The Nintendo 2D arcade game Mario is a classic that everyone has played or at least heard of. Secret Maryo Chronicles is an open-source game designed for PCs, which follows in its footsteps.
Secret Maryo Chronicles is an addictive game that is very similar to its much more successful predecessor. Although it follows the same guidelines, the graphical design is visibly improved from the one in the original version.
The game-play is also similar to the old version, with a few exceptions. The monsters look slightly different (but they still have the same characteristics) and you can now also use weapons that shoot with ice, not only fireballs.
An interesting twist is the fact that Secret Maryo Chronicles embeds a handy in-game editor. This means that you will be able to modify the terrain, add objects, traps or monsters to any map that you want to play.
Secret Maryo Chronicles offers several advantages, which can’t go unnoticed. Firstly, the game allows you to customize the keys which control your character, so you will be able to switch the buttons around if you are not comfortable with their original position. Another positive thing is that you can save your progress, so that you won’t have to start all over each time you launch the application. Furthermore, you can choose the map that you want to play, so if you really want to see how a certain world looks like, you don’t have to wait until you actually progress to that point.
In conclusion if you are a Mario fan, then Secret Maryo Chronicles is surely a game worth trying out. It doesn’t look exactly like the original, but the game-play is similar and even though the sounds could use a little work, you don’t have to pay to be able to play, so you have nothing to lose by trying it out.
v1.9 [Aug 21, 2009]
New enemy
The Spikeball is resistant against almost everything as he can not get hit with a jump, turtle shell, spika or thromp but only with the star.
Thanks to Yoshis_Fan for the graphics.
New sprites
The rotated sign, cloud block, sand block and slime block are now available.
New static enemy
New path rewind move type, deselect everything with SHIFT + CTRL + A, new music when leaving level settings is played immateriality, editor mouse auto hide added to the options, and fixes for the Level and World editor.
Editor updates
This big metal spike is resistant to Fire and Ice.
