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SMB1 Difficulty Settings
As of v0.3.0, the difficulty curve does not affect levels or their construction. Instead, it only affects enemies and other various gameplay elements. This may change in future releases.
Starting lives can be set independently from the difficulty. Feel free to increase them if the game feels too difficult. The life counter maxes out at 99 and the game engine has been modified to reflect this change. Infinite lives can also be set, but bear in mind that this will eliminate the need to collect coins or 1-ups.
Permadeath mode can also be enabled, preventing the ability to gain any lives or use the A+Start continue cheat. If Mario dies at all in Permadeath mode, it's a game over, and restarting at World 1-1 will be required.
This exists for debugging purposes, but I decided to leave it in the game, as it's a fun cheat. Mario is permanently invincible. There is unlimited time. Mario has infinite midair jumps. Fireballs will also kill everything on screen.
A value of "Seconds" will make the timer count down in actual seconds. The time running out music will play when 40 seconds are left on the clock. "Original" will prevent this change.
- Very Easy: Mario will start in a fully powered up state with every room change or at the start of every level. The difficulty curve is the most relaxed here. This mode has no Hammer Bros, Fire Bros, or auto scrolling levels.
- Easy: Enemies behave similar to how they did in the original game. This mode has no Hammer Bros or Fire Bros. Auto scrolling levels are introduced in this difficulty.
- Normal: The default difficulty. Lakitus throw their eggs in an arc. There is a chance that there will be auto scrolling levels or Fire Bros.
- Hard: Some enemies are slightly faster. Red Piranha Plant are introduced in this difficulty and they behave the same as in SMB2J. The difficulty curve introduces some enemies spawners in some areas that don't exist on Normal difficulty. Enemies will also continue to spawn if a Lakitu is active. There is a chance that Lakitu Spiny Eggs will either bounce or break into Spinies.
- Very Hard: Enemies are faster and the difficulty curve is more aggressive. Black Piranha Plants are introduced in this difficulty, as they are very quick and aggressive.
- Brutal: Enemies move at their fastest possible speeds. The difficulty curve won't hold off for long before throwing everything at the player.
- Original: Based on Normal difficulty. For the purists out there who don't want any additional ASM hacks to be thrown into the mix.
- Original with some Auto Scroll: Based on Normal difficulty. For the purists out there who don't want any enemy behavior or gameplay modifications, but also want some auto scrolling levels to mix things up.
- Walk in the Park: There are no enemies. At all. This exists for debugging purposes, but it also helps expose how much of a difference enemies can have on the difficulty.
- Just Keep Scrolling: Based on Normal difficulty. All levels will auto scroll. Due to this, there will probably be no hammer bros, fire bros, or Lakitus in any of the levels.
- Riddled with Bullets: Based on Hard difficulty. Bullet Bills will be shot at Mario on every level. Bullet Bill Cannons will also spawn from the start, so there may end up being many Bullet Bills on screen.
- Lakitu's Challenge: Based on Hard difficulty. A Lakitu will follow Mario throughout every level. Killing it won't keep it away from you for long. The Lakitu eggs may either bounce or break into Spinies, so be prepared for either situation!
- Cheep-Cheep Frenzy: Based on Hard difficulty. Cheep-Cheeps will fly at Mario throughout every level. Even underwater levels!
- Hammer Time: Based on Hard difficulty. 20% of all enemies are replaced with Hammer Bros. This also includes Bloopers!
- Extreme Hammer Time: Based on Very Hard difficulty. All enemies are replaced with Hammer Bros! The Hammer Bros will start running at Mario in later levels.
- Turn up the Heat: Based on Hard difficulty. This is the same as Hammer Time, but with Fire Bros instead. Expect this to be more difficult than Hammer Time.
- Too Hot to Handle: Based on Very Hard difficulty. This is the same as Extreme Hammer Time, but with Fire Bros instead.
This option will randomly generate a difficulty curve and randomly choose which patches to apply. Games could end up being extremely easy or extremely hard. The difficulty curve may be smooth or it may hit like a brick wall. Expect anything to happen on a game generated with random difficulty!
If this setting is chosen, the difficulty curve can be modified by hand. Features can be activated from the start of the game or completely disabled.
Each level has a difficulty rating from 1-10 where 1 is the easiest (beginning of the game) and 10 is the hardest (end of the game). The settings will be enabled once the generator reaches the specified difficulty rating.
Examples:
- A value of 1 will be enabled for the entire game.
- A value of 2 will be enabled 10% into the game.
- A value of 6 will be enabled half way through the game.
- A value of 10 will be enabled 90% into the game.
- A value of 11 will never be enabled for the entire game.
Bullet Time replaces most vertical blocks with Bullet Bill Cannons. This does not affect underwater levels.
Hammer Time replaces a certain percentage of enemies with Hammer Bros. On normal difficulty, this is around 10% of the enemies. On hard difficulty, this is around 20%. Hammer Time also affects Bloopers. If the Fire Bros. complimentary hack is used, they will be replaced with Fire Bros. instead of Hammer Bros. Hammer Time does not affect Auto Scrolling levels.
- Disable All Other Enemies When a Lakitu Spawns: Enabling this option will prevent the generator from placing enemies when a Lakitu is active.
- Fix Lakitu Throw Arc: This options fixes the x velocity when Lakitus throw their eggs. This was Nintendo's original intended behavior, but there was a bug that caused the x velocity to be set to 0. Turning this option off will restore the original (bugged) behavior.
- Spiny Egg Behavior: In the original game, Spiny Eggs hatch into Spinies when they hit the ground. The original behavior is used when "Normal" is selected. When "Bouncy" is selected, Spiny Eggs no longer hatch and they will bounce instead. This can make Lakitus a pretty challenging foe if combined with "Fix Lakitu Throw Arc".
This option makes Hammer Bros. walk towards Mario while throwing Hammers. Under the hood, it activates by world number, so it may not activate precisely on the difficulty level specified.