Mega Mario
Version: 1.7 Web: http://bit.ly/MegaMario
MegaMario is another of those indie games tapping into the retro appeal of classic gaming. It’s a classic reincarnation of the original Super MarioBros., where Mario has to save his brother Luigi, who has been captured by the evil Bowser. The game carefully copies many of the original elements of SuperMario Bros., including the Mushroom Kingdom background, scattered coins, bricks with question marks etc. Mario can pick up the Fire Flower weapon, grow two grades up (a super flower is needed for each transformation) and, of course, defeat enemies by jumping on them.
MegaMario does have a slightly different graphics set, which delivers a fresher look and a better screen resolution. Another distinguishing, and slightly shocking option considering its Nintendo origins, is the Blood mode, which has all characters (including Mario) smearing blood all over the level when they get hit. However, the graphics look like they’ve been drawn in a simple Paint- like bitmap editor, so the blood resembles dark-red fountains.
The game can be navigated either by a keyboard or gamepad, and the arcade action lasts for 24 pre-defined levels, but if that’s not enough for a real Mario fan, the game supports custom levels. Thanks to MegaMario being an open source game, all the content is easily accessible for modifications of your own via the /usr/share/ megamario directory. Levels can be edited by modifying plain text files, music (MID), sounds (WAV) and sprites/tiles (PNG) are also here in their respective subdirectories. The default game video resolution is just 640x480, but you can change it in the ~/.megamario/mario.ini file.
“Carefully copies all the original and entertaining elements of Super Mario.”