Haha wow, and I thought icrawfish was cutting it close with submitting.
Can't wait to play these roms later.

DESCRIPTION MISTAKE!

In my panic upload I miscredited a level. The correct level should have been!

Crystal Cap - bananababey & Quirby64

Apologies!

me and my wife :3

it's kinda amazing when this major started, i didn't think i would make an entry at all, or even play any, but when coco just threw out the idea of a collab into chat, i thought it'd be interesting to join, can't believe i helped make a whole SMW hack!!!! loved this lots💚enjoy!

EDIT: issue resolved!!!

--- old comment ---
if I interpret the description correctly and before checking the entry: sorry to point out but custom gfx and music that are not made originally for the submission are illegal, as mentioned in the Lyceum under "rules" at the bottom.
and especially custom music that is a cover from other music is illegal here.

#233793 I thought we had multiple conversations about this in regards to both crediting & the question of requirement of bespoke music? I was 100% confident I understood and was on the same page...I don't know what to say.

;o; i'm so sorry about what misunderstanding happened, that feels so bad.. i didn't see the convos but i really hope something gets worked out, this is clearly a labor of love

we have a potential solution in the works!

very glad to hear that! i'll obviously hold off on downloading and playing, excited though i am

the entry was resubmitted and the issue resolved!

yay! :D

Crystal Cap - Ivy The Clown & Quirby64 !!

SORRY I DIDN'T CATCH THAT CORA

my playthrough with commentary c:
https://youtu.be/6iAU6A8vxl8

hey hey hey! i just finished my playthrough and wrote up some brief notes.

FLORAL FLOAT

god i love slopes. it was satisfying to throw a shell through the slope into the dirt in the beginning. i do wish there was a little *more* happening, like maybe the jumping cheep-cheeps in the water. after the midpoint, the camera didn't follow mario up the slope, which was a little disorienting, but that's fine. the second half in general was much trickier, with things like a big ol chungus jump before the last boon coin ^o^ big respect for that. the level was overall cute! i loved the galoomba slugs too.

PHANTOM FLOAT

LMAO the mushroom at the beginning.. the little gap in the ceiling was chekhov's gun there for sure. nice palette, especially giving the effect of flying dry bones (fly bones?), though the green parakoopa did still have the green shell. that's fine, of course! just wasn't positive if intentional. in the second half, i realized that i hadn't thought to myself "ugh, an auto-scroller...", which is a high compliment. the extended sprite the AFHB throws was beautiful. thank you. the "divergent paths" gimmick is one i would have loved to see explored -- maybe a path could be obviously more dangerous but lead to a boon coin, or the split paths could go on for longer and present slightly different kinds of obstacles, making it tempting to try a different path if you die. also that last boon coin was fun :) i was expecting a goal tape i could go under but that's probably a nicer thing to do there than something like a goal tape troll.

SLUG NATIONAL PARK

custom gfx yeaaaaah! i will confess that i killed *one* slug to see if there was some sneaky uberASM that would make them invincible or just straight up kill the player lol. also shoutouts to masochist slug in the cute lil house. also i only got a 30 on the goal tape :( this level was really cute!

TROUT TROUBLE

layer three tides and green beans are here! thank you for putting a message block in. it is greatly appreciated. since it looked like a gap only small mario could escape from, i jumped into the water in the beginning of the second half and found that yeah, since i was big, i couldn't get out lol. it would have been my own fault if i'd died, but i could still swim under the bottom of the level to escape. i took my first death in this level, to the fish generator \(^^)/ rip to getting all the boon coins. i also immediately fell back into the "inescapable" pit. i did go back through the level since i clumsily jumped into the goal tape instead of swimming under it, but on returning, i was disappointed to find no secret.. also when i hit the goal tape i didn't realize i'd had 56 points before, oops!

i did have one question about this level: where's the fugumannen! the porcupuffer! the boy!! *him*?!

CRYSTAL CAP

so we back on the cloud.. i immediately did what anybody does when given a cloud and a ceiling with slopes: deliberately clipped into the ceiling and died. that was my second death of the hack, and then my third because i did it again. the rest of the level was a little plain and i wish there was more happening, honestly, but sometimes what you need is just good ol jumpman (but floating). also the goal tape was a little broken and i was able to fly under it and check the incomplete last screen of the level. that's fine tbh ^o^ just an easter egg imo! i got three lives in the bonus game -- not amazing, but not bad at all.

LYCEUM MINES

i noticed going in that the overworld events didn't come with save prompts. def not necessary, just a convenience i generally like.

the level opens with a little diegetic tutorialization, which made me smile. i did die once to falling in the lava, oops! the short ceiling in some parts, together with vines, was tricky. i did spin jump on the turn blocks in the second half to see if they would break (they did! i survived lmao). i liked the touch of having not only diggin' chucks but also some standalone boulders, that was nice. i'm guessing the composition of the cave was maybe slate, given the palette, though i was surprised to exit the cave to see totally different colored ground. getting into the secret exit path felt a little bit like a wizard walked up to me on the road and said "solve my 'finding the right pipe' puzzle, traveler!" until i saw a green pipe lol. in the secret exit route, my one little nitpick is that there should probs be an actual border between the stone and lava or else it looks like cutoff, but i'm not scoring on that basis. also it's the only place i noticed that; there could have been more and i just never noticed! part of me wishes the secret exit went somewhere, but that's fine hehe. also given the theme of teaching the player something they may not have known, i do wish there was a second textbox explaining some second gimmick, like maybe some one-tile vines with an explanation about duck-jumping to grab them with a powerup.

i hadn't checked the exit count in the description and was a little surprised when the hack ended, but the lovely overworld with tantalizing features just out of reach makes this feel pleasantly like a demo for which i would like to play the full hack! .... right, i didn't mention the overworld! it was really well-made and brought a lot to the experience. i wish there had been some iconography like ... idk, a geographical feature with 5 of the nubby hills on the left and then 6 on the right ^^

thanks for making this, y'all, and i would love the early version if y'all could hit me up with the patch file orz

I've also just finished my playthrough, and likewise have written notes.

A really solid overworld to start with! Love the waterfall, the forest, that northern fort (which I'm going to assume is cut content, along with the ladder and tsunami) the terrain being at different heights along with usage of several palettes. It's all aesthetically very nice! My immediate assumption was that the levels were designed to loop back around, from the waterfall fortress, to floral fever.

I'm gonna jump through each level individually. I haven't read synthetic goddesses comment properly yet, so I'm not sure how much our comments might mirror.

Before that though, love the "Boon" coins. A very nice touch. The slugs are fun too :))

Floral Fever:
A nice starter level, with a good warm up difficulty for the player.
I enjoyed the troop of koopas, reminiscent of level 106. Some nice slopes, a good enemy variety. A few walk-through hills during some of the flatter moments may have provided a bit of fun optional platforming, and given the level a nice vertical touch.
Speaking of verticality, think "vertical scroll at will" probably would've served you better than the current setting of vertical scroll when running. You can play most the level just fine without seeing the upper half of the screen, but it can feel a little jank at certain moments. Also means the Amazing Flying Hammer Bro isn't much of an obstacle, as his projectiles aren't able to hurt the player.

Also - and this might seem like a strange critique - I'd suggest playing around with adding a few more bushes and purely decorative props perhaps. Going into the 16x16 editor and landscaping can really add some additional flair. Can help distinguish between different sections as well. But I did enjoy. :)

Plantom Float:
Cool stage! Don't often see the Lakitu Cloud paired with the Ghost House aesthetic. Made the level feel unique. I liked the ghostly Para-Koopas and Mushrooms - good call on playing with the sprite custom palette. All felt well designed with fun and varied use of ghost house obstacles/enemies.

Slug National Park
Cool additional graphics! I like those trees! And very much enjoy seeing that the Slug National Park is thriving.
I did like the verticality with the trees - perhaps a little short on obstacles in places, utilizing the cape to gain access to boon coins was a cool usage of its mechanics though.

Trout Trouble
Solid level, all felt cohesive, with fish, water, and the springy platforms in the first half being the central themes and mechanics of the level. The Flying Fish generator isn't asking too much of the player, because the moments where it does trigger aren't are designed to be simple and straightforward. Fun star, because it reverses the task from dodging the fishes, to intentfully trying to jump into them.

Crystal Cap
A decent level; what's there was fun, but the level was a bit short, and two Lakitu cloud focused levels in the same hack feels perhaps a little unnecessary - though the lack of autoscrolling and different environments still helped set it apart.

Lyceum Mines
Probably my favourite level. The challenge is fun - the info box at the start does a good job, with hinting at the best way to approach certain challenging moments.

Like Crystal Cap, there are consistent gimmicks in the level that the designer chooses to experiment with. Platforms that expand, submerge. Para-Koopas, vines, the mining Chucks.
I think the landscaping here is very good, with how you utilize vines as both a decoration, and a mechanic. I like the consistent use of slopes.
And the pipe that leads to the secret entrance stands out in a good way, to make you think "hmmm, I wonder if that pipe leads anywhere". I do think it's maybe a shame to have the normal route do nothing in the overworld. But I enjoyed the pace and use of obstacles, especially through the normal route. And a good idea placing it at the latter half of the hack, as it is the hardest of these levels.

Overall I think you should all be proud of yourselves for contributing to this awesome hack! :)) I'd probably say there's value in all of you creating levels individually, then coming together later to touch things up as a team, with maybe someone leading the level design ethos. Maybe you did that - either way, it was a fun playthrough, and thank you all for making it! I enjoyed my time on your project! :DDD

going to write this as i go so uh .brr:

(custom gfx is peam btw, i like ze b00n coin, and its good to know where the slugs live, and that overworld is peak quality)

floral fever:
"its pretty good"
giving yoshi on the same stage that he requires sacrifice is straight evil though
no "vertical scroll at will" was kinda weird to experience but the stage didn't really break, so yippee!
the section with yoshi and the water though kinda...existed? if that makes sense?
only other thing to note is that the last b00n coin's bottom half doesn't vanish on collect (the dreaded subscreens i tell you)

phantom float:
"damn this shit kinda nice"
honestly forgot smw had a rideable lakitu cloud, so its use here was nice, and the color palette's cool
also that final b00n coin reminds me of nsmbds, don't ask why idk myself i think im thinking w5 (ice?) castle
i WILL kill that flying can bro though. holy mushroom spawncamping like my guy tincans are cool but i don't want yours plz nooooooo-

slug national park:
"so this is where they stay"
custom tileset usage here was very good indeed
and the b00n coin placement here was pretty good
...except 1.
the 4th one's a nice lil "use the slugs to open the entry", however-
if you don't get that coin and revvobolt out of there (which is alot harder to do if you're big/fire/cape as you need to slide through or hit 2 blocks), you're softlocked. rip.
b00n coin 5 is good though, so uh semi-yay
also no i will NOT stomp on that grey slug i don't want 56 years in jail

trout trouble:
"mm layer 3 water"
i like how the first b00n coin requires you to swim against the current, then with it to get back, then the next requires the complete opposite, its cool
even with default visuals you made a really cool atmosphere over a river, unique/7
also who the hell left the cheep cheeps on land they're gonna dry out and d- oh. they're. they're dead. f
...ok i'll just use this message block to find help for th- FUCK IT USES LAYER 3 NOOO
...anyways whats this next- oh my god there's jumping cheep cheeps ggs (this section was fun, but when they all stacked on the left that 4th b00n coin was SCARY to collect i tell you, fucking swarm)
....wait the shrinking circle at a level end uses layer 3 f-


crystal cap:
"lakitu #2"
this one was short and i guess fine.
its unfortunate this exists in the same hack as phantom float because it makes this one feel like a duplicate extra and i don't wanna feel like that.
you can also skip half the obstacles at the end, and there's a floating tape so we get to see your hidden secrets oo what are t- oh its an unfini-
i will catch those red coins one day btw

lyceum mines:
"wow this pretty"
im not even joking despite this only using vines and some default decoration holy shit does this one look good
and they're even used for gameplay
speaking of
the gameplay is kinda hard for me but the good kind, was fun af,
and the b00n coins reflect that difficulty well
also thank you mysterious question block


absolute fucking circa(s) bro, bravo to all 6 of you