out what's in this level!
Reviews:
Spoiler: show
Chad (5.5/10)
A pretty pleasant level. I like the night-time grassy/mountain landscape, and the thematic consistency between enemy variations is a nice touch. The construction is solid and enjoyably explorative, and searching for different items is made simpler by giving the level overall a tame difficulty. The cave sections are more direct, but are built with an entertaining complexity. The blue bricks for dealing with faster enemies are thoughtful provisions, but having several quick enemies in the same general space can result in really awkward interactions at times. I also found the level to run on longer than necessary. If the level ended after you talked to the Cobrat that activated the green switch platforms and adjust the midpoint accordingly, that would have been a reasonable length. Alternatively, the level could have started and ended with the switch/key hunt and that would have worked too, but it didn't need both. It wasn't intolerable to experience both, and I still had fun, but it did drag on somewhat. The boss definitely wasn't needed though, as I found it to be excessively difficult and poorly devised. The arrangement of sizables looks nice, but the pipes and generators down below combined with a faster SMB1 Bowser AI basically mean you're going to be spending nearly all of your time on the upper levels. But even then, you're not really safe from the fireballs twice the size of his body because of the low ceiling and one-way nature of sizables. Some gaps between them as well as a proper weapon to attack with would have been considerably improvements, because the only powerups you get are two non-replenishable Fire Flowers and whatever you kept from before. It's even worse if you die, because then you only get one Flower and taking a single hit ruins your attempt. Overall, good level, but overstays its welcome a bit, and the boss needs serious work.
ElTipsta (6.5/10)
This level drags out a bit to be honest. The music is good (though the underground OST is generic), and the graphics fit perfectly, however the level is artificially lengthened by the key/switch hunt, which is a bit needless to be honest. The Rex challenge alone would have been fine. The boss is a bit hard, it's hard to make the jumps to the blue brick without jumping on the higher platforms or taking damage from another enemy.
Quill (5.8/10)
This started off decently, with some interesting examples of level design. The first half was pretty basic, but kept me entertained. I especially liked revisiting the guy who was sleeping to activate the green switch. I thought that was super neat. The cave sections were a little cramped though. I disliked the second half in comparison. Finding two keys and then having to go on a fetch quest to activate the red switch was a bit of a chore and killed the level's mood a bit for me. The boss wasn't too great either as it was especially annoying to deal with the boss with the sizables in the way. Overall, this level has some great potential, it just needs some notable flaws addressed.
Shinbison-Kof (6.0/10)
I like this level. The level design is good. The exploratory things are good and so are the mini quests and transition of grass and cave. The graphics are good. I like the blue blocks in the level because they're so helpful in killing the npcs. The npc placement is good and there's good variety in the npcs. About the section after the checkpoint, you should add the key or switch for the player so they don't have to go back and forth 3 times, because that's exhaustive. Maybe you could add some warps back here. The cave section is cramped which is not good. In the boss battle it's very hard catching the item while dodging stuff. Overall a good level except for the boss.
Valtteri (7.0/10)
This is a good nighttime level. I'm maybe a little overwhelmed by the variety of BGOs in the overworld section. But the level varies very well in platforming hazards and enemy placement.
A pretty pleasant level. I like the night-time grassy/mountain landscape, and the thematic consistency between enemy variations is a nice touch. The construction is solid and enjoyably explorative, and searching for different items is made simpler by giving the level overall a tame difficulty. The cave sections are more direct, but are built with an entertaining complexity. The blue bricks for dealing with faster enemies are thoughtful provisions, but having several quick enemies in the same general space can result in really awkward interactions at times. I also found the level to run on longer than necessary. If the level ended after you talked to the Cobrat that activated the green switch platforms and adjust the midpoint accordingly, that would have been a reasonable length. Alternatively, the level could have started and ended with the switch/key hunt and that would have worked too, but it didn't need both. It wasn't intolerable to experience both, and I still had fun, but it did drag on somewhat. The boss definitely wasn't needed though, as I found it to be excessively difficult and poorly devised. The arrangement of sizables looks nice, but the pipes and generators down below combined with a faster SMB1 Bowser AI basically mean you're going to be spending nearly all of your time on the upper levels. But even then, you're not really safe from the fireballs twice the size of his body because of the low ceiling and one-way nature of sizables. Some gaps between them as well as a proper weapon to attack with would have been considerably improvements, because the only powerups you get are two non-replenishable Fire Flowers and whatever you kept from before. It's even worse if you die, because then you only get one Flower and taking a single hit ruins your attempt. Overall, good level, but overstays its welcome a bit, and the boss needs serious work.
ElTipsta (6.5/10)
This level drags out a bit to be honest. The music is good (though the underground OST is generic), and the graphics fit perfectly, however the level is artificially lengthened by the key/switch hunt, which is a bit needless to be honest. The Rex challenge alone would have been fine. The boss is a bit hard, it's hard to make the jumps to the blue brick without jumping on the higher platforms or taking damage from another enemy.
Quill (5.8/10)
This started off decently, with some interesting examples of level design. The first half was pretty basic, but kept me entertained. I especially liked revisiting the guy who was sleeping to activate the green switch. I thought that was super neat. The cave sections were a little cramped though. I disliked the second half in comparison. Finding two keys and then having to go on a fetch quest to activate the red switch was a bit of a chore and killed the level's mood a bit for me. The boss wasn't too great either as it was especially annoying to deal with the boss with the sizables in the way. Overall, this level has some great potential, it just needs some notable flaws addressed.
Shinbison-Kof (6.0/10)
I like this level. The level design is good. The exploratory things are good and so are the mini quests and transition of grass and cave. The graphics are good. I like the blue blocks in the level because they're so helpful in killing the npcs. The npc placement is good and there's good variety in the npcs. About the section after the checkpoint, you should add the key or switch for the player so they don't have to go back and forth 3 times, because that's exhaustive. Maybe you could add some warps back here. The cave section is cramped which is not good. In the boss battle it's very hard catching the item while dodging stuff. Overall a good level except for the boss.
Valtteri (7.0/10)
This is a good nighttime level. I'm maybe a little overwhelmed by the variety of BGOs in the overworld section. But the level varies very well in platforming hazards and enemy placement.
Spoiler: show
http://www.mediafire.com/download/lph9t ... rlight.zip
