Labels

Fusion Fangaming - Mushroom Kingdom Fusion (2019, GOTY, 3rd Place)


Developer: Fusion Fangaming
Console: Indie PC, Fan Games
Game Release Date: v0.7.0.0 on 2019-11-30 (v0.7375 at the time of writing)
Run Start: 2020-07-04 
Run End: 2020-11-09


Without further ado let's get to what my top 3 best games of the year were. As stated before they do not need to have been released this year. Other than that there are no other rules. 

This is Mushroom Kingdom Fusion (aka MKF). It is a free indie game available on Itch.Io and still actively being worked on to this day. In fact, the latest update 0.7375 was released back in October. I was completely unaware of this until I started to write this post, so I haven't tried that version so for the rest of the piece I am referring to version v0.7.0.0. (I don't know the two versions have different notations, that's just the way they are). 


I first heard about this game in the early 2010s back when it was called Mario Fusion. At the time I was big into the MUGEN community and saw that JudgeSpear, a popular MUGEN YouTuber had begun work the game. I remember downloading it back in (idk 2011?) and didn't get very far. I don't think I even got past the second level. I just wasn't as good at Mario games, could not figure out how to enable controller support (I sucked playing on a keyboard) and instead sticked to my SMW romhacks (at least those had controller support and save states). MKF was just too difficult at the time. Years and years past and eventually I decided to check the progress of the game (I think this may have been 2015 or 2014). I found a download link on a forum which for some reason froze my computer when I tried to run it. It was also flagged by my AV as being a trojan. That scared me enough that I didn't touch the game for years. At some point JudgeSpear stepped away from production and the game eventually became Mushroom Kingdom Fusion. Fast forward to 2020, I randomly look up the game and find it has an ItchIo page and that development is still continuing. There are now two games, Mario Fusion (a legacy build with a greater focus on Mario) and MKF the main game. Armed with AntiMicro and DS4Windows I finally gave the game another shot. This started in early July. 

My AntiMicro setup was the basic Mario controls translated to a PS4 controller. There was just one nuance I set up. For some reason the joystick was too sensitive when I played an it kept hitting up causing me to grab on to stuff. To fix this I unbound Up from the joystick and kept it on the d-pad only. I had both the joystick and d-pad set to up-down-left-right but with the joystick only have down-left-right. It allowed me to have two play styles. The joystick for when I was clearing the level and the d-pad for when I needed exact precision and levels with climbing. 


I had a bit of a rough start getting used to the physics of this engine, but I got the hang of it. When you play enough SMW, playing any other Mario game can be a challenge. MKF features the option of playing as many different characters such as Arthur (Ghost N' Goblins), Link (Legend of Zelda), Simon (Castlevania), Mega Man (Mega Man) and more. To keep it balanced I tried to switch it up constantly playing some levels as Mario, some as Wario and some as other characters. It was a fun experience trying to beat each level with a different set of mechanics and controls. I quickly determined that Simon was the most powerful character. The game features roughly 9 worlds each with their own themes. One was Megaman world, one was "Earth" (being games set on Earth like Metal Slug and Crash), one was a fantasy one for games like Zelda and Final Fantasy and futuristic ones. 

The bosses are tough as fuck. I spent nearly an hour trying to beat the Air Man fight and damn, I hope to never do that again. Even with Simon at full power I lost a lot of lives. Robot Sonic and the Sonic Adventure Van, Dracula, General Morden and more were all some of the most intense fights I have had in a video game. The developers of MKF really nailed down boss execution and fights. There wasn't a single fight that wasn't exciting. I would even be as bold to put it against the NieR: Gestalt fights and say they were more enjoyable (it's close though). I could go on and on about how good this game was, but I will stop here. 


There's just one more thing I need to address. The game is unfinished. Active development is still ongoing for the game with the most recent update being in October. It added and modified a bunch of stages. I actually had no idea the update was until I started writing this post. Regardless there is still a lot missing in the game such as the final stage of Gehenna and a number of removed levels in Mobius. I only played up to the end of Mobius and stopped there. I'll wait for the rest of the game to come out when it does. Even though I did not finish the game (and couldn't) it didn't hamper my experience. If anything I am more excited than ever to see what new stuff they add. I look forward to my second run of the game, whenever that may be. I think the only thing that could be changed is to make more of the characters unlockable and start off with only a few characters. Everything else was perfect. 

I would now post and comment on the soundtrack, but all the songs were taken from other games. It wouldn't be eligible for inclusion on RYM. All the songs are available in the game as MP3s and OGG files. The songs were great, but all appeared elsewhere. There were no songs out of place and the boss music was all just as intense as the fight. 


So why 3rd place? Excellent level design, incredible boss fights, a large range of playable characters, great music and a great deal of content. World One had like 20 levels in it and it only got crazier from there. World Two weaved an entire narrative about the Rebel Army and tying it into other games like Crash Bandicoot and Resident Evil. It was almost like the Smash Series but had a much better story. The only issue with the game is that it's unfinished. However, don't let that fool you. There is still tons of gameplay. I would estimate the game is anywhere from 70-80% done. Had there been more to it then it would have placed higher. Regardless, when more versions come out and I begin my second run this will automatically be a GOTY candidate for that year. 

Next week we'll talk about 2nd place. And man is it going to be controversial. 

Trailer (extremely outddated but still good): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD7VWxHGU4o

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts