Martlet's Fun Adventure! Demo

Link: https://shc.zone/entries/contest2024/1081

This entry is a nice chill romp through Snowdin and Waterfall from UT as Martlet from UT Yellow. It’s fairly simple (in some ways due to the limited nature of the game’s hacking), but has a lot of charm to it and is just overall a nice relaxing hack to play when you’re feeling down.

Disclaimer

I’m familiar with Undertale, but not yet familiar with Undertale Yellow. Bear that in mind.

The art overall is a nice adaptation of the Undertale art to the Master System and looks really good for what it is. I wish the waterfalls would move, though; maybe something could be done with the Bridge cycling palettes to make that work? I’m also glad there are a lot of little details like doors and signs as well. They make the levels feel slightly more like real places.

Martlet herself has fairly nice spritework, although some poses could use a bit of work. Some animations like the spring jump and the duck look great and expressive, but others (especially the walk and run) are quite stiff.

The music is great! Good conversions of the original themes, and the Master System soundchip’s nostalgic and slightly sad high pitched sound contributes a lot to the cozy atmosphere of this entry.

The levels themselves are extremely easy in difficulty. That was probably intentional, but it does sometimes lead to levels being a tiny bit too barren. I’m not sure if the spirit of the entry lends itself well to filling the levels with platforming challenges, but maybe you could include a lot more special easter eggs or monitors hidden behind trickier-to-execute jumps? I quite liked finding Temmie.

One thing I must commend this entry for in terms of level design is how it handled the autoscroller. I think just having more than one path at all times makes it a lot more fun as you try to explore while you still can. I think Waterfall 1 was executed better than Bridge 2 in the original in that regard.

I will also commend this game for mixing-and-matching objects from different levels. I know it’s extremely difficult to add new objects to S1, so this is a really good way to make the levels feel unique.

Trophies awarded

• Blaze Trophy - Most Potential
  • I can not wait to see this entry completed. I think this is has the potential to be a well made hack of Sonic 1 with some good cozy vibes.
• Emerl Trophy - Best Character Implementation
  • Out of the three entries this contest with characters different to Sonic, this one has the best executed sprite swap