Game Review 3: Super Mario World: The Lost Adventure Episode 2

The format for these review will differ from RPG reviews. There are things more important to platformers. I will still try to keep the 35 point scale so will have everything divided into 7 categories.
Also since this is an SMW hack unless the game play differs greatly the category will be combined with level design.

Categories:
Level Design
Bosses
Music
Challenge
Presentation
Story
Re-Playability

Level Design: Well there are highs and there are lows. Some aspects added to teh hack are custom power-ups that are level specific such as the Boomerang suit. Sadly other hacks have done custom power-ups better. Not to mention you usually are given the power-ups in situations you most likely won't keep them. One thing I find a lot in this hack are things that are good on paper but has poor execution.  The Donkey Kong Country Returns Barrel Rocket levels nice in practice, but the execution here was poor. Pretty much they felt like a flappy bird level. Luckily there was only one or two levels with this gimmick. Another gimmick is several stages you can't pause your game in. Most likely so you can't start/select out a Yoshi, but still could have been circumvented by having no Yoshi blocks at a start of a level you didn't want the Dino. Also most levels are pretty flat and outside of the backgrounds being different there's not much variety. early on. Really not too many puzzle based elements in the game. That and some levels should have used multiple check points as they go on and on and on. The game play is pretty much overall the same as SMW although it seemed the spin jump had less height early on. I may have to go back and double check to be sure. 
Most of the levels though are pretty nice and have the right amount execution.
 Rating: 4.25/5

Bosses: Well the first boss is Dark Bowser in Hell which is a great way to start the game out. Bosses are taken from all over the Mario World with Wart making an appearance. Undine even appears from Tales of Phantasia however that particular battle is a luck based battle where you have to pray to the RNG gods that she'll hit her wave to give you a block. Then there's the Giant Beetle which again relies heavily on RNG of having blocks to hit him with. Clawgrip pretty much plays like Mario 2. Bowser Jr is pretty much the same as the New Super Mario Bros fights. The variety in bosses overall gives you a taste of all of the Mario Verse.

Bosses: 4.5/5 Some of the RNG based bosses is all I will say.

Music: We get Sonic Music, Mega Man Music, Final Fantasy music. The music seems to always fit the stages. They create harmony with the gameplay. The hacker did a great job selecting music. I honestly don't recognize some the music but it all is so good.
Rating: 5/5

Challenge: This is a pretty funny game you sometimes reach a difficulty spike where you die in a level over and over, but then you go about 10 levels with no problem. Overall the game does not follow a linear path for difficulty. Although some of the difficulty spikes come from poor execution. I would say this hack for the most part is playable with no save states, although there are points they can be your friends such as the long levels that lack check points.  But it really is pretty much doable.
Rating 3.5/5

Presentation: The game makes great use of multiple palettes. It also uses some custom enemies such as bullet brothers and Ice Bros. Snow levels have Koopa Troopas throw snowballs instead of shells. Some nice aesthetics such as the shadow pallets borrowed from DKC: Returns.Backgrounds borrowed from various gaming series. It all fits nicely and looks nicely. There are occassional graphics glitches but they are very minor.
4.75/5

Story: Well the game continues from The Lost Adventure where at the end Mario ends up in Hell. Mario makes his way back to the real world to find that Bowser JR is starting to wreak havoc across the Mushroom Kingdom. He sets out to save the day.
4/5 Hey it's pretty ambitious trying to have a story span 3 hacks (I don't believe episode 3 has been released yet). So I think I'm feeling generous
Rating 4.5/5

Re-Playability: Typically Super Mario Hacks you will finish and not play again. There are a few exceptions such as Brutal Mario and Super Demo World and Even The Second Reality Project that bring you back for more. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be playing through Lost Adventure 2 again any time soon. The game is just too punishing at times and a lot of it is artificial difficulty that is from bad execution.The good parts of the hack I'd love to play over and over, the bad parts I wish they'd include the cloud item from Mario 3 as an option.
Rating 3.5/5

Overall: 30/35 for those on the percentile kick 85.71%
I would recommend this hack for a play through. It has some great levels and for the most part is fun. For sanity at times you may want to use save states to save some repetition it's entirely possible without them. But you just may want to save your sanity.

Will update review if any opinions change after finishing the last 4 levels. Also just an Easter egg there is at least one yellow level with 2 exits. If I find more yellow levels have more than one exit I may adjust the level design score.