Mario is back once again! This time on his latest retro adventure; Super Mario Star Road - made as a sequel to Super Mario 64. As you may already have guessed, this is not a real game released by Nintendo; it is in fact a hack of Super Mario 64 made by Skelux. First revealed back in 2010, this project set out to extend the life of Super Mario 64 and bring fans old and new back to one of the most popular N64 games of all time. Taking inspiration from Mario games throughout the ages, there should be something for everyone here in this incredibly well put together mod of Super Mario 64.
Graphics:
Not too dissimilar from the original SM64 ones, what you see is what you get really. However, I have no reason to mark them down because this is still an old game so for the time it was originally released these graphics would have fitted in quite nicely alongside other titles in the N64 series.
Sound:
In my opinion a little hit and miss in the sound department... some of the levels use really nice remixes of songs from various other Mario games, and it feels kind of funny to feel nostalgia towards modern games within an N64 game rather than the other way around. However there are also areas where the song choice seems a little silly (such as the star celebration music being too long after you finish a level, you rarely get to hear it all the way through unless you sit and wait for a few extra seconds to let it play) and a couple of the levels use songs that just plain annoyed me. But on the whole I still found the music to be fairly enjoyable, so it still gets a 6/10 here.
Addictiveness:
This game has all the glorious charm of its predecessor, Super Mario 64, including the thoroughly addictive nature of the game-play throughout. There is just something about the idea of collecting those cute little stars and rescuing a kingdom from the clutches of a giant spiky tortoise that becomes very compelling and really intrigues the player as to what possible level designs could be coming up next! So this game gets an 8/10 in this category.
Story:
Rated as 9/10 because, for once, we have a Mario game where the whole story doesn't consist of "your princess has gotten herself captured again, guess we'd better save her...". Without giving too much away, I think it's fairly safe to say that we have been given a nice alternative to break the mold in the form of Super Mario Star Road.
Depth:
Just what every Mario fan dreams of, we have a new Mario plat former with brand new levels, countless missions to lose yourself in, and a nice little story to boot! Not to say that this game is perfect, but it has plenty of nice little extras to keep busy with even once the main story has been completed.
Difficulty:
Easily an 8/10 here, especially for those who do not have the privilege of an external controller to play with! If you're forced to use your computer's keyboard to play this game through to its completion then you're looking at a very frustrating (if not impossible) task! But the problem doesn't stop at the difficult to control character that Nintendo originally supplied us with; a fair few of the stars require for you to complete ambiguous tasks which, without the aid of a walk-through, could take hours to discover on your own. While it is nothing by comparison to the difficulty level of various other SM64 hacks, it still has all the potential to have you pulling your hair out in places! This is not helped by the fact that several glitches have the potential to increase the difficulty even further, way beyond that which was intended. But in fairness, the creator appears to have gone for a balanced approach for this game - if it was too easy then I for one would see little replay value in Super Mario Star Road, but as it stands at the moment I think the high difficulty is acceptable here.
Mario is back once again! This time on his latest retro adventure; Super Mario Star Road - made as a sequel to Super Mario 64. As you may already have guessed, this is not a real game released by Nintendo; it is in fact a hack of Super Mario 64 made by Skelux. First revealed back in 2010, this project set out to extend the life of Super Mario 64 and bring fans old and new back to one of the most popular N64 games of all time. Taking inspiration from Mario games throughout the ages, there should be something for everyone here in this incredibly well put together mod of Super Mario 64.
Graphics:
Not too dissimilar from the original SM64 ones, what you see is what you get really. However, I have no reason to mark them down because this is still an old game so for the time it was originally released these graphics would have fitted in quite nicely alongside other titles in the N64 series.
Sound:
In my opinion a little hit and miss in the sound department... some of the levels use really nice remixes of songs from various other Mario games, and it feels kind of funny to feel nostalgia towards modern games within an N64 game rather than the other way around. However there are also areas where the song choice seems a little silly (such as the star celebration music being too long after you finish a level, you rarely get to hear it all the way through unless you sit and wait for a few extra seconds to let it play) and a couple of the levels use songs that just plain annoyed me. But on the whole I still found the music to be fairly enjoyable, so it still gets a 6/10 here.
Addictiveness:
This game has all the glorious charm of its predecessor, Super Mario 64, including the thoroughly addictive nature of the game-play throughout. There is just something about the idea of collecting those cute little stars and rescuing a kingdom from the clutches of a giant spiky tortoise that becomes very compelling and really intrigues the player as to what possible level designs could be coming up next! So this game gets an 8/10 in this category.
Story:
Rated as 9/10 because, for once, we have a Mario game where the whole story doesn't consist of "your princess has gotten herself captured again, guess we'd better save her...". Without giving too much away, I think it's fairly safe to say that we have been given a nice alternative to break the mold in the form of Super Mario Star Road.
Depth:
Just what every Mario fan dreams of, we have a new Mario plat former with brand new levels, countless missions to lose yourself in, and a nice little story to boot! Not to say that this game is perfect, but it has plenty of nice little extras to keep busy with even once the main story has been completed.
Difficulty:
Easily an 8/10 here, especially for those who do not have the privilege of an external controller to play with! If you're forced to use your computer's keyboard to play this game through to its completion then you're looking at a very frustrating (if not impossible) task! But the problem doesn't stop at the difficult to control character that Nintendo originally supplied us with; a fair few of the stars require for you to complete ambiguous tasks which, without the aid of a walk-through, could take hours to discover on your own. While it is nothing by comparison to the difficulty level of various other SM64 hacks, it still has all the potential to have you pulling your hair out in places! This is not helped by the fact that several glitches have the potential to increase the difficulty even further, way beyond that which was intended. But in fairness, the creator appears to have gone for a balanced approach for this game - if it was too easy then I for one would see little replay value in Super Mario Star Road, but as it stands at the moment I think the high difficulty is acceptable here. 
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Glad you liked my review!
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I also think that this is one of the best games ever. I don't have a PC controller, so it's hard for me to play though...
