Ice Frost Dungeon (Old level)

[Superiorstar]

I might as well post some of these old levels since they aren't being used.

Spoiler: show

You probably remember this from Tower of bowser; the fifth or sixth level.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/4g7a4c

I'd like this level to be reviewed.

[JupiHornet]

Finally more levels for me to review
Should come later

[Superiorstar]

Finally more levels for me to review
Should come later

Sure, I post more of my old levels good and bad.

[silent_]

Review - Ice Frost Dungeon

Design - 3.5
A short, but difficult (and actually a bit spammy but I'll get to that later) level with icy stuff and also not icy stuff (?). I'm not sure if I liked how the castle blocks blended in with the tileset; it was a bit of an eyesore, honestly. The wood BGOs (speaking of BGOs, there was hardly anything--try adding some icy pillars, icy lamps, etc.) were the same color as the tileset, and I actually though it was a block at first and ended up dying. There were two shades in the lava that were too dark and did not fit with the light part of it--try a smooth palette, not a jumpy light+dark palette when it comes to recolors. I don't really know why there were fire Sparkies in this level--shouldn't they be ice Sparkies, like the lava? I actually ended up hitting the question block to activate the platform in the checkpoint section before hitting the checkpoint because I thought maybe the question block would give you a power-up, but no; it made the platform start, so I couldn't hit the checkpoint. Perhaps make the "switch" look more like a switch (don't know how to tell you to do this), or maybe make a sign saying, "Hit this switch to activate the platform." Speaking of the moving platform, towards the very end of its long and tedious ride, there was a surprise Thwimp which came from the air and I got hit by it unfairly--perhaps remove it, or replace it with a a Sparkie or something. Now, for the final thing: I'm not implying this level shouldn't have a color variety at all, because it shouldn't, but I really didn't get why some things were icy and some things weren't. So here's my suggestion--give everything BUT the tileset (even referring to the BGOs) a white or very-very light (lighter than the tileset) blue palette. Hell, you could have a bunch of different palettes! As long as things aren't the same color as the tileset, or just a totally different color (ex. Orange). However, there are some things that you don't need to modify; the coins, the Bullet Bill launchers, the Sawblade, the propeller, the fire flower, the lava (besides those two dark colors), and the question blocks.

Placement - 4.5
To put it bluntly, enemy-wise, this level was a complete and utter mess. You have those random enemies flying at you sometimes (that first Spiny, the final Thwimp at the lineride, and the first Bullet Bill launcher), and you have the totally pointless enemies (the Sparkies on the lineride, and the first Boom-Boom battle which just dragged the level on unnecessarily). As for pipes, there was nothing (and once you add the pipes, perhaps add some Piranhas), and question blocks and power-ups were a huge lack. You added a lot of coins at the beginning of section one, but the end of section one had nothing, and section two had nothing either. You need to be more consistent and stick to one flow, if that makes any sense. Lastly, add more BGOs.

Atmosphere - 5
I can really tell you tried with the atmosphere in this level, but it didn't really work. As I pointed out in the Design section, the castle blocks that blended in with the tileset were a complete and utter eyesore, and the enemies just didn't go with the level at all. And also, you have the lava with the two random dark colors. As for music, it didn't fit. Make sure the music has a good ice feel--now that I think about it, try this theme. It would match the atmosphere rather well--IF you made every graphic icy, that is.

Spoiler: show

Total - 4.3
So, this ended up being one of my longer reviews, but for a reason--this level wasn't very pleasant, and it had a lot of flaws. Hey, at least this is an old level.

[Superiorstar]

Thanks for the review, the level was supposed to be vanilla as I could possibly make it, so there was no custom music, and you didn't even talk about the ice wall gimmick, and also the sparkies indeed do need to be recolored, but the tileset stays the same, the ice is Vanilla SMW as well.
I might as well post the DECENT level now.

[silent_]

so there was no custom music

Actually, there was custom music. That castle music isn't default.

and you didn't even talk about the ice wall gimmick

Is this a problem?

Anyways, I didn't talk about it because I thought it was fine.

[Witchking666]

This wasnt good and also not bad
Im not sure what to think...

[JupiHornet]

UNOFFICIAL REVIEW of ICE FROST DUNGEON by SUPERIORSTAR

Design (5/10)
This level was actually pretty fun! However, there were a few rookie mistakes, such as the horizontal warps being incorrect (you DID say the level was old.) I also liked the Propeller Block section, but if you lose the block at any time, you can't break the walls to get through the level and you're forced to kill yourself. The level also felt a bit cramped and the Thwimps were hard to dodge.

Atmosphere (2/10)
Now here is where the level fails imo. The tileset that you used looks really bad, and the cave background doesn't really fit, especially with the music you chose. The boss fight against Larry Koopa (actually a Bully) at the end was unfitting, and after you kill the first one, you have to wait for about 10 seconds before the next Larry Koopa appears. You get a few points because the walls that you had to break through were actually pretty cool!

Other Comments: *insert Frozen reference here*

Overall 3.5/10 (Average)
Not a bad level, but the flaws, especially in the atmosphere, really stood out.

[FanofSMBX]

This level wasnt in the Tower of Bowser demo, but thanks anyways for using my recolors.

[CreatorForce]

Oh Yeah, I Remember This One. Maybe I Wanna Use For Bonus Level On Level 2. (My Project)
Seems Pretty Nice. Good Job @Superiorstar. Besides, I give you credit on my project.

[Choco]

Oh Yeah, I Remember This One. Maybe I Wanna Use For Bonus Level On Level 2. (My Project)
Seems Pretty Nice. Good Job @Superiorstar. Besides, I give you credit on my project.

You want to use someone else's level for your project? :/

Anyway...

Ice Frost Dungeon
Official Review

First off, I used the channel again. Here's a playthrough.


Design/Gameplay - 4/10
I enjoyed parts of the level, but other parts were highly flawed. Lets start out. At the beginning, you give the player two powerups. It's not long until the midpoint, and why do you need a Fire Flower in this level. For half of it, you have the flamethrower, rendering the flower useless. The other half is full of the Thwimps, which are immune to fire, and not much else. On that note, however, there was a decent variety of NPCs. Anyway, I think the level was pretty inconsistent. The difficulty was all over the place, but I'll get more into that later. I noticed the gimmick of the level was like this as well. It went from normal platforming to a flamethrower course, and then finally to a moving platform. And don't forget the two boss fights. Let's talk about those, now that I bring it up. The first one, against Boom Boom, was a mess. Never throw someone in a small room with three large invincible enemies AND a boss. You didn't really do much with that one either. You just gave us a vanilla boss and some other stuff to drive us insane. The second boss with the Koopaling thing... that was just boring. And why did we have to fight it twice?

Remember how I said I would talk about the difficulty? It's time. The difficulty was just truly inconsistent, and not in a good way. I liked it at the beginning, not too easy but not too hard. Then we came to the flamethrower section, which was easy as hell. Right in the middle of that was the Boom Boom fight, which, as said before, is just broken. After that was more flamethrower obstacles, which was even easier than before. The rising platform after the midpoint was way too easy, and so was the final boss fight.

Let's talk about some more technical flaws. Standing on top of the fire cannons will damage you when they launch. Also, the fire sphere things go through the blocks that you destroy with the flamethrower. That's about all I have to say about the level design-wise, but we have more to talk about in the wonderful land of Graphics.

Graphics - 4/10
It looked okay at first, but we have issues. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty level. The BGOs are just as bright as the blocks, which was very confusing. I didn't know what was solid and what wasn't at first. Also, the platform in the final boss fight didn't go with the rest of the level. It had a thick-ish outline while everything else had no outline whatsoever (except for the midpoint and the pipes). You said this level was a dungeon, am I right? Well, the background doesn't tell us that. It gives us more of a cave vibe. I think the real issues lied in the NPCs. None of them went with the level. You had enemies made of fire, fireballs (that were SMB3 by the way, this level is SMW), green Spiny Eggs, grey Thwimps (that didn't look that bad but could be better), a red Boom Boom, and the final boss didn't feel icy at all. None of the NPCs went with the level, basically. You could have easily recolored them. Now, the graphics were somewhat simple, and I don't really have much else to say about them. Just like the design, this level could be great just by fixing these flaws, which shouldn't be that hard to do.

Overall Score - 4/10
I know this is a old level. It wasn't too bad though. Most of the flaws are pretty easy fixes. This level is going to go to the Average section.