New Super Mario Bros. 5: Clone Tag Team 2

Download the Clone Tag Team Double Pack at Kuribo64.

New Super Mario Bros. 5: Clone Tag Team 2
The boxart for New Super Mario Bros. 5: Clone Tag Team 2.
Creator	MarioFanatic64
Release date	July 16th, 2014
Status	Complete
Download link(s)	NSMBHD

New Super Mario Bros. 5: Clone Tag Team 2 (known in Japan as "Newスーパーマリオブラザーズ5:クローンの札のチーム2", "New Super Mario Bros. 5: Tag Team of the Clones 2") is the direct sequel to MarioFanatic64's New Super Mario Bros. 5: Clone Tag Team. The hack was started in late 2012, shortly after the release of it's predecessor, and was released on the 16^th of July, 2014.

New Super Mario Bros. 5: Clone Tag Team 2 builds upon ideas and themes from the original New Super Mario Bros. 5: Clone Tag Team but introduces new concepts, puzzles and experiments on the Clone gameplay.

It was the eleventh New Super Mario Bros. hack to be released, following 3 Years of NSMBHD!! and preceding Super Mario Bros. - The New Worlds.

Production

Shortly after the release of New Super Mario Bros. 5: Clone Tag Team, Mariofanatic64 begun a poll thread at the New Super Mario Bros. Hacking Domain, asking whether or not he should make a sequel to Clone Tag Team. With a total of 9/0 votes in favour of "Yes", Mariofanatic64 commenced development of the simply dubbed Clone Tag Team 2.

The debut logo for NSMB5: Clone Tag Team 2

Originally, the concept of Clone Tag Team 2 was supposed to be radically different to what it is now. The first thing Mariofanatic64 did in development was write a story that would be able to tie-in with the story of the original game. Due to the poor response from players about the Story Mode in the Clone Tag Team, Mariofanatic64 decided that he would do his best to tell the story in-game. The earliest prototype had World 1-1 taking place in the final castle of the first installment with a NPC Professor E. Gadd and text boxes that would be used as a device to explain the story. However, Mariofanatic64 scrapped the idea because he feared that it would stray the hack too far away from the first installment, and the New Super Mario Bros. series as a whole, not to mention the reduced amount of platforming levels that would have to be made in order to have "Story Levels".

Since then, Clone Tag Team 2 has undergone a major re-skin, using many graphics from tileset/background creator CopperMario, and returning to a more conventional state, only with more attention to detail than the first Clone Tag Team. While MarioFanatic64 didn't confirm any release dates near the beginning of development, he did promise a 2013 release window. The debut trailer for the hack was released in October of 2012, showing the first level of each World, which were hastily put together to have something to show.

The hack underwent steady development until a brief period in June 2013. Development was stunted when MarioFanatic64 has lost the only copy of Clone Tag Team 2's master ROM, which contained several new levels that were lost, along with over 5 new tilesets, backgrounds, and all bugfixes made since the second beta version released a few months prior (a small portion of the lost material can be seen in the third trailer). Thus, MarioFanatic64 moved the release window back to 2014, promising to have the hack released within that year.

Curiously, the lost content was eventually recovered when a USB drive containing the Clone Tag Team 2 master ROM somehow manifested inexplicably on MarioFanatic64's bed.

Development had such a radical increase in May/June 2014 that MarioFanatic64 set a release date before his expected release window (August-October 2014), which was a first for MarioFanatic64 as his first two hacks were both behind the deadline. Bugfixing took approximately two weeks, and finally the hack was released on the 17th of July.

Story

After returning back to the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario and Princess Peach celebrate the success of Mario's last adventure dealing with the Clone. However during the celebrations Bowser and Bowser Jr. appear, amazingly unharmed. They successfully capture Princess Peach again and with no way to find where she was taken, Mario doesn't know what to do.

Mario luckily happens upon Professor E. Gadd, who has the solution. E. Gadd used his Time Machine to see how Bowser and his son were revived so fast. The reason was that the Bowser and Bowser Jr. Mario battled in the last adventure were Clones, like Mario's. While Mario was disctracted by his Clone Adventure, the Koopas had kidnapped Princess Daisy. As their plans went unfoiled, they could then move on to Princess Peach.

Gadd's solution to the problem is to go back to Mario's last adventure, and undergo a different quest; to save Daisy rather than Peach, and in the process defeating Bowser to alter the Mushroom Kingdom's grim future.

Gameplay

Clone Tag Team 2 shares all the same gameplay changes as its predecessor. The Clone interacts with objects as follows:

• All physical reactions with Mario are as in the "Mario vs. Luigi" multiplayer mode in the original New Super Mario Bros.
• The Clone interacts with enemies differently, however. While they do cause damage to enemies (and can be hurt by enemies), they act is if the enemy doesn't exist. Example: They do not bounce off of Goombas when defeated. Instead such effects transfer to Mario (Even the picking up of a Koopa Shell.)
• The Clone cannot leave the "area" it has spawned in. Often travelling through Warp Pipes indicates that the Clone is going to disappear, though there are a few exceptions to this rule.
  • Due to the Clone being an unfinished concept of Multiplayer left in the game by the developers, if the Clone reaches the flagpole with Mario, a "Time Up" will occur and the level will be lost. To prevent this from happening in the game, the Clone has only been included in levels that have more than one "area" so that it can disappear before the level is over.
• If the Clone dies, the level ends as if Mario had died.
• Platforms that have some sort of effect when stood on do not appear to recognise the Clone, only Mario.

The Retro Scrolling that was enabled in Bugfix v1.3 of the original Clone Tag Team was promised to be included in Clone Tag Team 2, but was removed prior to release.

Clone Tag Team 2 also features some new elements that are to help reduce the problems of Clone gameplay, and make the design more diverse for Clone and non-Clone gameplay:

• There are hidden areas that can't be accessed with standard Clone gameplay, to encourage people to revisit the levels as Luigi, who doesn't have a clone.

References to Nintendo games

Super Mario Bros. 2

• Subcon appears as World 4.
• Music is reused from this game, such as the Overworld theme, Underground theme, Player Select theme and Ending theme.
• Sprites of enemies from Super Mario Bros. 2 appear in various backgrounds.
• World 4-2, Ninji Cave, resembles the sprite of a Ninji if viewed from a distance.
• The Credits are inspired by the Title Screen of Super Mario Bros. 2.

Super Mario Bros. 3

• Worlds 7, Airship Armada and 8, Bowser Badlands, are both based on World 8 of this game.
• World 1-4, Tanooki Hills, is based off of the level designs in this game.
• Several World Map themes return from this game.

Super Mario World

• World 1-1, Mushroom Plains, is inspired by the level designs from this game.
• The Castle tileset is inspired by the Fortress tileset from this game.
• The Fortress theme returns as Castle music.
• Visuals seen in the World 1-5, Wiggler Woods are inspired by the Forest of Illusion.

Super Mario Land

• Princess Daisy is the damsel-in-distress, which only ever happened in this game.
• Sarasaland (in which this game is based in) appears as World 2.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

• Music is reused from this game.

Super Mario 64

• Snowman's Land appears as World 5.

Super Mario Sunshine

• Music from Bianco Hills and the Red Coin Fish reappear.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

• The Beanbean Kingdom reappears as World 3, featuring locations such as Stardust Fields and Woohoo Hooniversity. Joke's End was planned to appear in place of the Castle but had to be removed.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

• Many of the backgrounds featured in this hack (by CopperMario) are inspired by the backgrounds of this game.

The Legend of Zelda

• "It's a secret to everybody" appears in a secret area.

Luigi's Mansion

• The four Ghost Houses are inspired by this game.

References to other New Super Mario Bros. hacks.

New Super Mario Bros. 2: Doki Doki Panic! Edition (2010)

• A sequel to this hack.
• Both hacks were made by Mariofanatic64.
• Both hacks were heavily influenced by Super Mario Bros. 2.
• Subcon reappears from this hack.

New Super Mario Bros. 5: Clone Tag Team (2012)

• A direct sequel to this hack.
• Both hacks were made by Mariofanatic64.
• Clones return as a major gameplay element.
• The stories between these two hacks co-exist, and intertwine.

New Super Mario Bros.: Community Remix (unreleased)

• One of the two Snow tilesets used in Clone Tag Team 2 is an improvement over Mariofanatic64's Snow tileset that was rejected for the Community Remix. Some differences have since been made, such as emphasis on shadowing, and scenery such as Snowmen and a tree ripped from New Super Mario Bros. U.

New Super Hacker Bros. (cancelled)

• The Forest tileset that was planned for use in New Super Hacker Bros. is briefly used in World 1-5 in Clone Tag Team 2. This tileset was also ripped from New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Talks about a third Clone Tag Team

One of the earliest mentions of a third game, lazily mentioned jokingly as Clone Tag Team 3 was in 2012, only shortly after Clone Tag Team 2 began production. In a joke thread at the New Super Mario Bros. Hacking Domain, MarioFanatic64 stated:

"then MarioFanatic64 hacked some clones into the game and called it "Clone Tag Team 3". By this time,  StapleButter became annoyed with  MarioFanatic64's lack of originality, so he deleted the thread before  MarioFanatic64 released another glitchy piece of crap."

In April 2014 MarioFanatic64 pointed out the title of a Clone Tag Team 1 walkthrough video in which the title read "Clone Tag Team #3" (being the third episode of the series) and responded with "Don't get any ideas, guys. It's not gonna happen".

In May 2014 MarioFanatic64 mentioned Clone Tag Team 3 jokingly again:

MARIOFANATIC64 used CLONE TAG TEAM 2! A critical hit! MARIO's HP is low! MARIO used FIRE FLOWER. It's super effective! MARIOFANATIC64 used CLONE TAG TEAM 3 It's not very effective...

Later that month, Arceus made a joke in the thread for his own hack, Super Mario Bros. - The New Worlds, when he captioned a screenshot of a Clone area in Super Mario Bros. - The New Worlds with "Clone Tag Team 3?", to which MarioFanatic64 responded that he would not be making a Clone Tag Team 3, but that's not to say that someone else can't.

The next mention of the project was days prior to the release of Clone Tag Team 2. MarioFanatic64 posted that he personally wasn't going to be involved in the production of a third Clone Tag Team game, but if someone else saw fit to make Clone Tag Team 3, he would allow it under the condition that he wrote the story and he had a role as a playtester. Arceus expressed interest in the project.

A logo for the hack that never was.

On the release of the updated Double Pack for Clone Tag Team and Clone Tag Team 2 teased Clone Tag Team 3. Text in the release trailer read "1+2=", and then it proceeded to show an actual logo for Clone Tag Team 3 before the video cut to a surprise troll with poorly handwritten text reading "nope lol".

In January 2015, six months after Clone Tag Team 2's release, MarioFanatic64 had the final word. Revoking his last statement about Clone Tag Team 3, and revealing that an unnamed user had been developing Clone Tag Team 3 but was ultimately cancelled. MarioFanatic64 stated the following:

"The Clone Tag Team games ran their course at the ending of Clone Tag Team 2, and while there's definitely the potential to keep the story going (CTT2's story was actually written as a "part one" to a two-part story.) there's just not enough new things to do with NSMB's game mechanics anymore- and I like the story ending how it did."
"I've realized that I would be remiss to let another Clone Tag Team game happen willingly. If you want to develop a clone-based hack - go ahead. I don't own the idea. But Clone Tag Team is now officially dead."

Despite this, SaturnYoshi also expressed interest in wanting to make Clone Tag Team 3. Currently, MarioFanatic64 remains firm about his decision.

Trivia

• Clone Tag Team 2 was the first New Super Mario Bros. hack released to have each level individually named. 
• Clone Tag Team 2 has many small Easter Eggs scattered around the levels.
• Clone Tag Team 2 has a reference to the Mario series' end in the story's ending sequence, where Mario's future is hinted. Despite this, there are some Time-Travel related paradoxes that were deliberately left in the story so Mariofanatic64 "had something to answer if I wanted to".
• That statement was actually a hint to Clone Tag Team 3, before MarioFanatic64 decided that the series had come to an end and refused further sequelization to the series.

It is up to the creator of this hack to contribute information from here on in.