Hardcore platformers (like Super Meat Boy)

mediamogul

The granddaddy of ultra hard platformers is of course the Japanese 'Super Mario Brothers 2'. Deemed too hard for American gamers, the game was no cake walk for Japanese gamers either, as seen in the

where a little girl is screaming at the screen in frustration, with mario himself appearing in cartoon form looking like he just fought a moving car.

Keeping with that theme, just about all of the mario rom hack games are tough as nails. Two of the most challenging and well polished are:

Kaizo Mario
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/07/14/inside-the-world-of-brutally-hard-mario-rom-hacks

and

Mario Adventure
http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/63

ShootHere

I did know of these but I thought maybe a game dedicated to it might have been released (possibly with community levels).

Your advice is very welcome though, as I had sort of forgotten they existed!

mediamogul

@ShootHere

I don't think there's anything specifically like your looking for at the moment. If there is, I imagine it will exist as an open game engine of some sort in the 'Ports' category, so you might want to take a closer look there.

edmaul69

Super mario adventure is really really hard. Having infinite lives means squat. I have never made it out of the first level. Im not sure how much the first level is but there is at least an upper world and an underworld. Not sure if the whole level is like the equivelant of world 1-1 to 1-4 on the original smb or what but its tough.

mediamogul

@edmaul69 said in Hardcore platformers (like Super Meat Boy):

Super mario adventure is really really hard.

I agree. Being one of the most popular hacks, there's nothing I can say that hasn't been said before, but I always think it bears repeating that the game is incredibly difficult, but never "cheap". This important distinction is what sets it above most of the other contenders in this area. I love the new power-ups and the inclusion of coins as currency to retain their relevancy in a game with infinite lives. It's really a top shelf title.

ShootHere

Well I guess I have a mission :P

Thanx everyone for your advice!

ShootHere

@mediamogul well thank you for ruining my mood for the coming WEEKS with Mario Adventure. Hahaha my lord... Just a shame my emulator doesn't seem to save properly but savestates are good too.

Wooo!

mediamogul

@ShootHere

Hah! I'm glad you're enjoying it. I actually decided to break it out and play a bit myself. The randomized day, night and rainy environments are a trip. If that weren't impressive enough, you might begin to have a handle on a level's required technique, only to find it now snowing and have to contend with ice physics.

It's always great to see a gamer rise to such a high challenge. From time to time, I'll pull up a TWITCH stream to watch something similar like it was a sporting event. I'm tempted to try and beat this one myself some day, but I don't know if my nerves are up to it. At any rate, I wish you luck on your adventure.

ShootHere

Hmmm this is more of a question about the hack itself but when does it save? (It says it has battery save) but when I launch the game again it does not keep my completed levels but DOES keep the coin count.

Am I missing something?

EDIT: by worlds completed it means an entire world like all of world 1 (not counting the sub levels)?

mediamogul

@ShootHere said in Hardcore platformers (like Super Meat Boy):

Am I missing something?

I don't believe you're missing anything. The game was developed to be played on original hardware and as such, save issues have always been a known problem in emulation to my understanding. This is likely due to the save feature being hacked in. I've always used save states myself, but I have a strict policy of never saving mid-level to retain the full challenge.