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It'sa me, Kaizo Mario!

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
I would congratulate you here, but you've already got shoutouts in the latest Storks WR video from Superben :cool:
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Haha, shit, I guess that did end up being the same run, huh? Guess I'll have to accept my 15 seconds of kaizo fame.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Hey Mike, good news - the 1.1 patch of Akogare 2 is finally out! Looking forward to seeing you play this one when you finish Waterworld, it's a great hack.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Okay, everyone who said Deuce Lair was the hardest exit in the game is a goddamn liar, because I'm three hours into the Weathertop secret exit and I can't even get to the disco shell part consistently. I can't even do the shell jump before the Chuck gate consistently! The times when I have made it to the disco shell, most of the time I just die immediately. I've made it to the final corridor once, and also died immediately.

This is officially the exit where fun goes to die.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Yeah, I’m really looking forward to playing Ako 2 at last! I’ve seen bits and pieces of it here and there but I’m almost entirely unspoiled on it. I was watching Ben play a little this afternoon - did you see that he got a sub-30 in Storks today?
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
No, I've been too busy getting repeatedly kicked in the balls by the Weathertop secret exit, but I'm happy for him! After another hour of play, I made it to the door once and died. Another hour after that, I made it to the door a second time and died again. Ten minutes after that, I died at the door a third time and then ragequit because this level is fucking awful.

The jump after the Chuck where you have to bounce off the koopa, knock him to the right, grab the shell on your way back down and bounce it off the ceiling so you can grab the web is one of the shittiest obstacles I've ever had to deal with. You have to do so much within the space of half a tile and there's nothing fair about it. You don't even get a second try to grab the shell if you miss the first time.

No kaizo level has ever made me this mad, and I was loving my time with the hack until now.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Ouch, sorry. Maybe take some time off and play a few levels of something else? I don’t know if you’ll feel better or worse about that jump when you hear this, but I believe it was put into the game at D*de’s request.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
As if I needed another reason to say "man, fuck that guy". Man, fuck that guy!

It does kind of make sense that someone else requested that jump, because it feels completely out of place, both in the level and in Barb's design style in general. I can't think of any other obstacle in the game that requires so many inputs and so much precision. Barb may make you do things in pretty tight spaces, but never like this.

I would like to take some time off from it, but I'm afraid that if I do I'll lose whatever muscle memory I've built up today and only add to the amount of time it's gonna take me to clear. If I can spend another two hours tomorrow and get through it versus three hours on Tuesday, I'd rather save myself the hour.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Half an hour of save state practice on the emulator, another half hour of real attempts on the NT, and I made it through the door. Got shelled on my first door attempt so I had to get there twice. The boss took about another hour, and now I never have to play this exit again. That's certainly restored my mood and I'm super happy to keep going. On to Hanzo Castle!

But, uh, not tonight. After yesterday I want to take it easy.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Back to making good progress! Hanzo Castle went down in an hour and fifteen, relatively painlessly -- the only room that really felt tough was the third one, with the fast layer 2 smashing. Even the control-reversing water wasn't nearly as bad as it was in Toasty Coals (probably because you're not under autoscroller pressure here). The first two rooms only took about five minutes each but I spent probably over half an hour in room three. I got a yump at the end, which puts me at one out of two for the hack so far.

I was really afraid of the Weathertop main exit, but it turned out to be super fun! At least, the first half did, I stopped at the checkpoint for now. Honestly, that checkpoint is the main reason I was so scared of this level, but even though I died trying to get it the first time it really wasn't too bad to get back there. I think I got it in less than five minutes after that, which puts me around 40 minutes for the first half.

I remain disappointed that switch palaces don't count as exits in this game.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Man, you're making incredible progress, I've gotta say. I spent longer on the first half of my latest Waterworld level than you spent on all of Hanzo! The WW level was pretty cool, it's all about using switches to change the direction of the current to navigate obstacles. Of course, like everything else in this game, it has to be done quickly because you're on a timer. Still, it's a pretty neat section and I never got too frustrated with it.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Well, I'm an exit and a half away from the tough late-game levels, so I expect I'll get slowed down once I pass Danger Zone. But for now it feels good to be motivated about a thing! (Also, you could absolutely crush Hanzo Castle too. All in all I think it's one of the easier levels in the game.)

I've seen that Waterworld level, and it is very cool. I'm pretty impressed by how much variety Baba was able to squeeze out of such a limited palette.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Yeah, I think it's going to be a real challenge for future creators to come up with a water-themed level that isn't at least partially inspired by something in this hack. Well, this hack or like the three famous kaizo water levels that preceded it.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Finished Weathertop tonight, second half took about an hour and a half. I died to the P-switch at the last possible second twice, which was pretty frustating. But aside from that, I actually had a lot of fun with this one. Certainly way more than I expected to, given that this was the level I was most afraid of! There's a non-zero chance I'll be able to finish this hack by next weekend, which is pretty wild to consider. (I realize that by saying this I've condemned myself to spending at least three play sessions in the Eyrie.)

Unrelated to GPW2, but while hanging out in GlitchCat's stream tonight I learned that (to the best of his knowledge) he's the person who invented the bump shell jump, as well as the midair d-pad neutral shell jump and a lot of other tech like bouncing a P-switch off the ceiling and activating it on the way down. I think it's pretty neat that we can trace certain tricks to individual people! I wonder who else is responsible for the kaizo repertoire.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Man, look at you! And you used to be so scared of boo rings...
Unrelated to GPW2, but while hanging out in GlitchCat's stream tonight I learned that (to the best of his knowledge) he's the person who invented[...]tech like bouncing a P-switch off the ceiling and activating it on the way down
NOW I KNOW WHO TO BLAME
 

SilentSnake

Administrator
(He/him)
Staff member
Moderator
Hey, I beat Waterworld! What a fantastic hack from beginning to end. It ranks up there with El Dorado in hacks released this year for me.

And now, a new grind.
apes1.13-210425-171614.png
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Nice going Snake! I've seen the end of that game and it's no small challenge. Glad you enjoyed it. Can't wait to see what you have to say about Storks! (P.S. I haven't forgotten about your request from over the weekend, just haven't had a chance to ask anyone yet. Crazy busy with work this week.)

I just beat Danger Zone, which means I'm all out of easy levels and have officially reached the late game of GPW2. And it was a pretty easy level! The whole thing went down in half an hour flat, the second half only took about 10 minutes. (The second half was a lot easier than the first.) I don't have the energy to start House of the Undying now, so it'll have to wait for next time.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
You are a brave, brave soul, Snake, but I'm also 100% confident that you can manage it. Good luck!

Lincoln, did you know that the Danger Zone music is from Cybernator??? That is my one contribution regarding that stage.

As for me, I put a little more time into Waterworld last night and got up to 9/14 exits. The second half of the current stage was only a hair easier than the first! It also featured a trick that I never once did correctly: you're supposed to ditch a yoshi, jump up to hit a switch, then land on the other side of a "hole" made of glass tiles that the yoshi will fall through. I couldn't get the yoshi to travel far enough, every single time it would go down the hole, so I resorted to completely killing my momentum and dropping him on the left side of the gap instead. That section is on a super tight timer, so it's a miracle that I was able to finish it despite never doing it the intended way. The level also ended a very rare "troll that kills you if you go fast"...except you don't have enough time to go slow, so you basically have to die once to figure out what to do. Anyway, the level I'm on now is super cool, so I hope to be able to play it on stream soon. I've gotten far enough to know that the first section ends with the dreaded double fishing boo, only it's UNDERWATER :oops:
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
I was wondering where that music was from! It felt so different from every other piece of music in the game so far.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Things have been a little quiet on the kaizo front, but I'm slowly making my way to the end of Waterworld. I finally got good enough to finish the cape level, which definitely worked some of my neurons in new and exciting ways. Now I'm working on the next level, which I think might have been Baba's KLDC submission last year? I've definitely seen it played before. Made it as far as the halfway point, but I didn't manage the tricky pipe entry on my first attempt. Hopefully, I'll take care of that tonight, which will put me at the final switch palace - the end is just around the corner! As for the puzzle at the end, I'm not 100% sure that I still have all my vods with the hint box text. Hopefully I can get the full list of clues and give it a shot, but if not I'll just look up the solution. Puzzles aren't exactly my highest priority when I play these games.

Not gonna lie, I keep having thoughts of running this game back and maybe even trying to learn it eventually. It's a big step up in difficulty from Hark 2, so I don't know how well it would actually go, but it might be a fun challenge. Haven't looked up the leaderboard to see what the times are at right now, but at 14 or 15 levels I expect it isn't all that long of a run. I'll probably play at least one other hack before replaying this one, though. Definitely eyeing that Ako 2 1.1 patch right now...
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Now I'm working on the next level, which I think might have been Baba's KLDC submission last year?
Yeah, his KLDC level made it into the hack. I only know because I saw other people commenting on it!

I haven't played at all since beating Danger Zone on Thursday, because I was at my girlfriend's for the weekend for the first time since...well, Before. But there's still a non-zero chance of beating GPW2 by the end of the week! Or maybe end of the weekend. We'll see!

Also Mike definitely go play Ako 2 when you're done with Waterworld.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Finished Waterworld any%! It's definitely one of the best hacks I've played so far, very close to entering the pantheon with Quickie 2, Hark 2 and Invictus. Learning to speedrun it, which I hope to do a little later, might just push it over the edge. The series of boss fights at the end were really stressful! Lots of trying to stay alive while layer 2 water smashes in every direction. I had to look up the double shell bounce in the last of the fish fights, but otherwise I was able to figure it out. Now I'm curious to try the secret level, but I'm still missing one clue, I think. Does anyone know what the clue is in the first map, Coral Point? I thought it would be at the end of the first level, but I just replayed it and there was nothing there. Not super interested in replaying the whole section right now, so I'll just take the hint if anyone has it to offer...

One funny detail in the credits - apparently, one of the level inspirations for this hack was...Inspiration from Hark 2? Not entirely sure how that works, the lineage isn't quite as obvious as with something like Thalassophobia.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Congrats on the clear, I'm glad you enjoyed it that much! I'm still not gonna play it, but it's been a really fun game to watch. I don't know anything about the puzzle, unfortunately, but Juz just finished posting his playthrough on Youtube so there may be an answer there. (Edit: he didn't do the puzzle.)

I don't remember any level called Inspiration in Hark 2, which one is that?

I started up House of the Undying tonight and got to the checkpoint in an hour and 40 minutes. Felt like a struggle every step of the way, particularly because I spent almost half of that time failing at the block jump right after the start of the level. I don't know why I lost the ability to do block jumps, but it was not fun to spend 45 minutes relearning it! The back half of the section (with all the double block throws) felt sick as hell when it worked, but it was super tough and required a ton of focus. I can't say I had a great time doing it, although some of that definitely comes from being salty about fucking up block jumps for so long. I did have one major accomplishment, though: I made it into the door on my very first attempt.

I thought about pushing on through the second room, but it was already close to 10 PM and I'd had enough at that point. Hopefully tomorrow I can get through the rest of the level!
 
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SilentSnake

Administrator
(He/him)
Staff member
Moderator
Inspired is the secret level in Hark 2 if you start as Luigi. The inspiration comes with the puzzle solution: It's an optional gauntlet in the style of the secret Closing Time one in Inspired's castle.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
I read the spoiler, does that mean it's just all of the final castle levels strung together back to back? Or are they new rooms? If there's new stuff, I would like to see it, but I'll probably pass if it's just a challenge in the style of the Hark 2 zero exit run.

Good job on Undying Part 1! That door is a very scary bit of tech, from what I've seen.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Inspired is the secret level in Hark 2 if you start as Luigi.
Ohhhhhhhhh. I forgot about that!

Good job on Undying Part 1! That door is a very scary bit of tech, from what I've seen.

I think I've seen Barb say that door entry is something like a 5 frame window. There's a similar door in the final level of the first Akogare, which I'm pretty sure everyone who plays that game dies to at least once.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
I'm free of House of the Undying! The second half was rough, clocking in at 2 hours and 20 minutes. Sadly, I didn't end up sharing either of Snake's opinions about the level -- I really didn't enjoy it, or the music. Plus I found some hot jank where sometimes the throw block that you have to race up the vertical section (where the kaizo block is) just didn't trigger the on/off switches at the end of its path. At least the boss wasn't bad once I got a feel for it, only spent 12 minutes in there. And now I never have to play it again, hooray!

Tomorrow I start grinding the Eyrie, which I've been mentally preparing myself for since I started this hack. I absolutely don't expect to clear it in one play session, but I'm hoping to at least get through the first checkpoint. Gotta keep those expectations managed.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
lsrWeird7, lincoln.

So I just completed a runback of Little Mario World? I had been picking away at it here and there whenever I had an hour to kill, not that it took all that many hours to complete. I think I liked it a little less overall my second time around, but the annoying parts were also less annoying, so really it was a more even experience. It's funny, the first levels took almost exactly as long as they did the first time I played it - they're so quick and straightforward that I didn't really memorize anything in them, so it was like playing them for the first time again. But the later levels that gave me grief generally fell a lot faster on the replay, including the final platforming level, which I really hated on my first go. Zanian's Brewery is still probably the best level in the game, and it's kind of cool that I now chat with its namesake on a fairly regular basis. At one point I had considered running this game, and I still might, but I think I'd do the ultra-short any% rather than the hundo. I actually started a third run as soon as I finished my second, and I think I cleared 8 exits (about 2/3 of the any% route?) in around 40 minutes. I could pretty easily get this under an hour, although you have to hit 15 minutes to even make it on the leaderboard. We'll see, might be a nice diversion.

Speaking of speedrunning, I caught Grim doing runs of Waterworld last night...with instant retry disabled. Looks like we've got another old-school category on our hands, and I can't say I'm thrilled about it. This will probably push back any interest I had in learning that speedrun, since I'll need to be significantly better than I am now if I want to post a respectable time with slow retry. Ugh.
 
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