Kuribo Plains

[Angelus]

This is my first serious level. It's a mix between Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario 64, so it's supposed to be played like a non-linear level. Also, it is supposed to be the first level of an hypothetical episode, so it's an easy level (I hope). Keep that in mind while playing.

Screenshot:

Spoiler: show

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/download/aluq6 ... Plains.zip

The credits are in the graphics folder.

[Angelus]

Updated screenshot for a better preview.

[PixelPest]

You'll probably want to fix the platform rail; they need to go through the centers of the other pieces or else they will fall off

[Angelus]

You'll probably want to fix the platform rail; they need to go through the centers of the other pieces or else they will fall off

What do you mean, exactly? I've tested it several times and it never fell out. Are you talking about the end of the first rail?

[HeroLinik]

You'll probably want to fix the platform rail; they need to go through the centers of the other pieces or else they will fall off

What do you mean, exactly? I've tested it several times and it never fell out. Are you talking about the end of the first rail?

It just looks really odd. Try moving the platform stoppers towards the rail.

[Angelus]

Oh, sure thing! I was just trying to make them look like in the original game.

[Angelus]

Update:

- Fixed the moving platform rail stopper;
- Fixed a star placement;
- Removed 1 enemy.

[Angelus]

Would an episode made entirely of levels with this structure be fun to play? I'm not asking for a review as I know it takes time to be made. Just looking for an opinion.

[rpgguy364]

I can't find something to say now.I really liked it.This level looks really well designed.

[Angelus]

I can't find something to say now.I really liked it.This level looks really well designed.

Thank you! I hope it wasn't too hard to play.

[MacheTheFerret]

So I went and played your level, and I tried to get all five stars. It was easy, of course, but there are definitely some flaws that need to be pointed out:

• Graphically, the level is rather bland. BGOs are very scarce and they are even cut-off almost all the time. Practically every single bush you placed hovers a few pixels above the ground. This can easily be remedied by either disabling Auto-Align or making an altered version of the grass blocks the bush are on that is flat (disabling auto-align is definitely easier).
• While it looks like you tried to make the level look like something out of the original SMB3, it just doesn't work out very well. If you have platform bumpers, the platform lines usually end right in the center of them, not floating off the side. There also seem to be no proper endings to the fence BGOs, they just extend a little bit out and then end in cut-off. This can be fixed by recoloring the blue fence pieces in the SMB3 menu to yellow.
• Several bridges on the upper portions of the mountains end suddenly on sloped tiles, which just looks...strange, to say the least. Making the tile square corner pieces would remedy this.
  The "lamps" inside the toad house look extremely weird. I'm guessing they looked good to you because you're using a slightly older version of SMBX where the round window BGOs are opaque, because to me they look like empty glass bulbs hanging on wires. Again, this can easily be fixed by replacing them with the rope lamps that are immediately next to the graphics you used in the SMB3 menu.

After all that ranting about the graphics, however, I gotta say that the music choices were pretty dope. They're upbeat, catchy, and yet they still capture the feeling of the original tracks. Although they don't really seem to fit for a level due to their mash-up nature, they still work.

Then there's the gameplay. Finding each of the stars wasn't difficult or tedious, although I died in many dumb ways and fell to lower levels a few times, most of which is my own fault for just wanting to speed through it. There's one major problem, however. The power-ups. THERE ARE ALMOST NO POWER-UPS ANYWHERE! The only power-ups in the whole level are one, singular, uno mushroom, and a kuribo shoe generator. I get that the level is intended to be somewhat of a world 1 kind of thing, but even World 1-1 of the original SMB3 had more power-ups than this. AND, considering it's a non-linear level that has you collect stars, you have to start from the very beginning every time you die.
Another thing about the gameplay are the various useless events. Why did the platform-ride star have to be in q question mark block at all? Why couldn't the platform on the left side of the first mountain just be a switch-block platform? Why do you have to hit a switch to make the kuribo shoes appear when you could've just used a pipe? There even seem to be a few switches that don't serve a purpose at all (pending investigation).
The boss in the castle is sort-of unique, I guess. You have to use the jumping paragoombas to get up to the pillar that the big goomba is perched upon, where doing to three times gives you the star. Other than this, however, it's really mediocre and a bit of an anti-climax based on how the blue scientist goomba explained it to me. Not only that, but you allow goombas to continue generating from the pipe even after you've beaten the boss. When the boss is beaten, you need to set the event that makes the star appear to make the "Spawned NPCs" layer disappear, and the layer that spawned the goombas in the first place.

Some other nit-picks:

• The plat-form ride star (the star in the bonus-room looking area) is in the pipe that looks like it's attached to the blue sizable metal block. However, Mario can actually jump and sit on top of where the pipe itself ends. Consider replacing the sizable with a small square of bonus room tiles.
• The SMB2 grass doesn't quite fit for the level considering every other graphic is from SMB3 (except for the castle BGO, but you went and used the SMB3 recolor, so that's cool). I don't know exactly who made it, but a few people have made green versions of the grass that look like they fit into the style of SMB3.
• There's a few situations where it feels like you placed WAY too many coins, specifically on the platform rides. Removing every other coin might solve this problem.

---

Overall, the level was good gameplay wise, but the lack of power-ups and anti-climactic boss fight sorta kill it, not to mention the numerous easily-fixed graphical mistakes. I'd say this level could probably stand to be in the Pretty Good sub-forum if it was cleaned up and given more power-ups.

[Angelus]

Thank you very much for your review, I'll definitely keep all of that in mind next time I design a level! Now I understand how to fix the floating background elements. It looks weird indeed, I just wasn't sure what to do about it. There are some things you pointed out that can be justified, though. It doesn't mean it is right, I just want to show the reasons why I did some of the things the way they are into this level.

Several bridges on the upper portions of the mountains end suddenly on sloped tiles, which just looks...strange, to say the least. Making the tile square corner pieces would remedy this.

That's due to the shape of the mountain top. I tried to replicate the shape of the background mountains because I always felt like they were underappreciated into Mario games, I don't know. They're always kinda just there (except in Yoshi's Island, I guess you can find this kind of shaped mountain there), but yes, I should find a workaround for that.

Another thing about the gameplay are the various useless events. Why did the platform-ride star have to be in q question mark block at all? Why couldn't the platform on the left side of the first mountain just be a switch-block platform? Why do you have to hit a switch to make the kuribo shoes appear when you could've just used a pipe? There even seem to be a few switches that don't serve a purpose at all (pending investigation).

The star inside a question block is supposed to be like a SM64 star, which you can find inside blocks sometimes. Maybe changing its graphics could fix the inconsistency. The block at the left side of the first mountain must be a one-hit block, or the player will hit it more than once and probably disable the shortcut by accident. Also I thought it would make more sense to be a blue block so the player could associate it with the other one that resets the platform of the second mission. It feels consistent. And, the Kuribo Shoes block is more like a visual choice than anything else. A pipe wouldn't fit inside the lab. Is there any other switch? All of the switches have a purpose, I'm sure of that.

Besides that, I agree with everything else you've said. I just don't know about the lack-of-background problem. I tried to put them everywhere! lol How many I'm supposed to place? Anyway, thanks!