Video Game / The Second Reality Project

The Second Reality Project is a series of ROM hacks of Super Mario World by FPI. The games feature Mario's adventures in Another Dimension.

The series begins with Mario learning that Bowser had discovered a new power source and is using the resources to construct an invasion fleet of airships in order to strike the Mushroom Kingdom. Eventually, Mario discovers the Second Reality and must put a stop to Bowser's plot. The second game concerns Mario's unexpected return to the Second Reality and a new foe named Zycloboo. The upcoming conclusion to the trilogy will involve a quest to destroy the Power Switch.

After the release of the second game, FPI created The Second Reality Project Reloaded, a remake of the first game with improved graphics and a more original and coherent plot. Another ROM hack by FPI, a parody of bad hacks called Chaos CompleXX, is loosely connected to the plot of The Second Reality Project via Retcon in Reloaded. A "reloaded" version of the second game was released in Summer 2014 and can be found here.

The Second Reality Project 3 was announced to be back in production (having stalled since 2009) on July 31, 2021.

You can find the games as .ips patches on either ROM hack archive SMW Central or FPI Productions.

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Tropes that apply to the series as a whole:

• Another Dimension: The Second Reality itself. The remake of the first game also features Thirdspace.
• Checkpoint Starvation: Since Super Mario World levels can only have one Checkpoint in them, this occurs in Bowser's Starship and Chaos CompleXX in the first game. This is even more common in the second game, which has extremely long levels, but this was toned down in its own remake now that it's possible to add multiple checkpoints to a single level.
• The Chessmaster: Zycloboo.
• Big Bad: Bowser in the first game, Zycloboo in the second.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Both Bowser and Zycloboo return in the third game, and they both have the same goal: to take back the Power Switch.
• Cute Kitten: The Powercats.
• Giggling Villain: Zycloboo. "Hee, hee, hee..."
• MacGuffin: The Power Supply Switch in the second and third games.
• Mr. Exposition: Marty Mole. In TSRPR, he only appears in Chaos CompleXX, but in the remake of TSRP2, he's around for most of the game.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the remake of the first game, launching Ludwig's castle into the volcano leads to the portal to Thirdspace being reenabled. In the second game, reactivating the Power Supply switch gives Zycloboo unlimited power.
• Retcon: Chaos CompleXX was retconned into the story of the TSRP trilogy as the result of the Roboxx's Glitch Cannon destroying Thirdspace.
• Reused Character Design: The design of the Powercats were taken from the Game Boy video game Trip World. Likewise, the Roboxx' from Reloaded were based on the final boss of said game.
• Video Game Remake: The first two games.

Tropes that apply to the first game:

• Band Land: Sumo Symphony and Acoustic Castle.
• Blackout Basement: One section of "Pyra Psychodelic" goes dark repeatedly.
• Disc-One Final Dungeon: Bowser's Castle, which abruptly ends with a gateway to the Second Reality instead of the expected battle with Bowser.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Zycloboo in the remake.
• Evil Versus Evil: Bowser versus the Roboxx', with Zycloboo playing them both against each other.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: A lot of the levels in the game are this. Moving Cave, Ghost Cave, Ice Bomb Bridge, Spiny Woods, Rhino's Road, Flying Fish Bridge, the list goes on.
• Final Boss, New Dimension: An interesting twist on the trope — midway through the final stage, Bowser's ship starts travelling between dimensions, and upon making it to the room before the boss, you find yourself back in the First Reality.
• The Ghost: The leader of the Roboxx'. In the "Chaos CompleXX" level, the Roboxx' advise Mario to stay and wait for his arrival, but he ignores them and instead works with Marty Mole to foil their scheme.
• Green Hill Zone:
  • The Flower Plateau.
  • Also occurs literally in the Second Reality (as well as all of the other Sonic 1 zones).
• Hailfire Peaks:
  • The sixth world takes place in both the Rhino Jungle and the Koopa Desert.
  • Freezeflame Rock, which alternates between lava segments and ice segments.
  • Even though the level "Koopakick" is located inside the volcano on the overworld, the actual level takes place outside, with a lush, hilly landscape in the background, with castle decorations and lava in the foreground. The outdoor portions of "Volcano Castle" (the level right after "Koopakick") are also like this.
• 100% Completion: The remake of the game expands the ending upon achieving this.
• Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: In the map for the third world in the remake, Mario can swim through lava.

• Marathon Level:
  • Bowser's Starship.
  • Also the Chaos CompleXX in the remake.
• Mordor: Bowser's Valley.
• Multi-Mook Melee: Some of the boss rooms consist of a barrage of enemies in an autoscrolling room.
• Multiple Endings: Find all 117 exits to add more to the ending.
• Nonindicative Name:
  • Mole Ruins #2. There is not a single mole in the whole stage.
  • The level "Inferno" takes place in a ruin-filled grassy area at night.
• Nostalgia Level: The level "Echoes Of Birabuto" is a remake of World 1-1 from Super Mario Land.
• Nothing Can Stop Us Now!: The end of Bowser's message in "Pipeline Planet". Of course, the following levels consist of Mario heading for and invading Bowser's Starship.
• Platform Hell: Becomes more and more like this the farther you get into the game. This is especially bad in the original version, in which the final level forces you to be a One-Hit-Point Wonder for most of the stage, with no Check Points in sight. The difficulty in the remake is significantly toned down and probably only qualifies as Nintendo Hard for most of the game.
• Plot Tunnel: One you enter Thirdspace, you're stuck there until you finish it.
• Reality Is Out to Lunch: Thirdspace — even more so after the Glitch Cannon goes off. The Roboxx' also planned on turning the First Reality into this as well.
• Ruins for Ruins' Sake: The Mole Ruins.
• Save the Princess: Played straight originally, but averted in the remake.
• Sequel Hook: Present in the remake, though only after you get 100% Completion.
• Side Quest: The remake adds one in the form of Thirdspace.
• Shout-Out: Take a wild guess what the optional world Sonic Shortcut is about. Also, Thirdspace is based very heavily on FPI's joke hack, Chaos CompleXX.
• Space Zone: Makes up a good portion of Second Reality Assault.
• Theme-and-Variations Soundtrack: The Title Screen music comes up quite a bit in other tracks, especially towards the end of the game.
• Wave-Motion Gun: The Roboxx's Glitch Cannon.
• You Are Too Late: At the end of the level "Pipeline Planet", Mario finds a Message Block with a message from Bowser, telling him that his Starship is ready to lead his invasion fleet to the First Reality.

Tropes that apply to the second game:

• Advancing Wall of Doom
• Ascended Extra:
  • In the original version of the game, the pirates were just one-off villains that appeared in a secret level, and Lemmy Koopa shows up as the boss of the level. In the remake, they appear far more often, and Lemmy forms an alliance with Zycloboo.
  • Marty Mole from TSRPR returns to assist Mario throughout most of the game.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Zycloboo grows to an unreal size in the climax after Thirlox zaps him with dark energy harvested from Sunshine Valley. In the Bad Ending where you fight him without completing the Catgoom Kingdom, he enacts this trope and lays waste to the Second Reality.
• Background Boss: Zycloboo hides in the background in the second phase of the final battle if you're on the Bad Ending path.
• Dead All Along: In the remake, Schrödering, the owner of the haunted hotel at Catgoom Kingdom, is revealed to be this.
• Dual Boss: In the remake, you fight imposters of the Great Kings of the Catgoom Kingdom this way.
• Faceless Eye: After Zycloboo gets blown up from the inside, he is reduced to a giant floating eyeball.
• Gangplank Galleon: "We Are Pirates!"
• Hell Hotel: The aptly named "Hotel Horror". In the original game, it was completely irrelevant to the plotline. In the remake, it's the climax of the Catgoom Kingdom subplot.
• Home Base: Marty's Secret Base in the remake, which has multiple purposes — it's a convinient place to get Power Ups, it functions as a Save Point, it helps you quickly traverse between worlds (there are four entrances, one for every two worlds), it gives you hints on where to find the big switches and Top Secret Areas, and it houses the secret side quest near the end of the game, where you travel back to the First Reality to stop Thirlox and his attack on Bowser's Palace.
• Kaizo Trap: In the secret level "Old Aquaria" ("Ancient Mouse Trap" in the remake — the old name is given to "Ruined Ruins" instead).
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Thirdspace from TSRPR is mentioned often early in the game.
• Level Ate: The cheese levels in World 5.
• Magic from Technology: Thirlox is a technomage/technomancer. He uses the power of technology to cast "magic" spells.
• Non-Standard Game Over: The remake includes three of them. Two of them involve giving Thirlox's control panel to either Kamek or Thirlox himself. The other one is the end result if Mario attempts to fight Zycloboo without the Catgoom Kingdom characters' help.
• One-Winged Angel: Zycloboo upon Mario's activation of the Power Supply Switch.
• Punny Name: In the remake, the secret Lost World is renamed "Catgoom Kingdom".
• Recurring Boss: Zycloboo. While in the original he appears at the end of every world, in the remake he only starts recurring at the end of World 4.
• Ret-Gone: Dark Matter was the final boss in the secret world in the original game. In the remake? Lemoxx, Lemmy Koopa as a robotic slave, takes his place, and you even fight him inside of his airship. Plus, said level is a part of the expanded final world right before the last two levels of the game.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the remake, after Zycloboo becomes more powerful after the Power Switch is activated, Marty Mole decides he's out of his league and leaves Mario to fend for himself.
• Sequential Boss: The Final Boss battle against Zycloboo has three phases in the remake. What served as the final boss in the original is now merely the first phase of the "good ending" final boss, while the "bad ending" final boss is completely different.
• Sequel Hook: The Powercats and Happy Goombas construct their great fair, while Bowser learns from Marty that Lemmy is still alive in the Second Reality.
• Shout-Out: Hansel and Gretel and Mission: Impossible are name-dropped in the remake.
• Take a Third Option: In the remake's secret "Battle of the Mages" level, Mario is left with giving Thirlox's control panel to either Thirlox himself, or Kamek (who, Thirlox warns, will betray Mario once he has Thirlox's power). The solution? Give it to the Fire Brother in the cellar, who will throw it into the heating stove.
• Techno Wreckage: In the remake, Bowser's base from TSRPR has fallen into decay.
• Temple of Doom: Literally. One of the levels is called Temple Of Doom.
• This Is the Final Battle: In the remake:
  Zycloboo: This will be our last battle — I promise you that.
• Underwater Boss Battle: One of Mario's battles against Zycloboo takes place underwater. In the original, this battle occured at the Temple of Fire of all places. In the remake, this fight was moved to the Power Supply Station.
• Womb Level: The penultimate level takes place inside Zycloboo.

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