The following is a reader-submitted game review by Hassle Free:
This game is Super Mario Brothers from the point of view of Bullet Bill 2. It is also very fast paced and challenging, especially on the higher levels.
The gameplay is pretty standard for a side-scroller. Use the arrow keys to navigate while trying to hit the breakable blocks, Goombas, and even the occasional Mario or Luigi. The challenge is to avoid the green platforms that you may remember jumping on from the original SMB games.
Analysis: Overall I think this is a pretty good game. Its graphics are reminiscent of Mario, the sound effects are quite good, and it is even fairly challenging. The later levels do get difficult, and you will likely need to memorize the entire level just to get through it. Anyway, like I said it is worth a try.
Jay adds: One of the nice things about this game is that when you die you only go back to the beginning of the current level, and you are given infinite lives with which to complete the game. And while the game comes off a little amateurish in production values, the simple and effective gameplay won me over. Play this one while you can, since Nintendo is generally quite adamant about protecting their intellectual property.
Update: And that was just a demo(!) The real Bullet Bill is out and the links above have been changed to point to the new, enhanced version. If you're still interested in playing the demo, you still can:
In normal game mode it makes my eyes go wery fast.
TIP: If you got a notebook, try turning it 90° for this game so it turns to be a bottom-up or up-bottom scroller, most interesting this far easier for the human eye to follow! (with the notebook the keyboard turns as well, so it feels pretty well like left-right)
Once again the game runs too fast on my PC or I'm too slow for the game :(
This is true, actually. That's why we always see the fast-moving shooters oriented top-down. Something about the side-view puts us at a disadvantage.
I think this was executed very well, assuming the designer was a beginner. It was clean, the bit sizes matched up (one of my biggest peeves when checking out amateur flash games is coming across a perfectly vector-drawn circle inside an aliased world) I would have liked so see more creativity with the upper obstacles, rather than a simple inversion of the tree-platforms. But he kept it simple and to-the-point, which was nice. No throwing in Koopas that pointlessly act the same as the goombas when you hit them. He focused instead on the challenge of object-avoidance. That was smart.
Overall, though, like I said - not bad for a beginner.
This game has a neat concept, but the jerking graphics just about gave me seizure. Couldn't keep on playing past the first level. Nintendo would do well to buy this idea and put it out on their handheld I think (maybe bundled with other Mario theme games).
Cool game.
Fun song.
"Robot Rock" by Daft Punk. Didn't see a credit for that in the game, but that's definitely the song.
Yeah, I'll second the previous comment about the seizure. Cool concept, but I need to get a wireless keyboard so I can sit farther away. I got dizzy after about a minute of playing.
my god, so darn hard.
Haha very fun game.
Really well done. I stopped at lvl 3, and my score was... oh crud i didn't write down my score. Oh well.
code for level two is q3th6, code for lvl 3 is rzbq1
Wahoo i killed luigi
start of world 2...
password: K1CF8 or maybe KLCF8
(aided by turning monitor and keyboar on side)
Once again I wonder... Is it so impossible to make these games running with same speed in all computers? I tested Bullet Bill on slow PC and it was even too easy to play. Then on the same PC the Doplhin Olympics was really boring because the clock was ticking at same speed as in my fast laptop but the Dolphin it self was like snail. The time just simply ran out before I even reached the moon.
And how would I know what is the ideal speed that was used when these games were made? So folks, keep that in mind when you wonder why you can't get as many points as other players or can't reach the moon or third level in some game ;)
after armor comment i would just like to add that it runs very fast on my computer and it was patience combined with great skill that got me past level 3 :-p
That's a very good point, Amor Lassie, and is a potentially common issue when developing Flash games since game authors can set the frame rate for playback in the Flash source file to anything they wish, but the actual frame rate realized when playing the game may indeed be significantly lower.
The issue is primarily with action games, as have been the topic of this discussion. While the frame rate may be set by the author at 30 frames per second (for example), the actual frame rate will likely be lower than that (probably mid to low 20's) for most players (not you Amor Lassie ;)
If the game author designs a game around the actual frame rate and it happens to be lower than the frame rate the game file is set at, then when the game is played on a more powerful computer than the game author's design setup, the game will run faster than it was designed to run.
To correct this, a game author should have the frames per second calculated and displayed while designing and testing the game, and then hard code the final game source file at that target frame rate. Flash will reduce the frame rate as needed if it can't keep up, but it will never exceed the frame rate that is set in the Flash source file.
Who is the artist at the beginning ( main menu ) ? ( music related )
Lyman - Disco Dan already answered your question.
how do you get the codes to work
Nevermind i got it. oh and dustfinger i belive that you mean the code for world 1-3 is
R7BQ1 not RZBQ1
To skip a level you can:
right click and click play
I am a neurologist, and here's a little (maybe) useful physiology for you game designers:
First: Our side-to-side vision is programmed to notice a MOVING object on a FIXED background. (eg, that baseball flying at your head). We are not so good at seeing a FIXED object on a MOVING background. This is especially true if your equilibrium is telling you that you are sitting still.
Here's a clinical test we do that simulates that fast side scroller with an unnaturally moving background. You take a piece of paper (or computer screen) with even, alternating black and white stripes and move it in one direction moderately in front of your friends' eyes. Your friend will try to follow the moving object uncontrollably, but your equilibrium doesn't feel the motion, and will keep pulling the eyes back to center. Very disorienting for your friend but funny for you to watch.
Also notice that the Sonic games keep changing the direction with those loops, which keeps you a little more grounded. Plus, they make sure you don't have to do much when it's going really fast except keep it going.
Second: We are used to very fast up and down movements in the natural world, because of gravity. For most of human history, things falling down moved faster than anything moving across, and we know how to move to compensate. Think of how often you miss embarassingly when your wife tosses you the car keys, but how easy it is to catch your glasses falling off your face.
Thanks as always, jay, for the great site.
i've gotten only to level 1-3 so far, and i've been playing this for the last few days. my problem isn't seizure-like motion, it's just general frustration with the game. :D little chunks at a time. memorize one part of a level, come back and add a bit more, and for criminy sakes, write down those passwords fast!
strange thing about scoring...
i think your score isn't affected by what you hit, so much as how long you hit them. there's a massive difference in your score between when you idly crash through blocks (not moving), versus plowing through them (pushing forward), versus moving with the blocks (pulling back). if you want a higher score, pull back when you hit a brick or goomba. the longer you maintain contact with that item, the more points it will register. then again, points seem to have little to do with the game, as your score resets when you use a password.
ooh, new version! que fortuna! here's what i think about the new version:
CONTROLS: "In Bullet Bill 2 you use the mouse to move around. This is better than the BB1 arrow keys because they sucked." (--from the in-game instructions)
i don't know how many times i crashed before i realized that it was mouse control instead of keyboard. do i like the new controls? not really... part of the fun of the old BB1 was trying on the up arrow key to get the darn thing to move faster. it seems like most of the quick-turn-around action is gone from BB2.
CHARACTERS: i've only beaten the 1st world so far, so i only have one new character. i'm curious to finish the other levels, just to see what they have done with this idea. again paraphrasing the directions, there are smaller characters which make for easier navigation, and there are some that are "just for fun." i'm intrigued...
GAME PLAY: yes, i am thankful for the checkpoints, thank you very much! it was also interesting seeing the new underground/underwater/castle levels, they made for a good variety... but is it just me, or did the levels become sickeningly shorter? or just much easier now that i'm using a mouse, that i can just pass them all on the first try?
GAME STYLE: no, no, no! you did not just change from the classic smb graphics! you did NOT just go there! (sigh) i think one of my biggest gripes about this new game is how it no longer resembles the game it was once immitating... i don't know, maybe one of the mario games on them new-fangled touchscreen-gameboys has graphics and sounds like what's in BB2, but the retro stylin's of BB1 were what made that game so great...
and that's my take on the news from lake wobegon. i know i'll keep playing this game... if only i can actually remember to write down the level passwords!
I can't get the links to the new version to work. Only the "demo" link works.
They changed the link. It should be fixed now.
Code for world 4-1
8T9HF
Just found it and decided what the heck why not beat it...
Below you will find the level codes for the *-1 worlds
2-1 1Y63M
3-1 9K62A
4-1 6Z39W
5-1 5P38S
6-1 8U13A
7-1 8G17L
8-1 3F15G
Also below are the unlockable characters except for the last one. Trust me its worth it to beat the game to get it.It has to be one of the best final unlockables ive seen and quite fun to use....
6E7KU
8T9HF
3Q7YX
6F4JW
9C8PK
9P1WL
The last unlockable....let's just say it's tantamount to a power trip.
Bullet Revisit
Since its been updated I thought what the heck lets try it again.....
I will say that I was greatly disappointed.
Before the scroll was just the right speed. You could react to the obstacles without having to memorize the entire path until you reached the higher levels. Now its impossible to complete even 1-2 without memorizing every tower. Also half of the time the goombas are death traps that are placed so that its impossible to hit them and then avoid the next tower. The learning curve has been set so high at the low levels that most will just say (*%#(* this. I myself gave up since if world 1-2 is a reflection on how the rest of the game is you can have it. I want my demo back please......
The final character is unstoppable heres the code
8E7UC
the last character is the giant bullet bill heres the code
8E7UC
Wow, after 3 hours of swearing and punching things, I finally beat it. Bloody hell, the pirate shipe level in the last set was killer.
YAY!!!! 10/10 stars!!
i beat it and did it again with the
HUMUNGO bullete bill
-p.s. great find hassle free
The evil spirit of "page not found", Pharoah For, has visited this game and destroyed the Bullet Bill. All gameplay is lost. No pixalated survivors.
Thanks Dave! They moved the games around in a site redesign. I've fixed the links. :)
cheat for final boss in bullet bill 2
just stay at the top of the screen
JAY! There's a Trojen Horse in the link of the picture!! My Avast! anti virus software caught it before it got in my computer.
[Edit: Thanks for reporting this! I've changed the links for both games in the review to point to the Newgrounds hosted ones instead. Cheers! -Jay]
Update