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I wanted to shout out the game fan game "Mushroom Kingdom Fusion." It's a multiverse game that is mostly complete and let's you play as Mega Man, Sonic, Link, and a whole lot more. Lots of throwbacks to other computer games, too. The bosses are no joke, and will take over an hour for you to learn and get through most likely. Hours of content so far, but I didn't care for every world.
I also beat more Super Mario 64 ROM hacks. You can see my comprehensive list here:
SM64 Decades Later
This one is pretty much a 64 reimagining. Even if the plot is a sequel, which, honestly doesn't really translate into anything compelling in my eyes. We don't even get a Bowser fight in this. Sad. There are no new enemy assets either so most fights equate into "this boss you knew before but with flamethrowers around". It's fine, but the Eye Rock is about the only fight to not get flamethrower help which is extremely odd. (Side note. I didn't know until messing around in this game that the eye rock take damage from jumping. It makes the fight only slightly easier, but not by much.) Anyway, most of the levels are updated to where you can't shortcut the stars that the original let you cheese through. The stages are bigger, but this is never a detriment to the missions in my book. Most of the missions that were redundant in the original have been revamped. The coin stars are far less demanding (perhaps too easy in most cases). Yeah, this game is a major improvement to the original, but still kind of requires a playthrough of the original to appreciate. There are some elements that are completely removed. Some of which are welcome, like the eel. Some which make me sad like the monkey from tall, tall mountain. Speaking of that course, it's been renamed seasonal mountain now, and has a time lapse gimmick (not too involve, but it's something). I really love the default autumn music and it's a shame you aren't on it for most of the stars. I hate to say it, but in recent times I've come to realize that classic Rainbow Road is a bad course for how much it wastes your time. "Tranquil Moon", this game's replacement for RR, is far superior. Without being extremely hard like some other hacks. I liked the music and aesthetic of it too. There is a lot of post game content like blue star hunting, which brings the star total to a massive 333 stars. All of which were fun except the slides. I hate controlling Mario on the slides so I cheesed them with save states before I started hating life. In summary, the amount of time you want to put in is up to you. But I highly recommend you getting at least one ending in the game. Overall, some highs and lows, but it manages to do what it set out to do fairly well. Only shame is the final boss was meh in my eyes, if it weren't for that and the slides I feel the game would be perfect. Oh, I love the stage select music from Kirby the maker used.
Takua 64
What can I say. It's Mario 64, but Bionicle. If you enjoy early Bionicle this game is probably for you. It's got rahi as wildlife/enemies and all the environments are as you'd expect. The only sad part is there are 0% boss battles in this one. And whereas there are no 100 coin stars, we got secret stars that usually have the hint for them hidden in the level.
I was daunted by the fact the game requires backwards long jumps (BLJ) to complete. A glitch in the original 64 I never learned. The sign does provide good instruction, and I learned the silly kick too. So it wasn't bad at all, but you have to see the sign for the BLJ before you get the last star in the 10th level as a heads up.
There are some real tough levels in this. The Makuta level has some trial and error that's real unforgiving so I wouldn't have made it without save states. If that's not a problem for you then you should be good. However...
The camera is awful. It always tries to follow you around to get to your back even on Lakitu mode. When people say that 64's camera is bad, this is the experience I think they mean it is. Even the walkthrough by the creator was getting frustrated when the camera was making a difficult BLJ even harder (you can circumvent that one particular BLJ though). I mean it's not exactly a deal breaker but it really brings the experience down to where I might say to not play it unless you're a Bionicle fan. There's also this one thing it does where when you exit a level the over world camera pans lower than it should until you enter a door. You might as well restart at that point depending on your location because a low camera will make you hate playing the game.
I have to give this a fair rating. It is satisfying to find a star that's hidden away, but you'll have to look up a few of them to complete it. No real special bonuses for getting all stars, but I didn't regret my time with the save states. Apparently the creator wanted to add a checkpoint during the last lava surfing level but couldn't die to the board not being able to respond. I tell you this because the game can be unforgiving with checkpoints, so I don't feel bad about save states. I say I enjoyed it, but mileage may vary, and I feel this is really for Bionicle fans more than people who love SM64 levels. So I won't give this a high recommendation.
I'm playing another Mario 64 ROM hack! SM64 "Decades Later". It's pretty neat so far, it's practically an upgraded version of the original game. I'm interested to see where it goes on my rankings.
In case you missed it in my last deviation, here's my rankings, based on which I'm most likely to replay:
SM Through the Ages
SM 64 Land
SM Serene Fusion
(the next three are somewhat interchangeable)
SM Star Road
SM Last Impact
SM and the Cursed Mirror
SM Party (actually this would be second if you have the nostalgia)
SMelee 64 (higher if you have nostalgia, but for this list it might still be bottom)
It's coming
I built a new larger lego Omega this week and the result exceeded my expectations. Pics soon!
I just found out "Caiman" is a form of crocodile. So I now realize after twenty years this guy from Star Fox 64 is named "Caiman" because that's what he is. Considering how he's basically a palette swap of another monkey enemy in the game I had little reason to think he was anything but a weird looking monkey. Then again I never thought about it much as he's a pretty minor character. Star Fox name uncreativity strikes again.