When it comes to fan projects here on Gaming Reinvented, we tend to cover more ROM hacks and mods than independently made fan games. Okay, there are certainly exceptions here and there, like Psycho Waluigi, Paper Mario 3D Land or Mushroom Kingdom Fusion…
But as a rule of thumb, the majority of our interviews tend to involve mods of existing titles. It’s a pattern we’ve been meaning to break away from, especially given the incredible games available on sites like Mario Fan Games Galaxy and as episodes for Super Mario Bros X.
With today’s interview subject of choice only reaffirming that belief. Yep, this time we’re talking to Starshi about their incredible Super Mario Bros X episode, Super Mario & The Rainbow Stars. Here’s the trailer if you haven’t seen it yourself:
It’s an amazing game, and one which looks to be on par with many official titles in the aesthetics, story and gameplay departments. With elements from all over the Mario series and its spinoffs, an insane looking 3D overworld inspired by Super Mario 3D World and an all-new style inspired by Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi, it’s everything a Mario fan could want in a fan project, and an incredible showcase for Super Mario Bros X as a whole.
So let’s learn all about it, shall we? Let’s find out what goes into a project as exciting as Super Mario & The Rainbow Stars!
The Interview
Starting with some obligatory background information. Who are you? Who is Starshi?
Heya, my name is Starshi! I’ve been using SMBX for many years now, and I created my youtube channel back in 2017.
And how did that name come about?
I went under a different name a while ago, but I’ve since changed it, since it was something that I came up with when I was 11 and no longer reflects myself. This username is inspired by that old one.
What was your intro to gaming? What about your first game?
I don’t recall what my very first game was, but it must have been one of those old licensed kids games for the pc.
What games are you playing now?
I like playing various games, which are mostly on steam and switch. I’m a biiig Splatoon fan, which is something I have a ton of hours in.
Onto the Mario series now. How did you get interested in that series?
I don’t quite remember, but I think it must’ve been either because of YouTube or those old flash games.
Which part of the series do you prefer? 2D games, 3D games, RPGs, something else?
Definitely the RPGs, especially Mario & Luigi. This series means a lot to me!
The Mario & Luigi series is one of Starshi’s favourite parts of the whole Mario franchise
What did you think about Super Mario Bros Wonder when it launched last year?
Absolutely loved it on my first playthrough, though I haven’t had the motivation to replay the game yet. I do think some of the magic would be gone a little on repeat playthroughs. I have some minor gripes as well, but in the end I think it’s still a great game and easily my favorite official 2D Mario game.
How did you get into fan games and SMBX?
I got into fan games by stumbling across Mario flash games when I was younger, in which I played a ton of. Eventually I did come across games like Mario Flash, which had a level editor. This was the earliest instance I had of using a Mario level editor. Later I used SM63’s level editor a bit as well until finally coming across SMBX on youtube. That was when I started using it! I don’t remember the exact year, but I think it was around 2014/2015.
Do you have any favourites outside of your own projects?
Delightful Adventure Enhanced is a really polished experience, and I would recommend everyone to try it out if you haven’t already! I haven’t actually played that many episodes as I usually just like to create stuff in SMBX lol
Onto the game now. What inspired you to start working on Super Mario & the Rainbow Stars?
It mostly started with me experimenting within the engine for a potential new project back in 2018, where I designed various (incomplete) levels and had a couple ideas I wanted to use. For example, the idea of Mario crashing with a hot air balloon, and eventually discovering Starry ending with a boss against a goomba, is something I came up with all the way back then. It’s something that I liked the idea of quite a bit and wanted to continue with.
And why did you choose SMBX2 for it?
Originally it was the 38a engine, which is where SMATRS’s original demo got released in. Eventually I realized that 38a simply wasn’t built for the ambitions and scope of the project, and it eventually switched to SMBX2 early last year, where nearly everything (aside from several sprites) was made from scratch. Just compare the first demo to the second demo and you’ll see how much is different! It’s honestly crazy how much we got done in only a year and a half.
Regardless, the game looks stunning, with some beautiful sprites and pixel art. How did you create the art for the game?
I do a lot of the sprite art myself, but it’s also a ton of mixing other existing tilesets and sprites together, editing them or recoloring.
What inspired the style in general? It honestly looks like a DS game or something, it’s that good!
The artstyle is something I’ve developed over the many years of using SMBX. There are some sprites used which are taken from GBA/DS games which help with that feeling, I think, not to mention there are other custom sprites used which fit the style of games of that era. All of this definitely helps give the feeling of that style.
How did the storyline come to be? What inspired you to use the Star Festival and the idea of being stranded here?
So as I said earlier, the idea of crashing came up many years ago, basically when the project started. For the star festival, this was an idea someone else had on the team and was something I wanted to use.
What about the concept for the main villain? He’s apparently a new Dark Star and he definitely shares a lot of design similarities with various Mario & Luigi villains, so what’s his deal anyway?
The villain was originally much closer to the actual Dark Star design, which is something you can see in the first demo. This got pretty late into the new demos development too, but I eventually decided I wanted to use a more unique villain to give more identity to the game. For the villains’ base form however, we still use the dark star from BiS, but I don’t consider it the same creature, rather something related to it.
One aspect we really like about the game is the overworld, which reminds us a lot of Super Mario 3D World. How was that implemented here?
Super Mario & The Rainbow Stars has an amazing looking 3D overworld
A LOT of Lua coding (something I’m not responsible for), and making use of a 3D library for SMBX2. Models like the Yoshi houses or Blotch’s pirate ship were custom made for the project.
There also seems to be a lot of inspiration from the Mario RPGs, with recurring villain groups, partners and species from those games among others. Is there going to be even more stuff from these games in future chapters?
The game even has a Paper Mario style storybook opening
Definitely! SMATRS has always been a love letter to the Mario RPGs, and I want to keep that up going forward.
Speaking of partners, what’s your favourite one so far? Are there any that you’re excited to show people in future demos?
Starry is definitely my favourite, as he’s existed for a long time and is very iconic to me as a result, and stopped me from ever altering the design. A bit ago I posted the first sneak peek of chapter 2, which reveals Ralle as the next partner! Just like Starry, he has existed for quite a while, dating back to 2018 to be exact. That is when I first came up with his design.
Will other Mario spinoffs be represented here? There are a fair few Yoshi’s Island elements so far, but what about Wario Land or Donkey Kong Country inspired ones?
The barrels from Donkey Kong Country are going to be used in a level, as can be seen by the latest sneak peek, and I’m sure there will be many more elements inspired by the spinoffs!
Either way, let’s talk about the levels now. What’s your thought process for designing levels for this game?
While I’m inspired by Nintendo’s level design style, the levels in SMATRS are definitely distinct. It’s all about coming up with as many clever setups as we can with diverse gimmicks, while utilising Starry along the way. Some people have noted that Starry’s use gets a bit repetitive throughout the game, or that the levels are too lengthy, so these are things I want to try and avoid going forward. Another thing going forward is that there will be more people designing levels, rather than just me being the sole level designer.
What are some of your favourite levels so far?
Since I made all levels in the demo and like how they all ended up, this is a bit of a hard pick haha. But I think the secret level and 1-7 are definitely up there for me!
The soundtrack is excellent too, with a nice selection of original songs. How did you and the team create those?
Most of the songs are existing tracks, but there are a couple original ones done by 3 different people on the team. The main theme sounded quite different originally, which was made in 2019 before being changed to the new composition a few years later. You can see who composed what in the description of each official upload of the songs on my youtube, check them out! You can listen to the original main theme in the in game sound gallery, in case you’re curious.
What’s your favourite song so far?
It’s probably the mid boss theme, it’s a really catchy song which has been stuck in my head several times lol.
Will there be custom voice acting in this game?
There won’t, as it would require way too many voice actors thanks to the sheer amount of characters. It’s something that is outside the scope of a project like this.
Either way, the game has gotten a great reception so far, with lots of news coverage and fans praising it as a fantastic 2D platformer. Did you expect this amount of popularity and acclaim?
Definitely not, it was actually really overwhelming for me and a lot to handle. Safe to say that I’m completely blown away by the amount of support the game has been getting!! My favorite part of it has to be the fanart, I absolutely love seeing people draw characters I’ve created.
What plans do you have after the project is done? Are you going to continue making SMBX episodes, or move onto something else?
I’ll most likely move away from using SMBX, but still stay in the community. I think it’s a nice place! Getting into creating proper games is something I really want to do as well at some point.
Finally, what advice would you have for anyone looking to get into fan game development, or game development as a whole?
So some advice for anyone wanting to make a Mario fangame, definitely don’t be discouraged from all those people making ‘’dmca’’ comments and such. As long as it’s not a remake of an existing game or you don’t make any profit, pretty much nothing will happen. If you’re passionate about the series, it’s definitely a great hobby to have! Though I don’t blame people for wanting to avoid doing so.
Yeah, the DMCA worries are overblown for sure. Despite 99.9% of Mario fan games and mods being left alone, and DMCA takedowns being rare from even the strictest of companies, Nintendo has a reputation of being the most anti fan project company in existence. According to places like Reddit, Hacker News, Discord and various forums across the web, Nintendo is one screenshot away from trying to assassinate anyone who dares make a game starring Mario, Link or Pikachu, and you’re playing with fire by even considering the idea in any capacity.
But that’s not the case. For the most part, most Mario fan games don’t get taken down at all, or even acknowledged by the company. There are whole communities of talented developers out there who’ve been developing fan games and mods for decades on end, and numerous major projects that have gotten thousands of Let’s Plays and livestreams without any trouble whatsoever.
As Starshi says, it’s really only the remakes, profit making ventures and odd ‘unlucky’ project that gets hit by the ‘Nintendo Ninjas’, with the vast majority of fan games and mods being finished and released without any issues. So don’t get too caught up on the comments here. Don’t let Reddit and other internet forums and social media sites kill your hobbies and interests. Make the games you want to make, and let things happen as they may.
Either way, thanks for the interview Starshi! It was really interesting learning more about Super Mario & The Rainbow Stars, and the game just looks better and better every time we check on it. We’re definitely excited to hear what happens with this game in future, and whatever other projects you work on after this one.
And we also hope to hear what those reading this interview thought of that too. So what are your thoughts here? Are you excited for Super Mario & The Rainbow Stars? Did we ask the right questions about the project in future? What other fan games and mods do you want to hear about here on Gaming Reinvented?
Leave your thoughts on these questions in the comments below, on social media, or over on our Discord server today!