I just recently finished this hack (well not the secret pipe worlds yet) and I enjoyed it all the way through. It was like playing a way better SMB3. The worlds felt somewhat challenging and clever, but not to the point where they would get overly frustrating.

Getting all the star coins was fun. Some of them were tricky, but I still pushed on as none of them were difficult to find or get if you used some perseverance. You’d have to do some basic Mario trick about every time.

As for new mechanics, you have Yoshi in a SMB3 setting. He’s still the same Yoshi that will eat enemies. He’s not a power up you find in a block. You find him sitting in the stage and he doesn’t carry over to others. I think that’s a good compromise as it would make the game a lot easier if you could take him anywhere.

Then there’s the new switches. Switch doors and coin snake switches are ported over from Mario World. The other one is the ‘!’ switch. It will typically raise a pipe up from the ground somewhere in the stage. However, it can also be used to show blocks and turn on the lights in spooky ghost stages for a limited time. Lots of good puzzles and gameplay with all of these.

The gravity mechanic is a lot of fun and adds some weird, trippy challenges to the game. It can be annoying though sometimes. There aren’t any signs or warnings when the gravity is going to flip. This can lead to deaths or confusion about where to go next. The gravity not working or missing the trigger once lead me to a soft lock. Still I think it’s a good addition all whole.

The new power ups are good and all have their place. Except for the rabbit ears (from SML2). I don’t think they are distinct enough from the raccoon suit. They are simply a worse version. With the raccoon suit you can float and fly. The rabbit you can only float. It is still useful in a pinch though.

The boomerang suit doesn’t appear until later stages which is good as it can be overpowered. It can kill about anything (even thwomps). It’s limited to two boomerangs on screen though so it’s balanced.

One minor nitpick (like really, really, really minor) with the penguin suit power up graphic. IMO it looks like a ghoul almost. Doesn’t really fit into the theme of the other suits. (I actually made a simple graphic hack to make it look more like a penguin and Mario-like. If I figure out how make IPS patches I could maybe upload it here if there’s interest and it’s OK with the author.)

The difficulty is balanced very well. If you want to simply beat the game this hack will be on par with SMB3. The bosses may be a bit more challenging mechanics wise, but nothing too terrible. If you want something tougher do the optional secret worlds and the new challenges after you beat the game. It’s only as hard as you want it to be for the most part.

As for bugs, I had the gravity soft lock mentioned before. Enemies and stage tiles would glitch out graphically a few times. Enemies would sometimes disappear from the screen or not spawn. These two were only cosmetic though didn’t break gameplay or anything.

Overall, this is a great hack that I think any Mario fan would love. Has many different challenges and features (many more I didn’t even mention in this review). It caters to a wide range of skill levels. You’ll find something you’ll like for sure.

Play this hack!