Super Mario Bros- Chaos of the Ztar, By SparkleLeviathan96

Yeah. This is my game for NCFC. Unfortunately, I can't finish it by then, so I'll just have a small demo with a few levels.

-Story-

Mario had always beaten Bowser. The plumber had at leastone trick up his sleeve, whereas the Koopa King had none. But now, the tables have turned. The Koopa Troop has their own little secret: the great Ztar. The anti-star is made of pure darkness. With it, the whole world, the whole universe could be destroyed, without a single trace left.

Mario was sent to destroy the Ztar. It was to many Toadstools' surprise that Mario, the great hero, failed. However, though he couldn't destroy the Ztar, he was able to shatter the Ztar into 7 pieces.

Join Mario on a journey through scortching hot deserts, deep oceans, and even another galaxy to collect the shattered Ztar pieces before Bowser! Beware, a mere fraction of the Ztar can completely destory someone's mind. Imagine what would happen when the pieces are put together!

-Controls-
Shift- Jump
Control- Run
Arrows- Move
F12- Change Powerup
Space- Change Character
Backspace- Restart Room

-Credits-
Black Squirrel- Tilesheet (I recolored most of it, will recolor rest later)
The Spriter's Resource- Many sprites
MFGG- All Stars Sounds

And of course, the download link:
http://smbztarchaos.googlepages.com/home It's just an engine test. Not much to see.

This is the first game I made from scratch. Hope you like it!

This post has been edited by SparkleLeviathan96 on Oct 23 2007, 07:14 PM

what if i told you that the engine feels EXACTLY like the original SMB3 for NES and it's way to ****ing good for words

needs some graphic improvement, like bricks need to bounce before they are destroyed, and goombas need to squish before they die. *on bricks

This post has been edited by Zisomek on Oct 22 2007, 04:27 PM

1. Sweet

2. The bricks don't bounce when destroyed. And goombas don't get squished above blocks, they do the jump into the air thing. But yeah, I'll do that sometime.

This is pretty cool! Its a shame you can't finish this for NCFC, because this would've done very well! There are some things amiss such as fireballs going through enemies and bricks just disappearing when you hit them, but I'm assuming its because you haven't gone far in development yet. Great job! Also, wheres the song from? It's kinda catchy.

This is a pretty dang good engine if you ask me. Shame that you can't finish this for NCFC.

Thanks, guys! It has non-solid blocks, that inside-the-block movement and stuff. I learned from a master in an AIM chat a while back. (You who you are, master, you can reveal yourself if you want. )
I have gotten far in the engine, but I just don't feel like making graphical stuff just yet. As for the fireballs, I'm too lazy.
Have you heard of Planet Puzzle League? The music's from there.

This post has been edited by SparkleLeviathan96 on Oct 22 2007, 04:49 PM

Oh my so awesome

So this is what you were making...

This handles extremely great: couldn't name a glitch quite yet.

The advances in fangaming are amazing... KEEP THIS UP!

Also the animation for Fire Mario is ffffffffffff awesome

Thanks, and yep. I sent you an editible of an older version, check it out.
I found a glitch a while ago due to carelessness: be Luigi. Walk left. While holding left, hold right, too. The result is hilarious.
I love the Fire Mario animation as well.

Oh crap I missed it

Editable, you say?

Oh right so I can study the code, duh

Thanks, it will help me learn about this "no solids" witchcraftery.

In any case, this engine is virtually glitchless, like mine is. I expect an epic adventure from this. Don't let it go to waste!

Hmmm, this comes dangerously close to blowing all other GameMaker fangames out of the water. (read "controls more smoothly than UM/Hello.")

Couple things you might want to consider...

• Gravity is a tiny bit high. Mario should spend about 33% more time in the air when jumping. Jump height is perfect as it is.
• Mario's acceleration could stand to be a tiny bit higher. It's impossible to get any distance on a jump unless Mario is already moving.
• Slow down the animation speed when he's walking.
• Goombas are behaving like red Koopas, but you knew that already, right?

I may sound dumb but, is that a good thing?
1. Yeah, gravity did seem a bit high, but I didn't think it was THAT high.
EDIT: You think Luigi's should be Mario's, and Luigi's will be even lower?

2. So... higher the acceleration?

3. 'K.

4. Yeah, that's what I was aiming for. They were in SMB3, when you killed a red paragoomba.

This post has been edited by SparkleLeviathan96 on Oct 22 2007, 07:36 PM

Update! A small one, though... just decreased gravity and increased acceleration. Nothin' much. See first post for the file.

This post has been edited by SparkleLeviathan96 on Oct 22 2007, 08:01 PM

I didn't notice a change in Mario's air time (it's still 3/4 of what it was in SMB3), but that's only really a problem in areas with lots of moving platforms over bottomless pits, and you won't have any of those. Right? Right??

• Mario has a really bad case of "StH2 GameGear Camera". Specifically, when Mario jumps, the camera jumps up with him, making it really hard to keep track of where the ground is (also motion sickness). I'm not sure how easy that is to fix in GM, mind you...
• Mario is "shudder jumping". This curious phenomenon occurs when the screen scrolls at a very slightly different rate than at which Mario's position changes. As a result, Mario's sprite moves very rapidly between two pixels in the center of the screen. I have no idea how to reliably fix this.

Your engine is still radiating hazardous amounts of awesome, however. If you opt to change Mario's jump speed to what it was in SMB3, I may have to kill you as a precaution.

EDIT: just did some testing, and it turns out that you're very close to SMB2u physics; in fact SMB2u has a tiny bit more gravity, so you may have hit it head-on with your first attempt. Forget what I've been saying about SMB3; if you keep it as is, you could have the greatest SMB2u engine since -- um -- actually, you could have the greatest SMB2u engine, period.

SECOND EDIT:

• If Mario jumps into an invisible block from the side, the block still appears. Then Mario gets caught in the block.

This post has been edited by xn--e5x on Oct 22 2007, 08:51 PM

K, it's time for an update! I fixed the shudder jumping. Quite frankly, I like the gravity as is. The camera is supposed to only follow you in the air if you're jumping at full speed. And I know about the invisible block thing. It's better than nothing. Before, you'd jump into it and be stuck forever.
Anyways... I added red koopas (which for some reason glitch a bit) and I added text to the title. Also, when you die, most things stop moving, like in SMB3! The demo can be found here: http://smbztarchaos.googlepages.com/home Just go to the Demo section.

And xn--e5x: SMB2u? You mean the american SMB2? Or a fangame?

Sorry, I've been lurking around tasvideos for too long.

I mean the american SMB2, a port of Doki Doki Panic released in the United States as "Super Mario Bros. 2" and in Japan as "Super Mario USA". As opposed to SMB2j, released in Japan as "Super Mario Bros. 2" and elsewhere as "Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels". If you press and hold the right arrow keys in both games, Mario's walking speed is about the same in both games. If you press and hold the Shift key and the A Button at the exact same time, Mario will hit the ground in SMB2u first.

I can't say I'm partial to SMB2u's gravity, but then again I tend to be rubbish at that game.

On an unrelated note, why didn't you store your demo on googlepages with the rest of your files?

Where did you get the goomba sprites?