The Most INSANE NES Game of All Time

[@Bismuth9]

Every aspect of it is insane, but I think the craziest part is that it's almost entirely lagless.

[@LeoStaley]

A genuinely impressive feat of optimization.

[@baitornot4697]

What do you mean? I could be mistaken but, isn’t this being played on an emulator of the NES? As long as you have a decent pc you should be able to emulate practically any NES game lag free.

[@BoltTheEmolga]

@@baitornot4697Please listen to the first five seconds of the video again and come back to me

[@josephcastle3872]

@@baitornot4697No, he’s playing on real hardware.

[@Ultimaximus]

@@baitornot4697 Bismuth is talking about game lag, not extra lag from the emulator. If the game would lag on console, then it would lag in the emulator too.

[@MadamLava094]

Definitely one of those "if you showed it to an original programmer back in the day they'd drop dead on the spot" hacks, this is INSANELY impressive, a platformer this well put-together back in the day wouldve been insane

[@kelpermoon23]

Celste sucks so this sucks by proxy

[@FireyHimself]

@@kelpermoon23what how?

[@creativity1403]

​@@FireyHimself it's bait, ignore him.

[@jethrohenderson4968]

You will never find the body

[@NicoleColenico]

@@kelpermoon23 "Because Celeste killed my grandma, ok?"

[@cornbreadbutcringey5723]

love how there's so much custom that kosmic doesn't even mention that it scrolls in all directions

[@LeoStaley]

Even does it without the loading seam the smb3 uses to achieve that.

[@srwapo]

That's what gave me pause when I first saw it.

[@BagOfMagicFood]

I was just impressed by the variable-width font

[@Eden_GT]

I rushed the title screen on a few days just before the deadline of the release, but glad you enjoyed it! I wonder who will also find all the Easter eggs involved...

[@shantilkhadatkar1195]

This is amazing. Can I ask which tools did you use to create this?

[@Eden_GT]

@@shantilkhadatkar1195 Adobe Illustrator for the exclusive custom typeface (not released anywhere else), I then used an After Effects plugin called PixDither which I brought that can fit into the palette restraints.

[@IrisGalaxis]

How much % of original SMB code do you think is still in this hack?

[@knghtbrd]

THIS HACK IS FREAKING AMAZING DUDE! 😮 Like, I know some 6502 and I've looked at the source for Celeste on the Pico-8, so um … I have some idea of what you've done and how you did it and I'm still floored. This was your "little" hack? I've now got some crazy expectations of anything you call a big hack. Serious props!

[@Eden_GT]

@@IrisGalaxis Ask w7n, he programmed the mechanics.

[@mattpierce5009]

"Hastily put together" ROMhack, yet somehow superior to at least half of the commercial NES library

[@shoes4clues955]

worth noting it was likely made with modern tools, but still really impressive

[@Blankult]

​@@shoes4clues955yeah but it's not like other smb1 hacks come nearly close to how advanced this is

[@knghtbrd]

Like I said to Eden_GT above … I understand what and how and I'm still mad impressed. Especially for a rushed little hack. The talent on display here is amazing.

[@knghtbrd]

@@Blankult it is probably done with SMB3 and Kid Icarus/Metroid. I'd need to pick at the ROM to be sure but grafting together games like that is not trivial.

[@Blankult]

@@knghtbrd It's an smb1 hack and not smb3

[@Ryusuta]

Calling this a "hastily done mini-hack" is like called Team Fortress 2 "a short little Source Engine tech demo."

[@kelpermoon23]

Celeste was a hastily made shit show, so pretty much the same

[@shadow_uwu8103]

​@@kelpermoon23bait used to be believable

[@Maele0204]

Or calling Breath of the Wild "a small preview to the next Zelda games"

[@thesamon123]

​@@shadow_uwu8103The original Celeste game was done in 4 days during game jam

[@shadow_uwu8103]

@@thesamon123 nono, this guy is in every comment replying that Celeste is a bad game.

[@nesswednesday2976]

If I was told to guess if this was a fangame or rom hack, I would've NEVER guess that I'm watching gameplay of an SMB1 rom hack

[@knghtbrd]

That's because it almost certainly didn't. I see a lot of Metroid, Kid Icarus, and the mapper/scrolling/sound code from SMB3. I dunno without poking at the ROM which was was the base, but I'd guess SMB3 with Kid Icarus code (maybe a little Metroid differences thrown in) and the rest was custom. There's a lot of "the rest" though, this isn't just a mashup of two other games by any stretch of the imagination.

[@T3n50r]

@@knghtbrd If this was made by the same creator (Maddie) that did the SMW Celeste romhack she's absolutely nuts at this kind of stuff. The SMW romhack blew people's minds, this is just next level on top of that imo since it's NES and the limitations are even bigger. My mind is fucking blown, and I bet there's more to come should it be anything like SMW Celeste romhack is

[@CompactRisk]

@@knghtbrd This is just a modified smb1 rom

[@maxlimit9129]

​@@T3n50rfun fact said creator is also the person who MADE Celeste. Like, real Celeste. The commercial game you can buy.

[@T3n50r]

@@maxlimit9129 Yep, I'm aware and I love that fact. I think I wasn't sure when I first made my comment. Maddie is insanely creative and I love the artwork created. I hope there's more in the horizon for the future

[@TheKyubiisaan]

“It can’t be that good” 2 minutes in “…the fuck?” Just repeated like 83 times

[@pokeplazagamer]

This i what a gaming fever dream looks like. its mario, its celeste, its zelda, its metroid. its all of these and none of these.

[@puncherinokripperino2500]

If anyone is interested what QR in 19:22 says, it is: Pretty Witchy Hana-chan chi~! Pororin Pyuarin Hana Hana Pi~! Fushigi na SMB1 hack ni naare! INSUFFICIENT MP ERR.87 Cast result: Extra Mario Bros Level up to get Mario Gaiden!

[@TheMightyGiantDad]

This is an incredibly impressive hack. Its rare you see a hack that's technically impressive with lots of custom elements and ALSO fun with good game design. This hack masterfully implemented the mechanics of celeste with a lot of inspiration from the puzzle-solving parts of metroid, and all in SMB1! Brilliantly done

[@BuildWall]

Holy crap. Imagine if this came out in 1988.

[@melodywawichi802]

...How is this hack both lagless yet still adds so much custom visuals and mechanics? It both impresses me and scares me at what someone can do with a SMB1 engine.

[@mattgio1172]

hahahaha - the rick roll!!! What an amazing hack! This is honestly one of the most impressive things I've seen done with that game engine.

[@AndrewBlechinger]

12:07 Apparently that's something Celeste doesn't tell you about till you hit the endgame, called a "wave dash" and here you are learning about it in the first hour. Lucky you!

[@ThePharphis]

I don't even remember it being mentioned at all in Celeste but I didn't beat the very last challenges (the 'space'-like ones)

[@E3r0R404]

@@ThePharphis It is literally the endgame, both Farewell(the "space" one) and 8-c(requiring you to complete every other level) teach you it, so understandable.

[@xomvoid_akaluchiru_987]

@@E3r0R404 I know hyper dashes are basically wave dashes but they're considered different tech (shrug)

[@Gotmilk0112]

"this is just a mini-hack" casually adds a fuckton of new things into an SMB hack

[@thexbigxgreen]

Some people are just so impressive with their ability to exploit the abilities of classic systems in spite of their hardware limitations. Imagine having a game that played like this back in the 80's?

[@voliol8070]

Played and *looked* this way. Even if the game is somewhat on the short side (though isn't Mario 1 too if you use the warp zones) is would be considered one of the best games on thhe NES.

[@eudacye709]

There was a limited potential back then because of the programs used to develop those games.

[@jacob1121]

These are the guys writing two lines of code in COBOL a year and making 200k.

[@rolen47]

This is what the QR code at 19:18 says: Pretty Witchy Hana-chan chi~! Pororin Pyuarin Hana Hana Pi~! Fushigi na SMB1 hack ni naare! INSUFFICIENT MP ERR.87 Cast result: Extra Mario Bros Level up to get Mario Gaiden!

[@oliverb7897]

The 8-bit version's of the OG soundtrack is incredible

[@MaladyKayjo]

Pre transition Madeline

[@ToyKeeper]

This may well be the best NES hack I've ever seen.

[@inthefade]

I love the Super Metroid music and all the assets from SNES. I'm so impressed.

[@OfficialScottR]

1 minute into the video, and im already shocked by just how impressive this game is!

[@Heidegaff]

Love it when an hastily done ROM hack has better code optimization than all commercially released NES games

[@Renan_007]

Simples, hj em dia tem ferramentas muito melhores e o Hardware do NES é um dos mais documentados que existe, não faz sentido comparar com aquela época quando as ferramentas e dispositivos eram bem limitados

[@chopperbrosadvance9760]

The most insane thing is that they removed the coin counter icon at the top of the screen

[@LotoTheHero]

The amount of customization the creator(s) did here is super impressive. It's really hard to believe that this is a SMB1 rom hack! :O

[@ThePharphis]

This is absurd... This may be the first romhack so good that I will want to play it despite watching you play it already.

[@PierceArner]

This is properly mind-blowing. I cannot wait to see what the rest has in store as you play through it, but even the way it implements the map and other things in a very NES-designed way with nods to other games makes this feel amazing.

[@ThisSteveGuy]

What is even left of the SMB code at this point? What an amazing hack.

[@trayson]

yesss i was hoping you'd play this :) dude they did such a good job with the music!! i love ppl stretching the base NES 2a03 chip limitations

[@MJIZZEL]

Love these romhacks bro. Enjoy watching you play. Again, thanks for introducing me to the Speedrun world Kosmic. The other fellas my age can't believe i be watching these types of vids. They missing out imo.

[@TheGuy45]

Woah this hack is incredible, from the mechanics to music. This game can run on NES hardware?

[@kosmicspeedruns]

yep, this was on my NES!

[@GODSTROM]

They told my man to cook and delivered a whole restaurant 🗣️🔥🔥🔥

[@bacon5481]

Been watching all your romhack videos, but this by far the coolest romhack ive ever seen oh my gosh. Downloading a NES emulator for this as we speak, thanks for showcasing Kosmic!

[@Loafoftime]

Hastily put together in the same way as a Follin brothers soundtrack. Context: The Follin brothers wrote for many NES/SNES era small titles, often completing songs in only a few nights. Their compositions were notoriously ahead of their era.

[@Fatih_M177]

This doesn't even look like a rom hack, it looks like it's a fangame but with NES visuals, it's way tooo smooth it's impressive.

[@LeoStaley]

This is even more impressive than the Super Mario World/Celeste hack from a few years ago. Also looks much less brutal on the difficulty,

[@LadySkyLaaa]

16:48 OMG??? The music that plays in this part is the title screen music from Genshin Impact! Considering that the title screen takes place in Celestia, and this is Celeste, that HAD to be intentional. 10/10 song choice.

[@chunkyjackson]

I know a few of the people that are involved with this hack, the programmer has incredible knowledge of the SMB code. The person behind the graphics has been working on them for the past few years. Kosmic is right this is just a small slice of what the full game will be when it's done. I believe they are still calling it Mario Gaiden, as for what I've seen (graphics not gameplay) there will be tanks, caves, ice and more that even I haven't seen.

[@oldtimegames96]

Around 19:04 is that the opening theme from genshin??

[@jessicaindagarage3244]

HOLY SHIT IT IS LMFAOOOO

[@koi_sakana]

We need to get Retro Game Mechanics on this

[@Gustyguy]

I remember seeing this hack on Twitter thinking it was a fan game holy moly it isn’t!

[@AlexEEZ]

I love all the romhack references there were too! This is frickin' awesome! I'm astounded at how much they managed to cram into one hack and how optimized it all is :D

[@louisng114]

Celeste on NES should be called CeNESte.

[@topthog]

Imagine going back in time and giving someone this nes game, their mind would be blown!!

[@Fanaticalight]

Every once in awhile, you encounter a piece of art that makes you absolutely baffled at how they managed to pull this off. Seriously, this isn't some "hastily put together" romhack, this is a romhack with lots of love, effort and passion put into it. If this released in the 80s, this would've set the bar pretty high I reckon.

[@total2d]

Well said. If this existed in the 80's, we would be playing games our feeble minds couldn't imagine today. The fact this is even playable on NES hardware is almost unbelievable.

[@terig5584]

This is amazing, if they continue to work on it, it could be the greatest NES game ever. It already might be technically there, but I think it could use a little more structure because as cool as it is, there doesn’t seem to be much to it aside from collecting stuff. Awesome stuff, but clearer subgoals would add a lot I think.

[@MrMcAyyy]

This game works amazingly well! Can't wait to see the finished project!

[@Tailstraw_xD]

The music and stage design make me want to play Cave Story

[@nicodeklerk1617]

This is amazing! Well done indeed. Reminds me of Ori will of the whisps alot also such a good game

[@BooomTomb]

if this is a hastily crafted mini hack, then the main project must be perfect.

[@MxMaker]

switch force+ celeste + mario + metroid. So insane and so good at the same time.

[@Mwrp86]

Mario being father of all platform games was a obvious inspiration for Celeste Now Celeste is inspiration for this . Also I want to add, Usuall on off or P switch seems insane in these mods/Romhacks. This hack is sooo crazy that those only seem natural

[@ShinoSarna]

At this point I wonder how much original code remains. Like this is mostly a new game, right?

[@kosmicspeedruns]

yep, mostly just a new game

[@FUGP72]

This game actual;y reminds me of an old popular series of flash games called Robot Wants.... I think the first one was Robot Wants Kitty, followed by Robot Want Puppy and Robot Wants Ice Cream. apparently there was also Robot Wants Fishy too, but I never saw that.

[@Inspirator_AG112]

That TNT tile definitely seems based off of the Minecraft block.

[@NinjaCacodemon_IsSus]

17:57 moment y’all been waiting for

[@SilverKnight16]

This is legitimately amazing.

[@rogercruz1547]

If the game came out this way back in 85 minds would've been blown

[@JakeRazorClawson]

"How does this exist?" question to the entire game, absolutely amazing work! 🌛🥇

[@gamephonics32]

This is pretty awesome. No reason this couldn’t just be Celeste though. The Mario assets just are means of inspiration.

[@Aderalls]

I wonder how big the rom for this is compared to a retail smb1 rom. I remember cartridge space was a huge limitation back in the day

[@NastadonGaming]

I love Celeste and this looked amazing. Never played any roms before but I downloaded this one and have no idea how to play it. Read the Readme that said I needed FCEUX so I downloaded that, but it doesn't open .BPS files. Doing a google search I saw I had to patch it with the the .ips file, but I found an online patcher and it just gave me another .BPS file I still can't open. If anyone reads this do you have a dummys way of playing this hack? EDIT - I figured it out. I didn't realize I needed the original ROM of SMB, but I got that and patched it and it appears to be working now!

[@kosmicspeedruns]

oh nice job figuring it out. I'll be sure to add a link to a patching tutorial in the ips patch spreadsheet

[@SomeGuy712x]

What is this sorcery of a ROM hack of SMB1? And it was "hastily put together"?! The amount of quality here is insanely good! The dedication by some ROM hackers never ceases to amaze!

[@GretgorPooper]

This hack is AMAZING, like, wtf! How did they manage to cram all that on the original SMB engine?

[@themusicholecole]

Best rom hack ever!!!

[@soundspark]

Hastily done yet programmed for the MMC5 mapper, same as what's used by Castlevania III.

[@TealTheDropster]

The fact that it turns into Metroid's brinstar halfway through

[@Your_Degenerate]

Not sure I've ever seen Celeste but this looks pretty cool.

[@xxduckperson465]

Seeing all the super metroid stuff on this was super cool

[@BojackUnb0und]

Anyone know if this would run in an actual NES? Is there some behind the scenes magic that makes it too much for an NES to handle?

[@Kosmicd12]

This video is on NES

[@BojackUnb0und]

@@Kosmicd12 Oh nice! 😄

[@BiggusWeeabus]

People's minds would have blown up If this came out back at the time

[@epicbro2222]

I was here)) dat's the first romhack I watched live on Twitch

[@tugazu]

How do all the challenges work so well withouth any jank?

[@Dustin_Bins]

The graphics and having such nice polish to boot on a game that was rushed is impressive. Especially for one person. Bravo! 👏!

[@Nob1ej0n]

This romhack is freaking nuts! And it turns SMB, an NROM game, into an MMC5 game! I guess I'll finally have to finish MMC5 support on my emulator to play this. I thought I'd only have to do that for Castelvania 3. 😅

[@anordinaryuser5818]

The two most legendary games combined. Incredible!

[@gorlix]

he doesn't know...

[@Dark_Mario_Bros.]

That's one impressive rom hack ngl

[@brucebrinstar]

So much stuff from super metroid!

[@OfficialScottR]

New Kosmic video, let's goooooooooo

[@theaddictofgaming9174]

I can't tell if this is actually easier then Celeste or if Kosmic is just an epic gamer

[@anon_y_mousse]

This seems to have a far more fair checkpoint system than Celeste, at least the version I played for the Pico-8 anyway. With Celest I couldn't make it past the fifth screen. Hopefully I can do better with this game.

[@Blankult]

I just beat this, definetely a must play for any nes enthusiast

[@ViewtifulSam]

This looks incredibly impressive technically but also just straight up a ton of fun

[@00769jamesm]

Such a fan of Celeste wonderful game so this is definitely cool

[@Caleb-u9m]

somebody needs to demake sa2 to genesis.

[@Loafoftime]

One day

[@heybra1216]

This feels like an snes game

[@TransRoofKorean]

The thing about some of these romhacks... I hear about how difficult it is to do certain things in an SMB1 engine, yet then you see these ones...

[@kuyakim20]

Change all the assets and this will be a hit game.

[@607]

This might be the first time that I see The Oliver Twins' Dizzy mentioned in a Mario-related video!

[@Loch32]

imagine going back to the 80s and showing this to nintendo running on original hardware

[@tattonscorner7222]

This is like Mario, Celeste, and Metroid all in one

[@MowDGrass]

If this is actually small enough to run on a real NES Cartridge, this is an absolutely bonkers rom hack

[@RiayToons]

"מריו החביתון"

[@Pharphette]

wow really good

[@ge7ash]

for some reason this feels more like a troll mod rather than a rom hack

[@gorlix]

well if you didn't know there is a LOT of dedication and effort and programming skill went into this. making this just for trolling purposes is weird.

[@TheGreatPizzaMasterpiece]

This is a real trip. Mechanics look kinda like wizards and warriors. Not really but, that would be a cool hybrid too.

[@godisgood540]

This is so good, wow

[@BUGFlower413]

I've seen a SMW Celeste-inspired romhack before (also really cool one), but _THIS_ I can't even understand how its even running on NES software 0_0

[@felixargyle5424]

Homestuck pfp!!

[@BUGFlower413]

@@felixargyle5424 i got stuck at home :c

[@theblankuser]

The amount of stuff added is insane