Super Mario Classic: Return

Super Mario Classic: Return
Developer(s)	Zero Kirby
Announce Date	Unknown
Release Date	During the first NCFC
Genre	Platform
Players	1
Input	Standard keyboard
Medium	Game Maker 7
Platform	Windows
Status	Released

Super Mario Classic: Return was the second major platforming game designed by Zero Kirby. It is the second Classic game he made, and the "first in the storyline." Star Wars style releasing aside, it is currently his highest rated game on MFGG.

Story

Peach is kidnapped by Shadow Mario and Mr. L, so Mario has to go through several worlds, finally reaching the moon, in order to save her.

Gameplay

It's one of the more unorthodox games on MFGG. The game is played in a 2-D plane, using graphics from Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. The player has eight health points, and if you run out, you lose a life.

A notable and controversial addition to the game were "Light Beams," which when Mario steps on a start point for them, is sent flying. The player must steer Mario through to the end of the beam. Unfortunately, Light Beam travel tended to be too fast, which lead to some extremely difficult levels, one of which consisted of nothing but a Light Beam.

Another strange addition to the game is Overheating, which usually happens in the Core. The area is so hot that it saps Mario's health unless he has a certain powerup.

There are also other elements like drowning and canceling powerups (except the Fire Flower) by pressing CTRL.

There are a variety of powerups, like the aforementioned Fire Flower, which disappears after one hit allows the player to shoot fireballs and survive in Overheating. There is also Dark Mario (which is faster, but cannot ride Light Beams and takes double damage), Metal Mario (who is heavier, breaks through brick blocks and rides Light Beams much slower, and can survive in Overheated areas), Luigi Mario (who controls similar to Luigi from SMB2, and instead "jumps" on Light Beams), and Invincible Mario.

There are only two bosses in the game, aside from the final boss. Shadow Mario, who merely runs around and jumps around at random, and Mr. L, who instead follows the player, occasionally jumping and super-jumping to hit the player. The final boss is played in a style completely different than the other bosses, and even from the rest of the game.

The player travels through a variety of worlds, from a generic grassland, to the core of the earth, to the final world, the moon. The final level is a throwback to the first Classic game and instead of the name of the game on the level start screen, it has the period of time the game was developed in.

Release

It was released to the first NCFC to moderate applause. It holds a nine out of ten on MFGG with two reviews.

There are several problems with the released product. One of the levels has a glitch with the background, there are various other glitches throughout the game, and four of the levels, designed by another member, are much more in-depth than the levels designed by the creator of the game himself. Several users have criticized the Light Beams as a ridiculous and useless addition, and a number of levels were copied over from the original Super Mario Classic.

Legacy

The game was to have a sequel, Super Mario Classic Two: Mushroom Archipelago, but it was canned to make way for a completely different game, Super Mario Zero.

The game is seeing a revitalization in Super Mario Classic: Returns: Return 2: The Revenge of the Return: Reloaded, after Zero realized the game was not properly beta-tested and of extremely poor quality.