Made for Ludum Dare 36, No Mario’s Sky is the Last Mario You Will Ever Need™. Okay, that may be an exaggeration but it is full of mushrooms, coins, goombas, rocket ships, and more!
No Mario’s Sky was made in 72 hours by ASMB, a team of four designers. You can play on Windows, OS/X, or Linux. Ludum Dare 36's theme was Ancient Technology. I don’t know how ancient spaceships are but Mario’s eight years older than me so he might as well be ancient at this point. While there’s plenty of other great games in the line up for this Ludum Dare, I can’t stop playing No Mario’s Sky. Forget finding the center of the galaxy; it’s time to save the princess!
Everything about this game feels a little bit off. The way each world curves as you run around the surface is discomforting. It takes what worked in Super Mario Galaxy, shifting the perspective into 2-D and making a mess of things in the process. Jumping feels close to the source material but is just a little bit stiff. Goombas take on mutant shapes, becoming all teeth and eyeballs.
For those of you worried that No Mario’s Sky won’t offer the infinite gameplay or add (totally fake) features like castle management or new alien factions like Koopas or Yoshis, don’t fret! The game’s offering full refunds under a policy I’ve neatly summed up as “This was a free game made for a game jam and you can just delete it!”
I’ll see you in the skies, fellow Marios. Maybe if I fly into that star, I’ll turn invincible!