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My Little Pony: Dr. Discord's Conquest

Levels: Okay

Graphics: Good (occasionally Okay)

Music: Good

Enemies: Okay (few tweaks)

Bosses: Okay

Weapons: Okay

Castle: Good

Difficulty: EASY

Comments: If there's one thing to say about the MLP community, it's that they're passionate. Dr. Discord's Conquest likely isn't making it to the top of anyone's favorite hacks (unless you're an unabashed brony), but it is a fun excursion that sparkles with love and attention. From the custom sprites to the handpicked tunes, you can tell a lot of care was given to the hack's creation, doing more than to just slather Mega Man 3 in pony paint (like having Pinkie Pie's body slam turn her into a cupcake, or how Rarity's room is adorned in self-portraits). The hack is no slouch in the gameplay department either, having some decent level design that's capped off with a unique boss quirk I've rarely seen before: slow bullets! Not everything is smiles and sunshine however: the art can be very amateurish, the boss sprites are smaller than their hitboxes, and the hack can spike in difficulty every now and then. But it has too much damn heart to be brought down by these complaints. Dr. Discord's Conquest is exactly the kind of fan-fueled hack that you love to see, skirting that magical line between dedicated authenticity and outlandish buffoonery. Definitely worth a play.

Meets the new title Screen and theme from... pony!?.. BRR! What's inside? All robomaster bosses are ponies... And a disfigured version of Stage Select MM8... although, honestly... In another hack - it sounded even worse...

The entire graphic part - tries to parody the pony theme, however, does not come out. For, as I noticed, here the graphics are from Kirby, from another Megaman Game, Chip and Deal 2 (without animation, for some reason... Animated only Electricity that can't be touched) and even Duck Tales 1... But, basically, the game tries to look like a Fan game about pony (Although the hack says that this is not a fan game). The enemies in the graphic part are redrawn - from the word completely. They look different, but their functions are in place

Changed the game engine for the style of part 1 and 2. The slide was canceled because "pony"... But I want to note that ponies do not know how to walk on two of their OWN...

Well, we also graphically changed some objects. The "Elevator" block now looks like a platform from Rockman and Forte, you might even get scared if you run into spikes because of it. Bubbles - most likely - is a remade "Yula from Topman", but the problem is that it does not revive after disappearing... which makes it difficult to pass. Mini-pipelines-turned into large objects (according to the graphics).

I do not remember that in Megaman 3 we were thrown back by the Wind... So I will write it in this hack, as well as the acceleration of running due to the flow of water... Like this was in Megaman 4. And even here - indestructible spikes. They move in two directions when they touch the border... And spiked monsters, straight from the game Kirby...

The music here is generally 95% not consistent with the concepts ... Hill Top from Sonic 2, one of the Ninja Gaiden themes... even Kirby... I think someone has the wrong taste... (This is for example, because really I think the music doesn't fit)

Bosses. Very easy. I passed them with one Blaster... AND NOTHING ELSE! But the theme of the Boss - came out good. (At the expense of Nothing – I exaggerated, because the last boss is just as difficult to defeat as one of the robots in the secret island... You will need to find a weakness)

The second part of the game - cut off from the word completely. After that comes the main enemy's Castle... Rather, the map... but the problem is that MM3 indicates where we are and where to go, here ... NOTHING... Just a map. Guess where you're going... (Of course, the game will not stop at this empty point, the game will continue)

Taken in the levels of the "secret island" Egyptian part (1 level of the secret island). The graphics are from Duck Tales 2, and the music is vaguely Egyptian, the rest is an attempt to do something of their own.

But mostly-hell, how to explain it. It's so bad, it's even good. And because of the many flaws in the direction of this Hack and I did not notice that passed through it... Many of these ideas are terrible... but this horror can be PLAYED... for the levels are built well, despite the fact that everything else is bad ideas.

If you give it to someone who doesn't know much about MLP - which they will like, or as a joke on April 1. But is it worth playing it for an ordinary player? If you don't have high expectations, why not?... Can I recommend it to you? NATURALLY. FOR THIS IS MORE LIKE A PARODY THAN SOMETHING SIMILAR TO MLP. If it was a pony that didn't look like a "joke" - I would personally throw it in the trash and say: "No!"

I've never really liked equines, and I didn't get into My Little Pony back in the '80s or now, but this is a pretty good hack. You can tell that a lot of love went into this, especially considering how many custom graphics were made for it. Many of the levels were beautiful, regardless of how many tilesets they borrowed. Rarity's stage combined Flash Man and Crystal Man's tilesets to make a pretty rainbow crystal cavern. Princess Luna's stage had some wonderful space scenes, and a really cool screen that was all static. Rainbow Dash's stage was a charming rainy night, and Trixie's stage was a cool giant machine with appropriately chilling music. There are quite a few ominous moments, which is a surprise, considering the source material; the hacker did a really great job. There are no "Doc Robot" (Doc Pony?) stages; it skips right to the Secret Island, which has its own map screen, a rarity in a Mega Man hack. The first stage is a pyramid, and as you descend beneath the burning sands, you enter lava-filled ruins that are very well put together. Secret Island 5 has a section that I really liked with black waters with dark ripples running through it that reminded me a little of the Super Metroid Hack, Ice Metal. Another neat thing is that there's some continuity; most of the Secret Island stages begin where the last one ended. The challenge was fairly even; nothing too brutal, and maybe even a little easy in some spots. I know almost nothing about My Little Pony, and I still enjoyed this quite a bit; I'd highly recommend it.

To clarify, I'm not a MLP:FIM fan. I did occasionally see the 80's series as a kid (due to one sibling being a fan), but I know practically next to nothing of the new series.

Yet I am a fan of Mega Man games and have enjoyed a few good hacks/edits/etc. so I decided to give this one a chance one evening and was surprised.

Story overview The story basically entails that dr. Discord, something of a mismatched dragon-thing, has caused several of the ponies to go on a rampage. The sassy light-purple one has to stop them before the world ends or something.

Gameplay Very roughly speaking, MLP:DDC is an edit of Mega Man 3, so the gameplay basically is similar, with a few notable exceptions. There have been some changes though and not for the better.

Your pony cannot slide. As this conflicts with several carry-over GP-elements from the host game for this hack you'll feel frustrated from time to time. Say when Rainbow Dash flicks spinning tops at you and they always score a hit.

Not all parts of the level design have been checked for issues. So in Apple Jack's level for instance there is a place where you climb up a ladder, if you climb back down it has the same effect as falling into a pit of doom: one life lost. Some areas have what appears to be openings to the next part, only to be revealed as uncovered (read: invisible) walls with a pit-drop next to them.

Enemy A.I. has been left mostly unchanged for the minor enemies and a few of the later bosses and it'll be easy to spot which is which. The toad enemies for example, are tricky, but only because their sprite is larger than their hit zone and they can only be hit while jumping.

One last aspect I'd like to mention is that the game is not even remotely as difficult as the host game.

Design, graphics As I mentioned previously, I'm not a fan of the MLP series, so I cannot judge if the pony representations are accurate. What I can say is that all of them are bipedal in the game and that while they have been edited it is still easy to see which robot master hides behind each pony.

Their A.I. has been toned down and the number of shots in some cases as well. Still, their attacks (and thus the weapons you get) have been given an overhaul that varies between okay and well done. Though this reviewer doubts that fans would appreciate the pink pony turning into an icecream cone and dropping down with the sound of a 5-ton robot.

Some enemies and level tiles have been imported from other games. (Castlevania and Kirby) with a few originals stuck in. Sadly enough neither group really fits with the game. The explosive walking presents might, but not the grey horned goblins or the bats and toads and certainly not the creepy jumping pony head.

Final thoughts This hack is fun, but only if you do not set your expectations too high. The final boss is practically the same as MM3's, but toned down slightly and the bosses in his fortress have preciously little to distinguish themselves. With a little more work it might turn into a good game.

When I saw this pop up on ROMhacking.net I just had to do a blind playthrough with commentary, I just had too since I consider myself both into megaman and slightly into the whole MLP craze.

However, I'm going to be strictly honest in this review and speak from a game designer perspective as that is more important to me.

First of, the game has reworked music and this means a lot, I believe all tracks are taken from somewhere and were ported to the game, however, the fresh music adds a lot to the experience for me. There were some weird tracks but there were also some very good ones too that fit the stage and the theme that the hack was going for.

As far as general aesthetics go, well, you can't really go wrong here either. There's much tile work that is straight out of other games if not downscaled in colour to fit the NES requirements. And while tiles are mixed and matched there are seldom any cases that jar the player which tiles that clearly does not work well. There are, however, some cases were the aesthetics are very well presented and it's quite clear that the developer managed to put out an environment that you can immerse oneself in.

The MLP themed tilework is perfectly fine for what it is and looks good, but there are some strangeness: Hitboxes and tile data is not remade in the shape of horses, instead they walk around on two legs like humanoids, which makes no sense. This can probably lie in the lack of skill the developer had to make those changes or it was simply a choice made to not do so. (However, I suspect the former is the real devil here...)

What about the gameplay though? As advertised it's more on the easy side, however, that does not mean it's easier than any given megaman game. There are certainly things that make it easier, you seem to be able to take quite a few hits and if you have experience as a megaman player you'll probably not have any issues with dying on the stages too often. (Nor on the bosses for that matter.) Some of the "robot master" weapons seem way to overpowered based on how they can be used though.

Furthermore the "robot masters" leave something to be desired as they are only very slightly changed from the megaman 3 counterparts. Some bosses like Luna is very easy where as some bosses (Applejack) seem way too hard unless you have the right weapon. It's a bit of a weird grab-bag if you ask me.

As far as stage design go there is nothing too weird or off for the most part and everything feels nice overall. However, there are some odd parts that stick out to be as bothersome; In Luna's stage, for example, there is a jump you have to make and the next chunk of land is not visible even if you stand on the edge making it a blind jump. Now, this is not a hard jump by any stretch of the imagination, but it's bothersome to see none the less, luckily it's not a trend that keeps up. However, some sections near the end of the game I have to question if the developer were even thinking. There is a room (second room of the level even.) in which you have to react super fast in order to progress, if you fail to do so, well, your only option is to kill yourself. This may be less of a problem if it were not for the fact that mechanics were introduced in this very room and that you have to also make a timed jump while time is running out!

This following paragraph will contain spoiler so skip it if you don't want to see that, but this needs to be addressed!

The "omega" fight is entirely broken, not to mention way too easy, assuming you know what to do. At the first stage of the battle boss is only weak to Trixie and Celestia's weapon, meaning if you run out, well... have fun suicidng until a game-over since that's what you have to do! The second stage of the battle is not much better since the boss is still not weak to the renamed megabuster, making the same thing apply here. However, the whole battle is rather of a mote point once you figure out the weaknesses since you can just stand at the very left of the room during the first phase and the boss won't even hit you and use Trixie's weapon aimed at the platform in order to kill it, then proceed to stand on the left side of the screen during the next part of the battle and jump and use Fluttershy's weapon. (Which deals massive damage!) So to put it simply: The whole battle is just plain up broken as a whole.

There is also an interesting bug in the game that happens if you die and select the "select stage" option during the "willy" stages. It's more of a funny cutscene that seems to have been cut from the game, but it's hilarious nonetheless.

Overall it was a pleasant experience for a seasoned classic megaman player and not a very challenging one. However, that was part of the goal of the hack and as such it set up to do what it was trying to do. It also has some decently good level design that is worthwhile for anyone to take for a spin, should they want a megaman experience much in line to the classic megaman formula!

Do I recommend it? Yes. Is it for everyone? Probably not considering the internets stance on this franchise that is inserted.

If you want to see my blind commentated playthrough you can find it here: [Link]

(This was played on Version 1.0 of this hack, and as such the review reflects that!) ((In which a read-me was not included with the zip for some reason...))