It'sa me, Kaizo Mario!

[lincolnic]

An hour and 40 minutes in, still haven't made it into the pipe that leads to the checkpoint. This feels fucking terrible.

edit: finally made it in 10 minutes later. I'm not sure I want to keep playing this game if this is how hard the first half of the first level is.

 

[SilentSnake]

Well, I finished off all exits in Little Mario World. Overall I like it, but I feel like it relied too much on the meat and potatoes of when to jump, when to spin jump, and when to regrab. It had one spectacular level with the slope castle and one creative level with the snake blocks, but other than that, it was all a particular set of fundamentals. Which is fine! It's a nice step up from the Quickie Worlds if that's what you're looking for.

Next is Hyperion and I'm extremely excited.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

I finished a level in Invictus! Piranha Pipeway is down in a mostly-reasonbable 90 minutes (plus whatever time I sunk into it a few months back). It was difficult, but honestly the only part I found unenjoyable was the weird horizontal pipe trick toward the end of the first area. The bit where you fill in the gaps to keep the snake block alive was really cool IMO. Looking forward to bashing my head against the next level!

 

[lincolnic]

the only part I found unenjoyable was the weird horizontal pipe trick toward the end of the first area

Nah, to hell with the part where you have to bounce off three koopas onto a block and then immediately jump off it onto a winged platform before you get hit by a fireball that the piranha plant to your right is spitting for no reason at all. There's no reason that thing needs to be spitting fireballs, I swear the window of time you have to get off the block can't be more than a handful of frames.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Oh yeah, that part's real tight. I got to be somewhat consistent at it eventually, though.

 

[lincolnic]

Yeah, by the end of my nearly 2 hours in that section I was mostly just dying at the final pipe. It took me a while to realize that you only needed to hit one of the two blocks below it.

Anyway, I just had some time to kill before a meeting so I finished the level. Second half went down in about 30 minutes, much less aggravating than the first half. Here's hoping the next level is a bit friendlier.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Nice work! I can't kaizo tonight, so this could be your chance to jump ahead...

I've got Barb's stream on and he just made it to the upside down ice level in Corgi Butts for the first time. Suffice to say he is not happy about it. Rest of the hack looks neat, though!

EDIT: Oh god, the troll gravity block at the end that doesn't actually switch your direction is brilliant. So mean.

 

[SilentSnake]

I want to highlight for a second Amethyst_Rocks, who recently appeared on GDQ's Mercy Kill show to play a near complete derust of a Grand Poo World 2 speedrun where she successfully came in under her estimate.

She's a great kaizo player and is currently learning Let's Give Up to speedrun also.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

I want to highlight for a second Amethyst_Rocks, who recently appeared on GDQ's Mercy Kill show to play a near complete derust of a Grand Poo World 2 speedrun where she successfully came in under her estimate.

She's a great kaizo player and is currently learning Let's Give Up to speedrun also.

You aren’t supposed to give the ending away! Very cool though, Let’s Give Up makes for a great watch when someone who knows what they’re doing is at the wheel.

I had some free time after I finished work today, so I fired up Hyperion for the first time! It’s a little harder than I thought it would be? The checkpoints seem to be veeeeery far apart and the platforming is kind of tricky from the jump. I found the secret exit to the second level and then went back to get the regular exit...only to find that I couldn’t make it back to where the path diverges. So I played the water level instead, which was OK but a little long in each segment. Took me nearly an hour and a half to get three exits, which is longer than I was expecting the early levels to take! I’ll keep at it whenever I’m not in the mood for something as hard as Invictus.

 

[lincolnic]

Yeah, one of my few complaints about Hyperion is that there are a decent amount of levels where the checkpoint placement is way off. I think I mentioned it before, but every so often you'll find levels where the checkpoint is like 3/4 of the way through. I didn't hate the water level though, and I hate basically every water level. So that's nice!

No kaizo for me tonight, I'll make an attempt at the next level of Invictus tomorrow.

Amethyst_Rocks also put in a really strong speedrun of Quickie World 2 in the QW 1 + 2 relay race from Frame Fatales last summer!

 

[SilentSnake]

So I've cleared eight exits so far in Hyperion, and I'm at the red switch palace. I'm pretty much in love with this game. I love how well everything flows, and how clearly defined every move you make is. It's pretty much focused on hard platforming, with my favorite level so far, Triathlon, being emblematic of this, and how much better Hyperion does hop and bop traversal than Little Mario World. Also the map is rad.

And I found this neat little tribute in one of the levels:

Spoiler: My Little Puzzles 2

 

[lincolnic]

I found this neat little tribute in one of the levels

Nice! I think Shovda was listed in the credits as a playtester. I only ever found one secret room in my playthrough, but I tend to tunnel vision onto whatever jump I'm trying to make so that's to be expected.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

One of the advantages of working from home that I'm just discovering is that I can put Twitch streams on my secondary monitor while I work. Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon with LaserBelch's stream up, because he was hosting his own end-of-year kaizo hack awards ceremony. It was really nice! He took a lot of time with it, putting together nominees in about 10 categories and loading up the hacks to show off the relevant sections. It was super positive and lots of creators were in attendance, there was a real feel-good vibe. I learned about a few newer hacks that might be of interest to us, like Sayonara Mario World (graphically themed after Sayonara Wild Hearts), Sweet'n'Sour and Bunbun World 2. Lots of love was heaped on Casio Mario World, which took best music (of course) and earned Wyatt best new creator. Thirdwall's recent Mostly Harmless took best use of vanilla mechics, Let's Give Up obviously got best use of cape, Team Shell Hack nabbed best overworld and Lungfish got best new streamer for the first RTA completion of Fruit Dealer, which is an absurd bullet-hell boss fight formerly thought to be TAS-only. But the biggest surprise for me was the hack of the year, which wound up going to Yump 2 - not technically even a kaizo game, I think. JUMP team has put out something like 4 or 5 huge hacks in the Jump and Yump series over the last few years, I think I'll have to give those a shot at some point.

...

UghRochester

 

[SilentSnake]

One of the advantages of working from home that I'm just discovering is that I can put Twitch streams on my secondary monitor while I work. Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon with LaserBelch's stream up, because he was hosting his own end-of-year kaizo hack awards ceremony. It was really nice! He took a lot of time with it, putting together nominees in about 10 categories and loading up the hacks to show off the relevant sections. It was super positive and lots of creators were in attendance, there was a real feel-good vibe. I learned about a few newer hacks that might be of interest to us, like Sayonara Mario World (graphically themed after Sayonara Wild Hearts), Sweet'n'Sour and Bunbun World 2. Lots of love was heaped on Casio Mario World, which took best music (of course) and earned Wyatt best new creator. Thirdwall's recent Mostly Harmless took best use of vanilla mechics, Let's Give Up obviously got best use of cape, Team Shell Hack nabbed best overworld and Lungfish got best new streamer for the first RTA completion of Fruit Dealer, which is an absurd bullet-hell boss fight formerly thought to be TAS-only. But the biggest surprise for me was the hack of the year, which wound up going to Yump 2 - not technically even a kaizo game, I think. JUMP team has put out something like 4 or 5 huge hacks in the Jump and Yump series over the last few years, I think I'll have to give those a shot at some point.

...

UghRochester

So the JUMP and YUMP games are made by a team of kaizo and non-kaizo creators that are incredibly ambitious and creative despite not technically being kaizo. They each have over 100 exits, so they're big projects. YUMP in particular is maybe one that's skippable, though, as that's more of a meme game that's bad on purpose. YUMP 2, however, is actually good and interesting. It's actually the only one that's designated Kaizo: Light because it starts out like a normal SMW hack and gradually becomes kaizo. They're definitely worth checking out, as well as stick mice in my head and beat my head in with a hammer and let them back out.

 

[lincolnic]

They're definitely worth checking out, as well as stick mice in my head and beat my head in with a hammer and let them back out.

For anyone reading this who doesn't know, "stick mice in my head..." is the name of another hack. I feel like that's important information to have.

I've watched various people play Yump 2, and while there are some cool levels in it, there's also a lot of hot garbage. Which is to be expected when you have so many creators, I guess. It also features what most people have said is the hardest cape level they've ever played, so make of it what you will.

UghRochester

Can someone explain the meme of putting this guy's name in stuff to me? I see it a lot but I don't really get the joke.

 

[SilentSnake]

Also, to be clear, Sayonara Mario World is currently my most anticipated hack to play once I'm good enough.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Can someone explain the meme of putting this guy's name in stuff to me? I see it a lot but I don't really get the joke.

There's a clip of Rochester finishing Quickie World 2 where he spends the whole credits sequence scanning for his name in the shout outs and then looks super sad when he isn't there. Since then, I guess it has become a meme to include him in your credits, although not everyone does it. I actually asked Laser where the joke came from and he played the clip on the stream, but I have no idea what the timestamp on the VOD would be. If there even is a VOD - one of the categories was "hack most likely to get your stream DMCA'd", so it's possible Laser won't be able to leave it up because of all the copyrighted music in the hacks!

 

[lincolnic]

Thanks for the explanation! There currently is a VOD up of Laser's awards, which I'll watch after lunch. Sounds like a good time.

Meanwhile, I spent 90 minutes beating the second level of Invictus (most of that time on the first half). I know the level after this is the one with all the one-screen key rooms, so hopefully that'll be quicker.

 

[SilentSnake]

11 exits and two switch palaces down in Hyperion and I continue to be impressed by this game. There's definitely nuance in some of the tricks, but this game is marked by bigger, more eye catching actions and is all the better for it. I like how action puzzley the pink yoshi switch palace was, and Not The Red Keep is just a really neat level that makes use of verticality beautifully. Speaking of Red Keep, the music in that is just excellent. Amper certainly picked some bangers, and fishing this one out of an obscure Amiga racing game? Amazing.

 

[lincolnic]

The first world of Invictus is down! (It's only three exits, but it sounds more impressive if you say it that way.) The third level finally started to be fun instead of stressful. It still took me almost an hour and 45 minutes to get through it, but I wasn't mad during that time, so I guess things are looking up? The unfortunate thing is that spending so much time on each level makes me want to stop for the day after clearing one. That's not a bad thing per se, but I'd like to be making a bit more progress. At this rate I'll have the game cleared by...I dunno, March, probably.

The soundtrack in that last level was rad, though. It was the first remix of SMW music I've heard in a long time that really did something unique and interesting, while also driving you to play on. Good job, whoever made that track!

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Ha, I knew you'd pull ahead before long. Hoping to have time to kaizo tonight, although with the ongoing cleanup from the renovations I'm not sure I'll have the energy to return to Invictus. We'll see if I even manage to stay awake past 10PM!

I caught a little bit of GlitchCat's Mercy Kill run of Search for Salmon last night, that game looks incredibly difficult. Someone in chat said that there have been over 120 new kaizo light hacks in 2020 and I had a look on SMWCentral and it's true?? Good god, that's a new hack every 3 days. I'm starting to think that any list of good hacks for new players is going to be obsolete within about three months of its creation. Newer beginner hacks like Little Mario World and Hyperion should probably take the place of stuff like Korosu and Gracie, neither of which really impressed me that much when I tried them.

 

[lincolnic]

I caught a little bit of GlitchCat's Mercy Kill run of Search for Salmon last night, that game looks incredibly difficult.

Oh damn, I didn't know this happened. Definitely going to dig up a VOD! I think that game is generally regarded as one of the hardest kaizo hacks out there. You have to wonder if GlitchCat was like "I'm gonna make a hack for me."

Newer beginner hacks like Little Mario World and Hyperion should probably take the place of stuff like Korosu and Gracie, neither of which really impressed me that much when I tried them.

I'd love to see this, honestly, though I do think those earlier hacks have their place as well. One thing I was shocked by when I was playing Hark Bros (which came out in 2018) was how completely different it felt from the hacks I played from 2019, or 2020. With the insane number of kaizo hacks that came out this year, it seems like the overall gestalt of how these games look and feel has evolved really quickly. A lot of that is probably due to people coming over from Mario Maker, for better or worse. I think earlier games like Korosu and Gracie did stuff like put kaizo blocks everywhere because that's what the original Kaizo Mario World did, but it seems like a lot of newer creators really don't like those kinds of trolls (and I'm fine with that).

 

[SilentSnake]

Jumping in here quick to say I've been plugging away at Hyperion for a bit now and am completely in love. Every level feels so different, and one of them even feels more like a really creative regular level than kaizo (Beta Particles). I've got three switch palaces down and quite a bit to go before the endgame. (I'm working on Amityvilla right now)

Also, have a couple more secrets!

Spoiler: Juz

Spoiler: chess

 

[lincolnic]

That chess screen was the only secret I actually found when I was playing. I love the Juz tribute though. I died for real on that screen in Invictus!

 

[SilentSnake]

21 exits down in Hyperion. Will probably finish tomorrow. It's real good.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Spent an hour on the second level of Invictus last night, but I couldn't make much headway. I was stumped by the bit with the spring block and parakoopas for some time before finally realizing what I needed to do, but by that point I couldn't pull it together enough to actually make it through. Since I was feeling tired (as usual), I decided to switch over to Hyperion for a bit. I cleared Triathlon by sight-reading the last third of the level on my first try, which is always a nice feeling. Fun level, but it could really stand a checkpoint. The desert level after that was really fun, probably my favorite in the hack so far. I wanted to push on after that, because I knew there was a cool boss coming up, but I couldn't quite get the checkpoint in the pyramid level and it was past my bed time. I expect I'll get through the first part of that level pretty quickly next time I fire that hack up. I get the impression I'm a little cooler on Hyperion than either of you are, but it's still generally fun and I do appreciate having an easier hack to fall back on when Invictus is kicking by ass.

 

[lincolnic]

the pyramid level

If it's any consolation, this is one of the levels that suddenly felt really hard for me out of nowhere. I spent a while on that first half too!

 

[SilentSnake]

Hyperion is done! I think this might just be my favorite kaizo hack now, not to mention one of the best games of this year. There were some frustrating parts, but most everything was just a joy to play and master.

My next project:

 

[lincolnic]

I just watched ThaBeast play through Bun Bun 2, which looked pretty neat. Don't know anything about the first one though! Keep us updated.

 

[SilentSnake]

So Bunbun World is pretty cool so far! Really inventive level setups. The first level showcases this beautifully, where you can beat the first half of the level as a normal thing, but you can also take the key with you, adding the extra layer of juggling a key with your hopping and bopping. Makes the level feel like two in one. Also, the first world castle breaks with kaizo conventions and gives you six small rooms to clear with a checkpoint between each one. These rooms feel fairly puzzley while requiring some tight platforming. And everything including the pastel colors and the soundtrack choices give off a chill vibe even without dialing the difficulty way down. You could say I'm impressed with the game.