Page 1 of 1

A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 19 Oct 2016, 02:21
by Lockirby2
I saw that Horikawa was hoping for SMBX 2.0/Mario Challenge Videos, so I decided to take her up on that.

If you don't want to hear me talk, skip to 4:10. I'll try to avoid reiterating what I say at the start of the video in the description.

I figured that I'd do a series like this to give quick feedback on some of the new characters/features. I wanted to make videos instead of just writing text, since I know that watching another player's videos can give the developers a lot of feedback that the player might not even notice themselves. Therefore, the videos are going to focus on playing the game and not trying to spend fifteen-thirty minutes spouting opinions. I do try to sum up my thoughts about each character at the end though.

I actually had a reasonable chunk of time for once, so I played most of these videos in a row (I had been playing for about four hours straight by my last video). Because of this, my playing ability/commentary begins to suffer quite a bit in the later videos. Hopefully I can keep up with editing these so that this series doesn't take a month; it is meant to be short.

A big thanks to Horikawa Otane, Willhart, Rednaxela, Hoeloe, and Quill.



Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 22 Oct 2016, 02:29
by Lockirby2
I play through with Rosalina in this video.

This video is a little long, since I got two very long levels. I dumped both episodes of MAGLX2 into my worlds folder, so there's a lot more variety.




Some observations (I'm not offering criticisms; I'm just noting how she plays):

-Rosalina probably plays the closest to the original cast out of the new characters. Her mechanics are different enough to set her apart, but she isn't as "out there" (I don't mean this in a bad way) as some of the others.
-Rosalina's floating gives her great aerial control, allowing the flexibility to start/stop floating as many times as I want, effectively giving her a tail (minus the flight) 24/7.
-While Rosalina's jumping height being split into two jumps gives extra flexibility in theory, in practice I usually just use both jumps in a row all the time. However, in areas with low ceilings (especially if they're lava), Rosalina would be a great choice.
-However, landing on springs/enemies is more challenging with Rosalina, even when compared to Peach (who can just "burn" the float by floating for half a second).
-Rosalina's targeting with Fire/Ice balls gives her a lot of power when she is shooting things from a safe vantage point, and it could make some cool puzzles as well.
-When trying to shoot enemies that are directly threatening me, I try to leave the targeting off. I can't rely on the targeting to select the correct enemy in a pinch, unless there's only one enemy on screen.
-As shown in the video, she has trouble picking up a key while she has the Bomb powerup (see 11:35). I suspect you're already aware of this, however.
-Placing bombs in the air and just letting enemies slam into them seems pretty useful, even without dropping them.
-Dropping bombs has synergy with her floating abilities; a character like Mario would have trouble using this at all.
-If there's an area where you have to hit a switch to activate a boss fight or a barrage of enemies from above, etc., Rosalina could just lay a bunch of bombs down pre-emptively if she has the power-up.
-Overall, Rosalina's bombs are very effective in some scenarios, but for the general use case they seem weaker than the Hammer Bros. suit or Peach's Bombs (unless there's a way to throw them forward that I never figured out), since they can't move ahead of you for protection.
-The leaf doesn't help Rosalina much. I'd prefer a different powerup given the option, unless I have something specific in mind for the leaf.
-Invincibility gives more meaning to coins than getting lousy 1-ups for it.
-It's likely that the player will acquire invincibility later in a level, when they are most worried about dying, which can take off some of the pressure.
-Rosalina probably favours longer levels where she can acquire a lot of coins over short, hard ones.

Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 26 Oct 2016, 01:30
by Lockirby2
It's Ninja Bomberman's turn!

This one was a little bit trickier, since he dies in one hit, and the levels I played weren't very forgiving to that.




Some observations:

-Overall, he's most similar to Rosalina, and a little bit further away from the original cast.
-He has arguably the best mobility out of all characters; he has a normal character's jump height with Rosalina's double jump, along with floating abilities and the ability to jump even higher with a bomb combo.
-Being a one-hit KO balances this out, and the tradeoff between these things heavily influences what levels he is good at.
-His relative usefulness is inversely proportional to the number of powerups in the level.
-Long levels that give a decently generous number of powerups are not his strong suit, as it's very easy to make a slipup when the level is long and expects you to have a hit.
-He's terrible at fighting bosses that provide a powerup spawner. This is worth almost infinite HP for characters with 2+ hits, but is almost completely worthless for Ninja Bomberman.
-He's mediocre at water levels, since the firepower from his bombs and his jumping abilities help very little, so his advantages are moot.
-On the other hand, he's great at open levels with a lot of enemies since he can float over everything with aerial bombardment.
-He's great at levels where platforming is the largest obstacle and the most likely cause of death is a OHKO anyways (like falling down a hole). However, he likes lava/spike ceilings a lot less than Rosalina.
-He's great at defeating things that are normally difficult to kill, like Thwomps.
-Unlike most characters without spinjumps, he can probably get past most obstacles that would require them with some clever bomb combos.
-Powerups probably aren't a focus here. He already has firepower, and needs to get a completely worthless mushroom before he'll get anything of use.
-Fire/Ice balls give him a way of attacking far in front of him, which he can use.
-The leaf is basically worthless, even moreso than for Rosalina. I can just do a short hop and drop a bomb in most circumstances where a leaf would be useful, and he can already float. Fireballs are much better for him.
-I still have no clue what the Hammer Bros. Suit does. :P

Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 30 Oct 2016, 02:18
by Lockirby2
It's Wario time!

Wario is much different from the other characters so far. I messed up "Suddenly and Inadvertantly Climb" because I forgot about his "charge" mechanic, and I also messed up "Stressfully Fly in Japan", as I didn't realize that Wario doesn't fly at "charging" speed.

Some Observations:

-I think the shop system is meant to be one of Wario's defining features, and I think it completely fits the bill.
-The shop compensates for Wario's drawbacks, so he's weak in levels where he can't put it to good use.
-Wario technically has no reserve powerup, and therefore no extra hits after he's hit once. But if he has 100 coins in reserve, he arguably has five reserve mushrooms if there's nothing blocking the delivery.
-Wario can smuggle powerups into levels where you were intended to have none. Even if there are no coins scattered about, enemies will still have them.
-Levels with low ceilings, like caves, are basically Wario's Kryptonite, since he can't call Lakitu.
-Levels with few coins or enemies are harsh as well, but far less common.
-Fire Balls, Ice Balls, and the Leaf are all great boosts for Wario, and he has more flexibility than usual when deciding when to pick.
-Fire Balls and Ice Balls are huge, so they're probably really easy to hit with, unless there's some hitbox dissonance going on.
-He can reach flying speed with very little space compared to other characters.
-Unlike the other low mobility characters (Bowser and Mega Man), Wario has less chance of getting stuck.
-If he would be stuck otherwise, he may be able to pay for a Leaf/Ice Flower to fly or freeze enemies.
-In some cases, he can also "charge" to jump a little bit higher.
-I didn't find many uses for "charging" in this video, but I feel like it will be rewarding to find uses for it sometimes.
-Wario's large sprite and slow speed make avoiding damage difficult.
-Many horizontal speed sections will be impossible with Wario (unless "charging" is useful). The ones that aren't will be a joke with Toad.
-Vertical speed sections are actually a lot more balanced between the different members of the cast, unless that member is called Ninja Bomberman. :P
-Crawling is a nice quality of life thing. I can imagine obstacles that only Wario could make it through while big.



Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 04 Nov 2016, 02:08
by Lockirby2
The next character is Bowser.

Holy cow is Bowser hard to play. If it weren't for the fact that he gains a bajillion lives whenever he uses the fireballs, completing the Mario Challenge would have been pretty difficult. Note that by the end of the video I have been LPing for 2.5 hours straight (in total between Ninja Bomberman, Wario and this), so my speech starts to become a little disjointed. I kept in some footage from the first two levels even though I get nowhere because I wanted to show my first attempts at playing with him.




Some Observations:
-Bowser is probably the most likely character to be forced to reroll since he is the least maneuverable character in the game and can't make jumps that other characters find easy.
-Bowser *really* likes powerup blocks.
-One major advantage that Bowser has is that he will always gain a second-tier powerup from a powerup block, unlike other characters who will get a mushroom at low HP.
-This makes it really easy to reach a powerup state with Bowser, as there is often a powerup block towards the start of a level that other characters cannot capitalize on.
-Fireballs are really powerful, as they destroy virtually anything; I figure that they have the properties of a thrown shell.
-Fireballs also allow combos to get tons of lives. I'd guess that this is a bug rather than a feature, and I also suspect that everybody is already aware of this.
-The Leaf is great for Bowser, as it gives him some much needed mobility, and a really high vertical jump height.
-Strong powerup usage is probably Bowser's greatest strength.
-Bowser can punch by default, but it's so slow that you have to be very careful not to careen into something, or fall too low if in the water.
-Bowser doesn't like moving platforms since he finds it difficult to do the quick dodging that is often required, and if you punch it's very easy to fall off.
-Bowser's minion system is a really flavourful addition, but I struggle to find practical uses for some of his minions.
-The minions that just run forward usually don't do anything that I couldn't have done just by walking forwards and punching a little further ahead.
-Parakoopas could probably make a nice shield, but they're more effective if you have the chance to set it up ahead of time.
-Setting up the shield in the middle of combat (or to deal with Rinkas) is difficult because you have to do a slow punch to get it started.
-Minions don't help at all with platforming, which is Bowser's largest weakness.
-I still don't know what all the powerup types or minions do, but they aren't available in every level anyways, so I feel like I still have a pretty good idea of how Bowser plays on average.

Some Suggestions (no clue about their feasibility):
-I think Bowser should be tankier than he is. I'd imagine that Bowser would take more hits than other characters, not less. In my opinion, at least, the optimal system would be that Bowser would still get a second-tier powerup from every block (regardless of HP), but he'd gain two extra hits instead of one. This would solidify him as the tankiest character in the game without giving him four hits (which would be a boring idea).
-I think that Bowser should run by default (without having to hold Y) like Link does. Right now, you have to punch in order to start running, which is hilariously slow. Other characters like Klonoa (as mentioned in the other thread) have this problem as well, but it's to a lesser extent.

Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 08 Nov 2016, 04:51
by Lockirby2
Pop Quiz time!

Which of these three things do you think took me the longest?

A) Making it through Murder Death Place Zone
B) Defeating RPGfan's Flandre battle
C) Winning five ordinary, run-of-the-mill levels with Snake

Okay, it was A, but my point is that none of these were all that far off from each other. I may have had a couple nitpicks about Bowser, but Snake is a whole other beast. Since I've never played Metal Gear Solid, there's a chance that I missed things though. After I played for about 40 minutes, I realized that it would take a while and moved on to some other characters so that I wouldn't lose my momentum. I came back at a later date and continued attempts until I won.

I'll mention what exactly happened on the last playthrough (the part after the over-the-top transition) because I cut a lot out of the video and the counters at the bottom-right corner may not make sense at first glance.

1. I beat some SMB1 style level from the Princess Cliche. At the end of this level an error occurred, which may or may not be the same one that happened in Chaos House. I restarted the Mario Challenge because of this error, although I reduced the number of exits to four to compensate for the level that I already beat. This brought me back up to five lives, admittedly, but I'll take that as payment for dealing with the bug. :P
2. After rerolling out of impossible levels several times, I came across the library from A2XT, which I could just walk out of. Sometime between this level and the third, SMBX gave another error. This time I forgot to reduce the number of exits though, so my counter says 1/4 when it should be 3/5.
3. I came across CastlePokeMetroid's automatic level from MAGLX. This level turned out not only to be doable (albeit difficult), but it also contained a life farm to reach 99 lives. This was necessary both to beat this level and to ascertain that the next few levels were impossible.
4. Yoshi's House
5. A slightly different Yoshi's House
6. Since my level counter was incorrect, I planned on godmoding through a level to get a proper ending screen. However, I came across Luna Tower, which meant that I could just skip to the end anyways.

I captured one error message with Snipping Tool since it wasn't captured by OBS. However, that stack trace doesn't correspond to either of the errors that occurred in this video. I can dig the footage that corresponds with my image out of my archives if it is helpful though.

Image


Leaves are allergic to Snake apparently. They fly off to the right instantly after they spawn.
Snake can also use Link's upstab attack if he jumps out of water or off a note block, which I assume is unintentional.
Snake also can't bounce high off springs at all. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but it prevents him from beating a lot of levels.




And finally, some observations:
-Searchlights don't appear until the enemies spawn. Normally when enemies spawn you still have to walk half a screen to reach them, so running into them is unlikely. But avoiding the searchlight is more difficult because it already extends across a third of the screen before you know it is there, so you only have about a sixth of the screen in breathing room before you touch it.
-Very few Mario levels seem to offer stealth options, so often the only tactic is to run up to the enemy and kill it ASAP before anything spawns.
-Sometimes enemies take a while to spawn after I touch the searchlight, but sometimes they spawn directly on top of me almost instantly. I thought that waiting a while between triggering searchlights might prevent this, but it doesn't seem to. This means that I have to cross my fingers that I won't die every time I trigger a searchlight.
-Avoiding searchlights is extra difficult because Snake's poor mobility prevents him from doing things like jumping onto objects to get over them, or jumping over searchlights entirely.
-Snake likes water levels a lot since he has 2D movement and more cover than usual, allowing him to use stealth sometimes.
-Snake's C4 powerup is difficult to use effectively except against single enemies that I really need to avoid.
-Using C4 against, say, three Goombas walking towards me across flat ground is pretty tedious.
-C4 gives no way to attack remotely, which makes it harder to use than the standard fire powerups.
-C4 can kill Boos (and similar enemies) though, which is nice.
-Tranquilizer darts are pretty cool, although they are more or less strictly worse than ice balls since the enemies will eventually wake up and the bullets travel really slowly.
-Althletic Armor allows Snake to jump higher. In other words, it makes him *almost* as good at platforming as most of the other cast members.
-This is often very much needed, and I always choose it over the other powerups if given the choice.
-Playing Snake with the Athletic Armor is not only easier, but also more fun than playing with regular Snake because I feel like I have more options for stealth (and I don't have to reroll the level every two seconds).
-The Stealth box doesn't give Snake the Athletic Armor's benefits like most Tanooki powerups do. :(
-Somehow I never acquire a Hammer Bros. Suit the entire time! :P
-Only having two hits doesn't help either, but it's fitting for Snake.
-Overall, it feels like Snake doesn't work at all unless levels are made specifically for him, since he's very underpowered compared to the others.
-This may not be the biggest issue ever in a full game since Snake could be forced onto players only in levels that suit him. However, in the Mario Challenge he is nearly unplayable.

A Suggestion:
The most common places I got stuck with either Bowser or Snake were places that I just needed to jump a tile or so higher to get past. I feel that if there were a way to jump a tile or two higher that is really awkward to use for platforming in most circumstances, it could prevent many unwinnable situations while preserving their status as "characters that don't platform very well".

After spending so much time writing that, I was automatically logged out from the Talkhaus. Thank goodness I never trust forums and always copy posts to the clipboard before hitting "Submit". :P

Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 12 Nov 2016, 04:23
by Lockirby2
And now for the Hero of Hyrule! Well, the one that isn't Link, anyways. Note that I made a mistake and managed to accidentally turn on One Hit KO mode, so some of my analysis in the video is way off. I hit the OHKO mode block to demo Zelda's Ocarina in the intro room, and then played Zelda's Ocarina to "turn it off" again. However, this only reset the visual state of the block without turning off OHKO mode. I really should have seen that coming, in hindsight, but I didn't.

Zelda's Ocarina is one of my favourite concepts from SMBX 2.0. I really like the idea of sending either blocks, enemies, or yourself back to a preset point in time.




A couple issues:
-At 3:46, I teleport and somehow end up with a Snifit bullet in my hand. I assume that a Snifit fired at the same time as I teleported. At the time, I assumed that I had plucked a Snifit bullet out of the grass and forgot I was holding it, but in editing I noticed it was clearly a bug.
-At 8:21, the game crashed. It's worth noting that I pressed the button to play the Ocarina at that exact moment. I suspect the blocks changed because of an event during the boss fight at the exact moment that I played the Ocarina, although I can't prove that. There was no error message; the game just softlocked.
-There were a couple times that I felt it might be possible to get stuck by teleporting into a place Zelda wasn't meant to go. I note this at 16:25. I never tried it though, so I'm not sure. I'm not sure if this is doable to fix without removing beneficial stuff.

Some Observations:
-Zelda's normal jumps are as high as Luigi's, and her teleports go even higher, giving her probably the best vertical jump height in the game unless Ninja Bomberman can combo something.
-There's no limitation to the teleport, so you can use it as much as you want.
-Thanks to having the "block reset" Ocarina while small/big, Zelda can always get two powerups from a block. Play the Ocarina, grab the mushroom, play the Ocarina twice, grab a powerup, play the Ocarina again to reset the block a second time, and grab a second powerup. This is insanely powerful, and gives Zelda the tankiness I wish Bowser had instead. I never do this entirely in the video though, probably because I was distracted by talking.
-The most obvious use of the teleport version is to save yourself from falling down the hole after a tricky jump. However, this backup system is nerfed by the fact that you can't bring the teleport spot with you.
-In some levels that rely on holes/platforming as a major obstacle, this could probably almost be considered a save state that you can place anywhere.
-Yoshi cloning is another great use for this.
-Teleporting to the other side of the screen quickly could be very useful in some boss fights. Bosses made for Fire Zelda could be very interesting, if you can avoid the issue of what to do with a small Zelda (after the boss hits her) without being lazy and shoving a powerup spawner in.
-The enemy remembering Leaf is probably the hardest to use because it's very easy to spawn an enemy on your head if you don't remember/know where it was when you played the Ocarina initially.
-It works best on enemies that start far away and come closer to you over time, like Boos/Rinkas.
-It would also work nicely in "elevator of death" levels since you could likely respawn most of the tricky enemies below the elevator instead of on top of it.
-Overall, it's satisfying to find uses for her Ocarina.
-There are probably a great many more things I could say, but I'll leave it at that.
-Other than changing her Ocarina, Zelda's powerups play similar to Mario or Luigi's, although she can gain a lot of distance floating with her tail after teleporting.
-One downside is that Zelda may be a be a bit OP. She's not as OP as Snake is UP though.
-Zelda has Luigi's jump height (and better when using the teleport) with no maneuverability issues, will be in a double powerup state after every block, her Ocarina powerups can trivialize many levels that rely on gimmicks, and she can space-time-rewind out of holes.
-She basically obsoletes Luigi in every way. I can only spot two direct obsoletions in the rest of the cast. The first is Link > Snake (although that is a little arguable, since Link's Fire powerup doesn't blow stuff up, but that's small enough that I'll count it), and the second is Toad > Mario (but people will still pick Mario anyways when they want a neutral experience for a level. Also, some people may not like Toad's throwing angle or HP system, so that's something at least).

Some Suggestions:
-Perhaps you should take away Zelda's extra powerup box. She doesn't need it, thematically or mechanically. Honestly, I wasn't having many issues even with OHKO mode on.

Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 12 Nov 2016, 13:29
by Hoeloe
Lockirby2 wrote: -Teleporting to the other side of the screen quickly could be very useful in some boss fights. Bosses made for Fire Zelda could be very interesting, if you can avoid the issue of what to do with a small Zelda (after the boss hits her) without being lazy and shoving a powerup spawner in.
You won't know this because you played with OHKO mode on, but when Zelda takes damage, her Ocarina mode is retained. Small Zelda can use any of the Ocarina modes, depending on which you had last. This would make this kind of boss fight totally doable without a powerup spawner, and I'd really like to see some people try it.


The thing with the sniffit bullet is a bug, and I know what causes it. Need to work out a suitable fix.

Removing her secondary powerup may be a good idea, as she is fairly powerful. It needs some discussion among the developers first, though.

Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 13 Nov 2016, 04:22
by Lockirby2
You won't know this because you played with OHKO mode on, but when Zelda takes damage, her Ocarina mode is retained. Small Zelda can use any of the Ocarina modes, depending on which you had last. This would make this kind of boss fight totally doable without a powerup spawner, and I'd really like to see some people try it.
Sweet! That works out nicely.

Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 16 Nov 2016, 01:09
by Lockirby2
Mega Man is really powerful. If I had a choice between all the characters for a given level, and if I were choosing based solely on who would make the level the easiest, I'd probably choose him, Zelda, or Rosalina/Peach most often.




Some Observations:
-Mega Man is the only character to open a level with full HP (unless you count somebody like Ninja Bomberman).
-This means that Mega Man is great for dealing with levels that have a lack of powerups.
-Additionally, Mega Man has access to some of the best firepower in the game, even without a powerup (many characters need a powerup to have any firepower at all).
-I constantly charge Mega Man's blaster. I know some people don't, but I consider it similar to always holding "run" when playing as Mario.
-Mega Man can easily deal with virtually any enemy in the game.
-He can quickly destroy fragile enemies like Piranha Plants with light shots, and has the easiest time defeating enemies that Mario traditionally finds hard to kill (like Boos and Thwomps).
-Combine this with his high HP, and enemies have a very low chance of killing him unless I'm playing sloppily, they knock him down a hole, or the level is something that Mario would struggle with a lot.
-Because of this, Mega Man would probably destroy water levels, although I never entered one with him.
-Levels with platforming are not as much of a strength.
-If the level just requires maneuverability, he's fine since he can turn on a dime.
-His jump height is capable of reaching anything the majority of the cast can reach.
-However, his horizontal jumping distance is lackluster since he falls so quickly. If a level is incompletable, it's probably because of this
-It's really cool how you can select Mega Man's weapons like in the normal games.
-Mega Man's Fire Shot is about as powerful as the charged blaster, but I can react more quickly to things.
-It's also harder to hit with though.
-I never acquired any other powerups, which is a shame because there probably would have been a lot more to say, and I can't remember enough about the demo to comment.
-Being able to switch between powerups at will, and not losing powerups after getting hit means that Mega Man doesn't have to worry about losing his powerup state.
-Mega Man's ammo didn't really affect me much. I found that I often tended to get another powerup before he actually ran out of ammo, even if I didn't conserve at all.

Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 18 Nov 2016, 19:58
by Lockirby2
Next up is Metroid... er... Samus (please don't kill me).

Samus plays most similarly to Mega Man, but there's still a lot to differentiate them.




An issue:
-If I turn around right beside a wall, and go into morph ball mode, I can phase through the wall (see 5:57)

Some Observations:
-Samus' shots are thankfully just low enough to kill one tile high enemies.
-Samus has the best mobility while ducking on the ground, but really poor mobility while ducking in the air, so she can have problems hitting her head on the ceiling.
-Samus' bombs have a lot of small uses, but don't tend to destroy everything in sight, which is good.
-The bombs are great for ghost houses, since it's really easy to lure Boos into the radius of the bombs. Big Boos die in one hit, too.
-Bomb jumping allows me to get a tiny bit of extra height, making some vertical jumps that are otherwise just out of reach awkward, but doable.
-I find it really unintuitive to come out of the morph ball by pressing down a second time, but I'm guessing that's how it worked in Metroid.
-Bombs can also hit blocks from underneath, although it can be dangerous to stand on them while doing so if Poison Mushrooms are on the table.
-Samus has neither the best nor the worst jumping ability, so some areas can stump her, but she's not as helpless as Bowser.
-Samus' climbing on vines, etc. is really weird.
-As long as I move forward really slowly, Samus is often very well protected from enemies, who will almost always run into the blaster before they run into her.
-I noticed in editing that 1-ups are what gives Samus extra max HP. I might actually go out of my way for some of them now. :P
-The missiles from the Fire Flower have great range, but they are weaker than the regular bullets.
-For example, regular bullets can kill Buzzy Beetles, but missiles can't.
-Sometimes I'd prefer not to even grab the missiles.
-The Ice Shot is also a tradeoff. Since the ice blocks can't be grabbed by Samus, often they will just be in my way.
-This could make platforming really difficult if the block is in the wrong spot.
-On the other hand, the Ice Shot can also create extra platforms if timed correctly, and it might be able to defeat enemies that the blaster can't.
-The Jetpack is Samus' powerup of choice for sure.
-It gives her the largest number of jumps of any character, which gives her a lot of flexibility in the air.
-Sometimes she needs it to jump over gaps, too.
-Samus isn't very dependent on powerups to do well, on the whole.
-Overall, Samus is really fun to play.

Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 22 Nov 2016, 04:09
by Lockirby2
Klonoa's turn.

Klonoa is really fun to play and arguably the most unique of the cast.




Some issues:
-In the first stage, some of the coins were incorrectly shown with vine-head graphics. Similar issues with coin graphics happened a couple times off camera. In one stage I got the amusing effect of every coin looking like Foroze.
-At 10:16, I got into a boot while holding an item. The item's graphic remained floating in midair, and later when I jumped out of the boot I threw it from my current position. It seems like Klonoa immediately throws what he's holding after getting out of a boot or a pipe, unless you aren't holding Y, in which case you can't run.

Some Observations:
-Klonoa's horizontal jumping distance is enormous, especially if he's holding an enemy for an extra boost.
-His vertical jumping height doesn't exactly match it though. Even with an enemy to boost his jump and a well timed flutter, I don't think he beats Luigi in that department.
-Although his mobility reaches nice distances, he can't control how long he flutters for, and his controls are rather slippery, so he plays awkwardly when precision is required.
-Klonoa is also great for ghost houses, since he can throw Boos (and possibly Eeries).
-I like how throwing the enemies plays into both platforming and fighting.
-Klonoa can't throw above himself, so hitting switches and enemies in that direction is tricky.
-Klonoa can't duck, which makes him a large target. Even Bowser and Wario arguably have an easier time avoiding obstacles, and Mega Man has much better HP.
-Therefore, Klonoa likes levels with a lot of enemies, but not levels with damaging hazards. Holes are okay though.
-I'm sure that Klonoa focused boss fights would be really fun.
-Klonoa's Fire powerup is weird. I can't imagine ever actually aiming for something with his fireballs that I wouldn't just be hitting with his throw anyways.
-Klonoa's Ice powerup is cool because it allows positioning ice platforms exactly where I want them to be, instead of having to freeze enemies in place where I need them.
-It also allows reusing ammo. That being said, ammo isn't exactly scarce.
-Off camera I got a Leaf. It gave his flying a bit more height, but it wasn't earth shattering.
-Given the choice of the three I'd choose the Ice powerup, but I don't feel like Klonoa is focused on powerups much.
-I got a Hammer Suit off camera as well, but I lost it before I could determine what it did. :(

EDIT: One idea I had was making an option that turns off characters filters for the Mario challenge. That is, it will prevent Luna filters from activating, and will allow you to pass through character blocks even if you are the wrong character. I'm not sure how feasible it is, but it could open up otherwise unplayable levels to the new characters. Some levels that were very much intended for the original characters would fall flat of course, but I still think it would be a nice option to have.

Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 25 Nov 2016, 03:52
by Lockirby2
Now it's time to play as... um... I honestly have no clue. So I'll treat this character as her alternate costume Alfador.

Alfador is strange, but fun to play. He dies in one hit like Ninja Bomberman, which seems like it would make him suck a lot, but I find that it actually works out okay. Unfortunately, only one of the levels I got in this video really shows him off.




Some issues:
-At 2:52, I started a level inside the water. It seemed like I got automatically ejected and brought to the next level as a safeguard because I'd just constantly die upon entering the water. However, this also counted as beating the level, which is strange.
-At 4:07, I managed to phase through the ground and die when using the boot.
-At 5:56, I collect a Tanooki Suit. Despite Alfador not using powerups usually, I was able to get some buggy effects by pressing the button to turn into a statue.
-At 7:37, I can't jump out of the boot because Alfador's spin jump button does nothing. The same problem happens with the clown car.
-At 15:37, I die because Alfador sometimes uses his second jump instead of his first when jumping off a vine. This means that sometimes I can jump off a vine and use a double jump, and sometimes I can't double jump off a vine.

Some observations:
-Alfador is perhaps the most maneuverable member of the cast.
-In SMBX 2.0, most characters take a while to gain momentum or are just slow to begin with.
-Mega Man doesn't deal with momentum, but he has a large hitbox and falls quickly when he jumps.
-However, Alfador reaches his top speed almost instantly, has two jumps, a tiny hitbox, and the ability to cling to walls.
-I do a poor job in the video of utilizing the wall clinging in this video, but it can be very useful when it's useful.
-Obviously, Alfador will be great in vertical levels, and he can probably break some elevator style levels.
-Wall clinging can also work to avoid enemies' attacks, since many of them will be at ground level.
-Alfador really likes throwable items like shells and keys. He can protect himself very well if I play my cards right.
-He also really likes to take things slowly and carefully.
-Alfador can't even enter water levels, which is okay because he probably wouldn't be good at them anyways.
-He also can't use powerups, which means that this description will be shorter than usual. :P

Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 28 Nov 2016, 04:43
by Lockirby2
The last (or so it seems) character to play is Uncle Broadsword.

Uncle Broadsword plays like a weird mix between Link and Sword Kirby. He reminds me of Kirby because I feel like a lot of his moves tend to be fun to use and add flair when killing minor enemies, even if they aren't necessarily helpful when you think about it more analytically.

The video is a little bit longer than I'd like. I try to keep them from 15-30 minutes, but this is partially beta-testing here, so my priority is to keep in all the information I think is useful, as well as what's entertaining. I did the first recording session after playing most of the rest of the characters, so I had been LPing for the majority of the four preceding hours. Because of this, I am lower energy and half the things I say/do are just garbage. As for the second recording session, I had just finished my run with Snake, so I hope you like hearing me make fun of him. :P

I must have deleted a clip at 16:25. Oops... Nothing super important happened though, it's arguably better this way.




Some issues:
-At 10:21, I have a Leaf and I grab a shell. This allows me to jump indefinitely.
-At 21:21, a similar issue pops up to the one I had with Snake.
-At 29:44, I fight the Notion Thief. It seems like when the cutscenes here occur, Uncle Broadsword will react as if I pressed and held the slash button. If he's on the ground, this causes him to charge indefinitely, preventing the cutscene from continuing. I broke out of this with cheat codes.

Some Observations:
-Uncle Broadsword loses momentum if he slashes while moving in the air, but keeps momentum if he slashes while sliding across the ground.
-He is basically the opposite of Link in that regard.
-Because of this, he really doesn't like standing on a moving platform. If I try to jump and slash something above me, he'll stop and the platform will travel out from beneath him.
-However, sometimes it can be useful to hover for a bit before falling to the ground if there's danger below.
-Unlike Link, who will slash continuously if I press the slash button, Uncle Broadsword will do a two hit combo (assuming no powerup) and pause for a bit.
-If I'm being careless, it's entirely possible for an enemy to slip in and hit him during that pause.
-His platforming ability is better than Link, although he does lack a shield.
-Uncle Broadsword also can't slash in the water, which means that he is mediocre in water levels.
-Weirdly, Uncle Broadsword actually gets a few new abilities with a simple Mushroom.
-He can now do a three hit combo, which means nothing can hit him during the pause in his combo.
-The final stab of this combo cleans through glass boxes, and maybe some bosses too.
-It also means that he can get some extra distance in the air if I mess up a jump.
-He also gains a downstab ability. It's easy to mess up and send yourself rocketing down a hole.
-That being said, it's cool/useful when I actually intend to use it.
-Finally, he gains the ability to charge up his sword and slash.
-I can't think of any reason why this would be useful over a simple combo, but it looks cool!
-Ironically (considering how many abilities Uncle Broadsword gets with a mushroom), the Fire Flower does basically nothing as far as I can tell.
-It allows him to cut through ice blocks, but I can't see anything else that it does. Am I missing something?
-I got the Ice Sword off camera. It is basically short range Iceballs. Still, Uncle Broadsword can grab, it's not a waste of time
-The Leaf is probably Uncle Broadsword's powerup of choice. All the jump height of Luigi with the double jump of Toad gives him some serious air-time.
-Not to mention he already has all the attacking covered.
-I think Uncle Broadsword fits in nicely with the original cast.

Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 01 Dec 2016, 20:03
by Lockirby2
I wanted to make an extra video in this series to play Shuffle Mode at least once.




Some issues:
-In the level at 3:26, the background didn't load.
-At 6:30, I throw Fireballs at a random patch of rock with Wario and start getting infinite coins.
-At 11:05, the level has difficulty loading for some reason. This is a level I played with Ninja Bomberman in this series, so I'm not sure what the issue is.
-Off camera, slamming a text box with Uncle Broadsword's Tanooki Suit statue from above crashed the game for me. I have no clue if this is a recurring issue.
-Running out of time in time trial mode crashes the game for me. I also seem to get more crashes in general while playing time trial, although maybe that is just happenstance.

Shuffle Mode works the same way as Super Mario Bros. Crossover's random character selection, which is what I was hoping for. If one character can't handle a level, then you will roll a new character after they die. Rerolling and completing levels also switches the character. Being able to reroll characters as well as levels would be an improvement, but it's great even without that feature. Adding more randomness is generally fun. :)

I will also take a moment to mention some extra characters that appear in Shuffle Mode. First off, I turned into a giant Rinka somewhere during this video. The Rinka has a surprising amount of depth for a joke character (although it would be OP if I compared it as if it was a member of the main cast). When it has Fire or Ice balls, it can launch a special attack that has a cooldown if you press the right button. This special attack can't really be aimed, but it fires off a shower of projectiles from above the Rinka. The Rinka can also acquire rinkas as ammo, allowing it to perform a separate attack that can be aimed more easily. Since it can fly, it can basically trivialize any platforming segments.

I also ran into something even weirder off camera, which was some sort of white rinka dressed as Rosalina. After a few seconds, some text displayed on screen saying "Rinkas Incoming", and some dark balls of death started spawning around me. When I was hit by one, I immediately got a game over even though I still had lives left. WTF?

So that's the end of this series. I hope that people found it interesting and/or informative. I'm not sure what I'm going to do next in terms of videos. Thanks to everybody who is contributing to SMBX 2.0!

Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 02 Dec 2016, 07:49
by Hoeloe
Horikawa Otane wrote:Smaaaall chance of ending up as PR in shuffle mode.
The exact chance is 1/324.

Re: A Mario Challenge Video Series

Posted: 02 Dec 2016, 17:55
by Lockirby2
Horikawa Otane wrote: Heh. You discovered the two secret characters - Ultimate Rinka and Princess Rinka. Smaaaall chance of ending up as PR in shuffle mode. One of PR's gimmicks is... Instant game over. >_>
I had a feeling that the instant game over was intentional. I was wondering before if there were any more characters who are unlikely to show up. I guess I have my answer now. :)