Let's Revisit Super Talking Time Bros.!

The raocow death in question. A fish ricocheting off the goal tape at exactly the right moment.

A personal note: this series alone had boosted me up to Twitch Affiliate status. Thank you all so much! I'll try to stream tonight (Sunday) to celebrate. If you got any bits or an unused prime sub laying around, I'll give you virtual hugs for them 😁

Part 4: Machu Peachu



Sorry, this has been on Youtube for a day, but I've been too busy for a proper write-up.

Despite the issues I had with it (i blame getting tired) I really like Machu Peachu a lot. IIRC, this was around the time we started talking about doing a "peach only" mini-sode, but I kind of feel like we hit a lot of her high notes with this and a couple other levels already. This is a good example of "design a level around one mechanic" but with a The Last Levels challenge of actually hanging onto the damn bombs long enough to do the thing with them.

I agree that the level should have just been called Marionus Trench now. But it's still a clever as hell level, and I enjoy the super secret room and how we hid it.

And then of course we go FULL ANIME for the boss. Still not entirely sure if the pattern is meant to be that tricky or if it's coming off the pattern. And no idea how it killed me after death there.

No worries, I've been enjoying them at whatever speed they come!

The cheat codes are general to SMBX, not something I added. I hear the current engine has new ones!

This just makes me want to buckle down and make levels.... I need a PC!

Part 5: Harrowing Hornethive



Oh boy, here we go. The true teeth of the TLL start coming out with one of my, I'll be frank, less favorite level designs: The Spraw. Hornethive is a HUGE level with tons of deadly dangers, and because SMBX, only one midpoint that you might not even see your first time through. It's BRUTAL. Not the hardest level in the game, I'm sure, but one that gives me fits. It also really hurts that it has two giant routes that lead to one exit. Not really sure why this isn't a red level.

Legacy of Magikoopa is another long level, but it's structure is more friendly. The segments are linear and not as challenging in execution, and the challenges lead to more and more interesting areas and the secrets are well clued.

Odd Odyssey is another sprawling level, but this one adds ice physics and lots of enemy sprite changes that lead to confusion.

Thankfully, the world ends with a really amusing Green Star level and a fantastic boss level. The red star secret in the latter being keyed off of the no-turnback rule was super clever.

Sorry if I am being too negative in this video, but I knew going into this LP that the style of challenge in TLL wasn't always my cup of tea. Still, I feel like the good is ahead of the bad, and hope my gripes are still at least being constructive criticism.

The mysterious turn blocks in Journey to the Right were a scrapped red star idea: You'd hit the turn blocks which would turn and do nothing else so you immediately wonder 'what's the point of that?' If you somehow made the leap to break them with a spin jump, it'd reveal a vine that'd take you a coin heaven and the star. Needless to say I decided against it after a short while because I couldn't think of a smart way to clue it without spelling it out and didn't want it to be that cryptic. I just forgot to take the turn blocks out. They don't do anything.

Odd Odyssey I have mixed feelings about. I can't tell if I like the way it looks and that its wackiness is an appealing thing, or if its cluttered full of background stuff and it just makes it harder to tell where the path forward is. It was a real humdinger to get SMBX to swallow it, that's for sure.

Kirby Bowl 65 is the sort of stage I wish I was creative enough to come up with.

Legacy of the Magikoopa might be all the more awesome when seeing it right after the last game. It's not just "This is a cool reference" but "Oh hey, I know that level!"

I already really like how it really captures the feel of the levels it's based on. Like, the Beach level looks a lot like what TE Ryan did and Forestree still has the Golbeeze flavor, and Tocking Time Tower has a good Castlevania vibe.

Also I'm proud of my Nokobon sprites (The bomb koopas). After making my version for Pyramid Peril I found a different version on someone's site, but I like mine and I'm glad they got used elsewhere too.

Part 6: Koopas All The Way Down



And so, back to the beginning to start the Left Worlds. And I think it's pretty evident early on that these are the "harder" levels. World 1 is easier for me than the World 5 Right I just left, but for sure harder than World 1 Right.

Spring to the Key is a good level with a good secret exit. I really enjoy the way the two-part puzzle is structured while still being more-or-less a linear level.

I have mixed feelings about Koopas All The Way Down. Overall, I like it a lot. It looks good and does a lot of work with almost entirely one enemy, which is always a good trick. And in retrospect the secret seems to be well enough clued. But man, with ALL the pipes it did feel a little bit like trial and error. IDK, I guess it's a good fakeout so I should just get over it.

(BTW, this is the D&D Adventure brickroad made that I referenced in this level).

The Munch Bunch has a super silly red start and I love it.

Let's All Live in a Lovely Ghosthouse is fun. The "house" feels more like a house than most ghosthouse levels, which is a nice touch.

Marsh Cave is a good way to reference another game without going too crazy. It still feels like a Mario level, and if you don't know the FF1 Marsh Cave it's still fun to play.

Part 7: Albino Dino Rhino Dash



Phantostic Voyage is a really great level blending terrifying Phantos and some Metal Gear references. Super clever.

Dino Dash is a reskinning of the rainbow shell riding with another nice callback to Bowser's Death machine from that running level in STTB2. I like the Red Star because it's possible to have the reflexes to see you need to stop at the last minute, but the level is short enough that playing it twice through isn't too bad.

I'm not sure at all what is going on with my computer and Shooting Star Showdown. I've had some other minor issues in this game and others with certain audio cues causing performance issues, so it might just be me, or that level could be a CPU killer.

Falling Block Game is just fun as hell, visually and with the music.

Modern Norfair takes me a while to beat, and it suffers from the one checkpoint issue that we have with a lot of SMBX boss levels. Maybe could have used another pass in editing to eliminate some of the path between the midpoint and the boss, IMHO.

Man, that might be the first time someone's liked Phantostic Voyage

Yeah, very nicely put together by Papillon Reel.

Really? I always thought it was a good level! I seem to remember it taking some time to smooth out in testing. What have been the complaints?

I am catching up on these while learning the new Sharepoint system at work and I wish I could go back in time and point out a few things while you're out there getting salty, like using the ice flower to freeze a bat under that mini pipe in Kayin's level instead of trying to time the jump.

Oh. Right. Goddammit 😂🤦

I'm still doing the twitch streams if you want to catch them live and yell in my chat 😁

Part 8: Return to Cookie Mountain




I really like the second half of Return to Cookie Mountain. It's hard, but pretty short and fair. The only thing really holding it back is the weird slightly slower fireball speed of SMBX

The use of buried fireballs makes Winter Palace a lot more interesting. That mechanic also solves the issues of just dumping endless powerups on a player to keep them from getting stuck in a level.

I'm still not totally sure what the "intended" solution on Crystal Peaks is for the Red Star, but hey, I got it so I guess it's fine.

Unfortunately it looks like you usually start streaming about the time I go to bed, otherwise I'd be happy to yell at you give you an extra set of eyes on puzzles in real time.

Part 9: Onward! Dauntlessly!



This world feels almost like we had some extra "castle" levels that couldn't go at the end of levels, so we crammed a bunch of them into one world. I'm cool with that.

Onward! Dauntlessly! is almost a freaking bullet hell. It's kind of amazing how many enemies are crammed into it without it being completely unfair.

I had some very silly shit happen in the mole level fight.

I'm bummed I keep missing your Twitch streams, but I'm trying to catch up on the YouTubes.

By the way, McClain, what do you do to stream SMBX? I was thinking about attempting an STTB2 speedrun...

Well, I'm not sure I really know what the consensus was about it. I just felt like it was too much showing off things I can do with SMBX and not good as a game. That's kind of a problem we (or at least I) ran into a lot through TLL but this level was particularly bad about it. It's cool from an engineering perspective that I figured out how to make a stealth level in SMBX, but nobody plays a Mario game for stealth.

I know Cirrus Citadel was going to have a Kracko boss fight at one point but I don't think it ever even got created. A really visually pretty level.

The non-respawning stopwatch in Temple of Timestop is a bummer that should have gotten fixed, but otherwise I like it. Definitely a level that went through a lot of change IIRC (I remember it having totally different puzzles at one point).

Ninji Gaiden seemed really cool when I made it, but has always been kind of meh when people LP it.

Not to heckle you any further , but in Modern Norfair you could also get that Ice Flower off the conveyor belt by just using the conveyor toggle block to have the conveyor drop it safely onto a ledge. But I like your solution too!

Oh, cool! I use Streamlabs OBS, but it ads a bunch of bells and whistles you might not want/need, so vanilla OBS would probably work for you.

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I think it works pretty well for a single level, especially since it's technically for the red star and not required.


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I like it a lot! And like I said in the video, we set the bar pretty high for Zelda levels, so I'm very curious how a Zelda focused game will stand up

It's a decent level, just a bit frustrating and surrounded by other amazing levels

It has been awhile, but you were absolutely overthinking the Red Star in Crystal Peaks. Pretty sure it was just supposed to be a tricky jump that you can make from the alcove

The right side may be easier but I think the left side has some of our strongest levels. The 'ice world' alone has some of the most memorable stages if you ask me. I always love coming to Cirrus Citadel and Another Castle, but the stand out is probably Manic Moles. That one's just delightful.

Its funny how that works out. Ninji Gaiden is super good but it falls by the wayside compared to the other stages in the world because it's so cut-and-dry. Like, you're in and you're out before too long. But its still well constructed. I like that kind of meat-and-potatoes design. Highland Hopalong is the same way.

The Mole Mania comic in question by our very own Loki.

MOLES!

PART 10: Road to Nowhere



It's a mad mad mad Madhair world!

It's also some of the best, hard-but-fair levels in the game. Good show, Madhair!

Wow, I'm not sure I knew about that easter-egg room in the Undercaves (or, at least, I completely forgot about it). Madhair's ability to pack secret areas into his levels continues to impress.

I really like the warm vs. cool aesthetics in Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Also, the boss fight in Manic Moles is really creative. Nice job, SpoonyBard

Madhair keeps teasing me about other Easter Eggs I've missed and since found, so there might have to be a bonus video, lol

Part 11: The Void



World 6 ain't playing around, y'all!

First I show off a couple Madhair secrets I missed and he clued me in on.

Tower Power does something I don't think I've seen anywhere else with the Bullet Bills wrapping stage. It's EVIL if you accidentally get them all going at once.

The "missile" fireball gimmick for Land Sea and Air is pretty neat, and I'm SHOCKED I got the red star in the first try. I seem to remember that giving me a ton of trouble in testing back in the day.

I want to say that Lava Flows was one of the earlier levels made for TLL, but the damn mushroom-lava crash problem held it up for a while, but I might be remembering. The end result is a super clever level with weird stationary mushrooms, but it works.

Black Planet is kind of all over the place, sorry. Parts of it are really good challenges, but it feels kinda unfocused, and finding the right path to the red star is a crapshoot. I only do it so quickly because I had a vague memory about it.

Bowser's Armada is fucking rad. A really solid airship level without being an autoscroller, and it's another "bullet hell" very much like later SMB3.

And then we reach ... The Void. Spoiler Alert: I do not finish this level this video. I cut it off when I go to grind out some lives.

The mushroom/lava glitch wasn't quite so direct. Most of the time if a mushroom collides with lava, you're fine. However the issue was when the mushroom collided with lava while it was offscreen. And not just offscreen, but offscreen by a certain number of blocks. THEN it would just cause SMBX to crash. This is something that I'm 99% sure has been fixed in SMBX 2.0

And yet another LPer fails to find the secret room in Lava Flows...

You guys keep thinking that if you tease me with "secret rooms" that I'll play your level again on stream!

... dammit, you are right.

Well it was nice to finally show my life farm, even if it was oddly wonky.

I love how the secret room in Bullet Ballet warps you directly to completing the level. It's like, you pulled off this really difficult trick, so we're just going to finish the level for you.

Yeah, that's really clever (and devious!). It totally changes up how you have to think about the Bullet Bills, from a 1-time threat to a recurring nuisance.

Hahaha

There's still a secret room in Gold Leaf Grove (the Link forest level) you haven't done! I think it has a clue for some OTHER secret room.

(but you already got my most elaborate secret, which is the Sub-C room with the Game Genie)