• Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:

    1. The CAPTCHA key's answer is "Percy"
    2. Once you've completed the registration process please email us from the email you used for registration at percyreghelper@gmail.com and include the username you used for registration

    Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.

It'sa me, Kaizo Mario!

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
So I did play Gambol today (90 minutes, did not play the optional post-game shell level), and for better or worse I thought it was Just Alright. The platforming was generally smooth, but nearly every single section had One Particular Obstacle where I felt like the creator tried too hard to be clever and instead it just seemed very hard to read. I don't think it was a bad hack by any means -- the soundtrack was great, the color palettes are top notch, and there are cool levels in there -- but ultimately I just didn't jibe with the creator's style. Maybe I was just in a bad mood today. Either way, you can tell a lot of effort went into the hack, and I think a lot of people will enjoy playing it.
 

SilentSnake

Administrator
(He/him)
Staff member
Moderator
So good news! I have been wearing wrist braces at night every night since my carpal tunnel diagnosis, and my hands and wrists feel better! So expect me to stream some kaizo again soon.

I plan on finally finishing New Comfort Zone, then move on to Dram because lincoln can't be the only one here to beat that game.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
That's great! Are they sending you to any kind of PT too? That was gigantic for me, along with a doing a bunch of stretches at home (which I still do).

Meanwhile, I'm 8 exits into Halo 14 - Side A and having a great time. Setups are fresh and very clever, and they're generally very legible. There's maybe one vertical autoscroller too many for my taste, but so far I would definitely recommend it.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Wrapped up Halo 14 today. For the most part, it's a great hack! I didn't really care for the final two levels so much but on the whole, this one's absolutely worth playing. I didn't keep track of my playing time at all, but I want to say it was maybe 4-ish hours? One way or another, it was relatively quick and well put together.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Is that the super-cursed one she's been talking about in ThirdWall's chat? I think I might need to see someone else play that, but sadly I suspect it's probably not for me either.

I did run back Luminescent between yesterday and today for no particular reason. I still don't like the snake block and "everything's in a wall" levels, but the good parts of the hack are still good! The replay took a bit over 3 hours in all.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Dang, Margot is on a roll. I'm definitely curious about this, but the Expert tag has me thinking that I might also be more of a watcher than a player, at least for now.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
I don't have any exciting kaizo news, but I've still been wanting to play Mario so I ran back some more hacks today: Ambivalence and Hark 2 any%. Each of them took me about an hour, not too bad at all. Turns out hacks that were good the first time (and second time, in Hark 2's case) are still good! I had a few one shots in Hark 2 (including Li'l Hark), which always feels great.

Seems like the pace of hacks coming out has really slowed down over the past few months. I know Deported is looking to release their hack next week, and the bits I've seen of people testing that one look pretty fun, so I'm looking forward to it. ThirdWall was saying today that he wants to make Mostly Harmless 2 as well, so that's exciting. Less exciting: he said "there's gotta be a sequel to the cloud level, right?"
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
After a few weeks of being either too sick or too sore to spend a lot of time playing kaizo, I decided that it was time to get back in the saddle. Also, if I really want to make any headway in Mostly Harmless, I can't be playing SMW once a week, you know? So I picked up Halo 14 Side A and played through the first 4.5 exits, up to the midway in the cannon level. So far, I like it a whole lot! The chocolate gimmicks aren't too outlandish, so the level design ends up feeling really creative but generally not too far out there. The cannon level is kind of the exception so far, but even if it's a little harder to grok, it's still not too hard on the brain. One level that really impressed me was the one where you navigate a series of descending blocks, waiting for one to appear in the right position for you to go through a door. It's all the fun of a vertical autoscroller, but you aren't going anywhere! If the rest of the hack ends up being this good, I could see this becoming a favorite of mine.

"there's gotta be a sequel to the cloud level, right?"
😐
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
For a little while now I've been thinking about the final shell level at the end of Quest for Corgi Butts that I never completed. Was it really as hard as it felt like two years ago? I beat the Various Dragons room at the end of Titan Mario, it can't be worse than that, right? Today I decided to sit down and give it another shot. Turns out it's still really tough, but I have in fact learned enough to clear it! I thought I wasn't going to be able to do it -- I was having trouble with the trick where you have to drop a shell against a wall and then bounce off it when it ricochets behind you -- but I took a break to watch revolug playing it and there's only two more jumps after that. Knowing that gave me a second wind, and in a few more minutes I'd reached the door. The whole thing took maybe 30-40 minutes.

I'm still not sure if I could do that wall drop shell jump on command, but I was able to do it consistently enough today to clear a tough room, and we take those wins. Feels nice to see a bit of self-improvement and to finally roll the credits on what was originally my 11th hack ever.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Pretty quiet on the kaizo front lately, but a couple of notable things dropped today! First is Liquid Metal from Deported, which I've been looking forward to. But also, a new hack called Cruisy from the kaizo community's favorite Pokemon, Lush_50!

Before any of that, I played Coffee & TV today, because I saw GlitchCat playing it the other night and it looked pretty chill. And it generally was! The final two levels have a real difficulty spike, and there are some occasional readability issues peppered throughout, but for the most part it's just some low stakes platforming. Played through the whole hack in about an hour, because sometimes it feels good to win.

I also spent about an hour playing the first seven exits (of eleven total) in Cruisy, which is another pretty solid effort from Lush. I will say that in those seven exits there were three bosses, which is three bosses too many, but none of them were that bad. I'm not sure if I'll have time to finish this one tomorrow, but I don't expect it'll take more than another sitting.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Wrapped up Cruisy today. I enjoyed most of it, but the final two levels left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth: Casio water, followed by low gravity. Neither were particularly hard, I just don't like those gimmicks. Entirely decent hack overall.

After that, I finally started up Liquid Metal and quickly played through half of it (five exits). So far, it's a banger! It's a little reminiscent of hacks like Purgatory and Luminescent, which I mean as a very strong compliment. Really looking forward to the rest of this one.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Oof, Casio water I can deal with, but I really don't like low gravity levels in general. Who made Liquid Metal? I haven't been able to watch as much Twitch lately, so I'm not super up on the new releases. Honestly, I'm not super motivated to play kaizo right now in general. Elden Ring is still taking up a big chunk of time, and I'm also feeling the call of seasonal stuff like the castles vania.
 

SilentSnake

Administrator
(He/him)
Staff member
Moderator
Yeah, I admit I've been in a rough place mentally again (and some light sickness thrown in) so I haven't streamed anything in a while. I need to finish of New Comfy still, then weigh my options. Hoping next week my wellness will allow me to stream again. But in the meantime, I've been playing non-kaizo games. Given how hard I went with kaizo last year, taking a break has been a fucking delight lol. (But I do miss it.)
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Hope you feel better soon! And I don't think it's bad to take a break - I can't name another genre that I've ever played as consistently as I have kaizo in the last few years. A little time away can be a good thing.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Well geez, you guys are never gonna break 100 hacks with those attitudes. Nah I'm kidding, breaks are healthy and good. Hope everyone's feeling better and having the energy again soon.

Who made Liquid Metal?
That's Deported's new hack, which I'd mentioned being interested in a few times upthread.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Wrapped up the rest of Liquid Metal tonight. Based on the first five exits, it was on track to be one of my favorite hacks of the year, but there was a massive difficulty spike towards the end that's knocked it down a little bit for me. Still I'd say it was a great hack overall, super fun and creative. Would recommend.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
I haven't started anything new, but there'll be more kaizo at AGDQ in January! Rudy will also be running Elephants, though I've never watched his streams and don't intend to start. More excitingly, there's going to be a 100% race of Brave New World. I don't know either of the racers, but I really enjoyed this hack and it'll be fun to see some kuso at the event.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
It's not nice to call Elephants kuso, lincoln (joke!).

I finished Halo 14 Side A, which is my first hack completion in a while. I generally thought it was really good, and even fired it up to run through a few of the early stages again immediately on completion, since I had some time to kill. Very sad to see the return of wall nipples, but aside from that it was very good, one of my favorites from this year.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
I was poking around the waiting section last night and saw something interesting. Insanit made a new hack inspired by Celeste's B-sides, where he took some levels from a beginner hack he made and made shorter, harder versions. I'd never heard of the original hack, Super LSG World, so I decided to check it out today. It was pretty solid! 15 exits, ~75 minutes of playtime, a nice assortment of levels and tropes. Sections were roughly Quickie-length so it was pretty smooth. Would recommend if you ever feel like knocking back a beginner hack.

I think I'll check out his B-side hack next while this one's fresh in my mind, I'm curious to see what kinds of tweaks he did.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
I did play that B-side hack between yesterday and today, and most of it was pretty cool! The third level had one section at the end that was insanely difficult*, but aside from that it wasn't too bad. Clever levels, fun Mario.

*The first three levels took me an hour, 45 minutes of which were spent in this level. It was rough.
 

SilentSnake

Administrator
(He/him)
Staff member
Moderator
I played a kaizo! I took part in the last RHR on Saturday. It was a FerpyMcFrosting level, and it shows in the level design, if nothing as flashy as his GDQ level. It did, however, feature a very blursed mechanic: There were frequent checkpoints, but they only had a 25% chance of working. If you got it four times, it automatically works. So that was a very appropriate trick AND treat for us racers.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
I saw some of that race but I didn't get to see you on camera, Snake! Cool level design, but I have to admit the checkpoint gimmick just kinda made me wonder why.

Has everyone seen Ferpy's KLDC level by now, though? Because that is some truly wild stuff.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
No idea how hard it is, I'm gonna say watch the video. I don't think it'll ruin anything if you want to play it.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Played one of Lush's new hacks tonight, Lucky, to keep up the skills up a bit. Honestly, I wasn't too into this one. It wasn't super hard (barring one particular room in the penultimate level), it just didn't really flow that well for me. Felt like it could've used a bit of playtesting. Even so, it only took ~40 minutes and I got to jump on some stuff. And it's nice to see Lush making stuff again!
 
Top