Frigid Lake

[Bowser is ded]

An lce level. again.

Screenshots

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Credits

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h2643 -gfx
Nintendo - music

DOWNLOAD

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http://www.mediafire.com/download/dgavw ... d+Lake.rar

Note
Section 4 is a disaster. don't go there. it's broken.

[Duster]

Welp, time to review this.

I am sorry but this level is random,annoying and repetitive, i will explain them below.

RANDOM

Stick to a theme, and use it for the rest of the level.. or so i thought. This level uses FOUR themes that don't mix at all, sometimes it is SMW, sometimes it is SMB3 , sometimes it is SMB 1 and SMB2 , i wouldn't complain if the level wasn't looking so ugly and unnatural but it is.

By the way, what's with the coin placement? They are not just entirely random, but they are also extremely spammy. Coins should distract you a bit so you can get some lives, not placed EVERYWHERE, on the path you are supposed to follow.

Not only the coins are spammy, the coin blocks are spammy too. The player finishes a part, gets rewarded with 30 coin blocks , goes on another spammy and annoying part and gets rewarded with another coin block spam, i advise you to make coin blocks not spammy and use them to add some sidepaths or just don't make them appear everywhere.

The enemy placement will be mentioned in all three sections of this review, but i will only mention the randomness of them here. Let's take a look at some examples:

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What is the purpose of the koopa?

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What is the purpose of the koopa again?

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We see a mix of a SMW,SMB3 and SMB2 enemies, they just don't mix.

ANNOYING

Oh, the enemy placement is just soo ANNOYING. Sometimes you are stuck waiting for a piranha while three lotuses are above you, sometimes there are lotuses at the top area where their projectiles go offscreen so it is impossible to pass that part without getting hit , or a mix of lotus and hammer bros. Trust me, there are a lot of these.

Now these are not only cheap, they aren't funny either. You can't pass some parts if you aren't big because it is impossible to dodge.

I don't want to talk about these much because i believe pictures are enough to show you haven't tested this level. Let's look at these pictures for example:

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We see a lotus spam with a plant to support it.

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Lotus projectiles that go off screen and two snifits that make this even more unfun ( if that is possible).

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... no.

REPETITIVE

Oh yes, the level is extremely repetitive, especially with it's extremely annoying enemy placement of Lotuses, Hammer Bros, Piranhas, you name them.

The 'finish a section and get rewarded with a coin block spam island' is the same, the platforming is the same, the emptiness is the same.

Oh yes, the level is also extremely empty outside the spam parts excluding the coin spam.


SIDENOTES

- Why isn't the snowy lands slippery?
-Section 4.


I am sorry buddy, but this level needs to be remade, it is boring, spammy,empty ( yes, those co-existed somehow) and boring.


However i will give you some points as the level has potential if improved.

2/10

[Chad]

Official Review: Frigid Lake

Sort of an odd level. It mostly consists of precise, careful, and wide jumps off of icy structures. This does offer some merit as a challenge, but it also gets somewhat monotonous, as that setup sums up a significant portion of the level. It generally doesn't feel very purposeful, because while the arrangements of ice blocks do sensibly form glaciers, their design feels really random. Their shapes feel rather vague and generic, like you just wanted to get the basic concept down and then place them near each other in a very approximate fashion. They're tricky to traverse as well because the surfaces are individually narrow, slippery, and accompanied by either a hole to your death or other blocks serving as a wall. When you're not on icebergs, you're platforming across a wooden island or a set of pipes that feel rather ordinary and sort of just slapped on.

The only thing the second half really does differently beyond this are moving layers. The first one barely moves and just serves to make the ice appear to float, so it doesn't have any purpose and can even risk a jump failing to register if executed at the same instant as an event change. The second one actually has an impact on the gameplay because this one actually moves to a different spot and back, but it's also really abrupt and can result in an awkward hit (such as the layer moving you upwards into a bullet you ducked under). Outside of that, it's just more platforming across long stretches of ordinary minimalism.

Enemies are either insignificant but harmless, or sort of an unfair pain, and I didn't find much in between. Basically, most things that didn't throw projectiles weren't a problem, but plants and Hammer Bros. were really difficult to get past. In most cases, Fire Piranha Plants were accompanied by either the awkward surface interaction mentioned in the first paragraph, or by a series of very narrow pipe passages that already require a lot of precision to get through as is. The Nipper in early Section 3 is especially cruel, because you have exactly one tile of horizontal space and two tiles of vertical that you need to avoid it, while also needing to maintain your momentum from avoiding the two previous plants and making that tight jump between in quick succession. Nearly every Lotus is a problem as well because it's either grouped with more of its kind and/or Hammer Bros, or connects with the top of the level so you can't see the fireballs and thus plan around them in the already-limited space. Powerups are okay, though. They're reasonably spaced apart, and the instances where they come in pairs are helpful for more difficult portions.

Visually, it's... okay, but has considerable room for improvement. Each graphical element chosen fits an icy scenario individually, but it's a lot of different styles of frozen put together. Pipes are the only things with gray outlines, the tilesets aren't consistent enough to play a smooth role. I will say though that the SMB3 stuff works together pretty well and makes up the majority, with the exception of the glass windows. They don't look convincing as scenery ice, their use here doesn't really disguise that they're in fact windows, and their placements can sometimes feel arbitrary. Their function as sails on the ice "boats" are sort of a neat touch, but even that is just done a few times and then abandoned altogether. Other scenery choices are good, but excessive. Bushes don't need to overlap or be on every square, and a single surface doesn't need both bushes and fences. Musically, again, each one works individually but the two don't mesh together. You've got a cold but upbeat theme in the day and a more somber icy one at night, which makes sense on both parts, but compared to each other they have completely different styles. Personally, I would have either gone with two things from the same series or general sound, or picked one and kept it throughout the level. The change of day to night doesn't add a lot, but each background does work fine by itself.

Overall... meh, to be honest. It's extremely basic both in concept and execution, most of the design consists of haphazard ice block constructions, and not much variation is introduced beyond that. The platforming can be challenging in legitimate ways sometimes, but mainly where projectile enemies aren't overwhelmingly present. It isn't the most painful level to play, but a lot of the fun had here comes more in the form of "well, I guess this part doesn't really hurt anything" than anything else. I'm sorry, but this wasn't very enjoyable, but it deserves credit for having decent difficulty in some places and a semi-consistent theme.

I give this a 3/10. Average.