Super Mario Zero

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 Blue!box.gif This article is about a game still in production.

Information shown is therefore liable to frequent change.

Super Mario Zero
No image
Developer(s) Zero Kirby
Announce Date June 6th, 2009
Release Date TBA
Genre Platform/Adventure
Players 1
Input Standard keyboard
Medium Game Maker 8
Platform Windows
Status In Progress

Super Mario Zero is the fourth major platforming fangame being designed by Zero Kirby. It is currently a stand-alone game and not of any particular storyline. It uses a far smoother engine than Zero Kirby's other works, and is his first full-length project programmed in the Game Maker Language.

Compared to his previous works, it was rather secretive at first, keeping things hidden and usually only releasing vague screenshots and videos, or just commonplace information. On October 28th, 2010, more information was revealed as he wished to have a custom sprite set for the game.

Gameplay

The game will be played in a Metroid-style, free-roaming adventure. Players will explore an open platforming map to reach new areas, find secrets, and advance the story. The player can only go to areas that his abilities let him; abilities and powerups are unlocked throughout the game to prevent access to certain areas before it is time to go there. Abilities include the Wall Kick, Flip Jump, Ground Pound, and Spin Jump. Powerups include Fire and Ice Mario, alongside two new powerups, Speed and Gravity Mario.

The abilities work in tandem with classic Mario props, such as the Spin Jump's ability to break Spinning Blocks from above. In-game, you would pass Spinning Blocks by hitting them from below, and then being locked off in one section of the map until finding the Spin Jump, and then using it to break the Spinning Blocks to return to the rest of the map and being able to use the Spin Jump to break other blocks found in the environment.

Some classic Mario props will work differently from their usual function, such as coins recovering health and being dropped by enemies rather than being found in the open, to some disappearing altogether, such as regular Prize Blocks.

The game will feature powerups. There is the Fire Flower, Ice Flower, Speed Mushroom, and Gravity Mushroom. Powerups are unlocked by hitting a Color Switch to activate colored blocks around the map, containing specific powerups (such as Red Blocks containing Fire Flowers). The two new abilities, Speed and Gravity, allow for bursts of speed and unhindered movement through water and ice, respectively.

Instead of using a lives and powerup system, Mario has a health meter, and if it is completely depleted, Mario dies and the game is over. With the lack of a lives system, there will also be no bottomless pits or chances of getting completely crushed scattered across the map, and other usual instant-death circumstances such as lava merely acts as deadly water.

Development

The game originally used the engine from Super Mario Classic Two: Mushroom Archipelago, after canning it. However, the inflexibility of the engine did not satisfy Zero's wishes, so he canned the engine and began anew with the engine for Zero. Several revisions later, he began coding in the Game Maker Language.

Unlike Super Mario Classic Two, Zero has released very few engine tests or even revealing story elements and screenshots, keeping most of the development info limited to the WIP Topic after switching styles to a Yoshi's Island style. Since then, he has moved on to an 8-bit Super Mario Bros. 3, but hopes to have a custom 8-bit style game through a request topic in Developer Discussion.

The game appears to have been canceled, as many of its elements have been refocused into Super Mario Classic: Returns: Return 2: The Revenge of the Return: Reloaded.