YMMV / A Super Mario Thing

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Uncle Rewind simply bigoted towards artificial ABCDs, viewing natural ones as superior just on principle? Or does he view them as a mockery of the ABCD race and have more emotional reasons for his disdain towards them? One of A2MBXT's major plot points is about the genocide and enslavement of the ABCD race by the Space Masters of Space, and both Rewind and Uncle Broadsword are brought into Uncle Pumpernickle's plan with the promise of bringing the extinct race back. Not only are many of the siblings structurally unstable (and a couple downright psychotic), but The Artist also made them susceptible to mind control (and thus slavery). Combine that with Demo and Iris' willing servitude of a Space Master of Space (something a log from Uncle Rewind recalls in sheer terror) and its easy to see why Rewind dislikes them: to him they represent a mockery of everything his people suffered through. Regardless, after defeating him in battle, he comes to regard them on more equal terms to natural ABCDs.
• Anvilicious:
  • Originally averted - references to political talking points such as Capitalism and John McCain were originally implemented as references to raocow's non-sequitur silliness and not meant to be taken seriously. Even in A2MBXT's first episode, Garish's antics, along with the entire concept of the level Johnson McCain and the Communists, were intended to be a fun over-the-top joke more than anything that doesn't really take a side (even with Pily's description of him as a "slimy Objectivist jerk").
  • Played Straight in Episode 2, for the most part, given the political leanings of the talkhaus community at large. While Garish is still an Eagleland stereotype, he's depicted as (mostly) harmless, and his military tendencies and willingness to boost troop morale are seen as silly and endearing more than anything. The same isn't to be said about much of the Holocene Epoch, the game's 7th world and a city-themed one at that. Multiple levels take not-so-subtle jabs at Capitalism as an ideology.
    • The world's second town, which takes place in a factory, depicts dangerous working conditions for the workers there, along with several breaches of labor laws (with one of the workers mentioning that he hasn't had a day off in three weeks). The owner, meanwhile, has a luxurious office, and is described as extremely corrupt and greedy. While some of this was Truth in Television during the Industrial Revolution, it makes little sense in a modern setting.
    • Ann Brown and the Fountainhead is another example, with the message having the subtlety and nuance of a freight train. The level starts off by immediately presenting a quote talking about how "destroying other people's lives is good as long as you aren't doing it illegally", and many of the level's NP Cs are typical Eagleland-esque strawmen for pro-private property and anti-Communism, the player being intended to dislike them. The level's climax takes place inside a bank, the walls containing pictures of Ronald Reagan and Ayn Rand^note a Russian-American author known for her strong support of Objectivism and Laissez-faire Capitalism, with the boss inside being the Senior Financial Manager (who, unsurprisingly, is depicted as corrupt and greedy). An NPC asks the player to blow the building up, if only because "the dang Socialists built it all wrong". The blunt nature of the message, along with it clearly taking a side, makes it difficult to see as a gag, unlike the aforementioned Johnson McCain and the Communists. It's very telling that when raocow played this level, most of the comments (regardless of leaning) brought up how oddly blunt it was.
    • To a more minor degree, Uncle Rewind's leek cannery is this, as he's presented as a Laissez-faire businessman in the way he runs his factory, and also checks a second Strawman Political box by having him show bigotry towards artificial ABCDs (though this is also subject to Alternative Character Interpretation). Its telling that the achievement for defeating him is simply titled "Good Riddance", unlike the more fun and/or silly names the defeat achievements for the other uncles receive including big-bad Uncle Pumpernickle
• Archive Panic: To a more minor degree, doubling as an example of Continuity Lockout. There are only five main ASMT games, (including the incomplete A2MT, and counting both episodes of A2MBXT as separate games due to their size), which is a more than manageable figure. But it you want to find all of the lore, references, and minor canonical entries for the series and its characters, one must delve into the many Contests, Advent Calendars, Birthday games, and other assorted events that the talkhaus has held over the years, many of the formermost having LOADS of episodes. A2MBXT's second episode rectifies this mostly with the new Archive feature, but many of the character traits and minor lore events the Archive will present will come out of nowhere if one doesn't delve into all of the side content.
  • Episode 2's long development time is partially to blame in some regard. Demo's uncles were meant to be properly introduced in this game, but the group (especially fan-favorite Uncle Broadsword) were well-utilized in much of the aforementioned side content (including a Promoted to Playable appearance for Broadsword) long before the game's release, thus Episode 2 makes many references to it (though not to the degree of leaving a player lost).
  • This has more of a direct impact during Iris' breakdown towards Uncle Broadsword at the end of Episode 2's World 6, as the side content (especially the Advent Calendar events) provides more build-up and context towards Iris' deep-seated frustrations with Broadsword, and how he tends to unintentionally show way more love and attention towards Demo than Iris despite being the father figure of both sisters. Those unfamiliar with the side content would see a lot of the examples Iris' mentions of this as bizarre and rather random, and that the Luigi-esque unfavoritism towards Iris almost comes out of nowhere.
• Awesome Music:
  • The BGM of Trial of Space
  • The music that plays when you fight Rumia in the World 5 Castle. The World 5 Castle theme itself isn't too bad either.
  • The incredibly soothing overworld tune of World 4 "Grasslands"
  • World 8 has a great overworld theme, too.
  • The Trial of Space.
  • From A2MT, "The Lullaby".
  • The theme of Luna Tower from ASMBXT. There is another track, "Queen of Lunarians?" that is equally awesome.
  • A2MT's final level's theme, generally agreed upon as the best thing in the game.
  • A2XT's rendition of The Lullaby.
  • There are also a number of tracks that are adapted from other sources. Usually these are other video games. Sometimes they're something entirely different.
  • A2XT's credits theme, as somber as it is.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Most of the levels are very gimmicky or otherwise very different from what one would expect from a mario romhack. And then there's Demo Dance Mix, which starts with Demo/Iris dancing to Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke. The second half is a Bar Mitzvah. With bullets.
• Difficulty Spike:
  • In A2XT, Feed has the courtesy to warn you that things will become much harder once you begin World 4. Another more subtle one happens after the siblings are introduced, who now have boss fights dotted around every world map starting from the fifth.
  • Parodied and subverted by A2XTs "most challenging part of the game," which is hidden in World One because the level designer snuck it in at the last second (please don't ban him). It's actually a fairly easy level for anyone experienced in Super Mario World: the numerous obstacles are easy to dodge, there are Power-Ups scattered about, and the boss is an Anticlimax Boss. The person who designed the level, Septentrion Euchoreutes, even intended it to be a confidence booster.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Big Squee really is a cute Boo.
• Fridge Horror: As noted by Pink Kitty Rose, the first fortress is a glue factory. Some glues are made from horse hooves. raocow often refers to Yoshis as "stupid horses". Now what do you think the lava pool recolored white is supposed to be?
• Lighter and Softer: Episode 2 tones down much of the more mean-spirited humor:
  • Kood, while still the resident Butt-Monkey, has his status as this toned down a few notches, and as of Episode 2's ending his relationship with Pily is still going strong. The dynamic is also balanced out by Demo and Iris' willingness to poke fun at the other team members' quirks as well, such as Sheath's tendency to muck things up by getting distracted, or Raocow's habit of dying at the end.
  • Con, the Yoshi resistance leader in ASMT, appears in Tempura Anomoly as a patron, clearly still getting over his lost love for Demo, but otherwise in good shape. This is in stark contrast to his fate in A2MT, where he and the other Yoshis are captured and placed as animals in the Space Master's zoo^note ''"You were supposed to save us, we're no better off here!'"
• Mood Whiplash: In 'A2XT, death from level to level is often treated as a non-issue or Black comedy - in the same game that has a sad and serious subplot about the genocide and enslavement of the ABCD race, which provides character motivation for Uncle Broadsword and Uncle Rewind.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Big Boos are either silly or terrifying. No exceptions.
• Reset Button Ending: More like reset button beginning. A2XT's first episode ends with the universe being destroyed, with most of the cast presumably dead and floating through the void. Sheath is the only one left in the remains of the previous universe, and is given an artifact as a means of repairing everything. It seemed like it was all up to Sheath to reverse the damage that had been done, and it would've made for an interesting jumping on point for the next episode. Episode 2, meanwhile, throws out this premise by presenting a new universe where the whole cast is alive and well, and Sheath uses her artifact to teleport there, promptly scrambling that timeline in the process and sending the whole cast to a setting outside of time. These being "new" instances of the characters is Hand Waved by having their memories merge with that of the previous timeline's cast, and the ending of Episode 1 is effectively reversed.
  • Zig-Zagged later, in that the memory merge helps revert an unbound Pandemona back to normal.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The final patch of ASMBXT, among other things, changed the BGM of the hub entrance to a rather depressing piano number and bore a So Proud of You message aimed directly at the project organizer (who was doing a Let's Play of the game):
    This is probably the last time we will talk. I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to talk to me all these times. We've had a lot of memories, good and bad. do you still remember when you first set foot here? You've grown a lot since then. Your time here is ending. Soon, you will move on to new adventures. While you may never come back, I hope you will remember this place fondly. As you go, I, the spirit of this blade of grass, say to you: Goodbye, Farewell, So long, Thanks for all the leeks.
  • The credits sequence of Analog Funk can be interpreted as Demo's (recent) life flashing before her eyes as she dies (in this timeline).
• That One Boss:
  • The Blue Virus in Fricken Meta in ASMBXT, which is basically a Birdo fight (except the projectiles come from a Bullet Bill cannon firing special grabbable Bullet Bills,) except that:
    • The boss takes an absolutely massive amount of hits to kill.
    • The generator will sometimes fire at random intervals if you get close enough to stop it from firing.
    • CDs are being constantly fired from the top of the screen directly at you.
    • There's a giant Bottomless Pit in the center of the room, which means on top of trying to time a bullet jump with a cannon that'll just sometimes fire bullets when you least expect it, and actually jumping on the bullet and trying not to get hit by a CD in the process, you can't grab the bullet too early or too late or you'll just drop in the pit and die. Which is all a bit much for the second boss of the game.
    • Given as the first boss is a really easy, normal fight with two Boom Booms at the end of an easy, short level, it's quite a jump in difficulty.
  • Big Boo, of all things, becomes this in "USE YOUR ILLUSION", due to the mechanics involved. (The entire level revolves around using L-R scrolling to move one of the layers, and that carries over to the boss battle—you can't directly interact with the boss, and have to scroll a bunch of platforms with angled ramps to direct Koopa shells into Big Boo.)
• That One Level:
  • Trial of Chaos. The mechanic, from a creation standpoint, was a masterpiece, but it's a case of good ideas gone wrong.
  • Currents.
  • In ASMBXT, USS Suboptimal is this to such an extent that it made raocow get angrier and more upset than at any other point of this LP.