Super Bernie World is a Rip-Off version of Super Mario Bros 1. "Rip-Off" is a term, that gets used way too often, but here it really fits. Gameplay and levels are nearly identical to the source of inspiration, which makes it quite difficult to accurately rate Super Bernie World as its own game.
I am a very big Fan of Super Mario Bros 1 and therefore also like the gameplay of Super Bernie World a lot. The game is a classic Platformer with the base elements of such a game, which are the ability to run and to jump. All levels can be completed by the usage of these two elements. There a couple of different enemies placed in the levels (all of them, once again, functioning identical to their counterparts in Super Mario Bros 1) and every third level in a world is a dungeon level with a Boss encounter at the end. There are 4 worlds in total, in Super Bernie World, which is only half the content from the Mario game and (as far as I can tell) there are no secrets levels or shortcuts in Super Bernie World. The levels are all named after different states in the US, but don't visually resemble any of them.
I am not really sure why they shortened the game so much, when they already copied most elements for this entry. The two first worlds are really easy and even closer to the original than the other two, which at least place their obstacles a bit differently, but still remain very faithful to the Super Mario Bros 1 level design. Water and underground levels got completely removed for Super Bernie World. Therefore the game really feels like a watered down version of Super Mario Bros 1.
The Koopa Troopas now have a Mitch McConnell skin, which is quite funny, but other enemy models have no political context, which feels like wasted potential. The Piranha-Flower for example got replaced by a large trashman and the Hammer-Brother by a Tiki Torcher. I don't really see the connection here.
Before every world, there is a short dialogue between Bernie Sanders and a republican politician, which is going to be the boss for that world. In World 1 it is Ted Cruz, in World 2 it is Jim Jordan, for world 3 Mitch McConnell and President Trump in World 4. I like that, but I don't understand why they used the same character model (Trump) for all 4 Bosses. You can understand why Mario back in the day on the NES did it, but for Super Bernie World it just seems lazy.
I generally think that the game wasted the potential of the scenario a bit. They could have definitely changed up the gameplay a bit, to give Super Bernie World its own twist. Right now you will just see it as a Mario Rip-Off without own elements.
The political context is of the game is just supposed to be funny and shouldn't be taken seriously by anybody, regardless of political beliefs. I didn't really see anything offensive in the game, since it is always clear that this game is just supposed to be a joke. On a personal level I didn't like that the game previously (before a patch) asked players to donate for Bernie Sanders, since that seems to cross a line between a videogame as an artform and political advertising. Sanders-Fans however might view this point differently.
The controls with Mouse and Keyboard were pretty awful in my opinion and I was incapable of playing the game that way (Seriously, you use j and l buttons to walk, y/z to sprint and you jump with x. That is covoluted and idiotic). With a gamepad however, the game controlled pretty much identical to Super Mario Bros 1 (once more underlining how similar they are). I also want to once more point out, that the platforming gameplay of Super Mario Bros 1 is amazing (once you got used to the slightly floaty jump controls) and therefore the same can be said about Super Bernie World.
The visuals of Super Bernie World are very nice 8 Bit graphics, because they are obviously also very similar to Mario's game (I know I am repeating myself, but it really is true). They just replaced some background details with more human looking buildings and instead of a small Mario you play with a small Bernie. Even the UI of the game got practically unchanged to Mario's.
The regular soundeffects are identical to Super Mario Bros 1, but the background music got replaced with original songs, which are surprisingly good. There are only two (one for the dungeon levels and one for the regular ones), but they fit the game really well.
Pro:
- Great Mario Gameplay
- Strong soundtrack
- Good humour
- 8 Bit visuals hold up
Contra:
- Just a watered down Mario Rip-Off
- Much shorter than the original
- Disappointing character reskins outside of Bernie, Trump, McConnell
Result:
Some people may compare Super Bernie World to the international version of Super Mario Bros 2, which blatantly ripped of Dooki Dooki Panic. I would however deem this comparison invalid, since Super Bernie World is a watered down version of its source instead of a full reskin model. Super Bernie World doesn't live up to Mario, but since the foundation of the source material is so great, Super Bernie World remains a rather enjoyable, yet also disappointing experience.
6.5/10
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