The world of Super Mario Bros. romhacks is something that I’ve only just recently started to go through. Now it’s not like I’ve had no experience with them since I’ve dabbled every so often with them but my interest has always been more with the plumber’s speedy blue rival but it was this year I chose to play these thoroughly and opted to start off with two hacks based on some of Mario’s lesser appreciated rivals, Wario and Waluigi. Now I knew to steel myself for some cringe, this is after all made in 2004 and from what I can see from the author’s other hacks they really tried their best to hone their craft. Plus I’m aware that romhacks take time and patience and are done as labors of love so I tend to go easy with problems I uncover.

Unfortunately, this didn’t stop me from coming out of this feeling extremely bitter for this was one of the most frustrating experiences I’ve ever had with a Mario game, official or otherwise. Even with save states, I cannot begin to tell you the amount of times I swore at the TV, staring down my Steam Deck as I squeezed my controller over what was the twentieth unfair death but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s first start with positives of which there are plenty to dispense. The visuals are very pretty for an early 2000s hack. Everything is bright, colorful and vibrant as a Mario game should be but with that hint of edge that Wario usually brings with him though it should be noted in this case that edge skirts a little more towards Newgrounds than what the big N would do. It’s an early 2000s romhack and one of the original Super Mario Bros. so it’s not super common but whenever it pops up whether its how the Toads speak to you or a drug reference it’s pretty jarring and often inspires an eyeroll. Still, it’s easy to overlook to appreciate the various bits of flair that was added to the game. Even things that are fairly out-of-place like the use of All-Night Nippon SMB sprites for the Piranha Plants are kind of charming in how out-of-place they are.

However, all that charm only takes this so far because beneath the surface of this oldie’s visuals is the rotten core that is the level design. Now I freely admit, I’m no expert at the original SMB, I’ve played my odd hack or two where I could recognize the design was made for players who mastered the original game and are looking for the next challenge. Plus I get that with these being made by amateur developers, I shouldn’t expect official quality and so I try my best to be fair in regards to the field of difficulty.

But this is genuinely a pain to play from start to finish. The levels are mostly gauntlets where one after the other you are bombarded with frustrating challenges that require movements that are so precise and so exact that it makes Lost Levels look tame but instead of pacing itself to where the challenge comes at a comfortable pace, it opts to instead throw everything at you. Hammer Brothers are spammed in areas you do not want to see them in, there are multiple instances where you are expected to traverse single block platforms that have firebars, invisible blocks that are used for the worst kind of trolling and for traversal through levels and worst of all are the Bullet Bills which have had their speed jacked up way too far which results in several instances where it feels you have to have split-second reaction times just to get through certain parts and to top it all off, the timer is extremely stingy through most of the levels meaning you’re expected to get through them quickly and this is with level design that you genuinely can only rush through if you’ve mastered it already and to compound the frustration even further is all the technical issues that a lot of the changes have resulted in. In particular, there are more than a few moments where there are just too many sprites for the game to handle so it unloads the visuals… but the hitbox is still there, leading to several instances where Waluigi winds up hit by absolutely nothing which will be one of the many causes of unfair deaths. This is easily one of those hacks I can only recommend playing with save states because without them, it will be by the second world that I guarantee your blood pressure will shoot up to dangerous levels.

This is not a romhack I can recommend as anything but a curiosity/neat time capsule into the early 2000s. I can however recommend you check out Googie’s other work since he got significantly better with time.