Something (ROM Hack)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Something is the name of a Super Mario World Rom Hack by Yogui, known for its well-made levels.

The plot is... there is none, because someone went and stole it, and it's up to Mario to thwart whoever the villain is and retrieve it. It's slightly oddball in that aspect - just as well, since many people know of the ROM hack series from raocow's playthroughs of the games.

Yogui also created a sequel, Something Else, which focuses on Luigi and his adventures in another world.

The patch can be found here.

Not to be confused with the various other somethings around here, such as a song by Aerosmith, a song by Andrius Pojavis, a song by The Beatles, a song by Dark Lotus, a song by Escape the Fate, a song by Girl's Day, a song by Joe Cocker, a song by Lasgo, a song by the Move, a song by Shakira, or a song by TVXQ.

Tropes used in Something (ROM Hack) include:
  • Abhorrent Admirer: The pink Rip Van Fish that appear in "The Only Water Level" chase Mario as usual if woken up. Their sleepy Zs are replaced with hearts, and the creator suggests that they're dreaming about finding love.
  • Acrofatic: Bow-- er, Ballser speeds up during the last phases of his boss fight, including gaining a pair of wings to become even faster, and uses his weight to create earthquakes and stun-lock Mario.
  • Action Bomb: In addition to Bob-ombs, the pink Bullet Birds, the red Bomb Boos and the dull red Yoshi Koopas explode.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: The game brings up the save prompt after level completion, as opposed to only after a Ghost House, Castle or Fortress level.
  • Author Appeal: Yogui likes to put crude penises in various places. He also likes the Mega Man series, with many references to those games appearing throughout the Something series.
  • Author Avatar: Yogui's Avatar shows up when you achieve 100% Completion and congratulates you for completing the game.
  • Auto-Scrolling Level:
    • "Perilous Ice" which is made even more dangerous than normal because of the ice physics, Pokeys and tiny Mario clones. Luckily, Yoshi is there to make things easier, and you'll need him for the Switch Palace exit.
    • "Vertical Chao", where Mario has to dodge many enemies and obstacles while riding on a very tiny platform.
  • Big Bad: Ballser is the one responsible for stealing the plot.
  • Book Ends: The game begins with a text blurb about the stolen plot, and ends with a description of the plot itself.
  • Boring Return Journey: Mario calls a taxi and heads back to the Mushroom Kingdom after recovering the plot scenario from Ballser.
  • Born as an Adult: Some of the eggs in "Kinder Surprise" hatch into Pidgit Bills, Masked Koopas and Caped Koopas.
  • Boss Arena Idiocy:
    • The boss of the Chateau du Vent has plenty of throw blocks in its arena. If these blocks were replaced with an ordinary platform, the boss fight would be impossible.
  • Boss Rush: The True Final Boss level. To make things more difficult, you'll have to do it as Small Mario.
  • Breath Weapon: The Sakura Tori is a pink bird that spits fireballs at its foes.
  • Brutal Bonus Level: As is standard with Super Mario games and ROM hacks.
  • Bullet Hell: The boss of "Yōsu no Tera", who forces Mario to dodge patterns of sprite-swapped bullets in a room of spikes.
  • Cool Shades: All of the Galoombas wear shades, not unlike their appearance after beating the Special Zone in the original Super Mario World.
  • Collection Sidequest: One level has a gatekeeper that requires you to collect 75 of a given item to gain passage. The level has an alternate exit, making this sidequest optional.
  • Cyclopean Creature: One enemy is a Banzai Bill sprite-swap with one red eye covering its face.
  • Demonic Possession: King Dedede gets possessed by Dark Matter in the boss fight for "DDDark Castle". He even coughs up tiny Dark Matters for the second phase of the fight.
  • Double Jump: When Yoshi is hatched for the first time in Happy Horse Bridge, he says not to drop him in a pit. Guess what you have to do to access either of the level's exits.
  • Eternal Engine: "The Space Hideout", whose graphics are ripped directly from Scrap Brain Zone Act 2.
  • Evil Knockoff: Small hostile Mario clones appear as enemies, and are spriteswaps of Monty Moles.
  • Excuse Plot: The plot of Something is to retrieve the plot stolen by Ballser, which turns meta when Mario reads the sheet describing the plot of the game.
  • Faceless Eye: Bigeye is a giant eyeball who is quite easy to beat.
  • Feathered Fiend: The Pidgit Bills and Bullet Birds, which get a Mario-seeking variation and an exploding variation respectively.
  • Frogs and Toads: Amphibian enemies that are immune to fire and ride on pogo sticks appear throughout the game.
  • Fundamentally Funny Fruit: Jumping Piranha Plants and regular Piranha Plants appear as pumpkins, borrowed from their appearance after beating the Special Zone in the original Super Mario World.
  • Gender Flip: The Rip Van Fish are edited to be pink, and their sleepy Zs are replaced with hearts.
  • Generic Doomsday Villain: Ballser. In fact, the scenario describing the game does not even mention his name at all.
  • Gimmick Level: All of the levels have a unique gimmick to make them stand out, which is considered one of the selling points of the hacks.
  • Gratuitous Japanese: "Yōsu no Tera", which may roughly translate to "Temple of Signs".
  • Green Hill Zone: An unusual example in "Night Of Spikes".
  • Gusty Glade: "Chateau du Vent" has wind constantly blowing in from the east, making rightward movement much more difficult.
  • Goomba Springboard: As with most Super Mario World hacks.
    • In "Bouncing Training", Mario has to jump on Koopa Paratroopas to cross the wide gaps and the lava pits.
    • Spin-jumping off Torpedo Teds is the primary gimmick of "Pain Fortress".
  • Hailfire Peaks: World 4 is a desert/ice world. In "So Sand or Snow?", Mario can use pipes to switch between the desert and ice halves.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Wigglers as usual.
  • Hard Mode Filler: "B Ghost House" is a remix of the first half of "A Ghost House", but with black fog, Pidgit Bills, and no coins to indicate the locations of the ceiling smashers.
  • Helpful Mook: Punches serve this purpose in "Punches on Cold Ice" - their punches do no damage to Mario, but send him flying quite a bit, and Mario must uses this to cross the vast gaps in the level.
  • Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Masked Koopas re-use their Mario-like appearance from the original Super Mario World after beating the Special Zone in that game.
  • Invincible Minor Minion: Gordos, Munchers, Spikitus and Boss Bass. The level "Hungry Vegetation" is infested with Munchers in particular.
  • Invincibility Power-Up: The Super Star, whose them is a remix of "You Spin Me Right Round". The invincibility lasts only a few seconds.
  • King Mook:
    • Von Toad II is the leads of the frogs encountered in the game, and uses a UFO rather than a pogo stick.
  • Kung Fu-Proof Mook:
    • Spikitus and Spike Magikoopas can't be stomped, and are immune to fireballs as well.
    • Boss Bass from in the level "Dat Bass" - it's immune to being stomped as usual, but has an added immunity to fireballs.
  • Lethal Lava Land:
    • In the first half of "Skulls Cave", Mario has to dodge obstacles while riding a one-block wide skull raft over a river of lava.
    • "Chateau du Feu", which uses the graphics of Fire Man's level from Mega Man 1.
    • "Intestinal Problem" combines this with Womb Level.
  • The Lost Woods: World 3 in Something takes place in a forest. Like the Forest of Illusion, there are many secret exits in this forest.
  • Mad Scientist: Von Toad II. He's smart enough to come up with the things he rides in the Something series.
  • Magic Mushroom: "Hasardous House" is a level based around the ? Mushroom, a new item whose effects are randomized.[1]
  • Man-Eating Plant: The Munchers and Pumpkin Plants.
  • Marathon Level: Switch Room in the Evil Guy's moon base. To finish the level, Luigi has to press the four switches and activate the switch block bridge.
  • The Maze:
    • The Maze of Ice Cubes in Something, which can be hard because of the ice physics.
    • The Mysterious Maze in Something Else. You have to find the right doors to escape the maze.
  • Miko: There is a town full of Mikos in Something Else. Unfortunately, Boos have kicked them out of their town, and possessed their leader.
  • Minecart Madness: Mine Catastrophe. Luigi has to use Minecarts to make it to the end of the level. According to a Message Box, Luigi is dumb enough to fall through the holes between planks.
  • Mordor: The last world is a dark-grey field, with levels including a Ghost House filled with ? Mushrooms, an obstacle-filled Fortress, and Ballser's Castle.
  • Nerf: Yoshi can no longer be kept between levels, which is done to avoid making the game a cakewalk.
  • Neon Sign Hideout: Bowser Ballser's Castle.
  • Nostalgia Level:
    • According to Yogui, Oldschool Temple is a level from an unfinished hack, so its quality is worse in comparison to the other levels in Something.
    • Else Castle :3 has Yogui's previous contest level entries combined into a single level and randomized, similar to Chocolate Island 3 in Super Mario World.
  • Odd Name Out: The Chateau level names in Something are based on the elements in the French language (Feu, Eau, Vent, and Terre), but the final Chateau has the name of Chateau Finale.
  • Our Mermaids Are Different: These mermaids are basically sprite-swaps of the helpful Dolphins in Something. They only appear in the secret path of the Mysterious Maze.
  • Ominous Floating Castle: Else Castle, Ballser's new base in Something Else. It even has his face as a logo.
  • Palmtree Panic: World 5 in Something Else. Luigi can retrieve kitties for a giant cat, interact with mermaids, swim in floating globs of water, storm Dedede's castle, smell the flowers, climb a flower-themed tower, and fight a giant Yoshi koopa cosplayer.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: The Buzzy Beetles in Something Else disguise themselves as helpful ? Orbs, but that fails since they're always moving. Also, the ? Orbs are not used as exits.
  • Pipe Maze: Pipes n' P-Switches, which is based around retrieving P-Switches to get rid of the coin blocks and Munchers.
  • Pixellation: Used to cover up the indecent act between Luigi and the Head Miko in Something Else.
  • Post End Game Content: The bonus worlds in all of the Something Series. Something even advises you to complete the game before taking on the bonus world when you press the Switch Palace in World 4.
  • Punched Across the Room: Used as the main gimmick in Punches on Cold Ice. Mario has to be punched by the titular enemies in order to cross the massive pits.
  • Ratchet Scrolling: Kinder Surprise, which makes dodging the Kinder Surprise eggs much harder.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Banzai Bills in Something Else. They are very fast, but there are red coins that reveal their next locations.
  • Ribcage Ridge: Skulls Cave, which happens to be a reference to Skull Man's level in Mega Man 4.
  • Shout Out: See this page for a list.
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World:
    • Perilous Ice in Something. It happens to be location of one of the Switch Palaces, and it's also an Auto-Scrolling Level.
    • Baka Kori in Something Else. As the level is a reference to Touhou Project, Cirno's music is playing in the background.
    • Snow Furry Temple, where Luigi is chased by a white FOE.
  • Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom:
    • Chateau de la Terre in Something is filled with big smashers. The level has no auto-scrolling sections, but the platforming is extremely difficult.
    • Space Hideout in Spmething Else has a scrolling section where Luigi must dodge electric pulses and big smashers.
  • Sound Test: Found in the Bonus Area of Something Else. Luigi can listen to music he already unlocked.
  • Space Base: The evil guy's base is located on the moon.
  • Space Zone: A Day in Space in Something. Unusually, this level is also a GreenHillZone, but its difficulty is appropriate since it is a BrutalBonusLevel. Lots of munchers and pits in this level.
  • Spell My Name with a "The": The Evil Guy in Something Else.
  • Spikes of Doom:
    • Night of Spikes. The only enemy around is the Tick and most of the obstacles are spikes.
    • Hell Ship in the Sky has a Spikitu toss Homing Pidgit Bills. Another one joins and makes things worse.
    • Spikitu Castles 1+2 in Something Else. Spikitus are the major enemy in this level. They are immune to Luigi's arsenal of tricks.
  • Spike Shooter: Tick. It appears only in Night of Spikes, and they attack Mario if he's above them.
  • The Spiny: In addition to the usual Spiny, there's now a kind of Lakitu called Spikitu. They have spikes for hair.
  • Stationary Boss: Von Toad II's machine in Something Else can't move, and the only way to harm it is to jump on the ball projectiles it shoots out and bounce up to the cockpit.
  • Storming the Castle:
    • Mario has to storm the Chateaus at the end of each world in Something. They even get an Elemental Theme Naming.
    • Luigi gets to storm DDDark Castle [2] in Something Else. Luigi even gets to fight a Dark Matter-possessed Dedede at the end.
  • Super-Persistent Missile: The Homing Pidgit Bills. They're featured in Hell Ship in the Sky and they will always aim for Mario's position, no matter what. Later on, Spikitus start throwing them.
  • Tactical Suicide Boss:
    • If Von Toad II didn't spawn his toad minions when you fought him in Something, fighting him when his saucer rises higher would be impossible.
    • If Monkey Kong didn't toss barrels at Luigi during the phase where Munchers are a prominent obstacle, it would be impossible to beat.
    • If Von Toad II's machine in Something Else didn't shoot stompable ball projectiles, he would be harder to beat.
  • Temple of Doom:
    • Oldschool Temple in Something. The graphics come from the Pyramid Levels in Super Mario Bros. 2 and the Labyrinth Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog. The music is a remix of Marble Garden Zone Act 2 from Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The level is filled with large pits in the first half and Thwomps and spikes in the second half.
    • Puzzle Itemple in Something Else. To complete this optional level, Luigi has to solve the puzzles, which requires proper use of the springboards and P-Switches.
  • Tempting Fate: The message box in the secret area inside Dino Horse Cloud claims that there is no food in the secret area and that Luigi can't carry out the Yellow Yoshi baby through the door. Luigi proves the message box wrong by having the Yoshi baby eat the message box. Also, the Yoshi baby eats the other message boxes within the area.
  • Throw a Barrel At It: Monkey Kong's main method of attack during his boss level in Something Else. It acts an homage to the original Donkey Kong
  • Timed Mission: Running Cave. Luigi has to run to the end of the level, but the Charging' Chucks and the tiny time limit will make it difficult. There's a section where Luigi has to run or get devoured by a ceiling covered in Muncher Plants
  • Title Drop:
    • The word "Something" appears in a block formation in Fuzzy Tower and So Sand or Snow?
    • The words "Something Else" appears in block formation in This is Something. This is Something and the Else Castle also forms a Title Drop.
  • Toothy Bird: Shows up as an obstacle in The Last Castle. They're clearly Rip Von Fish sprite-swaps as they share the same behaviors as Rip Van Fish.
  • Trapped in Another World: Luigi is accidentally summoned to the Bears' World in Something Else because they wanted his brother, Mario.
  • Under the Sea:
    • There is a section of swimming in the Lost Path's switch palace exit. It's difficult because of the Phantos.
    • The level called Only Water Level in Something is the only pure water level in Something. It's unique because of the blue Angry Sun pursuing Mario at all times.
    • Star Ocean in Something Else. It's filled with unhappy stars and they want to kill Luigi.
  • Unexpected Gameplay Change:
    • Yosu no Tera has a section where Mario has to use the P-Balloon in order to navigate the pseudo-SHUMP section, and Yosu no Tera 2 does the same thing to Luigi in Something Else.
    • Fantoma Mura, Yurei no Jinja, and This is Something in Something Else also have the same gimmick.
  • Unreadably Fast Text: The Something Else C3 Trailer uses this to warn potential players of the many dangers within Something Else.
  • Villain Exit Stage Left: After the failure of his plot, the Evil Guy says that he's going home and frees the Village Elder.
  • The Von Trope Family: Von Frog II.
  • Wall Jump: The other Athletic Peach ability. It is required to pass the first half of Walljump Xtream DX
  • Warmup Boss:
    • The four Red Birdos in Something. Since they are Mooks, they go down very easily.
    • Bigeye in Something Else. He's a giant eyeball with no projectile attacks.
  • Weird Moon: The Evil Guy's Moon Base in Something Else. It even has an evil smirk on its face.
  • What The Hell Player: The message box at the end of Wet Weird Forest calls out Luigi if he hits it because he activated the message box layer 3 glitch and caused the Cheep-Cheeps to fall to their deaths.
  • Wrap Around: A Trip in A Tree is an homage to World 5-3 from Super Mario Bros. 2, including the Bob-Omb and Albatoss enemis.
  • Wutai: World 3 in Something Else has a distinct Japanese motif. The trees are cherry blossoms, and the houses look like Japanese houses from an earlier era.
  • You All Look Familiar: The bears and the Miko villagers in Something Else. However, their leaders have unique sprites [3] to make them stand out.
  1. ↑ These effects include exploding on Mario's face, receiving many coins, and acting as a Mushroom or Poison Mushroom.
  2. ↑ a World 5 secret level
  3. ↑ The bear leader has a beard and the Miko leader looks like Yuyuko.
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