Mushroom Kingdom Fusion
From Mkfusion
Mushroom Kingdom Fusion (also known as MKFusion and MKF) is a fan game with modified Mario gameplay, crossed over with many different video game universes and elements. The latest public release is v0.2.5 Beta, released November 17, 2008.
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Key features
- An overall dark atmosphere of the game.
- Modified Mario-style gameplay, with SMB2 mechanics (veggie pulling, Subcon enemies) and guns.
- A roster of playable characters, both from within the Mario universe and outside of the Mario universe. Each character will have their own unique powerup system and gameplay mechanics, adapted to fit within the Mario-based gameplay.
- Extremely variable worlds and levels. Game worlds will feature a traditional Mario world at the beginning. Later worlds will be based off other video games. Other worlds will feature completely original levels. The plot centers around the Mario universe, with stories extending out to other video game universes and even an alternate version of our Earth.
Development
This fangame began as a solo project by JudgeSpear, under the name Super Mario Fusion, on December 19, 2007. It is made in Game Maker 7 Pro. The game is based on the Super Mario Bros. Hello Engine III by Hello, heavily modified to meet the requirements of the game and to fix bugs. You can download the Hello Engine III here.
After the release of v0.1 Beta RC2, several talented people offered their help to JudgeSpear, forming the Fusion Development Team. This team includes (as of August 3, 2008):
- JudgeSpear (coder, level designer)
- Obreck2 (coder)
- StarsimsUniverse (level designer)
- JDogindy (level designer)
- Ben66 (level designer)
- Hello (engine creator, level designer)
- Impish (level designer)
- Tron Knotts (spriter)
- Gun6 (spriter)
- coolpikaa (spriter)
- NO Body (spriter)
History
Mushroom Kingdom Fusion may have been started recently (five months ago as of May 2008), but the history of the project goes back a long way. Here is MKFusion's history in detail by me, JudgeSpear.
Part I: The Vision
My vision for my own Super Mario game began when I first played Super Mario Land 2: The 6 Golden Coins for the original Game Boy way back in 1992. SML2 had that feel that I found missing in Nintendo's previous Mario game, Super Mario World. To me, Super Mario World seemed like a rush to launch a Mario game for the Super NES, with Yoshi and the Cape Feather power-up seriously making the game broken.
SML2 had variety in their levels. One minute, you are fighting toy soldiers and teddy bears in a cutesy setting, the next you are inside a whale jumping through mucous membranes and avoiding protruding bone spikes. Although the bosses were easy, they were all unique and varied.
It is from SML2 that I began to envision my own dream Mario game. I originally wanted to recreate the entire SML2 game into glorious color (the B&W graphics did not do the game justice), plus add my own zones.
Today, you can see and hear some SML2 references in the current game: the Goombas, the SML2 Overworld remix for World 1-1, and the huge variety of levels and worlds.
Part II: Super Mario MF
This game originally began as a game made on Multimedia Fusion 1.2 Build 98, made in the year 2000.
It was called Super Mario MF (with MF standing for Multimedia Fusion). It featured a roster of four characters: Mario, Luigi, Sonic, and Mickey Mouse (not kidding). Each character had their own strengths and weakness (i.e. Sonic runs fast, but has terrible momentum). Otherwise, they all played the same way.
There were four levels, including a Sky Pop level into Bowser's castle, and a fight against Bowser. The other levels include the now-infamous "Military War Zone" level (the idea of which would eventually become World 2: Alternate Earth) and a DOOM level (which would become translated and enhanced in MKFusion).
It started out promising, but soon there were fatal and insurmountable glitches that surfaced due to the poor memory management of Multimedia Fusion 1.2, such as random crashing and strange random glitches. Eventually, SMMF got scrapped because of the severe limitation of Multimedia Fusion 1.2. This Mario fan game ended up in the dustbin for over seven years.
Part III: Super Mario Fusion
On December 2007, I discovered Game Maker. I then found out that a full-featured open-source SMB3 engine was made for Game Maker (SMB3 Hello Engine III). From that engine, Super Mario Fusion was born. This game originally featured just Mario in a dimension-hopping quest to stop a dark force bent on subverting all realities. He had powerups based on other video games, like Megaman Mario and Spartan Mario from Halo. SMFusion borrowed two levels from Super Mario MF - The Entryway (World 1-1) and Tower of Babel (World 4-2).
Super Mario Fusion, within two weeks of the first videos I posted on YouTube, became a large internet hit. It made it so far as to receive mention on Joystiq, Kotaku, Destructoid (from which an editor, Tron Knotts, offered to make sprites, becoming the first contributor to the game project), and even game-specific sites such as Planet Doom and halo.bungie.org. You can still download the old version here.
Part IV: From an individual to group effort
Obreck2 originally offered to contribute a few Castlevania levels to the game project. Later on, this changed to an addition a vast array of new features, including a character change system and a host of miscellaneous fixes. Obreck2 even went so far as to introduce Arthur of Ghouls 'n Ghosts fame to the mix, bringing his own gameplay with him. Obreck made several contributions before, such as the graphics for World 4-2 (Tower of Babel). Now, Obreck2 is a co-programmer assisting with many aspects of the game, his years of Game Maker experience totally turning this project in a new direction.
JDogindy and I go way back before this Mario project. We are both members of the MUGEN community, exchanging resources to each other. JDogindy's first contributions to the Mario project included the Klampons from Donkey Kong Country 2, and World 2-1 (The Grand Canyon). He also has a whole design document for levels in Alternate Earth. JDogindy soon picked up Game Maker for himself and learned the ropes of using it. I soon sent him the source for him to design levels for the Sonic world. Now, JDogindy is on board as a level designer chiefly for the Sonic world.
StarsimsUniverse first came to me with a slew of excellent level design mockups and sprite submissions for Megaman-based levels, among other things. He even gave some interesting storyline concepts for the game, and how everything ties together. Intrigued by his brilliant contributions, I made an offer to him to design levels for the game. Now, StarsimsUniverse is a chief contributor to the Megaman realm of the Mario game project.
Ben66 began by posting wonderful suggestions on the forums. Ben66 later came to me and told me he was getting his own copy of Game Maker to help design levels. Now, he is the chief level designer of World 5: Gehenna.
Hello is the creator of the engine on which MKFusion is based. Hello offered to contribute his fantastic level designs to the project. I had no reservations welcoming Hello aboard the development team. Naturally, Hello is the chief contributor of World 1: The Mushroom Kingdom.
With the advent of an custom essay, which will include Link, Sonic, and even Arthur of Ghosts 'n Goblins fame, the game underwent a name change to the current name: Mushroom Kingdom Fusion.
