One of the greatest technological achievements on the SNES. You'd think the idea of making a game on the SNES with NSMB DS sprites and pre-rendered models (including custom-made models) would make for a visual mess, but the visuals are actually quite appealing and mostly stylistically consistent, and the game runs well in most circumstances. It really makes me wish an official SNES Mario game actually looked like this; it would've been groundbreaking in the 90s. Giving the ugliest and most boring mainline Mario game this new visual style makes the game so much more enjoyable, and unlike the original Mario Land I was actually able to bring myself to complete it in one sitting. Hell, it even made me realize that the level design in Mario Land is actually not half bad. Also, wall jumps are here too for some reason. That's pretty nifty.
It pains me to give this a mediocre score, but it's still pretty clear that there's a lot of work to be done. The physics were completely redone from the original game, but they still don't feel right. It's consistent enough, but it just isn't very satisfying to move around, nor is it fit for precise platforming (namely level 3-2, which also sucked in the original). Mario's animations look stilted, and there's a clear lack of polish with enemy and object hitboxes. I somehow died by jumping over the goal post. And the remastered soundtrack also could've been a lot better. It's surprisingly lackluster and loses most of the charm of the original music. It's also... still Super Mario Land, meaning it's done in like half an hour and doesn't offer much you haven't seen elsewhere.
This is a great proof of concept, and it has the potential to become great in general if it's given further attention and improvements. I'd love to see Mario Land 2 remade in this style.
It pains me to give this a mediocre score, but it's still pretty clear that there's a lot of work to be done. The physics were completely redone from the original game, but they still don't feel right. It's consistent enough, but it just isn't very satisfying to move around, nor is it fit for precise platforming (namely level 3-2, which also sucked in the original). Mario's animations look stilted, and there's a clear lack of polish with enemy and object hitboxes. I somehow died by jumping over the goal post. And the remastered soundtrack also could've been a lot better. It's surprisingly lackluster and loses most of the charm of the original music. It's also... still Super Mario Land, meaning it's done in like half an hour and doesn't offer much you haven't seen elsewhere.
This is a great proof of concept, and it has the potential to become great in general if it's given further attention and improvements. I'd love to see Mario Land 2 remade in this style.