Quite frankly, I don't understand all the hating on Super Mario 63. The fact that it's a fan-made game just makes it instantly bad for you people, huh? Some of you fail to see the incredible design work and the authentic Mario feel the game presents. Sure, the grammar isn't Grade A stuff, but the scale of the game alone astonishes me. If Super Mario 64 were 2-D, this would be the outcome. So what if sprites were used? When should a game ever be based on artwork alone?
The core gameplay values of the Mario series were kept amazingly well, and the game was perhaps the largest scale game on Newgrounds, and all anyone says is regarding the game being fan-made, and the occasional glitch. Visiting Runouw's forums might tell you he's still hard at work fixing the bugs that many of you are complaining about. I think you need to hand it to him, his title was well deserved.
Upgrade Complete was oodles of fun, and was greatly deserving of second, but it didn't have the same kind of replayability or console feel that Super Mario 63 instilled in me. You have to hand it to SM63, it is certainly an excellent game, regardless of the few bugs I've encountered.
