Looking back at old Mario ROM hacks, part 2 -- Sumo Fatio Bros. 2

Unlike Ninja Mario Bros. in the previous post, I know exactly when I made the Sumo Fatio Bros. hacks -- partly because I actually remember working on them, and partly because the "sumo2.nes" ROM file has a last-modified date in early March of 2003.  So... yep, these ones are old -- like high school old.  Like not even senior year of high school old -- March 2003 would've been toward the end of my junior year.

As far as I can remember, I actually made the "third" Sumo Fatio Bros. hack before the "second" (and there was never a Sumo Fatio Bros. 1, hence the quotes around second and third.)  I'm pretty sure I kept working on Fatio 3 long after I had abandoned Fatio 2, also -- and I'm pretty sure the reason why is because I managed to screw up the levels in Fatio 2 so bad that they were unplayably, game-breakingly glitchy.  Something to do with pipes going to the wrong place, I think.  Well, I'm about to find out...

 And here's the (almost entirely unedited) title screen.  The enemies are changed, but Mario and company (and a turnip) are still exactly like they would've been in the original game.

The sprites on the character select screen are also completely unchanged, which is weird since the "big" versions of all four characters had their sprites changed at the point I stopped working on this so all I would've had to do is edit one or two more sprites for each of them to fix that.

 And here's our first hero -- Fatio, the one whose name is in the title! He's basically a sumo Mario with an afro, as you can see from the screenshot.  Also, the level is drastically different, an underground place with waterfalls and big spooky faces carved out of the rock everywhere.

 The 'fro looks a little goofy when he ducks, due to the fact that it's just too big to fit in a SMB2 ducking sprite.  Also, the hills now have a Mario 3 wall texture for some reason, and those hedgehogs from the original game are now Geemers from Metroid.

 

...and the vegetables that you pull up from the ground are replaced with ODDISHES.  Both big and small Oddishes, to be exact.  Also a few more edited enemies here -- the Shy Guys now have Kirby faces on their masks, and the Tweeters are replaced with Butt Monkeys.

 Unfortunately, Fatio really sucks at jumping.  That was his "duck to build up power" super jump right there... so he needs to ride on a Kirb Guy or Butt Monkey just to get onto those pillars.  This level was really not made with him in mind, it seems

 Also, for some odd reason I occasionally get... whatever that is... out of the ground instead of an Oddish.  I think I messed around with the settings for the stopwatch item and replaced it with something else, maybe.

 Using the potion-generated door brings you to... Virtual Boy land?? Everything's red.  Yep.

 And finally Fatio reaches the later parts of this level.  There's that bug shown on the title screen, replacing the climbing ladybugs it seems.

 Also, Geemers coming out of a tiny pipe here.

 Those patches of grass have Voltorbs in them, which you can use to blow up the pipe and stop the endless flow of Geemers.

And... that's the end of this level for Fatio.  Time to try out another character, and hope I haven't messed with their settings so much that none of them can jump well enough to get through this mess. XD

 And here's the second playable character, Buigi.  Yep, just like how Fatio is just "Fat" and "Mario" combined, Buigi's name derives from Luigi and... Majin Buu.  Y'know, the Dragonball Z character.

Unlike Buu, Buigi isn't particularly fat (well, he is, but his height makes it stand out less than in Fatio's case) and has a nose.  He also doesn't suck at jumping, though he is weirdly fast and difficult to control in this game.  I remember hearing people complain about Luigi being "hard to control" in SMB2, but that was never the case for me -- him and Peach were by far the easiest to control because they weren't always zipping around at such absurd speeds.  Especially Luigi, with his slow floaty jumps.  Now if you want hard to control, try playing as Toad.  *shudders*

 Anyway, Buigi clears the super-high jumps without much trouble, and blows up the pipe with a Voltorb.  But not this one, as it's not close enough.

 Small Buigi isn't edited, so he just turns into a regular Luigi.  Except for this one sprite, which... seems to just be small Fatio's ducking sprite? Weird.

 Found a door.  The light coming from the opening there is animated very weirdly.

 And here's some turbaned guys coming out of a pipe.  And then exploding.  I never did manage to bomb a path through those rocks so I'm not sure where that door leads.

Down from that area on the vine, there's... endless Geemers popping out of a wall, and a couple of patches of grass with I-can't-remember-what in them.  I don't think it was anything significant, though there may have been a 1-up hidden in there.

 But not long after that Buigi fell down a hole too, and now I'm starting the level over with another character.  Peach's replacement went by two different names -- "Obesia" and "Ima Phat."  I can't remember which she was referred to by in this game, but in Fatio 3 her letters were signed with "Princess Ima Phat."  Anyway... she's pretty silly-looking, with blubber that jiggles as she walks (oh, and no shirt, just a bra or bikini top or something... but still the floofy princess dress on the lower half.  Weird.)

She also sucks much less at jumping compared to Fatio, though her jump mechanics are a little bizarre.  Her running jump doesn't go as high as her standing jump, while her super jump takes her almost to the top of the screen, even higher than Buigi's.  Really odd.

 Anyway, with the princess's ability to not suck, I manage to reach the vertical part of the level...

 ...where bugs from Metroid start flying in from the sides...

 ...and weird glitchy-looking terrain happens.  Why does that one hill just vanish into a black void where it does?

 Also, here's some more glitchy-looking stuff.  Cut off vine, cut off cloud, and random block just kinda floating there.

 And finally, the end of the level.  Birdo now spits bugs rather than eggs.  And they fly across the screen at insane speeds, making it very hard to land on them to grab them.

 Eventually, I do manage to throw enough bugs at Birdo to beat the weird pink dinosaur thing, and...

Yep, the pictures on the slot machine bonus game are changed.  To what, I'm not sure.  That's definitely an X-shaped Unown there, but what the hell is that other thing? XD

 Now on to level 1-2, where tiny turbaned guys ride around on magic carpets.

 Going down a pipe, I stumble across a 1-up mushroom and... a Geodude? Huh.  Lots of Pokémon randomly showing up in this one.  Mostly as items, it seems -- first Oddishes as turnips, then Voltorbs as bombs, and now...

 Yeah, the Geodudes replace the mushroom blocks that you could pick up and toss around in the original game.

Unfortunately, going down the second pipe brings me to a game-breaking bug.  There's the princess stuck in the ceiling, unable to move anywhere.  All I can do now is reset the game and start using save-states just in case something like this happens again.

 And now, starting over with Toad.  Or... whoever that turbaned guy with huge bugged-out eyes is supposed to be.  I can't remember a name for him, unlike the other three.  Toad actually doesn't suck in this game -- he's probably the second-best character (next to the princess), but as you'll see later he's by far the best when it comes to fighting Birdos.  The princess lost her floating abilities in favor of Luigi-like jumps, and meanwhile this guy picked up the floating.  Other than that, he plays like a slightly-less-insanely-fast Toad

 He also looks really goofy when pulling up Oddishes.

 Like Toad, however, he kinda sucks at vertical jumping.  Him and Fatio both have this problem -- if you fall down into this little pit, it's impossible to get back up unless you're playing as Buigi or the princess.  That POW block just makes the jump too high to clear.

 As it turns out, little turbaned guy is the best at fighting Birdo because he can float at just the right height to land on the bugs and pick them up without having to perfectly time a jump onto one.  It's still a little bit unreasonably hard to beat Birdo in this game, but it's easier with Turban Toad than anyone else.

 And now more of 1-2.  Riding the magic carpet and... hey, a door!

 ...apparently it was that kind of door, rather than the kind that takes you a different area... weird.  Also, why the heck is that patch of grass floating in midair?

 And now, glitchy weird stuff happens.  That's a Numnum there, the old legless design that I stopped using for good somewhere around 2004-2005.  And it's spitting... ostrich halves? What the heck?  Apparently they're either fireballs, standard Snifit bullets, or Wart's bubbles going by the fact that you can't jump on them... but I don't know why they show up as ostrich chunks here.

Also, I have no clue what that Birdo down there is spitting up, I can't even decipher the weirdness of that glitchy sprite.  Not eggs and not fireballs, just going by the "bounce and roll on the ground" behavior...

 I think they're probably supposed to be rocks, like the kind Clawgrip throws in the original game.  Not sure why they're showing up as glitchy nonsense here, though.

 Speaking of glitchy nonsense, here's a Triclyde made of mangled Mouser parts.

 Also, the rest of this room is impossible to reach because there's random blocks filling it all up.  That poor Numnum is stuck forever in the wall...

Ignoring all that nonsense and going through a door that I could only barely tell was there due to being the same color as the background, I make it to this place, which has a pretty interesting setup of big cliffs.  I'm guessing there's just another Birdo at the end, though.

 And after another bug-spitting Birdo fight, we come to... 1-3 of the original SMB2, completely unchanged aside from the graphics.  Yeah, all the glitchy stuff in 1-2 must have been what led me to give up on this project back in the day.

 Also, Trouters are replaced by what appears to be The Burp, from my old Crappy RPG series.  This also seems to be the same sprite that I pulled out of the ground earlier, but it animates correctly here.  Was I trying to make a Trouter pop up from every 5th grass patch where a big Oddish would be?

 Here's another new enemy -- Li'l Sumo-San! These guys showed up in both of the Fatio hacks, and in this one they replaced Ninjis.

 More Numnums.  And they still spit glitchy ostrich halves.

 Finally made it up tot the top of this area, and...

 ...Phantos are replaced by Unowns.  The little spark guys are not replaced at all, oddly, which probably makes them the only non-boss enemy that I hadn't changed at this point.

 Speaking of bosses... on the way to Mouser now.  And his room's palette is randomly changed, even though nothing else in this level was.  Is he going to throw Voltorbs at us? Or...

Kirb Guys riding ostriches.  Actually... Kirb Guys riding decapitated ostriches, now that I look more closely.  Well, that was definitely not what I was expecting.

And, considering that that whole level (aside from Mouser's room) was completely unedited... that's the end of Sumo Fatio Bros. 2.  Next time I'll go into the sequel, which will probably have a lot more to it (and be a lot less glitchy) than this one was.