The game consists of mechanics primarily from the SNES and Game Boy Advance renditions of Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World. Enemy characters include standard Mario-universe enemies, demonic beings, alien creatures, and human soldiers. The music includes the usual Mario series music, along with tracks from the Halo series and other games featured in MKF. The game features items from the Mario series and weaponry originally used by the Covenant races in Halo, in addition to suit items that bestow upon the main playable characters the guise and abilities of certain characters from the Mega Man universe.
Characters featured in MKF include Mario, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi plus a roster of characters from other video game franchises (such as Sonic the Hedgehog, The Legend of Zelda, Ghosts 'n Goblins, and Mega Man).
The game design is influenced by franchises such as Sonic, Doom, and Mega Man and various Nintendo titles. Other game franchises featured include (but are not limited to) Metal Slug, Castlevania, and Halo; some obscure game titles represented are R-Type and E.V.O.: Search for Eden.
The game's founding developer, Eddy (formerly JudgeSpear), stepped down from the project due to increasingly polarized views of the game's content and the inclusion of many different game elements, far removing the game from the original concept of just Mario visiting other game worlds, plus several disagreements with the other team members. A spinoff fangame project, Super Mario Fusion Revival, was founded to revive that original concept.
The game has had a troubled history; it's been cancelled, revived, then cancelled again due to burnout, lack of free time, and the mess that the source is in. A fan started a remake in Game Maker: Studio, but too has been cancelled
. However, a fan by the name of D-TurboKiller has since continued development of the game, with 0.6 "Vanilla Shroom" being released here. Then they quit. Then other fans took up the project. It will. Not. DIE.
Can be found here. Their YouTube channel is here for those who want a free look at what they have accomplished so far. The latest version can always be downloaded from its itch.io page here. For feedback and assistance, there is a Discord server here.
Playable characters
- Super Mario Bros.: Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Classic Mario, Classic Luigi
- Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic, Tails
- Ghosts 'n Goblins: Arthur
- Mega Man: Roll, Proto Man, Mega Man, Vile, Zero
- The Legend of Zelda: Link note
- Castlevania: Simon Belmont
- Ninja Gaiden: Ryu Hayabusa
- Metroid: Samus Aran
Worlds
- World 1 - The Mushroom Kingdom: Featuring levels based on the Super Mario Bros series and it's spin-offs
- World 2 - Alternate Earth: Featuring levels based on real-world locations and games set on Earth.
- World 3 - The Megaverse: Featuring levels based on the Mega Man series.
- World 4 - The Demon Realm: Featuring levels based on games with demonic themes.
- World 5 - Gehenna: Featuring mostly original levels set in a sort of limbo between worlds.
- World 6 - Adventurer's Domain: Featuring levels based on fantasy-themed games.
- World 7 - Isle of Genesis: Featuring levels based on the Sonic the Hedgehog series and other Sega games.
- World 8 - Avenue of Memories: Featuring levels based on retro games, mostly Nintendo ones.
- World 9 - Edge of Beyond: Featuring levels based on Sci-Fi themed games and games set in space.
- World 0 - Twisted Reality: The final world of the game. Currently unavailable and kept under wraps.
This game provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc: The SHMUPS Domain (World 6) was axed due to the SHMUP engine being stuck in
Development Hell. The completed and planned platforming SHMUP-themed levels were moved to World 9, while World 6 became a fantasy-themed world. - Acceptable Breaks from Canon: The game's developers don't really take minor things in continuities into account so the game can be more entertaining. For instance, Sonic can use a rifle despite previously saying he would never be caught dead with one.
- Acid-Trip Dimension: The abtly named Abstract Landscape is a level based on various abstract games like Marble Madness and Qix.
- Acrofatic: Wario appears as one of the playable characters.
- Action Bomb: Bob-Ombs appear as enemies in both their incarnations from Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3. A few of the levels in later worlds also have Creepers from Minecraft making an appearance.
- Action Girl: Roll is one of the playable characters, being able to use many of the same abilities as her brother Mega Man.
- Adaptational Badass: In the Interstellar Assault level, Bacterion is a far cry from the pushover he is in his source series, covering his arena with a decent amount of projectiles and summoned enemies.
- Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed; The Cyberdemon in the Tower of Babel is still a threat, but it doesn't wander around as much and the rockets it fires are slower than in it's source game.
- Advancing Wall of Doom: Taken to its logical extreme with its "RUN" sections in some levels, where the screen moves as fast as your character's running speed.
- Ambidextrous Sprite:
- Halo Suit Mario swinging the Energy Sword.
- The buster in the Mega Man Suits.
- Link swinging his weapon.
- Roll's Buster.
- Art-Style Clash: Zig-Zagged: The game uses graphics taken from several different games, so this is a given. Though, for the most part, the graphics use a similar 16-bit art style. However, certain enemies and levels deliberately use a different art style to call back to older games.
- Artistic License – Biology: Granted, this is a given for Womb Levels, but why are there villi in the Behemoth's esophagus? (Because Everything Is Trying to Kill You. Everything.)
- The Loggerhead sea turtle has backward-facing spines in its esophagus to prevent its usual prey (jellyfish) from escaping. They probably could've thought of it that way instead of villi (structures in the small intestine).
- Ascended Meme: The list so far...
- When Tails uses the Tanooki Suit, his statue is the Tails Doll.
- Whenever Wario enters the stage with the Guts Man Suit, he teleports in and immediately stops to pose while the "Gut Man's ass" fanfare plays.
- Waluigi's victory pose when clearing a level in his Striker powerup is a crotch chop. He also dons Captain Falcon's suit to perform the Falcon Punch.
- Morshu from The Legend Of Zelda C Di Games functions as the shopkeeper in world 8.
- Air Man originally had a more difficult boss battle due to his "No One Can Defeat Air Man" song, with an instrumental version of said song playing for the fight. It's since been removed due to issues with updating Air Man's code.
- Assist Character: Roll's equivalent of the Tanooki suit allows her to summon Tango.
- Astral Finale: Downplayed with World 9, Edge of Beyond. It's the final normal world to clear before Twisted Reality, set primarily in outer space and other sci-fi themed areas.
- Author Appeal: The now-defunct World 6 idea, SHMUPS Domain, along with the SHMUPS mechanic. Eddy himself said the only reason why a whole world devoted to one genre was planned for the project was because he was a big fan of it.
- It may also explain why all the general (non level/world-specific) boss themes come from games in said genre.
- Auto-Scrolling Level: The section "Marble Acropolis", which blends the first stage of Altered Beast with "Marble Zone" from Sonic 1, is an autoscrolling level.
- Bait-and-Switch Boss: After you fight Bomb Man for a while in the Energy Zone, the true boss (Robo-Corpse) comes up and eats Bomb Man.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Evident in levels such as Bydo Station, where characters can walk around outer space without special equipment.
- Big Bad: The main villain is a Mad Scientist named The Fusionist.
- BFS: Link's Buster Sword.
- Bleak Level: World 5, Gehenna, is filled entirely with these, as it's realm set in a kind of limbo between worlds, mostly devoid of life, containing derelict ships brought there by the Bermuda Triangle, and populated by terrifying monsters. Even the land itself tries to kill anyone who sets foot there.
- Boss Bonanza: Near the end of Wily Citadel, the usual Mega Man Boss Rush teleporter room actually leads to 8 Robot Masters that the player hadn't fought before that point.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: Covenant Elite in general, but especially the two blocking your path at the end of 8-4. You can, however, abuse Mercy Invincibility to get by, making them a sort of Skippable Boss as well.
- The Berserker. She's incredibly resistant to damage and chases you down when she senses your presence. She also tends to be surrounded by bricks in such a way to make navigating around her difficult, but they don't last long once she starts charging.
- Bottomless Pits: Everywhere. Non-Mario characters get to deal with knockback, making them more dangerous than usual. Good times!
- Bottomless Pit Rescue Service: You can buy Beat from the shop. Just like in his original series, he will save you if you fall into a pit.
- Bullet Hell: In the level King Watinga's Revenge you fight a powered up version of King Watinga which is inspired by DoDonPachi. As such, there's a lot of bullets flying around for you to dodge.
- Chain Reaction Destruction: Many bosses have this happen to them upon defeat, typically ending with one final explosion.
- Charged Attack: Roll, Proto Man, Zero...and a few other characters with certain power-ups.
- Collection Sidequest: The so-called "100 treasures". Items from various video games that the player can find in treasure chests.
- Conflict Killer: In the game's intro, Wario and Waluigi's plan to capture Luigi gets promptly interrupted when two rifts transport the troublemakers elsewhere.
- Crisis Crossover: Characters from different game franchises join forces to fight the the villains from those same franchises and more.
- Darker and Edgier: Significantly, compared to the original versions of most series. What level of darker and edgier-ness differs depending upon the world.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Most bosses explode spectacularly upon defeat. Subverted by King Totomesu who, in his original appearance in the first Super Mario Land, exploded, while he doesn't explode in MKF.
- Difficult, but Awesome: To a certain extent, Sonic. His bounce attack allows for extremely precise jumps, but he lacks Tails' simple-yet-valuable flight powers and requires strong execution around the many, many Bottomless Pits.
- Divergent Character Evolution: Luigi controls similarly to Mario, but carries nearly an entirely different powerup set. Generally, Mario has the Super Mario Bros. 3 powerup set, while Luigi carries similar items from across the series. Amusingly, this means he gets items like the the Superball and Bunny Hood - from games in which he never even appeared.
- Dracula: The Castlevania version, to be more exact. He shows up as the world boss for world 6.
- Egopolis: Robotnikland, which is also a Shout-Out to the Sonic Unleashed stage.
- Eldritch Abomination: A disturbing mesh of various characters' bodies serves as the game's True Final Boss. They didn't name it "The Abomination" for nothing.
- Eldritch Location: Twisted Reality, the final world.
- Evil Learns of Outside Context: Some of the villains end up learning of The Fusionist's messing around with the fabric of reality and deliberately decided to serve him, in a bid to further their own plans.
- Fragile Speedster: Roll is quite fast, but the maximum number of hits she can take is 3, excluding special suits.
- Fungus Humongous: It's a Mario game at heart, so of course these were going to show up.
- Game Mod: All sound effects, music, character sprites and backgrounds are external, so anyone who can rename a file and has some skill with sprites can do some noticeable alterations to the game. Character skins and music changes are two of the most popular fan changes.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Currently, the boss of Tetropolis is the obscure Mario Paint minigame boss, King Watinga. No explanation was given as to why.
- Glass Cannon: Arthur, Proto Man, and Roll.
- The Goomba: They're here, along with Metools, Shy Guys, Waddle Dees and several others.
- Goomba Stomp: Zig-Zagged. Not all characters can naturally do this, but the Stomping Boots powerup grants this ability to all characters.
- Hungry Jungle: Rotten Eden in Gehenna is a dark and corrupted jungle that tries to kill the player. Throughout the level there are invincible deadly spores that float in the air.
- I Know Madden Kombat: Waluigi's fire flower power-up allows him to kick soccer balls at enemies.
- Inside a Computer System: An optional section of World 8 takes place inside an old Windows 98 PC. All levels in there are based on old PC games.
- Jack of All Stats: Averted; Mario (who this trope is usually applied to) amounts to the tank with his Super Mario Bros. 3 damage progression, reserve items, and lack of knockback. As far as his other stats go, he's as average as ever.
- Joke Character/Legacy Character: Classic Mario. A version of Mario based on his appearance in the original Super Mario Bros. As such, his controls are much stiffer than regular Mario's. Also, he reverts back to small Mario on hit regardless of what powerup he currently has.
- Lightning Bruiser: Much like in his recent 3D outings, Sonic is tough enough to slam right through The Spiny (while spinning) and deals relatively heavy damage with his Goomba Stomp - and almost entirely lacks ranged attacks. Meta-Knight hits even harder and is more of a Glass Cannon variant.
- Loads and Loads of Loading: It's made in Game Maker and took an obscene amount of time to start up in older versions (about 15-20 minutes) followed by a lot of slowdown in-game, even on modern computers. Version 0.4 cut the slowdown issues by about 80-90%, with the game now taking about 90 seconds to load.
- Marathon Level: Some levels are very long.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: There's many games featured. The Crossroads level, in and of itself, could count as an example.
- Merged Reality: The story involves several video game universes merging together.
- Moe Anthropomorphism/Cute Monster Girl: Covenant Hunter Roll.
- Mighty Glacier: Wario and Simon Belmont.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: The Lab of the Fusionist level features fusions of enemies from throughout the different realms.
- There's even a Cacobirdo (mash-up between a Birdo and a Cacodemon) as the World 5 boss.
- Mordor: World 4, The Demon Realm, which houses various horror-themed areas and enemies.
- Mr. Exposition: Professor Hector, who not only informs of the crisis that the worlds are facing, but also explains the game's mechanics.
- The Multiverse: The game's objective involves exploring the various video game universes, as the multiverse itself is put in peril.
- Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: Most character use a powerup system inspired by Super Mario Bros.
- My Hero, Zero: Wanna guess who?
- Nerf: Several old-school
Game Breakers return in vastly depowered form. Super Mario World's Cape and Mega Man 2's Metal Blade are the big ones. - Non-Standard Character Design: Happens quite frequently, especially when the playable characters go into settings not based on their respective series. Due to the crossover nature of the game, this makes sense.
- Nostalgia Level: Plenty of them...
- Parrying Bullets: Link's Z-Saber and Buster Sword can erase bullets if swung at the right time.
- Poison Mushroom: The Trope Namer and its Expies from the games it's based on are here.
- Powered Armor: The Spartan armor worn by Mario.
- Power-Up Letdown: Averted in a couple of significant cases — the Blue Shell powerup returns from New Super Mario Bros. and is slowed to a far more manageable pace, while Arthur's golden axe is death on any enemy without a damage cooldown and is less likely (because of the sprite scale) to simply crash into a wall.
- Puzzle Boss: A significant number of bosses are immune to "normal" means of damage.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Fusionist's Finest.
- Randomly Drops: Enemies randomly drop money. Some character's have special drops they can get from enemies, health or weapons.
- Recurring Bosses: Doc Robot, Mouser, and Robotnik.
- Remilitarized Zone: The Scandinavian Campaign and Covenant Assault levels. Also the Military War Zone level, which is basically a war-torn city in ruins. Pretty much the majority of the later levels in World 2 (Alternate Earth) are like this.
- Robot Girl: Roll.
- Schizophrenic Difficulty: Sure, the toughest stages are at least denoted on the world map, but the difficulty level of specific levels doesn't have a ton to do with what world you're in. To be fair, you may easily find yourself jumping back and forth between the worlds on a regular basis.
- Secret Character: Vile, Zero, Classic Mario, Classic Luigi.
- The Smurfette Principle: More or less a result of using an all-star cast of video game characters. Aside from Samus, some effort has been made to avert the trope — this was part of the argument in favor of the now-scrapped Original Generation character Agent M, and the inclusion of Roll owes itself in some part to defeating the trope.
- The Spiny: The one and only, including the ones that walk on ceilings. Of course, the Spiny itself isn't the only spiky critter...
- Starter Villain: Bowser, the World Boss of World 1 (The Mushroom Kingdom). He seeks to harness the fusion energy to conquer many worlds, and is the player's first major challenge gameplay-wise.
- Super Not-Drowning Skills: Yep, there's water levels. Even the characters who can't swim (like Sonic) have Super Not-Drowning Skills in this game.
- Surprisingly Creepy Moment: Despite the Mario-theming in the title, there are a surprising amount of levels that would fit more in a horror game.
- Isle of Mystery has an eerie atmosphere, being filled with fog and with it's music being some creepy ambiance sounds combined with singing from the Siren at the end of the level. Aside from her, the main area's completely devoid of any life save for some Gossipbushes recounting a deceased Toad's investigation of the island.
- Wart's Nightmare is a ruined down version of Super Mario Bros. 2's final level infested by the Flood, with every enemy except for the Sparks being mutated into creepy monsters that explode upon defeat. Not even the Birdo at the end is spared.
- Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: The rooms before fighting most bosses include a save gate and three powerups, more or less assuring you'll at least have a decent chance at victory.
- Sword Beam: Link when wielding the Z-Saber, not to mention the man...er, reploid himself.
- Throw the Mook at Them: The game occasionally offers variants of its source games' bosses who veer into this, such as a version of Mouser who tosses Bob-omb enemies or a variant of King Totomesu with lots of hit points and an unusual vulnerability to the exploding Koopa variants that spawn endlessly during the battle.
- Time Dilation: Gehenna has this, as a realm in which the flow of time is erratic. Case in point, the Deluged City level involves a city that recently vanished from Alternate Earth and wound up there, yet it looks to have been abandoned for decades.
- Took a Level in Badass: Roll goes from swinging her broom in Mega Man Powered Up (admittedly, fairly well) and being the eternal joke character of the pre-Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Capcom vs. games to having some of the most potent high-level powerups of any playable character. You may be in trouble without them, though...
- Several returning boss fights have been altered to bring them up to Kirby-type boss difficulty. The Tree Zone boss found himself a tough boss room and got a projectile weapon in the process.
- The Clown Jack-in-the-Box boss from stage 2 of Castle of Illusion (Genesis version) appears as a boss with its standards attacks from that game and a new fire attack.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: The popular "Run!" segments are loaded with extra lives for a reason — hazards will sometimes come at you faster than you can respond on a first run. It's also tough to tell off the bat what will and won't damage certain bosses, or which attacks do how much damage to a specific boss opponent.
- True Final Boss: The Abomination.
- Underground Monkey: Many Goomba variants are tailored after whatever world you currently find yourself in.
- Unexpected Shmup Level: Some Levels play more like a Shmup, Interstellar Assault for instance. All of World 6 was going to be this originally, before it was changed to Adventurer's Domain.
- Void Between the Worlds: The world map is depicted as a gigantic void, with spherical portals that lead into each world.
- Wackyland: World 8, Avenue of Memories, is a world comprised of levels from many retro games and a computer. Justified, as it's particularly strong concentration of fused worlds.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The Siren, fought towards the end of the first world. The arena consists of a few small platforms over a pit of piranha plants, and the Siren herself takes much more damage than anything else you've fought, has a variety of attacks that can throw you off, and a singing attack that paralyzes you.
- Weak Boss, Strong Underlings: Big Good Professor Hector is single-handedly responsible for forming the Mushroom Kingdom Coalition, a squad made of some of the multiverse's mightiest heroes, but doesn't engage in any fighting himself as an elderly man. Instead, he mentors the MK Coalition and points them in the right direction to stop The Fusionist's plan of merging their realities.
- Wide-Open Sandbox: The devs encourage players to play the worlds in any order they choose, and choosing to play the worlds in numerical order can result in some Arc Fatigue as World 1 is very long.
- Womb Level: Corpse of the Behemoth and Lair of the Leviathan are like this.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: As of Version 8, there's The Fusionist's Lab, the main villain's stronghold and the source of the game's crisis. Exploring it reveals that The Fusionist already evacuated, leaving the Cacobirdo to deal with the heroes.
