This hack is dedicated to my good friend, Grand Poo Bear.
Good luck, have fun.
Good luck, have fun.
— Introductory message in "House of Poo"
Released in 2017, Grand Poo World is the first in what would eventually become a trilogy of Super Mario World kaizo ROM hacks by BarbarousKing (also known as Barbarian, or simply "Barb"). It's an old-school kaizo hack with no plot to speak of. Instead, it focuses on giving players a brutally difficult challenge to overcome. The IPS patch can be found on SMW Central
, while the game's soundtrack is available on YouTube.
It was followed by two sequels. Grand Poo World 2 was released in 2019, followed by Grand Poo World 3 in 2023.
Grand Poo World contains examples of:
- Bilingual Bonus: At the end of "Echo Base", there is a group of blocks resembling the character "完". This means "completion" or "end" in Chinese and Japanese.
- Bookends: The game's introductory text quotes from the lyrics of "Africa" by Toto. When you beat the game, "Africa" plays over the closing credits.
- Dedication: Following the example set by T. Takemoto, who reportedly created Kaizo Mario World in order to torture his friend with it's absurd difficulty, BarbarousKing chose to name his hack Grand Poo World in honor of his friend, GrandPooBear.
- Difficulty by Acceleration: The final section of "Echo Base" requires Mario to make a series of tricky jumps (including mounting and dismounting Yoshi) while the level scrolls faster and faster. Eventually it's scrolling so quickly that Mario is pinned to the left edge of the screen.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Grand Poo World was the creator's first Super Mario World ROM hack, so it lacks many of the features that the series has come to be known for, such as custom bosses, complex puzzles, and hidden portraits. In many ways, Grand Poo World is more similar to the ROM hacks which inspired it (such as Kaizo Mario World and Super Dram World) than it is to Grand Poo World 2."I started by [...] emulating what other people do, and their successes, and the things [I liked] that other creators did"—BarbarousKing in Barb Plays the original Grand Poo World! - Part 1
- Excuse Plot: The entirety of the plot is conveyed by a single introductory text box:The princess was taken. Who did it this time? Your quest begins into the wide world.
Hurry boy, she's waiting there for you. - Platform Hell: As you would expect from a game inspired by Kaizo Mario World, Grand Poo World is incredibly difficult. In his submission to SMW Central, Barb wrote: "This hack is designed to challenge even the most skilled Super Mario World kaizo players."
- Self-Deprecation: Barb pokes fun at himself in two levels; "Widow's Peak" refers to his hairline, and "Colorblind Palace" refers to his colorblindness.
- Shout-Out:
- When hatching Yoshi in "Cretacean Cavern", a message box appears, quoting from Jurassic Park: "Life, uh... finds a way."
- Many level names are shout-outs:
- "Carl's Bad Caverns" refers to Mario streamer CarlSagan42, as well as Carlsbad Caverns, the national park in New Mexico.
- "Death Star" is the name of the Empire's space station/super-weapon in Star Wars: A New Hope, while "Echo Base" is the name of the Rebels' base on Hoth in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
- "Gorgoroth" shares its name with the Norwegian black metal band, Gorgoroth.
- "Fangorn" and "Moria" are named for locations in The Lord of the Rings.
- "Botany Bay" is named for Khan's personal ship in Star Trek
- "The Linkdead Pool" is a double shout-out, combining the film The Dead Pool with fellow Mario-streamer Linkdeadx2, who playtested the game prior to its release.
- "The Nexus" pays tribute to Nexus15, who helped to develop and playtest the game.
- "Pastebin Palace" refers to the online text-storage service, Pastebin.note
- "The People's Castle" is a reference to Grand Poo Bear, who, at the time the hack was made, often referred to himself as "the people's champion". Poo adopted this title from professional wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who in turn adopted it from famed boxer Muhammad Ali.
- "The Red Keep" is named for an imposing castle in A Game of Thrones.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: "Echo Base" is a frozen cavern with the obligatory ice physics. It's so cold that even the fireballs are frozen!
- Troll: There are so, so many instances of gameplay trolling. These are just a few:
- In "Pastebin Palace" the player is faced with an absurdly long hallway. It takes twenty seconds of continuous running to reach the end — at which point a fish falls from the sky and kills you just as you were about to reach the yellow switch. Players who return and manage to avoid the fish will congratulate themselves — at least until they jump on the yellow switch, which also kills you.
- In the alternate exit to "Aokigahara", two fish fall from the sky right as you reach the goal. They can't hurt you — they're only there to distract you while the ground falls out from beneath your feet.
- In final section of "Echo Base", the screen scrolls so quickly that it is literally dragging Mario along with it. At the very end, the scrolling abruptly stops — and Mario's accumulated momentum (coupled with the level's low-friction ice physics) carries him right into a pit.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Apropos of nothing, the message box at the beginning of "Widow's Peak" states: "I'm not going bald, my hair has always been this way."
- Version-Exclusive Content: Only versions 1.0 and 1.1 of the hack contain the onscreen counter which displays how many times you have died. It was removed in version 1.2 after it was discovered to have caused compatability issues with certain emulators.
