User:Olhi
Hi. I'm Olhi. I'm a fan of SMBX and GNU/Linux and here to make it more accessible.
Episode Ratings
Made for those I want to get into SMBX and whoever else may be interested.
ππ/ππ = Perfect
β9/10 = Amazing
β8/10 = Very Good
β7/10 = Good
β6/10 = Alright
β5/10 = Average
β4/10 = Mediocre
β3/10 = Insufficient
β2/10 = Bad
β1/10 = Very Bad
β0/10 = Garbage
Vanilla Ratings
All of these can be played with the fully open-source TheXTech. Italic means the episode uses a Custom Default Set, see here to learn how to make these playable.
SMBX Episode | Lead Developer | Length | Characters | Comment | Rating | Degree of Completion |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Invasion 2 | Redigit | Long | M L P T L | The main episode. Doesn't hold up as well as I thought. | 6/10 | 100% |
The Princess Cliche | Redigit | Very Short | M L P T L | This one has no business being included as one of the default episodes. It is boring, has nothing interesting to offer, and the final boss is as obnoxious as it is beginner-unfriendly, which lead some to get a bad first impression of the game. The Princess Cliche has the potential to prevent people from getting into SMBX and should be buried in the archives. | 2/10 | 100% |
Super RMN World 2: Yoshi's Archipelago | halibabica | Very Long | Determinant | Yoshi's Archipelago is the most dedicated love letter to a video game series that I ever had the pleasure to experience. It makes use of everything the original engine has to offer. The attention to detail is exceptional! halibabica has a thing for Continuity Nods, so if you have an appreciation for those (I do), I recommend playing the original Super RMN World first. Furthermore, I recommend playing on a customized TheXTech build where the Purple Yoshi's Ground Pound input is "Alt Run" instead of "Down" to prevent it from being triggered accidentally. | 8/10 | 100% |
Super RMN World | halibabica | Long | M L P T L | Super RMN World is the fifth entry in the poorly-received Super RMN Bros. series (consisting of Super RMN Bros. 1-3 & Super RMN All-Stars) and their first successful attempt at making a good episode. The tale behind it is one of growth and inspiration! It is told by the characters Pyth and Kelly as you progress through the game. | 8/10 | 100% |
Super Mario Bros. SMBX Edition (Repack) | Sapphire Bullet Bill | Short | M L P T L | An almost flawless remake of the SNES version of Super Mario Bros. 1 with elements of the NES and GBC versions. The only issue is that the Scale Lifts do not work. Here's a guideline for making a Remake: When a function of the original cannot be replicated, do not remind the player of it's absence. It just needlessly breaks the immersion. Luckily, only three levels are affected by this, so it is just a minor flaw. I recommend getting the Repacked Version. | 7/10 | 100% |
Another Adventure | DisOmikron | Short | M L | A short episode with an unique world and a self-composed soundtrack. | 6/10 | True Final Boss |
The Great Empire | Knux | Long | M | An enjoyable classic episode with above-average difficulty. | 6/10 | 100% |
Valtteri Island - Revisited | Valtteri | Short | M L P T L | "Looking good and nostalgic there, rather reminiscent of the original SMBX while also adding the flair of the newer versions." - HeroLinik, 2014 |
6/10 | 100% |
Super Talking Time Bros. 1 | SpoonyBardOL | Long | M L L | Not a top episode, but enjoyable from beginning to end. There are secrets, but not in every level. The linear levels give a room for breathing that I have missed in the Sequels. The moderate difficulty and short level length compared to other SMBX Episodes make this a relatively beginner-friendly experience. Some stages are annoying, but the Blue Shoe in Level 2 can help with those. I recommend to not overuse it. | 6/10 | 100% |
The Great Empire 2 | Knux | Long | M | Generic but fun. | 6/10 | 100% |
Luigi's Fight For The Mushroom Kingdom (2.4) | reghrhre | Long | Determinant | Luigi's Fight For The Mushroom Kingdom separates Boss Stages and Boss Fights. I appreciate that a lot! Unfortunately the episode has some flaws that can make it exhausting to play, such as potential softlocks (3-6, 6-6, 7-3), unpredictable deaths (6-5, 7-1) and misleading sprites (the entire game really, even Peach's character sprites). Most levels are still fun. For those that are not, the developer added skips for every level up to 8-3. Some are very well hidden (7-3), others can be found by pure accident (7-5). Not for beginners. | 6/10 | 100% |
Super Talking Time Bros. 2 & 2.5 | SpoonyBardOL | Very Long | M L P T L | These games would be really good if the secrets weren't as obnoxious or there at all. The worst offender in 2 is probably World 8's "The Depths", where collecting a Fireflower unlocks the path, but there is nothing to indicate that. | 6/10 | 100% |
Mario & Luigi's Marathon | jaf | Short | Determinant | The levels are well designed and show a relatively high attention to detail, but lack refinement in some places. The bosses are hit & miss and can quickly overstay their welcome. The difficulty isn't well balanced; levels tend to be easy while bosses tend to be tough, significantly so in the later parts of the game. Hint for the final challenge: Come with an Ice Flower. IMPORTANT: Set the compat.ini flag enable-last-warp-hub-resume to false. | 6/10 | 100% |
NSMB DS Classic | Bottle_of_Water | Long | M L | A great remake of the first New Super Mario Bros. game. Originally made for X2 Beta 3, the Repack allows the episode to be played with TheXTech, making use the "Star Track on Map" feature that is introduced with 1.3.5.2. The Repack also fixes some softlocks and flaws, but others remain. | 6/10 | 80/80 Stars |
Return to Dinosaur Island | Valtteri | Long | M L | This episode is a clone (not a remake) of Super Mario World. It does a fantastic job at recreating the experience. It also adopts aspects that aren't universally appreciated (water levels, ghost houses, autoscroll levels, secret exits). Since Mario's and Luigi's acceleration is inferior to SMW's, some design choices don't work as well as they did in the original. Chances are you'll enjoy this episode nearly as much as you enjoyed Super Mario World. | 5/10 | 100% |
Super Mario Miracle | jaf | Short | M | A high-quality collect-a-thon inspired by Mario Odyssey. It is dragged down by three issues: 1. The "Concentration Challenge" can cause physical pain in the eyes. 2. The final boss consists of multiple SMB3 Bowsers. This is never fun, but if you insist on doing it, at least make Toad playable. Mario's acceleration is too slow. 3. Collecting Moons is completely pointless, unless all of them are collected. Achieving 100% unlocks a Reward Room, but by that point, the Rewards have no use. If they were unlocked at ~100 Moons, they could have redeemed the first issue. | 5/10 | 109/112 Stars |
Super Mario Bros. 3X | nin8halos | Long | M L | any% is fun! 100% is probably not worth it. | 5/10 | any% |
Mario's Mansion 4 | Solitayre | Very Short | M | Good visuals and good choice of music. The gameplay is okay. | 5/10 | any% |
M&L's Delightful Adventure | Darkonius | Short | M L | A happy-go-lucky episode with custom sprites and decent boss fights. Level design is nothing special, but enjoyable enough. Too many autoscrollers though. | 5/10 | 100% |
Super RMN All-Stars | halibabica | Short | M L P T L | A compilation of what five judges deemed to be the best levels of Super RMN Bros. 1-3. Only a handful of levels were picked, and all of them are mandatory. This in an issue, as the levels are neither very fun, nor do they offer enough context for the better sequels. A better solution would have been to include all of the levels, sort them by the amount of points received by the judges, make the worst completely optional (i.e. don't give any Stars for playing them), and only require 30-60% of the Stars to beat the game. As it is, Super RMN All-Stars is not worth it. | 4/10 | 100% |
Neo Retro Super Mario Bros. | Ratty524 | Short | M L | SMB1-styled game. Involves autoscrolling, misleading water sprites, and unintuitive obstacles. Would be better if Toad was playable. | 4/10 | 100% |
Mario vs. The Moon Base | β | Short | M L | Collaborative effort between Solitayre, GreatRedSpirit, Hexatona and kentona. Aesthetically pleasing but unappealing gameplay. | 4/10 | any% |
Adventures of Demo | Wohlstand | Long | D I K R S | Remaster of The Invasion 1 with A2XT Sprites. Soundtrack and Visuals are great, but the level design has aged badly in some places. Air Raid in particular was something that did not need to be preserved. However, if one wants to go through The Invasion 1, this is the definitive way to do it! It will serve as a convenient introduction to the A2XT Universe, too, which I really came to appreciate during my Playthrough. | 4/10 | any% |
Super Mario Enigmatic | Reign | - | M T | A puzzle game with One-Screen-Challenges. It is praised far and wide, but I found the experience to be more frustrating than fun. Unlike the superior sequel for SMBX2, where there is no life counter, Enigmatic 1 gives you an average of 11 attempts per challenge, and failure will force you to repeat levels previously beaten. The puzzles are creative, but not as creative as Enigmatic 2, and not worth doing multiple times. | 3/10 | - |
Mario Classic | Zephyr | Long | M L | The Classic in the title is rather misplaced, as Mario Classic comes with many interesting new ideas. They look cool at first, but can quickly become annoying due to the poor execution. The best example is probably the trolley level in World 5. It is pure trial and error, and being hit means instant death. The many autoscrollers and occasional Metroidvania dungeons do not help. | 3/10 | - |
Super Mario Bros. 0 | BrokenAce255 | Long | M L | Prequel to Super Mario Bros. 1 with 16Bit Sprites that are faithful to the original NES Version. I'd like to see them used in a SMB1 or TLL Remake. The game design itself is not good. It requires high precision platforming while blocking the character with the most precise controls. It disables backwards-movement while also including Secret Exits built around random Pipes and Invisible Blocks. It contains rookie mistakes such as vine deathtraps. Very unpolished. Not pleasant to play. | 3/10 | - |
SMB: Revisited | qig | - | M L | This game is confusing. Too often is it not clear where to go or what to do. My quitting point was the boss of World 6. The fish are grabbable, but there is nothing to indicate that. | 3/10 | - |
Apocalypse of Foroze | Quill | - | M L | Nope. | 3/10 | - |
Another Princess Cliche | Kley | Very Short | M | If you build a level around finding red coins, make sure there are no one-way pipes to the exit. | 3/10 | - |
Super Mario Legends: Part I | SuperMario7 | - | Determinant | If you build a level around finding dragon coins, make sure there are no one-way pipes to the exit. | 3/10 | - |
Reign of the Gatekeepers | Shadow_Flame | - | M L | Do not make invisible walls. Do not turn background objects into hazards. | 3/10 | - |
The New World 2: Travel to Twinsanity | andregemeo23 | - | M | This one has a strong start, with the Challengers being the game's high-light, but it noticeably declines in quality during the latter half. Due to an oversight, you are required to use Cheats to access the mandatory Toad House 2 (after B3: Motron Koopa). The title is basically false advertisement. | 3/10 | 26/26 Stars |
Super RMN Bros. 1, 2 & 3 | GreatRedSpirit & halibabica | Long | M L P T L | "Let us not be so quick to think ill of this humble beginning, for it sparked a series of events that led to some truly wondrous things." - Pyth | 2/10 | - |
The Great Castle Adventure | Zephyr | - | M L P T L | Formally popular and one of my favorites, time has not been kind to it's monotonous and uninspired level design. I'm looking forward to play the remake though. | 1/10 | 100% |
SMBX2 Ratings
These episodes require Super Mario Bros. X2 to play. Out of all SMBX-Successors, SMBX2 offers by far the biggest amount of new content. Downsides are slow loading times, high hardware requirements, occasional memory bugs, and reliance on abandoned proprietary Microsoft libraries. Beta 4 officially supports Wine.
SMBX2 Episode | Lead Developer | Length | Characters | Comment | Rating | Degree of Completion |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Super Mario Enigmatic 2 | Reign | - | Determinant | A very good puzzle game with One-Screen-Challenges. | 8/10 | 100% |
The Epic Quest | Unknown68D | Very Long | M L T T | This Episode is impressive. Even more so when you know the story behind it. Impressive, however, isn't synonymous with good. What initially seems like an creative accomplishment often results in a waiting gimmick. The levels tend to overstay their welcome. And I ran into several bugs. Some due to SMBX2, some due to the Episode, but frustrating either way. At the end I had to switch to the 1.3 version. Luckily I could copy the save without issue. | 5/10 | any% |
Dream Land Reloaded | Mademargin | Short | M L | This episode remakes a game with health points for an engine without health points and doesn't add Power-Ups to compensate. It does not work. | 3/10 | any% |
Episodes of Interest
Italic means the episode was taken down and has no backups (that I know about).
- Super Mario Forever.X by KFCMario
- Mario's Super Linear Adventure by Vile Insomniaxe
- A Regular Episode (2018 version) by andregemeo23
Forgone Episodes
Episodes with a non-linear level structure such as:
- The Great Empire 3
- New Great Castle Adventure
- The Fallen Spirits
- SMB: A New Beginning
- Mario Prime
- Legend of Mario
Episodes built around Link or one of the SMBX2 characters.
Contest Episodes such as MaGLX2 or Tower of Biased.
Stuff to Checkout
- Beating Every SMBX Episode by Eclipsed
LETSPLAYmarkus' SMBX Let's Play (Covering "The Princess Cliche", "The Invasion 2", "New Great Castle Adventure", "Luigi's Fight for the Mushroom Kingdom", "Valtteri Island - Revisited" & "Another Princess Cliche")