@BonerLich Thanks a lot for sharing this, I've always been a big fan of Super Mario Star Road and I've appreciated your work for years. If I may ask, would you be okay with other people continuing Star World development or perhaps porting your levels to other games?
Super Mario Galaxy 63
With the timing of the Galaxy 1 & 2 dual pack on Switch 2 I felt inclined to accelerate this game to the top of my backlog and it did not disappoint at all. Super Mario Galaxy 63 is a new Galaxy 2 romhack recreating the famous fangame from Newgrounds Super Mario 63 in 3D and it does an incredible job combining the elements of the three original 3D Mario games while having a faithful recreation of the flash game many who know it or remember it will feel right at home here. Being in Peach's Castle brings back the vibes of Mario 64 as the hub world, the spirit of Mario Sunshine as you collect all the various Shine Sprites from each area, even some different colored ones; to also the gameplay itself being that of Galaxy 2, which is one of the goats in all of 3D platformers along with Galaxy 1. Alex SMG and all who were involved creating this romhack put their best effort to pay homage to the creator of Super Mario 63, Runouw and they definitely exceeded those expectations with many amazing levels and great level design, tons of callbacks to many of the best things in 3D Mario and tons of great NPC dialogue from every character you gotta take your time to listen. The music remixes that flood the soundtrack are fire and do a good job in replicating the vibe you'd feel while making it sound new. Even after you hit 32 Shine Sprites collected and face Bowser one last time before you hit the credits, there is still tons of more shines to collect, plenty more galaxies to explore & a whole extra expansion you can experience called Super Mario Galaxy Insanity, with some wacky levels you can try and one that you need alot more shine sprites to play for yourself. Overall, a great romhack that is a ton of fun especially if you fondly love all 3D Mario platformers, especially the gameplay of Galaxy 1 & 2, as well as a fondness for the flashgame Super Mario 63.
9 out of 10
I've added all of the models and levels I've wanted to add in SMG63, The current dev build has 60 total Shines and 120 Star Coins. Me and the other guys are now in the playtesting/fixing bugs/adding cameras part of development. I think the expected release is at the end of 2025