Postby HeroLinik » Sat Apr 02, 2016 4:41 pm
If you want to know what you think of it, I'm more than willing to review this level.
Level design: 3.3/10
Don't get so hurt by the score, use it as a scope for improvement. The level is quite an interesting take on the classic SMB1 level design, and it does rather well at this, almost managing to capture the feel of the SMB1 levels, while also adding a Dragon Coin quest that adds to its replay value, as well as making the land look more visually appealing by decorating the inside. Unfortunately, there are some problems with it that injure the score by quite a bit. First off, it's worth mentioning that a certain message block about 3/4 of the way into the level doesn't work because there's no event coded for it. Another thing is that while the level has some interesting landforms that make the platforming more interesting, a certain one just after the checkpoint, but before the broken message block, is way too flat and could benefit with a bit of gradient. Talking of flat ground, the level itself is quite flat in terms of ideas - even though it's of a respectable length with the nice addition of a checkpoint as I've mentioned twice before, it gets quite repetitive after a while despite the Dragon Coin quest, and the sky portion sadly went underused except to hide a Dragon Coin. But this is all understandable because this was your first level and that, so you wouldn't be expected to know some unique gimmick to spruce up the level.
Graphics and music: 2.8/10
The music you used fit the theme of this throwback level very well. You can't go wrong with a remix of the traditional Mario overworld and underground theme when you're doing an SMB1 level. With that being said, the level adheres to the SMB1 style very well in fact, although the odd SMB3 bush here and there kinda hurts it a little, but other than that, it was very well decorated for a first level. As we go through the level, we see more objects and items that don't go well with SMB1, for example the Galoombas and SMW Giant Gate at the end of the level. The good thing is that the level is predominantly made of SMB1 graphics that adhere to the SMB1 style, so congratulations on that, and there are no cut-offs where it looks awkward. But once more, this was your first level so you wouldn't be expected to know about the implications of mixing different game styles together, and I should also make a mention to while you've used custom graphics, they could have been used to great effect to make a very genuine-looking SMB1 level.
NPC placement: 5.7/10
You did a rather good job with placing the NPCs, but there are still some things to tidy up. First off, the Dragon Coins provide a sense of replaying the level to find them all as mentioned earlier, and while the placement of powerups started out well and spaced out at perfect intervals, there are none in the second half of the level so it's easy for the player to die if they're careless. The real culprit that caused the score for this section to be cut though, was the lack of coins in many places that would otherwise benefit from coins. I also must say that your enemy placement was quite excellent for a first level, because usually first levels have very empty areas without them, and/or areas that have too many. This also goes in tandem with SMB1 and how the enemies were placed in that game. The usage of the NPCs can be especially attributed to the cool idea near the end where you have to take a Koopa's shell and toss it at a block to grow a beanstalk, which is again a good idea to use in a level like this.
Overall result: 3.9/10
Don't worry, it's a good first level! There is still the odd flaw here and there like was mentioned in the review like the broken message block, but other than that, use the criticism here to make good levels in the future. I can't wait to see you make some really awesome ones!
Last edited by
Chad on Tue Apr 05, 2016 5:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Approved review.
