S.P.L.U.C.E. - What's that random reference?!

[YelseyKing]

What was the song for the first level of today's video? I know I've heard it, but I can't recall *where*.

[Leet]

i want a Problem Sleuth level in world 5 now that's a good mspa

[BobisOnlyBob]

[Menshay]

The new Thwimp is Bronzor. Were cement MissingNo. and the Thwomps also replaced?

[Minnakht]

So it was said. Maybe we'll see them in the Tower of Trails, after all, towers are a natural Thwomp habitat as far as I know.

...maybe they'll be Bronzongs! Man, that'd be swell, Bronzor is actually one of my favorite Pokemanns, so by extension Bronzong is as well.
Dunno what could the walky Rocklops be, though. Haven't played the game myself, or rather I'm not playing it, so all I can do is bet.

[skyluigi2]

Well, considering Thwimps were Bronzor, I'm willing to bet the Thwomps are Bronzong. But yeah, the walking ones? There're literally hundreds of Pokemon they could be.

[Menshay]

So it turns out that Thwomp is Claydol and Chain Chomp is Ferroseed. I0m really curious about cement MissingNo. now. Yes, that was a shiny Blastoise. Yes, Shell Smash is a move but Blastoise can't learn it.

[jayScribble]

The Thwomps are Claydol, a Gen 3 Pokemon, and the Chomp-Chomps are Ferroseed, a Gen 5 Pokemon.

The end part really got me there.

[Unaniem]

Yeah, this time around it's definitely a bash for reusing the same boss so quickly in row, aye'.
Did production have two versions of the Koopa boss? (One normal and one which bounces more + few extra hits?)

The best part for me about the 'trap' was that I was already expecting a barrier of sorts to show up, seeing how it was mentioned earlier in the thread that you'd need all the Pokéballs to get 100%. The feeling of "expected" disappointment flowing away like a one-shot waterfall is pretty neat.

[Validon98]

Well two bosses that are almost exactly the same besides like one or two things is kind of... disappointing. On the other hand, that fake "YOU NEEDS ALL POKECOINS TO DO SUPER BONUS LEVEL" thing was kind of hilarious, and I'm glad it's not serious. Especially since this game does not track your Pokecoin collection like in some of the VIPs.

[Alice]

raocow, how could you? Look at how sad they are!

[raocow]

It was legitimate self defense!!

[morsel/morceau]

As regards the "fake dificulty" changes from the version raocow began with all I've noticed is the second half of star world 1-1 is now a star run, and the world 4 castle is about half the length it was (there were two extra spotlight sections). I'll be interested to see if the final boss is any different because it seemed a pretty bullshit set-up to me when I played it.

[yogui]

But they are different, the other one is shiny and bounce more.
Actually I think it would have been alright to use these two bosses if only it wasn't in the level right after (but would have been even better if it was a Venusaur since we already encountered a Charizard and a Blastoise).

And now the true final level. I don't really remember about it except that it was pretty long and hard and that the level crashed if I restarted from the midpoint. But I'm sure it should be fixed now.

[Mata Hari]

How can he replace the Thwomps and leave the Munchers intact? He should be ashamed of himself.

[Minnakht]

Anyone else playing this that has found out what the walky Rocklops replacement is? I'm curious.

[Unaniem]

Anyone else playing this that has found out what the walky Rocklops replacement is? I'm curious.

I would like to add a question to this; what Is the intro text that introduced us to the blockmon at the beginning of Castle #1 changed to? (if it's even there)

[Mineyl]

Yeah, I crooked an eyebrow at the Pokecoin barrier because people were saying earlier in the thread that they'd be useless. Glad to see that that was the case!

Also, no idea why the wall triangles were wigging out on you. The author actually put the correct tile underneath them, so they should function correctly.

Anyone else playing this that has found out what the walky Rocklops replacement is? I'm curious.

I would like to add a question to this; what Is the intro text that introduced us to the blockmon at the beginning of Castle #1 changed to? (if it's even there)

The Rocklops got replaced with Geodudes, and as a bonus, the swinging pendulums are now Solrock and Lunatone. Also, that message box is missing, now!

[freelop]

Can't help but wonder if the original green boss caused earthquakes with his bounces.
That would have caused a bit of extra garbage difficulty

[The Doctor]

Can't help but wonder if the original green boss caused earthquakes with his bounces.
That would have caused a bit of extra garbage difficulty

Yup, earthquakes were plentiful. :(

[swirlybomb]

CRISIS AVERTED


I thought that dragonball gate was too ridiculous to be true at first, but then just for a quick moment I got slightly worried >_> But it's all good, baby. I suppose the 'infinity' symbol is intended as another hint that it's not for real (that is, in addition to coin collection not being marked on the overworld plus people here saying so).

I wonder what the finale will be! This hack has kinda been all over the place.

[Leet]

that was a fantastical jokegate

reminds me of this one part in anodyne

by the way, yall, i just remembered that scarlet devil mario series had so many non-mario non-touhou references in them, so whats the difference between that and this HMMMMM????????? (exaggerated intrigue)

[skyluigi2]

This hack has kinda been all over the place.

This basically sums everything up. It really has; it's had good portions... and um, very uh... questionable sections. Looking forward to seeing what's waiting in the finale, though! I hope this game goes out on a good note.

[Yikes]

For me, the hack was as good as it's worst levels. All the normal levels were just there and were not memorable at all, while all the bad levels just stuck out.

I was rewatching Mario Gives Up 2 and was surprised how similar some of the gimmick levels are compared to SPLUCE. MGU 2 had a Meteor stage, it had a minecart-level and it had all that fancy custom stuff. It just feels like MGU 2 did almost everything right.

Playing through SPLUCE made me better at playing Mario Games. No more, no less. Also raocow should have used an infinite lives cheat (C222-D4DD) for this one. Getting the dragon coins is ridiculous, farming 20 lives with the star in world 1 feels redundant and not having a bonus stage after 100 goal points is a questionable design decision to say the least.

Well, I'll always remember this video series for being a thing.

[Unaniem]

This hack was weird.

Like said millions of times before in the thread, the quality of the hack is all over the place. From decent normals levels, to bad gimmick levels, to clever wrap-arounds, to terribad (albeit optional) levels, to out of place references, to silly jokes, to dumb bosses, to clever ideas, to reusing bosses too quickly after one another and so forth.

I constantly want to give the final level the benefit of being the last level in an already somewhat tough hack (to justify its giant length), and it re-exploring previously used gimmicks and small callbacks is a thing I absolutely adore in final stages, but this level just sort of collapsed on itself in trying to be as ambitious as a finale can be, and just going too far in what it was trying to do, which I find a really big shame.

Considering the final boss was a reuse of an otherwise not all that great previous boss is something I find to be really disappointing. Sure, I said that I thought the "same-boss but different environment" idea was creative before, but when you apply it to the final boss and don't even have it hold a relation to the previous one story or concept wise (like I think the Blastoises could still theoretically work somewhat in this scenario), I just find to be lazy.

Let's just say that I think the hack could've been many times better than it ended up being in the end, but isn't the abysmal of all that is terrible either. Eh.


Also: The fact that both Homestuck and ponies ended up being at least mentioned in the final level I find to be somewhat humorous, albeit not in the way the creator intended to.