Newer Super Mario Bros. DS

[Ray Trace]

Anyone of you remember the hack, Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii? If not, find the opportunity to go play it, that hack is really good.

Well, a sequel of that has been released recently, Newer Super Mario Bros. DS

It's a mod similar in style to Newer Super Mario Bros., except with a few new things and it's in New Super Mario Bros. DS style format.

Here are the features (courtesy of Skawo's OP in that forum)

All new levels, made in style of NSMBW (i.e longer and more expansive than those of NSMBDS),
New or downported from Newer tilesets,
An entirely new soundtrack, featuring various songs, including those from Newer Wii,
New world themes, focusing most on the mini worlds from Newer Wii,
Remodelled and retextured World Maps,
Texture and model hacks on enemies and objects,
New mechanics, enemies, menus, etc...

Screenshots

Gameplay

Official Site + Download
Newer Super Mario Bros. DS

this hack was the main reason none of you have word from newer u since i posted it here some time ago btw

 

[Mcmadness]

I like the new boss fights.

 

[The Superstar Saga]

Maybe it's just the mod, but the graphics seem so dated. I remember when the game first came out the graphics looked incredible. Guess I'm old.

 

[Yoshi the SSM]

The trailer shows it being played on a DS. Which version do I install to play it on my 2DS?

 

[Ray Trace]

Maybe it's just the mod, but the graphics seem so dated. I remember when the game first came out the graphics looked incredible. Guess I'm old.

It's most likely the game's graphics being dated. A typical texture from a DS game is really tiny, probably like 64x64 size for one of the bigger textures. The poly count is very low too, maybe less than 100 triangles.

The trailer shows it being played on a DS. Which version do I install to play it on my 2DS?

Pretty sure in order to play this on a 2DS, you have to install and run homebrew on it, and an app that supports modding DS games. I'm not sure if one exists for that.

 

[Toka Hebizuka]

I know that to run this on an original DS, all you need is a custom DS card with some sort of menu hack, such as moonshell (that's how I've been playing it).

EDIT: There's also a developer playthough of the ROM hack, explaining how parts of the game work (and showing of all secrets).

 

[TinTinfinite]

Good job on finishing the ROM hack. The minecart mechanic is well done, it's like from DKC.

Anyway, how's the progress on Newer U?

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

Anyway, how's the progress on Newer U?

We're having some coordination difficulties and it's hard following a direction here. People aren't doing much. But again, Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii faced similar difficulties and was closed to getting canned a few times even. Hope it doesn't happen with that project.

 

[Ray Trace]

Good job on finishing the ROM hack.

I wasn't part of this project, only Newer U I'm officially part of. But Newer DS is sorta related in a way so I felt like posting this here.

Anyway, how's the progress on Newer U?

We're having some coordination difficulties and it's hard following a direction here. People aren't doing much. But again, Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii faced similar difficulties and was closed to getting canned a few times even. Hope it doesn't happen with that project.

And pretty much this.

 

[TinTinfinite]

Anyway, how's the progress on Newer U?

We're having some coordination difficulties and it's hard following a direction here. People aren't doing much. But again, Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii faced similar difficulties and was closed to getting canned a few times even. Hope it doesn't happen with that project.

And pretty much this.

Well, good luck.

Hopes on Newer U:
- The other playable characters from Super Mario Run (but that would be hard to convert its coding).
- Like the Newer Team put Shy Guys in Newer Wii, maybe the enemies that only appear in NSMB2 and SMR.
- Boomerang Mario

 

[Dr. Peach]

I hope for Newer U, that Peach does become playable. I would like to see Peach's small form and Fire Form implemented along with propeller, and ice powerups as well.
If Super Mario Run was able to pull it off even on weaker hardware, then so can the Wii U.

So for Newer DS, I'm surprised that it has happened for a relatively old game. Newer Super Mario Bros. 2 has yet to happen though.

 

[Ray Trace]

This really has nothing to do with hardware; it's entirely possible to make Peach playable in even New Super Mario Bros. Wii and any games earlier than that. The problem is, she doesn't fit over any of the character's bones, with the best fit being over Luigi, a character who is still a bit too stubby and fat for her. In this case, if you want a playable Peach to look good, you pretty much have to remake animations from scratch using a custom modified boneset, and that is a gigantic task to do. The thing about my attempt at Baby Mario and Baby Luigi's playability in New Super Mario Bros. Wii was that they very nicely fit over Toad's bones, so there wasn't much distortion or new animations needing to be created for them.

Newer DS was actually a fairly old project, ideas for it has been around for quite some time. I'd also imagine that how New Super Mario Bros. DS is structured, since it was an older game, is better understood than 2, which I still think has reverse engineering that needs to be done and I believe its level editor, CoinKiller, is still in development. I also did see suggestions for Newer Super Mario Bros. 2 as well....I don't know too much about New Super Mario Bros. 2 hacking but I think it's still in its relatively early stages.

 

[Dr. Peach]

This really has nothing to do with hardware; it's entirely possible to make Peach playable in even New Super Mario Bros. Wii and any games earlier than that. The problem is, she doesn't fit over any of the character's bones, with the best fit being over Luigi, a character who is still a bit too stubby and fat for her. In this case, if you want a playable Peach to look good, you pretty much have to remake animations from scratch using a custom modified boneset, and that is a gigantic task to do. The thing about my attempt at Baby Mario and Baby Luigi's playability in New Super Mario Bros. Wii was that they very nicely fit over Toad's bones, so there wasn't much distortion or new animations needing to be created for them.

I see, so what Miyamoto said about it being complex and hard to animate is complete BS. I did ask on the PSP board on GameFAQs as part of my big analysis (by looking at other games that had female characters with skirts in a platformer or fighting game environment but failed to find a good answer) and two people said that it was "pure laziness" and it was a "cop out excuse". Super Smash Bros. Melee on the GameCube was able to handle Peach as a playable character and if the Wii is a beefed up GameCube and can play GCN games and if Brawl is able to do it then Peach is easily able to be playable. New Super Mario Bros U is much easier to do. The small form can easily be taken from the Fall 2017 and later versions of Super Mario Run while the Fire Form can be made from scratch (but making it similar to Super Mario 3D World complete with the same color palette and the ponytail) and every other form can be made from scratch including the mini forms. The voices can be taken from Super Mario 3D World as well.

 

[Ray Trace]

I always thought it was BS and is just damage control. Though rigging and animating dresses is a gigantic pain in the ass (I never got a dress rig entirely satisfactory ever), it didn't stop smaller scale developers in other games such as Mario Party to prevent her from being playable in games that required her to run a lot. Besides, animation of the dress can always be handled by jiggle bones too, so developers don't have to manually keyframe every time it sways. Poly count in New Super Mario Bros. Wii isn't that spectacular anyway, rigs are mostly 1's and 0's in term of weight rather than mixed.

I don't think it's entirely pure laziness though. They probably had other things to prioritize than making characters. It's one of the reasons Newer Wii doesn't use new character models, level layout is more important to them than new characters. I'm not going to excuse Blue and Yellow Toad being justifiable reasons for "characters" though, I just know the reasons behind why they're used.

It's not extremely difficult creating new forms either. I've managed it quite easily in a few model edits.

So yeah, many things that are thought to be impossible (like giving Baby Mario and Baby Luigi unique heads despite actually sharing the same model) is possible if you put your mind into it.

 

[Dr. Peach]

I always thought it was BS and is just damage control. Though rigging and animating dresses is a gigantic pain in the ass (I never got a dress rig entirely satisfactory ever), it didn't stop smaller scale developers in other games such as Mario Party to prevent her from being playable in games that required her to run a lot. Besides, animation of the dress can always be handled by jiggle bones too, so developers don't have to manually keyframe every time it sways. Poly count in New Super Mario Bros. Wii isn't that spectacular anyway, rigs are mostly 1's and 0's in term of weight rather than mixed.

I don't think it's entirely pure laziness though. They probably had other things to prioritize than making characters. It's one of the reasons Newer Wii doesn't use new character models, level layout is more important to them than new characters. I'm not going to excuse Blue and Yellow Toad being justifiable reasons for "characters" though, I just know the reasons behind why they're used.

It's not extremely difficult creating new forms either. I've managed it quite easily in a few model edits.

So yeah, many things that are thought to be impossible (like giving Baby Mario and Baby Luigi unique heads despite actually sharing the same model) is possible if you put your mind into it.

I see. I would most definitely look forward to seeing modified bonesets for Peach in New Super Mario Bros. U and I'd like to see Peach's small form model from Super Mario Run post Fall 2017 versions ported in New Super Mario Bros. U. It would be awesome. Creating models for Peach's fire form and ice form wouldn't be difficult either. Adding Peach's sound effects from Super Mario Run would be easy to do. Making her float is simple as well. You seem to know a lot about modelling. You're experienced with that sort of thing. I think it's a good idea to study how Super Mario Run handles Peach and try to implement that in NSMBU.

 

[Ray Trace]

Sometimes, games allow you to port animations from different games; I've seen my share of Mario Party mods that have model imported characters and their animations ported from a different Mario Party. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, hell, even lets you port animations from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. So actually, I don't think it's too impossible or difficult to port Peach's animations from Super Mario Run to New Super Mario Bros. U. We do need to rip animations from the game and convert it to a format that NSMBU uses, however.

Sound modding is fairly simple...most of the time. Sometimes you can't make sound effects longer than the original, sometimes you can. Sometimes you have to do weird convoluted crud to get your sounds working, like hex editing the nsmbw .brsar to have Baby Mario and Baby Luigi sound like themselves. And I don't have to limit myself to just Super Mario Run for Peach's sound effects. Peach has a ton of games to work with and a large library. If I could sound mod, I'll probably manage, even without Super Mario Run's voice clips.

EDIT!

Making her float is simple as well.

Actually, making Peach float for a unique ability is anything but simple. This requires ASM hacking to implement that in, and that's extremely difficult to accomplish.

 

[YoshiFlutterJump]

So is anyone on these forums a part of the Newer Team?

I’d get the Newer hacks, but I’ve found that there are risks to downloading homebrew on Wii, and I’m not sure how to reverse hacks.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

No. Only me and Baby Luigi. The instructions are easy to follow. I think it's pretty idiot-proof. There is a tiny chance of bricking your Wii, in theory, but I've yet to see anyone report an actual bricking just from following Homebrew instructions. And mods are nondestructive; this means none of the file alterations actually affect your ROMs; the Wii is simply tricked into reading custom files you store in the SD card.

I also think the same applies for DS modding.

 

[YoshiFlutterJump]

So my regular save data isn’t affected at all?

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

Actually, not sure about that, given that Newer is like an ENTIRELY new game, but with Homebrew, there SHOULD be a way to backup saves so nothing is lost.

 

[Superstarxalien169]

No. Only me and Baby Luigi. The instructions are easy to follow. I think it's pretty idiot-proof. There is a tiny chance of bricking your Wii, in theory, but I've yet to see anyone report an actual bricking just from following Homebrew instructions. And mods are nondestructive; this means none of the file alterations actually affect your ROMs; the Wii is simply tricked into reading custom files you store in the SD card.

I also think the same applies for DS modding.

It doesn't. For DS systems, you need a cart that lets you play commercial games. For 3DS, you need to softmod it (like the Wii).

You can back up your save/game easily after that.

 

[Dr. Peach]

Sometimes, games allow you to port animations from different games; I've seen my share of Mario Party mods that have model imported characters and their animations ported from a different Mario Party. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, hell, even lets you port animations from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. So actually, I don't think it's too impossible or difficult to port Peach's animations from Super Mario Run to New Super Mario Bros. U. We do need to rip animations from the game and convert it to a format that NSMBU uses, however.

Sound modding is fairly simple...most of the time. Sometimes you can't make sound effects longer than the original, sometimes you can. Sometimes you have to do weird convoluted crud to get your sounds working, like hex editing the nsmbw .brsar to have Baby Mario and Baby Luigi sound like themselves. And I don't have to limit myself to just Super Mario Run for Peach's sound effects. Peach has a ton of games to work with and a large library. If I could sound mod, I'll probably manage, even without Super Mario Run's voice clips.

I see. Super Mario Run does use the Unity engine while NSMBU uses its custom Nintendo in house engine. The sounds can also be taken from SM3DW for Peach. The models can be converted for the small form of Peach.

Actually, making Peach float for a unique ability is anything but simple. This requires ASM hacking to implement that in, and that's extremely difficult to accomplish.

I see what you mean. It's not easy as it may seem. But hey if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.

 

[Ray Trace]

I see what you mean. It's not easy as it may seem. But hey if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.

You don't understand how difficult ASM hacking is.

While making one character model have the illusion of two characters via taking advantage of alphas is like fitting a wooden block in a circular hole (and that also comes with limitations, you can't use my Baby Mario Bros. mod in World 8 of Newer Wii because it crashes the game due to memory overload), ASM hacking to give specifically Peach the ability to float is like fitting a steel block into a circular hole. It's possible to reshape it so it fits in there, but the effort it takes is almost not worth it.

 

[Mcmadness]

This is why modding will never quite match up to the capabilities of making your own game from scratch.

At least in a technical sense.

 

[Ray Trace]

The key advantage to modding is that game developers did most of the ground-work, the engine, and the structure in the game for you. Modding is like, uh, modding your car, you can customize it as far as the limitations allow it, and because most of the game is laid out and debugged for you already, all you pretty much need is tools to import someone like Baby Luigi in or edit tile sets and you can drastically repaint the game to make it look better or support more features.

Think of it as unofficial DLC.