Darth Wiki / Ganymede

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Ganymede is a total conversion ROM Hack of Super Mario World by R. M. Usher. It is an adaptation of a concept album by The Shills, covering themes of loneliness, alienation, anger and hope. As of 2021, it is a work in progress.

The game's protagonist is a boy, for whom things could be a lot better. He doesn't have many friends, he keeps to himself a lot, and his parents seem to prefer yelling at each other and being miserable to having anything much to do with him. One night, during a terrific storm, he finally reaches his breaking point and decides to run away. Making his way towards the nearby shore, he spots a lighthouse in the far distance. The storm appears to abate, and he decides to set sail for it, thinking that if he's going to be so lonely, it would be better if he was alone.

Unfortunately, the storm was not yet over, and it blasts in its full fury as he is in the middle of the water. His boat is tossed about and smashed by a bolt of lightning. The next thing he knows, the sun is out, he is washed up on the shore of the island he sought to reach, and his boat is in pieces. Thrilled that he has survived, he sets off across the island towards the lighthouse. Unfortunately, as night sets in, his optimism and bravery melt away, leaving him terrified, far from any help, and full of regrets.

It is a tired boy, empty of hope, who finally reaches the lighthouse in the middle of the night. He slumps down, exhausted, into sleep.

Time passes. The boy seems to have grown up and become a man, and things haven't really gotten any better for him. The scars and traumas of his childhood have left him unable to cope with the more difficult challenges of manhood. His encounters with other people always leave him either sad, fearful, confused or angry. Whenever he actually has the courage to attempt to get close to someone, it always falls apart. Close to the end of his rope, the man thinks once more about the island and the lighthouse.

That, of course, is assuming he actually ever left at all. For, on this night, on this island, the boy sleeps, and all his dreams show what will come of him.

The game uses Super Mario World as an engine, with original graphics and extensive gameplay modifications.

You can find the latest playable demo and more information at the SMWCentral archive.

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Tropes that apply to Ganymede:

• Abusive Parents: His father is strict, aloof and frequently unhappy, and always seems angry at everything. His mom is working extremely hard to make a good life for her family, which led her to be distant and uninvolved. This sustained exertion burned her out entirely. They both love their son, but are both too troubled and overwrought to be emotionally available.
• Adaptation Expansion: The game tells a very similar version of the story as the album which inspired it, but has also greatly expanded it. The album is about a man who runs away, the game is about a boy who does, essentially, the same thing as the man from the album, and then grows up to become the man, who is at his wits end, and considering sailing away once again. In a sense, the game functions as a kind of prequel to the album, with the events of the album being the events depicted in one of the game's multiple endings.
• The Alcoholic: The man finds himself more and more often spending evenings drinking alone in a nearby bar. He finds himself growing attracted to the bartender, but his unwillingness to say anything drives him to drink even more. The Winter Shade is also a habitual drinker, choosing to do it alone and at home, in a vain hope of finding some relief from her crippling anxieties.
• The Aloner: The Boy runs away because he feels that, if he is going to feel so lonely at home, he might as well go be lonely somewhere else.
• Author Avatar: The man on the boat's concept in the original album was created from the lead singer's desire to create a version of his own anger, and kill it.
• Badass Boast: The Man in Charge frequently hypes himself up whenever he's on the scene.

The Man in Charge:

I'm the one who does all the calling of shots

And I know where you live

And I know how you'll die

You can run your feet bloody

Bury your head and hide

Go as fast as you want

I'll be right behind

Nothing's going to save you

If I choose homicide

• Be Careful What You Wish For: Running far from home to be by yourself is great, until the boy realizes he is in grave danger and no one can help him get out of it.
• Beneath the Mask: Sad sacks wear masks to conceal their faces, which can only ever be seen briefly, if one is stunned.
• Bittersweet Ending: Two of the three endings involve the Boy/Man setting sail a second time, with dire results in the former and uncertain results in the latter case.
• Boring, but Practical: The Boy has no offensive capabilities and takes more damage than any of the Man's forms, but he does have a higher jump, which is often a big help in tough platforming sections.
• Break the Cutie: The initial relief of surviving the storm and the thrill of exploring the island gradually wears away as the sun sets. By the time night falls, the boy is terrified and regretful of his decision.
• Cannot Spit It Out: The Man sees The Cupbearer serving drinks at the bar he frequents, and in time, develops romantic feelings for him. However, he can't ever bring himself to voice his feelings to him, and instead of risking rejection and embarrassment, chooses to let his feelings remain unresolved.
• Concept Album: The game is based on one, by the same name.
• Cool Shades: The man's glasses become shades when he has the Burning Rage.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Neglect and emotional abuse are a recipe to make an antisocial misanthrope.
• Despair Event Horizon: Why the Boy got on the boat in the first place, and why the Man grows obsessed with doing it again.
• Down the Rabbit Hole: The library beneath the lighthouse goes down for literal miles, and a whole new land awaits at the bottom.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The only way this turns out okay for the Man is if the player is thorough and completes several well-hidden secret levels.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Man in Charge is a living shadow with a single, all-seeing eye.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": All of the characters have descriptive nicknames, and their real names are never spoken or mentioned.
  • The man on the boat: The protagonist, who got here on a boat.
  • The Man in Charge: The living shadow figure who claims to control everything on the island.
  • The Bull: A hulking and intimidating minotaur who is belligerent and uncompromising.
  • The Winter Shade: She isn't literally dead, but crushed under the weight of her own problems, she is insubstantial and consumed by woe.
  • The Sunbeam: A lovely creature who is wrought by paranoia and confusion.
  • The Cupbearer: Another lovely creature whose mystery and radiance is so great that he is fearful to approach.
• Framing Device: The bulk of the story involves examining events which happened before the man embarked on his journey.
• Freudian Excuse: The man on the boat holds a great many grievances against the people in his life, and people in general, and has not yet considered what role he has played in his own depression and isolation.
• Friendless Background: As both a boy and a man, he had few friends, and none stuck around very long.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: A potential outcome.
• Goodbye, Cruel World!: Not really so much the reason for his adventure as a boy, but it weighs heavily on the man as he dreams of running away again.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Several, and they have all caused tremendous havoc. The man suspects it drives some of the bad behavior which has been directed towards him.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: The Bull needs very little provocation to get fired up.
• Henpecked Husband: The man has this image of himself as his relationship with the Sunbeam deteriorates.
• Hope Spot: Surviving the storm and ending up on a peaceful island with nobody on it sounds great, at first.
• Humans Are Bastards: There are plenty of specific reasons why the man wants to leave again, but in general, he's pretty sick and tired of everybody's bullshit.
• In Medias Res: The game proper starts after the shipwreck, and most of the important events depicted have already taken place.
• I Shall Taunt You: The Man in Charge rarely misses an opportunity to press the protagonist's buttons.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Several characters, including the protagonist himself. The Bull especially takes on this trait.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind
• Left-Justified Fantasy Map: Inverted, you first enter the map from the right and only two of the submaps are left-justified at all.
• Loser Protagonist: Not for want of trying, but by the present day, there isn't much going for the guy. He lives in a cheap, crappy apartment because his long-term relationship failed, and his Soul-Sucking Retail Job doesn't pay enough to let him keep the place he had with his former partner. Even that poor employment is on thin ice, as the man becomes consumed by alcohol and apathy.
• Madden Into Misanthropy: He's lived a life where he's never really fit in and in which everyone else seems to be shallow and self-centered, and it has all led to him finding other people either utterly intolerable, or fearing that everyone will find him utterly intolerable.
• Meaningful Name: Each character's name hints to their motives or personality in some way.
• Mistaken for Cheating: One of the reasons the man and the Sunbeam break things off. As their relationship grows more tense and conflicted, the Sunbeam becomes increasingly paranoid that the man is flirting with other people.
• Motifs: The colors red, yellow, blue and green permeate the entire game.
  • Yellow is the color of both fear and happiness, and is represented on the island by a twisted desert ruin. The fearful little boy wears yellow.
  • Blue is the color of both sadness and peace, and is represented on the island by a frigid, windswept mountain peak. The sad, despondent man wears blue in his regular form.
  • Red is the color of both anger and love, and is represented on the island by a raging volcano. The man wears red in his Burning Rage form and spews flaming profanities as an attack.
  • Green is the color of envy and growth, and is represented on the island by a deep, labyrinthine forest. The man wears green and can fly when he wields the Sword of Soaring.
• Multiple Endings: There are three.
  • Leave: The boy attempts to rebuild his boat and sail home. It doesn't end well.
  • Stay: The boy uses wood from the wreckage of his boat to start a fire at the top of the lighthouse. He is rescued.
  • Realization: The Man decides to reach out to his estranged father.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Several levels have the man on the boat coming to understand that he has inflicted large amounts of hurt on people, and how his own actions have contributed greatly to his own misery.
• No Antagonist: There is no greater evil or complementary villain to be found here.
• Noob Cave: The first five levels are very easy, and cannot be revisited after the house on the hill.
• Nested Story: Depending on how you play, it is nested in one of two directions. Either the Boy never leaves the island and the Man is merely a dream figure he creates, or the Boy does successfully leave and the entire game is a story being recalled by the Man years later.
• No-Sell: Stone Bullies are immune to virtually every form of damage, including invincibility (only sliding or striking with another Bully Head can dispatch them, and these are attacks available to you only in certain situations).
• Personality Powers: All four of the man's forms are reflections of his personality. His default form is blue, noting his sadness. Burning Rage lets him fire projectiles of focused profanity, reflecting his anger and passion. The Half Pint wears yellow, speaking to the many fears which troubled him as a child, and with the Sword of Soaring, his green garb, a comment on the confusion and envy he feels towards other people.
• Post-End Game Content: Many levels have remixes which offer challenges such as time attack or asceticism. These are entirely optional and are only accessible after all the Revelations have been completed.
• Resources Management Gameplay: Water is a vital resource which constantly depletes. You can collect water and store it, and it is used either to drink and quench thirst, or to power the whirlwind jump. Taking damage spills all stored water. Some levels are generous with water, but others are extremely sparing and require avoiding damage at all costs.
• Story Difficulty Setting: There is a mode which is of normal difficulty to allow one to enjoy the story, and a hard mode with more enemies, lower water amounts, and less starting health.
• The Storyteller: The Man writes stories as an escape. He is the one who writes all the tales you read in the levels, based on the dreams he had while marooned on the island.
• Symbol Swearing: The Burning Rage powerup allows the man on the boat to shout profanities, which manifest as symbol-shaped projectiles.
• Teleporters and Transporters: Hidden teleporters help the man traverse the island, if he manages to find them.
• World of Chaos: The Underisland does not pay much attention to the concept of logical geography, and even individual levels tend to follow their own, surreal, set of environmental rules.