The original release of the ROM hack was criticized by many players for having an unexpectedly high difficulty spike in the latter portions of the game. Among these critics were Vinny of the livestreaming group Vinesauce, who conducted a livestream of the hack thanks to it being a fangame designed around his content. In response to this, the hack's developer, Eminus, released an "easy mode" version on the r/vinesauce subreddit which reduces slowdown, adds additional power-ups, and allows the player to toggle indefinite invincibility on and off using the R button.

The song "Cursed Cathedral", which plays in the Spoiler:upside down level after Sponge turns into a clone of Meat was not designed with Mario's Mystery Meat in mind, nor did it originate from another game. The song predates the ROM hack by 6 years, being released by composer RednGreen in a general music pack for Super Mario World modders to use.