R+A+B+Start+Select. Well, the quicksave menu did not load up, but something did happen. Apparently, if you press this combination in any level, you exit the level and Mario progresses to the next one. I must first state that this dones not finish the level for you. The level is still a red dot (instead of the blue dot after obtaining the Player Advantage coin), but it still allows you to play the levels in any order (normally the dots ahead of you are grayed out). This struck me as very odd. Perhaps it was a development secret that was never taken out. Oh well, no harm. Off to the first board again (from the beginning of course. If only that combination saved your state in that particular board.....).

Mario is off. Seems pretty basic so far. Right away I notice Mario's sluggish movements. GBA games do not tend to have slowdown, especially a simple Mario game. Well this one does. Not a normal everything gets slower kind of deal, but more of a 2fps slowdown. When going through a pipe it tries to do that pixelated transition first seen in Super Mario World (SNES). It gets through most of it just fine, and then seems to pause on the last pixelated transition, then just becomes the normal screen again. Eh, not the most annoying thing, but it definitely takes away from the game.

Nothing major yet to deter me from playing through the entire game (granted I've only been playing for a minute or two). As everyone else has noted, the physics is something to talk about, but I'm saving that for the next board (that's right, I played more than the first board, and in order!). I get a mushroom and Super Mario does indeed jump a tad higher with down arrow + A, enough to jump on top of a block without the need of a running start. Well this all seems normal for an SNES-esque Mario. I then somehow get hit, turn back to regular mario, and obtain the first star possible. YAY! I'm star mario for a bit! This'll be fun! I'll just run as fast as possible, jumping when needed and finish this board quickly, or so I thought. I jumped on top of the block you get the star from, did a quick run and jump, and then just stood there in the air for the duration of my star power. No, I did not obtain a Medusa spirit or find a hidden ledge on E. Honda's stage. I simply got stuck. The game seemed to just stop, refreshing the frame every 10 seconds or so. My theory was that I jumped TOO high (although I could've jumped higher if I were Super Mario....). Almost ready to reset the GBA, I finally landed, star-less and not amused. I finished the rest of the board, easily obtaining the PA coin (could the "subtle" coin hints be any moe obvious?) and went to the next board. Well, before I did I replayed part of the first board. I obtained the star as Super Mario, fell down (to not upset the game again) and ran and jump. Disappointed was I when star powered Super Mario did not do a somersault in mid-air.

Now to the second stage. I started out as Super Mario and killed off the enemies on the first platform. I then attemped to get inside the pyramidal contraption to obtain the rest of the coins. I was only able to slightly clip and get the two coins closest to the two opening on either side near the top. Normally, I'd be able to start a quick run, duck and slide in and then break myself out. Well, all I was able to do was the quick run. As soon as you duck in this game, a blackhole opens up in another dimension and steals all of your forward momentum, thus making it seem like Mario goes from running forward to stopping on the dime and ducking. If that really happens, who knows, but it's the only explanation for the complete disregard for a Newtonian world. After giving up, I got the flower on the next platform, shot out a nice blue flame (that was cool in a different way), and then fell down the hole in between the two platforms. No, not intentially. Apparently Newtonian physics do not apply to jumping either. In the real Mario games, you could jump and THEN press left or right and actually go in that direction (yes, I know, that's not REALLY how it happens in the real world, but you get used to these things). Not to mention when you actually run and jump, it doesn't follow the real world parabolic nature, nor the fake Mario nature. It is one of its own and will take some practice getting used to.

If you've skipped my entire post to see my final remarks, I give this game an A for effort. Creating an entire Mario homebrew GBA game is a lot more time consuming and harder than most people think, and I give props to that. However, as the rest of the game goes, especially since this is apparently the final version, I give it an D-. It IS playable, but takes time that most people do not want to devote to one homebrew to learn all the "new" physics of this particular Mario game. That is, as long as you don't do a running jump after obtaining the first star (from the ontop of the block you got it from).

Has everyone else experienced this game being incredibly slow, stuttery and an FPS that sometimes converges at 0?

 

[Sweater Fish Del]

It's a bad hash of the original Mario on the Gameboy... the black and white game boy... the controls are STIFF!

Is that supposed to be a criticism? Super Mario Land is one of the best games in the series, in my opinion. I'd kill for an update to it (one that goes back to the original style, not like Mario Land 2 and 3).


...word is bondage...

 

[OrGoN3]

So I was going to do a brand new review, more accurate and possibly less biased this time. I just finished the game, but before I write the review, or post it/link to it, I need everyone who has finished this game to please answer something for me. After I beat the boss in the castle, nothing happened. He died, the timer started to run down and I had full control over Mario. There were no doors, no warp pipes, no hidden blocks that I could find; the room was entirely empty. I let the timer go for a good minute, still nothing happened so I turned off the game (was pressed for time). Did this happen to everyone or was someone able to see an ending? Does an ending exist in this game? If anyone can confirm that this happened to them as well, or can confirm that they actually saw an ending, it would be most appreciated. Also, if you did get an ending, if you did anything special to see it please also let me know so I can finish the review. Thanks in advance!

 

[OrGoN3]

Here is my review of the game, after completing it for the second time:

While anticlimatic pretty much sums up the entire game, there were many pros and cons to the game itself. The game starts off looking like a SNES sprite remake of the original Mario Land for GameBoy. Pretty nostalgic, as I personally haven't played a Mario Land since the 90s. That good old annoying coin sound, stars falling through the floor instead of bouncing, and of course, what feels like odd controls. After playing Mario on every Nintendo console, except Virtual Boy, I found myself thinking that the controls suck. Plain and simple, they were terrible. Until I realized this was more of a remake of the Mario Land series and not the Super Mario Bros. series. Well, let's hope my realization was correct. Otherwise, I don't see the point. While there are only 8 levels, it feels like there were only 2: pre-castle, and castle. The creator seemed to love a few things: coins, coin boxes, and let's not forget about the coins. Yes, there were more coins than I could count (I lost count after 7), and more coins than needed. Granted he decided to spell out a few words here and there with them, and the millions of PlayerAdvance shameless plugs spelled out in coins, over and over and over again, but don't let those things deter you. There were many points in the game where I felt like I could've used more than one life, and thankfully there were a billion coins for just that. No, there were 1-up mushrooms too, but who need them.

The first thing you might notice is that the author was able to throw in every enemy of Mario into the game: ranging from the fireball shooting sphinx, to the exploding Koopas. Nothing screams annoying like a big bomb, portrayed for the word BOMB!. But don't go near it! It'll hurt ya! Yes, this was the case in Mario Land 2 as well, but I never liked that aspect of Mario Land 2, and I continued to dislike it in Super Mario: The Last GBA Quest. There, of course were plenty of Goombas, but a lot more than you think. The first annoyance was one that continued throughout the game: you could kill a Koopa by hitting the block directly under him (if it is useable), and he won't even explode!! Nice. Now try the same thing with a Goomba; he won't even jump a bit. Goombas were equipped with a level 50 Aura of Antiblocks, and thus cannot be injured by them. Again, not the end of the world.

Beating each board was simply not enough, and taking an aspect from Super Mario World, you had to collect the PA (Player Advance) coins. Unfortunately, instead of there being five, like the Yoshi (and then Peach coins in the remake) coins in SMW, there was only one PA coin per level. In every level, the coin was only accessible via warp pipe, but to make things easy, it's the one and only warp pipe you can use in the entire board, except for the red Player Advance warp pipe that ends the board. Each warp pipe was either completely obvious, out in the open, completely visible (along with the path to it) on the screen, and/or was hidden with signage, via coins, literally pointing the way. Once warped to the area, which is simply one room without enemies, you simply just grab the coin. There is one instance where you can't get the coin unless you are Super Mario, but that is easily fixed since there is a mushroom block, only accessible if you are regular sized Mario. This part could've used something extra in there, but to each his own.

I enjoyed most of the music. It was pretty fitting overall, with some exclusions. The first was the level inside the pyramid. It felt more like an RPG score that didn't fit in well with a side scroller platformer. The only other BGM I wasn't a fan of was the castle's. If I looked away, I would've sworn I was playing a Harry Potter game, and sometimes I wish that were the case. I bet Harry Potter doesn't get stuck in mid-air while jumping, and has to wait a minute before he lands. Well, Mario does. In some levels, if I were to jump too high, I'd simply hit the top of the screen and come back down. In others though, I wish that were the case. I would jump forward, and then stop. Nothing. No movement. A couple of seconds later (~10 seconds) another frame would process and Mario would be a millimeter closer to the ground. This went on for roughly an entire minute. The only plus side was the timer didn't exceed Mario's slow movements, as the entire game was slowing down to a near halt. The only other negative music critique would be when you have star power. The music is nice, but it is too short. It loops at least once, and when it starts to loop for a third time you think, oh, I still have some time left! Wrong. It just ends. In the official Mario games, you can always tell right when your star power is going to end. In this one, you'd have to play it a few times to get the feeling. I would recommend you assume you never have it, or just don't get a star, and hit enemies like you normally would. There is no time when a star power is necessary. It is also important to remember that star power makes you invincible to everything except water, endless pits, and spikes. Those three will kill you instantaneously. On a side note, the rest of the music was quite enjoyable and felt like a normal Mario game, as I was expecting it to.

We all know developers tend to put in cheats of their own while developing games. This makes it easier for them to test certain aspects without spending countless hours obtaining them in the game. This was (first??) most notably seen in the original Contra. I think everyone here knows the Konami code, and if not, then what are you doing here? Well this game has a code of its own, although much simpler to use with more implementations. If you are at the world map, you will first notice you must complete the first board in order to move on. You do not have to obtain the PA coin, you just have to beat it. You only have to obtain the PA coin to enter the castle, the final board. While playing a level, you might die, or right about to die, or just want to go back to the world map. This can easily be accomplished by using the following code: simutaneously press and hold L+R+B+A+START+SELECT. This will first pause the game, then immediately you will hear a different little melody. No matter what Mario was doing (without exception), Mario will face the screen and do his normal sprite action as if he were going down a warp pipe. No enemies can hurt you while you are doing this, it doesn't count as a death, and you are now at the world map. Here's how this is helpful: when you die, there are a few seconds before the screen fades out and in and registers your -1 on your lives remaining. Well, if you die, simply press all the buttons. You are brought to the world map which may be annoying if you already passed a checkpoint (the invisible ones), but you won't lose a life from having just died. Also, after you use this "cheat", the board turns blue, signifying you completed it. If you obtained the PA coin before you used the "cheat", the board will turn red on the map, signifying you obtained the PA coin. **NOTE** If you use this to simply gain all the PA coins and not finish the levels, when you get to the end boss in the castle, you may not get the end screen. I used it this way to see how little I could finish the game and beat it. Unfortunately after I beat the end boss, Mario was under my control again, with the timer running down.

There are quite a few glitches and I wonder if v2.0 is really the final version. When you hit a block, instead of just going up, it will sometimes create another block that goes up. You will randomly see sprite "ghosts" pop up evey so often. Goomba's are unaffected by hitting the blocks they are standing on. Goombas do not react to each other: if two are walking towards each other, they will walk through each other. In some instances where there are moving platforms to take you from one spot to another that you can't jump across, you can actually jump and walk on the invisible track they take. In the cloud stage, I am unsure what really triggers this, but a bunch of clouds will rise up very quickly in a single file line: getting hit by them kills you. The bees can shoot through coulds, even though you can't jump through them. While rapidly hitting a coin box (usually filled with 10 coins, or hits), if you are doing it quick enough, you can continue even when the block turns brown. The coins will still register and you can still get a 1-up (my record thus far is 60 coins AFTER the block turned brown). If you jump up while facing left, you cannot go right until you land (not sure if it's just annoying or meant to be). Mario cannot slide like he can in SMW under blocks. because of this, there are times you will need to be small to get the PA coin, and other times you need to be Super Mario to get to other parts of the board. A bit reminiscent of the one thing I hated about New Super Mario Bros for the NDS. A few more glitches: in certain boards, you will see Goombas and Bees walking/flying across the ceiling, but they can't hurt you. Sometimes you will trigger at least 3 Goombas to fall down from the ceiling (even though they weren't there) and come to get you. That can and will kill you so look out for it. The jumping moths (not sure of their real name) can jump off and still jump even though they aren't jumping on anything. In a few boards, there are a few invisible blocks that are located on the ground. It is IMPOSSIBLE to see or hit them. There are no normal Koopas so you can never get a shell to throw at them, and they don't seem to serve any purpose. There are also MANY "hidden" boxes to get. Most are placed so that if you are running through the board, and hit them, it'll force you to come back to the ground quicker and get hit. Just about every jump is IMPOSSIBLE unless you are running (holding down B).

My number one most annoying feature of the game (not sure if it's a glitch or intended): fireballs do NOT continue to bounce! Once fired, they will hit the ground and shoot back up with the correct angle, but that's it. They can collect coins and bounce back down if they hit anything, but if you shoot one in a normal open area, they just fly up. You pretty much have to be literally right next to the enemy you want to kill with the fireball, and depending on their size, you might also have to be jumping above them. I also wasn't able to shoot a fireball at a Sphinx. Not sure if that's just me or the game.

Overall the game was entertaining. I'm not sure if that was partly due to the glitches cracking me up every second or so, but there wasn't that much frustration, which is good. The less frustrating the better. The game definitely needs work before it can be called the final version, and if you ask me, it shouldn't even be at v1.0 yet. The boards are highly repetitive (so much that some of the boards repeat the same three screens over and over again), with the same "tricks" being used on every board. The PA coins are easier to get than a powerup mushroom. Stars are pretty useless unless you are timing when the star power will end. You only need to use precise timing during one section of one level, and even then you can still run through it, just carefully. The idea is there, and I am sure the developer(s) spent a lot of time on this, but it is not ready for a public release. It's a short and sweet game that doesn't really offer any replay value, unless you are doing a time trial. It's glitchier than Duke Nukem Forever, and the music goes from great to why is this in here? The save feature is automatic (it will never ask you to save, nor can you tell it when to save) and there is no pause in the world map. Actually, if you press Start to pause the game while you're on the world map, the game will assume you have chosen that board, but as soon as Mario is playable, the game pauses. Yeah....sort of defeating the purpose of pausing. The end boss is a joke that a 2 year old could beat, and after all of that, you get a little thank you screen. There is more advertising for PlayerAdvance.org in the game than every advertisement in every game ever made combined. I understand you want to plug the community you are in and possibly inspired by to create the game, but there's a difference between spamming the entire screen with it and mentioning it a few times. Oh, did I mention the weird clipping that sometimes happens? Probably best if I didn't.

If you have some time, and a GBA cart, or no$gba, I do recommend at least giving it a shot. Afterall, it is a Mario homebrew, something I think we need more of, but a bit more polished before a 1.0 release, and definitely more polished before a 2.0 release.

I give this game a 3/10. It is very short, absolutely no story line in the game itself (other than rescuing Princess Peach from, what you can assume at this point in life, her being captured by someone evil who is hiding in a castle), the music was out of place a few times, and it's glitchier than any beta I've ever played (and I played the Matrix Online beta from day 1).

This game has a potential of gaining a 5/10. Adding some quick storyline text isn't hard, especially since you've already written it and would only have to paste it in the game. Without remodeling every level, you cannot hide the fact that it is extremely repetitive and way too easy. Perhaps put a quick puzzle or mini-boss to obtain the PA coin or add more of them in each level? Perhaps a real ending other than a little picture? Oh and making it so the game doesn't freeze up my GBA, or glitches that don't kill me out of nowhere would be awesome. It reminded me a bit of <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=vSsPkgWRmpc" target="_blank">http://youtube.com/watch?v=vSsPkgWRmpc</a>