Hacking Mario games and creating new levels based on certain engines goes all the way back to the advent of emulation. Massimo, a ROM hack for Super Mario World, is an exceptional example of how to craft a new game based on an existing engine (and not wanting to get quite as complicated as, say, some of the more incredible mods for Half-Life).
Modding on computers has long been accepted, but it's still likely to get one slapped with a cease and desist on modern consoles. I was actually quite surprised that anyone was still doing this, but as soon as New Super Mario Bros. Wii came out, the next day there was already a level editor created.
Through some means or another, I came across one called Find That Princess!, created by a number of members of the forum DarkUmbra.net. I've been playing it for a few weeks now, and I've just (just!) finished the first world. Which should give you a clue as to what type of ROM hack this is – Find That Princess! is fucking hard.
The New Super Mario Bros. series is incredibly enjoyable, with perfectly tuned controls and physics that make the game a joy to play. Unfortunately, unlike the original few games, there's no adventures in creating one of the very first videogame and gameplay-centric approach to dynamic storytelling – New Super Mario Bros. is about reliving and recontextualizing mechanics, not overall gameplay. It actually makes the games a little bit meta, but mostly, it's a reliving of past glory – a metaphorical victory lap, if you will.
What Find That Princess! does is it eliminates the nostalgia factor of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and in its place, evokes memories of The Lost Levels. While the vast majority of levels are really interesting, there is still too much variable quality for me to recommend this to anyone except the most hardcore of NSMBW player, craving a bit of challenge.
Basically, Find That Princess! picks up right where NSMBW leaves off, with tons and tons of enemies and death-defying leaps, careful use of powerups (one underwater level throws about a thousand fish at you, forcing you to clear them out with a fireflower), and just a bit of luck. Unlike the original games, weird little platforms will jut out of place, which certainly makes things challenging, if not cohesive. Enemies from future worlds will show up in the earliest levels, and the whole game is designed to do one thing: to show off your Mario credentials.
In some cases, this leads to really inventive level design (World 1-5 is incredibly difficult and takes upwards of 10 minutes to complete, but once you do, it really feels like an odyssey), really challenging level design (the final castle of world 1 dynamically changes depending on certain factors, which always keeps you on your toes, even if it does mean that you're likely to go through at least 50 lives, as I did), but occasionally just boring level design. It's not geared towards enjoyment – it's geared towards killing you, which makes it not quite as successful overall as the original game. Of course, for an amateur project, it's quite revelatory and shows the creativity of people who aren't Nintendo, but the original is the better game overall.
Over on the DS, one guy from Germany has been crafting an ambitious project: a complete remake of Super Mario Bros. 3 (still my favourite 2D Mario game) in the New Super Mario Bros. engine. It's quite impressive that all of the levels have made it intact, but what it's shown to me most of all is that the original is untoppable.
The key element of Super Mario Bros. 3 (and nearly every Mario game since) has been transformation – into a flying tanuki, into a fire-shooter, into a guy in a shoe. Because of the limitations of the NSMB engine, most of these things don't make it into the game. As well, part of the charm and excitement of playing SMB3 is the game's secrets, in the form of whistles and elements of the background that you can get into and behind. Once again, because of engine restrictions, these things couldn't be in the game.
So what New Super Mario Bros. 3 equals out to is a prettier, but less functional version of a classic game, a classic game that you should just play instead. The only real bonus that this remake has is portability, but besides the level layout, it's so different from SMB3 that it's basically a different game. It's also shown to me how comparatively sterile New Super Mario Bros. is to SMB3. That original game had an original and completely charming aesthetic that still holds up despite being twenty years old, whereas New Super Mario Bros. 3, while a polished game, is just a little bit lifeless.
All in all, I applaud the efforts of these budding amateur game developers, but recommend the original games instead. But isn't that always the case? I mean, almost no one holds Massimo in the same regard as Super Mario World, and it's one of the best.
Note: Vigigames neither promotes nor condones piracy or console modding. Play these games at your own risk and find the games for yourself – we won't be providing links here.