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Just finished it and it's really great. It does the job of pretending the NES had a Totoro game wonderfully. The custom music is especially appreciated, as is Totoro's acorn powerup behaving like Mario's hammer suit. The Totoro sprite is really great.

The only minor issue is that at some points it's hard to tell what is supposed to be a solid platform, I lost several lives because of that. The main offender being those low-hanging flat-shaped clouds. Nothing serious though.

The hack is also maybe a tad too short, especially since it's quite easy, but that's great if you want a short and carefree playthrough.

Great hack all in all !

TL;DR - Recommended, lots of fun, some parts offer a good challenge, 14 levels (not super long, an hour-ish max of gameplay), a few things lack polish, released "as-is" with no plans for significant updates and is ok with the community altering it as they see fit. Try it out!

Full Review: With "Totoro: Mei is Missing" you get to experience SMB-like physics as Totoro as you chuck acorns at various creatures from the film (+ other Miyazaki movies, I'm no expert on what all they were, but the description shared as much) and then smash them under foot from super high jumps. The movement and jumps took a little getting used to, but I'm glad it was different from typical SMB movement and not just a sprite swap. The graphic design is really well done and the music is also good.

Over all it was a lot of fun to play and I was laughing a lot at my platforming misfortunes. There are a few spots where you notice that the hack is left unfinished like an occasional missing platform that appeared the previous time you played a level. Some of the enemies also don't always act the same (like the bird enemy's movement can be manipulated based on which direction your character is facing, but sometimes it doesn't react that way at all and just does it's own thing). That may be intentional but I can't tell for sure. The game doesn't seem to keep track of your lives and gaining a 1up from collecting 100 acorns (coins) doesn't seem to affect whether you game over or not. Also even if you die your acorns don't reset. I never got a game over (even though I likely should have), so it may just not be a feature.

There are 14 levels so the hack won't take you very long to beat. If you take your time with it and replay it a little you could spend about an hour with it, give or take. The hack's readme says that it has been waiting to be released for couple years but the creator decided to release it "as-is" and encourages the community to expand upon it if they so wish. I personally really hope that someone does take up that challenge, because this hack even as-is shows a lot of promise. I found some spots to be quite challenging and died a lot.

If you'd like to see video of my playthrough with some commentary and my review, you can do so here: https://youtu.be/SfzEJ0rApJg

Huge thanks to Cakewarden for the good time. Great work! - PVX

This hack was a surprise to find on RHDN's main page this week. A SMB hack starring Totoro, with all new levels, mechanics, and even *music*? I had to check it out.

The new visuals are charming, taking heavy inspiration from My Neighbor Totoro for the environments and Spirited Away for the enemies and castle level. I even noticed Ponyo show up a couple times. The new Acorn powerup acts just like a Hammer Bros' hammers, making gameplay distinct enough from the original game in a playthrough.

What's most impressive to me is the music, with all new melodies taken straight from the film. That's not an easy feat, from what I understand, so I appreciate the steps taken to make this hack unique in a slew of SMB hacks.

Overall, this is a short, but sweet playthrough. Worth picking up for Ghibli fans.

I liked the levels I played through, everything blends in nicely, the graphics, levels, physics etc.

Play through this hack if you have some time to kill, its pretty cool.