Yea, most Mario fangames are getting dull recently. Sounds or graphics are reused a lot and/or clash a lot. I was wondering fan gaming is just going around and around and barely any improvement. And I am tired of those Hello's Mario engine games that barely have any modification.

One example, Drazeey's Super Mario Kingdom. The engine looks impressive but some elements are reused a lot. Such as overused Mushroom Kingdom Fusion's money/shopping system, I seen a lot on many MFGG games especially Hello's. Graphics are reused a lot, enemies are nothing but SMB3 or SMW styles. Some part do clash like the palm trees, too much details combined with less retailed tiles. And of course the overused SNES Mario spun effects. Still I'm fine with SMK due to his engine rather than overused Hello Mario SMB3 Engine.

Of course the infamous Mushroom Kingdom Fusion. It started pretty nice mixing with old classic games together and I like it first due to the reason Judge Spear do a lot of efforts modifying Hello's engine. Until around the time Judge Spear left the fusion team, things start to get ugly. Now the Fusion team start to add everything under the black hole, it clash in a very uncomfortable way, different style of gaming clash together isn't just right. Maybe it's cool attract many gamers but this eventually start to worn out. Some gamers loves the classics but hates the fps or some fps lovers hates the classics. And yes, due to heavy graphics clashing, people will be confused about gameplay. Like a good example, a 3D tileset mixing with 2Ds? It's just dot fit right.

Some great example I seen around like Midas Machine, Psycho Waluigi, SMB Just for Fun (by Miles,) some of SuperDimentioBros games, Terror Mario, and those good games with high scores in MFGG are what I want to expect and play. And yes, I'm trying to remove many overused elements in my game and add my own ideas.

Its true what you say here,

Origonality is becoming more and more lacked, as many folk are trying to mimic what the last person has done.

That's the way I feel about a lot of newer fangames, too. People often forget that the point of fangaming - and indie development, too - is to try new things that companies like Nintendo wouldn't do in a commercial game that cost millions of dollars to develop and market. Hello Engine games can be fun, of course, but the engine is so bulky and poorly-designed that it's impossible for the average developer to change anything with the engine.

A relevant quote I recently stumbled across on IPB MFGG:



I'm not suggesting all old fangames were good (in fact, many were borderline unplayable), but older games, like Yoshi vs. Windows, were more willing to be innovative and have fun, instead of taking themselves overly serious and trying to achieve a level of perfection that can ironically lead to blander, less memorable games.

I absolutely hate discrimination about fangamers using engines that have alot of notoriety (Hello's Engine) and would say that because of the engine used, game sucks. Pre-existing engines or not, Its not the engine used that determines if the game fails, its the man who puts in the effort to make his game. One of the reasons why I didnt show Mysterious Islandz to MFGG because I fear that no one would help program for me because it uses FDE Exi (not that overused, but some associate it with Hello's Engine due to certain scripts DragezeeY imported and the SMB3 GFX), an engine. I try to stand out, and distinguish my game from other Engine clones. I really dont care about overused sounds and graphics - to me, and possibly others, nothing is truely overused. If a graphic style works, it works! Same principle goes with the sounds and music - if it fits in your game, it fits! I have my ideas on what my game is about, and I would, put in the effort to level design alot since its my strongest point - Most engine clones Ive played on yoyogame has half-assed level design skills, and if the half-assery quality of levels, among other things was eliminated and instead, has quality level design, at least, people would play it, but on MFGG, people would not expect to think to highly of a game whose creator didnt change the physics, let alone, has good level design. Come to think of it, I wouldnt get much luck if I try to recruit some MFGGers to help me with my fangame that uses an engine, even if I put out my plans, ideas, and features my fangame has. But, I also, would stick with my ideas and try to execute them, one way, or another. The message is this: engines can be used to make great games if the person using it puts alot of effort in making his game.
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Edited by: TDW, Aug 2nd, 2012 @ 9:58 am

Well, I think you have to consider that back in the day, the games many fangames are based around, was a period where Nintendo would try to be innovative with each new game- you would never really get the same experience as you would with another game in the series. I think a lot of fangamers (and rom hackers) want to fill the gap and get more of what they loved about particular games.

It's totally cool if you want to encourage more originality in these things though. While I think there's always going to be a market for these rehash-type games, there's definitely going to be people on the lookout for more original ideas too.

And yes, level designs. I forget to mention about that level design is another key to grab people's interest. That why my Furby game lack of good level design and got not-so-positive reviews. Basically, a good fangame is something unexpected, surprising and fun for all kind of gamers.