Super Mario Bros: Ztar Turmoil

[Hello]

A dark force has begun to sweep over the Mushroom Kingdom. Guns have been introduced into the world mysteriously, and are being used to bring about death and destruction. It is up to Mario (or Luigi) to save the Mushroom Kingdom from the Ztars.



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[Hypernova]

Another Hello clone by Hello?! Judging to the screenshot, only the HUD looks pretty decent, everything is just another plain boring SMB3 sprites and Black Squrriel's tileset.

[Thumbtacks]

Excuse me

How did the game know my name

that shit's freaky.

Get out of my house.

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Something tells me this is not what Miyamoto had in mind

[Cobalt Blue]

wow. mario with guns. what an incredibly unexpected plotwist.

[StrikeForcer]

Another Hello clone by Hello?! Judging to the screenshot, only the HUD looks pretty decent, everything is just another plain boring SMB3 sprites and Black Squrriel's tileset.

Only with guns and gore as the added benefit. I will give this a play later.

[Keiang]

Something tells me this is not what Miyamoto had in mind

I dunno, apparently Miyamoto thought that the Super Mario Bros movie (yes, that one) was bad because it was too close to the original games.

[Gors]

I still don't get why people think mixing Mario with guns and gore is a good idea. Personally, I think it has literally nothing to do with Mario and it's just a cheap way to make you look 'cool' (and by 'cool' I mean the 12-year old concept of 'cool').

Mario is about happy and colorful scenery, charming characters and engaging gameplay, so doing this is going against what a Mario game should be. Your game can be the best run and gun ever, but the fact that you used Mario for it will always make it seem really amateur.

Don't get me wrong, I love Mario games and run and guns. But mixing both is not a good idea, Mario with guns have been done to death by incompetent and unfunny kids and it's impossible to take it seriously anymore.

Since you're playing with a series that is well-known for innovating the platforming genre, why don't you try to do the same? Invent new concepts, new techniques etc. that give a fresh breath of air while maintaining the 'Mario' vibe. Want an example? Everyone and their mom knows that Mario games assign a button to run and shoot balls and another to jump. Yoshi's Island, though, did it different; pressing forward for a certain period of time would make Yoshi run, you could shoot eggs, flutter jump etc. None of those techniques are found in original Mario games, but it still feels 'Mario'. It doesn't feel out of place. Everything is so lively. Why can't you do this?

I'll sound like I'm doing an advertisement here, but Tri's Mario game is thousands better than this. I'm sorry if this sounds bitter, but please listen.



See how everything is charming here, there are different mechanics, powerups and things act differntly from Mario games, but it still feels Mario. And it looks fun. And without any guns. See how the fireball gives him other abilities such as double jumping, or the way you can shoot it upwards etc. The coins collected increase a combo meter, air meter, etc.

I'm not telling you to make a game with those features. But if you're capable of doing something completely original, then why not? Heck, you could even use graphics other than the overused and boring SMB3 sprites. Or better yet, you could change the main character and have a warrior/soldier character instead, the possibilities are endless. Just not Mario with guns. It's like giving Link a shotgun and expect it'll retain the same magic or fun from the original series. It won't. It is not original. It's childish.

Now, for the design part, if Mario is known for killing stuff with his stomp, why whould he ever need a gun? Did he magically get bad at stomping to need to rely on guns? Guns also mean more straightforward consequences: shoot it, kill it, that's pretty much it. Jumping/stomping in Mario games have so many uses it's mind boggling: you can avoid enemies, trigger blocks, kill goombas, activate switches, platforms. Just look and see how he interacts in the official games. If you want to give the guns a more important role, you should create more features that use it. An action that has many uses is worth much more imo, and makes it look less like a gimmick and more like a well thought, cohesive characteristic of your game. Not to say that the dark red fog makes looking at your game tiring and does not improve the game in any way except maybe in imersion (which is pointless given that Mario with guns, as I said before, can't be taken seriously).

So that's it. I don't expect you to read all this or acknowledge this, I just wanted to give my humble two cents regarding this and many other games that add guns into the Mario universe. Simply no. I encourage you to either make a good Mario game OR a good run and gun game. Please note that I didn't play your game so some of my criticism might be pointless, but at least others can see my opinion about all this.

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PS: I've talked about guns not mixing with Mario, but this doesn't mean you can't make a serious Mario game. Sure, it needs to be light-hearted to an extent, but Mario RPGs, for example, have dark undertones. You can also have action without making Mario carry any guns or blood splattering everywhere. Be creative.