I'm ultra happy raocow included his criminally cut-out verse to Capital Cities' "Farrah Fawcett Hair" @ the end o' this video.
Wenn alle stehen bleiben und anstarren
und sagen, <¿Warum musst du so sein?>,
schaue ich ihnen einfach in die Augen
und sage ihnen, dass ich von Fledermäusen aufgezogen wurde.
Y'know my thoughts went back to the concept of a standalone JUMP, and I'm not entirely sure if it would require SMW's context all that much.
Like, sure, it would probably borrow a lot of SMW's mechanics anyway, but I think a lot of the stuff this one has showed off so far is actually intuitive enough without actually being familiar with SMW's weirder stuff or jank. Some stuff ( i.e. a Rip Van Fish equivalent ) would probably need to be introduced in a normal context in an earlier level, but I don't think that'd be all that troublesome in most cases ( i.e. you'd just need a water level with Rip Van in it, which isn't exactly restricting ) outside of requiring some careful logistics.
I guess it'd still be irrevocably linked to SMW due to those recognizable mechanics, but at the same time La-Mulana's basic gameplay is pretty irrevocably linked to Castlevania what with its jumping physics and how your starting weapon works ( plus subweapons are pretty Castelvania-esque aside from using their own ammo instead of a shared total, though on the other hand the jumping physics from what I remember are more like Ghosts 'n Goblins, or at least Super G&G ) and yet it stands out pretty strongly on its own. A standalone JUMP would probably have a stronger link, but to SMW hacks rather than SMW itself, which most people wouldn't actually be all that familiar with.
I dunno, it's interesting to think about, because it doesn't feel like the last five or so videos have had something that wouldn't be understandable by someone who has never touched SMW in their life before this hack, aside from the puzzle in the storehouse. The closest an actual level from those those videos has come to breaking that feeling is like hongry plants, but 1F0 was introduced in literally the second level and has been used regularly since, and the bowling balls, while janky looking, don't really need the context of the classic Bowser boss to understand ( they're just big ol' obstacles with a weird yet always consistent movement pattern, after all ). The only strong contention is the vines eating non-blocks, but I might just forgetting an earlier level that introduced that and the level only really involves one non-background block being eaten and it's just to make an obstacle more complicated, so ...
That's the thing, I suppose. SMW's general mechanics are pretty dang intuitive and these levels are really good at introducing concepts that might not've popped to mind on their own, so it's actually very friendly to new players. I mean, I wouldn't recommend it to someone who's never played a single platformer before, but someone who's just never played SMW before? I'm sure they could pick it up just fine and then I'd be proven wrong by one early level I forgot about that doesn't introduce a necessary yet not very intuitive concept properly, but hey, that's something that can be worked on if anyone was actually serious about doing something like this.
I'm noticing that secret exits thus far haven't really been shortcuts. I think taking "this group of trees is cOLD out of the forest actually adds up to having to do one more level than either forest path.
Most of the world 3 paths in general just seem to be alternate paths rather than shortcuts. Probably something to do with how many levels exist in the game in general. In general, world 3 is pretty dense even though it's basically three different paths that all link up before the end.
That also seems to apply to the world design period. Most of the secret exits I've ran into up to now have fit into that general pattern of "tends to just be another way to go rather than a shortcut."
The only exception I can think of is the secret exit that leads to the cinema, at least up to now.
Because Touhou OCs can in fact exist, sounds fake I know.
I can't change my username but I go by Vali/Claire now (aka call me Vali or Claire at your leisure ^^).
I never update this currently playing section anymore, it's probably an RPG or something.
I really liked Brain Plague's gimmick. For the most part it gave you chances to look ahead in relative safety prior to making it dark and having to act and I just thought that worked super well. Plus its atmosphere was great.
I'll also +1 what others said and say that Brain Plague was a really well done darkness gimmick. It's rare to see a dark level that actually seems calculated, like the author had a specific intent for where you were supposed to be and what was supposed to happen throughout the level. It's all very well orchestrated. This is as opposed to typical darkness gimmicks where it's like "the level is now harder because you can't see anything" and it's completely hardware dependent as to how much harder it actually is, and in some cases can be completely cancelled out by playing with your TV/monitor's brightness settings and whatnot. It's absolutely one of my biggest pet peeves when games do this, cause it's lazy, unfair, and inconsistent. But this clearly had a lot of thought put into it, and the darkness affects everyone exactly the same way. Kudos to the author for that!
I was just as confused by that end of castle 3 message. Is that some sort of saying or something?
I think between like this group of trees is cOLD, Koopa Kraze, and the levels we saw today, this is where JUMP 1/2 is starting to become real. I'll admit to spending many lives on pretty much all of these levels (like 15-20 or even more) so not 100% surprised this is where the deaths'll start coming in.
Because Touhou OCs can in fact exist, sounds fake I know.
I can't change my username but I go by Vali/Claire now (aka call me Vali or Claire at your leisure ^^).
I never update this currently playing section anymore, it's probably an RPG or something.