Bowser's Last Stand

Bowser's Last Stand
Developer(s)	onpon4
Announce Date	October 4, 2011
Release Date	December 2, 2011
Genre	Platformer
Players	1
Input	Standard keyboard
Medium	Game Maker 8.0
Platform	Windows
Status	Released

Bowser's Last Stand is a fangame by onpon4. It uses onpon4's Bowser Engine as its base. Version 0.3.0 of Bowser's Last Stand was onpon4's entry for the NCFC 2011, and version 1.6.1 was his entry for the NCFC 2012.

Story

While Bowser is "training" in his castle by breaking bricks, he hears a loud "thud". Believing it to be Sumo Bros, he investigates, but is surprised to find that a group of Toads has broken into his castle. The Toads explain that while Bowser was "training", they had completely taken over the Koopa Kingdom.

Enraged, Bowser defeats the group of Toads with his new shell dash technique and sets off to take back his kingdom, planning to seek revenge against the Mushroom Kingdom when he is finished.

Spoilers! Plot/ending information may follow (highlight to read):

However, after Bowser succeeds in taking back all 8 of his castles, he is shocked to find Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Toad locked up in a cage. They explain that it was not the Mushroom Kingdom Bowser had been fighting, but a secret underground organization known as "Death Cap". An unknown voice then chimes in (presumably a member or leader of Death Cap) and explains that since Bowser's castle at World 8 (the one he started out in) was the only castle left unguarded by Bowser's troops, Death Cap succeeded in taking over it while Bowser was taking back the rest of his kingdom. Bowser then traverses an underground lava world passage to get to the World 8 castle faster. In the end, Bowser succeeds in defeating the rest of Death Cap's army and meets another Toad, presumably Death Cap's leader, who desperately tries to scare Bowser by claiming he is a powerful wizard. However, Bowser is excited by the prospect of an enemy even stronger than the one he just faced (the final boss) and shoots at the Toad, killing him. Feeling exhausted, Bowser proclaims that he will resume kidnapping the Princess after taking a break.

History

The concept of Bowser's Last Stand began in 2008 with a game called "Bowser: The Betrayal", which was posted to the GMC on October of that year. However, Bowser: The Betrayal was not very well received due to terrible controls (Bowser moved very slowly and could barely jump), so the project was abandoned.

Later, at the beginning of 2010, onpon4 revisited the concept of making a platformer with Bowser as the star. The end result was Bowser Engine 1. onpon4 planned to create a second version of Bowser Engine and a game with Bowser Engine 1, but at this time, onpon4 got tired of the way Game Maker does things and decided to quit using Game Maker.

During the time between Bowser Engine 1's completion and the announcement of Bowser's Last Stand, onpon4 slowly created levels for a game he planned to eventually release, titled Bowser's Last Stand. Since many improvements were made to Bowser's Last Stand compared to Bowser Engine, onpon4 created a topic for it on the GMC on October 4, 2011. A "rapid release cycle" (named in reference to Firefox's new version number inflation) was started with version 0.3.0 on October 21, which promised a new version with a new world every Friday from that point on until the final version was released on December 2.

Just before the rapid-release cycle was started, onpon4 went to MFGG intending to post his game there. Here, he learned for the first time about NCFC from a news post on MFGG and also entered Bowser's Last Stand into the NCFC 2011.

As scheduled, Bowser's Last Stand version 1.0.0 was released on December 2, 2011.

On January 22, 2012, version 1.1.0 was released, which added online high scores and a new Survival mode.

On June 12, 2012, version 1.4.0 was released, which added support for gamepads.

Reception

Reception to Bowser's Last Stand from MFGGers has been mixed to positive. It holds an average rating of 6.7/10 based on 3 reviews on MFGG as of January 25, 2012. Reviewers on MFGG have praised the game for its originality and engine, but criticized it for its choice of graphics and music.

Version 0.3.0 of Bowser's Last Stand was reviewed on the NCFC 2011 by KiddoCabbusses, who gave the game a rating of 3.7/5. He praised the balance of the game and commented that Bowser "feels powerful", but criticized the game for its controls and a perceived lack of usefulness for Bowser's special moves (particularly the shell dash). Version 1.6.1 was reviewed by Kiddo on NCFC 2012, where he gave the game the same rating and expressed approval for the game's humor, but disappointment in the later bosses.

Trivia

• Most of the jokes in Bowser's Last Stand are inspired by Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. However, some of them were loosely inspired by Paper Bowser World, which onpon4 played shortly before Bowser's Last Stand was finished.

• There is a secret level in Bowser's Last Stand, called "World 666". Internally, it is technically World 66-6, but due to the way the display is rendered, it comes out as "666" instead of "66-6". This is an inside joke about the famous Minus World, which is technically World 36-1, but is displayed as " -1" due to the way the numbers are displayed in Super Mario Bros.

• "World 666" is also a reference to the Number of the Beast, which is intended to convey the difficulty of World 666.

• World 666 also starts you with 13 lives, which is considered an unlucky number in some countries, including the United States (onpon4's country).

• In all unfinished versions of Bowser's Last Stand, making it to the end of the demo caused Bowser to end up in an empty, all-white room, where Bowser would express his dismay that the game wasn't finished yet.

Spoilers! Plot/ending information may follow (highlight to read):

Death Cap, the organization Bowser turns out to be fighting against, is named after the mushroom of the same name, a notorious deadly poisonous mushroom which is responsible for more deaths worldwide than any other mushroom.

Spoilers! Plot/ending information may follow (highlight to read):

When an unknown voice of Death Cap speaks to Bowser in the World 7 castle, it is represented as a Poison Mushroom from Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels.

Download

Download Bowser's Last Stand from MFGG's main site File Size: 4.8 MB