A2XT: It's Over

[SAJewers]

I like how raocow requested a series of Easter Eggs in the Towns, then proceeds to not look for it in the first Town.

[Menshay]

King Pineapple, Lord of Snakes, Scourge of the Underworld (please let this be his actual canon name thanks) is this game's generic SMB1 Bowser replacement.

Is it actually possible to enter the men's bathroom in the pub with raocow or Kood?

If I recall correctly both remaining World 1 levels are quite short so yeah, one more video should be enough.

[raocow]

I like how raocow requested a series of Easter Eggs in the Towns, then proceeds to not look for it in the first Town.

Oh that made it in ? Oh dang!

[Willhart]

The first level was pretty good at showcasing some of the more harder enemies in the game.
All of the towns were made by different people and most of them have secrets to find.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

[jayScribble]

Confusing an apple with a jet engine: heck yeah!

"Dense Jangle" is one short and fair level, which also demonstrates some of the difficult enemies that will be seeing more of.

I'll wait upon for raocow to show most of the easter eggs within "Steeltown Mine Co." to get a few words on the town.

[Sebby19]

Another question: Since when did Demo get a dog? Who is the dog?

Also, I recommend watching Bombman in the mine do his work.

[glitch4]

Holy crap in Steeltown Mine Co, I missed a vine block that leads to teh skies. I still got all the leeks in world 1 ftw.

also Dense Jangle is sooooo decent level.

[Willhart]

Another question: Since when did Demo get a dog? Who is the dog?

Some of the new graphic replacements are tied to the story somehow. I don't really know all of the details. The new sprites took a long time to make, since the earlier hacks/episodes did not have enough of them to replace everything.

[ano0maly]

Whatever happened to Con?

It's interesting that these giant towns are generally not liked in games like Castlevania II, but they're fun here. There's been a tendency to make overly large levels with SMBX, but it works very well when it's for exploration gameplay, such as a large town or base.

Also that squid thing from Hina, was it drawn?

[Bryux]

Terraria graphics look so weird when everything is fully lit since it doesn't have any shading (the original game has lighting so this isn't an issue there, FYI)

[Willhart]

Also that squid thing from Hina, was it drawn?

I drew it over some heavily processed screenshot to save time. Getting the eyes and the animation to work was a little troublesome.

[ano0maly]

Also that squid thing from Hina, was it drawn?

I drew it over some heavily processed screenshot to save time. Getting the eyes and the animation to work was a little troublesome.

I have the sprites if you want them.

[ztarwuff]

And about that high platform near the start of Dense Jangle, that raocow found using the rocket apple but apparently had no purpose: it can be reached via invisible vine block, providing an alternate way to the first raocoin.

Really? I don't remember finding any of those hidden blocks of yours.

Still, can't be as bad as that hidden 3-up room in my level, MAKL Vanilla. Nobody's seemed to have found it yet.

[tigermoon]

Woo! Terraria graphics in a raovid! :D

Still, can't be as bad as that hidden 3-up room in my level, MAKL Vanilla. Nobody's seemed to have found it yet.

The one with "HI!" spelled out in coins? I kinda found that by accident due to my controller being screwy at times and wanting to register a down press every now and then.

[Joseph Staleknight]

Still, can't be as bad as that hidden 3-up room in my level, MAKL Vanilla. Nobody's seemed to have found it yet.

Huh. I may need to comb over that level for it later. For now, though, I've got some remarks about today's levels:

Dense Jangle (Vergalon): Huh, never knew that this was a sequel of sorts to Everyday Life of a Ladder. I guess it make sense when replaying the level with that in mind, though. Anyway, there's actually an easy way to skip Mothra if anyone is having trouble with her (like I was): early in the level with the three coin blocks, there's an invisible vine block above the middle one. I'm sure that if raocow played the level with someone other than Demo or Kood, he'd have stumbled upon it by accident. Ah well, nothing gained, nothing lost.

Steeltown Mine Co. (SAJewers): The first Town level of the game is a rather casual affair, though it does look very pretty with those Terraria graphics. Granted, it's not quite as intensive as some of the later towns, but it's a nice start. As for my thoughts on raocow's LP, I had hoped he would have stumbled upon the easter egg in this video, but I'm sure he'll go back for it before finishing off the world.

Now, there's a thing about this level that will only make sense if raocow heads back to CoNS to check on the leek doors, so I'll keep it in spoilers.

The in-game music credit for the mine has "Quarry" misspelled.

Otherwise, this town is pretty nifty--and quite convenient if you need a breather, not that you need one this early in the game.

Also, blonde Demo says hi.

Can't wait to see raocow beat World 1, hopefully tomorrow even!

[sedron]

Man, it'd be cool if I could give my thoughts after I actually watch the video instead of several hours later.

Dense Jangle- Again, the landmasses feel very strange and amateurish. The entire thing feels really weird, honestly. The midpoint is kind of lopsided, though the level itself is very short. The level has a few surprisingly tricky spots, such as the first slope with a raocoin, the four paragoopas (the last one desyncs and can throw a player off,) and the Mothra Lakitu. It's not hard, per se, but also not what I'd expect in World 1. The flying ladder is a cute touch, though. Overall I'm not really enamored with the level design here, but it's certainly not unenjoyable.

Steeltown Mine Co.- Later towns definitely have more to do, but I like the concept as a whole. My only gripe with this one is the combination of having no real goal and being kind of huge. Traversing it just takes so long, which I wouldn't mind so much if there were a tangible reward (aside from the Easter Egg, I suppose.) Still, I did like roaming around and talking to everyone, and the Terraria graphics are a nice fit.

[Validon98]

I never noticed that Dense Jangle was meant to entirely reference that one level from ASMBXT, mainly because it's been SO long since I played that level or saw raocow play it, so huh, that's kind of clever I guess.
I never got to explore most of the town moreso because I just wanted to check my leek progress in everything, but the Terraria graphics being in there is kind of neat! Also raocow you missed something with Bomb Man there, but it's just a little easter eggy thing, really.
Also hello Demo's sibling whose name I can never remember because I kind of never memorized all of the siblings's names! :V

[cheez8]

Yes, raocow, clearly the pit without hills growing out of it is the one with land and presents at the bottom. Obviously.

So I'm way late on noticing this LP has started but I still feel like it's worth saying that the cutscenes did their job much, much better this time, so good job to whoever worked on those. I was kind of worried. Anyway, that overworld looks amazing so far.

Here's to at least starting on a not-too-bad foot this time! Can't wait to see the real "let's make a level" type levels to come.

also sorry for never managing to finish testing this

[The Doctor]

The only other solution is to start over (and possibly use god mode if you want to get back to where you are quickly). I'll give you the cheat for that if you need.

Yeah. :/ That kind of sucks.

I downloaded the release candidate and then later I patched the game with the updated files. I guess something went wrong. Oh well, it won't take that long to get back to where I was.

[Zygl]

Yes, raocow, clearly the pit without hills growing out of it is the one with land and presents at the bottom. Obviously.

To be fair, why is that plant even there? Literally the only way the player would wind up interacting with it in any way is if they jump down the hole thinking there can't just be a plant there for no reason.
And I'm totally not just saying that because I did the same thing what are you talking about

[cheez8]

Yes, raocow, clearly the pit without hills growing out of it is the one with land and presents at the bottom. Obviously.

To be fair, why is that plant even there? Literally the only way the player would wind up interacting with it in any way is if they jump down the hole thinking there can't just be a plant there for no reason.
And I'm totally not just saying that because I did the same thing what are you talking about

...

Ohhh.
Yeah, you've got a point. I totally forgot that pit had a plant in it by the time raocow made the leap. My bad~
In fact I think I might have nearly done the same thing back in January whoops

[docopoper]

I think I remember that plant being brought up in beta testing and I thought it had been removed. *shrug*

[Rixithechao]

Law of conservation of detail. If there's going to be a hazard in an area that's otherwise out of the way, it means there's something there worth obstructing with said hazard. Alternatively, put enemies in unreachable areas and pits all over the place for flavor so it doesn't stand out.

Gotta say, I love the amount of variety in the level types so far. Each dot isn't just a plain ol' level -- SMB3 warps, towns and mini-hubs, they all help make the world feel really expansive. I'm looking forward to seeing these future towns, and I'm curious if leek doors are used frequently in later levels like the one in Giant Egg, lot of potential for creating interesting nonlinear metroidvania-esque progression... but then again I imagine it'd be a pain to coordinate something like that, so they probably aren't.

I still really want to see an SMBX metroidvania, dagnabbit!

[Doctor Shemp]

If you want to see a SMBX metroidvania, I believe the early RMN games are a little like that. You probably don't really want to though: you can't really have a functioning metroidvania with only one checkpoint, and you can't connect a whole lot of levels with offscreen exits going into another level depending on where you go offscreen either. If you really wanted to do a metroidvania with Mario physics, you'd probably need to make a new engine from scratch.

[Leet]

you could probably do a not-too-large one with one level and lunadll

but doing it in something less restrictive like SMW + ASM or a new/even-more-editable engine is probably best, yes