Review: Super Mario Brawl, by S.E.E.P. Team

[NickyP]

A non-Lavalit OBOR mod, created by the italian based team S.E.E.P. You can download it here: http://seeproduction.blogspot.com/search/label/Super%20Mario%20Brawl

(Don't worry about it being an executable; once installed, you can find the .pak in the Paks folder)

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Presentation - Menu screens, icons, level backgrounds, character sprites... this is for the graphics of the game.
Story - Only if applicable (ie, if the mod has one). This is for... well, the story.
Gameplay - What's the gameplay style? Traditional BOR? Shooter? Heavy on combos? Simple "whack 'em" style? This is for that.
Music - How good was the music selection and was it fitting?
Overall Creativity - Just another BOR clone? Or a work of art?
Final Thoughts - No score for this. This is just my final thoughts of the review before tallying score.
Maximum Total Score is 25.
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Presenation: 5/5

It's just beautiful. Everything about it. The HUD, the GUI, the sound effects, the fonts, the intro, the stage transitions that show your position on the world map... I love all of it. It's practically commercial. Barring obvious licensing issues, if this game were sold as an Xbox Live Indie game, I would never notice the difference. The stages are well designed, and the sprites are clean and consistent. It all flows together so well that, at times, you forget this is a BOR mod.

Story: N/A

There is no real story. Or rather, it's nothing we haven't seen before. Bowser stole the Princess, go save her. The end. Because the Story is N/A, the final score will be out of 20 instead of 25.

Gameplay: 5/5 (!)

It's perfect. It really is. Or at least, in the context of the subject material. Mario was never a franchise that was particularly complex. Sure, it's a rather hardcore game franchise and many people would find the main games to be difficult. But at its' heart, Mario's a simple game. Jump on bad guys, don't get hit or fall down a pit, and use power ups to your advantage. Even in non-platform games, Mario keeps this simplicity. He's the easiest character to use in the Smash Bros games, his RPG's are easily accessible to gamers of all ages, and so on and so forth. It seems S.E.E.P. Team understood this theory, because in my opinion, they implemented it very well in terms of a beat em up.

For starters, the gameplay changes depending on the level. Sometimes you'll be on a 3D plane, beating up baddies in classic arcade style. Other times, you'll be platforming. And a few times, you'll be playing a horizontal shoot em up.

The beat em up segments are pretty straightforward; it's nothing you haven't seen. But it has touches that really make it shine over other BOR mods. Throughout the stage you will find many blocks that can be broken by jumping through them. Sometimes you'll get coins or powerups, other times it was just interactive scenery. But it helps to break the monotony of standard BOR fare. Oh, and did I mention the powerups? There are three; fire flower, hammer, and Yoshi. Grabbing the fire flower will allow you to shoot fireballs. The hammer does massive damage but is slow to use. And Yoshi increases your movement speed, as well as attack range. All of these add to the general Mario Bros feel to the game. It works quite well. The combat is your standard BOR fare, which is by no means a bad thing.

Then we have the 2D platforming segments. The controls are mediocre at best, being the same standard jumping physics that BOR offers. But S.E.E.P. compensates for that with accommodating level design. At no point do you really feel like you were screwed over because of the physics. The jumps are all easy to pull off, and like real Mario games, you die if you jumped too early. Granted, you CAN get screwed over by Thwomps and Bullet Bills, but that's to be expected.

And finally, we have the horizontal shoot em up stages. These don't seem too great, but it's still enjoyable. There's a considerable lag when you shoot, and the Bros fly/swim awefully slow. At first, you'll think to yourself, "this is really slow and lame." But when the wave of enemies come at you, you realize that it's not your standard shoot em up. Instead of tasked with taking down enemies, your objective is basically to maneuver around them. It's more of a moving maze, with the ability to shoot being a tool of survival. And even if you don't like the sound of that idea; they are short. At best they last anywhere between 30 seconds to a minute. So it's a great way to break up the gameplay and provide something different.

Music: 5/5

This is a Mario game, so there's all Mario music. Most of the soundtrack is comprised of either fan remixes, official arrangements, or the original songs. The music fits, it sounds great, and adds to the overall package.

Overall Creativity: 4.5/5

It's a Mario game. You don't have to think hard to design a decent enough Mario game; use familiar enemies, gameplay mechanics, music, and worlds. That's it. Yet, even though this mod uses a classic Mario template, it still makes it feel fresh. Add the changing gameplay style and integrated Mario elements, and you have one gem of a BOR mod.

Final Thoughts

One thing really impresses me... When I play this mod, I don't feel like I'm playing a BOR mod. I feel like I'm playing a commercial game. There are few bugs, the sprites are animated properly, and everything else both looks good and plays good. This is, in my opinion, the definitive Mario mod. While I wouldn't call it the best BOR mod ever, it certainly earns a spot in a Top 10. Take notes, kids; Super Mario Brawl is how you make a good game with BOR. Now if you'll excuse me, I stopped playing at World 4-1, and would like to finish the game now.

Final Score:  19.5/20

[darknior]

Thanks, i play it too and it is a good game