I was surprised at how faithful this game is to the Mario Forever version it’s based on. While the Save Select screen is relegated to a level in the World Map and the initial loading of a save file is done through the usual title screen, it’s surprising what could be added to this hack.

Pros:

• Minix minigame is in, though lacking the combo announcements of the original and suffering slowdown when a lot of sprites are on screen, but otherwise functions like the original.
• Most of the music is in (aside from the maps for Worlds 2 through 7, as they are on one map in this hack). I was very impressed with how the World 1 map music could be made to work with the SNES Soundfont while exactly like it does in the original (albeit with a proper loop)
• The SMW World Map makes it possible to go back to levels and get secrets you missed during your first trip through the levels or just play through the levels again.
• Works on every emulator I’ve tried it on: bsnes-hd, Mesen-S (both through RetroArch), SNES9X for O3DS, and even the official emulator used for SNES Virtual Console games on N3DS.

Cons:

• Other than the passages to the Hardcore Worlds and World 9, taking a passage to a later world renders it impossible for you to get back to earlier worlds as you’re dumped at the beginning of the world with the path back being greyed out due to the levels not being cleared. (EDIT: This has been fixed in 1.3 which added the ability to press SELECT to warp straight to the Hub level on the map)
• Worlds 2-7 are on one big map, meaning one theme plays for all 6 worlds instead of the unique themes of the original. A minor complaint, but I would’ve at least liked a mid-map music change if possible (I’m not familiar with SMW hacking, though, so it could be impossible, either due to technical limitations or ROM space limitations or both)

All in all, this seems to be a good way to experience Mario Forever without worrying about viruses, and even if you don’t like the way the Remake and Android versions play, at least try this.