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It'sa me, Kaizo Mario!

SilentSnake

Administrator
(He/him)
Staff member
Moderator
You're killing it Mike!

As for Super Panga World, I'm on the last exit! House of Foss is hard so far, to be sure, but it's a familiar type of hard for me: one room challenges gauntlet style. So far I've made it to the fourth room, so I probably still have a grind ahead of me. Still, I'm almost there!
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
You're both killing it, make no mistake.

As for me, I wrapped up Arcane Mario World tonight. I didn't love the last couple of levels, but that's mostly my own personal preference. The penultimate level was all about tight throw block tricks, which I'm not good at, so it wasn't particularly fun. The last level is actually pretty cool, I was just salty about the previous one while I was playing it.

Overall I'd say the hack is a little uneven, and in some of those spots you can tell that it was the creator's first hack. But it's never bad, and the fun levels are really fun. One level towards the late game had a very cool concept that I hadn't really played with before, which is a good sign in a creator's first hack! I enjoyed my time with it, and if you're looking for a solid intermediate platforming challenge you probably will too.

Next time: New Comfort Zone. I've got a good feeling about this one!
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Took me an hour and 20 for the first half of Toasty Coals, and I've now spent about 30 minutes in the second section. Uh, wow. I'm enjoying the challenge so far, and the music is honestly working pretty well for me, but hoo boy, this section is tight. I've made it as far as the reverse water a couple of times, but I haven't managed to reprogram my brain to the point where I can get past it yet. Might play some more tonight if I'm not too tired, but I have a feeling I'll need to be fresh if I want to make any real progress on this section.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
It is you who is the master of running and jumping! My skills are a mere elementary school track meet compared to your olympian efforts.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
For my own records: it took another 30 minutes to polish off the first half of Arrakis (1.5 hours to date). I think that might have been one of my favorite sections so far? The rest will probably have to wait until tomorrow, though.

EDIT: Just shy of another 90 minutes for the second half, made longer by one particularly flaky pokey. I also bonked twice on the up-pipe at the end before getting it. =/ Still a pretty good level overall, even if fast pokeys are jank. Weirdly, that means I spent longer on Arrakis than I did on Toasty Coals? That’s really not how I thought this would go.
 
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lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
You're making really good time! The first half of Arrakis took me over two hours, mostly due to that one Pokey/shell obstacle, but the second half was done in 45 minutes. Shrug? For what it's worth, that was my first real experience with fast Pokey manipulation and I learned a lot about how they operate from that level. I think I ended up taking longer in Arrakis than Toasty Coals too, so make of it what you will.
 

SilentSnake

Administrator
(He/him)
Staff member
Moderator
You're doing great Mike!

As for me, I'm 6 exits into Boogie Wonderland, and it's a lot of fun so far! The levels just feel good. Some creative stuff in here. Also, it's nice to clear a level in under an hour after the grind that was Panga World.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Nice! How would you rate the difficulty so far? It kinda looked GPW2-level to me, but it's hard to know without playing.
 

SilentSnake

Administrator
(He/him)
Staff member
Moderator
I mean, multiple exits took me under an hour. I'm 8 exits in now. So far it's nowhere close.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Good to know, I'll have to consider it for later. I haven't had a chance to play any SMW since I finished Arcane Mario World, but I still think New Comfort Zone is my next hack.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
People talk about Sunset Breeze as if it was barely a speedbump on the road to more difficult things, but I honestly found it kind of hard to master the fan ASM, personally. The level wound up taking me an hour and 40 minutes, split 50/50 (in both senses of the phrase). I liked the first part a lot, at least once I got a handle on the movement, but the autoscroller second half was kind of a pain. Maybe Barb makes bad autoscrollers? He's 0 for 2 so far, anyway.

Next up is Sen's! It feels like I'm on the precipice at this point, things are about to get SERIOUS. I'd like to stream my first attempts at Sen's tomorrow night, but I'm starting a cold (ugh) and I might need to, you know, sleep instead.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
You guys, I had the worst nightmare last night

Snake's already beaten this, right?

The fan ASM did take some getting used to for me, but once I did the level wasn't that bad. Far from my favorite level in the hack though, it just didn't feel very good to play.

Sen's Fortress is definitely what I think of as a real "before and after" point in the hack. Probably it's just because I also think of the actual Sen's Fortress in Dark Souls that way, because it's not like the hack immediately ramps up the difficulty after that level, but it just feels kind of special in that way. I'm actually having a hard time figuring out exactly what I mean! I hope to get to see you stream it tomorrow, but if you need to rest then by all means do that.
 

SilentSnake

Administrator
(He/him)
Staff member
Moderator
I wish, lincoln.

14/20 exits done in Boogie Wonderland. It continues to be great fun. Though it sagged a bit in the middle, the levels are mostly pretty good, and only get better when they embrace creative chocolate. My favorite so far is Spikes 'n Bolts, a level with completely unfamiliar obstacles and setups that still feels like Mario. Good stuff.

Also, I'm this far in in like 18 hours. There's no way this is even close to GPW2 difficulty.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
That's great to hear! I'll definitely add it to my list. I'm in the middle of packing for my move next week while also being extremely busy at work, so my kaizo time is kind of non-existent, but I'll get there eventually.
 

SilentSnake

Administrator
(He/him)
Staff member
Moderator
Hey, so I'm streaming now! I streamed some kaizo the past two days, and I'm planning to do more! It would mean a lot if you drop a follow. I'm working towards Affiliate and can always use an audience!
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Awesome! You've got my follow. Do you have a schedule you intend to keep? Just wondering when to keep an eye out for you.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Followed! Seems like the tech side of things is working better now? Audio and visuals both seemed quite good from the quick look I had.
 

SilentSnake

Administrator
(He/him)
Staff member
Moderator
No set schedule, I'm just going to stream as much as I can. And I'm borrowing someone's internet, so streaming is now possible. Might stream today!
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
I'll look for you if I'm not busy packing!

Speaking of streamers, does anyone know if something happened to superben? I realized the other day that he hasn't been around for a few weeks. Hope everything is okay.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Congrats on finishing the RHR level, Snake! I went over to the RHR channel and GlitchCat had some nice things to say about the way you handled the ending, which was a part that tripped a lot of people up. It was pretty heartbreaking when you gotta munched by the piranha plant in that final pipe, though.
 

SilentSnake

Administrator
(He/him)
Staff member
Moderator
Thanks! I think I might do more in the future.

Kaizo 1 is going rather well! I've gotten through most of the exits in about an hour each or under, with the exception of Cerulean Cave and Ultra Star. Cultural Importance is probably going to be up there as well thanks to that dastardly third lava dolphin. I'll get through though.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
I had a little time that I didn't need to spend putting things into boxes and I decided to crack open the New Comfort Zone. I am very pleased to report that it is indeed the game I wanted the original Comfort Zone to be; it's got all of the cool level design ideas with almost none of the absurd tightness and level length. I blew through the first seven exits in under an hour, which puts me back at the level where I quit the original. For comparison, I think I only cleared maybe the first two exits in under an hour last time.

Once I clear the next level, I won't have played any version of what comes after, so I'll be curious to see if I can keep up that pace. Either way, the New Comfort Zone is the real deal. I had a great time playing it tonight and I hope I have time to get further into it before my NT goes into a box!
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
That sounds good! New Comfy, Boogie 2.0 or Peachy Moat will probably be my next intermediate hack, whenever I'm in need of one of those. I haven't actually played any kaizo since my initial foray into Sen's Fortress, though, because I've been neck-deep in Inscryption for the last few days.

I saw zanian testing a hack called Action 42, which seemed really neat. It uses a bunch of new ASM and has almost an Atari 2600 aesthetic going on. I'll definitely check that one out when it releases.

EDIT: Laser has also been playing a hack called Memento Mori today, which looks like another pretty cool intermediate-difficulty option. Won't be running out of options any time soon!
 
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lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
I also saw Zanian (and later Katun) playing Action 42, and holy cow it's like they made a hack expressly designed for me to never ever play. Is it cool that you can do Mario Paint stuff in SMW? Yes, absolutely. Is it what I want to do when I play SMW? Hell no.

That hack looks amazing and is super impressive from a technical standpoint, but it needs more running and jumping for my taste.
 
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