Mari0 is a fan-made video game that combines elements of the video games Super Mario Bros and Portal. The game was developed by Maurice Guégan of Stabyourself.net, who has previously worked on parody games such as Not Tetris. Mari0 was developed with the LÖVE framework, and is cross-platform. The game was released on March 3, 2012 for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux under a Creative Commons license (BY-NC-SA). The source code is also available to download.
The core game of Mari0 plays directly from the 8-bit Super Mario Bros. 2D platform game, where the player controls Mario via the keyboard, running and jumping through levels, avoiding or jumping on enemies to defeat them, while collecting coins to earn points towards their score. The game adds the concept of the “portal gun” from the Portal series; the player can click with the mouse device on two separate surfaces on the level to create a portal between them. This can be used for a number of gameplay options, often using vertical momentum entering one portal to “fling” the Mario character horizontally out of the other portal, but will also affect enemies and other game elements in similar manners.
The core game uses the level designs from the original Super Mario Bros. as well as sets of test chambers inspired by Portal ’s Aperture Science, but a level editor, along with different graphic sets and shaders are provided to create new content. Up to four players can cooperatively play in the game. Online multiplayer is to be released in a future version.
Game Analysis | A complete from scratch recreation of Super Mario Bros. with a focus on perfectly imitating the feel the 1985 classic gave us. Then give Mario a portal gun, add puzzle game mechanics from Portal and there you go. And if that wasn't crazy enough, play 4-player coop, with everyone having their own Portal gun! | |
High FPS | 0 FPS ( GTX 1060 ) | |
Optimization Score | 10 |
Awesome idea
A lot of little things
Makes you appreciate that we live in a world where this game is possible
Great physics
The community made mods with additional levels make the game much more fun to play
The novelty wears off quickly
The classic level design isn't right for the portal action
This game is just as fun as you expect it to be, at least for a few hours. As you play it you have the best nerdgasms that you ever had. The game is split into two parts: the original Super Mario Bros. with portal gun and a few of new levels that are more in style with Portal (where you have to solve puzzles too). Unfortunatelly that’s not much. Also, as inovative the game might seem, it does get boring after a few hours of messing around. One thing you’ll notice quickly is that it’s harder to play with a portal gun than like in the original where you can just run and jump. Mostly because the level design of the original Super Mario Bros. isn’t designed to be played with a portal gun, it has no point to be there. There are hardly any walls to put the portals on. Unfortunatelly all levels are one screen height, so the fun of falling and jumping long distances with portals isn’t in this game.
Conclusion: The game is extremely fun, even if for a few hours or minutes. After playing it for a while you might realise that the idea of mashing these games together wasn’t THAT good, but you’ll be glad it exists anyway.