ラクガキ (Rakugaki) Mario - the last VIP we will ever see...

[Heraga]

Curse of the Phanto has no secret exit, but any future Ghost House will (not that they're many left.)

Heraga's probably gonna say that it's okay and that he's not mad, but. I feel like I failed him. I'm sorry.

I have no ill wills, but I do think that perhaps a hack like this shouldn't have been a "warm up hack" for raocow after not playing SMW for almost 2 years.

Curse of the Phanto

Level by---

PokerFace

Originally that additional 1-Up midway was not in the level, and was added later due to the high difficulty of the first half otherwise. The last room originally contained an oversight too that the creator missed and was fixed later on, which would allow you to not have to carry a key towards the end for it. A pretty major softlock in the bossfight was fixed too that would require a time over if you threw the key in a specific way.

[LethalBrownies]

The response to rakugaki on smwcentral has been pretty much positive. Most people really like how it emulates hacks of that 'era' despite being ridiculous in difficulty at some points.

But to be fair, it is labelled kaizo: intermediate.

[raocow]

wait it's kaizo intermediate now ?!

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[Heraga]

The response to rakugaki on smwcentral has been pretty much positive. Most people really like how it emulates hacks of that 'era' despite being ridiculous in difficulty at some points.

But to be fair, it is labelled kaizo: intermediate.

wait it's kaizo intermediate now ?!

The label was moreso a precaution, because of the World 4 Star level (the cave muncher run) and to a lesser extent the World 6 Star level specifically which falls into the current definition of the "kaizo" genre.

[raocow]

I mean, still. not even kaizo light or whatever

like the implication here is that even in my prime this would have given me a lot of problems

[LethalBrownies]

like the implication here is that even in my prime this would have given me a lot of problems

I think the main things to take away from this is that it's not really 'savescumming' because the game is designed expecting you to use saves (as a kaizo game).
And we shouldn't use this game as a reference for your current skill level in Mario World.

[helucard]

Honestly, this has the makings of a really good level philosophy.
We got the layer movement - basic SMW gimmick with decent potential in its own right.
We got switches and alternating blocks - a neat extra level of complexity to the design.
And we got the threat. The phantos and the keys - adds pressure to the level.

It's pretty neat! I just... I struggle to understand why putting down the key was rarely attempted, especially in those moments where your movement is restricted. Like, in moments where the phantos are all moving away from you, leaving them to drift a little further makes sense. But when they're rotating back to you, dropping the key while you wait for layer movement would keep you safe right?

[cozyduck]

I mean, still. not even kaizo light or whatever

like the implication here is that even in my prime this would have given me a lot of problems

Kaizo:Intermediate does not mean it's harder than kaizo:light. Rather, since kaizo:light emcompassed such a broad range of difficulties, it was split into 3 difficulties, beginner, intermediate and expert. Also, Kaizo:hard was renamed to Tool-assisted:Kaizo.

[KobaBeach]

cannot wait to see starkmaximum and stripey and whatever start shit over the description /s

[Daizo]

for the record, yump2 was Kaizo: Expert (apparently) so....yeah

[raocow]

I guess this is what I get for not checking that website beyond direct romhack downloads in at least a decade

[KobaBeach]

"its ok smwc sucks anyway", i say as a devout lurker (i just go there when im bored and when im making another asm thing/bad level)

[LethalBrownies]

First level

was all about timing your switch palace with potato blocks. Fun times for all!

But real talk though that boss was adorable.

Also I think if your level makes one's hands start to cramp up, you may have made a kaizo level.

ALSO bowser land. The place they recommend you START using savestates? Hello. What fresh hell awaits our hero...

[Heraga]

For the record, I don't think really much of this hack falls under "Kaizo" as the genre is known currently, a sentiment that I think has been shared among practically all places where this hack has been played, but it is tagged as such due to previous levels played having the mindset of a Kaizo level (one way through, forced item and setup usage, no leeway). Also, the average World 7 level is around the difficulty of Smasher Castle, barring Bowser's Castle of all things surprisingly.

It's a Switch Palace But...

Level By---

Heraga

Originally when it was made, this level was a blatant tribute to "Super Malice World" from VIP5 with the glowing net framal blocks. However, everyone agreed that it was too derivative and thus was changed to use up and down munchers in a way to make it more original. The boss idea came from a joke I made towards rextep regarding a gag that should've been included in SMW Gaiden, and I found it so funny that it was put in here.

Smasher Castle

Level By---

Atomic_Citrus

So originally this level forced you to be small the entire time, with no powerups at al, which is the reason a lot of the level tends to be as tight as it is. This also wasn't intended to be a boss castle initially, and instead of a boss door at the end there was just a goal sphere. Because there lacked levels for the Castle of World 6, this was chosen due to it's difficulty aligning with the remainder of the levels.

[Grounder]

so, better to rip this bandaid off now, i suppose

is the castle a collab level?

[LethalBrownies]

If this game is pretending to be a game inspired by japanese video games of that era making a compilation Bowser castle is something that makes a lot of sense. I mean wasn't the reason VIP5 had a whole castle world was because they had a bunch of people submit castle levels to the hack? It's logical that a multi-room Bowser castle would ask for a comp of a similar sort.

Exploring time.

[Heraga]

so, better to rip this bandaid off now, i suppose

is the castle a collab level?

Bowser's Castle isn't, surprising enough. There is a big collab multiperson level however though.

[Daizo]

I don't think a "Bowser's Castle" being a multiperson is unique to the VIPs. Many many collaborations had both a maingame final level and a possible postgame final level be multipersons.

[LethalBrownies]

I don't think a "Bowser's Castle" being a multiperson is unique to the VIPs. Many many collaborations had both a maingame final level and a possible postgame final level be multipersons.

Of course! The Vips are just what I'm familiar with!

so, better to rip this bandaid off now, i suppose

is the castle a collab level?

Bowser's Castle isn't, surprising enough. There is a big collab multiperson level however though.

Intrigue

[PSI Ninja]

Regarding difficulty tags, I wonder if the order matters. For YUMP 2, it's "Standard: Very Hard" first, followed by "Kaizo: Expert". But for Rakugaki, it's "Kaizo: Intermediate" first, followed by "Standard: Very Hard". Having played YUMP 2 myself, overall I think it's easier than Rakugaki so far, despite YUMP 2 having a "Kaizo: Expert" label and Rakugaki having a "Kaizo: Intermediate" label. I was able to beat almost all of it without savestates, except for two levels ("yoshi make pee pee" and "Cape Fear"). But in Rakugaki, I needed to use savestate checkpoints in a lot more levels, and I'm still in the middle of World 7. So based on my experiences, it would make sense if the order of the tags matters when it comes to classifying difficulty (i.e., YUMP 2 has more "Standard: Very Hard" levels than "Kaizo: Expert" levels).

Up to now, I've been playing along with the LP using minimal-to-no in-level savestate checkpoints. But Smasher Castle is the first level where I had to give myself several savestate checkpoints (one at the start of each smasher section). Having a cape helps a lot, but even if you somehow manage to maintain one throughout the level, a lot of the timings are too strict, especially near the end. That one part with the clockwise Grinder at 11:25 in the video seems impossible to get through without getting hit when you're big - I've tried. And of course, there were no midpoints in this level. So, I'm surprised that this got a difficulty rating of "only" an E. I thought it was considerably harder than other E-rated levels like "Shardscape" and "This River Is Poisonous!", where I only needed one artificial checkpoint because of level length, and not because execution was too demanding. I'm just wondering if the author is able to beat their own level without using tools. I understand that creator's bias affects the testing process, because creators know exactly how to get through all of their setups. But I would be hard-pressed to believe that someone could beat levels like this in one clean run consistently. Seems like too much to ask for, especially since apparently, the designer originally forced the player to be small.

[Grounder]

so, better to rip this bandaid off now, i suppose

is the castle a collab level?

Bowser's Castle isn't, surprising enough. There is a big collab multiperson level however though.

Noted, thanks.

[Daizo]

I don't think the order matters too much with difficulty. You can't even order the difficulty as you submit it to the central since it's listed in a linear order, so yeah.

[KobaBeach]

I haven't played YUMP 2 myself yet but I wonder if for this case it wound up mattering by accident. The Kaizo label was added by a mod right? A lot of the stages in this seem like they want to be more Kaizo in an oldschool environment than anything.

World 3 and Go! Go! Mario, Tricky Moving 1 and Raku-Saki felt kind of Bad, GGM feeling the worst. Everyone Running Away was neat, if hard to do toolless, need practice. Some of those stages made me want to use slowdown, which I haven't used since my first playthrough of Kaizo 1 around 2011 (I only played with tools at the time after a brief stint without tools before running into raocow).

It's a similar situation to VIP6 where there's a lot of really hard kind of eh stages mixed in that feel like getting a mouthful of spice in an otherwise decent dish. And I don't really like VIP6 either. At least for now, could change in the future once I play it more (Poison Water and everything World 5 onward tho...).

[BeckySFairley]

It's a Switch Palace But...

I was smiling a lot at that reveal - Love that it was a classic flying boom boom and everything worked really well.

[Heraga]

So the way raocow did the secret exit was completely new to me. The apparent intended way was to abuse a quirk of JonWil's blocks that would have the fireballs clip and bounce through the ice on the top left corner, which would continue bouncing towards over the brown blocks and thus would be able to collect the key that way. Your strategy actually seems much more sane.

Unfeeling Peak

Level By--

rextep

The very first level made for the hack, done in a single night by the author attempting to make the "classic" trope of an ice melting stage. Apparently the creator intended the secret exit to not actually be possible (mentioned why above), but ended up allowing it as a genuine exit as the map sort of let it happen that way. The moon in this level I still don't know how to get.