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Mario + Toad

Original game : Nuts & Milk

Platform : NES

Author : Evil_Spock

Release date : 10 September 2006

Category : Improvement

Patch version : 1.0

Modifications : G

Downloads : 1332

ROM Information

File: Nuts & Milk (J) [o1].nes
CRC32: 0E569EED
MD5: D4F12AE0 C1ABA8E9 14D69FAB BED7C760
SHA1: 38AD30D9 5AAA4376 B282F98E FD89DF92 846BB940

Hack description

This is a hack of a Japanese NES (famicom) game called "Nuts & Milk" that I completed overnight in the summer of 2000. The gameplay was simple but fun, yet the graphics were absolutely horrendous. You controlled these little animals that looked like a cross between a pig and a mailbox. Thus, I decided to hack in some graphics from SMB3. I think it makes the game much more bearable, and I hope you think so too.

Game Story (hastily concocted):
Toadworld has been infiltrated by the evil Wario clones. You, Mario, must save your friend Toad from the Warios. Collect all the mushrooms and leaves, then hurry and save Toad before the Warios stop you!

How to Play:
All the items in this game should be familiar to anyone who's played Super Mario Brothers 3. The Mushrooms and Leaves are GOOD. You must get them all before you can save Toad. The Warios and Boos are BAD! Avoid them or you'll lose a life. Don't fall in the lava, that stuff is hot. As in SMB3, the notes will bounce you into the air, the vines are for climbing, the clouds and blocks are for walking on, etc. In the Bonus Stage, you must again collect all the items and then proceed to save Toad.

What's Been Hacked:
Sprites/Tiles...
Virtually all sprites and tiles have been replaced with SMB3 graphics. A few notable exceptions: The vines are actually from Donkey Kong Jr. I really wanted all the game elements to be as close to SMB3 as possible but because of the way the tiles were set up in the original game, I was forced to improvise. I believe I drew the mushroom house on my own, using some smaller tiles from SMB3 as a reference.
Title Screen...
Basically copied from SMB3, with a bit of rearranging on my part to create the "+ Toad" part.
Palette...
The palette isn't perfect, I know this. I did my best to match the colors up appropriately but I was forced to compromise at times (most notably, with the "splashing" lava). There were also some palette changes that occur at the Bonus Stages that I could not find in the ROM. It is most noticeable when you successfully complete a bonus stage the background becomes black and the arrangement of stars looks decidedly ugly. Because this was a "just for fun" project, I had no interest in devoting the time to fix these little palette goofs.

Tools Used:
Tile Layer, for the graphics changes.
Hexposure, for the palette hacking.

Notes on Future Releases:
There will be none, at least not by me. However, if you find this game endearing enough to want to expand on this hack, or at least clean up some of the flaws in the palette... please feel free. If you do, give yourself a credit on the title screen and repost it for the world to enjoy.

Screenshots

Contributions

ContributorType of contributionDescription
Evil_SpockHacking

Reviews

Not all Mario-fications are good ideasLottoD2023-11-25Version 1.0

Nuts & Milk was one of my best childhood games, an ***early*** Hudson Soft production. To your knowledge, on smaller systems it played a bit like Mr.Do, while on more powerful hardwares it play like a platformer, also to tap on Donkey Kong craze at the time.

Why the negative impression? Some point here.

  • [A]: Nuts are the evil ones, Milk is the character you control (Yogurt the one you save). The title miss this, it should be "Mario Palette Swap & Mario". Also, why Toad? There's no lore about any interest from Mario toward Toad. A Princess to save and koopas as enemies fitted more.
  • [B]: the roundness of characters was on purpose, a Taito style every game was all about at the time, and coming directly from the top down maze version. Also, the chubby the characters the easier to check collisions. There was no reason to deprecate it.
  • [C]: collect leaves and mushrooms instead of the franchise collectables? COINS?! Really? Those are powerups, and collect them without any effect is a bit confusing if not totally wrong. You own collectables in the franchise, use it!
  • [D]: on top of the above nonsense, the overall choice of sprites and palette create a chaotical, hard on the eye action. While primitive, the original game help you set apart platforms, enemies, collectables, by a precise color scheme this mod ignore. Sometime what look "primitive" was done on purpose.

As the gameplay is left untouched, to me this is a rare case of degrading upgrade. I'd still like to see a modernized graphical mod for N&M, but it should be rational, and this one isn't at all.