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Brutal Mario: violent, reference-heavy Mario mod

Cory Doctorow at 4:21 pm Fri, Oct 23, 2009

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Play This Thing reviews Brutal Mario, a Tarantino-esque Super Mario World hack that sounds like an incredible hoot to play:
This is obviously a labor of love, as the developer knows her stuff. This game is highly allusive and drops constant references to other works like its Gaiman's Sandman. Super Mario World is its core, but set pieces, backgrounds, and enemies from assorted titles and other Mario games all make appearances. These additions are far from being a cut-and-paste hodgepodge though, as they're carefully woven together to create an enthralling experience. The nod to Tarantino and Shinichiro Watanabe is duly earned. Instead of being a pure homage, though, the game throws constant curveballs at you. I played one level where the On/Off switch actually changed the enemies in the level, and another one that was fully destructible via Mario's fireballs. These subversive quirks are made all the more apparent because they're within the Super Mario World engine, something that is so well-known and played.

The boss battles are what this hack is best known for, and they're reason enough for a download. Bosses are typically the one shortcoming in the Mario franchise, but not here. There are dozens of encounters and they're all throwbacks to various 16-bit games. Oh, and they are a lot of fun too. There is the occasional level that drags a bit, but other than that Super Nintendo fans shouldn't pass this up.

Brutal Mario
Previously:
  • Mario without architecture or enemies - Boing Boing
  • Super Mario cupcakes - Boing Boing
  • Super Mario Wii casemod - Boing Boing
  • Super Mario as Unreal Tournament level - Boing Boing
  • Super Mario level recreated with Doom engine - Boing Boing

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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  • Anonymous

    Doesn’t R Kelly always make things explicit?

  • Frenetic

    I’ve tried the IPS patch on every Super Mario World ROM I can find, but ZSNES won’t run any of the results. Disappointing.

  • Anonymous

    I’ve had the same problem with Snes9x on a Mac.

  • Anonymous

    I followed these steps:

    Hey guys if you’re having trouble try this:

    download the .ips game file.

    download the LunarIPS patch.

    put the .ips file in the same file as the Super Mario World ROM that you already have. Run the LunarIPS first on Brutal Mario and then it’ll ask you which file to patch. Choose Super Mario World. Then run Super Mario World on zsnes.

    for this particular line: “put the .ips file in the same file as the Super Mario World ROM that you already have” I’m assuming that by putting it in the same “File” you mean folder, so I tried that, and it won’t run, then I actually made a zip with both files and tried doing it from there, lol just in case course the patching couldn’t recognize the file.
    Anyone know anything else that could be causing the problem? I’ve tried running zsnes is multiple comaptibility modes and no luck there either :(.

    This is displayed at the bottom of the screen when I load the rom, then it’s just a blank black screen, any ideas?

    chksum:fail video:ntsc Bank:lo crc32:1de16c08
    BAD ROM

    • Anonymous

      yeah me too, im getting the same exact thing you wrote:
      I followed these steps:

      Hey guys if you’re having trouble try this:

      download the .ips game file.

      download the LunarIPS patch.

      put the .ips file in the same file as the Super Mario World ROM that you already have. Run the LunarIPS first on Brutal Mario and then it’ll ask you which file to patch. Choose Super Mario World. Then run Super Mario World on zsnes.

      for this particular line: “put the .ips file in the same file as the Super Mario World ROM that you already have” I’m assuming that by putting it in the same “File” you mean folder, so I tried that, and it won’t run, then I actually made a zip with both files and tried doing it from there, lol just in case course the patching couldn’t recognize the file.
      Anyone know anything else that could be causing the problem? I’ve tried running zsnes is multiple comaptibility modes and no luck there either :(.

      This is displayed at the bottom of the screen when I load the rom, then it’s just a blank black screen, any ideas?

      chksum:fail video:ntsc Bank:lo crc32:1de16c08
      BAD ROM

      if u find any info on this can u help me, my email is kyleomac@yahoo.com
      ~kyle

  • the r kelly

    Hey guys if you’re having trouble try this:

    download the .ips game file.

    download the LunarIPS patch.

    put the .ips file in the same file as the Super Mario World ROM that you already have. Run the LunarIPS first on Brutal Mario and then it’ll ask you which file to patch. Choose Super Mario World. Then run Super Mario World on zsnes.

    Yes. They should have been more clear on this.

  • Anonymous

    Isn’t that a boss from Chrono Trigger in the background?

  • Anonymous

    Hey guys, this is TheDustin from Play This Thing. Sorry that the instructions are vague to you guys; I didn’t really expect this game to receive the coverage it did. Thanks the R Kelly for making things more explicit. I’ll go and look for a link to a patching tutorial and attach it to the review for those not in the know.

    Dustin

  • siliconsunset

    All of the problems with the ROM are actually caused by the Mammon Machine, as pictured above. ;)