Mega Mash

Mega Mash is an NES main game released on September 30, 2011. The game is unique in the fact that each level is a combination of several levels all with a different theme and gameplay.

Carrot Story
left right Left and right arrow keys - Move

up Up arrow key - Jump

Space bar - Pick up or drop off a crate

Balloon
right left Left and right arrow keys - Move

up Up arrow key - Tap to ascend

Ninja
left right Left and right arrow keys - Move

up Up arrow key - Jump

Space - Fire ninja star
 * Hold space and tap an arrow key to move in that direction on a ninja rope

Nitrometris
left right Left and right arrow keys - Move

down Down arrow key - Speed up

Space - Rotate

Smash
left right Left and right arrow keys - Move

Blast Man Joe
left right up down Arrow keys - Move

Space bar - Plant a bomb

Xolstar 3
left right up down Arrow keys - Move

Space bar - Shoot bullets

Levels
Mega Mash has 20 levels. When on the menu, players can pick between 7 games to play, although each game leads to the same level select and to the same levels. In each level of Mega Mash, the player has to reach the goal in the level, which may be a Flag Pole or Lift. Throughout the levels, the player will be able to enter parts of the level that transform them into a different character. Objects which move from one box to another will be rendered differently for that box.

Level 1
The first level of Mega Mash is exactly the same as the original Mario game's first level.

Games

 * See Also: List of Games in Mega Mash

In Mega Mash, all seven games are mixed into one level. The reason for this is because the player corrupted the cartridge.


 * Carrot Story - Help Fluffykins cross the Land of Carrots and defeat the Moo King!
 * Balloon - Join Balloon on this journey across the World of Air.
 * Ninja - Join Ninja as he tries to destroy Oni Yazuka!
 * Nitrometris
 * Smash
 * Blast-Man Joe
 * Xolstar 3

Enemies

 * Main Article: List of Enemies in Mega Mash

All enemies damage by touch or by shooting. Ghosts, Missiles, Venus Fly Traps and Red Birds in Carrot Story. Simian Units and Mines in Ninja. Space Mosquitoes, Space Jellyfish, and UFOs in Xolstar 3. Blast-Man Joe is pursued by Fire.

Hazards

 * Main Article: List of Hazards in Mega Mash

As Takeshi there are Lasers which damage on touch and Turrets that follow ho,, firing as they go. As Fluffykins there is Sand which also damages on touch. extending beyond the top of any given nitrometris game which your piece resets the Nitrometris part of the game and detracts a life. Crusher Blocks descend and rise in Blast-Man Joe, Carrot Story, and Balloon. Hitting Joe with his own explosion in Blast-Man Joe hurts the player.

Pick Ups

 * Main Article: List of Pick Ups in Mega Mash

Pick Ups that grant points appear often in level. Super pick ups in the game add a different power to several of the different game aspects. Fluffykins can shoot fireballs, the Xolstar can fire five lasers at once and gains a shield, and Smash gains guns on the paddle.

Characters

 * Main Article: List of Characters in Mega Mash

The characters in the game transform as the player moves between worlds, so they are essentially the same character throughout, albeit in different forms. There is Fluffykins (in Carrot Story), Takeshi (in ninja), Smash & Faceball in the game Smash, Nitrometris in the game Nitrometris, the Balloon in the game Balloon, the Xolstar (in Xolstar 3), and Blast-Man Joe in the game Blast-Man Joe.

Interactive Objects

 * Main Article: List of Interactive Objects in Mega Mash

Objects like Blocks and Spring Blocks can be interacted with the player, and used to navigate through levels. There are several helpful objects throughout the game.

Bosses

 * Main Article: List of Bosses in Mega Mash

There are three bosses, one encountered halfway through the game and the last two encountered on the final level. They act like enemies, only being bigger, harder to destroy, and having to be destroyed to progress through the game.

Glitches
In the Blog Post announcing Mega Mash had been released, Nitrome said several glitches were still intact. Below are some of them.

Spring Glitch
In Carrot Story, if two boxes are put on top of each other on springs, the springs will glitch. This was fixed.

Push Glitch
In some parts of Carrot Story, the player may be pushed suddenly in one direction. This "push" happens suddenly and cannot be moved against. The player can avoid the glitch by staying completely still.

Uncompleteable Level
In some cases, the player will be forced to kill themself in order to complete the level, as some parts of some level cannot be completed if the player goes to a certain spot and has to go back, but can't, or cannot progress any further. This bug has been fixed.

Super Power Up Glitch
A variation of the Uncompleteable Level Glitch. In some parts of the level, the player may need a Super Power Up to progress further in the level. However, if they die past a certain spot, they will respawn in an area, but without being in the Super Power Up state. At this point, the Super Power Up cannot be obtained, and in some cases, the level is impossible to complete as the player needs the Super Power Up, and is forced to restart the level completely. This was fixed.

Level 18 Glitch
This Glitch causes Mega Mash to be uncompleteable. On level 18, the Flagpole is not positioned over a stable platform. The Flagpole is instead positioned over the orange sky in the Ninja Area. Because the Flagpole is not on a stable platform, it cannot be activated. Also, if the player stands directly on the Brown Block, they will eventually fall through the block into the void below. The player will not die as they have not lost all their hearts, and the game has not been programmed to count falling into the void as death. Thus, the player is infinitely falling. They can move horizontally, but not get back up. This glitch is one of the most infamous Nitrome glitches. This glitch was fixed by Nitrome on Monday October 3rd.

Mega Mash Pre-Preview Beta Elements
Images of Ninja and Balloon appeared in the NES Promo Posters. On the first poster, an image of Balloon and Ninja appear. The Ninja image lacks the grating seen in the final game, the Guard also looks different. The Balloon in the Balloon image lacks a face, and Red and Green Pads are present, something not seen in the final release version of Mega Mash. The Pink Platforms are also seen only once in the game. Seen in the NES Skin is a beta version of Nitrometris, which looks very different than the final release version.

Mega Mash Preview Beta Elements
When Mega Mash was released, an image for each game was previewed. All these preview images possibly mean that Mega Mash was originally going to be 7 games in 1 game, each game having a separate set of levels. It is possible that making all the levels would be difficult, and time consuming, which possibly lead to 20 levels being a mix of the 7 games.

Almost each preview image of a level seen did not make it into the game. In the Balloon image (see gallery above), Balloon is seen approaching a Ball on Chain, which is near a Spike Head. Spike Heads did not make it into the game, also, a Ball on Chain in that area was never encountered. The Blast-Man Joe image had Joe being able to place multiple Bombs at once.

Mosquitoes were also enemies, but cut from the game and possible replaced with Mice. The Nitrome Tetris level was also not seen in the game, neither was the Smash level. The Carrot Story, Ninja, and Xenostar 3 levels did however make it into the game. Mega Mash may have went into development in November, when the Nitrome Enjoyment System was revealed.

Mega Mash Post-Game Beta Elements

 * Main Article: Enemies (Mega Mash)

Unused Enemy Sprites still remain the game. The Sprite of the Hot Air Mines still remain in the Game's coding. 3 unused enemies are also present: A White Sphere, Fat Alien, and Alien Fly; from their appearance it is thought they are from Xolstar 3. A sprite of a Snake also exists, though to be from Blast-Man Joe.

Trivia

 * Several of the games seem to be based on several old games from the 80's and 70's.
 * Carrot Story is based on the Mario series of games, but resembles Super Mario Bros. 2 more.
 * The title and man character also strongly resemble Cave Story
 * Smash is based on Breakout, a Pong like game where the player smashes blocks.
 * The Power-Up resembles Laser capsules from Arkanoid.
 * Nitrometris is obviously based off Tetris.
 * Insectica Prime is clearly based on Metroid Prime
 * The whole NES skin might have been a preview of this game.
 * Blast-man Joe is based off of Bomberman, and possibly The Legend of Zelda.
 * It's a stretch, but maybe Austin Carter was playing this game because in the Mega Mash's intro, there were punching sounds in the background that are similar to the punching noise in Nitrome Must Die's intro.