A Super Mario ROM Hack aggregator/archive thing
Mario's Evil Level
Mario’s Evil Level (MEL) is a Kaizo hack originally made and released in 2009-2010, a much different era of design and gameplay sensibilities for what was still an emerging genre of SMW romhacks. At that time it won the Hardest/Longest Level subcategory of the very first KLDC. MEL is not possible to complete without save states, but all the individual tricks are RTA beatable at 100% speed without additional tools.
If you find it too difficult, feel free to use slowdown to beat it though.
MEL does not require glitch abuse, and mostly consists of very precise and difficult platforming.
MEL has been modified slightly from its original release, and now includes an optional Visibility Mode to make identifying harmful tiles more easy. The Original Mode is available for those who want to play it as it was originally intended to be played. Good luck, whichever mode you choose to play, and I hope you enjoy the experience of a true old school hack if you decide to take on the challenge.
Music credits and update info are in the download.
Photosensitivity Warning The final boss has frequent lightning flashes.
Here is a clear video if you need help figuring something out. https://youtu.be/ZIlR7i6CYO8
#MEL
Extra Files:
Music.txt
Songs used in the hack. I don't have the exact info, only what is in the .txt files in many cases, but it was all originally on SMWCentral.net, unless it was a port I made myself.
Known level music:
-"Mapsking Presents" = Warrior's Fanfare by Jun Ishikawa
-Title Movie = Yellow Rose of Texas; Original midi port by Don Carroll, ported by Mapsking
-Intro screen = Grassy Sunshine Tocatta by Imamelia
-Overworld music = Tetris - "Music A" by Ice Man
-Optional (SPOILERS) = If I Only Had a Brain by Harold Arlen; ported by Mapsking
-Loser's House = Wario Blast - "Arrow Zone" (Unknown)
-Warm-Up Level Yawn = Paper Mario - "Shyguy Toybox" by MidiGuy
-Patience is a ...? = Alfred Chicken: "Mr. Peckles' Bonus Room" by David Whittaker-P-Switch Music = Lemmings "Level 10", ported by Mapsking
-Secret Exit Room 1 = Kirby & The Amazing Mirror - "Rainbow Route" by Andres
-Secret Exit Room 2 = Pokemon R/B/Y - "Vermilion City" by SNN
-Secret Exit Room 3 = Pokemon SGC - "Goldenrod City" by AQUA, by FromJapan
-Secret Exit Room 4 = M.C. Kids - "Bonus Theme" by EDIT3333
-Secret Exit Room 5 = Kirby's Block Ball: "Circus Tent" by Sukezo Ouyama, Ryoue Takagi
-Secret Exit Room 6 = Tetris Attack - "Yoshi's Stage" by Koji Kondo, Yuka Tsujiyoko
-Secret Exit Room 7 = Bomberman Tournament - "Lost Forest" by 188
-Secret Exit Room 8 = Kirby and the Amazing Mirror - "Radish Ruins" by Supertails
-You Won! = FF4 - "Mystic Mysidia" by Nobuo Uematsu
-Secret Exit Final Room = Twinbee Rainbow Bell Map 5a (Unknown); SMW adaptation by Kyoseron
-Actual Level = Mother 3: "Open Sesame Oil"/"Open Sesame Tofu" a.k.a. the Wes Dance; SMW adaptation by Kyoseron
-Mapsking's Castle = "Moderato Extravaganza" by SNN
-Defeating Mapsking Boss = Mega Man: The Wily Wars - MM2 Robot Master Selected (Remix) by Hooded Edge
-Ending Credits = "The Flame and Arrow" by Rudora no Hihou
-The Yoshi's Are Home = Hobbiton Theme (Unknown); ported by Mapsking
Other music possibly in the hack (unsure where exactly, it is listed from old records, it may have been removed)
-Pursuit ~ Cornered (Variation) 2001 (from Phoenix Wright : Ace Attorney)
Original Composer : Masakazu Sugimori
Port by Holy Order Sol
-Sunny Fields - Composed by GPETRY
There may be others, but I am not sure. Credits go to whoever made them, ported them, or worked on the music. If you know of anything specific not mentioned here, please let me know the music, and when it is used, and I will update this info.
-Mapsking
Readme Please.txt
Hello there!
This is Mario's Evil Level. It is a challenging hack, but before you begin, there are a few things I would like to tell you. This is a long and difficult level.
This level won the first place for the hardest/longest competition in the first Kaizo level contest at www.smwcentral.net.
Savestates are almost certainly required to beat this hack. I recommend using multiple or auto-incrementing save states, to avoid any accidental savestates.
I made this hack for a few reasons. At the time, Kaizo hacks were first coming out, and were not a standard thing. There were also far fewer patches, and other resources than nowadays. However, many of the Kaizo/difficult hacks had all kinds of graphical glitches, stacked/floating munchers, required abuse of glitches, and while difficult, often looked horrible aesthetically. I decided that I was going to do something different, to make a hard hack that did not look visually appalling or required glitches or slowdown to complete. In Mario's Evil Level, no glitches are intended to be used. As a result, I present a hard hack, with no floating/stacked munchers, no glitchy graphics, no game glitches, no use of slowdown required, actually possible, and yet still challenging.
BTW, this level has been thoroughly tested, with no known errors, but if you happen to find some, please let me know, and I will try to correct them. It was originally intended to be played with Zsnes, and has been with Retroarch and a Snes9x core and on Snes9x. It is known to crash the game/cause problems on a flashcart system.
***Special thanks to xHF01x who originally fixed the music so the hack would work in modern emulators, Parahax_ who helped me with some palette and graphics related questions, Brakkie for ASM help, and NixKillsMyths for additional playtesting.***
Thanks for downloading this, and taking the time to read all of this, even if you simply skipped to the end. I hope you enjoy Mario's Evil Level, and have fun playing it! Good luck! If you happen to stream it, feel free to put #MEL in your stream title.
Thanks, Mapsking
Originally 1.0 version released 1/2010, edited and updated 01/2024
p.s. There is a silly little secret in Loser's House for anyone who reads this!
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Mario's Evil Level Changes
v1.5
-100% Remade in modern LM and mostly modern tools
-Minor graphical OW changes
-Fixed many title screen GFX
-Corrected ExAnimation syncing for horizontal munchers
-Added a "Visibility" option, where the blocks that hurt Mario now look different for those who want it, along with a bunch of graphical changes
-Some music changes
-Credits have been redone
-Applied Counter Break patch (credits to Glyph Phoenix and Roy)
-Applied Even More Nintendo Presents Logo Expansion patch (credits to KevinM)
-Applied More Extended Sprites (credits to SP9_A+B+Up)
-Some "Level Depending On Event" Patch code used or modified (credits to Deflaktor for original patch and Brakkie for help)
-Some "Custom Level Message Sprite" code used or modified (credits to imamelia for original patch and Brakkie for help)
-Some "Normal/Hard Mode" patch code used or modified (credits to wiiqwertyuiop for original patch and Brakkie for help)
-Tons of various other tweaks and things
-Fixed reverse control water allowing you to get stuck in the wall
-Added in OW saves, allowing you to continue and play either Original or Visibility modes at your discretion.
v1.4
-Nerfed a difficult jump
-Fixed a glitch with the boss fight
v1.3
-Fixed minor graphical
-Fixed Secret Exit OW events
-Fixed all broken music
v1.2
-This has a patch added to remove the life counter being reduced upon death, however, it still shows the number of lives.
-Added version number to title screen.
v1.1
-This has been updated to work with modern systems, and fixed some graphical bugs with the boss palette.
v1.0
-Original Release