Where should you start playing Kaizo Hacks?! BarbarousKing's guide to SMW Hacks - Beginner Level

[@warren_r]

1:48 "You're honestly not good enough"...... now there's the Barb we all know and love!

[@dublinbounder]

Honesty is a good policy!

[@Yoshoggutha]

A Plumber For All Seasons is probably my favorite hack. The music alone is wonderful and the backgrounds have a very whimsical style. I like this kind of video. You get to give people a lot of information while also sort of reviewing the hacks themselves.

[@BarbarousKing]

when Plumber came out, it got a bunch of negativity and bullshit from people on twitch for it not being "hard enough". Truly maddening to me, when it was such a wonderfully made and fun hack. Unfortunately the Mario sphere worships difficulty above all else. I'm happy to share the hack with more people here.

[@Yoshoggutha]

@@BarbarousKing I actually downloaded the soundtrack. I don't get the whole maddening difficulty thing. It's not necessary to go nuts every time you play something. This is why I wish Nintendo would continue making 2D Mario games. They don't realize how many people still play this stuff.

[@williamferguson8543]

@@Yoshogguthaand now Mario Wonder is out to prove your point

[@MidnightSprite]

Excellent video! So cool to speak about giving oneself grace in learning such as using save states, and speaking to the types of accessibility and breaking down some of the barriers of entry. I hope this increases the player community! Keep it easy Barb!

[@BarbarousKing]

totally fine to use save states, especially when you're first learning.

[@snitkofb]

A Plumber for All Seasons - www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=28856 SMB1X - www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=18086 Of Jumps and Platforms - www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=23814 Stick mice… - www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=17105 So 2 mice - www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=21950 Jump 1/2 - www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=19720 slurdgery - www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=21787 Nachos and Fried Oreos - www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=19044 Marios Keytastrophe Rebirth Edition - www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=15797

[@Freakin_HA]

Great vid, I actually haven't even played a handful of these. I could do with a few chill hacks to go through.

[@leif_p]

You should play them on stream.

[@gum8191]

I found Panga's Kaizo Kindergarten really helpful to learn basic SMW tech like regrabs, shell jumps, etc.

[@NoneLikeRob]

For a person that is new to SMW Hacks I think Barb's recommendations are on par. Once a newbie has tackled those hacks they are ready to start KK and get into actual Kaizo hacks.

[@allencummings7564]

Panga made all the jumps and moves in kk very difficult, no room for error. I really like it so far tho. However, I'm stuck on the first assessment lol

[@allencummings7564]

'Learn to kaizo' is way more forgiving

[@Talpykaze]

@@allencummings7564 What do you mean? Test 2 will absolutely demolish any self confidence you gained from the previous levels and will probably make you quit if you dont find another hack to play until u get better.

[@allencummings7564]

That didn't happen to me. And I'm playing on a tablet with touchscreen controls

[@fnorazril]

Thanks for the info Barb! I've been kind of wondering where to start when getting into SMW Hacks. The list is massive and daunting and it's nice to get a general direction of where to start.

[@vincentvargas13]

Thanks for furnishing this list Barb. I’ll be putting these on the docket to play later this year, they look like a blast.

[@rikjanvanschothorst1645]

I played a hack called Learn 2 Kaizo, which taught me a couple of neat tricks you can do in this game, but I was still messing up seemingly simple jumps and had poor control over mario. I just finnished "of jumps and platforms" and that taught me the actual platforming aspect of this game. Really fun hack too!

[@Vaalin]

So kind of Barb to make this video. I’m sure it will be useful to a lot of people starting out.

[@haeusserk]

A Plumber for all Seasons is a gem, excited to get to the rest! This is definitely an excellent way to start my rom hack journey. Hopefully someday I can get good enough to play the GPW trilogy

[@I3l4ckDe4th]

Great video! I'm a beginner SMW Rom-hack player so this is a great start for me before I get into some kaizo hacks!

[@applekid1516]

Nice Video a good list of hacks I never played. And I play since 2009 smw hacks. As an smw adventure style romhack veteran I can say that I started playing Kaizo because I was bored from the "Standart" difficult. And my first true Kaizo was "Purgatory" and i playing it for 2 years now xD you have to love smw and you have to practice to get good in kaizo... and when you get a level done the excitement is undescribly rewarding!

[@stephenshadenough]

Thanks for the recommendations. I’ve played a few Kaizo hacks, and I’ve been playing through A Plumber For All Seasons with a friend who doesn’t play Kaizo, and it’s been so much fun. The music is amazing, as are the aesthetics, and the level design provided plenty of challenge for us both. Plus the bosses are so cool. Awesome hack!

[@horhey19]

Great List for beginners. My first hack was Of Jumps and Platforms, I watched you play it live and figured why not and gave it a shot. Most of the hacks I have played since then is thanks to you Barb. Keep up the good work dude always enjoy watching the Live stream and your KZbin videos.

[@ph03nixflame]

Awesome vid dude! A Plumber For All Seasons is GOAT material when it comes to easing people into the romhack world. You cover some really great commentary and insights on starting out. Having this list available outside of Discord is smart, hopefully it'll help people find this info easier. I definitely want to see part 2!

[@mattjames112]

I'm definitely going to check some of these out! The hacks I started with (and am still trying to get through) are Baby Kaizo, Quickie World 1&2, Ryu World, and Nightmare Cafe 1&2.

[@balkamp8888]

I started with kaizo 1 lol! I did not make it through.... I liked jump 1, and really liked the Bob Ross hack. It's not beginner friendly but I enjoyed it. Def have to check some of these out. Great video!

[@paperthintigerr]

This is a much more honest introduction for people who are new to smw. Nothing wrong with jumping in the deep end but I think this list is a much more fun way to get going!

[@sjorspepping509]

I'll definitely play through these romhacks. I hope Barb will be making the part 2 of more intermediate hacks.

[@thevalskful]

I can't wait for this question to still come up in chat every single stream 🙂

[@cubedmelons876]

This list is great because it shines the spotlight on the Standard side of romhacks, which would often get overlooked by the audience watching GDQ runs of GPW2 and wanting to jump straight into Kaizo. These hacks are good to just chill and not worry about having to do a billion frame-perfect inputs, while increasing your Mario skills from baseline SMW. I may even recommend using the JUMP series to get into Kaizo rather than the Quickie series, since it will prepare you for different gimmicks, longer sections, and all sorts of level building styles.

[@zacharylane6148]

Thank Barb! I like that you did something different with this video! From watching your channel I have gathered that you are the type of person to "stay in your lane", and not try to give unprompted advice or overstate things beyond your scope. However, you are objectively an expert on this topic. The time that you have spent playing, learning about, and creating this type of niche game is far more than than enough to warrant a PhD in essentially any field. You are, whether you like it or not, one of the most, if not the most, reliable, realistic, and best known sources of knowledge on this topic, so your intentional input in a format like this video is really invaluable to those of us who are interested. Thanks for trying something new! Kudos on a very solid delivery of the information. I have been watching kaizo hacks for years now. I am not afraid of difficulty in video games, and I love platformers that require that sort of "repeated death" patience. About a year ago, I decided I was ready to take on kaizo myself. I had beaten every main console Mario title, all the Celeste b- and c-sides, and had 100 per cented Super Meatboy as well as a few other hard indie platformers. I thought it would be a simple horizontal move to kaizo. I WAS WRONG. I started with kaizo kindergarten and Quickie World. After spending 20+ hours on exit 5 or 6, I found that Quickie World was almost impossibly hard. Without any advice on where else to start, I stopped playing kaizo with the impression that despite loving to watch hacks, they just weren't for me. This list of hacks to play before diving into kaizo has given me some hope. I look forward to trying them out, and perhaps I will have more luck getting into the genre this time around. I am looking forward to a list of low-intermediate difficulty hacks if you ever decide to make one. That is way more input than anyone asked for, but I see you putting in the work to communicate so I want to put a little bit of effort into a response. Cheers.

[@creativebeetle]

I think I'll take your advice on these! I appreciate that you really considered the perspective of beginner players rather than approaching the topic from a strictly Kaizo standpoint.

[@deepstothepeeps]

I love the bonus level music from Cool Spot as much as the next guy, but I gotta admit listening to it for 13 minutes straight stretched my limits. Nice video, Barb! Really interesting stuff.

[@thetraction3538]

It’s really entertaining hearing barb talk about this stuff in video format

[@djdak857]

Thanks for the video! Really nice to see an alternate approach to tackle the challenge that is getting into Kaizo :)

[@HydroPyro4608]

Always wanted to start playing SMW rom hacks but never got into them. Just beat A Plumber for All Seasons and about half way through Of Jumps and Platforms. Super fun :) thanks dude, watch you on Twitch daily. Keep up the awesome content, real gamer gaming.

[@nagohe6005]

I actually started playing JUMP 1/2 early last year based on your recommendation in a stream. I haven't quite gotten 130 exits yet (done most of them, but I still need to go back and finish that special space themed world) but I absolutely agree that it's a fantastic game. I definitely gotta check the rest of these out sooner or later.

[@dinodope9888]

I definitely agree with you barb! My first hack was jump 1/2 a few years back, & played pretty much everyone of the others except for Plumber & of jumps. I worked my way up to beating jump 1, & afterwards I was able to finish baby kaizo & pangas kindergarten. I'm so glad I did it this way, since the latter hacks I mentioned was still hard at this point. I was just lucky I chose what I chose. I really feel this is the way you'll get the most out of it, without going stir crazy, & risk giving up or even lose your love for romhacks. Why not make your beginner experience pleasant instead of tiresome, & overtly difficult. Anyways, great info video barb! Keep it up my man, & have a great day!

[@Dunkelschloss]

Thank you Barb! Interestingly I already checked out 'A Plumber for all Seasons' and like you once said on stream, I thought: 'Man theese controls are weird'. Even though I actually played SMW in the 90's ^^ I'll need a little bit of time to relearn that...

[@obthree2830]

SO GLAD YOU BROUGHT UP SAVESTATES! I tell people all the time games are supposed to be fun and if you need to or want to save state then do it! Absolutely no shame. I don’t use them often but I do use them. Mostly when I play kaizo the challenge is what I’m looking for so that defeats some purpose but I do use them certainly

[@PoorAffinity]

Plumber for all seasons feels like a classic when i play it, definitely gonna remember this game forever

[@Dr.UldenWascht]

Much appreciate the KZbin specific content Barb. Thanks. I wanted to add one other (IMO essential) hack to the list; and that's *Panga's Kaizo Kindergarten.* I used to watch Super Mario videos for many years without playing and this hack was the one that opened my eyes. Kindergarten is the designed for the bottom of the barrel, absolute-noobs like me 😄 It's basically a tutorial. It's funny how many basic mechanics are invisible to those who _only watch_ kaizo. I also broke my first Xbox controller on that mod.

[@nflhalowarrior]

This is a great video barb, I think a lot of people will find this helpful. And I’m with you on save states. No one is judging you (unless you’re streaming lol) so have fun and play how you want!!

[@leahsworld701]

I’m glad you mentioned about no shame in save stating, I’ve been playing genesis games on NSO and I use save states now when I despised them before but it helps me enjoy more with my limited time to play versus getting stuck

[@ShadowWolf515]

I actually just started playing ROM hacks about a month ago and I started with Cuter Kaizo World. I'm not done with it yet because it's kicking my ass but I'm really happy I took the plunge to start playing ROM hacks and I'll be sure to try some of your recommendations once I finish Cuter Kaizo World :)

[@snefansson]

I’d never thought about picking up hacks but this actually inspired me a bit! Good vid borb!

[@rickyroo6421]

This is incredible info. I was waiting for the day Barb made this video 😂

[@andyony2]

Coming here after watching GPW 3 Content and now watching Barb talking about "We need more 1 room puzzle hacks!" 🥰😇 Great job with the Tower of Fate, Barb!

[@JustHereForTheDialogue]

thoroughly enjoying PoAS at the moment. thx for the suggestions. i'll play the ones from this list before branching out.

[@leujin]

I played A Plumber for All Seasons based on watching you play it! I loved it.

[@NeverHadFun]

Such great advice and content! Thanks for everything Barb!

[@Biblionaut]

thank you for this video. i can just send this to friends who want to check out smw hacks. i always find it hard to explain, what you just did, in a cohesive and compact way. the recommended hacks are also A+!

[@Mattimaro]

Hey Barb, I actually just finished 100%ing the whole list (including original Super Mario World), and wanted to share my times as a beginner. This took me from Jan. 8, 2023 till Feb. 26, 2023 (today). Here are the times I spent on each hack: - Super Mario World (96 exits) - 3h 51min 57sec - A Plumber for All Seasons (100% + 100% Dragon coins) - 5h 08min 55sec - Super Mario Bros. 1X (All 66 exits) - 5h 55min 27sec - Of Jumps and Platforms (All 7 exits) - 40min 16sec - stick mice in my head and then beat my head in with a hammer and let them back out (All 19 exits) - 5h 36min 38sec - So 2 Mice Walk Into a Bar (All 18 exits) - 4h 06min 29sec - JUMP½ (All 130 exits and All Dragon coins) - 36h 34min 47sec - slurdgery (All 9 exits) - 1h 46min 36sec - Nachos and Fried Oreos (All 15 exits - Beginner Mode) - 5h 44min 32 sec

[@frankfortune]

Thank you for making this video!

[@changobo55]

Thank you for this video Barb. I just hacked my ps classic and got retroarch so I started on this Mario hack world, I started with Mario Legends and has been so crazy to get used to the movements but also very satisfying when I clear a level. I'll add this titles to my system so I get better.

[@maxjello2003]

Thanks for this list Barb! I followed the QQAIDS format a while ago and got stuck trying to go GPW1 early after beating Invictus, which kinda made me get burned out of smw. I’ll def look into some of these romhacks you suggested and I think an intermediate list would be really helpful

[@raph009]

I played A Plumber for all Season last year and I LOVED it!! Highly recommend! :) it's got that retro vibe and is chill enough to just breeze through it and has a light difficulty curve, till Winter strikes hahaha!!

[@NickBurnham1]

Thanks for this, starting with some non-Kaizo hacks makes a lot more sense to me. Think I'll go back and check some of these out for sure.

[@googleuser_b349ffd2]

Thanks for the list. I've gotten through Quickie World 1 and 2 before since they have the reputation of being Kaizo-beginner but there were definitely a few nasty tricks to grind through from the perspective of a romhack newbie. Some of your suggestions from this video look like a better starting point.

[@InDeathOnlyNothing]

I played " A Plumber For All Seasons " and I got stuck on level 4 after the water level in some forest level in the beginning where there's a vine to climb and the damn vine wouldn't let me off of it and wouldn't let me jump onto the ground. All I could do was jump straight up. Left and Right didn't work. All I could do was climb the vine up and down and into a little nook where a green koopa came from above a semi solid platform land aesthetics. It soft locked me on the vine. I doubt I need to tinker with the controls either. The controls worked fine until that level and that vine.

[@cinvader]

Got L2K, BabyKaizoMario1 and QW2 already completed. Highly appreciate ur recommendations and will give it a try

[@Xdgvy]

Thanks for putting this together, it's been very helpful.

[@DanielBakerN]

Thanks for the list Barb. I've played several hacks you've recommended during your live stream. Glad to have some more hacks to try out.

[@galux7346]

I started off with stick mice in my head and then beat my head in with a hammer. Some levels are taking me an hour to beat but man i'm having so much fun with the hack. I just beat "Oh saws!" and so far that's my favourite level. I understand why you love JUMP team so much.

[@tylerdulak9030]

I've been working my way through kaizo kindergarten but damn, even that one is tough for someone who's learning. Thanks for the list!!

[@obthree2830]

Pink Gold Peach hacks are incredible as well. Around the world and 12 magic orbs. 12 M.O. is a bit harder but both absolutely incredible hacks. And pretty challenging! The reality project games are really great to!

[@MaxMckayful]

Barb finally got sick enough of our shit to make this. Props for the effort, it's a great resource to have!

[@turbo8628]

Can confirm; i tried kaizo mario as my first hack and it is not a fun time for beginners! The thing with a new challenge is that if it is too challenging for your ability level then you will get frustrated. Opposite goes for something that is too easy as that becomes boring. As someone who has very little free time, a lesser challenge has a better reward:frustration ratio. Great video. Shame it was released now instead of around two years ago when i had more time to play 😅

[@AJ16484]

Thank you for the guidance barb. I'll be up and playing by next weekend!

[@TheCodePhoenix]

I played a lot of Mario Maker 2, and started with Learn 2 Kaizo and Super Moo World for Kaizo. I didn’t think it was that hard to learn since watching a lot of Kaizo gameplay helped as well, and I played original Super Mario World in my childhood.

[@evenglare]

I actually played Jump 1/2 seeing you play it. I was decent at SMW, so I felt this wasn't TOO bad, and definitely refined my skills. Its annoying and frustrating to jump into a hack thats just so unbelievably difficult, and I found Jump1/2 to be challenging in a way that you actually notice progress.

[@cubedmelons876]

I definitely think the JUMP series are some of the best hacks to prepare you for SMW romhacks in general. There's a lot of variety with level building styles, section lengths, and various chocolate gimmicks. Plus, they ease you into Kaizo difficulty from baseline SMW skill level, so they're more approachable for noobs.

[@dukedragon28]

Thank you for this. About a year or so ago I took the old advice and beat Quickie World, and then made no progress from there. I hope this new list will be nicer for me

[@ClexYoshi]

I appreciate you getting people to start out playing traditional Mario stuff first, because... I really wish there was more of that with the polish people put into their Kaizo stuff. I remember seeing so much cool stuff people like MarkeyJester and the like do with Classic Sonic hacks, or how there are folks like Puresabe out there on the Mega Man end of things, and that things exist like VLDC and what-not, but... it always disheartens me to see how much people want to make Mario stuff that shares more in common with Celeste and Super Meat Boy then it does with Mario. :(

[@Verywiseguy7]

Thank you so much for this. This is just the push I needed to finally try these out. Maybe in a couple thousand hours I can try out the GPWs.

[@TuxCatFan]

Great video! I started with Quickie World but I like playing these easier hacks as well. Looking forward for the intermediate video.

[@joshuaxiong8377]

I bet if someone just saw the controller inputs for this game, they would think you're either playing a rhythm game or fighting game. Props to the skilled Mario players honestly.

[@CancerousGrowt]

Thank you Barb for the great content.

[@cardcollectormn2302]

Nobody talks about the great Douchibag who completed Grand Poo World having never played Mario World before. It took him a couple thousand hours but he did it. 2 Incredible games to start with are Orcus and The Unknown by Jordan. Not terribly hard, and an absolute blast.

[@dzdj]

Can't wait for this to become the !beginner command in twitch chat.

[@ichderfisch_]

I remember reading about some of these hacks back on your discord years ago. Later I played and beat some of them, but they took some time. SMB1X is super fun, Of Jumps and Platforms and Mice are fun too. After this, naive and the total noob I was, i jumped right into GPW 2. Marathon took me 14 hours, I quit and took a step back to Quickie 2 (which I really enjoyed and finished several times), Baby Mario (I don't like it at all), Kaizo Kindergarten (which was interesting and tough), Super Ryu World and other "beginner" Kaizo hacks. This was the moment i realized, that i love watching Kaizo, but not playing it. 😁 Aside from that, i just don't have time for the grind. That's why I still play Standard-Non-Kaizo Mario Hacks. Oh man: A Plumber For All Seasons, everybody should play this hack.

[@PointBlanch]

Great timing, I'm actually planning on playing A Plumber For All Seasons as my first hack very soon. Great work as always! Edit: Barb is right, setting up A Plumber For All Seasons is very easy.

[@NcKasha]

What did you need to do? (assuming emulator)

[@subjunctivideo]

Thanks, Barb! Hope this video helps people and saves you some breath.

[@migwellitomuarrita2898]

Incredible video, thanks Barb. I would compare watching hard Kaizo and playing it to any other sport. Try to run a marathon at a pace close to the winners without hundreds of hours of training (even if you're sporty on other levels) and let's see what happens. Some of us will never get to that level actually, but 100% you're not there just by watching videos!

[@BenSchmerler]

Great video, Barb! I always wanted to attend a Barb lecture so here I am.

[@Newtination]

thanks BarbarousKing, went and bought a Super NT, and a Trinitron KV-27FS120. Kidding, also started with emulator, til I switched to SNES + Everdrive + framemeister before finally ending up after the above set-up a couple years ago. But back then nearly no hacks existed so the set-up was pointless. Currently playing Hackers Dream and mind blown how far it's all come in a matter of ~5 years, likely will not finish it lul.

[@jikissgamer]

First hard hack I played was original JUMP after watching your playthrough, and it definitely made me a better player. Unfortunately my save got wiped out on my SD2SNES while I was 121 exits into the game but I downloaded the complete SRAM save from SMWCentral in order to finish those last 4 levels.

[@ryanellinger1607]

Very excited for this list

[@210420rocky]

Very good list, Barb got taste and direction with the SMW Hacks.

[@marcelmeister4418]

agree with most of them, i found slurdgery and nachos and fried oreos to be a bit too spammy with certain enemies or "gimmick", but aside from that, all beatable by beginners, tried it myself after seeing your recommendations on discord, tho i started with quickie world

[@akumajou]

Thanks a lot Barb, this video sure helped us. These hacks look cool too, I really can't wait to see the intermediate ones.

[@bllllood]

the mice and smash head with an hammer train level make me think of batman&robin adventure on sega genesis.....if i had to pick one of these i'd prob start with it just for that XD i love trains levels

[@akumajou]

@@bllllood oh yeah lol, I liked both of them. Kid Dracula's train level is really good too

[@spradoontz]

So this is what was alluded to the other day! Great work sir.

[@Mellon_]

Awesome Vid Barb, now i have somewhere to start!

[@paulbillows123]

Cool vid Barb! Be great to see more stuff like this; save us all asking in chat every day lol!

[@baddksounds8172]

I wish i listened to this advice when i started. My first hacks were Yump 2, QW1/QW2, GPW2, Storks and Elephants, which i absolutely love, but for first few hacks, maybe not the best idea lol. Anyway, great video, i hope this encourages more players to get their feet wet with SMW.

[@ericwatts7757]

awesome. i recently started with jump 1/2 as my first real hack after watching you play it. very fun time

[@viniciusmatsunaga9202]

Amazing video, Barb! Thanks for that

[@Zamkis]

This is such a helpful video, thanks for this list Barb!

[@masterbonesly3640]

Great list! I can't wait to see the Intermediate list too!

[@WalrusLife]

I’d love to see you do a video with a list of hacks for intermediates when you get the chance. Thanx for everything, man!

[@MagicScorpio]

Great advise, Barb. I’m only 2 min into the video but imagine you will say some similar stuff… Emulators are awesome for beginners. I started with a raspberry Pi box that had a couple usb inputs, Sd drive, and BT. Maybe $40 total and built already so no soldering needed. Got some converter to hdmi out. Maybe $10. Bought a controller ..forget name but it was usb/BT and maybe $50 tops. Downloaded roms from online. Easiest and cheapest way to get started and so many free roms out there. So $100 out the door and setup to play anything on that website… plus any other sites with Roms.

[@ChrilleHop]

Great video Barb :D Thanks for the information. Please give us more videos like this =)

[@youtibbles2546]

thanks for putting this together!

[@manugonzalez4921]

Awesome video Barb! Thanks!

[@maartenn2217]

Absolutely great video!

[@wadehlady2978]

I am bad at video games. I like watching Barb and also this video is nice because he is talking to us nicely and not yelling at twitch chat. Those guys seem off

[@Fizzyphukoff]

Nice Barb is so wholesome. Thanks for this.

[@serpentsaurus7969]

Appreciate the video, Barb!

[@pugork]

Great list here and there is a few I haven't played yet!