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Talking about romhacks!
- Thread starter SilentSnake
- Start date
This romhack is brilliant.
Green Yoshi can swim. This makes sense in context of the wider Mario series! In the first game he appeared in, Mario was riding Yoshi underwater, no problem. How did I figure this out? Well, there's a shine in the new level, Pianta Pit (itself a fun level - what happens if a Pianta falls off Pianta Village? They fall in the Pianta Pit, an overgrown wild area where the Piantas down there are stuck and subsist off water falling from above and mushrooms), where you're told "a dinosaur could eat the Cheep Cheeps in the pond" and you get Yoshi, go over there, and you just can't reach them. I should mention there is no fruit down there, so you are stuck with green Yoshi. I ran around the entire pond seeing if there was a way I could get close to each fish to eat them and it wasn't working, when it finally hit me - this is a green Yoshi! He should be able to swim! And lo and behold... he can! I just swam around gobbling up fish and got the shine. This is a well designed mod, you guys. They've done fun stuff with Yoshi, ffs! The level is enormous, too. There are tree huts connected with little bridges, some of which have those damn Chucksters, throwing you off if they get near you ("I'm a ChuCkSter!" they say, clearly down there for far too long). The ground has all kinds of stuff strewn about (okay, well, it's mainly coins and tons of platforms you can hop around on), and talking to people clues you in to what to do to get the 7 shines down there, all of which are in this one instance, you're not backing in and out of this level like the others.
Fully in love with Super Mario Eclipse. They've really outdone themselves, and I'm barely halfway through it at this point (115 shines currently, still haven't rolled vanilla credits yet).
Green Yoshi can swim. This makes sense in context of the wider Mario series! In the first game he appeared in, Mario was riding Yoshi underwater, no problem. How did I figure this out? Well, there's a shine in the new level, Pianta Pit (itself a fun level - what happens if a Pianta falls off Pianta Village? They fall in the Pianta Pit, an overgrown wild area where the Piantas down there are stuck and subsist off water falling from above and mushrooms), where you're told "a dinosaur could eat the Cheep Cheeps in the pond" and you get Yoshi, go over there, and you just can't reach them. I should mention there is no fruit down there, so you are stuck with green Yoshi. I ran around the entire pond seeing if there was a way I could get close to each fish to eat them and it wasn't working, when it finally hit me - this is a green Yoshi! He should be able to swim! And lo and behold... he can! I just swam around gobbling up fish and got the shine. This is a well designed mod, you guys. They've done fun stuff with Yoshi, ffs! The level is enormous, too. There are tree huts connected with little bridges, some of which have those damn Chucksters, throwing you off if they get near you ("I'm a ChuCkSter!" they say, clearly down there for far too long). The ground has all kinds of stuff strewn about (okay, well, it's mainly coins and tons of platforms you can hop around on), and talking to people clues you in to what to do to get the 7 shines down there, all of which are in this one instance, you're not backing in and out of this level like the others.
Fully in love with Super Mario Eclipse. They've really outdone themselves, and I'm barely halfway through it at this point (115 shines currently, still haven't rolled vanilla credits yet).
So this is a more downer post - I beat Corona Mountain, unlocked Luigi as a playable character, but unfortunately the entire game, regardless of level, looks like this now:
It'd be one thing if it stayed like that, but as I move Mario and/or move the camera around, it flickers and changes how busted it looks. This happens inside regular levels now as well. It's a shame, because I've unlocked more levels to play in, and can't really do so until this gets fixed. Comes with the territory, I know - this is, after all, a fan mod made to be played on like three different hardware configurations, but I'm still kinda sad I can't plow through it the rest of this long weekend unless I move my save over to Dolphin, which... I mean I might, but I don't really want to.
I also found a shine in one of the new levels that is tuned way too hard. It's one of the FLUDD-less levels, wherein there are rotating blocks, half of the sides of which have spikes on them. There are also bouncy pads you have to use to get high enough to get to the next platform, and it's all too difficult and frustrating, especially because the game sometimes just parks Mario when he takes damage from spikes, and sometimes he starts sliding. It's hard to explain in text form... But I really do think it's too hard, it's unlike anything else I've found so far. I think it has to be beaten to get to credits, as well - the final Shadow Mario fight I needed was past him (the game adds a few, I think four, total, before Corona Mountain and the final boss unlocks, hence why I have 140 shines above). The red coin shine wasn't too bad in that level, but the FLUDD-less part was miserable and I hated it. It feels way out of whack with everything else so far - I 100%ed all the shines in all the new levels I found, and it doesn't fit with the difficulty of vanilla Sunshine, either. Hopefully the bonus content isn't tuned that way, but at least all of that is ostensibly optional (hard to say, as I haven't played any more since getting that glitch).
Word is on the Discord, another hotfix will be pushed out in a week or two. It sucks, because I'd really like to experience the new level I just unlocked...
It'd be one thing if it stayed like that, but as I move Mario and/or move the camera around, it flickers and changes how busted it looks. This happens inside regular levels now as well. It's a shame, because I've unlocked more levels to play in, and can't really do so until this gets fixed. Comes with the territory, I know - this is, after all, a fan mod made to be played on like three different hardware configurations, but I'm still kinda sad I can't plow through it the rest of this long weekend unless I move my save over to Dolphin, which... I mean I might, but I don't really want to.
I also found a shine in one of the new levels that is tuned way too hard. It's one of the FLUDD-less levels, wherein there are rotating blocks, half of the sides of which have spikes on them. There are also bouncy pads you have to use to get high enough to get to the next platform, and it's all too difficult and frustrating, especially because the game sometimes just parks Mario when he takes damage from spikes, and sometimes he starts sliding. It's hard to explain in text form... But I really do think it's too hard, it's unlike anything else I've found so far. I think it has to be beaten to get to credits, as well - the final Shadow Mario fight I needed was past him (the game adds a few, I think four, total, before Corona Mountain and the final boss unlocks, hence why I have 140 shines above). The red coin shine wasn't too bad in that level, but the FLUDD-less part was miserable and I hated it. It feels way out of whack with everything else so far - I 100%ed all the shines in all the new levels I found, and it doesn't fit with the difficulty of vanilla Sunshine, either. Hopefully the bonus content isn't tuned that way, but at least all of that is ostensibly optional (hard to say, as I haven't played any more since getting that glitch).
Word is on the Discord, another hotfix will be pushed out in a week or two. It sucks, because I'd really like to experience the new level I just unlocked...
It is to this romhack's credit that I moved my save off my MemCard Pro GC (conveniently it's in a format Dolphin just reads) and booted this up in Dolphin to continue playing.
So far, the postgame content is tuned excellently. It's a bit more difficult than the earlier stuff, but not impossibly so (despite my enthusiasm for the game and this mod, I am certainly no Sunshine expert). I found a level on the postgame Daisy Cruiser (yes, that Daisy Cruiser, from Mario Kart Double Dash) where there is a FLUDD-less shine that I adored. It felt like a Mario Galaxy level, to be honest - it has invisible platforms that you can't see until you're close to them, then a rotating giant platform that you have to hop around as it rotates to get to the center platform up top. From there a well aimed trampoline jump off the boo's tongues (it makes sense, they're just platforms, not enemies that can damage you lol) and you get the shine. Strangely, there's no red coin shine here, which I kind of missed, but oh well. The level worked it's charm on me.
I'm really enjoying exploring and though I've heard rumor that the upcoming hotfix will make the postgame playable on console, I'm going to keep poking away at this on Dolphin, then maybe move back over to console when the hotfix comes out. It's got its hooks in me hard.
So far, the postgame content is tuned excellently. It's a bit more difficult than the earlier stuff, but not impossibly so (despite my enthusiasm for the game and this mod, I am certainly no Sunshine expert). I found a level on the postgame Daisy Cruiser (yes, that Daisy Cruiser, from Mario Kart Double Dash) where there is a FLUDD-less shine that I adored. It felt like a Mario Galaxy level, to be honest - it has invisible platforms that you can't see until you're close to them, then a rotating giant platform that you have to hop around as it rotates to get to the center platform up top. From there a well aimed trampoline jump off the boo's tongues (it makes sense, they're just platforms, not enemies that can damage you lol) and you get the shine. Strangely, there's no red coin shine here, which I kind of missed, but oh well. The level worked it's charm on me.
I'm really enjoying exploring and though I've heard rumor that the upcoming hotfix will make the postgame playable on console, I'm going to keep poking away at this on Dolphin, then maybe move back over to console when the hotfix comes out. It's got its hooks in me hard.
Non-spoiler protip: in the postgame, when you see Peach, the door next to her works. I tried it as soon as I saw it the first time and it didn't work, so I went elsewhere. I ran out of stuff to do (besides blue coin cleanup) and tried it again, and it worked and I immediately unlocked a lot of new stuff lol. I don't blame the mod for this, Super Mario Sunshine does not handle Mario opening doors well.
Anyway, I'm at 201 shines as of this post. There's a level I can access that is almost entirely bugged, so I'm avoiding that for now. This far in, the mod is extremely fair in terms of difficulty - I consider myself merely okay at Super Mario Sunshine, and I'm enjoying myself while also feeling challenged on some shines. There's one in Peach Beach - yes, another level from Mario Kart Double Dash, which is cool, where you have to jump out of a Turbo Nozzle run and spin jump in midair to cross the gap to the shine. Or, you could just play as Luigi and just jump with the Turbo Nozzle normally, which is what I did. I'd imagine Il Piantissimo would work as well, though I didn't try him. Normally I wouldn't do something like that, but without what's in the previous spoiler tag, that shine is tuned a bit difficult if I'm honest. In any case, everything else I've played has been smooth sailing and fun, including an extremely vertical level with a pipe maze in it. You have to do it twice, which kinda sucks, but it's not too tedious. There's also an ice level! In Super Mario Sunshine! And it doesn't have slippery physics! I thought I'd dislike it at first, but I just 100%ed it including blue coins in one go, so that was not something I expected.
I'll no doubt play more later today, but I may not be able to finish it until it's patched for that one level. I see a ton of people submitting bug reports for it on the Discord, and when I went there and tried it, all the music shut off (?) in the rest of the game until I rebooted (sound effects and voices still worked). So, I'm not touching that place until it's fixed haha
Anyway, I'm at 201 shines as of this post. There's a level I can access that is almost entirely bugged, so I'm avoiding that for now. This far in, the mod is extremely fair in terms of difficulty - I consider myself merely okay at Super Mario Sunshine, and I'm enjoying myself while also feeling challenged on some shines. There's one in Peach Beach - yes, another level from Mario Kart Double Dash, which is cool, where you have to jump out of a Turbo Nozzle run and spin jump in midair to cross the gap to the shine. Or, you could just play as Luigi and just jump with the Turbo Nozzle normally, which is what I did. I'd imagine Il Piantissimo would work as well, though I didn't try him. Normally I wouldn't do something like that, but without what's in the previous spoiler tag, that shine is tuned a bit difficult if I'm honest. In any case, everything else I've played has been smooth sailing and fun, including an extremely vertical level with a pipe maze in it. You have to do it twice, which kinda sucks, but it's not too tedious. There's also an ice level! In Super Mario Sunshine! And it doesn't have slippery physics! I thought I'd dislike it at first, but I just 100%ed it including blue coins in one go, so that was not something I expected.
I'll no doubt play more later today, but I may not be able to finish it until it's patched for that one level. I see a ton of people submitting bug reports for it on the Discord, and when I went there and tried it, all the music shut off (?) in the rest of the game until I rebooted (sound effects and voices still worked). So, I'm not touching that place until it's fixed haha
There are several QoL upgrades, but no, I don't think it will. The entire vanilla game is present in this hack as well. Though I do think the myriad added levels bring a lot of variety, I don't think it'll convert you to a Sunshine fan.
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I still haven't done the shines in the bugged level, but I'm in full on cleanup mode now. 227 shines, 13 to go. I'm not sure how many are blue coins - I've turned in several rounds of them already as is - but I've finished all the vanilla level blue coins and all the new levels besides the bugged one and one friggin coin in the new level Pianta Pit I'm struggling to find. At this point I'm either missing shines in Delfino Plaza (could be new ones or just vanilla ones I've forgotten about, I may look up vanilla secret shines to make sure I'm not forgetting any). Most of the new blue coin locations are pretty good - I don't remember many, if any, that are exclusive to certain shine instances like in the vanilla game, though I've been collecting them as I go so I could be forgetting some.
Even if the final level, once fixed and playable, sucks, I'm pretty comfortable saying this is my favorite 3D platformer of all time (previously it was Banjo Kazooie). No, I don't think this will convince you if you already hate vanilla Sunshine, but I have had an absolute blast playing this and definitely see it as the definitive Sunshine, now, at least. I love it.
Even if the final level, once fixed and playable, sucks, I'm pretty comfortable saying this is my favorite 3D platformer of all time (previously it was Banjo Kazooie). No, I don't think this will convince you if you already hate vanilla Sunshine, but I have had an absolute blast playing this and definitely see it as the definitive Sunshine, now, at least. I love it.
Okay so I 100%ed the game, I got past the glitchy boss fight, the rest of the shines in that level are fine (the boss itself is super broken, though. If you screw up while attacking it even once, it becomes invincible. Good thing they're fixing that ASAP).
Had to look up two blue coins in the new levels, one of which should have triggered when I sprayed the area, but didn't so I didn't think there was a coin there, went back and sprayed some more in the same spot and this time it popped. I must not have hit the exact spot it was looking for, I guess. The other one I was just stumped on, in Pianta Pit - there was a Mario graffiti I missed, because it blends in almost perfectly with the wall, I'm not sure if I would ever have found it on my own (and that level is enormous).
Unlike vanilla Sunshine, you get a lot when you 100% this. First, you get a boss battle in a destroyed Delfino Plaza against Bowser in his Super Mario World flying ship, which is wild - Delfino Plaza is on fire and most of the buildings have been destroyed, which kind of made me sad (even if the obvious total repair would happen once Bowser was defeated, which was exactly what happened). It's kind of a crap boss fight, they're really pushing the mechanics of how Mario can even attack in Sunshine. You get those damn water rockets from the Pinna Park rollercoaster, and you have to hit Bowser with three of them, followed by stunning him with your water nozzle and throwing a bomb at him twice. The last two hits are the worst - he doesn't stay stunned for long, and Mario can't throw bombs very far, and he doesn't like to pick anything up unless he is standing completely still, so it's kind of a mess. Still, it's neat they put it in - they really added a ton of content to this game.
And I have to go to bed, but apparently I unlocked a bunch of levels in Peach's Castle, and the one I loaded into which was a different Delfino Plaza says it's an E3 build on the pause menu?! How much content did they put in this hack?
I love it so much. One of the best romhacks of all time, for me.
Oh and also, protip - your 100% target is 239 shines, then reload Delfino Plaza. I was freaking out thinking I missed a shine, but the last one is what unlocks when you beat what loads into Delfino Plaza at 239 shines.
Had to look up two blue coins in the new levels, one of which should have triggered when I sprayed the area, but didn't so I didn't think there was a coin there, went back and sprayed some more in the same spot and this time it popped. I must not have hit the exact spot it was looking for, I guess. The other one I was just stumped on, in Pianta Pit - there was a Mario graffiti I missed, because it blends in almost perfectly with the wall, I'm not sure if I would ever have found it on my own (and that level is enormous).
Unlike vanilla Sunshine, you get a lot when you 100% this. First, you get a boss battle in a destroyed Delfino Plaza against Bowser in his Super Mario World flying ship, which is wild - Delfino Plaza is on fire and most of the buildings have been destroyed, which kind of made me sad (even if the obvious total repair would happen once Bowser was defeated, which was exactly what happened). It's kind of a crap boss fight, they're really pushing the mechanics of how Mario can even attack in Sunshine. You get those damn water rockets from the Pinna Park rollercoaster, and you have to hit Bowser with three of them, followed by stunning him with your water nozzle and throwing a bomb at him twice. The last two hits are the worst - he doesn't stay stunned for long, and Mario can't throw bombs very far, and he doesn't like to pick anything up unless he is standing completely still, so it's kind of a mess. Still, it's neat they put it in - they really added a ton of content to this game.
And I have to go to bed, but apparently I unlocked a bunch of levels in Peach's Castle, and the one I loaded into which was a different Delfino Plaza says it's an E3 build on the pause menu?! How much content did they put in this hack?
I love it so much. One of the best romhacks of all time, for me.
Oh and also, protip - your 100% target is 239 shines, then reload Delfino Plaza. I was freaking out thinking I missed a shine, but the last one is what unlocks when you beat what loads into Delfino Plaza at 239 shines.
This hack is wild. Instead of a crappy photo like you get for 100%ing the game in vanilla Sunshine, you get all kinds of stuff. Namely (photos taken on my Steam Deck, couldn't be arsed to take screenshots, sorry lol):
You gain access to Peach's Castle (the courtyard is present, too, complete with a Yoshi egg on top of the castle, not pictured because I still have tons to explore, apparently lol), with all these doors leading somewhere. A Toad says Peach apparently bought a lot of "historical" paintings, and that Professor E. Gadd has invented a time machine, so that's the sort of in-universe justification for Mario visiting E3 and Beta versions of Sunshine levels, such as:
Wherein you fight the flying Petey Piranha boss in a weirdo, half finished beta version of Bianco Hills. You get a Power Star for beating him, which does not add to your shine total (my shines appear to be locked at 240 permanently, now), though the game does save after you get it, so I'm not sure if it's tracking collecting Power Stars or not. There is a sign in the castle courtyard that says something along the lines of "Power Stars will not count towards your Shine total" but again, the game saves, so I don't know if it's saving or not. In any case, take a look:
Even the goop is weird. I haven't looked at beta or demo content for Sunshine since literally before the vanilla game came out, but presumably this was constructed either via old builds or from fucking magazine photos or something. These modders legit love Mario Sunshine, sheesh.
Here is a photo of the Power Star you get for beating the miniboss goop piranha plant thing in E3 Delfino Plaza:
There are plenty of areas and doors I haven't gone into yet, and I don't know how deep this rabbit hole goes, i.e. how many Power Stars are available, and how much of Peach's castle is available to explore.
I thought I'd be moving on from this hack today after work, but apparently not! Thrilled there is more to experience. Incredible stuff.
You gain access to Peach's Castle (the courtyard is present, too, complete with a Yoshi egg on top of the castle, not pictured because I still have tons to explore, apparently lol), with all these doors leading somewhere. A Toad says Peach apparently bought a lot of "historical" paintings, and that Professor E. Gadd has invented a time machine, so that's the sort of in-universe justification for Mario visiting E3 and Beta versions of Sunshine levels, such as:
Wherein you fight the flying Petey Piranha boss in a weirdo, half finished beta version of Bianco Hills. You get a Power Star for beating him, which does not add to your shine total (my shines appear to be locked at 240 permanently, now), though the game does save after you get it, so I'm not sure if it's tracking collecting Power Stars or not. There is a sign in the castle courtyard that says something along the lines of "Power Stars will not count towards your Shine total" but again, the game saves, so I don't know if it's saving or not. In any case, take a look:
Even the goop is weird. I haven't looked at beta or demo content for Sunshine since literally before the vanilla game came out, but presumably this was constructed either via old builds or from fucking magazine photos or something. These modders legit love Mario Sunshine, sheesh.
Here is a photo of the Power Star you get for beating the miniboss goop piranha plant thing in E3 Delfino Plaza:
There are plenty of areas and doors I haven't gone into yet, and I don't know how deep this rabbit hole goes, i.e. how many Power Stars are available, and how much of Peach's castle is available to explore.
Seems like it! Wow.
I just realized I've not said a word about the music they created for this hack. The following is music for one of the new levels, appropriately named Vaporwave - a remix of the main Sunshine theme. It rules.
There's a lot of new music, actually, and I don't remember any of it being bad or anything close to it. The above is probably my favorite, though. Well, that and the "Mario's Dream" music:
Just a delightful track to hunt blue coins to, particularly starting at 1:12 into the track. They really did a great job.
There's a lot of new music, actually, and I don't remember any of it being bad or anything close to it. The above is probably my favorite, though. Well, that and the "Mario's Dream" music:
Just a delightful track to hunt blue coins to, particularly starting at 1:12 into the track. They really did a great job.
Let's see... There are five levels available pre-postgame, along with nine in-between areas with one hidden shine each. One of the five levels has slightly fewer shines than the rest (five), so four full levels of the size and shine density of the main vanilla game levels, although rather than 30 blue coins each, they have 20 each.
Postgame, there are... iirc, eight new levels, all of the same size as the smaller level in the main game, five shines (I think the first listed below has six). These all only have ten blue coins each.
Names, if you want them:
Main game:
1. Erto Rock
2. Hotel Lacrima
3. Lighthouse Island
4. Warship Island
5. Pianta Pit (this is the level with only five shines - the four above have 11 total)
Plus the aforementioned in-between areas, of which there are nine. These have names, but I don't remember them lol. They are literally paths between levels, with an extremely simple hidden shine in each.
Postgame:
1. Daisy Cruiser
2. Peach Beach
3. Casino Game Table
4. Mario's Dream
5. Vaporwave
6. Lancia Fredda Peaks
7. Red Lily City
8. Yoshi Village
So, in terms of levels of substance, we have 13 full new levels in Super Mario Eclipse. Of the above, I kinda dislike a decent chunk of Warship Island, but it's still not a bad level overall (it does contain the difficulty spike shine I mentioned a few posts back, that I hope they ease up on in future patches - it is a FLUDD-less level that is tuned WAY too hard. It's probably doable as Il Piantissimo, but I played the entire game as Mario to see how it holds up as a true Sunshine semi-sequel). Yoshi Village is the stage that has an absolutely buggy first shine, the Fire Petey Piranha fight, which is probably my least favorite level of the postgame even had that fight not been bugged to hell (and shortly, I assume, will be fixed anyway).
I think of all the new levels, my favorites are Pianta Pit, Lighthouse Island, Casino Game Table, Mario's Dream, and Vaporwave.
I have no idea, as of this post, how many areas are available in the section you unlock upon getting all the shines in the game.
No. Sadly, the pachinko machine is untouched from vanilla Sunshine, and still just as much of a pain as it always was.
madhair60
Video games
I started it, went into the first tutorial room and now it's having me use the Rocket to blast my way up slippery clouds that you can't see most of before launching - some of which are moving. After falling off fifty times due to a combination of the crappy controls and infuriating level design, I finally managed to reach the top and leapt onto the higher land - at which point I was instantly warped back to the bottom again. I assumed it was a glitch so I climbed up again, falling off several times for the stated reasons. Got to the land. Warped to the bottom. This is the tutorial.
Kazin, this is cow shit.
Kazin, this is cow shit.
You know what's wild @madhair60? I completed the game 100%, and did not need that rocket dive thing once. Bail from the tutorial, you don't need any of it. Those moves are optional. It's a good game, I promise.
I don't think that's rude at all, the base plot of vanilla Sunshine is dull (and I say that as a fan lol), and being able to skip cutscenes - even the few new ones! - is apparently something that is going to be included in the upcoming patch, due out next week, I believe.
madhair60
Video games
Oh thank god
Edit: I swear, and I hate saying it, I swear that I never played a romhack or fangame that didn't feature at least one absolutely baffling decision that would have been remedied if only they have run it by me first. I will do my best to spread the word and implement the Gipp Test.
Edit: I swear, and I hate saying it, I swear that I never played a romhack or fangame that didn't feature at least one absolutely baffling decision that would have been remedied if only they have run it by me first. I will do my best to spread the word and implement the Gipp Test.
I kept it at 30 FPS the whole time because I'm used to it (and so long as there's no lag, FPS is of no importance to me whatsoever), and figure it runs more smoothly that way, even on Dolphin. No idea if 60 FPS screws anything up, so ymmv there.
I didn't realize they already implemented the skip movie feature haha. I played on the original 1.0 version for a while so I just... never turned it off, even once I jumped to v1.01.
I didn't realize they already implemented the skip movie feature haha. I played on the original 1.0 version for a while so I just... never turned it off, even once I jumped to v1.01.