Super Mariomon Impressions

Paul Palmer
indie games Pokemon
super mariomon header

It looks like I haven’t been very good with keeping the monthly ‘what I’ve been playing’ post going! I’m really bad at logging what I’m playing. But I guess the long and short of it has been more Pokopia, especially now that the DLC has been released, UFO 50 for Switch, which my wife got me for my birthday (the physical special edition with the guide!), and Super Mariomon, a romhack of Pokemon Emerald.

So many Mario enemies work as Pokemon like characters!

I’ve read about and maybe even tried a few romhacks of Pokemon in the past, but I usually play for a few minutes, remark that that is neat and must have taken so much time, and then I forget about it forever. This game, however, is really pulling me in. It’s Pokemon completely remade into a Mario game, and it works so well! You’re playing Mario and capturing enemies using capture caps, basically caps like Cappy from Super Mario Odyssey. Princess Peach has set up this game, and you have to go to 8 worlds and collect the 8 power stars (basically the Pokemon badges). Along the way you’ll see familiar faces like Luigi, Bowser and Kamek, and also some surprises that still stay within the Mario universe, like Wario and his crew and Diamond City from WarioWare.

Each level gets a bit more elaborate.

The enemies from Super Mario are so varied that they make a great replacement for Pokemon. Instead of pikachus and squirtles, you’ll get things like goobas, boos, cheep-cheeps and tons more. It’s been really fun seeing what new enemies I’ll get to capture. The graphics and music have been completely reworked to feel appropriate to Super Mario, and at times I’ve completely forgotten that I’m playing a Pokemon ROM hack, it feels like a true Mario side game! I’ve gotten 3 of the 8 stars so far, and am on my way to the 4th.

A switch operation puzzle on Daisy's ship.

There’s an official site to get info and download the ROM, and it doesn’t even need to be patched, just download the file and load it into your GBA emulator of choice. I highly recommend giving this game a go, it’s clear the team’s love and passion have been poured into this title, and if you like Pokemon and Mario, you’ll really enjoy this game.