Beat Blocks! [FIXED!(?)] (Read Warning!!!) (Needs re-review)

[Kley]

[center]Warning in spoiler[/center]

Spoiler: show

Please note that the level isn't going to be 100% perfect, and take into consideration that the lack of many enemies, coins, and background objects was to prevent lag in the level. I tried to make the level to where lagging is at a minimum, so you don't lose the experience of beep blocks. DO NOT MINIMIZE SMBx ONCE YOU'VE STARTED PLAYING, OR IT CAUSES THE MUSIC TO LOSE SYNC. DO NOT DISABLE FRAME SKIP, OR IT CAN CAUSE THE MUSIC TO LOSE SYNC. Please understand also that the lack of power-ups has to do with the music losing sync. Take the level for what it's worth . . .

[/center]

The level is just like how it sounds. It's an homage to the Beat Blocks level from Super Mario 3D Land/World!
I tried my hardest to edit the song to loop at a decently perfect time and edit the song's tempo by the decimal point to get the best beep block experience one could ask for!
I hope this level is as enjoyable as it was making it!

Since I got it almost perfect, I'll consider making another level like this in time. Feel free to use my level as a template if you want to make your own beep block level, just make sure to credit me .

Redownload the fixed version.
-Added more background.
-Fixed an unfair jump.
-Attempted to perfect the music sync even more.
-Took away the checkpoint. (Sorry, but the level is short anyways, and I didn't want people to complain about loss of music sync.

Screenshots:

Spoiler: show

[/center]

Download (Revised version): https://www.mediafire.com/?hyh32erhxx29bcd

If you skipped the warning, then you're a fool.

[FanofSMBX]

I'll bet getting the checkpoint makes Mario big, and then if you hit an enemy the music gets off. I suggest to make a LunaDLL event, where once npc-192 dies, a "FilterToSmall" event is called.

[Warlock]

This looks very nice, Kley!

I will give this a review as soon as I can!

[Kley]

I'll bet getting the checkpoint makes Mario big, and then if you hit an enemy the music gets off. I suggest to make a LunaDLL event, where once npc-192 dies, a "FilterToSmall" event is called.

Mario DOES get big, but no, hitting an enemy doesn't desync the music, as far as I saw whilst play testing over 50 times.

[bossedit8]

I'll bet getting the checkpoint makes Mario big, and then if you hit an enemy the music gets off.

Mario DOES get big, but no, hitting an enemy doesn't desync the music, as far as I saw whilst play testing over 50 times.

To be specific, he means if you get hit while big, the Music still plays but the event stops during the transformation from big to small.

I suggest to make a LunaDLL event, where once npc-192 dies, a "FilterToSmall" event is called.

Not everyone is used to make something with LunaDLL so it is not an issue.

[Kley]

I'll bet getting the checkpoint makes Mario big, and then if you hit an enemy the music gets off.

Mario DOES get big, but no, hitting an enemy doesn't desync the music, as far as I saw whilst play testing over 50 times.

To be specific, he means if you get hit while big, the Music still plays but the event stops during the transformation from big to small.

I suggest to make a LunaDLL event, where once npc-192 dies, a "FilterToSmall" event is called.

Not everyone is used to make something with LunaDLL so it is not an issue.

Damn. Didn't even think of that :p
I guess don't get hit, or I'll fix it later haha

[Fuyu]

It's nice to see how people start using my tilesets when I doubt they actually will. By the way, nice mix of graphics. I still don't like the mix of SMW and SMB3, but that's just personal opinion.

Good looking level. In this occasion I'd say I would play it but since I'm too busy with other stuff I'd rather not, since I don't want to raise your expectations for nothing. But I can guarantee the time shall come sooner or later.

[Warlock]

Review - Beep Blocks! by Kley


Design: 8/10

I must admit that you nailed it with this level. The level wasn't linear, so I could explore the level as much as I like and collect the dragon coins. You hid these brilliantly. It added an element of mystery to the level as we have to explore every nook and cranny of the level to discover new things. With your level I find it impossible not to discover something new about it. There were of course one or two things that caught my attention. You paid close attention to the "walk over the level" scenario, but not so much attention to the "fall under the level" scenario. You made it so that when Mario hits a wall and falls into a pit, that he could move in his original direction when off-screen. I'd recommend removing this problem when updating it. Also, I noticed a few unfair jumps by the pipe near a dragon coin in the middle of the main level. This is what I'm talking about:



This is a reason why this level wouldn't fit in an episode. If you were Super Mario at the time, you would have a very small chance of surviving the jumps. I'd change this in the next update as well.

Music: 9/10

The music was very on sync. The way you changed the tempo and speed to make the level just like the original SM3DL level was just phenomenal. I love the way you synchronised the blocks and music as it went on very well with the main level itself. I understand that you tried to make the level as on-sync as possible, but the music would still go off-sync at a certain time and get worse, even if you stayed there for the entire level. I think you could have just spent a little more time on that, but I'm only marking you down one mark for that.

Graphics: 7/10

The graphics were very well used in this level. I like the way you used holes in the level and put beep blocks in their place to give an idea of which ones were turned on and off. Although this wasn't really needed, as you put these where beep blocks were being used as platforms, it was a good idea, and it was very fitting with the original. I did see a bit of an error in the plus sign near the start of the level, in this ledge:



It was good in the tiny holes, but not so good on straight edges. I didn't like the look of that, and I'd recommend fixing this graphical error, as it doesn't make the level look much nicer.

NPC Placement: 5/5

Despite the "lack of NPCs", I like the way you placed the NPCs to add to the difficulty, and it created a nice experience. While the level was still difficult, the way you placed the NPCs added to that difficulty. I enjoyed the level overall. I think you placed the right amount of NPCs for the level, as NPCs in other places would be unfair placements in my eyes.

Total Score: 29/35

Final Score: 8.2/10

Grade: B+

Position: Pretty Good

Summary

This level was very well done, with obvious effort put into the design, and music. There were a few graphical errors, but that didn't change the difficulty, and this level deserved the score it was given. Should the designer fix these errors, the score would be raised to roughly 9.5, and be given an A. Nice Level.

[zlaker]

I just finished playing this level and I'm currently working on the review, but I can say that the level was fun and enjoyable, but it had some errors and etc.

[zlaker]

REVIEW OF BEEP BLOCKS! BY KLEY

Atmosphere 7.8/10: The level was set in the sky with some extended SMB3 Boxes tileset or whatever you call. Graphically I thought you could use more BGOs to decorate the level. The Beat Blocks was SMW styled instead of SMB3 which doesn’t fit at all IMO. The Dragon Coins could’ve been SMB3 styled instead of SMW styled. The music was fitting I didn’t have anything against it.

Gameplay 8.9/10: To me the level’ gimmick, the Beat Blocks, reminded me totally of Chad’s level in SMSE 9-7 6 Rhythm Road. But you used it in another way. It went from Blue, to Green and then to Red. I also liked that even the sizeables and the pipes even switched which was a pretty neat idea. Even the star switched was a nice addition. You could’ve made coins, question mark blocks switched. You could’ve used the gimmick better IMO and make some tweaks with.

Level Design 7.6/10: The level’s design was good. At the start it was a bit linear, and then it went to an upward section, then another linear section and etc. Usually I don’t like when levels are linear, but with the gimmick you had in this level it was pretty fun. One complain I have is that you shouldn’t have made so many holes in the level. It makes the player a bit frustrated and pissed. I’d recommend remake some of the sections with those holes.

So overall you’re getting 8,1/10 on this level Kley. The level was fun and enjoyable. The gimmick you used was nice. Just fix the stuff I mentioned and I’ll probably re-review this level.

[Kyo]

Working with sound effects for accurate beat blocks is definitely a wiser method. I am aware that you have to keep at least one beat block always on the screen, but that's undoubtedly better than the cost of using no power-ups or checkpoint in a level. I tried to make a level using Musical Madness from Donkey Kong Country Returns once, and was upset when I realized how easily the music stops synchronizing with the events. It's just better using sound effects for this job. But for the following review, I'll be willing to look over this issue.

I unfortunately have to admit that I'm not a big fan of this level's gameplay. While it's impressive how many various patterns, kinds and gimmicks with beat blocks you used in this level, sometimes it wasn't thought-out really well. I do appreciate how much work you put into this level. I could see that, and that's what you don't see everyday. I do actually like beat block levels, where you always have to plan your move slowly and carefully, get in panic and try to find a solution, discover new and creative patterns as you progress, but it's a difficult job to succeed in that, in both; variation and fairness. You did do a good job in variation though, so I don't blame you about the fairness too much. But it does need to be improved a little bit in terms of gameplay. But before I point out what exactly I do consider as gameplay issues in this level, I'm going to start off with the level's design and visuals.

This level is designed quite well. The first part isn't linear, which is always a good thing, and the latter parts are keeping the level interesting with their innovation. This level has a great amount of clever gimmicks, there is a lot of variation to this level. The graphic choice is nice. I don't remember seeing this tileset before, but considering you see wood quite a lot in athletic levels, it does fit. I think this level is quite poorly decorated though. There isn't much variation, and there is just so less of it. I see you placed less in order to prevent lag, but I sincerely doubt 50% more background objects of the current amount would would cause heavy lag. The main cause of lag anyway is the overall amount of blocks, too much and fast animation in a screen, extreme amount of custom graphics (especially npcs or player), huge sizables, or infinitely moving layers. This level meets none of those criteria. I don't want to offend anyone with this, but if you play this level and your computer/laptop causes lag in this, it's likely unsuitable for SMBX. Also, a minor cut-off I noticed:

Spoiler: show

I also am not fond of how most of the dragon coins were placed. I would only consider the third and fourth one as well placed dragon coins. The first and second one weren't a too dramatic issue though. The problem with the first one is that you just have to take too much time for it. The problem with the second one, is that it's irritating how you see that the screen would still scroll down and don't know if there's a solid ground or not, especially because the beat blocks were placed quite weirdly. The fifth one was placed in a miserable way. You need such a good timing to obtain it, and that's not worth it. Remember, one dragon coin has the value of one fifth 1-up. You should place them as simply as possible, so that they aren't hard to obtain, but you still have to take a few extra seconds for each. I always considered dragon coins as presents for taking some special time for them, but for the fifth dragon coin, there is no smbx present you could give. Nothing would justify its difficulty, except maybe a star that you get after collecting all five dragon coins, but a 1-up isn't enough with that. So you might want to consider other placements for some dragon coins. Good job with the third and fourth one though.

E: The debugger says there are seven dragon coins. I found the sixth one. That one has a good placement as well.

But the placement of other npcs is quite decent. The enemies were never placed unfairly, but always placed so they are a nice little obstacles. The goomba in the warp 3/4 area is placed in a strange way though. He'll go inside the one block gap with the beat block blockade, and when that blockades appears, the goomba is glitches away, which is just weird. I also think you should place some coins in section 2, in a way that makes you recognize faster that the section actually wraps. In section four, when you come out of the pipe, the player is walking on the air for some weird way. You should always have solid ground below the pipe entrances/exits. I also don't comprehend why the pipes in section 4 are suddenly super mario world pipes. It is probably because you wanted to make it possible to distinguish the real pipes from the "beat pipes", but they don't fit at all. Also, the red "beat pipes" are still super mario bros 3 pipes. I think you should either use smb3 colored smw pipes, or regular smb3 pipes, or smb3 pipes with a slightly different color tone. I also consider it as completely redundant to hide the star at the end. Another issue with the music timing is, each time the music ends and starts again, the timing gets more and more inaccurate. Also, you shouldn't put the smb3 fgo wooden things above smb3 falling platforms. Many people do it for some reason that I probably won't understand, but once the platform falls, it leaves a cut-off there.

My main two issues with the beat blocks are the following ones. First one, in section 2, when the "beat sizable blocks" appear the first time, you have to do a jump from the red block to the blue block. The timing was okay, but the ceiling at the right side makes it incredibly tricky to do the jump correctly. I did need some time to do get past that part. In section four, there is a part where there's only a two-block-distance from the ground to the ceiling, which makes that part unnecessarily difficult. It's mainly the beginning and the end of that part, though. Those two are my main issues.

This level has a lot of potential. It's really well designed and has a lot of variable beat block patterns. It does do a lot of things wrong, though, but a lot of those things are a quick fix. Fixing the gameplay would definitely boost the score of this level up a lot, because that's where its main issue is. I'm going to give this level a 7 out of 10. I'll make sure to play your updated version if you do one. Oh, and if you plan on doing a second beat block level, try a sound-based one next time. You can also search inspiration in Rhythm Road from Chad. But otherwise, good job on this one! =P

[Kley]

Needs re-review. Tried to focus on fixing everything that was pointed out to me. Hope y'all enjoy the "Fixed" version

[bossedit8]

Original Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZBhR2RCDUY

[Kley]

Thanks bossedit! I've fixed up the level since your video though!