Open Source Game Review: Secret Maryo Chronicles (Page 1 of 1)
Written by
Steve Lake
Posted on: Mar 07, 2008 at 12:09pm
Section:
Gaming
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Secret Maryo Chronicles is an open source PC game designed around the original Super
Mario World side scroller that takes what was great about that old console game and brings
it to the PC, dusts it off and tries to improve on it. While still not completely
polished or fully matured, it does offer you a lot of gaming fun. So let's look at a
little that it does offer you.
In the game you play as a young kid known as Maryo. Likely one of Mario's
offspring. ;) Anywho, one of the things you will quickly notice is the
strikingly familiar and similar backgrounds, characters and objects in the game. As
I said, the game emulates Super Mario World quite well. The thing I didn't like was
how the game played. It feels a bit loose and unpolished, as I mentioned above.
However, the excellent graphics and eye candy at least partially make up for that.
It's not like the game isn't playable, because it fully is. It's just that it
plays in such a different way that you have to tinker a bit to get a full grasp of what
does what and how things work before diving headlong into the game.
This also requires you to pay much closer attention to what you're doing. Another
thing you may not like, which bothered me, but is easily fixable, is the default controls.
As much as you might try to deny it, the order of keys that are used as defaults
for jumping, firing, etc, just aren't in a natural order and may cause you to do something
you didn't intend to do. Like jump when you meant to fire for example.
The game also has an odd thing where it has a sloppy camera view. I.e., as soon
as it can, it tries to center itself on your character. It's weird and a bit
disorienting, but otherwise not too bad and easy enough to get used to. Another
thing I found that didn't work, or work as designed was the music. It either didn't
play, or didn't play right.
Now all of these negatives aren't to say the game isn't playable, because it definitely
is, but it needs a lot of polish. A couple things I liked about the game was the
sound effect, a few of which seem to be fairly common default sounds that you can find in
many different open source projects, which gives you kind of a weird feeling hearing them
and expecting to see another familiar character you love, but seeing Maryo instead.
The quality of the graphics is also excellent. While the old Super Mario World was
in 16 bit Nintendo splendor, Secret Maryo Chronicles is in simulated 3d. I say
simulated because while it's not actually 3d, it looks a lot like it is.
Another thing I did like is that the game doesn't lag. You really have to go out
of your way to make this game lag. I had all kinds of background processes and
applications running, and the game didn't hang or hiccup once. Even during some of
the heaviest action.
The levels on Secret Maryo Chronicles though have to be one of the best features of the
game. I found them to be both challenging, and fun to explore. Unlike Super
Tux and most of the original Mario games, you can actually go backwards on the map all you
want. You're not locked into one point on the map once you pass a certain spot.
You can go all the way back to the beginning, run around, explore, or do what you
like. While not necessary, it does lend itself to being rather fun if you want it to
be. If nothing else, it's a useful tool.
Overall though, I'd say Secret Maryo Chronicles is a good game that just needs to grow
a bit more before I can say it's truly ready for primetime. But since it's an Open
Source game, you can easily help with beta testing, coding or any number of other things.
It's available for Linux, BSD and Windows. You can find out more about it or
download the game from the Secret Maryo Chronicles
Website.
System Requirements:
Minimum:
Processor: 500 MHz
Video Card: 64 MB OpenGL Compatible 3D Accelerated Graphics Card
256MB of RAM
800x600 Screen Resolution
16 Bit Color Display
Keyboard + Mouse
Recommended:
Processor: 1 GHz
Video Card: 128 MB OpenGL Compatible 3D Accelerated Graphics Card
512MB of RAM
Sound Card
1024x768 Screen Resolution
32 Bit True Color Display
JoyPad
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Average vistor rating: 3.8 out of 5 (12 total votes) | |
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