Bowser's Exile(M&L5): Return of the Dark Star

---News---
3-3-2015

Condensed World 1 so it has less levels; working on World 1-7: Treacherous Valley soon. Also still working on my SMBX (pre 1.3.0.1) SMW Pipes Mega Pack.

2-25-2015

Added back my best level (8/10 on Knux/NSMBX) to download after along time of not being available. If I get a good rating for it here, I'll post the rating for here. You can find it in the downloads section of my second post.

2-18-2015

Started back up on the Project. Now that I'm armed with new software and new controller, PGE, and SMBX 1.3.0.1, I'm more than ready to continue this massive behemoth of a  project.

As for the images:

Image Montage here:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Images could break or get lost due to how I organize my Photobucket. I'll try not to let that happen. Sorry in advance.

---About this thread---
This is my SMBx episode known as Bowser's Exile (and my fan game based on the Mario and Luigi series of RPGs), and one of three largest projects undertaken in this community aside from Mechadragon777's project and any community episodes that may exist. It is mostly a solo endeavor, but I won't refuse help if offered.

--Disclaimer--
If you wish to play my episode or my demos you must have  1.3.0.1 (Modded), PGE, and Luna.dll, etc. It may start using features of Luna and PGE.


---Demos and Downloads---
Downloadable In Game level 1: World 6-2: Slushy Cave.


New Download: https://www.sendspace.com/file/e5t53a
Note: This is the new version. It will be also posted in levels for judging, so you may find it there soon.




---Story---

Spoiler:

---The Game---

The game will be World map based, encompassing 13 themed worlds each with its own environment and increasing difficulty. Mario, Luigi, Toad and Bowser will be playable from the start and there will be certain paths and levels that require the skills of each. Yoshi will be usable in certain levels. Peach will be not playable at start and must be found/unlocked by various means. Link will have his own levels and story designed for him. There are many paths in each world, but only one path is needed to beat the game the others are there if you wish to obtain every star in the game and unlock all routes for 100%. The paths other than the main path contain much harder levels and harder to obtain stars than normally encountered on the Main story path. The side levels also are shortcuts that skip over a few levels and perhaps, whole worlds!

---Features---
Over 100 levels
13 worlds
200 stars that are called ztars. 151 ztars are needed to complete the game. 200 to get the good ending.

About the Difficulty:

Levels increase in difficulty using a letter code system. This system is different from a traditional level naming system but both are somewhat related.
Levels range from easiest to brutal and as world number goes up, difficulty goes up as well.

Spoiler:

Each world contains one or more levels that are hard or greater difficulty, not including the one challenging rated level.

Level Codes:

Level Numbers are made from the world number followed by a letter,word, or number or combination of the three.

Examples:

Spoiler:

---Playable Characters---

Mario

The hero of the story and the fan favorite. He will stop at nothing to save the princess when kidnapped by Bowser or save his world from various new villains that show up over his many adventures.

How to Unlock: Available at start, but can't be used until you Complete world 0 as Bowser.

Spoiler:

Restrictions: Few. The hero of the story can be used in all levels except Link and Toad levels.

Forms and power up locations:

Normal Mario:

Super Mario: All Worlds

Fire Mario: All worlds but 8

Ice Mario: Worlds 3 and 6

Volt Mario: World 8

Super Ball Mario: World 9

Racoon Mario: All Worlds

Toonoki Mario: Rare Item

Hammer Mario: Worlds 3 and 4 and Rare Item

Luigi

Mario's younger brother and the one that follows in Mario's spotlight. He is usually the player 2 or "that green guy", yet when he goes on adventures with Mario, he can hold his own.

How to Unlock: Complete world 0 as Bowser.

Restrictions and power ups: Same as Mario.

Bowser

Mario's major adversary and the main big bad of almost all Mario series games. He sometimes is an anti-hero or a troublemaker in side games or just someone that wants to have just as much fun. This king of the koopas hates being one upped as the main villain, so if a new villain takes his place he'll be sure to let him/her/it know personally.

How to unlock: You start as him whether you like it or not in world 0. Replaces Link.

Restrictions: Same as Mario and Luigi. Using him at the start in Link levels makes him Link.

Forms and power ups:

Normal Bowser (1-3 hearts): He can slash at foes with his Koopa Claw attack from SSBM and also execute his famous Bowser Smash after jumping from any height.


Fire Bowser (2 +hearts): He can spit fireballs from his mouth which travel in a straight line.


Brown Bowser (2+ Hearts): By getting a super Leaf, he can change into a bullet bill for temporary Invincibilty (one hit and change back) and fly a short distance.

Super Brown Bowser (2+ hearts): When Getting a Toonoki Suit, he gets the same abilities as above, but can also become a Bowser Statue for a few seconds.

Cold Bowser (2+ Hearts): Catch a cold by grabbing an ice flower and shoot ice blasts from his mouth in a straight line freezing any target instantly.

Shadow Bowser (2+ hearts): Bowser, after his DNA being messed with by Dark Bowser in Bowser's Inside Story, can copy his dark doppelganger by obtaining a weakened Ztar Star. He can fire Purple Dark Flames from his mouth.

Link

The hero of Hyrule and a guest of the mushroom kingdom/world. He mysteriously disappeared when Dark Bowser took control. What could of possibly happened to him.

How to Unlock: Unusable except for special Link-only story levels.

Power ups: Plays the same as Bowser.

Toad

Toad although he was with the rest of the Mario gang when Dark Bowser attacked, he has decided to go on his own adventure. Try hitting a Toad block to summon him for use in levels where he is needed or play as him before starting a level.

How to unlock: Unlocked at start. Find special Toad Character blocks in levels to change into toad as well.

Restrictions: Can be used in all levels but link levels. Has his own levels where he is required to progress.

Peach

The princess and de facto ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom. She was with Mario when the attack began on Mario's Island and the neighboring regions including her own castle. Currently on the run from Dark Bowser, she can't be used, but finding a certain house and with the right number of ztars, you can change into her to use in old levels until you change character or die. She is required for 100%.

How To unlock: Unknown. Play the game to a certain world to find out how.

Restrictions: Can only be used via special Peach character blocks. Her unique jumping ability allows temporary flight which makes her stronger than all the other playable characters. A reward for those that complete the 80% point of the game's main story and is required for some hard to find stars.

---Items---

Coins: The currency of the mushroom world. It has many denominations and comes in may colors. They have a link to power stars (and ztars on some occasions) in some unknown way as well. Collect 100 for a extra 1-up. Bowser can steal coins from defeated foes in amounts of 1, 5, and 20.

1-coin Yellow coin (everyone)
Get 100 of these for an extra life.

1-coin Special (default color: Red) (everyone)

Collect a certain required number of these to get a ztar. Can also show up in colors other than red. Not to be confused with Bowser's lighter red coins that are worth 20.

1-coin Tiny stars (yellow/blue) (everyone)

They come in various colors. Collect all of these in a level to get a ztar.

1-coin Star Coins (everyone)

Collect 5 of these for a 1-up. Alternates between 1-up and 2-up for 6th and greater collected in a level. Get at least 5 to unlock a secret in a level.

Bowser can get these coin types from foes, including the normal yellow variety:

5-coins Blue (bowser/events/secrets)

Note: These also exist normally in SMW form.

20-coins Red-Orange (bowser/events/secrets)
These are unique to bower and link (see below).

Rupees
The currency of Hyrule and other regions of Link And Zelda's world. Like Bowser, he can get them from his foes. They come in green, blue, and red and are worth 1, 5, and 20 respectively. 100 is an extra Link.

Mushrooms:

Mushroom
The basic powerup. Mario and Luigi can take one more hit (and grow in size) when grabbing one and Toad, Peach, Bowser (and Link) gain an extra heart (and grow in size for Peach and Toad) when getting one.

Heart
Link needs these to survive. It has the same effect as a mushroom.

Bowser Shroom
A mushroom for Bowser's Consumption. It has the same effect as a normal mushroom on anyone. It is light green and looks like him with horns on it. How anyone, including Bowser, can eat it... no one knows.


SMB2 Copy Mushroom
A mushroom that has the same effect of a mushroom and also copies the current power-up you have into your reserve box (anything better than a mushroom is replaced with the box's current item.). It is very rare or used in smb2 styled levels only.

Warp Shroom (2-player battle mode only)
Allows you to swap places with your opponent. For battle mode levels only. Might appear in a few two player levels for an alternate puzzle solution if I can get it to work.

Poison Shroom
Collecting this will hurt you and possibly kill you in your weakest form/1-heart. Avoid it if it appears.

Power Flowers:
Aside from the original fire flower, new ones show up in Bowser's Exile. Be sure to try them all.

Fire Flower
Gain fire powers and the ability to shoot fireballs that kill enemies in one shot. Naturally, bosses take many more hits from these than in any other Mario game.

Ice Flower
Gain ice powers and throw balls of ice that turn anything into an ice cube. The frozen foe can now be picked up and thrown. Has no effect on bosses.

Volt Flower
With this you gain electrical powers to shock your foes into submission. Hey! How come I'm using this in water?
Note: is as strong as a Fire Flower. Electrical foes are immune to it. Machine foes hate it.

Super Flower
The Flower from SML returns! Allows you to throw deadly balls of death that bounce around the screen.
Note: I don't know if I can replicate the bouncing off walls effect in SMBX. Might get canceled from the game if it doesn't work. If anyone knows, please leave a post in the project thread or PM me.

Other Power-ups

Super (Racoon) Leaf

Grants a character the ability of short term flight (Mario, Luigi, Toad, Peach?) or double-jumping (toad) or the ability to transform into a bullet bill or fairy (Bowser or Link) and fly for a limited time straight up with added single hit invincibility.

Toonoki Suit/Gold Necklace
Grants a character the ability of short term flight (Mario, Luigi, Toad, Peach?) or double-jumping (toad) or the ability to transform into a bullet bill or fairy (Bowser or Link) and fly for a limited time straight up and also, all characters can become an invincible statue for a few seconds and reveal special invisible statue blocks.

Hammer Suit/Boomerang Suit/Bomb Suit/Shadow Charm/Shadow Star
Allows Mario and Luigi to don a powerful fireproof armor of Koopa design (Buzzy Beetle corpses anyone?) and grant the ability of hammer bros' hammer throwing. Toad gets to throw a boomerang that comes back to him. Peach can pick up and throw her signature heart bombs. Link becomes Shadow Link and can fire his signature sword beams. Finally Bowser can become his Dark doppelganger and fire dark flames from his mouth.

Silver Mushroom/Fairy Charm
Allows any player/Link to turn into a bullet bill/fairy and fly around until hit or touches a horizontal surface or wall. When hit in this form, player does not die or take any damage and just falls to earth.

---Dev Teams---
This is mostly a solo project, but I am now going to make this a community effort. I would love to have a team design levels for the game along with co-designing a few levels. I will need help acquiring GFX for all worlds and levels.

Leaders:
1. Exiled Bowser
2.

General staff (dialogs, events, world map, etc.)
1.
2.
3.

Level Designers:

Me Plus 5:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

I'll be posting the level names and such details in irc chat #SMBX or here.

Levels: World 1-Castle: Dark Mario Castle and pretty much the whole game/
New [Toonoki] Statue, Fire and Bunny Ear playable forms needed in Bowser's Exile.

Priority: 3/10 (not drastic)
GFX Needed: I need Mario and Crew except Bowser, to have a bunny ear form from SML2 replacing Toonoki Suit forms for a remix level of Wario's Castle in SML2. I finished the level ages ago, but I was never able to create special bunny ear forms for everyone. Then I need new statue forms for all character except Bowser (he has his already) for bunny forms and normal Toonoki forms. After that, I need the SML2 feather in the hat for Fire Mario and everyone else fire forms.


Level: Star-Cst. Celestial Castle
Priority: 7/10 (medium-high)
GFX needed:
Semitransparent SMB3 enemies in a Crystal Color scheme.
A crystalline custom castle tile set.

---GFX Teams---
Slots available: 5

Me and 5 others:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

---Testers---
I will welcome anyone that can download the Latest demo to test it out for bugs or other issues.
I can also give out levels than need looking at. I have no way to coherently post a small segment of the game. Its either a level or a large demo.

---Worlds---

Overall Progress:
Worlds: 6/14 42.85%
Levels: ?/XX
Stars: ?/200 (may change because of World 1's bulk)

Bowser's Journey (through his Infernal Land) (World 0) 100% complete.
Description: Bowser, following his exile by Dark Bowser, now must travel across his realm to reach Mario Land and seek out the Mario Bros. Will he make it to Mario Land in time before his brainwashed troops overrun both Bowser's Infernal Land and Mario Land and kill off Mario and Luigi?
Note: this is also part of World 10. You start on the narrow strip of land behind the castle.
Map: 100%
Levels: 3/3  100%
Ztars: 0/0 100%
Image:

Spoiler:

Mario Land (World 1)
Description: Now a peaceful annex of the Mushroom kingdom and doesn't have its amusement park anymore, Bowser claimed the now defunct Bowser's Infernal Land theme park (see world 10 below) as his own extra base of operations and returned it back to its natural fiery environment.
Map: 100%
Levels: 25/41 62.5%
Ztars: 25/xx
Image:

Spoiler:

Chocolate Islands (World 2)
Description: A set of islands with a chocolaty hue. The islands may actually be made of cookies and chocolate!
Map: 100%
Levels: ?/xx
Ztars: ?/xx
Image:

Spoiler:

Starfire Dome (World 3)
Description: This volcanic dome is a base of operations for many of Bowser's brainwashed Troops. The inside is full of lava seas and lakes.
Map: 100%
Levels: 1/xx
Ztars: 2/xx
Image:

Spoiler:

Starfire Lava Fields (World 4)
Description: This land is full of volcanic activity and full of windswept fields of lush grasses growing in the nutrient rich volcanic soil. Lots of various Plantlife and Goombas live here.
Map: 0%
Levels: ?/xx
Ztars: ?/xx
Image:


Forest of Shadow (World 5)
This shadowy forest full of swamps and trees that block out the sun is very peaceful in the day but rife with boos and other undead creatures at night. A fuzzy colony lives in the southernmost edge of the forest. It is also home to a certain team of Ninja Koopas.
Map: 0%
Levels: 5/xx
Ztars: ?/xx
Image:

Freezie Iceland (World 6)
Description: This Frozen Island is home to the hardiest of Koopas and other Mario creatures. It is a beautiful but cold landscape. Don't fall asleep!
Map: 0%
Levels: ?/xx
Ztars: ?/xx
Image:

Dry Desolate Desert (World 7)
Description: This desert continent is shaped like a Crescent moon and is home to things that not even Yoshi finds palatable. Mario and crew will have to find other ways to defeat these foes.
Map: 0%
Levels: ?/xx
Ztars: ?/xx
Image:

Cloudy Heights (World
Description: The home of the Lakitu tribe of Koopas-- they are not happy you are in their realm nor is Dark Bowser happy to be seeing you come this far. You will have to brave these wind swept heights to make it home to...
Map: 0%
Levels: 1/xx
Ztars: ?/xx
Image:

Mushroom Kingdom and Mushroom City (World 9)
Description: All is not well in the Mushroom Kingdom, without Bowser in control of his army, the Kingdom has been overran with his strongest minions. Mario and crew must make sure Peach is alright, as she returned here not too long ago.
Map: 100%
Levels: ?/xx
Ztars: ?/xx
Image:

Bowser's Infernal Land (World 10)
Description: Bowser's Failed Theme Park has been dismantled and the land was returned to its original fiery natural state but, its still no paradise.
Can Mario and friends reach the castle in time and stop the Dark Star from succeeding with his evil plans?
Map: 100%
Levels: 5/33 15.15%
Ztars: ?/xx
Image:

Spoiler:

Star World (World 11)
Description: Not much to say about this. It contains highly challenging levels. Warps to and from all the worlds except the the Minus World exist here and are hard to unlock.
Map: 100%
Levels: 4/xx
Ztars: ?/xx
Image:

Negative Zone/Minus World  (World 12)
Description: The end is near! Put an end to the Dark Star once and for all and save the Mushroom world from its clutches! It will not be an easy fight.
Map: 0%
Levels: ?/4
Ztars: ?/xx
Image:

Special World (World 13)
Description: This world exists in another dimension and contains the hardest challenges of all. It may contain levels of many different creators in the community!
Map: 0%
Levels:  ?/xx
Ztars: ?/xx
Image:

--Credits---
GFX:
Exiled Bowser, Catlover341, Redigit, John6187 (my friend), Garro, DSuenkel, The Squishy Rex pack 1.7, The Final SMBX pack by Red Yoshi, The SMBX CGFX PACK (current version)  Knux, Slash, Valterri, Red Yoshi, SilverDeoxys, supermarioman, tulip's pack (zephyr, FPI, the MKF team, andyk250, Torkirby, IceGoom, Utter Chaos, The IT and Nowe Reginald, tulip), hunter2258 (glass doors), Magibowser, mariobros12 (Tatanga), Fire Seraphim, Ace, Carol, and many more I can't name atm.

Music:
Nintendo, Sega, Capcom, OC Remix, YouTube members around the world, Newgrounds, beemp3.com, vgmusic.com, and whoever else I may have missed.


---About the Dialogue in game---

The story assumes that you, the player, are in a traveling party consisting of Mario, Luigi, (and Bowser) and are not playing 2 player, and being true to the Mario and Luigi series, Bowser is ignored half of the time by everyone. I am heavily basing this game's story off of Mario and Luigi series.