Super Mario World Central Page
Sure Shot is an LP-styled Super Mario World Kaizo romhack starring Sonic the Hedgehog. I allegedly made it with my friend Margot and we released it under the label Kaizo: Bitch Records. Obviously this was a non-commercial project. It's a tight 8 tracks of chocolate, movement-focused kaizo with stage gimmicks. Below is a few retrospective thoughts on individual tracks and the process...
1. Living on the Knife The first level that I made ended up being the opener. LotK was originally designed for the the Romhack Races 200th week race- it was a pleasure to design for, and the race format was an interesting consideration.
I settled on a format of a single, long stage with very frequent checkpoints, to hopefully allow for many lead changes in a race. This would become the unifying structure of the entire hack.
This is also probably the brainiest track. The gimmick idea came first, and it proved to be incredibly fertile ground- I think this is close to being the longest level in the hack. There's also a lot of camera ASM trickery going on here as the elevation changes and it loops back on itself but I only ever wanted the camera to move in one direction at a time.
Wide bat 4ever.
2. Sure Shot The title track! I feel like this is my favorite SMW level I've made, and it's maybe most notable for its restraint and straightforwardness. Trivia: the smiley face blocks aren't on a timer, they turn off when you touch invisible trigger blocks.
3. Thrice Ghosted I was invited to make a level for the SGDQ 2022 Kaizo Relay and it was a joy to create something for such a wonderful event. You can watch the VOD from the event here!
The frequent checkpoint format fit really well here too. One low key highlight imo is early on where a checkpoint is easily missed by accidentally killing a ghost too soon, but doing so still gives you a chance at the next section and potentially skipping that checkpoint entirely. I love how this plays with stakes in a race format.
The big features of this level are the trolls of course. I wanted to make a level that really showcased the playful relationship between kaizo creators and players. In doing so, I found myself designing for the SGDQ audience and treating the player as a collaborator- like they were actors performing a screenplay I was writing.
There are some small changes from the SGDQ edition to the Sure Shot one- mostly re-contextualizing text for a non-marathon setting.
4. The Big Midway in the Sky This level was on the edge of being cut, but I'm happy with how it turned out. The ending gag was what kept us pushing to make it work and I think Margot's visual work made a huge difference.
This level also has my favourite troll at the end, despite it being one that a lot of people don't hit.
5. Saying Words Margot made this level and I did a second edit pass on it. I think it turned out great, mixing up our roles like that gave it a unique feel. I love how she was able to use message boxes in so many different ways- what a weird sprite. For the other levels I came to Margot with designs and then she gave feedback and handled visuals.
6. Atomic Clock Just a silly minigame level that was really fun to code. There's 5-frame window for success (it fudges it in your favor 2 frames before or after the target time).
7. Hanging by a Thread Sticky ceilings are a common Kaizo gimmick but they've always felt under-explored to me so I kind of had a field day with them. They play very well with the movement focus of this hack.
I couldn't resist including another All-Star edit as keyhole music here. The idea to include a different meme song for each keyhole track came in pretty early and wasn't too hard to pull off. It felt like a nice way to reward the player for a completion since there isn't really any progression to speak of in this game.
8. Stop Running This one took forever. Originally it was to be a Wario Ware-style rapid-fire microlevel collection but it never felt right. The slow mo idea was enabled by a patch from D4 that I hacked into a new form and activated or deactivated with invisible trigger blocks. It feels like the most polarizing track because it messes with such a fundamental aspect of the game.
Additional Notes:
- Trolls are marked with an in-level Toadette sprite yelling "Look Out!". We establish this early and it lets us use it to do all sorts of fun mind-gamey stuff with trolls later in the game.
- The game allows you to play with or without checkpoints. I'm glad we included this option because watching no-checkpoint runs post-release has been very fun. As a bonus, you play as Tails in no-checkpoint mode! (Tails was pure agony to implement lol)
- Margot had the idea to make every level accessible to the start and it immediately made sense. LPs don't force you to listen to their tracks in order after all.