SMBX All-Stars Level Contest (Want to Help With the World Map?)

[bossedit8]

Finally finished my reviews! Good luck for everyone!

[ShadowStarX]

Nice!
How is it going for PixelPest and Spinda? (besides the fact that PP was done with the vast majority of the levels a week ago or so)

[PixelPest]

Nice!
How is it going for PixelPest and Spinda? (besides the fact that PP was done with the vast majority of the levels a week ago or so)

I've been done for at least a week or two. Spinda's almost there and on course to be done within a few days at the very most

[Artemis009]

Nice!
How is it going for PixelPest and Spinda? (besides the fact that PP was done with the vast majority of the levels a week ago or so)

I've been done for at least a week or two. Spinda's almost there and on course to be done within a few days at the very most

Good thing, cause I'm ready to get this over with.

[Ditchencat]

Nearly done judging? That's always cool! =u=

[TDK]

Wonder what that twist is.

[PixelPest]

I just want to start by thanking everyone for such a successful contest and for your amazing patience while waiting for the results.

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Just a few quick pointers before we get into it:

• There are a few ties in scores that will be broken by the averages of the judges' design scores for the level.
• In the context of review listings, the judges' scores are listed individually in order of the design (50), creativity (30), and aesthetics (20) scores, followed by the average in each review, just to avoid confusion.
• Be sure to read the judges' reviews as we've spent a ton of time trying to give you some accurate, helpful feedback on your levels.

Also a reminder to please wait until results are over to release your level.

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Disqualifications

• h2643 was disqualified for submitting a previously released level

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Without further ado, here come the first part of your results...with a twist!

Participants' names below will be bolded upon their results being released.

• krazykat
• Ludwig_von Koopa
• Yang
• Bowser is ded
• Darkonious Mavakar
• Shadow Turtle
• FrozenHeatDesert
• 7NameSam
• DreDust
• Ditchencat
• ShadowStarX
• 1AmPlayer
• Quantumenace
• The0x539
• Sanct
• Zipper
• Snowy_Desert
• AndrewPixel
• Smesblem
• Quantix
• Cloth pocket
• h2643 DQ
• 55jedat555
• Taycamgame
• Artemis008
• Enjl
• Yoshi021
• thehelmetguy1
• Ryaa
• Musicality_Minister45
• Mosaic
• MECHDRAGON777
• litchh
• Pseudo
• Electriking
• ap3jmpt
• Ness-Wednesday
• kinggodot
• NegativeBread

AndrewPixel - Line Detonation (57.7/100)

Reviews: show

PixelPest (26 | 14 | 9)--49/100: I felt like this level had a lot of potential, but wasn't executed very well. The level was often cramped and had little flow, due to waiting for moving platforms, large boo circles to spin, or even multiple piranha plants in very cramped passages. The level's aesthetics were confusing, as the black and white nature of the level sometimes made it difficult to tell background objects from blocks. Some enemy reskins in the style seemed to be missing as well as there were some in black and white and some in normal colours, suggesting that maybe they just weren't finished, however the inconsistency took away from the level. I felt like the arrows were way overused to direct the player and that they were rarely able to think for themselves when solving the puzzles and stuck just following directions. The puzzles were varied and had some progression and it was neat to see some of them come up in the boss battle. The boss battle itself wasn't executed the best either. It was a bit slow and the part with the quickly flipping switch blocks was completely unexpected; they changed really fast and there was indication given to the player that they'll change at that speed, which turned out to be very frustrating as I died the first time I played it and was required to go all of the way back to the checkpoint. Some of the ideas in the boss battle were interesting however the first phase was very repetitive and dry. An interesting level overall, I'm not sure I really enjoyed it that much but it presented some good ideas.

Spinda (24 | 19 | 10)--53/100: The ideas are pretty neat but a lot of the time the enemies popping the bubbles just feel like Rube Goldberg machines and don't actually add anything gameplay-wise. The good puzzles are divided by too much romp and I first thought the moon path was just the regular path. The arrows felt largely unnecessary and even somewhat patronizing at times.
The boss is kinda interesting but I first died because I thought the arrows were the danger area and then I died again because I didn't realize it'd change on every beat.
The best parts of this boss were the attach to layer parts that I wish this level would have more of. The final enemy gauntlet felt pretty generic again.

bossedit8 (36 | 20 | 15)--71/100: Very clever puzzle based level and in it's perfect length aswell! Good choice of music and it's own design style being like that but I'm not a fan of those brick blocks having no blocks inbetween them... which means when you are big you can glitch through inbetween the sides of the brick blocks. I like how you are using the SMBX 2.0 beta 3 enemies here... well except for the beginning's maverick thwomp since it's placed in such a way where you will most likely get hit either by the pipe's piranha plant or by the thwomp himself. What a bad placement there! Also, some areas it requires spinjumping so if you are trying to defeat the thwomp with a shell you have a more of a hard time getting to higher places but at least you don't get stuck here which isn't really bad. I still love this level's puzzle design a lot, it's simple yet it works sooo well throughoutly and even secrets aswell! The boss of this level is surely clever I gotta admit although if the blocks appear out of the air like that you have a chance of clipping inside the blocks once again if you jump at the time when it appears. Good level though!

Darkonious Mavakar - Granite Mountains (83/100)

Reviews: show

PixelPest (44 | 21 | 18)--83/100: This was quite an enjoyable level. It was very well-constructed and used lots of subtleties to create a unique and effective atmosphere. For what it had to offer it was an appropriate length and explored the gimmick in a variety of ways that started effectively introducing the various concepts to the player in a safe environment, without exactly telling them what was going on, which was great to see. Later in the level it became slightly repetitive, but still enjoyable, although I would have liked to see a little more exploration with the gimmick, in terms of combining mechanics instead of mostly keeping the three main ideas in separate set-ups, as at times it felt a bit disjointed, though insignificantly so. It nicely combined linear and non-linear paths and challenges and all but once provided the player a way out if they made a mistake so that without forcing them to restart, they could move backwards and fix their mistake before continuing while not having to repeat any significant portion of the level. The aesthetic subtleties in this level were beautiful and it had a very well-developed atmosphere, but the only real issue with the graphics was a difficulty in distinguishing solid blocks from the pillars which had a similar, if not the same, palette but were background objects, which made me do a bit of a double-take a few times. Overall though this level really created an identity for itself with a memorable style to it and I'd definitely play it again just to gain more of an appreciation for that as it was really quite enjoyable.

Spinda (42 | 20 | 17)--79/100: The interaction between Donut Blocks and 1f0 used in this level is pretty nifty! I enjoy how the gimmick progressed and the other touches like the somewhat hidden Thwomps were interesting as well, but I do think it could be taken further, maybe by combining it with some of the other mechanics used. One weird interaction, however, was that enemies were affected by the 1f0 as well - maybe design the level so this happens less often.
I really enjoyed the presentation as well, especially how the gimmick was actually portrayed in a logical way. The pillars looked too much like they were solid, however.

bossedit8 (42 | 25 | 20)--87/100: Aaahhh the music! I absolutely love how this level is structured with like with the whole Thwomps as statues and some others that are alive and such which is pretty neat... and also thwomps that don't have a face act like donut blocks. And then we have bridges that fall down but attaches to the bottom of the broken bridges which is actually very clever. There's one issue though, some enemies will actually walk on top of the invisible blocks where they usually stop the donut blocks instead of actually walking on top of the donut block npc which is really weird. Speaking of enemy placements, I saw some enemies that just simply fall of the level like the Ninji falling down into the pit as in he tried to reach the next platform but couldn't make it. Not sure if that's actually intentional or not. Some areas, spinjump is required and also at the vertical section going down, there is this one place that once you drop down these blocks and try to across over it, it's a little tight like on that little spot, crouchjumping is adviced to pass. Other than that, this level's mechanic, atmosphere and anything else is just amazing overall!

FrozenHeatDesert - Yellow Switch Palace (45/100)

Reviews: show

PixelPest (23 | 4 | 8)--35/100: This just felt like your classic rompy level with some moving layers. These moving layers were also very jolting when the dropped quickly, as well as the fact that moving layers don't need to be explained in a sign; there's some things you can teach the player and some they can figure out--this is a just-figure-it-out kind of situation since the mechanic is so simple, however I think it needed to be introduced a little less harsh than the way it started. Many sections of the level were also cramped and in general very unforgiving; giving the player a little more space, especially on the moving layer segments which involved a significant amount of precision and speed, would have gone a long way. The mechanic wasn't expanded on very effectively and the difficulty seemed to be all over the place. Flow was less of an issue in this level, thankfully, as the layers moved so fast, however that led to another problem too. The sections with the switch blocks swapping back and forth were especially cramped and seemed almost superficial as they never appeared elsewhere in the level and could have been combined with the moving layers to create some interesting challenges. On the other hand, this level had a large number of aesthetic issues. Primarily, the tileset and background objects just seemed too bright at many points and the background objects and ?-mark decorations inside the blocks were overused and caused a lot of visually-unappealing clutter. Also be aware of what blocks you're respriting and what the player will expect them to act like. The glow blocks were reskinned to solid switch blocks, so initially when coming up to the wall of them I turned around and hit every ?-block and became very confused when none of them disappeared and then accidentally ran into them and realized they were grabbable, which was quite a setback.

Spinda (27 | 5 | 10)--42/100: This level was... alright I guess? I personally wish the timed switch platforms would be expanded on more - what's there is neat and arguably a better gimmick than the moving layers that are used for most of the rest of the level.
It's also kind of strange how a sign explicitly points out that the moving layer platforms have no ? on them, but then there's a bunch of normal platforms without ?s on them despite having the space that don't move, so it feels weird to have that distinction in the first place.
Aside from that, this level really didn't offer too much new and the moving layers were never really used to their full effect.

bossedit8 (28 | 17 | 13)--58/100: For being a replica of SMW at the beginning and at the end but everything else isn't surely seems like a surprise. The level itself like as of how everything is yellow for being in a switch palace sure is neat and the decorations but apparently on the bushes and such they contain garbage pixels. Means that someone was not using the proper tools to have them converted into GIF files like those huh? Oh well, the level itself is going by pretty good... well there are some odd things about it though. Like those yellow '!' blocks being replaced by ice blocks (throwblocks) which is quite weird to be honest but if that's how the rule of this level is set up with then sure. What I do like how this level is set up with is that it gratually gets more challening with the whole moving layers and such to go through but some areas are like, a little too cruel to go through like small areas with bullet bills and others being annoying singular jumps while the whole section moves down like that which makes jumping even weirder than usual. Also by that matter NPCs can't jump while blocks are moving down. Oh and there is a way to get stuck like if you waste all of your throwable blocks with a breakable barricade you can't advance regularily and have to restart. Waiting is also a thing to do in this level and there is this one spike that is barely visible against the yellow background objects which, please don't! Also climbable fence background plus moving layers equals bugs! Overall a neat level but with a couple flaws covered up here and there.

Quantix - Dungeon of Firebar Spam (67.7/100)

Reviews: show

PixelPest (36 | 20 | 16)--72/100: This level was quite good as it took a simple obstacle, firebars, and played around with them in a bunch of creative ways. Many of the set-ups were very good and there was an obvious progression through the first section, however I feel like that was lost in the latter sections, where there were some significant difficulty spikes followed by a series of significantly easier challenges. The placements of some of the reskinned Thwomps (orange bricks) were almost a little unfair at times, as while the player is trying to deal with a tough obstacle suddenly an orange block falls from the top of the screen, the lower part of which was just barely visible. The introduction of the vertically-moving firebars was interesting and provided some interesting challenges, however the way they were used in the sixth section was slightly disappointing as it was repetitive and slow. In terms of aesthetics, for the most part this level was visually appealing, however there was one specific instance of a bunch of firebars all cluttered together that seemed distinctly and memorably off. I'm glad that in the end this level did what most castle levels didn't and just ended with a star instead of an uncreative vanilla boss fight. Overall it was nicely varied, but just could have used a better progression in consistently interesting and fair set-ups.

Spinda (35 | 16 | 13)--64/100: This level starts off pretty strong but gets weaker near the end. The ways the firebars are used first make for some interesting setups and I like little shakeups like the room with the really big firebar. The second isolated room feels like it would be better in reverse - it's easier to run under firebars than it is to walk/jump over them. The vertical firebars are a pretty neat gimmick and there's some cool stuff done with them, but there's a lack of good new ideas after the second checkpoint. Timing the springboards with the firebars is too inprecise to be a decent challenge and the place of the second checkpoint would make for a more satisfying experience.
Firebars start their rotation once they come onscreen, and that leads to a lot of inconsistency if you have to navigate multiple of them one after the other - the position of the camera influences the cycle of the firebars, leading to setups that can wildly vary from difficulty, sometimes even impossible to clear without taking damage.

bossedit8 (31 | 21 | 15)--67/100: Yup! Firebars everywhere! They are placed in such a way that the player are fully aware of them so this is a pretty neat level including several other obstacles to go through rather than just solely firebars like dry bones and thwomps. Speaking of thomps though, the red ones are way more solid than the actual SMW thwomps so what you are able to do with the red blocky castle tile that acts like a thwomp is to actually walk on top of it. However there is this one area where that thwomp is supposed to land on the bottom on the floor but since that custom NPCs are a little weird to deal with in SMBX depending on it's surroundings they don't go completly down instead... it just goes till the edge of the right side is placed with which makes that obstacle unnecessarily more difficult than it is since it's pretty tight to go through. Speaking of tight, there's this one area in the vertical section with a dry bone where you have to make the dry bone stop for a while so you are able to pass it but since the area is so tight and you even have quite a bit of firebars to deal with it takes more time and such to go through. I love how you utulised the firebars though throughout the level like there are a lot of small, regular, big and even those that don't spin but are stationary going up and down which is pretty neat as of how the whole level has been structured with. Apparently though your midpoints are a bit janky like once I reach to the first checkpoint it's bar is missing yet when I reach to the 2nd one which is relatively close to the goal, that exists but very close to the end of the level I see that random checkpoint bad just sitting inside the wall, unable to reach it... sssuuureee! The level doesn't have a boss but that's not too bad since the firebar is our main challenge here throughoutly!

The0x539 - Explosion Island Excavation Act III: Tragedy on the Solar Express (72.7/100)

Reviews: show

PixelPest (40 | 21 | 16)--77/100: I think I missed the explosion, the excavation, the tragedy, and the solar express? Overall quite an enjoyable level that had a simple yet creative concept, in which when the player begins moving in a certain direction, they can only accelerate (and not slow down or change direction) until they collide with a wall; it sound complicated and takes a minute to get used to but the level introduces it well by providing a completely safe starting section for the player that makes sure they know the concept and tests them on it so that they can't leave the section until they have it under control. This first section is set up quite well as the player wants to turn to jump up onto a platform a few moments after they start moving left but quickly discover that they can't until they hit the following wall, very clever and well-executed. The issue that I had moving through the level, especially the first time playing it, is the reaction time expected from the player, notably right when they enter the second section and have very little time to jump. Although it's forgiving at this point and in other parts as well due to the multiple checkpoints, it would have been better to introduce a few more lighter challenges at the beginning while the player was trying to get a feel for the controls before placing them in direct peril. I really liked what was done in the fourth section in which the player, if they were moving slow enough, could jump up the sizables and thought it was a very valuable learning opportunity incorporated for the player. The fifth section started to introduce some interesting concepts with the note block, which thankfully was doubled in width, in which the player had to bounce off of the wall when maintaining enough speed to reach a block on the other side, which I was happy to see was further utilized in the next section, and later in the level to a lesser extent as well. I found the seventh section on a little more frustrating as it was significantly less forgiving and required a lot of precision, especially the first extended spiny spinjumping section and the following section with the hurt blocks; it was very difficult to master the spiny spinjumping sequence, due to needing to have the speed basically perfect, and then after dying a few times in the next section having to start over was pretty painful. A checkpoint at the end of the spiny spinjumping sequence felt needed. In general I felt like this level could have been significantly longer, as it felt like it was exploring a bunch of different concepts that it just began slightly building on and that the variety could have felt a little less unfocused by then combining the different elements into various challenges, such as combining a noteblock or springboard segment with a spiny spinjumping sequence. The level just felt like it finished right when I finally got a handle on the controls and I really wanted more to really see what kind of challenges could be built up and was slightly disappointed. Aesthetically, the very stripped-down sky setting was executed pretty well and the slightly bland nature of it was clearly justified by this and didn't feel empty, just simple. However, the first section and the last section before the goal which had very blocky terrain compared to the rest of the level that just seemed slightly out-of-place compared to the flowy and visually-pleasing terrain most of the rest of the level had and there just really wasn't much of an atmosphere developed. I had quite a fun experience playing this overall.

Spinda (30 | 23 | 13)--66/100: The gimmick is pretty creative, but I feel the platforming is a bit too tight for how the controls are? With almost no course-correction in midair and the fact that your speed can vary, some of the jumps feel too precise. Additionally, the screen transitions don't mix well with the fact that you sometimes have to jump right after it transitions so you're basically guaranteed to die on your first few tries before you realize when to jump.
The fact that your speed can vary makes some setups too finnicky, so one thing I would change is make it so, after some acceleration, your speed always maxes out (as if the player was holding the directional button throughout). Otherwise, setups like the one before the goal screen work way better with the current system because they actually make use of being slower.
It's pretty easy to get to the screen with the last checkpoint but then head left too early so you basically have to die or clear everything else in one go which should be easier to avoid.

bossedit8 (43 | 18 | 14)--75/100: Hahaa! Mario has some issues turning around and walk backwards until he hits a wall. How troublesome for Mario to go by at this kind of mountainous area with enemies and platforms! This level is pretty fun I gotta say but the fact that once you are going super fast you barely have time to react as of what's coming up in that section. For it's SMW based design with sections that build upon eachother to travel around easily via instant warps and also once you die you are able to quickly respawn into this level if you want to retry it. It's simple but I love it's high builded up challenge this level give it to us. This might be nitpicking but the background doesn't change as of which section you are going with... as in it would be quite cool if the background shifted a little bit further to the desired direction you are heading into or so.

thehelmetguy1 - Into the Desert Temple (29.7/100)

Reviews: show

PixelPest (18 | 6 | 8)--32/100: This level wasn't very fun to play. It was pretty inconsistent, cluttered, and cramped. There was no significantly apparent mechanic of any kind and there were very few enemy set-ups that seemed at all thought out. The coins really seemed to clutter up the level and other elements like the sizeables increased the clutter as well. Furthermore there were a few unnecessary difficulty spikes in the first section, for example the climbable fence part in which the player was spammed with bullet bills and then with rinkas, seemingly randomly and for no apparent reason. The first section at least was pretty flowy for the most part, however the second was not enjoyable. The moving layers were introduced very suddenly without warning and the first time I played it I didn't expect them to be moving at all and was caught off-guard. The sections with the moving blocks were very slow, bland, and frustrating as the gave the player very little time to react and the boos increased the difficulty quite a bit; at one point I took a hit from a boo just to avoid getting crushed because there was no time to lead it out of the way. Visually the level seemed to be a little bland and many of the enemies and other assets did not fit well with the tileset. The general shape of the terrain was really inconsistent as well; at times it was very curvy and flowy with lots of slopes and then suddenly it was very blocky and rectangular, which just made the level seem almost as if it was confused in itself and what it was trying to accomplish in terms of a style and atmosphere.

Spinda (20 | 4 | 6)--30/100: Hey please don't use BGOs that look exactly like sizeables and then place them looking as if they continue the ground because that made me run into lava.The tileset itself also looks kinda... bad and way too grainy.
There's really not much to say about this otherwise because it's just super generic. The moving platforms were pretty neat but used way too sparsely and only in the second half, whereas the first half is not very engaging. Doing some more with the moving platforms that might crush you would greatly improve this level.

bossedit8 (12 | 11 | 4)--27/100: Yeah well, this kind of Temple was decent I should say but issues has been sighted here like upside down piranha plant having broken hitboxes like if you jump at the ceiling pipe while the piranha plant is fully invisible you still get damaged which is terrible. Moving layers, although they are neat, however if you wait for super long the moving layer actually offsets itself very slightly but it's noticeable... so if you wait for a looooong time you are able to have a very hard time passing the moving layers. Elevator is nice at least but then you have fences that can bug the momentum out after from the moving layers previously. Other than that, not much to say other than it's an ok desert temple but a lot of room for improvements needs to be done. The inside tiles isn't much to see either.

...this means that our current top 3 is:

• Darkonious Mavakar - Granite Mountains (83/100)
• The0x539 - Explosion Island Excavation Act III: Tragedy on the Solar Express (72.7/100)
• Quantix - Dungeon of Firebar Spam (67.7/100)

Followed by:

4. AndrewPixel - Line Detonation (57.7/100)
5. FrozenHeatDesert - Yellow Switch Palace (45/100)
6. thehelmetguy1 - Into the Desert Temple (29.7/100)

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Now the question is, who will maintain their position? Who will fall? Only time will tell.

More results coming tomorrow!

[Ryaa]

This is the most Reality TV drama show type of shit I have seen all day and I approve

[Quantix]

Well this is a weird way of sending off results. Gotta say I quite like it.

Also it would appear by the reviews that my midpoints were broken. Great.
btw could you tell that i rushed the last section? cuz i did

[PersonNamedUser]

Who will stand? Who will fall? Who will succeed? Who will fail miserably? what will my final placement be and are results being revealed at random?
Find out next time on SMBX All-Stars!

[Radiance]

Came back here to say that the results were presented differently compared to previous contest and I appreciated it and may I also ask if the results were already complete

[PixelPest]

may I also ask if the results were already complete

If you mean have I already compiled results and everything, reviews all done from all judges, etc. that's all complete

[Oshi]

Oh boy, this is...this is...this really is a twist...

I wonder if I will actually be in a pretty good tier this time, but idk because my level was rushed...
which reminds me that I need to get to work on my SMB1XR level

[IAmPlayer]

I think i'm surprised with my results later. But I'll say this.

WHO WON? WHO'S NEXT?

[Zipper]

wow this twist is like winning a lifetime supply of granola bars

on one hand it's a change of pace
on the other hand.....why

[Darkonius Mavakar]

Well this is... An interesting twist to say the least.
I'm happy with my score, pretty neato!

Also you misspelt my nickname lol

[ShadowStarX]

This is an interesting twist, to say the least...
Excited for tomorrow's results.

[Taycamgame]

The order is completely random and not in order? Sounds fair, and adds the thrill factor to it. Lets hope that my level could get in the top 20 atleast.

[ShadowStarX]

Is it only allowed to release my level after all the results have come out or is it also possible to do so as soon as its placement is revealed?

[Emral]

Drawing this out over a week seems like it would very quickly kill the hype. I think revealing 10 or 13 per day would've been a good balance between quantity and suspense.