I want to start by saying that this hack is great at doing what it's supposed to do: Serving as a training grounds for those who are new to SMW kaizo hacks. Levels are split between one screen challenges that teach you a new trick or concept, and levels that test your skills by having the player put it all together.

I've wanted to get into SMW hacks ever since Mario Maker 2 started losing its luster for me. The biggest barriers of entry for me were the difference in physics and the tricks I'd have to learn. This hack was great for getting me used to both, but I can't help but feel like it's not catered well enough to SMW hack newbies.

This feeling generally stems from poor explanation of how to perform tricks. Two examples:

Jumping off falling spikes
The phrasing from the speaker box in this level is straight up misleading. While it does refer back to the midair thwomp, which you must spin jump off of, the text for the spike reads "jump off of it in midair," which I interpreted as landing on the spike and doing a regular jump.

Spring Midair
I had to look up a video for this one. It's a hard enough trick as is, but again the instructions are not clear. They read as if you are supposed to jump while already facing left, turn right and throw, when the input is more of a quick left->right->throw after you've jumped.

These are nitpicky things, and ultimately anyone looking to get into SMW kaizo is probably smart enough to look up some video tutorials or bold enough to just grind it out til they get it, but it's worth bringing up considering this is supposed to be the noob introduction to this sort of stuff.

I will say that after beating this I feel a lot more confident in my adjustment to SMW physics and mechanics. Something I thought would never happen after hundreds of hours in MM2. Excited to try my hand at some "real" kaizo hacks. :)

The definitive way to play the OG starfox. The new graphics engine works wonders for the framerate on real hardware! The fact that there's an entirely new campaign with mods, cheats, and model swaps really is the cherry on top. The extra campaign really needs the new graphics engine though as it can get very laggy (especially in stage 5). If you like the charm of the OG starfox, this romhack is a must for modern convenience. It's fun to mess around with options too! Blew my mind when I saw that the devs ported the starfox 64 arwing to older hardware.

And yes, I tried the super scope and mouse options. The super scope was okay-ish and the mouse was MEGA jank. Just play with a regular controller.

I have to admit, I really commend whoever decided Action 52 deserved separate pages for it's games and giving me a shitload of free one-star ratings to add to my profile with Meong being the only half-star one, because it irrationally pisses me off like the other shit on that side of my rating scale.

However, you know what? Mash Man deserves it's own page, because this shit does nothing but make me laugh my goddamn ass off. I really want to meet the person in the brainstorm session who went, "hey what if we get this bald dude in sunglasses with big fuckin' feet goin' around stomping shit"? You think it's creative bankruptcy, but it's in fact creative masterwork. I want to smash Neil Druckmann's face onto the blunt end of a toilet seat until he realizes the sheer brilliance of this thing that is indeed a video game.

I get to cackle like a toothless crone with the very idea that someone could realize I rated Mash Man higher than the MercurySteam Metroid II remake or Skyrim. This shit fuckin' rules.

This game is nuts.

Not in a bad kind of way. Not necessarily in a good way either. But most definitely in an interesting way.

I hit the end game screen around two days after I began and it was the only game I played during that time. I only wanted to take a peak and my attention was stolen simply because I had no on earthly idea what I would encounter next in all aspects. The structure of the piece drip feeds something weird in intervals just short enough to keep you interested.

You are a plane crasher survivor waking up to people turning into body horror monsters after getting infected by something from a dystopian big pharma company. And there are also wizards. You are chosen by a Goddess to save the world with your machine gun you found in the cabinet and your business suit and high heels. There are clones. A child melts into a puddle crying for help while it happens.

You control your character with Resident Evil "tank controls" for no discernable reason. When you are indoors the game becomes something akin to a point and click adventure. Combat comes in the form of random battles out in the field like a JRPG. The fights aren't turn based but an on-rail arcade shooter. Defeat the monster and get XP to level up. Leveling up gives you more HP and increases your "skill" skill. I never found out what it was for. There are arcade shooter-esque boss fights. You can hunt rabbits for food.

Just to be clear, I don't think this game succeeds at anything particular it is trying to do. There really is not a reason to recommend somebody go out of their way to find a way to play this. Despite that caveat, what I most appreciate about the game and think is worth talking about is that the designers were absolutely swinging for the fences with this experience.

Each cutscene feels hand crafted. There is some very strong cinematography and editing on display in my opinion. The writing is interested in deep characters with very real and present demons. The themes want you to think about your place in this world. And the gameplay tries out some very unique elements to tie the player experience to the character's experience. On top of that the game also really wants to be a John Carpenter movie. (Mostly The Thing (1982)) So interesting.

To level set again, I would describe the execution of the above ideas as just kinda mostly bad in a "so bad its good" kinda way. The unintentional laughs are abundant and honestly what kept me going to the end. But even after all the nonsense and the extremely sobering final moments it kept me thinking all the way through the credits and to eventually sit down and write about it.

There are moments that really feel like the designers are trying to communicate something very complicated visually, narratively and in gameplay. The characters often don't make much sense but when they bare their soul you can feel a genuine emotion in there somewhere. Just enough to get you to think. Even if it didn't all come together the way the designers hoped, I do appreciate and enjoy the authorship and intention of the piece.

I would recommend playing Disc 1(out of 4!!!) at least. It should take around 3ish hours and will have plenty of WTFs for you. From there you'll know if you are going to finish it or not.

Enjoy D2.