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// article by SoyBomb

Toad just never seems to catch a decent break in the video game industry. Ever since his inception into the Mario Bros. universe in Super Mario Bros., where he would so kindly inform Mario that the Princess was actually in another castle, he has been treated as a second-rate character. His only major roles were in Super Mario Bros. 2 (as a playable character), in the puzzle game, Wario's Woods, as the only controllable character, and more recently, in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, proving that the little mushroom boy has not yet been completely abandoned. Still, for such an iconic character to be chained to the background is unseemly!

Luckily, the hacker known as "Omniverse" has taken it upon himself to remedy the situation somewhat, crafting "Toad's Adventure: Where's Mario?" as Toad's new vessel to stardom. Using the original Super Mario Bros. as a foundation, Omniverse has not only replaced all the Mario sprites with those of Toad, as drawn in Super Mario Bros. 2, but also designed a completely new set of levels (though, based on certain geographical elements, I can see that very minor parts of the original levels have remained intact to some capacity). The overall colour palette is generally darker than before; scenic aspects from Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3 have been inserted in place of the more cubist style of their predecessors, such as log surfaces and the more rounded question blocks. Enemy sprites have also changed to a degree; Goombas are far more round and cartoonish, while Bullet Bills have been replaced with the flying Para-Beetles from Super Mario Bros. 3. And as for Bowser, he sure doesn't look the same anymore either...

The most important thing to note, however, is that this game is HARD. Omniverse has gone out of his way to insert large gaps between platforms all over the place and numerous other platform placement quirks that all require precise and lengthy leaps of faith. For whatever reason as well, Bowser requires more fireball hits to be defeated. Well, I thought five was too easy in the original game anyhow. Oh, but don't get me started on ropes... Ropes, not unlike those of Donkey Kong Jr., have been included in some levels, but because Toad acts rather unusually to them, they are more of a nuisance than any provision of fun. Toad can't really hop off them; he can only FALL off those ropes, leading to some untimely deaths. (As well, climbing to the very top will cause him to fall straight downward into the chasm below, resulting in yet another unnecessary demise.) It would be an absolute nightmare to even consider completing this game on a real console. Frankly, I'm impressed at the Toad's abilities; I didn't think the lad had it in him to survive this rough ordeal. With an adventure like this, I'm sure Toad is wishing he was back at the castle...

But wait... where's Mario? Maybe in one of these screenshots?


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