It'sa me, Kaizo Mario!

[MCBanjoMike]

I’m about 10 exits into Hyperion and I’m starting to see the map open up in a fun way. After cleaning the cactus boss and the dolphin-infested switch palace, I took the desert secret to the snowy mountain level and unlocked the star road. I have to admit, it’s neat to have three different directions open to me at the same time. Unfortunately, I wound up regretting the one I chose to explore today - it took me to the airship level filled with saws and p-balloons. It took me an hour to finish that level, 3/4 of which I spent the in the miserable second half. The p-balloon hit box is weird as hell and while I suppose I had to learn about it eventually, I can’t say I enjoyed the process. After that was Not the Red Keep, which I liked a lot, and I left off at the switch palace with the pink yoshi. That level seems...weird? Not bad so far, but pretty strange.

 

[SilentSnake]

Yeah, the airship and the bat cave are two of my least favorite levels in the hack. But I think the way the map is set up contributes to how much I enjoy this hack. I love the little moments of exploration as you clear exits. Also, some of the more inventive mechanics, like the pink Yoshi and Beta Particles, are just so cleverly implemented that I don't get as frustrated.

I'm on the second level of Comfort Zone and am already walled. Not the level, mind. At this point I'm super consistent with most of the level. It's one weird trick that I'm stumbling on, the aforementioned P-Switch trick. Not giving up though.

 

[lincolnic]

Unfortunately, I wound up regretting the one I chose to explore today - it took me to the airship level filled with saws and p-balloons. It took me an hour to finish that level, 3/4 of which I spent the in the miserable second half. The p-balloon hit box is weird as hell and while I suppose I had to learn about it eventually, I can’t say I enjoyed the process.

I think that's one of the hardest levels in the game, it took me about an hour too. I also think the second half especially is an unfortunate low point; even after you get the P-balloon timing down, you still have to go through that part all over again if you die on the saws after. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so slow.

I left off at the switch palace with the pink yoshi. That level seems...weird? Not bad so far, but pretty strange.

That level isn't so bad once you figure out the first jump, but the first jump is very weird. I feel like it's set up to give you the impression that you can't bounce off the ball, and then it works anyway.

 

[lincolnic]

Finally made it through an Invictus level in under an hour! Plumber's Nightmare went down in 45 minutes, and I really enjoyed it. I don't know why, but something in that level just clicked for me. My RSI started acting up towards the end so that's all I'm going to do today, but the second world is done!

 

[SilentSnake]

Holy shit I finally got past the second level in Comfort Zone. That was by far the hardest level I've ever beaten. It took days, but I'm proud of myself for finally pushing through. Level was LONG. Hopefully the rest come a little easier for me.

 

[lincolnic]

Damn dude, that's a grind! Nice work getting through it, I hope the rest of the game goes more smoothly after that.

So I've noticed something about how I play lately and I'm curious if you guys do this too: when you're playing kaizo, are you looking at Mario most of the time? For me, I feel like a lot of the time I'm generally looking ahead of him, like at an upcoming obstacle or (if I'm jumping) where he's going to land. I thought that was kind of odd until I realized that I'm basically doing the same thing you're supposed to do when you're reading sheet music, which is to be looking a measure or two ahead instead of just at the bar you're currently in. Obviously you still have to spend a lot of time actually looking at Mario, like for precision jumps or shell tricks or whatever, but I was surprised to realize I wasn't watching him as much of the time as I'd thought. Does anyone else play this way?

 

[SilentSnake]

I think I just kinda zone out when I'm playing? Like, the first time I go through a part of a level I'm obviously looking at the surroundings so I can see what the tricks are, but other than that I kinda let the whole screen wash over me so I can concentrate on the flow of a level.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think I'm closer to Snake on this one. One of my favorite things about kaizo is how efficiently it turns my conscious brain off, and the world consists of nothing but munchers.

Speaking of which, I'll have a bit of time this afternoon and I think I might finally go back and see if I can mark a sub-30 time in Quickie 2! That would be a nice thing to accomplish before the year ends. I'll probably stream from 3:15-5 or so if anyone is bored.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Wasn't streaming, but I did have 30 minutes to spare just now and...

Only 10 more seconds to shave off before I can submit my run! Look at that Sawrfing Ruins split, what a heartbreaker.

 

[lincolnic]

You did it! Congrats on hitting sub-30, my dude! It's been very cool to watch you go from casual fan to speedrunner in this short amount of time. Makes me want to pick up QW2 again myself. I gotta learn that slope trick on Hot Potato!

 

[lincolnic]

Alright, you made me do it, Mike. First Quickie World 2 speedrun attempt, 1:17:58. I was really shooting for under an hour, but I had some bad deaths in Soaring Saguaro and Elusive Numbers, and by that point I was fairly tilted. Pokey Desert and Blocks on the Rocks weren't too bad, but I lost a lot of time in the first half of Yoshi's Lair. For some reason I really have trouble with the part where you have to spin jump onto the bullet stack down onto the urchin -- I'm always getting on them too early and instead of spinning off the urchin, I just die.

(I also spent too long in the Shen and Take Five, but those are by far my least favorite levels in the game.)

At least I managed to do the slope trick in Hot Potato more or less consistently! ...and then I consistently failed to hit the vine block with the bomb like three times in a row.

I know I can absolutely get under an hour if I try, but I'm not sure how often I want to; wouldn't want to take the fun out of the game.

Edited because I somehow forgot to mention: got the double yump.

 

[SilentSnake]

Woohoo for sub-30 Mike! I know you worked hard at that, and am happy to see you achieve that goal.

I'm six exits deep in Take it Easy World, and it's such a nice and breezy time after attempting Comfort Zone. I needed this. I'll work my way back up someday, though.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

29:04, and I think that's where it's gonna stay for a little while. I'm a little bummed because I could have had a 27:xx but I messed up Wedding Nails in many varied and creative ways. But it's still a solid time, and I think it's time for me to go play something else again. We'll come back in another 2-3 months and see if we can make sub-25 happen!

Lincolnic, congrats on your first speedrun! Once again, our times line up almost perfectly. I think my third play of QW2 was like a 1:15. One or two more tries and you'll be well under an hour, I think. There's room for more folks on the leaderboard...

 

[lincolnic]

Lincolnic, congrats on your first speedrun! Once again, our times line up almost perfectly. I think my third play of QW2 was like a 1:15. One or two more tries and you'll be well under an hour, I think. There's room for more folks on the leaderboard...

I'll have you know that my time puts me at 103rd place on the leaderboard, thank you very much.

But yeah, congrats again on hitting your goal before the year ended! I'll come back to this eventually, but I'm not sure if I want to grind it out right now. I've still got so much left of Invictus to finish!

Speaking of Invictus, I'm currently up to the water level, and yeah...water level. I'm once again not excited about that, but I'll have to get through it if I want to see the rest of the game.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

2021 is already off to a good start, I doubled my number of exits in Invictus today! To be fair, I did most of the work for One by One yesterday, including getting the checkpoint. But I finished the second half of the level today and then tore through the secret exit at the start of world 2 pretty quickly. I really liked that last section with the rising platforms, I had a lot of fun with it (and the music was, unsurprisingly, great). I think I'll try to focus on Invictus for my next couple of play sessions and see if I can make a bit of headway.

 

[lincolnic]

Nice! I finished the water level yesterday, and did half of the following level today (which, after a brutal series of Boo rings, featured a particularly nasty checkpoint troll). The first half of the water level was honestly not that bad, but the second half was really challenging. And the level I'm in right now...seems like the second half has a cool gimmick, but I was pretty much done for the day after that first half. The one thing I did like about the first half was that you can actually stop and take your time for many of the jumps, which is something I feel like the hack was sorely missing up to that point. There's something to be said about just letting the player stop and breathe for a second.

 

[SilentSnake]

Welp, somehow I decided that I was going to play through the rest of Take it Easy World today, and that's what I did, going from Toblerone to Mind Palace. I like that this is a nice and chill game, even when the difficulty spikes a bit. The levels definitely were at their hardest around Wrecking Boo and Toblerone, but I'm not complaining about having a cooldown period after. Also, this is a personal peeve, but if you're going to make your castle level longer than normal, go all out, like in Culmination Castle in Bunbun World. Having a string of four normal-seeming stages followed by a boss was just wearying.

Special World awaits, which I think can wait until tomorrow.

 

[lincolnic]

Dang, that's like half the hack in one sitting! Well done there.

Not sure what the castle issue is, though? Traditionally kaizo castle levels are five rooms, and the mean ones don't even give you checkpoints in between. Take It Easy World lets us off easy, I think.

In any case, good luck in the special world! Those were definitely the hardest levels in the game for me, but also very satisfying to clear.

 

[SilentSnake]

Eh, it was mostly fatigue on my part I think. Happens when you choose to play that big of a chunk at once.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Good work on that, the mole level in particular I found really tough. And Mind Palace has some hard bits - I spent quite a long time on the final room before the boss.

 

[lincolnic]

Eh, it was mostly fatigue on my part I think. Happens when you choose to play that big of a chunk at once.

That's fair. You did a hell of a lot in one day!

 

[SilentSnake]

Made it through the first two levels in the special world of Take it Easy World. The first was pretty fun, doing neat, intricate things with shell juggling. I had a lot of fun with the second half of the second level, but hoo boy that first half. Balancing on a Rip Van Fish for that long was...rough.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Just spent three hours clearing the main exit of the first level in world 2, two of which were spent on the second half of the level. It really felt like every jump in that section was tweaked within a pixel of its life; some of them legitimately only give you a handful of frames to succeed. I find that kind of design really frustrating.

Maybe I'm just not good at this, but I didn't think I was bad enough to warrant the amount of time almost every level has taken me so far. Doesn't really make me excited to keep going.

Ha, this is where I am now and I don't think I'll be finishing it any faster than you did. Getting to the checkpoint took me about an hour, the biggest hurdle being that it took me forever to learn the timing on the layer 2 drops. You'd think I would be good at timing! Then I spent close to an hour on the second half, but I keep failing the transition from the spinning mace to the falling sawblade. I was pretty sure my approach was correct, but I decided to watch a run just to see if it really was (yes), how much I had left in the level (more than I thought) and if there was a troll at the end (holy shit). I'm honestly kind of glad I spoiled myself, because that troll is brutal. I'll come back to it later this week, but I definitely feel your pain; three hours for a single level is pretty rough. I averaged about 2 hours each for the first three levels, then the sewers secret exit was really short and the switch palace took me an hour - but those are honestly the kinds of times I was expecting going in. With 22 exits in the hack, I have a feeling it'll be spring before I'm done with this one...

 

[lincolnic]

Ha, this is where I am now and I don't think I'll be finishing it any faster than you did. Getting to the checkpoint took me about an hour, the biggest hurdle being that it took me forever to learn the timing on the layer 2 drops. You'd think I would be good at timing! Then I spent close to an hour on the second half, but I keep failing the transition from the spinning mace to the falling sawblade. I was pretty sure my approach was correct, but I decided to watch a run just to see if it really was (yes), how much I had left in the level (more than I thought) and if there was a troll at the end (holy shit). I'm honestly kind of glad I spoiled myself, because that troll is brutal. I'll come back to it later this week, but I definitely feel your pain; three hours for a single level is pretty rough. I averaged about 2 hours each for the first three levels, then the sewers secret exit was really short and the switch palace took me an hour - but those are honestly the kinds of times I was expecting going in. With 22 exits in the hack, I have a feeling it'll be spring before I'm done with this one...

This is almost exactly how my struggle with that level went, right down to failing at that saw jump. Ultimately it comes down to just doing the exact series of regrabs Juz wants you to do, which is...very hard! I do not enjoy that kind of ultra-tight level design.

If it's any help, there really isn't too much level left after that jump. The water parts after go by super quickly, though they're not easy either. And nothing is more frustrating than failing to make it into the pipe at the end. Don't forget to press right!

The good news is that you have two fun levels after that one, and they're not nearly as brutal. I'm sorry that you've had as rough a time with that level as I did, but hopefully you'll be able to get through it without too much more trouble.

 

[SilentSnake]

Take it Easy World is done. Really surprised myself with some clutch runs at the last level, really proud of finishing this one. It was a nice difficulty and pretty chill with its expectations of you. On the lower tier of kaizo I've played, but still above something like Little Mario World.

With this, I've now completed ten kaizo hacks. Amazing when you consider that I barely could imagine myself doing so a couple of months ago. Proud of how far I've come. Now, I think it's about time I tackle Akogare Mario World.

 

[lincolnic]

Great job, SilentSnake! I've completed 11 hacks and I started playing two months before you did -- you've clearly got a knack for kaizo and I'm proud of your progress too. (I'm proud of all three of us! This shit's hard.) Akogare should be a pretty comfortable difficulty for you at this point. If anything, the early levels will probably be a bit boring, but I think once you get to the first switch palace it'll start to get fun again.

Meanwhile, when I made my last post, I was actually taking a break from grinding out the second half of the Invictus stage I started on Saturday. This was another tough one, probably took around an hour and 45. You have to ride an Eerie across the entire level, and the Eerie is fixed to stay underneath Mario, but its constant bobbing up and down means that you can't really rely on your natural sense of jump timings like in a normal level. No individual obstacle is insanely hard or unfair, but I had to work out a strategy for almost every single jump. Even so, and even though it took a while, I didn't get too frustrated and it felt good to figure out some of the really tight spots.

Next up is this hack's skytree. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm already scared.

 

[SilentSnake]

Okay, I just did four exits of Akogare, and while I can see the criticisms of the level design, I can also see there's a LOT of subtle stuff required of the player already, like more precise regrabs. Very curious how this one unfolds.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

And I started before either of you, but I've only completed 6 hacks so far! I look forward to learning your ways, O great kaizo masters.

 

[lincolnic]

And I started before either of you, but I've only completed 6 hacks so far! I look forward to learning your ways, O great kaizo masters.

Yeah, but I wouldn't even be playing kaizo at all if you hadn't made this thread. You're like the Velvet Underground of kaizo.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Well that's a compliment if I ever heard one! It's true that I do see myself as something of a kaizfluencer...

In happy news (for me), I think I've finally fixed the audio lag issue that has been plaguing my streaming setup since I started! I just ran a line directly from the analog audio-out on the MiSTer to my mic port, cutting the capture card completely out of the loop. It actually took me a couple of minutes to get used to properly-synced audio, it felt like it was throwing me off at first. I only played for 10 minutes, but I was able to make some progress in Sewer Smashin', which was nice. I've gone from undershooting the falling saw to overshooting it regularly, which, uh, I guess that's better? I also made it to the swimming fishbones, which I think are right before the exit, so I should be moving on soon. Might even have some time to play this afternoon...