Video Game / Hammer Brother

"In MCMLII [1952] Hammer Bro takes the decision to be independent. Leaves home to fight against the imperator."

—Intro message box, Orange Version

Hammer Brother Demo 3 and its finished "English" version is a Super Mario World ROM hack by Blackout77, widely considered to be the Mario Hacking community's (and by extension, the entire Mario fandom's) equivalent of My Immortal.

For those who wish to play it for some reason, you can download patches for Demo 3 and NES version by clicking on the links.

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Hammer Brother Demo 3, NES Final Version and Orange Version contain examples of:

• Art-Style Clash: Numerous, numerous examples:
  • Hammer Bro himself is an 8-bit sprite from Super Mario Bros., and often finds himself in levels with 16-bit foregrounds and backgrounds.
  • Despite the second version of the game being called NES Final Version, the OW has graphics that are clearly too detailed for an NES to handle◊ (as well as being a shoddy knockoff of Brutal Mario).
  • The levels constantly switch between graphical styles (sometimes even in the same sublevel!).
  • Rocket Rush is an infamous example with 8-bit Super Mario Bros. foreground with realistic Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! backgrounds, alongside with being an impossibly difficult level without cheating.
• Anachronism Stew: Despite the fact the game supposedly takes place in 1952, you have Hammer Brother fighting Robot Masters made at least from the 21st Century, and the second level in the game has Mega Man X graphics.
• Author Appeal: Blackout77 really loves Pokémon creepypastas (such as Buried Alive and Lost Silver) and Brutal Mario, as many elements of this game show.
• Bonus Feature Failure: You can unlock the Top Secret Area normally, although it offers literally nothing to the player except that it's a remake of Lavender Town from Kanto. We wish we were joking but we're not.◊
• Call-Back: Secret 4-3 is reused from Blackout's unfinished remake of Super Mario Frustration, even down to the same Level ID in Lunar Magic.
• Checkpoint Starvation: Most of the levels lack checkpoints.
• Evil Twin: The Rival, a Darker and Edgier version of Hammer Brother himself.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: A lot of the bosses in the levels just randomly appear without any real reason.
• Guide Dang It!: How are you supposed to know that you need a fire flower (reskinned as a hammer, enabling Hammer Bro to throw hammers) that the game doesn't even give you just to complete the level? And this is only just one of the many moments in the game!
• Hitbox Dissonance: Due to how the sprites work in the game, this occurs pretty often. Despite their hitbox seeming like it's been changed, it actually hasn't, leading to instances like Bladers (which are actually Rexes) hurting you when you try to walk underneath them, and even seem to die by nothing if you throw a shell at them. Ben the Hacker says this from his review of it:
  That can’t be. I try to slide under this robot head thing [Blader] and yet I die? How does that happen?! L-Look how much space, look how much space is under there! What did I hit?! I touched nothing! So why is this happening? Well, you're not going to believe it, but this is actually a Rex. The same two square hit box is still there! In fact, if you toss a shell under it, that kills it too! This is too fucked up. This one enemy defies every iota of knowledge in the human brain!”
• Kaizo Trap: Quite a handful appear in the game:
  • The game frequently uses a specific sublevel (13F) that contains a secret exit and an invisible block right over the gap needed to access it (meaning you have to do a precise jump not to hit it) and a bottomless pit to the left of it that you automatically drop into if you don't react quickly enough. It's pretty painful to think that just when you're about to easily get the secret exit, instead the game throws you a trap and you have to do the level again, if not all of it.
  • Bubbleman Sea has a Kaizo trap that if you don't get to the top of a one-tile gap, you automatically fall and sink, forcing you to redo the level.
  • In the second level after you defeat the boss, Hammer Brother automatically starts walking to the right but there's a pit on the left side of the screen, meaning that unless you're on the right side of the screen, he'll just walk to the pit and fall down, meaning you have to redo the level once again.
• Multiple Endings: In Final Version, you can complete the game by being eaten by the Buried Alive Model or defeating the Imperator.
• Never Trust a Title: The "NES version" is not for the NES, and is not NES-themed either.
• Puzzle Boss: Pix, in the second level, is like this. You have to throw a shell that has the same color as the diamond in order to hurt it.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Enforced, as many spots have one tile gaps too big for a big Hammer Bro.
• Platform Hell: Mainly because of Fake Difficulty.
• Ratchet Scrolling: One of the game's many, many problems. All but a few levels have it and said levels often require you to go to the left which the scrolling prevents you from doing, thus you have to lose a life.
• Recycled Soundtrack: Several as a result of using the same addmusic files as Kollision 1 and 2
  • Demo 3's version of Jumping Fish Ship used the Kirby's Adventure forest stage port used in Kollision 1's first level.
  • Infinity Road reuses music from Kollision 1's second level.
  • The infamous Secret 4-3 theme first appeared in Super Mario Frustration's Fan Remake, also by blackout77.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: In Pokemon Road (Pokemon Move Hole in Demo 3) Weedle is spelled as Weedlee. Yes, really.◊
  • In Demo 3, the level "Springboard Trees" was called "Sprigboard Trees".
• Sensory Abuse: Because the samples weren't inserted correctly, the track that plays in Secret 4-3 (which is supposed to be Cascade Capers) has glitched, high-pitched sounds that change the sound effects. Listen for yourself.
• Shoddy Knockoff Product: To an extent, the entire game is this to Brutal Mario, albeit without the ASM. There are many, many of these littered throughout the game in a bad attempt to imitate Brutal Mario but specific examples include the overworld in NES Version◊ and in both versions, Entrance to Sorrow is one to Wily's Revenge. Even the music reeks of shoddiness.
• Shout-Out: A lot of these are in the game, such as shoutouts to Pokémon and its creepypastas (like Buried Alive and Lost Silver, as listed above), Mega Man, Donkey Kong Country, Brutal Mario, and even, bizarrely enough, Derpy Hooves replacing Yoshi in NES Final Version. While it's possible to get her out of the levels that have her, her pallette is glitched up so you end up with this in other levels◊.
• Translation Trainwreck: The only difference between NES Final Version and Orange Version is the insertion of an incomplete Engrish script (probably directly through Google Translate) that makes Breath of Fire II look competent. (some level messages are untranslated)

Bombs would explode in
XC Seconds, Hammer Bro
was smart to defeat
Crash Man before the
bombs exploded ... if
Bombs explode
Hurry only and Hammer
Bro would go wrong.

• Unintentionally Unwinnable: There are numerous instances of this but here's one example; in the Final Version, you need to open level 13E in Lunar Magic and add a goal object just to continue playing, as the boss of Metalman Fortress (Purple Metal in Final Version) is impossible to kill. Demo 3 players can circumvent this with the Orb Glitch and you can also cheat your way to complete the level, but you aren't supposed to make a game where major glitch usage nor cheating is forced.