8 replies to this topic

[Russ]

Mario's Nintendo Crisis by Exate

This is the part where I'd paste the quest database description, except there isn't one. This ois a quest from so long ago, it predates the database and exists only on a list of Exate's old quests. So uh... instead I'll just skip straight to Haylee's comments.
 

Mario quests have a... hilarious(?) history in the ZC community. You're either the funniest bad quest ever with the appropriately named "Mario Quest," the product-of-its-time comically violent Mario's Insane Rampage, or you're an experimental but unfortunately janky-due-to-the-engine platformer. Mario's Nintendo Crisis is perhaps the only formally grounded Mario Quest in ZC's history. It's got one of the sharpest aesthetics in any ZC quest, especially for its time (It's absolutely gorgeous for a 1.90 Quest.). The only real warnings I would give about the quest are that it can be pretty buggy (Some sections can result in softlock that can be escaped from by saving if you mess up.) and the difficulty curve for the quest can be quite rough. Blue Darknuts and Blue Lynels are in a surprising abundance in the earlygame, so there is a bit of a skill floor you kind of have to be at to enjoy the earlygame. After that, however, I think it's one of the most fun early quests and getting past that steep early game I feel is incredibly worth it.

Diving into 1.90 quests is always an adventure, especially ambitious ones. Who's ready for a blast to the past?

[Haylee]

Oh right, the link here links to a package of ALL of Exate's old quests. The one ya'll are looking for is MarioCrs.qst.

[Haylee]

Played up to the beginning of Level 3. My description in the top post definitely still applies: a kind of rough earlygame, but around level 3/the extra dungeon, I think it starts to pick up in quality.

 

Immediately, I'm remembering a pretty large amount of visual variety in the dungeons, and I'm glad that still holds so far. Quest is quite pretty and each dungeon being themed is ambitious for a 1.90 quest. I look forward to playing more of it.

[Jenny]

I've also played up to level 3. I'm mostly enjoying what I've played so far, outside of a few things like how punishing dying can be sometimes due to the number of kill all enemies rooms.

 

I do appreciate the relative straight-forwardness of finding where to go so far, as well as the visual variety of the dungeons. Its also cute figuring out what items/enemies actually are bc of the Mario theming.

[Colin]

Got into level 2, I didn't find a necessary item to progress at some point.

 

I don't care for the music or the blue darknuts to the point I'm not really interested in pushing through to level 3 which is where I guess it picks up.

 

It looks nice enough though. The item replacements are pretty fun and I like the shy guys.

 

EDIT: Sorry, realized I sort of popped in here with a lot of negativity. I might give it another shot later. Also been kind of fun trawling through the other exate quests in the zip.

Edited by Colin, 13 May 2024 - 08:09 PM.

[Jambu]

Rage Quitted at Level 3

Graphics and Music are nice thou but it's a bit buggy. Difficulty aside I would give this a 3/5 Average

[Haylee]

 

Beaten in my own time for impatient reasons. I will be replaying it though for quest club though because I have enjoyed it enough to be compelled enough to replay it for other people's sakes.

 

My opinions from when I played it long ago still haven't changed. It's one of my favorite quests and it (alongside a number of quests by Exate) heavily influenced a lot of my questmaking style today, and I hope to be able to showcase to people why.

 

This particular quest definitely isn't perfect. As I mentioned before the earlygame is quite difficult, and seems to pretty clearly be due to the immersion factor (IE wanting enemies to use specific palettes and so the earlygame consists of many blue darknuts and blue lynels.). There's plenty of peahat rooms, slightly mitigated by early access to the bow and arrow. Much of the actual bulk of the dungeons themselves are kill all enemy rooms with very little variation. Point is, it's absolutely a product of its time, and I have no qualms making a point of that. I don't particularly wish to highlight those as much, however, as based on what I've seen from this creator, they improved significantly on these flaws overtime, so bringing them up now would just be preaching to a choir who already understands this.

 

What's far and beyond ahead of its time, however, are the aesthetics. I feel they hold up tremendously well, and even beyond just "Oh wow, Mario Tiles that's neat." There's a very clear effort to clean up the sprites as well to put them in a mildly more consistent artstyle and that effort is something to be commended. Every dungeon (With the exception of the last two) all have a unique look to them, which if you know anything about 1.90, is very difficult to do, and helps to make the quest feel fresh, even when you are just doing the same thing every dungeon. It's to the point that I'd even say the effort showcased here is directly on par or even exceeds some things I've seen in modern ZC quests as well.

 

This gets into what I feel the point of the quest club should be: I don't see it as just a space to play a quest and drop a rating on it. The quests highlighted here should be used as potential inspiration in your own work. It should spark discussion, and potential critiques with the quests brought up should hopefully be applied to your own works as well. Both the positives and negatives are things to be learned from.

 

Admittedly, tossing this one in my curator pool was a bit of a self indulgence, since if you've inferred from the way I have spoken regarding this quest, I played this one back in Elementary School. I'm frankly glad I love it just as much now as much as I did back then.

[Colin]

I echo basically everything Haylee said.

 

I came back to it in a far better mood and managed to clear it this time. The Mario graphics are fun. The gohma replacement is especially great.

 

There are mandatory peahat battles, those weren't great. You have to also continuously reset rooms in level 2 since enemies will spawn out of reach for you to progress.

 

The quest is very 1.90. Get close to the end game where you have all the rings and all the swords and you're basically just face-tanking rooms upon rooms of fireball spam.

 

Surprisingly, I do think the death knights/cracktarocks of all things were actually used fairly reasonably.

 

Anyway, it was cute, a decent way to spend 3 hours.

Edited by Colin, 15 May 2024 - 12:52 AM.

[SofaKing]

I'm in.  I just finished Level 1.  Yeah, thus far this is no picnic, but I'm willing to see it through.  It feels sort of clunky but I think I'm still getting used to the graphics, enemies, etc.  I'll give more feedback once I'm further along.  Exate way back in the day made what was one of the best Metroid quests ever (XL-75 remake), so I'll give the benefit of the doubt on Mario as well.  Not sure I've ever played a Mario quest TBH.

 

Edit: I'm not sure how to access the endgame?   I beat what is called Level 7 but it sends me back out with some hints on where to go but I'm not seeing it.  

 

Edit2:  I figured it out and beat the quest.  Like everyone, while I recognize the obvious flaws and limitations, this was really bleeping cool from about Level 4 onward.  It looks amazing.  The music was super fun.  I ended up having a really good time with this.  It was straightforward although I found finding the "real" final level somewhat cryptic.  I will confess that Level 2 had me about ready to ragequit several times between the peahats, blue darknuts, traps, and having to go in and out of that one room about 15 times before the enemies would spawn on the correct side of the screen.  That was my most frustrating moment by a lot.  Also are there any shield upgrades in the quest?  Never found one.  

Edited by SofaKing, 28 May 2024 - 05:03 PM.