SmileBASIC 4: SmileBASIC 4 - What about channel 4?

Well, gang, we made it -- 2025. (Again.)

RF Generation is old, make new content for it, site refresh, yadda yadda...

I'll skip the pleasantries. I'm planning on returning to one article per month again, depending on what my time schedule allows. As such, I was wondering and wondering about what my first article for this month would be. Several ideas floated around in my head -- a Nintendo Switch retrospective, an article about ANTONBLAST, another article about Animal Crossing: New Horizons...

What I landed on today, the day before the month's end, was to spend some time talking about one of my favorite little toys to play around with this month: SmileBASIC 4.

So what makes SmileBASIC 4 special? Its story? The captivating gameplay? The music? (Well, I do quite like the music present in the app...)

...SmileBASIC 4 is a programming app for the Nintendo Switch. It is essentially a closed-off simplified BASIC IDE, (with some pre-built limitations that clever souls have found out a workaround for) with the ability to save your projects as a file and upload them to a server full of programs.

In other words, it's programming Super Mario Maker. Back when I was in my young "let's code! I wanna code now! LEMME HAVE AT IT!! AAAAAAA" phase, I quite often checked around certain quarters to try and find any sort of simple coding app. One of these ended up being the Nintendo Switch's eShop. Sure enough, I did find what I was looking for -- two coding apps were present on the eShop: the aforementioned SmileBASIC 4 as well as an app titled FUZE4 Nintendo Switch. (I may get back to FUZE in a later article.) SmileBASIC 4 seemed right up my alley, so I peer-pressured slackur into buying it for me. I tried it out, and I was able to learn some simple commands and have extremely simple projects going on, but after a couple of weeks I abandoned it. I was also interested in the online functionality, but when being hit with the fact that you can only download one program without a Server Ticket (which to me at the time sounded like the Server Tickets were scummy mobile game microtransactions making it into My Nintendo Console), i abandoned it and didn't return to it for several years.

Fast-forward to the Christmas season of 2024. I am in the Christmas spirit, i.e. actively checking the eShop to see what I may buy if I receive a Nintendo eShop gift card (as one does, right? This is normal, right? Right? Right?!) when I decided to look through my list of deleted games. Sure enough, good ol' SmileBASIC shows up there and I decide, "You know what? It's been several years. My own game has gone through several iterations and has received a final released version since then, and I am currently working on a second game. plane I'm going to try and figure out this program."

I went to the coding tutorials section again, viewed one, and decided, "I'll get back to coding later; I want to check out the games, even if I have to download them one at a time." Download them one at a time, I did, for around two weeks. In that time, I was able to pick out several games that I thoroughly enjoy that I shall now list:

Tiny Huge World: Although this may at first sound like that one Super Mario Galaxy level or like a game jam game in which you manipulate object sizes, this is actually a very simple, extremely floaty platformer about a white block. The entire game feels very tech-demo-y, and is very buggy, but is pretty fun. This was also the first time that I saw any sort of 3D in SmileBASIC (it's presented in a 2.5D sort of view), a technique I am very fond of. It has a lot of levels and even a level editor. Go give this one a try using the access code 4PKKE8VHV.

CELESTE Classic: A full port of the original PICO-8 game. I don't think I need to go into more detail about this one to explain how cool it is. Its access code is 45KYV334J.

Finiti - 3D Engine: A simple, efficient 3D basis for making games. Its project file comes with several cool tech demos. You can find it at 4ANXXXX.

RALLY500 PARA4: A simple elimination rally game. The game is split up into several checkpoints wherein you need to have passed enough cars to pass. There are wide turns, and avoiding the cars is fun. I've found it helpful as one of those games that you can just turn your brain off and play. You can find this one at 4N3S33EXY.

MARBLE RUN 3D DEMO: This game reminds me of one I saw in Dreams, named Ball World Adventures. This one has less expansive, yet more creative levels in my opinion. The access code for this one is 4K28XW3KE.

Fairhythm: A very fun, simple rhythm game. This game has the highest production quality overall among all of the SmileBASIC games I've played, the most features, and is one of the most fun ones. I'd highly recommend the app for this game alone. Check it out using its access code4C44EX394.

Neon Driftway: This is the one I was the most impressed with. This is essentially, neon-infused vector graphics Mario Kart, and it plays exactly like it. I'd recommend this one to just about anybody. The whole thing is super polished, and my only issue with it is that there is only one track. Its code is 4TAMVE3QJ.

Overall, I'd very much recommend SmileBASIC 4. It truly shows what creative people can do with even the most simple of items and commands.

(I just got back into this because I ran out of Nintendo Switch Online...)