Mushroom Kingdom Fusion

Chris Highwind · Oct 28, 2018

So I was doing my usual Wiki Walk around TV Tropes when I got to Mushroom Kingdom Fusion's page. It noted that it had been discontinued, but had a link to the game's homepage. I decided to check it out, and found that as of recently, not only has MKF and its sister game Super Mario Fusion Revival both had their source codes released, but MKF itself has continued development under a different developer as a result!
http://www.fusiongam...rogress-report/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDIJU8wsXrk

Surprise! MKF is still alive! At least unofficially.

(Video created by MeriX) [Shown above]

V0.6 Progress: 95% (WIP #7)

DOWNLOAD LINK HERE

EDIT 1: WIP 7 is out, with ALL worlds playtested! Getting very close to release now.

Please follow the instructions provided in the README file there. Using the WIP version is actually recommended, but make sure to grab the stable version first.

This is a solo undertaking by D-TurboKiller (aka me), in order to preserve the game in a proper, functional state. Unfortunately v053 had a lot of glaring issues that needed to be fixed, which didn't allow for a proper playthrough of the game. This version aims to fix just that, as well as provide a couple additions and more polish.

So, why undertake this by myself in the first place? It's a simple answer, really. I originally found MKF about a decade ago and have been in love with the very concept ever since. A gigantic crossover consisting of an insane variety of 2D (even some 3D!) games, while somehow managing to be a solid 2D platformer with around a dozen characters that play far too different that any notion of balance goes straight out the window? Absolutely, sign me up on that! It's a gigantic, nostalgic love letter from an era of gaming that frankly should've stayed alive in a more substantial form. I even managed to do some small contributions to the project, despite not being exactly the most skilled person around, as expected of an early teenager at the time.

But… all was not well with MKF. I will not go over any details, but suffice to say, the enormous scope didn't help, the team wasn't as stable as it should've been, and perhaps most importantly, the engine itself. Game Maker was not meant for anything more than small games. AT ALL. Eventually they decided enough is enough, and gradually went their own ways. There were attempts at reviving it (Super Mario Fusion Revival), but it never reached the level of interest and awe of the original. Regardless, MKF stayed in our memories…

With the recent release of the latest official source, nostalgia won and I decided to dirty my hands that very same week. It was… an excruciatingly painful experience at first. Game Maker 8 would be a completely unacceptable tool to use by today's standards, even back then it was just bearable. It feels like over half the time I spend on the project involved either getting it to work or getting around GM's insane amount of issues. Sometimes I believe it was intentionally designed to screw with your work, but I digress. I pushed on until what you see now today. Hopefully it's worth the wait!

Here's a list of major changes:

ALL songs are now High-Quality (200+ songs), and are either the originals, better remixes or thematically appropriate. Around half of them are brand new to this version, and file size is only slightly higher than the old, low-quality version.

Every single sound (external and internal) has been de-amplified by around -12dB, which means it's no longer extremely loud and allowed me to conserve music quality.

Convenient options, such as Music Volume and extra cheats for completing levels or changing rooms.

Major attempt at externalization, reducing source/exe size considerably, and ensuring slightly faster load times.

Added 3 new levels: W1-S0 Height Valley, W2-6 Cruise Control and W4-7 Death Volcano (see video above). Any additional levels will be for a future release.

Complete playthrough of every single world and level as Mario, leading to massive changes in playability and many, many fixes. (NOTE: 7 out of 10 worlds are finished as of this post, more to come)

Other changes, see changelog below.

The final stable v0.6 version is expected to release sometime this month.

As for v1.0, it's a planned release that aims to finish the game in its entirety, but with no release date besides when it's done. I can, however, mention the planned changes:

An actual Beginning and End to the game

Additional story that aims to make something coherent of what's available

Major and minor tweaks to every character

Possibly fix glaring issues such as going down or up slopes

Add many lost levels from recovered sources, as long as it doesn't break the main source itself

HERE is the readme with the complete changelog so far (read from bottom to top!). Please note that the optimized files from the initial release no longer exist.

And that's it for now. I hope this keeps you excited until the proper release!
Click to expand...

Black Squirrel · Oct 28, 2018

Give them credit - the frame rate of that trailer has that "this was uploaded 10 years ago" feel to it. Attention to detail!

I was pretending to be a big deal in the Mario fan gaming "scene" back when this was first a thing - I think I pointed out at the time that the scope was getting too big. And then it got too big. There was a certain novelty to it at the time, but it ran like a dog, and when Sonic the Hedgehog became a playable character, you knew it wasn't going to get finished.

Though I might have been the only person on the internet that appreciated the sound effects from Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure. Did they have crystals from Crystal Caves too? I forget.

But honestly, this was a product of its time - it doesn't hold up well by 2018 standards. Although I'm biased because it was my mundane internet job to play through these things once, and they all started to blur together after a while... but well done to whoever I guess.

p.s. I'm a grumpy old man, your mileage with this may vary.

Chris Highwind · Nov 17, 2018

MKF v0.6 "Vanilla Shroom" has been released

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xspJN5-gjqI
This release comes with a huge changelog, with the major changes listed in the blog post itself.
One change is that MKF has now been majorly optimized by repackaging the source with GMK Splitter and externalizing a lot of the files, resulting in faster loading, smoother framerates, and an overall better experience (And I can vouch for that, I was able to play MKF 0.6 very smoothly on my potato.)

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Mushroom Kingdom Fusion

Chris Highwind

Black Squirrel

Chris Highwind

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