Super Mario Bros Z - The Game

Description

A second go at creating a game for Super Mario Bros Z. Updates will be irregular, but this time, I'm getting it done.

Super Mario Bros Z (SMBZ) is a Mario/Sonic/DBZ crossover parody created by Mark Haynes (AKA: Alvin-Earthworm). Since its initial release in 2006, SMBZ's fans have always wanted a game for it and since I, a kid at the time, was just getting into game development and looking for a game idea to work on, I decided accept the challenge. I eventually dropped the project a few years later, however, to focus on college. During that time, Alvin announced he, with the help of a friend, was going to create a game for SMBZ as well, however, they dropped their project too...

Ever since, no one seemed to want to create an SMBZ game, leaving fans sad and longing.

So, now that I've finished college and am a much better developer than ever, I've decided to, once again, attempt to create the SMBZ fighting game all the fans of the series have been dying for. And this time, it won't be dropped.

The game is now finished and includes, but not limited to:

• Arcade Mode

• Versus Mode

• 9 Characters: Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Sonic, Shadow, Mecha Sonic, Axem Rangers X, Koopa Bros and Basilisx

• Over 6 Stages, including: Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island and Bowser's Flying Fortress

Future major updates will continue to occur, but at a reduced pace of once per year. More details available in the Discord server (link at the top)

Tips and Tricks

General Fundamentals:

• In the Options menu or the Pause Menu, you may find, view and edit your controls at your leisure.

• The Attack button can be used with a direction for 3 options: Up, Down and Neutral (i.e. no direction), as well as with Z-Trigger to do heavier attacks for 3 more options.

• The Guard button will block attacks, negating all damage but only from the front. Some attacks are unblockable.

• The Jump button can be tapped to light-hop or held for a full jump. 

• The Z-Trigger button will amplify some of your actions:

  • Z-Trigger + Attack = Z-Attack.

  • Z-Trigger + Jump = Pursue (aka Hyperdash or Z-Dash). It is a special attack used to quickly dash to opponents and strike them, at the cost of 1 bar of energy. This attack can be used while attacking as a cancel to extend combos. It is typically chargeable. Every character's Pursue is unique.

  • (Typically) Z-Trigger + Guard + Attack + Direction = Super Special. Inputs, conditions, and the actual super will vary between characters.

• Double-tapping left or right will make some characters sprint or dash, but generally it instantly accelerates your speed to max speed.

• Intensity rises as you fight and is represented by the red diamond in the top-center of the screen. Once full:

  • light attacks that collide will start a Burst, rather than simply clashing.

  • both fighters will gain access to their Critical Strike (typically Down Z-Attack).

• A Critical Strike is denoted by the white double-hyper-flash. It is a strong attack that launches the opponent through scenary and starts a Movement Rush.

• A Movement Rush is a mini-game where the players can only attack or dodge. Landing 3 hits will perform a finishing blow for large damage.

• A Burst is a rapid-punching struggle between the two fighters. To win a burst, be the first to press the correct action button after it appears. If both fighters press the correct button at the same time, or press the incorrect button, the Burst ends in a draw.

• A Cinematic Rush is a cinematic, high damage combo. Pressing the correct buttons at the right times during the rush will increase its damage. To trigger a rush, you must either hit an opponent with a Full Stun Strike.

• A Full Stun Strike is a special follow-up to one of your regular moves (typically Neutral Z-Attack) that only occurs after successfully hitting the opponent while they have full stun, represented by the small yellow bar under their health. 

Mario:

Mario isn't as strong as other characters but he has a powerful transformation in his pocket to turn the tide for a limited time. When you use this powerup, your current energy becomes the transformation's time limit. Once you run out of energy, the next hit you take will revert you back to normal. Choose when you transform carefully; you only get one powerup per match.

• Pursue: A ground-only chargeable dash punch. Full charge is unblockable.

• Transform by Holding Guard and Z-Trigger, then pressing Attack. You only get one Fire Flower per match, with one exception... for every additional 150 health, Mario gains an additional Fire Flower, to aid him in longer fights.

• Fire Mario:

  • Fireball Volley: Hold Z-Trigger and press Attack on the ground. Rapidly tap to shoot a volley of fireballs. Hold the Attack button to charge the fireball. While charging or volleying, hold up to aim the fireballs upward. Mind your usage, as each fireball takes a bit of energy.

  • Fundamental Improvements: Fire Mario shares a lot of base Mario's moveset, however, the damage, hitstun and knockback of some of the moves are different. Experiment, as these changes grant you more combo options than before.

    • Pursue will charge twice as fast.

Luigi:

Like Mario, Luigi isn't as strong as other characters but has a powerful transformation in his pocket to turn the tide for a limited time. While his kit is similar to Mario's, he differs by having heavier blows with less combo-ability. Pressure opponents with strings and Luigi's mobility. When the time is right, transform into Cape Luigi and devastate foes with powerful combos and even more mobility. 

• Green Missile: unlike other pursues, Green Missile is manually aimed. Full charge is unblockable.

• Transform by Holding Guard and Z-Trigger, then pressing Attack. You only get one Cape Feather per match, with one exception... for every additional 150 health, Luigi gains an additional Cape Feather, to aid him in longer fights.

• Cape Luigi: All of Luigi's difficulty stringing combos together is solved with the Cape. Most moves have upgrades or changed altogether to benefit long powerful combos. Be sure to experiment.

Sonic:

Sonic's primary objective is to launch his opponent with either Flash Kick (Down Z-Attack) or Blast Hop (Up Z-Attack). Once in the air, hit them with a couple neutral attacks into a spike kick (Neutral Z-Attack). String together combo after combo and go for a Power Dash (Neutral Z-Attack) at full stun for a full stun strike.

• Sonic doesn't have any easy-access unblockables. Use his speed to get around your opponents guard.

• Sonic's best damage comes from his air-combos. Use Sonic's many launchers to get and keep your opponent in the air.

• Pursue: Air-OK. Use to extend your combos.

• Light Speed Dash: Hold Z-Trigger + Attack while you have 2 bars. Consumes 2 bars.

Shadow:

Use Shadow's rapid jabs to bully your opponent. Keep them at bay and oppress them at a range with your Chaos Rifts (various Z-Attacks; the snaps). Always look for an opportunity to hit them with an unblockable Chaos Spear for solid damage. Hit them with a Rift at full stun for a Full Stun Strike. Use Chaos Blast to protect yourself against unblockable attacks or setups, like a Critical Strike or Koopa Bro swarming.

• Chaos Spear: Hold Guard and Z-Trigger. Then press Attack. Consumes 1 bar. Hold Attack to charge it and significantly increase its damage. Unblockable.

• Chaos Blast: Hold Guard, Z-Trigger and either Up or Down. Then press Attack. Consumes 1 bar.

• Pursue: Teleports to and attacks the opponent from anywhere on the map. Holding away from your opponent as you pursue to teleport and attack them from behind.

Yoshi:

Yoshi has a simple battle plan: tongue grab. Mix up your opponent with light jabs and when you see the opportunity, hit them with one of his long ranged tongue grabs for decent damage. At full stun, the tongue grab (Neutral Z-Attack) will transition into a Rush.

• Tongue Grab: It is charable up to 3 levels. Note the first level is blockable, but safe, while the second and third levels are unblockable but longer reach and do more damage.

• Eggs: Pressing Up + Z-Trigger + Attack will throw a egg projectile. Use it to setup tongue grabs or extend combos. Replenish eggs by landing tongue grabs.

• Double Jump Cancel: Unlike the rest of the roster, Yoshi can Double Jump. Additionally, the Double Jump cancels any attack Yoshi is doing, allowing Yoshi to do things like, for example, cancel Ground Pound (Down + Z-Trigger + Attack) into Ground Pound again.

• Super Tackle: To perform, fully charge Yoshi's pursue. It will be a high priority, high damage move that rips through its target(s).

Koopa Bros:

By himself, Koopa Red cannot do much. Use his brothers to swarm your opponent. Aim to attack both sides of your opponent at the same time for unblockable setups. Be mindful of your brothers' HP though. After about 10 damage, they will get knocked out for a while. Be careful if your opponent is doing sweeping moves that can wipe out your squad.

• Team Attack: Pursuing (Z-Trigger + Jump) will launch you, as well as your brothers at your target in succession. The longer you charge, the more brothers will join in on the attack. It is most effective to do when you have Koopas on both sides of your opponent.

• "Super Special Technique": Hold Guard and Z-Trigger. Then press Attack. Consumes 3 bars.

  • This move revives all fallen bros.

  • You can change direction before they blast off.

  • All the Koopas are invincible during the entire attack.

  • To avoid this move, you have to find a way to get above it or use a powerful move to clash with it. While some characters will have an easier time than others, note that every character has some means of avoiding this attack.

• Reviving Bros: When bros get knocked out, they will recover after a while. If you have the opening, know that you can quickly revive the nearest bro by using the gibberish taunt (No directional input + taunt button).

Mecha Sonic:

Unlike the rest of the roster, Mecha Sonic doesn't have any jab attacks. All of his strikes launch, so get in the mind set of throwing your opponent around, rather than sticking on them with rapid attacks. Use his rollout (Neutral Z-Attack) into his Air Grab (Up Z-Attack) as a standard bread and butter. Look for any opportunity to grab your opponent with down Z-Attack for a high damage attack, which will transition into a Full Stun Strike. Use your Counter (Down Attack) to shake off attackers who are all over you.

• Chaos Sphere: Hold Guard and Z-Trigger, then press Attack. Consumes 1 bar. Air-OK. While the sphere itself is unblockable, its explosion is not.

• Light Speed Dash: Hold Z-Trigger + Attack while you have 2 bars. Consumes 2 bars. Functions like Sonic's Light Speed Dash, except it charges less quickly.

• Jet Dash: Double tap either left or right to perform a gravity defying dash. Air-OK. Has a 1 second cooldown and is only usable once in the air. Jump during Jet Dash to soar into the air. 

• Spin Crash: (Air Down Z-Attack) Hitting the opponent precisely with this move will do significantly extra damage.

• Counter: While grounded, hold down and then press Attack. Getting hit during the beginning of the move will ignore its damage and trigger a counter attack. Hold away from the opponent during the counter attack to do an alternate move. It won't work against powerful attacks, like Critical Strikes.

• Chaos Sphere and Rocket Fire (Air Neutral Z-Attack) levitates Mecha Sonic during the attack and allows you to steer left and right to line up the shot.

Axem Rangers X

While more formidable on his own than Koopa Red, Axem Red's attacks are long and can leave him open if he misses any of his attacks. Use your squad wisely to cover you. Squad-mates have cooldowns to their use, which are extended if they are damaged.

• Axem Pink: (Neutral Z-Attack) Summons Pink behind you and on the ground, even when summoned from the air. Use her to launch your opponent into the air and follow up solid combo damage. At full stun, she converts into a full stun strike.

• Axem Yellow: (Down Z-Attack) Summons Yellow behind you, even when summoned in the air. Break your opponent's guard with Yellows hammer slam. At full intensity, summoning Yellow will have him do a Critical Strike, even if he is on cooldown. It is slower than other character's Critical Strike, but covers a much larger range. 

• Axem Green: (Up Z-Attack on ground) Summons Green to sweep across the sky with a spinning blade. Use Green to deny aerial opponents or follow up to launchers.

• Axem Black: (Up Z-Attack in air) Summons Black in front of you to protect you with his spinning blade. Black's blade has high priority, able to reflect most light projectiles and nullify most close range light attacks.

• Axem Cyclone (Guard + Z-Attack)  Consumes 2 bars. Summons Axem Green and Black to perform a devastating attack that sweeps air-borne opponents. Combo into it with Axem Pink or use it preemptively against jumpy foes.

Basilisx

Basilisx is a tricky, rush-down character with extended melee range, due to his claws. Be unpredictable and mix-up your opponent with Basilisx Back Attack, Fell Swoop and Pursue.

• Fell Swoop (Neutral Z-Attack) triggers Full Stun Strikes. You can can control your movement while in the air and, upon landing, Basilisx attacks with a blast, which is safe on block and can be comboed from  a pursue. Be careful, though, as you are open before landing.

• Ground Pound (Aerial Down Z-Attack) gives Basilisx armor while he is in his spiked shell. Use it to counter aggression.

• Super Flurry Claw (Hold Guard and Z-Trigger. Then press Attack. Consumes 1 bar)  has the unique ability of Chip Damage, where, even if blocked, it will damage the target. Use it to punish attacks or to get in extra damage.

Goomba

Goomba is a silly, joke character, requested by the community. It was never made to be competitively viable. Nevertheless, Goomba still packs a punch... and that's it. It is the fastest attack in the game, with an alarming amount of damage to boot. Play aggressively and try not to get zoned out, if possible, as that is Goomba's greatest weakness: its range. Abuse the fact that your attacks come out faster than any other move.

Patch Notes

[April 10th 2024] (Ver.1.12)] A massive number of balance changes across the entire roster, plus bug fixes.

[March 23th 2024] (Ver.1.11)] Bug fixes, including Mech Sonic's tiny rocket UI, and some bug fixes regarding fireballs when reflected.

[March 19th 2024] (Ver.1.1)] This patch features various bug fixes, small feature adjustments and some community feedback. Some highlights: Goomba got a sprite boundary update. Movement Rush victims now have less health during the rush. Removed hammer slam infinites with Luigi and Caped Luigi.

[September 29th 2023] (Ver.1.09)] Balance changes. Damage mitigation implemented: exterme damage combos now gradually do less damage over time. Further nerfs to Yoshi, removing light tongue grab infinite and making ground pound unsafe on block. Nerfs to Shadow, reducing jab loop combos. Mecha now regains dash after landing lunge grab and his alternate lunge grab activates easier to prevent psuedo infinites. Base Luigi buffed, decreasing startup on Hammer Run, reducing knockback on Cyclone and having pursue charge 10% faster. Caped Luigi's light cape spin nerfed: can no longer back attack. Changed the font on the damage/hit counters so they dont clip outside the window.

[August 4th 2023] (Ver.1.08)] Balance changes. Yoshi infinites removed. Yoshi's eggs no longer autmatically recharge; instead he must land tongue grabs. Fire Mario Finale nerfed; now costs meter and has less hitstun, and eagle kick infinite removed. Sonic's Eagle and Dive Kicks don't loop as much. Mecha Sonic's spike kicks dont loop as much and his Chaos Sphere does less damage. Koopa Bros can now revive fallen bros by Gibberish taunting. Mario's hop hammer hitbox size reduced and stomp no longer loops as much times in a combo. Shadow bug fix and Chaos Barrier buffed to be safe on block and have armor on startup. Arcade mode now has a toggle to activate random skins for the CPU to use.

[July 29th 2023] (Ver.1.071)] Hotfix. Fixed the "invert" checkboxes bug with Player 1's Gamepad Horizontal axis and Player 2's Gamepad Horizontal & Vertical axis. 

[June 11th 2023] (Ver.1.07)] Minor update. Fixed some bugs with Yoshi, Koopa, Goomba and removing an Axem Red infinite.

[March 31st 2023] (Ver.1.06)] Major Update: Movement Rush! Critical strikes now trigger a new form of battle where players play a mini-game to deal bonus damage, while transitioning the stage and music.

[October 25th 2022] (Ver.1.05) Halloween Update (brought to you by amar from the SMBZ-G Community Hub Discord). New skins. New system to add your own custom skins. 

[July 29th 2022] (Ver.1.04) Fixed "bug" where Goomba appeared as Semi-Super Mecha Sonic, but left an option for players to relive the comical intro. Added option to toggle between new Main Menu scenery and background music. Music and Sound Effects can now be muted. Arcade Results page is now a bit clearer. Several bug fixes and infinite removes were made.

[April 1st 2022] (Ver.1.03) Semi-Super Mecha Sonic has been added as a new character!

[Nov 14th 2021] (Ver.1.02) Several bug and infinites fixed. Tap Jump now works with Burst Reactions and Rhythm Reactions. Axem Yellow cooldown increased. Fire Mario AI improved to handle shooting fireballs more intelligently. Rhythm Reactions now ignores inputs that are too early, instead of flagging it as a miss. Koopa Red's Double Barrel now better prevents fast moving opponents from slipping through. Axem Red's uppercut, Basilisx's High Claw and Basilisx Upper Slash now only hit aerial targets, which means they no longer hits Mecha Sonic while he is standing. Mario and Fire Mario's sprite color palettes have been polished (Credit to Cosmic Wolf). Added a "ducking" effect to audio to prevent sound effects from ever getting too loud. Sound Effects now merge if the same clip is playing rapidly within a few frames of each other. Basilisx now lands further away after his Rush, reducing the amount of advantage he has over his target immediately after the Rush ends.

[Sept 2nd 2021] (Ver.1.01) Bug fixes:
- Base Mario's pursue is fixed, and removed a blue pixel.
- Anti-Runner system toned down
- Mecha's spin dash doesn't break gravity if inturrupted the frame it connects with someone
- Mecha's "Yea" voice lines are now louder.
- Luigi's AI now transforms and pursues again.
- "Yellow Tint when hurt" setting now saves.

[August 29th 2021] (Ver.1.0)  Basilisx is now playable. Many balance changes and bug fixes. Anti-runner system. Alternate colors for ditto battles. New options. Taunts. Full details found on the Discord server (link at the top)

[July 11th 2021] (Ver.0.97) Many bug fixes and polish updates, mostly involving issues caused from Clashing and Nullifying attacks.

[July 7th 2021] (Ver.0.961) Refactored scene transition system to fix bug where scenes would sometimes fail to load. Improved quality Axem Red's Spinning Axe projectile and Axem Cyclone sprites. Removed a blue pixel from Yoshi Island grass texture.

[July 3rd 2021] (Ver.0.95) Fixed bug with Mario's pursue that was introduced last patch. Added output logging, a spinning emerald on the initial loading screen and some additional logic to prevent a start-up bug that was happening on some machines, and help debug the problem if it happens again in the future. Fixed bug where Shadow could cancel his 3rd jab back into his 1st jab, which was making his jab spam pressure too strong. Added more blockstun on Koopa Bro's double barrel punch so that it is actually safe against jabs, as previously intended.

[June 27th 2021] (Ver.0.94)  Koopa Bros have been buffed: Bros now have health regeneration, a new HUD to display their health and more intelligent AI. Red's double barrel punch is now safe on block and now has a regular jump height. Axem Ranger Red's twirl now holds targets in blockstun more consistently, twirl can chain to pursue easier, pursue's lowest level now does 2 chops instead of 1, and the axe toss now holds victims in place better. Fire Mario's Aerial Fireball now longer deletes Shadow's Chaos Spear. Chaos Spear is no longer reflected at max charge. Options menu redesigned, with new option to adjust framerate (it kind-of works). Character Select Menu more responsive on wider resolutions. Lots of bug fixes: Shadow FSS snap no longer breaks when attacking a reverting transformed character. Mario's pursue-cancelled FSS no longer softlocks the match.

[June 26th 2021] (Ver.0.931) Bug fixed "invert" input setting for Player 2

[June 17th 2021] (Ver.0.93)  New input feature: you can now copy and paste your controls settings, allowing input setup to be faster when playing online (using Parsec or similar). Fixed bug where deadzone was no longer being read. Fixed bug where setting gamepad inputs to default wasn't remembering the gamepad index it was targeting.  Fixed Shadow's AI bug where he would not attack, similar to Axem Ranger Red's AI bug fix from last patch.

[June 13th 2021] (Ver.0.92)  Buffed Base Luigi: Green Missle does less damage but can now extend combos, Hammer Run is now safe on block. Added input delay setting to Arcade page. Axem Ranger Pink now sticks to her target easier, so her teammates wont knock her target out of her combo as easy. Fixed bug where Axem Ranger Red's AI would stop attacking sometimes. Fixed bug where you can sometimes cancel Luigi's green missle and softlock Luigi's inputs.  Fixed Yoshi's tongue position during various animations so it isn't retracting into nothing.

[June 9th 2021] (Ver.0.909) Yoshi reworked: tongue grab now chargable and aimable, new down z-attack, new critical strike, flutter kick buffed, pursue recovery buffed. Fire Mario's fireballs' priority has been buffed and his aireal fireball has more range when shot closer to the ground. A manual input delay has been added to assist against host advantage in online play.  Staleable attacks now refresh when the combo ends, rather than through an abusable, arbitrary timer. Many infinites were removed as a result. Caped Luigi's damage has been increased across most of his moves.

[Feb 14th 2021] (Ver.0.905) Small patch. Fixed bug where Axem Pink would sometimes fail to perform her full stun strike. The health display for small numbers should no longer format in exponential notion. To reduce issues caused by rare, short freezes, maximum time step reduced from 333ms to 32ms (this will result the game to play at slower speeds when running at less than 30fps). Small adjustments to Sonic: spin dash's hitstun reduced from 0.8s to 0.7s. Flash kick, tornado kick and spin dash no longer lift targets off the floor when blocked. Pursue should connect more reliably now. 

[October 4th 2020] (Ver.0.904) Added failsafe to Mecha Sonic's rush if it ever glitches out (happens when running around 30 frames per second or less). Added new option to toggle "V-Sync". Target frame rate set to 60. Removed down air infinite on Koopa Bros.

[September 26th 2020] (Ver.0.903) Fixed bug with input editor for Player 2's Z-Attack input, among other inputs. Reduced Caped Luigi's  air combo hitstun and increased the speed at which he can perform the air combo.

[August 4th 2020] (Ver.0.902) Custom player names and battle titles. Also, version number and a date/timestamp is now shown on all scenes.

[August 3rd 2020] (Ver.0.901) Fixed a bug with Input Configurator. Improved Input Configurator to now allow gamepads' Horizontal and Vertical input axis to be remapped, as well as adjust deadzone and even invert the axis. Fixed Caped Luigi infinite. Fixed outstanding Spanish translation errors.

[August 1st 2020] (Ver.0.9) Luigi has been released, including his transformation, Cape Luigi.. Axem Rangers X finally have their super special "Axem Cyclone". Command Lists are in. Spanish Localization has been added. A variety of bug fixes and infinite removals. Details:

• Mario & Yoshi's jabs now have staling to prevent an infinite.

• All 3 of Mario's and Fire Mario's jab animations have been adjusted to have longer reach (previously, the animations' frames were jittery which made the reach of his jabs unintentionally shorter).

• Shadow's Chaos Spear now releases faster (2 frames, down from 8 frames) and has a better chance of connecting at point blank range.

• Fixed bug where Mecha Sonic would continue his grab if he got hit in the same frame the grab connected, which was also breaking his grab's mechanics.

[April 28th 2020] (Ver.0794) Tons of balance changes and new quality of life features:

Balance Changes:

• New priority system changed from (Normal, Heavy, Critical) to (Light, Medium, Heavy, Critical).

• Mario's Hammer moves now Heavy priority, from Critical. No longer clashes with physical supers like Yoshi's Super Tackle, Koopa's Super Special Technique, Sonic's and Mecha Sonic's Light Speed Dashes.

• Fire Mario's areal fireball now travels faster. Fire Mario's hook punch animation fixed to not look janky. Fire Mario's transformation no longer practically invincible. 

• Yoshi's ground pound first hit now drops target as fast as Yoshi falls and also sticks the opponent to the floor if they are on the ground at the time of being hit. Rush now has a fail condition if Yoshi somehow fails to connect the initiating tackle. Tongue grabs no longer grabs NPCs. Yoshi now invincible while grabbing someone. Yoshi now has his down attack: Tongue Sweep. 

• Sonic adjusted to remove a few infinites.

• Axem Rangers Buffed across the board: All cooldowns reduced. Yellow now has armor and does more hitstun. Green spawns a bit lower to catch light-hops and is now higher priority. Black stays out longer. 

• Koopa Bros's jab assault now has knockback on the 3rd punch. Koopa Red's double barrel punch now has staling after using it twice, consecutively. Staling applies less hitstun and adds significant knockback. Buffed hitstun of Koopa Bros super during startup so it can confirm into the strike. 

• Shadow Backward Pursue has a new recovery animation to be more punishable.

Bug fixes and Quality of Life Features:

• New debug key "6" to reset all players' stun

• Inputs are now buffered during TimeLock (the time freeze between two players upon landing a hit)

• All excessive hitstuns reduced to a max of 4 seconds. 

• Many of Yoshi's attacks had their TimeLock reduced (it was needlessly high for a lot of them) so attacks flow faster. 

• Mario now makes a strain noise when he uppercuts 50% of the time. Mario's Full Stun Strike leap hammer no longer ramps up the hit counter. Mario's aerial hammer swing has a new voice line.

• Fixed issue where Axem Ranger NPCs would sometimes constantly make 'Landing' sounds in the background as the stage moved. If Axem Rangers Rush fails, it no longer leaves Red invincible. Axem Red now has visual feedback when his grounded neutral attack is nullified or clashed. 

• Battle and Arcade Results Screen now shows how much hp each fighter had at the end of the final round. 

[February 15th 2020] (Ver.0.79) Removed infinites found on Sonic, Mecha Sonic and Fire Mario. Koopa Bros' "Super Special Technique" hitbox height reduced to fit the sprite and be a bit easier to jump over. Debug buttons can now be enabled/disabled. Mark Haynes' Twitter link updated.

[January 11th 2020] (Ver.0.78) Fixed bug where Fire Mario would lockup and the camera would stay focused on his opponent in the event his Full Stun Strike was nullified by a higher priority move (for example: Axem Black's fan).

[December 29nd 2019] (Ver.0.77) Battle UI redesigned. Added audio/visual feedback Shadow's Chaos Rift, when it is destroyed and to Yoshi's Tongue grabs when they are clashed. Shadow's Chaos Rift no longer nullifies physical hitboxes it clashes with. Time Played no longer accumulates in value when you rematch. Axem Pink now performs her uppercut more reliably. Mecha Sonic's Stomp infinite has been fixed.

[December 22nd 2019] (Ver.0.76) Quality of Life updates, bug fixes and balance changes:

• Yoshi: Flutterkick's hitstun reduced to remove infinite. Tackle damage increased. Tongue Grab's hitstun increased. The straining voice line from his double jump now less annoying (it cancels if you do an attack).

• Mecha Sonic: Grounded Grab now deals damage in two parts to more easily trigger Full Stun Strike. Adjusted aesthetic of Rush. Fixed bugs that messed with Mecha Sonic's and/or his Target's physics/positioning when countered (includes Sonic's spin kicks, Mario's pursue and Koopa Bros Full Stun Strike).

• Shadow: Increased recovery frames of grounded Chaos Rifts. Chaos Rifts blocked knockback reduced. Aerial Chaos Rift can no longer trigger Full Stun Strike. Lowed hitstun of Chaos Blast. Forward Pursue has increased recovery frames, making it block-punishable, but now has Directional Influence (you can reposition slightly during the attack). Fixed bug where Chaos Rift was not being nullified by higher priority attacks.

• Koopa Bros: fixed bug where performing Super Special Technique did not prevent the startup of their Full Stun Strike.

• Fixed bug that allowed players to nudge themselves during cinematic pauses by dashing (double tapping a direction).

• UI updates: buttons and font are now more inline with SMBZ's design. Arcade Results screen now uses a scrollview, so smaller resolution screens can now scroll the table up and down to see everything.

• Main Menu now shows the version number at the top left of the screen. New updates also mention what is the newest version number.

• Player Indicators now appear in ditto matches to help differentiate players from each other.

[December 6th 2019] Bug fixes: Sonic's Rush damage now scales with the correct inputs, instead of always doing full damage even if you get a couple wrong. Mecha Sonic can no longer pursue out of a landed Critical Strike, which would otherwise break the fight, requiring a restart. Also, for some users, a shader problem, preventing you from seeing Koopa Bros sprites and seeing purple textures, may now be resolved.

[November 9th 2019] Bug fix: Sonic and Mecha Sonic's Light Speed Dash wasn't working if you did it in slow motion.

[October 11th 2019] A few bug fixes and minor changes: Yoshi's upward tongue no longer occasionally extends in the opposite direction. Axem Pink's Full Stun Strike, if whiffed, now more gracefully fails (instead of her flying into the heavens). Shadow's jabs no longer occasionally fail to connect (subsequently his jab combo is slower than before, but on par with the rest of the roster). Shadow's alternative pursue no longer blasts targets away, allowing you to follow up, and also no longer has a chance to leave Shadow completely unresponsive. Shadow's Chaos Spear, when reflected, now launches opponents in the correct direction. Chaos Spear's knockback and hitstun adjusted. Some small color corrections were made to Mario and Fire Mario's sprites.

[October 6th 2019] Axem Rangers X is now available, along with many balance changes, bug fixes and new options!

• • Intensity now increases with damage, instead of per-hit, resulting in more consistent intensity gain. Intensity gain is now, overall, slower than in previous versions though, meaning less Critical Strikes.

  • New options added to modify Intensity and Energy gain and change Resolution.

  • New option added to show the health of players as a number on their health bar.

  • Fire Mario's fireballs damage reduced and 3rd level fireball is no longer unblockable. Rush damage increased.

  • Yoshi's tongue grab now full stun strikes easier.

  • Shadow can no longer immediately pursue after firing a chaos spear and landing chaos spear no longer refunded as much energy on hit. His AI is now a little smarter.

  • Mecha Sonic's moveset is now more consistent, overall doing more reliable damage. The grounded grab does more damage. Counter Attack more intelligently tracks its target and has higher priority. Air grab's stun and throw speed is now variable with height, resulting in more consistent follow-up options. Chaos sphere no longer refunds as much energy on hit.

  • Sonic's launchers now knockup their target more intelligently, resulting in more consistent follow-up options. Launchers now have lower hitstun after back-to-back use to prevent infinites. Sonic should be easier to play with little to no abusable infinites now. Sonic's rush does more damage now.

  • New "white flash" special effect added to some explosive attacks, such as Chaos Spear. An option has also been added to disable this feature.

  • Adjustments made to the main menu to reduce the frequency of (and potentially fix) the game sometimes soft locking at "Press any key".

[December 4th 2018] Arcade Mode is now available, and with it, Rounds and 2 new stages! Set the battle to end when a fighter reaches 1 - 5 wins ("Endless" is still preserved as an option). Yoshi Island's Green Hills and the Secret Underground Maze have been added as stages. All characters' AI have been improved to better handle Fire Mario's fireball volleys. Yoshi AI now full charges his tackle more often. Shadow now has a voice line when he dies. Fixed bug with Mecha Sonic when bursting off of his Light Speed Dash. Fixed bug where Shadow could have Full Stun Strike off of his Chaos Sphere. Fixed bug where Koopa Bros would slide out of formation during their Super Special Technique.

[December 1st 2018] Mecha Sonic is finally playable! Additionally, a few bug fixes were made.

[July 16th 2018] Small bug fix with bursting.

[July 15th 2018] The Koopa Bros now have their "Super Special Technique". While grounded and with 3 bars, Hold Guard and Z-Trigger, then press attack, to perform it. Fire Mario's pursue now charges up twice as fast. Shadow's alternate pursue now locks on to its target better. Sonic's AI now jumps more to avoid projectiles. More bug fixes, such as Shadow being able to pursue during his Full Stun Strike, and some cases that would otherwise cause the game to lock up.

[July 1st 2018] Sonic now has a super special: Light Speed Dash. Grounded Neutral Z-Attack, "Power Dash", reworked to be chargeable, which extends the distance of the attack. Fully charging the attack with full energy performs Light Speed Dash. Fixed a bug that caused Power Dash to sometimes hit the opponent from behind while dashing through them, making it seemingly unblockable.

[June 11th 2018] CPU Mario now uses Fire Flowers to become Fire Mario. More bug fixes regarding Fire Mario's transformation. Polished Shadow's Burst Victory Strike. Adjusted all AI to be a little more tactical while being assaulted by projectiles and to be aggressive when they win a Burst.

[June 4th 2018] Bug fixes regarding Fire Mario's transformation.

[June 3rd 2018] Mario now comes with a Fire Flower - Fire Mario is now playable! Base Mario's damage nerfed. Sonic's maximum energy has been reduced to 2 bars and his blur dash no longer crosses-up the opponent if he is right in front of them. Koopa Bros and Shadow's rushes now do more damage. Everyone's rush no longer builds Intensity during the cinematic. Most of Yoshi's attacks have been reworked and polished to fix a ton of problems with his kit, including removing a few infinites, making his pursue a bit easier to dodge, his tongue grab more punishable and his critical tongue grab less ridiculous (added startup delay so you can actually react to it). A new button has been added "Z-Attack", which is a convenience button that provides an alternative way to perform heavy attacks.

[May 6th 2018] Quality of Life Updates!

1. Input settings are now available in the Options Menu and will now save your changes for the next time you open the game.

2. Health Settings added to the Options Menu and Character Select scene, allowing you to set the HP of Player 1 and Player 2 to any number between 1 and 1,000 (150 by default).

3. Added a "Reset all to Default" to the Options Menu.

4. Yoshi's tackle now bounces him off the victim, making it more canon to the show.

5. Shadow's teleport now tracks the target better, making him land the hit far more reliably

6. Shadow's Chaos Spear no longer has minimum range. It will no longer whiff targets who are directly in front of you.

7. The Koopa Bros final strike of their rush now correctly positions everyone consistently.

8. AI controlled players now have a chance to turn to face you if you attack them from behind.

[April 23rd 2018] Added credits for Yoshi's sprites. Adjusted Yoshi's size in the menus.

[April 22nd 2018] New Character: Yoshi! His AI is unrefined, however. I will come back to it later. Shadow's Chaos spear damage increased and some of his animations have been polished. Added a frame rate counter.

[March 4th 2018] Adjusted Shadow's rush cinematic to fix an occasional bug that would otherwise softlock the game. Fixed the transition of Yoshi's Forest's music.

[February 27th 2018] Shadow the hedgehog is now playable! Sonic's AI has been improved to better suit his air-combo playstyle. Sonic's hitboxes for his "blur dash" and critical strike have been widened. Koopa Bros now rack up more stun with their shell attacks. Koopa Red's double barrel punch now holds the target in place for more combo options, instead of sending them flying.

With the release of Shadow, a new input is available for Supers (Guard + Z-Trigger + Attack + Direction). Currently, only Shadow has his supers. More to come in later updates.

[December 31st 2017] Fixed major bug where supporting Koopa Bro breaks if he is knocked out while trying to jump back to the background.

[December 30th 2017] Added new option to change the size and position of Hit Counters. Fixed bug were Koopa Bros slide along the ground during a rush, if they are stunned.

[December 26th 2017] Some bug fixes.

[December 25th 2017] Merry Christmas! Koopa Bros are here! Sonic has also received a few buffs - his Neutral and Down Z-Trigger Attacks now come out faster. As for the UI, the combo and damage counter's font sizes have been reduced and have been positioned more to the sides of the screen. Some bug fixes as well, such as your character's jab combos not starting from the first swing if they have been interrupted by a hit or pursue and not being able to guard if you were moving at running pace.

[December 9th 2017] Fixed a major bug where players were sometimes able to attack freely during a Burst. Fixed the impact freeze on attacks so it starts on the same frame, instead of on the next frame. Also made some UI improvements.

[December 7th 2017] Fixed a major bug where attacks were hitting more times than it should at lower FPSs.

[November 30th 2017] New character: Sonic! Options Menu: change Sfx and BGM volume. Battle HUD improved. Energy regeneration reduced but now builds up by landing hits.

[September 4th 2017] 3 new stages have been added, each with their own music. A few tiny bug fixes and UI tweaks here and there.

[August 27th 2017] Polished Clashing and Bursting. Clashes now feel a lot better and increase Intensity. Likewise with Bursts. Winning a Burst now performs a victory strike. CPU now has multiple difficulties (Easy/Normal/Hard). Mario's Hyper Dash has been reworked to be ground-only with a new animation.

[August 25th 2017] Improved input manager: you can now fully interact with the game using a gamepad from the very start. Key remap wizard and quick input device switching has been added to the "Rebind Keys" options page. Also, the game now checks if there are any new updates and alerts you if it finds any.

[July 16th 2017] Added Input Manager (Remapping controls and Gamepad compatibility). Added music and sound effects. Gameplay improvements, as usual.

[July 8th 2017] Added CPU AI.

[June 13th 2017] Main Menu. Character Select Menu. Pause Menu. Restarting the game on K.O.

(Started: October 2014)

Between 2014 and Q1 of 2017, I was working on it here and there and have ran through a few prototypes as I conceptualized and experimented with various fighting systems and mechanics. It wasn't until June 2017 that I finally struck gold and solidified the full gameplay concept. From then on out, I've been building and polishing the engine's foundation. Following that will be content, such as Characters and Stages.