General Patches:
~ Dragon Coins are now replaced with Star Coins, making it easier to keep track of progress!
~ No need to evade checkpoints to complete 100% of the game!
~ Friendlier power-up system!
~ Coyote time!
~ Much-needed nerfs to levels & boss fights!
~ Added Visual Effects!
~ Toadette joins the adventure!
~ Removed Coin Arrows in place of SMW arrows when appropriate.
~ Shortened a lot of text dialogue.
~ Various Bug Fixes.
~ Corrected various typos found in the text that appears throughout the episode (Some still exist and I need to get around to correcting them, but it's tedious so please forgive me.
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~ The victory event for the "Power-Up Panels" minigame for all Toad Houses has been fixed.
~ Peach's Castle: Updated checkpoint NPCs. You can now begin right at the beginning of the rainbow shell ascension challenge via a checkpoint, rather than going through the entire sequence again.
Level Patches:
~ Peach's Castle:
-> Added a much more robust system that allows you to individually correct the positioning of each rainbow shell platform.
-> Modified the star checker room such that the HUD does not block the "X/1" text that appears above the top doors.
~ 2-1up House: Removed a couple of bricks that were accidentally in the same place as other bricks, causing minor bugs when playing the minigame.
~ 2-Fortress: Star Coin Rupee falls to a much fairer platform & not on top of spikes.
~ 2-Castle: All instances of Lemmy Koopa have been corrected to Larry Koopa.
~ 2-Airship: All instances of Lemmy Koopa have been corrected to Larry Koopa.
~ 3-2: A red switch block that raises a platform can no longer be hit by a Koopa shell & prevents the player from progressing.
~ 3-Fortress: Changed a Toad's text box to say "Arrow" instead of "Coins" as the coin arrow has been updated to an arrow BGO.
~ 3-Castle: Hid the "Toad" layer. This fixes an exploit in which players can show the exit via a "Talk" event before defeating the boss.
~ 4-Special:
-> Fixed an issue where travelling from the bottom to the top of the tower via a pipe could cause the star layer with the pipe warp to de-spawn (Product of a larger issue where the star always appears ONLY when entering a level for the first time and no other time)
~ 4-Ghost House:
-> The Key & P-Switch for Star Coin 4 are now placed in the level & are no longer contained in a ? block.
---> Fixes an issue where either item could despawn.
-> The SMW Ghost House Slope Graphics have been polished.
~ 4-Castle:
-> Reworked the Jumbo Koopa fight to have a much cleaner arena.
---> Now, the player must break bricks protecting Jumbo Koopa before you can defeat him.
---> Fixed a layering issue that caused a softlock if you defeated Jumbo Koopa without taking out the bricks in front of him.
~ 4-Tanks: CRITICAL fix that fixes the camera positioning at the Robirdo boss fight.
~ 5-3:
-> Two-way warp added for the secret exit.
-> BGO bush cutoffs are now fixed.
-> Cheep cheep block platforms can no longer be harmed by fire, ice, hammers, or Yoshi.
~ 5-Information House: Updated checkpoint NPC at the start of the rainbow shell challenge.
~ 5-Special:
-> Coloured arrows are now placed in the first section.
---> Lava is shown first, so follow the red arrows along the main path. Once you hit the detonator, blue arrows take their place. These blue arrows will help you collect Star Coins 2 & 3.
-> The exit at the end is hidden initially, requiring the player to hit the detonator switch to reveal the exit.
---> Blue arrows also indicate the player should head back to collect the 5th Star Coin.
-> Hid Star Layer as it was accidentally shown.
~ 6-Fortress: Properly hid the Star Layer as it was accidentally shown upon the first time entering the level, with a sound effect.
~ 6-Castle: Various minor nerfs to make collecting the star coins and certain jumps easier.
~ 7-1:
-> Added a vine to make the third-star coin more accessible just in case the player misses it.
-> Added "SMW ? Hit" blocks which will block access to the fifth Star Coin if the player is not quick enough to reach it after hitting the P-Switch.
~ 7-3: Indices of Star Coins 3 & 4 have been swapped to better indicate to the player that they may have missed one.
~ 7-Blue House Challenge:
-> The challenge itself is now a separate level on the world map.
-> The player no longer needs to enter the Blue House & go through the dialogue sequence each time, nor wait for the level to load each time via a door warp.
---> This saves the player a lot of time waiting & re-entering.
-> You can now hit a star block which allows you to essentially practice the level, but it also spawns a lava blocker at the very end so that you can't complete it unless you do it legitimately.
(BUG WHERE PRACTICE MODE ALWAYS ACTIVATES IS FIXED!)
~ 8-1: Added a checkpoint.
~ 8-2: Significantly increased the amount of time between instances of de-spawning the "rotating platforms". I found that they de-spawn too quickly to the point where the illusion of a rotating platform isn't there.
~ 8-5: Removed the one-block gaps in the ending section, as players in shoes could get soft-locked.
~ 8-Airship:
-> Removed all buried cannonballs. These are shy guys in-game and they hurt the player more often than not when thrown since they mistakenly believe it's a projectile that only harms NPCs. These have been replaced with bombs.
-> Updated NPC pass-through blocks to actual blocks as in this level, Ludwig's fireballs used to act as these pass-through blocks.
-> Phase 1 of the Bowser Jr. fight has been buffed by decreasing the cannonball spawn rate. Now, players will have to strategically time when they run under the mecha and toss up mechakoopas.
-> Phase 2 music has been re-added as it was set to "None" by accident. (I blame the scroll wheel when mousing over dropdown menus. It happens too often.
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-> Phase 2 of the Bowser Jr. fight has been reworked
---> Players now wait for mechakoopas to drop from above, rather than having them spawn from Bowser Jr, which insta-kills them more than half of the time.
----> Updated the mechakoopa drop system to be a lot less noisy. Now, bombs spawn silently via a warp generator instead. The timing of the switch blocks themselves remains about the same.
---> Two clear pipes now exist on either side of the room which allow you to access the mushroom. blocks much easier and more efficiently than standard falling and jumping. This saves time and increases player control.
~ 8-Castle:
-> Added a Bowser statue generator for one of the Star Coins for convenience, rather than forcing the player to run away and come back to re-spawn the individual Bowser statue
-> Removed the requirement to hit the yellow switch before the checkpoint to activate the platform that leads to the final Star Coin. Instead, players must now perform a challenging jump up to a platform that activates when they stand on it to get to the secret area.
-> Buffed Dry Bowser
~ 8-Fortress:
-> Doubled the number of Reznors to fight and added mushrooms just before the final boss door.
-> Fixed an issue where players lock themselves out of getting the last Star Coin too quickly.
-> Added player pass-through blocks to the Reznor boss fight section to prevent them from falling or getting too close to the edge of the platform
~ 8-Fortress 2:
- The level now uses the in-game snake block NPCs. Also, hurt blocks were added that would prevent the player from standing on the sides of certain spikes that would skip certain challenges.
- Changed Ludwig's bone helmet to NPC pass-through blocks to prevent the Dry Bones from being pushed to a place in which they can never fall into the lava.
~ 8-Tanks: The dialogue of each Koopa Bro is now separated into its separate text boxes. The reader will now have an easier time distinguishing each Koopa Bro.
~ 8-Final:
-> Fixed the platform despawning bug in the SMB3 Star Coin room.
-> Changed the end of the NSMB thwomp section to remove the chance of killing a thwomp that is critical to spin jump on.
-> The SMW-styled 3rd Room's conveyor belt switch is now easily accessible after entering the section via the correct SMB3 pipe thanks to the grey switch that unblocks the section.
-> Fixed a bug in the SMB1 Switch room where spawning at the checkpoint would not trigger the axe event unless the player decides to run far away enough from it to respawn. Now, the axe should activate instantly.
-> Added indicators of invisible blocks in the NSMB Thwomp room.
-> Updated a pipe graphic in an NSMB section which leads to an SMB3 section to match the theming of the level.
-> Nerfed SMW Entrance Room's 2nd Door by lowering plant enemies by 1 block.
-> Added player pass-through blocks to SMW Room 3 so the large metal blocks don't slide off the conveyor belts, meaning players can take as much time as they need to analyze the section without punishment.
~ 8-Final Boss:
-> Placed Phase 1 Bowser a few tiles back so players don't get momentarily stuck in the blocks that block the entrance.
-> Decreased the red shoe generator's spawn time from 60 seconds to 30.
-> Fixed an issue where the Bowser Phase 1 mp3 wouldn't play & showed an error message instead.
-> Various minor nerfs for phases 2-5.
-> Put NPC blockers around Peach's cage to prevent players from entering the cage and dying once it is raised offscreen.
~ 9-1:
-> Fixed misplaced block in green switch room and made slight modifications to the challenge.
-> Slight nerfs to the SMB1 and SMB2 underground rooms to reduce redundancy and make Star Coin objectives clearer.
-> For some reason, the ability for players to jump on top of the propeller block was removed for this specific level. This is no longer the case and has been reverted to its episode-wide functionality
~ 9-2:
-> Added 2-way pipes to allow players to travel back & forth between the pre and post-checkpoint sections.
-> Added SMW blocks to prevent players from entering pipes they shouldn't be able to without a P-Switch.
-> Nerfed the final Star Coin section by giving the player extra room to throw mushroom blocks without them glitching out due to lack of space.
~ 9-4: Replaced the newer blue Dry Bones NPCs with the older ones in the level wrap section due to the bones accumulating infinitely & making the section impossible.
~ 9-5:
-> Lowered the 2nd Star Coin in the Billy Gun section since players could destroy blocks too quickly before realizing they needed them to jump up to it. This removes the need to use the platforms whatsoever.
-> Removed redundant yellow switch as it just requires a jump without any challenge.
~ 9-6:
-> Hid the "Exit Door" layer, as it was accidentally left shown, meaning players could enter the exit door immediately with a key.
-> The key generator would KO the stacked Robirdos, essentially ruining the boss fight. This is no longer the case.
~ 9-8:
-> Reworked the entire boss fight to feel more like a grand battle.
---> Minor buffs to the level layout and NPCs, fixed the paragroomba's behaviour
-> Slight buffs to the first main section of the level.
---> Removed the propeller blocks as they allowed you to skip too much of the level.
---> Slight changes to the level design, including an additional 5-block high jump which requires a running start to get over (unless you're Luigi).
-> COMPLETE rework to the final main section of the level!
---> SMB3 Bowser NPC was replaced with a flying spinning shell that throws rinkas at you as you ascend.
---> Made modifications to the general level design of the final main section to accommodate the change in the Dark Bowser variant.
-> COMPLETE rework to the final 2 phases of the Dark Bowser boss fight! Now, it's MUCH more involved.
---> The boss arena has fundamentally changed and has multiple sub-phases to complete!
---> Dark Birdos spawn from above & now form a force field to protect Dark Bowser! You'll need to find a way to destroy it!
---> But before that, take on Dark Boom Boom & Dark Mouser (Buffed variants of their normal counterparts via more HP) one by one as they distract you from Dark Bowser + the forcefield!
-> Replaced the "In The Final" OST with a lyrics video! It's only fitting seeing as it's the final difficult level you complete in the entire episode! You can replace it with the original track if you prefer. (Check it out HERE & Subscribe to Man On The Internet!|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipVrglfEXLA)
-> Removed all Dark Bowser text boxes. It felt redundant to have text boxes for a boss in which the song itself is Dark Bowser's dialogue.
~ Star Festival:
- Removed Lakitus throwing power-ups in favour of pipe generators. Over time, they'd stack up and result in wasted time through the transitions.
- Nerfed the section with the ice blocks. Now, you can build speed and duck-jump on solid ground & you're not soft-locked out if you accidentally melt the ice blocks closest to the 1-block gap.