This Hack Needs a Name
yeahman | 2014 | 118 Exits | Download Link
This is a solid beginner-friendly hack. The difficulty starts out very easy and gradually increases until it surpasses the difficulty of the vanilla Super Mario World, but honestly not by that much. The levels are mostly vanilla, and the level design doesn’t do anything too out-of-the-box, but every once in a while a level is centered around a custom gimmick (mostly a simple custom block, such as conveyor belts or sticky floors) to keep things from becoming too stale. Even throughout the endgame and the special world, I always found that there were more than enough powerups at quite generous frequencies, so even a less experienced player shouldn’t have too much trouble completing the game.
As is usually the case in these types of longer, easier hacks, there’s a focus on finding secret exits, and as is usually the case, I’m not the biggest fan of how they’re done here. From my memory, they're mostly hidden in either an unmarked pipe or by flying over a ceiling, which makes searching for them just feel like a chore. For some reason I don’t really mind playing through easy, simple levels, but when I actually have to go through a level once again to check every pipe or travel on the overworld to another level to grab a cape, I just can’t help being annoyed. I suppose at this point I’ve simply seen all of the standard ways to hide a secret exit dozens of times and I’ve become a bit jaded as a result.
One thing that makes this hack stand out is the way it ends on a cliff-hanger. After beating the final boss, the credits simply spell out an ominous “The End…?” message before cutting to a black screen. The access to the special world is reasonably well hidden, and even after completing all of the bonus levels, there’s still one last exit to find elsewhere on the overworld map. This type of secret hunting over the course of multiple levels and across the overworld felt much more engaging and unique to me than hunting for the secret exits throughout the rest of the game, and I enjoyed the endgame much more than the early game as a result.
Overall, I’d recommend this hack for beginners who want to gain more experience with the basic physics and enemy behaviors of Super Mario World. The hack is varied enough to make the experience worthwhile, with different level layouts and the odd custom block thrown into the mix too. I’m a little bit more hesitant to recommend it to more experienced players though.