Candy Bear (Lexibook TV)

Candy Bear
The most shameless Mario rip-off ever created.
Genre(s): Platform Platform(s): Lexibook TV Game Console Release: 2011? Developer(s): Lexibook / Yeno Games Publisher(s): Lexibook / Yeno Games Country: China

Candy Bear is one of the 200 games that is included with the Lexibook TV Game Console, an infamous plug-and-play bootleg system that is known for being a cheap knock-off of the Nintendo Wii.

Why It’s-a Bad Candy

1. The game is obviously just a flat-out clone of the original Super Mario Bros., sharing the exact same level layouts, enemy placements, level counter, etc., with the music and sound effects being stolen from New Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, and Super Mario 64. For example, the music that plays in the main menu, levels 1-1, and 1-2 respectively are the credits theme, and world 7 map theme from the aforementioned New Super Mario Bros.
   • The death jingle is the same one as Super Mario World. Other games on the console also use this sound for death jingles and losing sounds.
   • The only soundtrack that isn't stolen from a Mario game is the same one that has been recycled from other games on the console, such as Dr. Genius.
2. Like the rest of the 32-bit games on the console, the graphics look quite sub-par, and don't look any better than that of a fifth/early-sixth generation game in the Nintendo 64, PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, GameCube, or Dreamcast era.
3. Mediocre controls, especially when you're jumping. If you hit an item block while jumping, for some reason, you lose all of your momentum, and fall all the way to the bottom to die, if you're above a pit, leading to cheap deaths. You also can't run, and your mid-air control is very limited.
4. Like in Mario, every level ends with a flag pole. However, instead of wandering into a castle, the bear just flies up into space for some reason.
   • Even lazier: The underwater stages don't even end properly, as once you hit the edge of the map, the level just ends abruptly instead of it ending with the bear going into a pipe and ending up back on dry land like in 2D Mario game. And unlike in Mario, walking and swimming are the same exact speed.
5. The music never stops playing, even when the death jingle is going at the same time.
6. Despite being a Mario clone, a lot of the common/iconic abilities that you can do in the 2D Mario games are non-existent in this game.
   • While you can crouch, none of the "pipes" even do anything in the game, serving them no purpose whatsoever.
   • You can't use turtle shells as projectiles, as once you step on them, they're immediately dead, just like the "goombas".
   • Even though you can kill enemies by hitting the block below them, you can't use them in order to get a jump boost, unlike Mario.
7. The hitboxes can be quite off at times, again, leading to cheap deaths.
8. The King Koopa boss battles are quite lackluster, as you just spam "fireballs" at the "thing" until it dies. If you get hit, you can just wait for the powerups to re-appear so that you can spam more "fireballs". And plus, the boss only has one attack.
9. Like in the original Super Mario Bros., the game prevents you from backtracking/going back, so if you missed something such as a power-up, you can't go back to get it, despite the controls already being mediocre.

The Only Redeeming Quality

1. The controls, while mediocre, are okay for the most part, despite the off jumping and momentum.

Reception

The game was heavily criticized by several reviewers alike for stealing assets from various Nintendo games, such as the original Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World, New Super Mario Bros., Super Mario All-Stars, and Super Mario 64. and also sharing identical level design and enemies to the former game, not even trying to hide the infringement, making it one of the more notable games on the console.

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