Thingio

Frog's sprite from Chrono Trigger, compared to the current Thingio cast, was somewhat short even compared to Mario.

Let's Go, Thingio!
No image
Developer(s)	Someguy and Kaepora
Announce Date
Release Date	Side B Canned
Genre	Other
Players	1
Input	Standard keyboard
Medium	Multimedia Fusion
Platform	Windows
Status	Side A released.

The Game

Let's Go Thingio is a highly unorthadox fangame developed most noteably by Someguy and Kaepora. It has gone through several development phases, and has been in production since early 2005. Many false release dates were announced, and because of such, anticipation has declined rapidly within the last few months - especialy since it is a wide perception that Someguy and Kaepora have shifted large amounts of work on other projects such as Super Mario Land 4: Stairway to Heaven. Thingio Side A eventually was released, and then focus truely was shifted to other projects.

The concept of Thingio is fairly simple: there is none. While a story is evidently present, the player is not presented with any plot upon starting the game. This is because Thingio started out as nothing more than a mere mini-game, and was drastically built upon once Kaepora started working with Someguy. Thingio contains several different "levels", or more or less so, "sections". A few of the sections in the most recent demo build were things such as "Gencitebike" which was a fast-paced, bottomless pit plagued minigame where Geno is required to reach a goal, and fight a boss on a motorcycle - think of it as a stripped down Sonic engine. The second level in the demo was nothing more than a Mario platformer, where you (as Mario) had to find a secret cave enterance to "Donley Kong's Lair". When you find "Donley Kong" (who is perhaps the first sprite rip from any obscure NES Donkey Kong Country ROM) you must race him to the end of the cave, where he is crushed by a collapsing wall. The last, but certainly not least part of the demo was a fairly simplistic game where you, as the "Rub Rabbit Leader" from the Nintendo DS game "Feel the Magic" must jump, and avoid cars on a traffic-infested highway. There is nothing staggering in terms of gameplay here, but the effects in the level turn from day to night, as well as a noteable shimmering in the water - these effects are another feature which makes Thingio "stand out" from the flock of sheep.

Where Is It?

Someguy and Kaepora would indeed tell you that Thingio is less a single game, and more or such a concept. The concept is a series of events that take place in an altered universe far away, in both time and dimensions, from the Mushroom Kingdom. "Let's Go Thingio" is almost exclusively noted by MFGGers alike as the "Thingio", and this is likewise presented in this article. But this concept is being reused in several of Someguy and Kaepora's projects to date. Thingio has gone through several different phases as it has matured from a young child, to an almost fully developed adult. It started as a minigame that was built upon, and then to a random homage to the "Wario Ware series". Kaepora eventually had more depth enthralled ideas, and the plot was built upon - as such, he felt an RPG would suit the game more. Due to development difficulties, the RPG concept was canned, and the game was once again being developed in MMF. The tenative release date for Thingio was "August 14th 2005", the 10th year anniversery for the Virtual Boy's release. Alas, the game was not finished in time, and Kaepora released an apology letter. He jokingly stated at the end that the game was put on hold due to engine rennovation, and that he was working with the Quake III engine. This is a snide reference to the odd development cycle of "Duke Nukem Forever". Someguy and Kaepora promised the game be finished by the end of the year, or early 2007. Side A met this date, and Side B is mostly finished.

Side A has recently been released, and is up for download at the main site.

Trivia

• Thingio has gone through several development cycles, not just in conceptual design, but with actual 'developers' as well. The original team consisted of Kaepora and Someguy and then grew to monstrous amounts due to Sasuke30's "Tech Wing" project. A large majority of Tech Wing members lost interest, and since, the "team" has mostly disbanded. While the development still mainly consists of Someguy and Kaepora as the head honchos, special assistance is provided by CloakBass, Press Start, Roxxorz Your Boxxorz, and the banned Mugenmidget. The game as well as most every game headed by Kaepora and Someguy is labled under "Tech Wing"
• At this time, due to both secrecy and Kaepora 'evidently' being an asshole to Thingio's one beta tester, Jas, the only beta tester is CloakBass.
• Due to it's excessive randomness and obscurity, not to mention Press Start's humble involvement with the game, Thingio has been haralded as a spiritual successor to Super Mario Storm. Such claims have been disregarded, although Kaepora has admitted in the past that Super Mario Storm was an inspiration to his ideas. Someguy started the original game before knowing of it, but also admits that he and Press Start share a similar style in that aspect.
• One of the original revealing posts mentioned a plot line about a "Goon P. Yolkoy", an early attempt at a cheesy "masking" of a Thingio version of Gunpei Yokoi. This has since been changed. The relation between the fictional Gunpei Yokoi and Thingio is not well known to public, but it may be large as one of Tech Wing's other titles, Super Mario Land 4, features it's own fictional resurected Gunpei Yokoi character, a Thingio demo was packaged seemingly randomly with a Super Mario Land style engine demo, and some teaser images hint to atleast a recurring theme of refrences to the late game wizard.
• The game was planned a few times to be released in two parts to avoid long waits, as the first half of the game was originally developed in a form of The Games Factory and the latter half in Multimedia Fusion. The former was ported to MMF eventually, however, due to size reasons the game is still in two separate parts, done in a kind of Famicom Disk System two sided disk reference.
• The game had aldo had plans for a large amount of secret unlockables and transfering between future titles, however this was eventually lessened in order to obtain a reasonable release. What secrets the game will contain is unknown, but some refrences to multiple endings have been heard of.
• The second half of the game is subtitled after a Styx title, much like how it's brother, Super Mario Land 4, shares a subtitle with a Led Zeppelin song. The plot of both games however has been said time and again to not be in the same timeline, though they do share simular styles in the form of a strange game with various game characters that still revolves around a Mario theme. Another game mentioned a few times named after an album is "Super Mario: Crystal Ball".
• The current assumed cast of Thingio's main characters are Mario, the leader of the rub rabbits from Feel the Magic, and Geno from Super Mario RPG. During the RPG phase, Frog from Chrono Trigger was planned to be included too. This was canned along with the RPG however.
• A possible name for a Japanese version would be Getemonio, based off the word Getemono, which means "low-quality products; strange thing; strange combination". It would also likely change other things in the script, as Thingio is based off of many things from Japan, it would be fitting for a translation to honor it.

The Story

Spoiler Warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. one day, mario has a strange dream where he is shooting eggs while in a tank. he then wakes up to find the city on fire, beacuse of his arch-nemmisis Dooflis. after beating dooflis, he heads home, only to find the leader of the recently disbanded Rub Rabbits challenges him to a fight.

after winning the fight, The Rub Rabbits Leader tells mario about how he needs his help, and, after quizzing him, sends Mario into a haunted house to get some pasta. Unfortunently, mario drops the pasta, and faits when he discovers that he has dropped the pasta. The, Geno contacts mario in a dream telling him that the star spirits have become corrupt, and have impisoned him in Hylure. then, Mario and the Rub Rabbit leader dive in a car with no wheels pulled by a yoshi, and with an agreeing "Adootle Dato!", they go to see Captain Falcon about the SS Myamoterboat. They then run over Falco, and, in rage, Captain Falcon gives mario Cement Shoes and dropes him in the ocean, where Mario almost gets eaten by an octopus who mistakes him for a

What The Kids Are Saying About Thingio

Thingio is somewhat known around both MFGG's boards and the actual site, even having an update parodying it's name. Side A recieved both several good reviews and some much harsher ones, though while not containing the graphics and engine of it's cousin Super Mario Melatonin, it seems to have had a better reception. A sample of quotes about the game:

"Nice concept, I hope this game comes out well. Can't wait." -Black Squirrel

"This looks promising." -Benjamin7x

"Now that I've seen these screens this is gonna be awesome." -Techokami

"Awesome - can't wait." -Hypermug

"I've been looking forward to it since I first heard of the game, can't wait." -123James

"I tried the demo on the main site, and just loved it. I bet I'll love it now too lol." -Jay

"All and all, (Thingio) is one interesting concept, and I'm excited to see what the full version's going to include!" -Hatman

"This crazy collection of minigames has great gameplay, great graphics, and good sound- just what every fangame needs." -NintenDom

"This game is...adsadsadasdxasdsdgfdfg. That's the best I could come up with, and it's more than enough." - Kamin Ukiki

"It's a trainwreck... a series of unpolished and generally bad minigames that tries to pass itself off as a cohesive gaming experience." - ShadowMan