Communist Mario 3 Released!

[KP9000]

Download Communist Mario 3 now!

The object of this hack is to play through the original SMB3 but instead avoid all the coins, either free or in blocks. A number of other gameplay changes have been made to execute this main change, as well as a fully customized theme to compliment it! Please note that I do not claim any of the content in this hack to be accurate in any way possible. Some of it might be, but I didn't put any effort into accuracy. If you have a problem with the content, grow some thicker skin or go play another hack.


Credits:
Most graphics are my own. Some have been sourced from other NES ROMs like Megaman 3-5, Castlevania, Faxanadu, and others.
Graphics from JaSp's hack, "Mario in: Some Usual Day", mostly global animated graphics.
Many people on IRC. The channel #rom-hacking on Espernet is full of people that were instrumental in helping me learn how to manipulate and edit my data. These people include Lenophis, DahrkDaiz, Disch, Vystrix Nexoth/Rainne, and more.
MetroidMst/ShyGuy for all the hype!!!
Lenophis for playtesting, suggestions, and streaming.
DahrkDaiz for his notes from way back in the day.
Emuz and DJBouche for support, ideas, and resources.
Finally, setz/skiffain for creating and releasing Communist Mario (SMB1), the idea for this hack.


Gameplay Changes:
Don't get coins! Any kind of coin will hurt or kill you! You can still gather coins while invincible, and any coin gathering you do will still cause your coin counter to increase.
Mostly unchanged levels! Aside from functional and aesthetic changes, levels have been left as unchanged as possible. Yep, this is a feature.
One-ups have been removed! Any one-up that was in the game has been changed to a mushroom power-up. You will not gain a one-up for collecting coins.
Lives counter has been changed to a death counter! If you max the counter cap at 99, you are not a very good communist.
Level-end goal cards and slot-machine matching games have been removed. Since there's no longer any point to having lives, they don't serve a purpose.
Warp whistles, music boxes, and all but one anchor have been removed. Warp whistles are lazy, music boxes suck, and anchors are next to useless.
Use your items! Hammers, Tanooki Suits, Hammer Suits, and other items are more plentiful.


Theme Changes:
All worlds have their own unique graphics set. They will look different, but will have the same fundamental layout as the original.
Storyline has been changed, so the text also needed to match. All old princess letters were changed to quotes from Vladimir Lenin and all the chairmen (formerly kings) messages have been changed.
Bowser is no longer the antagonist. That has been changed to Uncle Sam and the United States.
Levels have slight changes that make them look a bit less plain, mostly fortresses.


Technical Details:
Increased the amount of frames the game uses to animate most game elements in-level. The original game had 4. This hack cycles 16 frames in the same amount of time as the original game cycled 4.
World 4 airship autoscroll speed was increased. It uses a different autoscroll pathway, so certain changes were made to accommodate it.
Coins have the "hurt Mario" routine attached to it.
Includes code for all worlds to be able to handle their own unique graphics page. In order for this to work, all graphic pages needed to be organized and arranged to fit the single TSA page referenced by the game.
Certain world map conditions were changed to allow for my execution of features and styles in this hack. No dark screen in the third part of World 8! Animation restored to World 5, but animation stopped in World 6.

Note: Yes, I realize some things are a bit "off", such as some of the palettes. Usually these things are a result of various programming limitations, or requires a bit more effort than I'm willing to put into it.

[snarfblam]

Imma need to play this again. It looks even sexier than I remember.

[Physix]

I'm offensive, and I find this Russian.

[Mhx Air]

Because why not? Now if the fireballs fired forward, and the fire flower suit was a machine gun, this would add a Contra effect to the game, and totally hype me out to play it, because guns. Would also be funny to give the Koopas helmets like their shell, ready for war.

[MetroidMst]

Just finished racing this with @KP9000, @snarfblam, and @Lenophis. This is something you all should play, for the glory of the motherland.

[KP9000]

Heh, I saw this over at SMW Central and figured I would give it a try. World 1-5(or 1-6? Can't remember) is now super dickish, because right at the start of the level there's a platform with a red koopa on it, and it has coins right above it. You can't jump over it, so you have to take damage Then there's a similar part where you're on a moving platform and the coins get in the way of the line, forcing you to take damage again. I played until World 3-2, and I'd say this is a very... interesting mod.

Hint: You can beat all of the levels without taking damage OR using cheap strats like P-Winging over the whole level. I've verified this with every level. Some levels are extremely difficult to do this and requires a bit of planning with regards to your route and what powerups you need. I don't believe that any of them require use of a powerup before entering the level. For 1-6, you can stomp on the red koopa as it sort of peeks over the side. As for the line guide section, you can avoid damage even if you're big by staying in the center and a bit to the left of the platform. You don't even have to duck.

I do plan on releasing a 1.01 version of this to fix a couple of bugs and make some minor tweaks. There are some things that are sort of out-of-whack with it that I'd like to fix before getting some cartridges made. I do have a few people interested. It depends on how many people want them. I'm still working out the pricing details, and getting a couple of prototypes made. The boards I'll use for these will be 100% new, so no sacrificing other games to make these.

As far as the suggestions that have been made:
1) Levels are not getting their coins moved or removed. Even if it is possible to beat the game without getting hit, you're still going to take a few hits. This game reeks of communism, so it isn't going to be fair. I've designed the game around this- you'll get plenty of items to use. If you can't handle the difficulty, then you should probably go play an easier game like Sesame Street ABC.

2) Levels are original for a reason. I feel that introducing a gimmick like deadly coins would lose a lot of its intrigue if you didn't get to experience it with a well-known environment like the vanilla SMB3 levels are. Besides, designing a level knowing that coins do damage would be difficult to do without making it Kaizo. The vanilla set of levels have a decent balance of coins already. Perhaps someday I will design a new set of levels AND give the player the choice of which set of levels they'd like to play. This was originally the plan, but with my life as busy as it is, I just ran out of time to make the levels and figure out how to make the game load two separate level sets. 2P mode was going to get nerfed.

3) If I had my own way, the intro to the N-Spade card matching game would be entirely removed. If I can figure out how to do so before the next release, it will be removed.

4) Other issues:
- The sprite that I used for Princess Peach's replacement will be brand new instead of a rip of an existing game's sprite.
- There is a bug where the P-Switch music is not preserved when going through a pointer (pipe/door).
- Another bug exists where all vertical lock blocks are replaced with horizontal road tiles when unlocked.
- I also need to fix the first fortress in World 7 so you can see the doors since they are black doors against a black background.
- Minor display glitch on the credits screen where the ground doubles up during curtain rise. I'm not sure what's causing it.

5) I really would like to increase the deaths and coins counter to three digits. I haven't been able to figure that out quite yet. If someone could help me out with that, I will give you a gold star.

[KP9000]

How does the red shell look? I could also go with a yellow one. My preference was to go with a transparent red one, but I can't find anyone who sells them right now.

Anyone wanting one should probably PM me. I've already got a few people who do, but only one has PMed me. I guess it helps keep track of who wants one.

[snarfblam]

I think the red shell looks fine, but I wonder if it would look better with a black label on a red cart (or maybe a red label on a black cart).

[Dark-SA-X]

(or maybe a red label on a black cart).

This too much red on the game cart, reminds me of spiderman/xmen game carts.
Black cart and red label would do it justice.
As for the hack itself, I'm not that really interested in it, however since you are having an official race on may 6th.
The least I could do is show your hack running off nesds from my 3dsxl/dstwo to get things going for you.
Pardon the size, but smart phones make images too big and ackward at times.
Once I am done playing the hack I'll leave a full review somewhere. :/

[Physix]

How does the red shell look? I could also go with a yellow one. My preference was to go with a transparent red one, but I can't find anyone who sells them right now.

Anyone wanting one should probably PM me. I've already got a few people who do, but only one has PMed me. I guess it helps keep track of who wants one.

Looks amazing... But I have one problem with it. Isn't communism bad?
I'm not ordering any until you get rid of the communism and replace it with freedom. Don't give me any cheap off-brand freedom, either. I want 100% American Bald Eagle Freedom (TM). Fuck your commie shit.

Edit: America is in decline because the commies are taking over. It has nothing to do with corruption. Your hack is an affront to our nation's values.

[LReyomeXX]

Hopefully 1.1 fixes the World 2 Hammer Bros crash bug I found last week when practicing

[KP9000]

Hopefully 1.1 fixes the World 2 Hammer Bros crash bug I found last week when practicing

It does. And a few other things. And has more things. And it's slightly better. You should get it. Get it.

[Steel Sparkle]

Now i have seen everything..

[Lenophis]

I'm just gonna leave this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndYBbw8Ii7U