Super Mario 64 Jammin’ Journey Review

 

Super Mario 64 Jammin’ Journey is a 70 star ROM hack made by “goosedajuice”. The game is filled with eight worlds, hidden stars, tons of NPCs, and a bunch of pizzazz (no pun intended). Before we jump into it, I will talk about the game’s core which is if anything has changed for the Super Mario 64 engine and other aspects of the game. Firstly, Super Mario 64 Jammin’ Journey is a pretty vanilla ROM Hack when it comes in terms of difficulty or gameplay changes. Mario does not have any custom models, no new moves, and overall moves the same. The camera and sprite models are not changed as well, so in turn you are just playing Super Mario 64 to its core (like most hacks but again minor/major changes to it are the owner’s discretion). The biggest change you will notice are just that the stars are pretty cyan blue, but overall, you’re getting the same Super Mario 64 elements you know and love.

While the focus of the ROM Hack and all Super Mario 64 hacks are about gameplay and the new level recreations, I couldn’t help but love the game’s soundtrack, it was my favorite part. The songs, be it old Mario Party songs or new custom songs made, fit each level’s motif and made the world’s all the more memorable. You start off in a somewhat faux version of a stranded island / Yoshi Island (blame the Mario Party music here) and albeit small is a good starter level for a ROM hack. You make your way through a plethora of worlds such as a forest themed, desert themed (with the bad guy being named Gordon Hamsay haha), and haunted mansion / church theme. After getting through these worlds Goose decides to really create his own style for Super Mario 64 and we are led to the more difficult portion of the ROM Hack venturing to an underground mine level, a volcano area, and my personal favorite for any Mario game a cloud / Sky themed world. There is definitely a noticeable jump in difficulty after you complete the first four worlds, though none too much to say the ROM Hack is a daunting task, just that it requires the player to stay on their toes later on.

In fact, one star that took me over 30 minutes to get was the race against Koopa the Quick and let me tell you, I had to learn the bom-omb skip just to beat him cause I still don’t have any clue how to fairly beat him in the race! Once I completed all the levels, found all the secret stars, I went off to fight the big and the bad Bowser (3) and it was a the same fight (like it is most of the time) but I did like the change of stage and pace Goose did for his Bowser fight (and the stage is a treat for Smash Bros fans).

Overall, I think Jammin Journey is one of my favorite ROM Hacks I’ve played since I started my foray into them. The game is pretty default and fans of Super Mario 64 will have no problem with that, the worlds only get better as the game goes on, and the soundtrack is amazing. The secret stars are definitely well hidden throughout the map of the game, the customized NPC’s and textboxes are funny, and there’s a charm in this game that feels like a Mario adventure. I recommend this for first time and long-time Super Mario 64 fans and hope Goose puts out more ROM Hacks in the future!

 

Overall: 9.2/10