Mario Adventure: Arguably the best Mario hack ever created.

Oh. My. Gahd.

So in 2004, a home-brewer/programmer/ITT-Tech student going by the name DahrkDiaz created a hack that would later go on to become what many know as the greatest Mario hack of all time: Mario Adventure.

This wasn't your average "changed up the levels and added some new colors, also some dicks" hack, DD added a whole new playing experience to the SMB3 engine with new power ups, bosses at each level's end, a fucking key system for unlocking worlds, and finally a REASON to collect all those god damn coins. It is ingenious, it is hard as nails.

Mario Adventure takes players back to the frustration level of their 7 year old selves. Rife with surprises, new enemy functions and maps that hardly qualify as fair; this game picks up where the "beat SMB3 a bazillion times" veteran left off. 

But check your red hot irritation at the door. Mario Adventure has an unlimited life policy, so you can play and learn and laugh and let each stupidstupidstupid level grow on you over time. Plus, if you get truly desperate, there are cheats which one would think the game's developer WANTED you to use in order to find and unlock secret parts of certain levels(available at the bottom of the post). 

There are 8 Worlds in Mario Adventure, each one conquerable through typical means of wand gathering and boss whooping. However, in each world lies a key which players may use to unlock the "warp zone paths" and eventually beat the game in world 8 (don't worry, there is a cheat for that too...).

A specific love of mine for this game were the ever-changing weather patterns of the Mushroom Kingdom. Sometimes you start a game and it's night, or raining, or snowing, maybe sunny... The attributes of the level change, certain secrets become apparent, and suddenly you have found something in your run that was completely hidden before. Also, the coins aspect. Collecting coins used to be for points junkies, whereas Mario Adventure makes players use these coins in the "Mushroom Huts" to gain hidden power-ups like Magic Mario, Fire Mario, Das Boot, a Mushroom, and more... This is a brilliant step in the right direction for Mario games on this platform, honestly this could have been SMB4.

That said, some bugs/glitches are hard to ignore. Enemies getting stuck in "dead zones" is an occasional occurrence and power ups (like mushrooms) can sometimes drift away if you let them out of your sight. At crucial points in a boss battle, a player's golden mushroom(which completes the stage) can sometimes fall through the floor, sending you into a complete rage. This is rare, but it happens.

 Overall though, the bugs in this game are HARDLY present compared to the majority of hacks. 

I went into this game thinking it would be another crappy Mario hack, but I was very impressed by the smoothness, the innovation and the absolute re-playability of this game. Play it below and check out some of the cheats available. I honestly believe they are enhancements to the playing experience, not just an easy way out. Oh and did I mention the ROM auto-saves???

[Play it here]

[Download the ROM here!]

News: Mario Adventure 3 (After the sequel which was meh) should be coming out January 2014. Wicked Basement WILL have the new game up as soon as DahrkDiaz releases it.

A look at some of the concept:

Cheats

P-Wing!

LUBDADD

Left-Up-B-Down-A-Down-Down

Unlock World 8 (and all others)

DD LUBS ALL

Down-Down-Left-Up-B-Select-A-Left-Left

Frog Suit

BAD LAD

B-A-Down-Left-A-Down

Breaking: Game of Thrones 8bit game available for download!

[img not related to game, still cool tho]

Throwing this little gem down to the basement for peer review. 

Played it a bit and so far it has been pretty fun. Sort of a side-scrolling Arkistas ring, mixed with the many other platformers it aims to emulate. Play as Tyrion, Jon Snow, Daavos, or Daenerys; all with different movement and attack features. The game is totally retro/revisited classic and brought to us solely by Spanish comix artist Abel Alves. Enjoy and download for FREE right here in the Basement.

[FREE download HERE]
[You will need a PC Emulator to play this, unfortunately.]

---Starscream---

Before they became the chiptune band now known as Infinity Shred, they were Starscream.

A duo whose mix of live percussion and gameboy riffs would launch me into an invisible light saber

swinging frenzy in the solitude of my bedroom. My two favorite tracks titled "Years One-four" and the followup "Years Five-Eight" say something to me about immensity and eternity I can barely describe without crumpling at it's grandeur, and I would tho this isn't a Bawwww thread so I digress. Starscream's music is becoming increasingly hard to find now that they have moved on with their current moniker. 

Check out Starscream's "Future and it doesn't work", "Years 5-8*", and  "Gravity in terms of time and space". Just WICKED.

-Voyager 1

Future and it doesn't work

Years 5-8

Gravity in terms of time and space

Tower Fall looks delicious.

Introducing Towerfall!

A SmashBrosesque, arrow fueled battle royal which has been getting rave reviews since it's debut. Play  as one of four main characters, collect power ups, and kill-kill-KILL. One of the coolest parts of this game, as I have seen, is the changing, warping stage structures. Like bomberman, explosives are available and work with the stage's already wild, seemingly random conversions. So sweet. UNFORTUNATELY TowerFall is only available for the ever-so-annoying OUYA console (I know, shoot me...) for now, but quite a few developers (including TF's) are getting it prepped for Mac/PC. Check out the Trailer!

Keiji Inafune is at it again!

So most people are familiar with Keiji Inafune as one of (if not THE) creator of Megaman's overall design. In Rockman's introduction, Capcom teamed up with Inafune to create the Blue Bomber's trademark aesthetic, blending a raw technological look with a style that reminded us of Tatsumi's Astro Boy on robo-steroids. The Villains, especially, are some of the most memorable Nintendo characters in the entertainment system's history and in my opinion, it is the artistic flair of these characters, not the actual gameplay that can be credited for most of the franchise's popularity (See "The Krion Conquest" lol) . Total win.

In recent years, however, Inafune left Capcom on the grounds of "creative differences", but many speculate that Capcom had been stifling Megaman's IRL Dr. Light for years. In multiple press talks, Inafune stated that he "Hated [his] job at Capcom" and had trouble growing with the company due to a glass ceiling within the company. The leave was shocking and depressing, especially considering Inafune's warning that classic Japanese gaming was becoming a dying industry. Plenty of neo-classical/revisited retro style games have come out since his quitting, but the MM universe seems to have been taken over by the fans (see MM vs. StreetFighter).

But fear ye not Rockman fans!...
Decades after MM 1 flew off the shelves, Keiji Inafune and his production company Comcept returns with a brand new game, untainted by "the biz" titled: "Mighty No. 9"!
Still in it's crowd-funding stage, MN9 aims to be a game which takes us all back to our roots while providing a visually modern landscape for gameplay. In his Kickstarter promo video, Inafune promises us some serious artistic innovation to the typical run-n-gun, action-platformer style that made MM games such a hit for so many years. As he says on his Kickstarter page, "While the beloved creations of my past are no longer at my disposal, the spirit they were born from still is. By tapping into that spirit we can create a new game--and new characters--that carry on the legacy of the past."
[^Look familiar?^]
--And from the concept art previews, the looks into screenshots and some of his interviews regarding the project, I can't help but feel excited for what Inafune and Comcept has in store. Yeah, it's sort of a kick-in-the-balls-concept aimed at showing Capcom what they are missing out on by letting him quit, but so far the ideas presented seem very original; especially considering that, the concepts some would say he is "copying" is actually his own work in the first place. Almost like if Alan Moore wrote a sequel to Watchman and called it the LOOKmen2 and.....Okay bad example.
  Check out his Kickstarter [HERE] and give a little bit to a growing project. They have reached their goal but the packages for insider news, betas, and more are still available for about a month.

Good luck Keiji!

Druden- "Druden" self titled.

[2012 Full release HERE]

Drude is the word for a mythological kind of witch out of German folklore who could create nightmares and demons. Drudes were said to be born 1 out of 7 daughters of a particular family and entered their victims house at night to cast their Drudenfluch (Drude's Curse) on a sleeping victim. Legends tell that they were shape-shifters and cast wind spells which could only be fought off by a magical item called the Drude knife. Their most reported form was a fat woman sitting on their victim's chest at night. 

I'm not sure if Druden named their band after all this, but it would be a shame if they didn't. Enjoy the music!

Alcest- "Ecailles De Lune"

[Click play for full album]

BBB: Cannot WAIT to see this and the others of Sportsfriends, out this Autumn...

BARABARIBALL

Somewhere between Smash Bros and a volleyball competition is local multiplayer Barabariball, a 2013 release by Noah Sasso. BBB will release in a 3 games-in-one package called Sportsfriends for PS3 this fall, then for PC/Mac right after. I watched all of the game's trailers and am most impressed with BBB. Not only are the game's aesthetics looking great, but gameplay looks really fun. Movement reminds me of the obvious, Smash Bros but with a hint of Super House of Dead Ninjas. Floaty and brutal.

I'll keep my eyes glued to Steam until it's release for betas or demos.

Check this gameplay!

Duh.

MMV

Say what you will about Megaman V, the fact that they KEPT the chargeable buster from IV tells you that these developers knew gold when they hatched it....saw it...prospected it? Anyway, I was playing MMV and realized that this game has probably the worst password system of any of the original MM games. Scrambling around to find a piece of paper so that I can mistakenly write Red A3 when I meant to write Blue A3, thereby forfeiting my 3 hours of gameplay dedicated to DESTROYING Chargeman and his stupid level that lasts forever, is something I want to get over in 2013. 

I got to searching and found a password generator so that if it has been a few years, you want to start where you left off in 96', or you just don't want to shit your pants trying to find a receipt to write passwords on, you are covered.

[Generate a password HERE]

[PLAY IT HERE]

Super Mario 2, Doki Doki Panic, and how Nintendo probably made the right decision...

So I have been scouring the web for a playable Japanese SMB2, also known as "The Lost Levels" on the later SMB All Stars for SNES. It's been rough. For some ridiculous reason, all of my emulator/playable go-to's load the game and then get stuck in that magical black abyss RIGHT before the game actually begins. I don't want the graphics enhancement, I want the original. The 8-bit, too many gaps in the floor plan, turtles getting glitch stuck in the decor, misplaced "nicer" background looking ORIGINAL.

The good news is, I found a working version. The bad news is, this game still totally blows.

Whoever decided to scrap the Japanese sequel to Super Mario Bros. and completely rip off literally every single thing in "Doki Doki Panic!" deserves free blow jobs for life. I remember playing Lost Levels back in primary school and thinking, "Eh, this is cool because I didn't know about them n' stuff but......*reset*" My childlike innocence had a point. SMB2 (US) Changed the dynamics of Mario for American audiences FOREVER, enhanced what Mario could do to his enemies, and allowed players to experience the game through the eyes of Toad and Princess... Granted it was all 100% stolen intellectual property but it still changed the Mario Motif forever and after revisiting the Japanese version, I am really glad it did.

[PLAY IT(that Japanese version I just complained about) HERE]

(Oh and use the Flash portal...)

FriDOOM

[Dark Castle-"Awake in Sleep"]

VICE: Project Doom, one of the best "grave-games" in NES history...

Let's face it: 1991 was a great year for games. Just one look at this Nintendo Power cover and you are taken over with nostalgia. One reason that 91' was such a power house is not only because of the culminating rivalry between SEGA and Nintendo, but because just that previous year Super Nintendo/Famicom was flying off the shelves. Games for NES that came out in this time are what I call "grave games" because 16-bit was taking over and NES was being phased out. A great thing about "grave-games" though, is that they are usually a developers last chance to show off a major success or completely bomb.

VICE: Project Doom is a multidimensional, action packed, NES success which rivals early SEGA in its complexity and graphic design. The developers wanted their players to know that NES could still stand against the coming wave of consoles and made games like VPD to be their flag bearers. Like a mixture of Contra, Castlevania, and Journey to Silius, VICE: Project Doom is an action packed adventure platformer featuring smoother controls for attacks plus attempted game-style crossovers that just rule. The game features driving levels and 1st person shooting levels in addition to it's constant run-n'-gun style play. Movement and strikes are unprecedentedly smooth and the game features 3 types of weapons for which players collect ammo throughout each level. Use your sword as a constant to hack through mutants and armed guards, then blast a few bosses with your pistol and/or sticks of dynamite. It's a multilayered kind of fun. 

Another super improvement to previous games like VPD is the health bar! That's right, no more dying from one fucking hit, Contra fans. It takes about 7-8 smacks, bullets, punches, or ninja daggers to kill P1 in VPD and the continues are endless. REJOICE! In between each level, quirky cinematics lock you in for the ride and it becomes clear that developers spent a lot of time making this gem of a game. I seriously could not stop playing, even after dying many times in the stupidest of ways. That's a good sign.

  

Really, the only gripe I had with VPD was that I couldn't save at any point. I left my ROM running for about 3 days just to beat the damn thing. A game this big and bold needed at LEAST a password system, but alas it does not. Below is a playable link and the entire spread from Nintendo Power circa 91'. Wicked Basement, right? Enjoy!

[PLAY IT HERE]

German gold. Coldworld.

[Coldworld-"Melancholie2 Full]

Miami had ONE good thing going for it... Slashpine.

Miami, Florida. Home to moronic fads like YOLO, the Corona sunken Margarita, and the tow truck reality show. Yes, it is the south's version of Vegas which they keep under the old rickety, bug infested, mold covered staircase called Florida. HOWEVER... From out of the dank, venom-soaked swamp, a band emerged that blew the roof off of any venue they played. Slashpine was an American BM diamond in the rough which kept music nights alive when I (unfortunately) lived in Florida. They were a band that left people with their jaws on the floor and put up a well needed "wall of sound" in a city with nothing but House. Enjoy their 7" and then graduate to some of the new stuff. Unfortunately, they are no longer a band.

[FULL ALBUM]

Edward Snowden and mock retro gaming...

So I found this little gem while reading about Ed Snowden and although it is not true 8/16bit, I feel like I should post it. It's a cool game, with a funny premise and a chance to get involved at the end. The controls are really simple (WASD+space+mouse aiming) and the German team (Binji), who created the game, made it as an honor to Snowden who they think just rules. I think so too, so enjoy "Eddy's Run" for what it is: A quick, flash game in the stylings of what the Basement likes most...

[PLAY IT HERE]

Mouth of the Architect

["Baobab"-Mouth of the Architect]

[From "The Ties That Bind"- Full album here]

Super Mario Bros. Crossover v3.0

Back when v1 of this delicious mashup first debuted from Exploding Rabbit, I was completely hooked. The thrill of absolutely DESTROYING lvl 4-2 with Contra's Bill is one I can hardly forget experiencing. At the end of it all I could only think of how the game could get bigger, better, and more nuanced. The simple world of SMB1 against a team of Nintendo's greatest hardly stood a chance. That said, given the limited power ups of SMBCv1, I began to understand how absolutely perfect SMB1 was and how Mario himself was such a key part of winning many given levels. As fun as blasting your way through these levels is with Megaman, Bill, or even the slow and antiquated Samus, eventually the "lesson" of SMBCv1 is that in the end, Mario still reigns supreme.

Not so in the 192 staged, 152 character/skinned version 3.0. 

With added difficulty settings, gameplay modes and level skins, SMBCv3 is not your average crossover. In fact, it becomes a treasure trove of Nintendo "what if's" that have been culminating for the past 25 years. The character change feature is absolutely stunning and attaches attributes of the various games to their individual characters and maps, beyond the obvious. Power ups affect your character as it would in their platformer and offer a chronological enhancement of your given state(Mushroom<Fire Flower:Mushroom<Super Arm<Metal Blade: Mushroom<Missiles<Missile Expansion: you get the picture) This makes dynamic gameplay possible each and every time you start SMBCv3 up. Go to war against Bowser as a charged up Cutman, a fist fighting Alex (RCR), or whip lashing skeleton from the Castlevania franchise. All with their own set of family power ups. It's like an incredible, playable fanfiction.

Overall, Super Mario Brothers Crossover 3.0 is a very satisfying game. In certain areas, Exploding Rabbit could have gone over the top but kept it simpler. For instance, with the Megaman power ups, a possible taking of board enemies powers COULD have been an improvement. Possibly easter egg-like rooms in the underground levels where you are basically blasting a hole through the confining bricks... COULD it have led to a matrix-like room of code or maybe a bonus level, completely separate from the SMB1 world? It COULD have. Maybe they COULD have added some monsters from the Dragon Quest series into the mix, maybe they COULD have created power ups that enabled Dr. Light or Wily to access machines, maybe they COULD have added a multiplayer option so players could vs. each other for high score online, maybe maybe maybe... This game is so full of "DIDS" that focusing on what more I can have from SMBCv3 seems selfish. Plus, I think that is the point of following your title with "version": You can always make more versions.

[PLAY IT HERE]

Bloody Bashing: Hotline Miami

 In March, "Hotline Miami" finally came out for Mac platform and this week, I downloaded the blood-soaked retrofit to experience the carnage for myself. Set in steamy Miami Florida, Hotline promises classic graphics, overhead (early GTA) style gameplay and a host of aesthetically pleasing elements involving euro-synth scoring, dark-psychadelic imagery and a mutual decent into insanity from player to main character. 

The trailer (below) gives you the same sort of feeling that the movie "Drive" does... Emotionally detached psychopath, placed in a supposedly "beautiful" landscape where nothing but horror and murder prevail. So far so good...

In playing Hotline, I realized that the best part of this game is the teachability of it. The learning curve for this game (Mouse and WASD controls) is sharp but given the unlimited life restarts available, players can pick up the how-to's pretty quickly. Witchy house music blasts as you make quick movements from room to room, picking up an array of weapons and executing your marks in an almost Hitman-like fashion. Blast your way through and suffer the consequences, or sneak up behind most of your enemies with a crowbar and kill them one-by-one...

Players are awarded points based on accuracy and execution of kill and once everyone is dead in the room, you move on. Masks are unlocked for different bonuses and secret weapons/upgrades are awarded for kill points. Pretty simple. The levels become harder as you progress from mission to mission and the bumps/breaks in between levels become more interesting. Who is the bearded man in EVERY break? Who is leaving messages on your phone?? Why even do these mediocre activities in the first place??? Hotline Miami reveals the answer to each mystery after a few mission accomplishments and keeps you wanting SO much more. This is a near-entheogenic, heart pounding hit of a game. I really couldn't stop.

One thing I wanted more of from Hotline was the ability to act out during breaks. In the pizza shop I wanted to do something destructive, in the bar I wanted to lash out at the fat guy covered in puke...I WANTED 100% CARNAGE! In these moments, your attack controls are left neutral and become pick up commands. Something that I think limited the game a bit. 

Aside from that, I haven't gasped harder or jumped higher out of pure fear and surprise than while playing Hotline Miami. This game is completely addictive and utterly thrilling. I will play it again and again to beat old high scores and talk about it with friends over drinks.

Get your Mac download here:

[Free MAC Download]

Epic. Fall of Rauros most recent work...

[Falls of Rauros-"The Light that Dwells in Rotten Wood" Full album]