SMBX (2014 Yacht of Opinions): MaGL X - Whoohoo!

[Zygl]

The Volcanos of Castlevania is up now. Also I'm doing a PRETTY GOOD JOB getting a level up per day, I realize.

[Darkonius64]

Ride on the Lava is up now.
By the way the sudden slowdown in progress over the past week or so is because I've started messing around with ASM and attempting to learning Japanese. If I want to make steady progress in both of those there aren't enough hours in the day for me to also be spending like 13 of them on this, so instead I'm just trying to get at least one level up daily.

wow you annilihated my level!
wonderful job!

[Zygl]

Yoshi's Island River turned out to be slightly harder than expected.

Ride on the Lava is up now.
By the way the sudden slowdown in progress over the past week or so is because I've started messing around with ASM and attempting to learning Japanese. If I want to make steady progress in both of those there aren't enough hours in the day for me to also be spending like 13 of them on this, so instead I'm just trying to get at least one level up daily.

wow you annilihated my level!
wonderful job!

Thanks. It was a pretty enjoyable level as far as platform-riding levels are concerned.

[swirlybomb]

Man I gotta say that I love seeing your speedrun videos Zyglrox! Though I'm not fully caught up yet. Definitely looking forward to seeing mine, when you get there.

[Zygl]

Sinking Happily is up now.

Man I gotta say that I love seeing your speedrun videos Zyglrox! Though I'm not fully caught up yet. Definitely looking forward to seeing mine, when you get there.

I'm looking forward to it myself, I kinda forgot most of the actual level design but I remember the level as a whole being pretty good.

e: Oh man, Hina's Fluffy Quest is the next level. I am both excited and concerned.

[swirlybomb]

I do know of exactly one 'shortcut' in advance! Although I'm pretty sure you won't need any help seeing it.
(my level, that is, not Hina's Fluffy Quest)

[YelseyKing]

So, watching Zyglrox do these speed runs, especially since he's getting fairly close to my stage, I thought I'd revisit good old Desert Oasis Fort, as I said I'd do months back. Basically, I restored the segment that got cut due to block limits, but in order to do so, I had to delete the entire outside area. As a result, I made numerous little changes to the fort interior to compensate, such as putting Nopor Puss directly inside to explain the, uh, plot, a couple Easter eggs added (which raocow missed, although these ones are much different), the three dragon coins/red gems outside were placed inside, and grabbing the amulet now simply ends the stage. I figured I'd upload it here just in case anyone was interested in seeing what I had to remove.

http://snesmusic.jukor.net/junk/desertfort2.zip

[Zygl]

Hina's Fluffy Quest isn't happening tonight. I'd like it to, I'm so close to sub-1:45 I can taste it and I'm pretty sure I could do it in the next three hours if I were to keep going, but my computer's being an irksome piece of garbage (read: itself) and lagging SMBX for no discernible reason again.
I should (hopefully) be able to finish it tomorrow, and I can guarantee it'll be at the very least above-average among the stuff I've uploaded.

So, watching Zyglrox do these speed runs, especially since he's getting fairly close to my stage, I thought I'd revisit good old Desert Oasis Fort, as I said I'd do months back. Basically, I restored the segment that got cut due to block limits, but in order to do so, I had to delete the entire outside area. As a result, I made numerous little changes to the fort interior to compensate, such as putting Nopor Puss directly inside to explain the, uh, plot, a couple Easter eggs added (which raocow missed, although these ones are much different), the three dragon coins/red gems outside were placed inside, and grabbing the amulet now simply ends the stage. I figured I'd upload it here just in case anyone was interested in seeing what I had to remove.

http://snesmusic.jukor.net/junk/desertfort2.zip

Nice, I'll be sure to check that out once I get to your level.

e:

I'm pretty sure I could do it in the next three hours if I were to keep going

Yeah it took me about an hour today to get it done.

[Dragon Fogel]

I played a bit today. I can relatively consistently get to the bombable wall in Fortress of Trains, but then I always end up dying to the Snifit just afterwards. If I bring additional tools, I always end up losing them earlier in the level so they don't help. (You can't fly over the fortress to save time, and there's even a sign saying you can't.) So I messed around a bit in the next few levels as a bit of a breather. I didn't beat any of them, but I got pretty far in Apocalypse of Foroze before dying.

My conclusion is, they're all pretty fun levels but I'm a terrible Mario player. I'll get through them eventually, though.

[Zygl]

Yeah it took me about an hour today to get it done.

People were surprised when this level got my 'favourite level' marker. To be honest, it isn't the level I think is best or the one I had the most fun with (that might be Yogui's or the vertical level?), but it's an idea I had for a level awhile ago and tossed aside because it was too much work. And I love seeing other games reconstructed in this engine, so it all sort of came together and I ended up loving this level a lot for what it is more than what it achieved.

That said, I still had a lot of fun with the level itself. I love puzzle games and typical Mario puzzles tend to be "which switches do you hit in order?" or "how do you carry the thing to the other thing?" which I hate, so I was pleasantly surprised by this one in that respect too.

It was a fun level, but the music is pretty much what made the whole thing for me. I forgot how good Hina's music is. Of course thinking about it that particular song doesn't make a whole lot of sense in a somewhat dark sewer-like environment, but it's the best song in the game I can remember so I'm not complaining.

Anyway, this was a SUPER good run. I'm really impressed you found such an efficient way to go through the level (and some of those jellyfish jumps were awesome). <3

Thanks. Working out the path wasn't actually all that difficult, though, aside from the last star in the run for the most part you'd have to actively go out of your way to do it in a different order.
Also a fun thing about the jellyfish jumps: on several occasions I literally forgot how to do the first jump or something, messed it up like 20 times in a row, and had to stop and re-practice it to relearn it. I still don't know what my problem was there, it just kept happening for some reason.

I played a bit today. I can relatively consistently get to the bombable wall in Fortress of Trains, but then I always end up dying to the Snifit just afterwards. If I bring additional tools, I always end up losing them earlier in the level so they don't help. (You can't fly over the fortress to save time, and there's even a sign saying you can't.) So I messed around a bit in the next few levels as a bit of a breather. I didn't beat any of them, but I got pretty far in Apocalypse of Foroze before dying.

My conclusion is, they're all pretty fun levels but I'm a terrible Mario player. I'll get through them eventually, though.

Are you ABOLUTELY SURE you wouldn't be doing better on a controller? I mean at this point you're probably well-enough acclimated to trying to do the Mario on a keyboard that it wouldn't actually make a difference, but as a person who can barely beat 3-8 of SMB3 on a keyboard I'm not sure how that's possible.

[YelseyKing]

Yeah it took me about an hour today to get it done.

People were surprised when this level got my 'favourite level' marker. To be honest, it isn't the level I think is best or the one I had the most fun with (that might be Yogui's or the vertical level?), but it's an idea I had for a level awhile ago and tossed aside because it was too much work. And I love seeing other games reconstructed in this engine, so it all sort of came together and I ended up loving this level a lot for what it is more than what it achieved.

That said, I still had a lot of fun with the level itself. I love puzzle games and typical Mario puzzles tend to be "which switches do you hit in order?" or "how do you carry the thing to the other thing?" which I hate, so I was pleasantly surprised by this one in that respect too.

Anyway, this was a SUPER good run. I'm really impressed you found such an efficient way to go through the level (and some of those jellyfish jumps were awesome). <3

You know, one thing I'm liking about Zyglrox's speed runs is that it gives me a chance to see the levels once again, devoid of raocow struggling through them, and devoid of the forum drama that follows. Which has the effect of really letting me view the levels in a much more neutral light, and being able to appreciate them for what they are.

I admit, I didn't watch raocow's Hina LP (I've not seen a Desunoya game that's caught my interest for more than a few videos), so I can't say how accurately this stage recreated that game, but... in retrospect, this stage was really amazingly designed. It must've been a *lot* of work to set up the same map for all four different orientations using the clunky SMBX editor. I also liked the bouncing sheep from Fluffy Quest being included, going even further with the "Fluffy" pun, and using almost entirely SMB3 tiles played to the other part of the stage name really well. When all that is taken into consideration, it's not really hard to see why this was your favorite level, Horikawa.

The spikes being instant death, though... yeah, that's still kind of a dick move.

As for Zyglrox's run... well, heh. I think Horikawa pretty much covered what I'd have said. Loved those crazy Blooper jumps. Impressive stuff.

It was a fun level, but the music is pretty much what made the whole thing for me. I forgot how good Hina's music is. Of course thinking about it that particular song doesn't make a whole lot of sense in a somewhat dark sewer-like environment, but it's the best song in the game I can remember so I'm not complaining.

Hm. You wouldn't happen to know where I could find the soundtrack, do you? I always do love hearing new game music. And if it's in the same style as Touhou music (which I like), all the better.

[Septentrion Pleiades]

That was the most amazing to watch so far. Puzzles level can be pretty amazing if done write. You need to plan that sort of stuff on paper, although most "Puzzle makers" just derp around in the editor.

Is there any chance of you doing a speed run of Fluffy Quest after this?

[Zygl]

It was a fun level, but the music is pretty much what made the whole thing for me. I forgot how good Hina's music is. Of course thinking about it that particular song doesn't make a whole lot of sense in a somewhat dark sewer-like environment, but it's the best song in the game I can remember so I'm not complaining.

Hm. You wouldn't happen to know where I could find the soundtrack, do you? I always do love hearing new game music. And if it's in the same style as Touhou music (which I like), all the better.

No idea, I'm afraid. I feel like ano0maly may have posted it in the LP thread, but the thread got erased in the Talkhaustrophe so that doesn't really help.

That was the most amazing to watch so far. Puzzles level can be pretty amazing if done write. You need to plan that sort of stuff on paper, although most "Puzzle makers" just derp around in the editor.

Is there any chance of you doing a speed run of Fluffy Quest after this?

Actually, that'll probably end up happening. I'm not quite decided on what exactly I'm going to do after I've finished MaGL X, but at the moment I'm torn between doing individual levels from assorted Mario whatevers (mostly by request, but with Fluffy Quest in all its, uh, notoriety being on the short list of levels I kinda want to try regardless) and just doing ASMBXT in its entirety (which obviously would include Fluffy Quest).

[ano0maly]

It was a fun level, but the music is pretty much what made the whole thing for me. I forgot how good Hina's music is. Of course thinking about it that particular song doesn't make a whole lot of sense in a somewhat dark sewer-like environment, but it's the best song in the game I can remember so I'm not complaining.

Hm. You wouldn't happen to know where I could find the soundtrack, do you? I always do love hearing new game music. And if it's in the same style as Touhou music (which I like), all the better.

No idea, I'm afraid. I feel like ano0maly may have posted it in the LP thread, but the thread got erased in the Talkhaustrophe so that doesn't really help.

I did? I don't have recollection doing that.

I do have the BGMs though. I bought this game from DLsite, and the funny thing is that the downloaded game included a folder with all the data files unpacked, which means I have access to BGMs, sprites, and sound and voice clips. (Tobari, another game from desunoya, doesn't have this.)

Something I wanted to do was take the Fluffy level and modify the sound effects so that it plays sounds and voices from Hina's Fluffy Dream. The main issue with this is that Hina has different voice clips in the same situation, and I don't know if SMBX is able to support shuffling sound effects like that.

[swirlybomb]

I feel silly for not remembering that Hina's Fluffy Quest was not the actual name of the level. At least I was correct in what level I thought it was.

[Zygl]

Run Quickly took way longer than I expected it to. Mostly because I did it with over half the playable characters before I figured out which was the fastest for the level, but still.
Also I'm just going to leave this here:

The issue here is that I never really felt in control of my victories and defeats. So when I won, it felt more random than anything else

It pretty well describes the last 15 seconds of the run.

[Zygl]

See, raocow was all "it's because I'm the sexiest guy at the vidya games" in his LP, but I swear this felt like enemy spam to me. It wasn't a level I enjoyed a whole lot after the gimmick wore off and I was like a half hour into replaying it over and over again.

A lot of it did seem a bit, uh, poorly-considered. Like in the video a lot of enemies just kinda explode and fly through the ceiling and things, and it's not like I'm going faster than intended or anything. At least I certainly hope not, considering I spent most of the level going at "eh, it's kinda quick" speed.
I dunno, overall it's certainly "better" than Toad House (the only other Destroy the World level I can remember by name at the moment) by virtue of having actual challenge and cohesive landmasses rather than just random spam everywhere, but it just wasn't as fun. And I really have no idea why a level called Run Quickly stops you from running quickly every 10 seconds.

[Dragon Fogel]

Hey, I made actual progress!

Finally made it through Fortress of Trains. I even made it to the midpoint without outside powerups on one run, then I accidentally entered another level when I was re-powering up so I ended up using powerups for the first part when I redid it. It was a lot of fun overall. I didn't care much for the obstacle sections on the actual train, though. I always had a lot of trouble with the one between the SMB1 fortress and the SMB2 fortress, and the one at the end felt tacked-on; I felt the spike run in the SMB3 fortress was a good finish to the level, and I thought the cannons and Rocky Wrenches afterwards were just kind of thrown in. Maybe I'm just annoyed that they killed me the first time I got through the fortress. Still, definitely one of my favorite levels.

Then I did the Apocalypse of Foroze level. The level itself is fairly easy barring a couple of tricky spots - at one point I got crushed by a moving platform in the sand temple section while trying to position myself for a jump, and I misjudged where the lava ceiling was in the section where you float down with a propeller block. Other than that, no trouble until the boss.

And it's funny, when you think about it - Foroze is essentially an improved version of the Disgruntledgammler fight, though obviously the fact that you have two phases instead of three makes it more reasonable. Still too tough for me to manage with just bombs, so I brought in a hammer suit. It was still tricky to get through his first phase, until I figured out that you can generally hit the real Foroze a lot when the leftmost pillar is existing. Then the second phase can be trivialized with hammers, though it took me two failed attempts before I realized that. It'll be interesting to see how Zyglrox breaks this fight.

After that, I did Wilhart's level and had no particular problems. I cleared it on one try (admittedly with a tail and a hammer suit) and even got all of the Raocoins! Several of them only appear if you collect all the regular coins in an area. It was a neat level, and I particularly liked the boss fight.

I may or may not clear Shaken, Not Stirred today, I gave it a few tries but keep running into problems in one place or another. Still, I'm getting closer and closer to opening that bonus door.

[Zygl]

It's a SMB2 Level Except Way More Dead, featuring:

• A new wacky physics exploit!
• That same wacky physics exploit nearly killing me repeatedly!
• A random bit of lag at around 0:37!
• And not a whole lot else!

[Zygl]

Submarine of the Mushroom Kingdom has been, uh, a thing. It's finished now, of course, hence the link, but geez. Waaay harder than I expected, and I was mildly concerned going into it.

[Dragon Fogel]

Cleared Shaken, Not Stirred; I even managed to make it to the midpoint with no outside powerups. I brought in a Yoshi for the second half because I was finding the Mega Mole sections hard to deal with. I had hammers, too, because I'm just so used to grabbing them when I'm in the power-up room. Fun level, the gimmick was neat and the enemy swaps were great. My favorite was the really grumpy Big Boo, I guess they were out of coffee by the time it was his turn.

Made an attempt at I Hate Jumping When It's So Pitiful Outside, but I didn't get very far. It's a tricky level and I haven't quite gotten used to it yet.

[Zygl]

Descent of an Aging Link, and by extension world 6, is finished.
If I'm not mistaken two of the first three levels of world 7 are rather long, so that's sure to go great.

[Dragon Fogel]

I think It's An SMB1 Level Only Way More Epic is one of the next few levels. It's not particularly long, but I should probably remind you that it's possible to finish the level early by making Bowser fall in a pit during the final chase.

So, have fun actively trying to do that instead of just having it happen by sheer chance like I did.

[Dragon Fogel]

Double-post because I just cleared two more levels.

I Hate Jumping When It's Pitiful Outside was less fun for me than most levels; mainly it was the large number of instant-death traps and the late midpoint due to the boss fight. I made it through the first part of the level without any outside powerups and then died on the skull raft; at that point, I tried a lava shoe for a while and then gave in and used a blue shoe after. Mostly there was one particular spot where I regularly had trouble in the first half; there's a point early on where there's a donut-platform-shooter under a landmass with a Dry Bones on it, and there's an instant-death flame on the edge of that landmass. I kept messing up in some way trying not to hit the flame. Everything after that was a lot more manageable.

It was fun seeing how silly the Sergeant Guy fight got when you flung hammers at him and his lasers kept going for a bit after he was defeated, though. The boss encounters were good and I liked most of the level, I just would have liked it better if the midpoint were between the two platforming sections or that one particular flame were removed.

After that I did Holy's level, which was silly. My opinion on it hasn't much changed; it was silly and fun, but somewhat lacking in gameplay and had an abrupt and anticlimactic ending. Unsurprisingly, I didn't have any trouble with it.

Just one level and two bosses before I open up the postgame! That shouldn't take too long, but I probably won't go for it tonight.

[Dragon Fogel]

I'm in the postgame now.

I think I'm getting less patient or something, because I gave in and used a blue shoe on Ocean Fish House after not that many deaths. Probably could have handled both the path to the star and the path to the midpoint without it, ah well. I did bring in hammers after the midpoint, but I lost them and my ice flowers by the final climb. I managed it on my first try, which I was glad for; usually I have a lot of trouble with Parakoopas.

It was a fun level and I wish I'd done it more legit. I probably still would have used hammers because of my general lack of skills, but I could probably do it without the shoe now.

Speaking of which, the bosses. I pretty much just flung hammers at them both.

As for the postgame itself, 8flight's level is great. The first half is tough and I brought in a shoe for it, still really neat to see that retrospective of all the levels. Second half was much easier - still challenging, but I did it from the midpoint with no outside help. I had a bit of trouble in the Fluffy section, mostly I was just bad at landing on the ledge with the switch. When I finally did that, I cleared the level first try.

It's cool that this includes all three of the judges' favorite levels. I also liked the use of Too Many Fortresses and Fortress of Trains as transitioning sections. And, of course, the Koopa Devil Mansion section was great.

Got one star in Gloomglow Grotto and I'm not sure where the other one is. This is a neat exploration-based level, I'll probably have more to say when I hunt down the second star.