The Official Staff Blog, as run by the Lead Administrator. This blog hopes to cover all the latest news in both the gaming and DS Ultimate world, and also my ramblings about stuff I like somewhat.
How to tell someone is using the Newbie's Custom Boss in Super Mario World
Posted 4th November 2009 at 05:56 PM by cheat-master30
Just as an expert website designer can tell a vBulletin or Invision Power Board forum from a good fifty yards away via the URL structure, design and various features, it has become incredibly easy to now see who's been using certain sprites in their Super Mario World mods people are watching on Youtube. For that matter, the Newbie's Custom Boss seems the most common one now, so here's a guide to tell if a boss has been designed with this sprite as the base.
Note: I have no idea how many Japanese coders use this sprite, but I would assume it to be pretty high actually, since a lot of their more reason games/hacks have been made after the release of both Sprite Tool and these sprites everyone else uses. Still, take these signs as a given.
With no further time to waste, here are the 100% reliable signs of the Newbie's Custom Boss sprite in action!
1. The sprite is about 32 x 32 Pixels and is perfectly still
You'll notice that none of the above bosses can move, and that can be explained by the fact the original version of the sprite, which for some reason many people are still using was completely immobile, and hence was usually stacked on a stem or platform, and disguised as a stationary enemy like a Piranha Plant or Muncher to hide this.
The result... not a particularly thrilling boss battle, and a stationary boss by definition:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...StationaryBoss
Of course, I can't be too harsh here... Lemmy and Wendy Koopa weren't particularly Mobile, nor were any Piranha Plant bosses in Yoshi's Island or Paper Mario and nor were about half the bosses in Wario Land 1. Still, it's a blatant give away, which later sprite variations do away with.
2. The sprite throws hammers or bones as it's only projectile attack
Again, this is because the sprite can only generate Hammers and Bones for projectile attacks, and the hammers have an incredibly predictable projectory ark when fired. The above I think uses a hidden enemy generator type sprite, which is point 5 below.
3. The sprite activates a P Switch about halfway through it's lifespan
Notice how oh so many of these examples have a row of suspiciously placed objects on blocks high above the arena? Yeah, it's because one of the most commonly used features is to enable the P Switch or On/Off blocks at a certain health level. In many cases, people don't even really hide this too well, with whole ceilings made of brown used blocks and in some cases, visible enemies just out of reach of Mario.
4. The sprite merely moves left and right while throwing... hammers or bones.
See this example. And the Fry Guy boss in another game I forgot the name of. And another Cheep Cheep boss in a game I forgot the name of.
Note how it has to always be damaged by Throw Blocks, and that it shoots the fish in a diagonal direction? That's simply because it's a Newbie's Custom Boss edit, and those fish are edited hammers.
5. The boss has to be backed up by several flunkies, usually Bullet Blaster cannons.
As for this, see the points about. With only hammers and bones are built in attack possibilities, most people increase the difficulty in two ways:
6. The Boss has it's life in the status bar, with an '4' replacing the 'O' in 'BOSS'
Due to a graphics glitch with the default, the status bar showing the health is usually messed up with this thing, so if you see a number in the word 'Boss', it's because the person used the default settings and didn't replace the graphics for the status bar.
Now, I don't mean this article to be cruel, I just think people should be able to tell a lot easier whether a boss is truly custom or not, and in many cases, the limitations of the sprite mentioned make it painfully obvious that it's not custom coding. Still, the N00b's Ultimate Boss is way better, with apparently the ability to add several custom attacks and stages of battle to the whole thing, making it more like Brutal Mario and less like... Super Mario TKO.
Note: I have no idea how many Japanese coders use this sprite, but I would assume it to be pretty high actually, since a lot of their more reason games/hacks have been made after the release of both Sprite Tool and these sprites everyone else uses. Still, take these signs as a given.
With no further time to waste, here are the 100% reliable signs of the Newbie's Custom Boss sprite in action!
1. The sprite is about 32 x 32 Pixels and is perfectly still
You'll notice that none of the above bosses can move, and that can be explained by the fact the original version of the sprite, which for some reason many people are still using was completely immobile, and hence was usually stacked on a stem or platform, and disguised as a stationary enemy like a Piranha Plant or Muncher to hide this.
The result... not a particularly thrilling boss battle, and a stationary boss by definition:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...StationaryBoss
Of course, I can't be too harsh here... Lemmy and Wendy Koopa weren't particularly Mobile, nor were any Piranha Plant bosses in Yoshi's Island or Paper Mario and nor were about half the bosses in Wario Land 1. Still, it's a blatant give away, which later sprite variations do away with.
2. The sprite throws hammers or bones as it's only projectile attack
Again, this is because the sprite can only generate Hammers and Bones for projectile attacks, and the hammers have an incredibly predictable projectory ark when fired. The above I think uses a hidden enemy generator type sprite, which is point 5 below.
3. The sprite activates a P Switch about halfway through it's lifespan
Notice how oh so many of these examples have a row of suspiciously placed objects on blocks high above the arena? Yeah, it's because one of the most commonly used features is to enable the P Switch or On/Off blocks at a certain health level. In many cases, people don't even really hide this too well, with whole ceilings made of brown used blocks and in some cases, visible enemies just out of reach of Mario.
4. The sprite merely moves left and right while throwing... hammers or bones.
See this example. And the Fry Guy boss in another game I forgot the name of. And another Cheep Cheep boss in a game I forgot the name of.
Note how it has to always be damaged by Throw Blocks, and that it shoots the fish in a diagonal direction? That's simply because it's a Newbie's Custom Boss edit, and those fish are edited hammers.
5. The boss has to be backed up by several flunkies, usually Bullet Blaster cannons.
As for this, see the points about. With only hammers and bones are built in attack possibilities, most people increase the difficulty in two ways:
- Adding more generic enemies to the arena, to provide more of a challenge and make the stage more cramped.
- Adding a generator to fire sprites into the arena, usually a Bullet Bill generator or ten.
6. The Boss has it's life in the status bar, with an '4' replacing the 'O' in 'BOSS'
Due to a graphics glitch with the default, the status bar showing the health is usually messed up with this thing, so if you see a number in the word 'Boss', it's because the person used the default settings and didn't replace the graphics for the status bar.
Now, I don't mean this article to be cruel, I just think people should be able to tell a lot easier whether a boss is truly custom or not, and in many cases, the limitations of the sprite mentioned make it painfully obvious that it's not custom coding. Still, the N00b's Ultimate Boss is way better, with apparently the ability to add several custom attacks and stages of battle to the whole thing, making it more like Brutal Mario and less like... Super Mario TKO.
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