Super Mario Land 4 *UPDATE* OFFICIAL TRAILER(S)

Someguy and I are renowned for having several projects on our plate at once--perhaps the best known of these projects is the Thingio series.

Earlier this year, Someguy lost his "computer" along with mostly all of the Thingio resources, so we had a drought. We always had an age old idea of creating a true sequel to the Super Mario Land games, while adding "Thingio-esque" elements, so we could amuse players, while letting them have fun. While Thingio may be considered a "Mario fangame", we wanted this game to be widely accepted as a "Mario platformer". We got plenty inspiration from projects of our own, Super Mario Land 1 and 2, and current fangames like Jeff Silvers' Super Mario Epic series. But we decided to add a twist:

Probably not visable at first glance, but this game will feature a multiplayer coop mode for up to 4 players. The engine was helped created by our very own "Mugenmidget", though Someguy takes most of the credit for his own. The multiplayer aspect is a lot like Kirby Superstar, and, well, we don't really want to spoil it all.

As illustrated, the game intertwines Halo's protagonist Master Chief and the Mario Brothers, along with Gunpei Yokoi who has risen from the dead to kick some ass. It was originally a dream I had, and Medaforcer and I played with the idea, and Someguy ended up accepting it.

Each character features their own attributes, as follows:

Mario: Able to run "with the devil", capable of power ups. Can Wall Jump.
Luigi: Like Mario, runs slower, jumps higher, capable of power ups. Can wall jump.
Master Chief: Carries a heafty SMG. Runs slow, can walk under water to activate things like switches, obtains gun upgrades. CAN THROW GRENADES.
Yokoi: Extreme martial artist. Many combos, ability to jump somewhat high, can walk across water.

But, what are these elusive power ups I speak of that Mario and Luigi can obtain? No Super Mario platformer would be complete with out them:
Star: You know what this does.
Allergy Hat: Much like the superball in Super Mario Land - gives Mario and Luigi the ability to shoot a "super booger" out of their nose'
Bunny hat: Allows you to hover over gaps. Works as it does in Super Mario Land 2.
Flamethrower helmet: A small pipe grows out of Mario or Luigi's hat, shooting fire across a small distance. Works like the Dragon Hat in Wario Land.

There will also be Subpop and Skypop levels, much like those in Super Mario Land, yet they will (hopefully) utilize pseudo 3D mode 7-esque effects.

We have an almost complete engine, yet we don't want to release a demo until it's completely done. The demo will include support for up to 4 players, and if you're alone, that's alright--there will be the obligatory one player mode.

Until that time arrives, I'll post some more pictures:

"Demo" title screen



Only the brothers

Oh, and now for the trailers:
The official Someguy and Kaepora trailer: We suggest not maximizing the window, due to the fact that you might be confronted with glitches.
Unofficial CloakBass Productions trailer (low quality), and the High quality version: <3

This post has been edited by Gyiyg Strikes Back! on Jul 15 2006, 02:21 PM

Looks and sounds cool. Hope a demo comes out.

Looking good so far! There's co-op, but what about something more competitive?

Maybe. We were considering competitive mini games.

While this is one of our bigger projects(and thus a demo/full release probably won't be out till late this year/early next year, however I hate release dates), we still have more surprises in store. Some here may have gotten afew previews, but even then, there are things even Kaepora doesn't know about some of our projects.... though I'll fill him in now because that kinda doesn't help in MAKING them. Let's just say there'll be more surprises to be revealed sometime soon.

How is four-player co-op control going to work? Please don't tell me its all cramped up on a keyboard.

It would be good as a online game. I like it!

Each character is assigned a different control setup, Mario has Player 1's controls, Luigi Player 2, MC Player 3, and Yokoi Player 4. Each player may either use one of two joypads, or their own keyboard controls. They may also use a program such as Joy to Key(sp?). A player can take from an HP pool(on the top of the screen), that's filled when a player collects a cure item when at full HP, then that player will appear where the currently focused player is. The focused player can give the screen focus to another player by holding fire 1 and 2 at the same time, it will then go forward, skipping any players who are out of play.

Edit: Sadly, unless someone comes to us and tells us how to modify our engine to work with it, online play is not going to be in the game, or if it is, would only be for basic minigames.

This post has been edited by Someguy on May 20 2006, 02:36 PM

But Someguy, that leaves a few more questions to be answered!

How do the swimming controls work? Why does Yokoi sink to the bottom? And why does Kaepora have the Immigrant Song in his games folder?

This post has been edited by Kaepora Ocelot on May 20 2006, 02:38 PM

Oh yes, while I'm blabbering about I may as well mention that the game does indeed include a decent swimming engine. After Mario and Luigi gain an upgrade, they can dive underwater, using fire 1 to rise back up or down to dive, and like in many games, holding down and trying to rise will cause you to do so slowly. Master Chief is far too heavy to swim(in this game atleast), thus he sinks. Yokoi... is not supposed to sink and that's probably an earlier demo. In reality, he has exclusive use of... well, he has some kind of pair of shoes that we have not developed a name or such for, allowing him to stay on the top of the water. In english, Mario and Luigi swim, Master Chief sinks and ignores the water, and Yokoi walks on it.

One last tease of features, while Master Chief can shoot as fast as the player can tap the fire button, and Yokoi has combos and many gadgets, the Mario Bros start out in the beginning with the ability to use up to three hats, as mentiond. The special thing however, is that they can be combined, thus letting a bro have all three hats at once if they do not get hit and lose it...


Am I telling too much?

Awesome that sounds

Thanks.

For moves Mario and Luigi can perform, I got a lot of inspiration from your Mario engine.

This is better than a root canal!

Yay, I'm inspiring!

Anyway, this looks a bit ridiculous but pretty fun. Am I the only one noticing a spike in popularity for Bunny Mario?

Yeah, we always wanted to implement the "hat" idea into a fangame, but you certainly breathed new life into the concept with SME2.

Gunpei Yokoi's it it!? This looks and sounds brilliant :o

Thanks, along with obscure dreams, comments and criticism are the driving force of this project.

Once again, sorry we have nothing more to currently offer than a list of concepts and some bland screenshots. We hope to, within the year, release an expansive demo, and perhaps multiple trailers, or something.

"Jesus Shoes"

Yokoi doesn't need shoes like that, he is Jesus.

Except he didn't come back three days later.

...Wow, that was mean.