Yet again I am the LJ to touch your level first. Not sure how I keep managing to do this even after two days off.
My Review:
Atmosphere [5/5]
No issues here.
"Obustus" means "burnt". So a direct translation is just Burnt Archipelago, which you nailed perfectly with an abundance of sharp and jagged landmasses strewn about in the level.
Level Design [3/5]
My issue stems from a few factors.
-The level is still painfully linear sadly. You could've added some sidepaths into the pre-existing sections without having to do too much effort. Such as what you did for the dragons coins, but on a larger scale. I found that every dragon coin was in a predictably irritating spot, usually requiring the player to spinjump over lava into a dangerous area. It is one thing to have a difficult Dragon Coin, but the repetition made this rather dull.
-Second section has a lavarun with no real indication that this would happen.
-Second sections "level wrap" is not indicated prior to the event that takes place, putting the players in a rather difficult position if they dont see this coming.
-Level feels like it ends abruptly with a star in a very enclosed area. I recommend reverting back to a SMB3 exit as a star exit on this fashion seems a bit shoehorned.
-Mushrooms still have the capacity to crash a game. Unless a player is using Lua or SMBX 2.0, such as myself, they will crash when a 1-UP or Mushroom touches lava. I highly recommend altering their NPC code so that they do not move.
(If you need details as to how to do this, PM me)
And the difficulty curve. (Spoken in detail at the end of review)
Graphical Continuity [5/5]
No issues.
BGO Placement [4/5]
I actually wrote a section claiming that you didn't use any BGOs, only to recheck the level to see I was wrong. So, to edit this section I will say the following sentence:
Your level's BGO placement is spot on, but I legitemately had no idea there were BGOs in the level. While I have nothing I could say would improve or hurt your design choices here I will still have to stand by my comment. This level feels like the BGO placements almost had no influence unless the player is really paying attention.
I will note though that after rechecking I noticed some hidden events to make the fog move, so kudos in this field. Rarely do I see people spend the time to not only making a moving BGO layer, but make it dynamic as well.
NPC Placement [4/5]
A majority of this sections' score was influenced by your coin usage. I typically couldn't care about coins, but I noticed a small trend in this level: a majority of the coins reside outside of blocks and in unavoidable positions. Coins should let the player derail their own movements for a little money in their pockets, not hold their hand throughout jumps. I recommend not only placing them in key, yet random, spots as well as placing them inside blocks too. This level also failed to utilize blocks outside of giving the player their powerups or to block the players.
Lastly, this little guy:
http://imgur.com/4xGbO78
This podabo doesnt align to its correct position somehow.
Difficulty / Replayability [4/5]
Fix the issues above and I would most likely play the level again.
The the steep difficulty curve is a bit uncalled for.
-First section is simple.
-Second throws you right into a lava chase where a single mistake is death. Thankfully there is a checkpoint, but the sudden change is a bit tough to players.
-Third section is bullet bill hell, with a few at ground level ready to shoot immediately.
Overall Score: 25/30
Final Score: 8.3/10
Judgement: Pretty Good
Video:
