Kaizo Mario is like a bootcamp from hell to speedrun your way to the best Mario player in your neighborhood. It also includes a bunch of fun Super Mario World romhacks (aka patches), with all new levels, characters, abilities, and quite poetic names to boot (see: 'Stick mice in my head and then beat my head in with a hammer and let them back out'). The Kaizo community congregates around the website www.smwcentral.net and various youtube channels, led by Ryu, arguably the best Super Mario franchise player on the planet.
Below you will find the easiest instructions for playing Super Mario World Kaizo patches
specifically for the Retroid.
Links and Downloads
www.smwcentral.netrepository of patches and tutorials on romhacking
jsromclean
check to see if your rom is clean
Snes9x Ex+
(Google Play Store)
Super Nintendo emulator for playing Kaizo levels
UniPatcher
(Google Play Store)
Applies the patch (.bps) files to the rom
So here's how it works. For legal purposes, rather that uploading playable versions of Super Mario World with reworked levels, folks in the Kaizo community upload "patches" to a forum. The patch is like a recipe for a different Mario dish, using the original Super Mario World rom as an ingredient list. You're gonna download the patch you want to play and apply it to your a regular version of the Super Mario World.smc rom, which creates a whole new version of the game. There are general instructions here, but I have found that for playing Kaizo on Retroid in particular, there's a much faster and easier way to do it.
You only have to go through this process once when you get a new patch. After you have named and applied all your patches, you can play them whenever you want.
Instructions
On your computer:
- not sure which ones to get? Here are some videos with a ton of recommended patches in the description (1; 2)
3. The patches are going to download as .zip files, so unzip all of them and just place the .bps files into the 'patches' folder and delete the zips and anything else that came along with it like readme.txt files etc.
Note: Some come with stuff like soundtracks but you dont need those included to play the game, its just extra in case you want to listen to the OST while doing other shit.
4. In the 'Kaizo' folder youre going to put a "clean" copy of the Super Mario World rom (usually named 'Super Mario World (U)[!].smc'. Clean means it hasnt been altered or patched already, otherwise when you apply the patch its going to come out all fucked up. You can drop your rom into this website to find out if it is a clean version. This folder will fill up with altered versions of the game after you go through the steps below. Patches (.bps files) will go in the, you guessed it, 'patches' subfolder.
On your Retroid:
Even though you already have a Super Nintendo Emulator in RetroArch, getting it through the Google Play Store will put a separate app on your homescreen and will make everything easier to find (your wont have to rifle through ALL of your SNES roms) and a lot faster, trust me.
**smwcentral.net recommends a patcher called FLiPS, but it's a PC Desktop program, UniPatcher does the same thing and you can then do everything from your Retroid
2. The first time you open Snes9x youre gonna have to:
Turn off the 'On Screen Controll Overlay'
Go to 'Input Controls' and add the Retroid controller,
it should automatically configure the buttons and give you the option to press any button on the Retroid to initiate pairing.
3. Insert your SD card with the 'Kaizo' folder.
MAC OSX USERS:
It's an unfortunate by-product of Mac's desire to punish users of non-apple devices to sometimes insert weird, empty 0kb files that begin with ._ I would recommend before starting the steps below to go to the Files app (the one that looks like a folder on your homescreen) and navigate to your 'Kaizo' folder to double-check and delete these files. It will make the folders less crowded and makes sure you won't accidentally select the wrong version of the file youre trying to use.
You should see Snes9x and UniPatcher icons on the homescreen of your Retroid.
Choosing which Patch To Apply
2. (First Box) 'Patch File'
Select Patch you want to play (.bps file)
Press ≡ in upper left corner
Disk>Kaizo>Patches> [Name of Patch.bps]
Selecting the Game you want to Patch
3. (Second box) 'Rom File'
Disk>Kaizo> Super Mario World (U)[!].smc
>> make sure file ends in SMC!
once you've gone through this process a few times there will be more files added to this folder with similar names.
Saving and Naming the New Patched Version
4. (Third Box) 'Output File'
Disk>Kaizo
It might already be open to this folder, if it is, it will say ‘Kaizo’ in the blue bar at the top
>>make sure you save the file in the same 'Kaizo' folder as the original Super Mario World game
This will make it easier to find them in Snes9x
Change the name of the new file at the bottom (next to the blue Save button)
so you can recognize which patch it is later
ex. Super Mario World Ryuwrld (U)[!] [patched].smc
Super Mario World (U)[!] Ryuwrld [patched].smc
Press blue Save button
5. Press Red Button in the corner
6. Open Snes9x
> Open Content
> Select Super Mario World (U)[!].smc for Regular Version
Super Mario World (U)[!] [patched].smc for Patched Versions
ex. Super Mario World Mice (U)[!] [patched].smc
**if you give each patch its own name, you won’t have to repatch it every time you want to play. In the end, if you have 7 patches, when you open Snes9x you will see 8 versions (7+Original)
Yo, yall should really be downloading the Ducktales.nes rom, if only for the sole purpose of going to the start screen and letting the title theme play out in full.
.~+Game Database Links+~.
So youve found a console romdump of every game ever, only to realize you have no idea what a good half of them are, and its not worth loading ALL of them onto your retroid since you probably wont play the majority of them and dont want to scroll through 1500 titles just to get to a Yoshi game. Luckily there are tons of databases out there with descriptions, letsplays and rankings of pretty much every game title in existence.
Emma's Playstation Expedition is one of the best of such databases i've come across. It's very thorough and leans more towards review than fact-of-the-matter description. You can get a good idea on gameplay, with video links when available. There's also an "Emma's Pick" badge for their personal faves. It's super clean, easy to navigate, and actually fun to browse- what's more it's hosted here on neocities, so the effort of compiling and coding this database is not lost on me.
They also have a ton of other retrogaming projects on their main homepage, Heckscaper.com, including a dedicated game soundtrack project (below) called Line Out Land.
1O out of 1O Mushrooms
Another good way to go is through a themed database like Cyberpunkdatabase.net. Their Games section allows you to brows by title, game genre (acton, rpg, driving etc.) or console ranging from PS5 and the Oculus all the way back to Commodore and Atari. Ive discovered a few fun Sega games this way, and it's inspired me to try and get PC-DOS going on the babybox.
8 out of 10 Mushrooms
No i dont call my Retroid the babybox, but i probably will now
Exploded View Consoles
Pierre Roussel's console series (above) is truly a delight for retrogamers, giving so much to look at and out for. Plus the vertical format hella lends itself to posters and wallpapers.
See other consoles hes done here
or grab a print on the etsy shop.
Similarly, Richard Parry's meticulous photographs (yes, he claims these are photos) from his "Assembly Required Series" are great eye-candy.
Parry's Instagram
Google "Richard Parry Assembly Required" for about a half-dozen print options.
If you really want something truly cathartic, then consider a physically exploded and carefully mounted handheld, as a warning to all your consoles any time they choose to act up.
Etsy link (Currently 30% off for Father's Day!)
for some reason none of these motherfuckers above sell NES console prints, which makes me think theyre holding on to it for an NFT drop or something dumb.
TOE JAM & EARL:
PANIC ON FUNKATRON
Out the gate I was playing this pretty much non-stop after setting up my Retroid, and its been a blast. The game is perfect for the device. There's the colorful clear outlines of the animated style, its nothing taxing on the hardware, and i just kind of remember it enough for it to give me my nostalgic kicks. I wasnt the kid with a sega in my neighborhood (that was Lela Maule- shout out if youre still alive girl), so I wasnt able to commit the game to memory. If you've never played it Toe Jam & Earl is the tale of two aliens that live on a planet entirely devoted to early 90s hip hop. Humans have invaded their funky lands (they use the word Funk like Smurfs use the S-word; see above), and in a fun twist on an old trope, its your job as the alien to round up all the humans. Who are total assholes. A recurring bad guy is a naked white guy in a cardboard box that will fling his shit at you. I finally beat it the other day and whiled away many hours since load save-stating my way through Super Mario Bros 2 and unknowingly cussing in public.
i tried to grab a screenshot of him pulling himself across the panel.. but it's kind of shit
TJ&E's gotten me fiending for other highly graphic games on sega genesis that have faded to obscurity and I think I've found one in Comix Zone, a fun fighting game where you play as an irregularly buff comic book artist who's been transported into his own comic to fight your own creations alongside your sidekick street rat. The fun thing about this one is you climb across panels and it's a gorgeous violent mess so far, but ive only played a few minutes so I can speak on the game's staying power. Fun for the handheld though.
Ill admit, im surprised i didnt immediately throw myself into something from the Silent Hill series, since, in case you couldnt tell from the hints ive dropped throughout this site, it's still one of my favorite games and, I would argue, defining personality traits (in that I could probably build up a Silent Hill-based friendship if those ding dongs on r/silenthill would just open up to me. im kidding... unless?)
Truth is, i'm afraid to find out if its going to fail to play properly, but I may have found the next best thing... NOT ONE, BUT TWO Silent Hill franchise demakes on itch.io from indie game maker hpl-benn. Sure they are demos, and yeah there's no part two, but heck, this is awesome. I played either yet, but Im happy to know they are there next time im at the DMV. For info on how to download roms from itch check out this tutorial on my Games page. I plan on playing all the silent hill games available on Retroid in the future and including which settings will get them to run best. Until then, thanks for reading and visiting my site.
