Secret Maryo Chronicles is an open-source 2D sidescroller game that borrows heavily from, you guessed it, Super Mario. From fire-flowers to turtle shells, it's the same gameplay through and through, only with a seemingly endless list of custom levels in addition to an original overworld adventure.
The problem with SMC is that it tries so hard to be a clone when its real strength lies in what it does differently. The graphical cohesion the game might otherwise have is ruined by the incorporation of various mutated forms of visuals from graphically disparate installations in the franchise. It's the same with the music: the game uses some rather nice adaptations of the classic Nintendo themes, but even so I can't be alone in occasionally wanting to chop my ears off when I'm played a looping excerpt from the most oft-repeated video game soundtrack of all time.
The program does have its strengths though. As with many open-source games, the options menu seems to go on forever and there is a lot that can be done with the built-in level editor. The eponymous Maryo can run in addition to his other skills, and the timer ticks up instead of down, making the game experience more friendly to casual players.
v1.9 [Jun 9, 2010]
X implemented animation management
X new sprites : rotated sign, cloud block, sand block and slime block
X new enemy : spikeball ( graphics from yoshis_fan )
X new ice_kill, iceball, mushroom_blue sound ( from evans.jahja )
X furball, flyon, gee, krush, turtle and turtle boss moving state handling updated
X gee, krush, turtle and turtle boss movement handling updated
X implemented ability to reset the options
X implemented path rewind move type
X added metal spike and desert block static enemy to the editor
X added spanish translation ( thanks lightbuster )
X 3 level updates ( from sauer2 )
X updated level yuki2000 ( thanks konstantin )
X updated scaley ( from levelengine )
X added spikeball to world 3 and 4 ( from guest_xd )
X added editor mouse auto hide to the options
X spika and running shell both get hit on collision
X leaving level settings with a different music filename plays the new music
X entering level settings does not fade out the music anymore
X updated translations
X SHIFT + CTRL + A does now deselect everything
X shell does not die anymore if it hits a box from below
X fire resistant and ice resistance options added to static enemy
X updated mouse collision handling
X updated hud time calculation
X updated opengl version warning
X updated font
* fixed linked turtle shell does not handle collisions
* fixed path position can not be edited if it is a floating point value
* fixed massivetype change is set to not valid object types if multiple objects are selected
* updated french translation ( from thebosssdu68 and sst )
* fixed loading world with no waypoints crashes
* fixed active text box does not handle direction keys
* fixed crash when changing flyon, eato or thromp image directory
* fixed music is not looped in certain event situations
* fixed dying because of the fixed camera velocity in custom level mode results in a endless loop
* removed high frequency noise from death_box (thanks evans.jahja)
* fixed ghost maryo with ice power throws fireballs
* fixed world without objects can not be entered
* fixed changing flyon direction in the editor does not update velocity
* fixed shell y velocity was not reset when hitting a massive object on top/bottom
* fixed gee with no fly distance always flies
* fixed flyon can not get hit if frozen and gee only from top
* preload more images
* updated german translation
* updated french translation ( thanks sst )
* update string to float conversion function to work correctly
* fixed semi massive text box does not activate
* disabling the global effect clears the active particles
* use new boost filesystem path handling functions
* fixed lvl_4 camera limit ( thanks guest_xd )
* updated ghost window_1 settings ( thanks yoshis_fan )
* plugged rare memory leaks
* 2 small level updates
* some level fixes ( thanks guest_xd )
* many cleanups
* removed fuzzy and unused translation text
