Darunia-Saria 2008

From Mario Fan Games Galaxy Wiki
Darunia-Saria 2008
DS2008 22.PNG
Developer(s) VinnyVideo
Announce Date July 25, 2008
Release Date October 27, 2008 (updated July 8, 2021)
Genre Platform
Players 1
Input Standard keyboard
Medium Game Maker 7 (later updated to Game Maker 8)
Platform Windows
Status Released

Darunia-Saria 2008 is a controversial fangame by VinnyVideo that pokes fun at the absurdities of the 2008 U.S. presidential election while combining gameplay elements from Mario and Zelda games. The game was released only on the MFGG forums, since the mainsite didn't accept Zelda fangames at that time.

Darunia-Saria 2008, also known as D-S 2008, is a wacky and experimental fangame. It's a relatively rare example of a Mario-Zelda crossover: Its lead character, Saria from Zelda 64, does not appear in any Mario games (except as a filler character in Mario Golf's tournament modes). More controversial is the game's exploration of political matters, where it proceeds to insult just about every thing that can be insulted. Saria visits Guantanamo Bay, illegally immigrates from Mexico, goes to a church that may be a bit hypocritical or watered-down, watches the Dow hit zero, and engages in battle with Michael Chertoff, Barack Obama, John McCain, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney. In the Second Quest, Saria can even enjoy an alcoholic beverage - a rarity in the world of fangames - that usually reduces life but about 33% of the time will increase her energy.

D-S 2008 uses a renovated version of the oft-maligned Hello SMB1 Engine and is essentially a traditional 2-D platform game based on Super Mario Bros. 3, with a few SMB 2, SMW, and YI elements thrown in as well. As in VinnyVideo's first game, Marioy 2, players can play a more difficult Second Quest after defeating the final boss.

More innovative is the Zelda II-style hit point system VinnyVideo has implemented. Saria usually loses between approximately 16 and 32 HP when hit by an enemy. However, when Saria is "small" (not wearing her trademark headband), a single hit from an enemy may do her in. Each coin restores 1 HP, Super Mushrooms 32, and Fire Flowers 48.

By finding a well-hidden Piece of Heart, Saria can boost her maximum HP to 80. Also worth noting are the three special transformations; these well-hidden power-ups grant Saria invincibility and can transform her into a Sarah Palin impersonator, a Guadalajara Chivas soccer player, or a Saudi Arabian.

Darunia-Saria took approximately 50 hours to produce.

Graphics

Most of the game's graphics are rips from Super NES-era Mario games, especially SMB3 and SMW. Vinny sprited all of Saria's animations - and admits they aren't very good.

Despite what the game's title suggests, Darunia doesn't actually appear as a playable character. Vinny was new to spriting at the time and had no idea how to attempt to sprite a Goron walking animation, and he's never found a Darunia spritesheet that would work for a 2-D platformer.

Music

Every level in Darunia-Saria 2008 uses a different background MIDI. VinnyVideo varies the music in this game to fit the atmospheres, although some of the references were obscure, and not everyone liked the use of music originating from non-Mario games such as Banjo-Kazooie and the Zelda series. Some memorable usages of music include "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" for the Wall Street level and the national anthem of Mexico for the Illegal Immigration level.

Story

The full story is available in the in-game help. In summary: Link's greenish-haired, big-eared gal pal had grown tired of being a sage in the Lost Woods. When a traveling Pidgit tried to enlist her aid in laundering money, breaking campaign-finance laws, and robbing banks, Saria knew it was time for a decisive career move. She found a Warp Zone to the United States, and by chance won the nomination for the Libertarian-Prohibition-Tory-Anarchist Party. From here, Saria is participating in debates and interviews, trying to win precious electoral votes for an obscure fictional third party while stomping on her real-life opponents and detractors.

Ending

Quoted from VinnyVideo.

Spoilers! Plot/ending information may follow (highlight to read):
"Saria didn't like the way things were looking. With 99% of precincts reporting, she had received only 41 votes, putting her behind even Gene Amondson. 39 of those votes came from absentee ballots in Welaka, Florida, and while many gave names like George W. Bush, Paris Hilton, Oprah Winfrey, Napoleon Bonaparte, and King Henry VII, all were signed with the noble signature of Bubba Wilcox III. Rather than conceding defeat, Saria knew it was time to take decisive action. She removed the strap on her hand, yanked the plug out of the outlet, and slammed her Wiimote into the wall."


Many felt the storyline was stupid, while others found in refreshingly unique because it didn't involve princesses and kidnapping. VinnyVideo himself noted that the theme of a character abandoning a futile, uneventful lifestyle for something more dynamic appears in the Marioy 2 story with Boom-Boom, as well as in Aventura de Luigi and Mario's Steroid Adventure.

Documentation

Despite its relative obscurity, D-S 2008 is one of the most-documented fangames around. Its original manual weighed in at over 30 kilobytes, some of which is merely notes VinnyVideo used during the game's production.

Reception

In contrast to Marioy 2, Darunia-Saria 2008 did not receive many positive reviews from the message boards. MechaBowser said D-S 2008 was worse than Paper Mario World, and the view of several players was that D-S 2008 was poorly crafted and that the references were needlessly obscure. The slippery mechanics were especially troublesome. Even though the author makes it very clear that D-S 2008 is not designed to promote any particular candidate or party, some players have taken offense at the idea of a fangame being used in a political or social context.

Future

The last 2008 update added a primitive save feature. VinnyVideo has said that he will produce one more update for this game, fixing some of the inherent engine glitchiness and making a few graphical improvements.

One of the levels in VinnyVideo's later game Aventura de Luigi alludes to Darunia-Saria 2008 with a campaign sign marked, "Saria-Darunia 2012." A similar reference is hidden in Revenge of the Walrus.

In 2012, Vinny made a sequel called Darunia-Saria 2012, a more compact project consisting of three minigames inspired by the 2012 election.

In 2016, Vinny started a similar fangame, Groose-Strich 2016, based on the 2016 election. This was a parody of Pokemon Go where players would catch "Politicalmon" used to conquer Pokemon Gyms and capture electoral votes. Unfortunately, Vinny was busy with grad school then and didn't have time to make anything more than an engine test. He never shared a copy of Groose-Strich 2016 until 2021, when he decided to finish the game.

In 2021, Vinny finally released Version 1.1, an updated version of the game, as he "promised" over a decade earlier! This was the last leg of the "Vinny Updates Old Games" project, where he endeavored to update all of his previous games so that they would match his original vision for the projects and be free of glaring bugs. Version 1.1 was compiled in GM 8 instead of GM 7 and fixes the infamously slippery mechanics of the original Hello SMB1 Engine. This update squashes various other bugs, makes small graphical improvements, gives Saria the ability to duck, adds a level select screen similar to Marioy 2's, improves the save system, tweaks a bit of excessively tangy text that Vinny was originally on the fence about including, and adds Stop 'n Swop variables.

Gallery

Images from Version 1.0 of the game:

External links


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