It'sa me, Kaizo Mario!

[lincolnic]

I can quit the level and come back to it without losing the checkpoint, but when I turn off the console it goes away. Are you using save states to store your progress between sessions, or loading the ROM up and starting from the title screen each time?

Oh, interesting - and also kinda shitty! Though I guess that's how regular SMW would work, but it's still annoying. I'm using OpenEmu, which I guess makes a save state every time you close the ROM? I hadn't thought that hard about it but that has to be what's going on. When I open a ROM it does give me the option to pick up from where I left off last time, so I assume if I said no it would load into the title screen instead.

Man, I've gotta get me a job where I can play kaizo. Best I can do is watch some on YouTube when things are slow.

Nah, don't get me wrong. My normal workday ends at 7 PM, so by the time I'm done with that and have dinner, I don't have too many hours left in the day. If I'm already tired, I'm less likely to want to grind out some kaizo and I'll probably play something else. (But I'd be lying if I said I didn't occasionally get the chance to play during the day when things are really slow.)

By the way, I've gotta say I'm impressed by how closely our times seem to be aligning on Ryu World. Feels like I'm almost always within about 10 minutes of the times you told me, I can practically use your run as a template.

Yeah, that's pretty cool! I wonder if that'll continue through the final stages. If so, please look forward to a very quick Ultra Star clear.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Thanks for stopping by the Twitch channel last night, Linc! You were a champ to put up with the 6-way conversation that was happening, along with the many permutations on your user name. Now that I'm done with Ryu World, I think you were absolutely right that it's a comfortable step up in difficulty from the Quickie games. It had slightly longer checkpoints and some slightly trickier platforming, which I generally appreciated. I do have a couple complaints, too, though. The custom graphics weren't always as legible as I wanted them to be, the music selection wasn't as good as it is in the Quickie games, and there were some janky spots where the screen scrolling seemed to really dictate whether a specific maneuver would work or not. Glad I played it, and I'm pretty sure I would have cleared that last level faster if I had been less tired - but even then I never got all that frustrated. Except at that frickin' Kaizo Chuck.

(I just looked back at your old posts and I think our times for the sky tree and last level were basically inverted. I didn't have too much trouble with the tree, but as you saw, the final castle stumped me for a solid 90 minutes. Also, is there a hidden level in this game? I thought there were supposed to be 14 exits, but my save file only has 12 plus the final castle. Did I miss something?)

I probably won't play any kaizo tonight, but I'm keen to dive into something new soon. I'm honestly not very excited to play more Akogare right now, so I expect I'll go with Take it Easy World. Maybe I'll stream a bit of that Sunday night?

 

[lincolnic]

Ha, glad I got to watch you beat the game! I mostly just tried to focus on the gameplay. Sorry for making you pronounce a fake word I made up a long time ago. (I don't think anyone besides you and me is reading this thread anymore, but just in case anyone else wants to know how to pronounce my username: link-CON-ic. Again, I am sorry about this.)

I agree with you about both of those complaints. While I didn't think much about the custom Munchers in the early game, when they showed up again in the sky tree I did have a little bit of trouble reading them sometimes. And the soundtrack definitely could've been better, there were a couple of levels where it was just remixes of existing SMW music and that felt a little weak. (That's my biggest complaint about Akogare right now, actually -- it uses the default SMW soundtrack, and even though I like it, it gets old fast when you're playing one level for an hour straight.) And yeah, sometimes the screen scrolling got me too (like with those Chucks in the sky tree). I think that's just something that happens in a lot of kaizo hacks, seems like it can be pretty hard to work around it.

I didn't want to backseat you last night, but now that you're done I wanted to let you know that towards the end of the final level, when you have the shell, you don't have to kill that Thwomp. I'm not sure if it actually makes a difference or not, but I never did and I felt like it helped me set up the shell jump (since I already had the momentum going into it). I'm not sure I even knew you could kill Thwomps with shells!

Also, there are no hidden levels and the overworld is entirely linear, so I have no idea why your save file is only showing 12 exits. I went back to check mine and it's at 13, which is correct since you don't save after the final castle. That's really weird!

I'm 15 exits into Akogare now -- just over the halfway point -- and it's actually getting more fun. I enjoyed the last three levels I did like quite a bit, which makes me wish the early game wasn't so sloggy. I'm averaging about an hour per exit at this point, which I know could be better. As long as it stays fun, I think I'll finish this one, but I definitely understand you not wanting to play more of it. I almost dropped it for something new myself. I will say this, though: even if I haven't always enjoyed the hack, I do feel like it's making me a better player. I'm having an easier time recognizing setups and managing Mario's jumping/falling momentum with regrabs. That's making me feel like I should play through Quickie World 2 again to see how it goes...maybe I'll do that when work eases up.

I don't really know anything about Take it Easy World, will you keep me updated on that one? We're running out of "easier" hacks to play, so maybe after that it's time to graduate to something bigger.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Maddy Thorsen, the lead designer on Celeste, just posted this on Twitter, which I also find to be very relevant to kaizo:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1287459767863017472

It's true that the best part of kaizo is doing something that is, objectively speaking, totally sick. And I think the reason the Quickie World games are so good is that they fall in the upper half of that curve, where things are generally not that hard to execute but still make you feel like a super badass when you do. Obviously, this is a subjective curve, because a better/more experienced player will find things easier to overcome than a newbie, but I think the principle is solid. The only thing I'd change is to maybe highlight the interface line, because the challenges that tend to be the most satisfying are the ones that take effort to overcome AND are totally sick when you finally do.

Speaking of kaizo, uh, haven't played any since I started Take It Easy. It's been a week, even for us Canadians.

 

[lincolnic]

Yeah, I also didn't touch any kaizo most of the week. On Monday I did pick up Take It Easy World after watching you stream the beginning (and getting stuck at a bullshit trick in Akogare), and made it through the first 2 exits relatively easily (about 20 minutes each). The third one took me about an hour, including once dying literally at the goal tape. But today I finished all my work early and desperately needed another distraction, so I picked it up again. Got through another 4 exits! Most of the levels are pretty fun, but I just cleared the first castle and that one features a jump that was pretty frustrating to nail and was also not very sick. But overall I do like the hack so far, and if it continues to not be too hard I'll probably see it through.

 

[lincolnic]

Made it through another exit in Take It Easy World without too much trouble, but then I hit a real wall at the next level. I still felt like playing kaizo though, so I did what I've been saying I was going to do and picked up Quickie World 2 again. This time I beat the whole thing in about 2 hours, 10 minutes, which felt pretty good! Every level up until Elusive Numbers went down in 5 minutes or less, and I even beat the blue switch palace in one shot. My any% time was around 90 minutes, the rest was the special levels. I'm not going to be making speedrun attempts or anything, but I like the idea of coming back to this hack every so often as a measure of how my kaizo skills have progressed. I think it's a good bellwether for that sort of thing.

Quickie World 2, I love you. However, I still hold to my original statement that the first three levels of the game are not fun. (The first level is okay. The second and third levels can go, though.)

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Nice work on Quickie 2! I swear that if you play it 2-3 more times you’ll probably manage a run in under an hour. I’ve played it a dozen times and my best is a 38 something, but of course the gains get slower as your time gets better. Thankfully, it also takes less time to run, so it balances out a bit. Every time I see someone on Twitch playing Q2, I’m tempted to go back to it again. It’s definitely going to be a favorite of mine for a long time.

I played a bit more of Take it Easy a few nights back. Finished the saw level after another 30 minutes (which makes maybe an hour total) and then demolished the underwater level in less than 10, but the one after that took me over an hour. I like a good Rex level, but there were lots of tight jumps in that one and progress was slow, if steady. Hoping to play some more tonight or tomorrow, we’ll see.

 

[lincolnic]

Yeah, that underwater level was surprisingly easy! I did appreciate how generous it was with checkpoints as well. The level where I stopped in Take It Easy is a ghost house, and it felt like a big leap in difficulty from where I was before. Not super into that. I won't say anything else about it to avoid spoilers for you.

I picked up Akogare again tonight and finally got through the level I was stuck on there, which also happened to be a ghost house. That level was really tough -- you have to make a bunch of super precise jumps and there's no checkpoint. I think I spent at least two hours on it, which wasn't fun. Hopefully things pick up again going forwards.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Well I finished the yoshi level in reasonable time and I liked it quite a lot (especially the second half where you're escorting the fireball). But then I spent an hour on the castle level and didn't even get the checkpoint, which sucked. The level itself is mostly OK, but having to wait on the swoops slows the pace down a lot. And then there's the bit with the jumbo swoop at the end that I can't nail for the life of me. I finally broke down and watched Juz do it - it doesn't look all that hard, so hopefully it'll come together next time I play the game. But that bit where you have to make it through a one-tile gap can bite my ass, it feels completely random when you die there. Not my favorite level, suffice to say.

 

[lincolnic]

Yeah, that one-tile gap part is completely bullshit. It's actually what I was referring to when I said this:

I just cleared the first castle and that one features a jump that was pretty frustrating to nail and was also not very sick.

I wanted to call it bullshit there as well, but I don't want to poison the well for you on any levels you haven't seen yet. So yeah, now that you've played it, fuck that part.

I liked the second half of the Yoshi level quite a bit more than the first half, which I think is just personal preference on my end. I just don't enjoy item juggling very much. Escorting the fireball was pretty fun though!

Re: giant bat, you probably don't want tips, but since you've already watched Juz do it maybe it doesn't matter. The thing that took me a couple of tries to realize is that you have to wait on each platform for the bat to catch up. If you follow your kaizo instincts and just go, you'll run out of platforms before it can catch up to you.

 

[lincolnic]

So I've had more time for kaizo lately, but I'm making less progress because the levels are getting significantly harder. I've only made it through one and a half exits in Take It Easy World since the weekend -- the game is no longer Taking It Easy. The full level I cleared is the ghost house where I was stuck before. I've got some issues with that one on a design level, but I don't want to rag on anything too much before Mike gets there. The level after that took me a while to get to the midway, and I haven't really gone back to it since. Instead, I've been making some steady Akogare progress, because at this point it's the easier game. I'm one exit before the final castle (not counting the special levels), but I expect the castle will take me a while; there are no checkpoints between rooms. But I don't want to get ahead of myself, I have a mole level to beat before I start on that.

I've really warmed up to Akogare in these later levels. The early stages may not have been super fun, but once you get through them it really does get better. I wonder if Mega Scott (the creator) may have been holding back at first, which probably didn't do those stages any favors. The mid-/late-game levels just have more character. At the same time, I've also come to realize that I have a personal time limit for when I stop enjoying a level. If I'm stuck on something for more than half an hour or so, it usually stops being fun for me. So part of this may be that I'm just better now than I was when I started playing, which means I can get through levels faster, which means less frustration all around. But whether or not that's true, I still think the early levels are fairly sterile.

 

[lincolnic]

Made some decent progress this week! I got to the castle in Akogare, but turns out it's six rooms without any checkpoints in between, and I don't think I'm good enough to beat it without save states. Not sure how to deal with that yet, so instead I turned back to Take It Easy World. With that hack, I got to the point where I was really only getting through one level per session, so it was a bit of a slog. But today I got through the final castle, and am now in the special world! The castle was generally pretty fun, even though it took me a while -- I think it was three hours, start to finish. And there were checkpoints between the rooms. Though a decent chunk of that time was due to me not realizing I was doing something wrong in the first room. Mike, I'm sure you'll be faster than I was.

I spent a few minutes in the first special level, but I was really done for the day, so I didn't make much progress. But I'm glad to be done with the main game. With the exception of some of the later levels, I liked it a lot. Thanks for the suggestion! I'm gonna finish the special levels and then figure out if I want to grind the Akogare castle or just move on to something else.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Nice work! If you're looking for easier hacks, stuff like Banzai World and Super Glitchcat World might be about right. And of course, Hyperion seems like a cool new hack that isn't too difficult. I'm always torn between pushing to try something harder, but not wanting to spend multiple hours on every single level. I'm still idly considering making a serious go of Invictus next, but it's also possible that I'll do a few repeat runs of Take it Easy if I enjoy the later levels. There's something really satisfying about learning a kaizo hack and tearing through it in less time than it took you to do one level when you first tried it. That said, I haven't actually played any more since my last stream, maybe I'll pick up the Take it Easy ghost house again on Sunday?

 

[lincolnic]

I actually caught a few minutes of Barb playing Banzai on stream recently, and while it does look cool, there's no instant retry and a ton of autoscrollers (as well as limited lives, which can make you lose a checkpoint if you run out). Thought about it but not sure I want to go for it yet. I don't know much about Glitchcat World or Hyperion, I'll have to look into those.

Part of me wants to move on to Invictus as well, but like you said, I'm not sure I want to spend hours on every level. I can see myself replaying Take It Easy World at some point too, outside of the ghost house and the Chuck jank I enjoyed a lot of it. We'll see if the special levels disabuse me of that notion. Don't think I'll get to come back to it until Sunday night though, if not later in the week.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Cleared out two more exits last night, that makes 10 so far! It has been taking me roughly an hour per stage, but as long as progress is consistent I don’t get too frustrated. I really liked the ghost house stage, and the boss fight was fun if a little easy. The next stage with all the ninjis was excellent, super fun platforming in the first half. There’s a jump right after the checkpoint that I found frustrating, but I eventually got better at it. The lone koopa waiting for you at the finish line got me on my first try, what a jerk. Now I’m at the level with all the pokeys, but I only spent about 2 minutes on it before stopping for the night. Good stuff!

 

[lincolnic]

You're almost done! I think there's only one more level between the pokey stage and the castle. I think the pokey level is quite a bit easier in practice than the two levels that come before it, but it can be deceptively hard to see what you're actually supposed to do at times. Once you figure it out there isn't anything too demanding in there, though.

I liked the ninji level, though I found the first half to be much, much harder than the second half. I know what jump you're talking about and that was a sticking point for me too.

Last night was the first time I played since Friday, but I only really had the energy to get through the first special level. It was another one where the first half felt significantly harder than the second half, but overall it wasn't too bad. I put about 20 minutes into the level after, which has some clever trickery to make Rip Van Fish behave like a disco shell, but didn't get through to the checkpoint. I nearly got there, and I know what I have to do, so hopefully it won't take too long to get through next time I play.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

I feel like the first half being harder has been pretty consistent throughout the hack and I can't say I'm opposed to it. You're always fresher and more motivated when you start a level, so it's good if the toughest challenges are front-loaded. Once you've been grinding on a level for an hour, it sucks to get hung up on a really tricky spot right before the end. In the same way, I'd much rather deal with a very difficult section (like the V of munchers in the ninji level) right after a checkpoint than at the end of a section. That way, you can practice it a bunch, rather than arriving and being super stressed about losing your progress.

I was stuck at home this morning for a few hours waiting for a contractor to show up and I considered playing some more...but then I remembered that I can actually do work from home now. It sucks being a grownup sometimes.

EDIT: I just watched Juz play the ninji level and he deals with the muncher V by double bouncing on the winged galoomba. I was just doing the whole thing with one bounce in a single movement, which probably made it even harder! You'd think I would have wondered why the galoomba had wings...

 

[lincolnic]

EDIT: I just watched Juz play the ninji level and he deals with the muncher V by double bouncing on the winged galoomba. I was just doing the whole thing with one bounce in a single movement, which probably made it even harder! You'd think I would have wondered why the galoomba had wings...

I did it in one movement too, because it felt like you'd mess up the spawn timing of the flying blocks right after if you waited there with a second jump. Guess we were wrong practicing our speed strats.

I don't necessarily mind if the first half of a level is harder than the second, but sometimes I wish the difficulty was a little more consistent through the whole level. I don't really know what this would realistically mean, but one of the levels I beat tonight took about 35-40 minutes to get to the checkpoint, and then I finished the second half in about five minutes. (Of course, I died to something dumb right at the goal tape, so it took me another 15 to get back there and finish it for real.) That feels like something's a little unbalanced to me. But I do agree with you that it sucks to get stuck on something hard right at the end of a level -- kinda sucks any fun out of the parts you have to keep replaying just to get another shot at it.

I'm two more exits down in the special world, which means I have just one more to go. Probably gonna wrap this hack up tomorrow! I don't want to scare you, but in one of the levels...you have to go left.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Oh my god the mole level sucks so bad. I was riding high because I took care of the pokey/key level in about 30 minutes, and I even learned some basic key jump techniques in the process. But those moles, jesus christ. Spent a little over an hour getting to the checkpoint and then I called it a night before making much progress in the second half. The part where you have to avoid the bullets while riding the fast mole drove me insane, the hitboxes on those stupid rodents makes no sense at all. In what world should it hurt Mario to land on their noses???

 

[lincolnic]

Their noses are very pointy.

But yeah, that level is tough, especially the first half. I think I spent about 2 hours in total there before breaking through. If it helps, the second half is easier!

 

[lincolnic]

Happily coming back to say that Take It Easy World is done. The game finally changes up the formula of "first half hardest half" in the final level, where the hardest jump comes right after the checkpoint. The second half took me a while -- at least 90 minutes -- partly because it took me way longer than it should've to figure out a consistent strategy for that jump, and partly because the color palette in the level (combined with some vertical scrolling) was actually giving me a touch of motion sickness. That's never happened to me with any video game before, and it was not a pleasant surprise.

Overall it was a very difficult level, but satisfying to clear. It doesn't ask you to do anything weird, just some brutally honest and precise platforming. I'm for it. Looking back at the game as a whole, I really liked most of it, and have a couple of design bones to pick with a few parts. But it's definitely a good hack, and I feel like the later levels especially have helped me improve as a player (even if they were occasionally aggravating). Thanks again for the find, Mike.

I'm probably gonna attempt to finish Akogare now (at least for a little while), and then maybe look into Super Glitchcat World or Hyperion.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Congrats on successfully Taking it Easy! Despite the name, I am finding that hack to be Not That Easy, Actually. But I sure do feel like I'm being challenged, which is good. I still have to get back in and put that mole level to bed, but I don't know when that will happen. Sunday seems to be a good night for kaizo, so maybe then?

In other news...that guy who is really good at kaizo came back to Twitch this week after about a month of radio silence. Apparently he started off the stream sounding like he was going to talk about the controversy that caused him to leave, then head-faked and totally dodged the question. He raked in like $1000 in donations and never brought it up again, from what I understand. I guess he's chosen his path and found his audience, but I won't be among them going forward. Instead, let's talk about some other kaizo streamers that are (or at least seem to be) good people!

Mr. Mighty Mouse is one of my favorites right now. He's going to be running Comfort Zone for AGDQ in January, so he's been practicing that a bunch and playing Hollow Knight blind when he needs to take a break. It's a nice, chill stream with a good vibe and not too many viewers, which makes chatting a little easier. DeeBick gives me a chill stoner vibe, he plays a variety of hacks and does some speedruns, plus apparently he juggles? I asked him to show off a trick in Quickie World 2 once and he messed it up, ruining a really good run, so I felt super guilty for a while. ThePurpleEagle2242 is the other Aussie who plays Kaizo, he's more energetic and I've enjoyed his stream the times that I've tuned in. And if you don't mind a bit of yelling, InfamousGreg is a pretty cool guy with great hair who is currently suffering through Kaizo Mario World 3. He has a cartoonish yelling voice that he uses a lot, but for some reason I don't find it grating. Again, he has a fairly small community, but that makes for better interaction IMO. My only gripe is that he's playing an extremely hard hack, so progress is very slow right now (similar to the situation with Taterholic, who is trying to defeat Dram's Butthole and has been working on that stage for literal weeks). It doesn't make for as good of a show, IMO, but their communities all seem to be pretty OK.

 

[lincolnic]

I don't think you can start that list and not mention GlitchCat7, who is one of the kindest and most inclusive streamers I've ever seen. Vibewise he reminds me of Mitch Hedberg, and he manages to remain chill even when calling out people being tasteless or toxic in his chat. He also happens to be one of the best kaizo players around. You posted a video of him beating some crazy shell level somewhere upthread, which is good proof of that. Unfortunately he's being targeted for harassment by the community of the guy we're not naming right now, and is taking the weekend off from streaming to relax.

Another person we've talked about in this thread is Shovda, who is better at playing kaizo with one hand than most people are with two. She's also pretty refreshingly frank about her experiences as a trans lady, providing a much-needed voice in the community.

GrandPooBear isn't openly political on stream, but is vocally pro-LGBTQ, pro-BLM, and pro-science on his social media. He also just recently finished one of the single hardest trials in video games right now by beating 7-99 in Spelunky 2.

I realize those folks aren't really lesser-knowns in the world of kaizo, but I'm not as plugged into the community as you are so my awareness isn't as broad. Thanks for giving me some new people to check out!

As for my own kaizo playing, I was planning on doing a bit more today (maybe trying the Team Shell Hack?), but my left thumb started randomly hurting last night, and I'm pretty sure that means I need to stay away from controllers until it's feeling better.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Any% complete! The Mind Palace took me a little over two hours to clear, with the first three rooms taking 20 minutes each and the fourth taking a good 45 or so. That Reznor boss sure was...something, huh? I definitely enjoyed the first 3/5 of the level a lot, but it started to drag for me when I got stuck on the 4th room. I began working on the special world last night, and it took me a good hour and a quarter to hit the checkpoint in the first level. To be fair, I was really tired and out of it at the start, but I eventually managed to wake up and make some progress. Of course, I got killed by the falling fuzzy troll right before the halfway point.

As for bigger streamers, those are some good suggestions. I like GrandPooBear a lot, although he doesn't do that many kaizo hacks these days. I've only watched a bit of Shovda, but her Kaizo spreadsheet certainly has been helpful. GC7 seems super chill from what I've seen, and of course he's top tier in terms of skill. There's also LaserBelch and Barb, both of whom I watch from time to time. And I've really been enjoying Juzcook's edited videos, he's very entertaining and the videos are well edited so as to show off the kaizo struggle but still keep things moving. Oh and sometimes I'll check out DaWildGrim, but he spends a lot of time trying to improve his GWP2 record and that means lots of resets, which can be less fun to watch.

 

[lincolnic]

Nice job! The first special level is by far the hardest, and it definitely took me more than an hour to get to the checkpoint as well. That checkpoint troll is downright mean. Luckily, the second half is way easier.

Good call on LaserBelch and Barb, they're also good. I've been enjoying some of Juz's videos lately myself.

My thumb is getting better but still hurts, so I'm hoping tomorrow I'll get back to playing for real. I did put in 90 minutes or so messing around over the weekend. I couldn't even get past the first jump in the Team Shell hack (how do you do a drop shell jump??), but I did clear the Akogare castle. Turns out there's a checkpoint halfway through, which made a huge difference. The first special level seems pretty tough but I think I'll be able to manage it.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

I just watched someone play the first minute of the hack and I'm not entirely sure what happens there. It looks like you drop the shell (down + release Y?) and then bump it to start it moving? Not sure why that would work better than just kicking it, I guess it slows it down for the first part of its path.

 

[lincolnic]

I mean, I understand what you're supposed to do, but I just cannot get the timing down. You have to drop the shell at a very specific point, otherwise it either goes above you or below you. I can't for the life of me figure out what that point is, and nothing I've tried seems to work. I pulled it off a couple of times, but apparently those were just accidents.

You can't kick it because it'll fall too fast for you to bounce off of after. The drop jump gives you just enough time to bounce off of the shell before it falls offscreen. For what it's worth, I've seen the rest of the hack and it's definitely not something I'm capable of beating, so maybe I'm better off not bothering for now. I just wanted to do cool shell tricks!

 

[SilentSnake]

I want to shout out Amethyst_Rocks, a queer woman who streams SMW romhacks - mostly kaizo - every morning, as she's turned me onto kaizo SMW hacks. They're fun and I've learned a lot from just watching!

I'm going to try Quickie World tonight. It will be my first kaizo game!

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Awesome! I will say that Quickie 2 might be a slightly smoother experience, the first game has one extremely hard level (although it's pretty far in). Let us know how it goes! Also, consider running through a few levels in Learn 2 Kaizo before starting, or any time you find yourself stuck. There are a number of techniques that kaizo makers assume you're going to know how to do when they make levels; L2K covers the basics and is absolutely worth spending some time on.

I spent a solid 2 hours last night grinding the special world in Take it Easy, most of which was spent on the Disco Fish level. I basically made it to the end, but it was getting late and I just couldn't quite clutch out the victory in the last part (I literally made it to the exit pipe and whiffed the entry, SMH). I'll take a day or two off and I imagine that level will fall pretty quickly next time I play it. Only two left to go after that! It's been a very challenging hack, but I really feel like it's pushing me to get better at the game and the level design is almost uniformly great. Looking forward to running that one back later, but I'll probably take a break to run Quickie 2 again first as a palette cleanser.

 

[lincolnic]

I want to shout out Amethyst_Rocks, a queer woman who streams SMW romhacks - mostly kaizo - every morning, as she's turned me onto kaizo SMW hacks. They're fun and I've learned a lot from just watching!

I'm going to try Quickie World tonight. It will be my first kaizo game!

Welcome to our weird club, SilentSnake! Glad to have you! Thanks for the Amethyst_Rocks recommendation, I'll check her out as well.

I can't second Mike's recommendations enough. I'd say Learn 2 Kaizo is an excellent starting point for learning kaizo tricks. Like he said, there are some things that you'll be expected to just know, and it's a fantastic low-pressure, low-stress environment to practice them. I also think Quickie World 2 is easier (and better overall) than QW1.

My recommended starting order would definitely be L2K -> QW2 -> QW1, but there's no harm in bouncing between things and playing whatever seems interesting to you. I was watching GlitchCat the other night and he made a really compelling case for that approach -- the general idea was that rather than looking at kaizo as just a list of hacks to beat, it's a lot more fun to look at it as a series of skills to learn and practice, so that you can learn to tackle even more new challenges. A harder hack is a chance to apply what you've learned in a new way. There's no endgame -- the essence of kaizo is getting your ass kicked, ad infinitum -- so take things at your own pace. Try not to forget that even "easy" kaizo stuff is still really hard! All progress is good progress.

Keep us posted on how it all goes for you!

I spent a solid 2 hours last night grinding the special world in Take it Easy, most of which was spent on the Disco Fish level. I basically made it to the end, but it was getting late and I just couldn't quite clutch out the victory in the last part (I literally made it to the exit pipe and whiffed the entry, SMH).

If it makes you feel any better, I died literally in front of the goal tape in that level the first time I got there.

I picked up Akogare again yesterday, but had a rough time. I made it to the checkpoint of the first special level, and spent a couple of hours trying to finish, but I couldn't get there. I made it to the last jump of the level a handful of times, but haven't nailed it yet. Hopefully with a clearer head I'll get through it next time. I got frustrated there, so I went to explore some other Team Shell levels (the game has a mode where you can unlock the overworld and play freely). I found one level that had a fun first half, but not long after the checkpoint you have to do another drop shell jump, so I noped out. Maybe I'll figure those out one day.