Ok, so here goes nothing. My first review ever of any level in SMBX. But specifically, the REVIEW OF SUPER MARIO BROS.' PLUMBING ADVENTURE
Presentation (5/10)
The presentation works. And that's pretty much it.
There is a massive lack of backgrounds in several parts of the Luigi campaign and the Toad' Town in Mario's Campaign seems kind of empty. And most of the Toads in Toad Town' (Mario) and the enemies in Bowser Castle (Luigi) say generic things like "Hey, there!" and "Hello, Luigi! What's up?" Character dialog is a thing you should take on consideration in your next level/episode. However, when I mean the presentation works, I say it because some of those simplistic level designs, backgrounds and other perks actually don't feel that bad. 5/10.
Story (7/10)
I haven't seen that much standalone levels with a story development itself. Some work, some others don't. And this one is in the middle. Not good, not that bad. The story depends if you play as Mario or Luigi (no Toad, Peach or Link stories here, guys) which twists the levels plus the story itself. Mario has to clean the sewers of the Toad Town so a generic toad can flush the toilet again, or something. In the road he finds Bowser, which tells him he ain't gonna kill Mario.
However, when he finally gets to the sewers, he finds Bowser lied to him and tries to kill him.
Luigi is told by a Goomba that he has to clean the pipes of Bowser, so he timidly (is that even a word?) goes to Bowser Castle, because he has nothing better to do.
When he gets there he finds everything was a trap, and then Bowser tries to kill Luigi.
The story has big flaws due to it's simplicity, but it wins points because of having two separate stories. 7/10.
Gameplay/Level design (3/10)
One of the biggest flaws of the game: level design. This resumes into: THIS LEVEL IS SO EASY.
However, in the Luigi's Story the difficulty increases a little (emphasis on little) because it has one more platforming section to compensate Mario's Toad' Town. Something I'd reccomend is to create a level Super Mario World-like to make the journey more emotionant than the final destiny. 3/10.
When Mario gets to the final boss in the Sewers, he's greeted with a SMB3-like Bowser boss battle: break the bricks so Bowser falls on them. However, this is even easier: there are only two blocks wide. Stay in the same place two times and you win the level. After this, a new pipe opens where you find Peach for some reason and 3 generic toads. I'd reccomend improving your boss battles with more difficulty so it doesn't get that dull.
When Luigi gets to the final boss in the Bowser Castle, you have to punch a text block to make Luigi talk. It'd be better if Luigi talked instantly when he entered the room or if there was a pipe which Luigi can inspect. Well, when you punch this text block Luigi inspects the pipe, and then Bowser appears to try to defeat Luigi. This is sligthly harder than Mario's fight, and because of all the wrong reasons. You don't know how to kill Bowser until you touch everything in the room (which I did). Seems like the solution is to touch a Goomba so the sewers can open and kill Bowser with lava, then the game forces you to win. Ok, so I think it'd have no sense to a pipe to transport lava onto it, even if it's Bowser Castle, and why does even touch the goomba let you win? It'd be nice if in a future release the sewers could be fixed with an ON/OFF SMW button. And that reference to Papyrus from Undertale was good.
Veridict: 4,75/10
Although this might seem like a low score, this was actually amusing to play. However, some factors like the simplicity of level design, the dullness of character dialogs and the lack of scenery made it lose several points. If you like simple level design and you don't mind about scenery, play this game. If not, I cannot reccomend it to you. This level has plenty of room to improve and that's why i give it a 4,75/10
Story: something I usually don't see in levels. The story itself is kinda random and bland. Nothing really happens yet everything happens. I wouldn't really make this effect the score since it really isn't necessary to do to make a good level.
Gameplay
This level is kinda unique in the aspect of going down two story lines to end with two different endings. It's kinda alright that way. But what wasn't okay was how you designed some of the area's in each story line and each fight with Bowser. I admire your use of events to create a full length conversation, because when I was at your level, I couldn't do that either. But that doesn't excuse some of the useless events in the level. In Mario's Bowser fight, you hid the default layer. Try never to do this, as it is quite difficult to load the entire layer back into the game, Although I did see you use a work around that; But that work around honestly didn't need to happen. Speaking of the boss fights, they were both quite easy, especially luigi's. Mario's boss fight had no real danger to it besides Bowser himself, and even then since the floor beneath him was quite thin (I guess), it was very easy to kill him. In luigi's case, I just ran past Bowser and had no idea what to do. There was no clear indication to kill the goomba in the room to cause the pipe to break.
Getting back to the actual level design, I wouldn't call it the best, as it was very inconstant. In Mario's story, the only challenge besides Bowser himself is jumping over falling bridges infront of a waterfall. It wouldn't be so bad if the waterfall didn't give me a headache. It was quite hard to focus on light objects on a light and animated background. In my opinion (and in the history of Mario games), sewer areas are usually very tight, pretty linear and usually involves water. I wouldn't say that I'm upset that you didn't do that, but what you called a sewer, felt more like a cave.In Luigi's story, I see that you transitioned between screens using the instant warp. It felt choppy to move through screens, and in general felt awkward. In the forest, there were too many Venus Fire Traps (fire spitting piranha plants). Just way way way too many. The player has to dodge all the fireballs and overall makes the platforming quite difficult as it felt like I was playing galaga at some points. Also, if you fell onto a pipe with a Venus Fire Trap, it was quite hard to jump back up to the top pipes and resume gameplay. Most of the time, you might as well made a bottomless pit. The first area with the lava felt pointless in my opinion and the jump from forest to hell kinda felt rushed.
Gameplay Average: 50/100
could have been better, but also could have been a lot worse
Aesthetics & Music
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO boy vanilla graphics.
Its really quite hard to make a good impression with vanilla graphics. But what I saw kinda made me a little disappointed. Maybe I expected too much from vanilla who knows, but the level felt really empty in general, with no SMW forest bgos in the forest, No bushes or grass besides in the very beginning of each story and just remeber what uncle Enjl says about clash:
Unca Enjlil wrote:NOPE
Please never mix SMB3 graphics and SMW graphics together. If you do this, people will not like the aesthics of the level. Since both games have drastically different art styles and drastically different palletes, its very hard to mix the two games together without using custom graphics. Also, I noticed during the waterfall, that there was ground above the waterfall as if the waterfall was coming from the rock or was infront of the rock. It was a clever idea, but poorly executed as since the waterfall didn't really have anything next to it, the platform/rock seemed to be floating in mid-air.
I can't really say anything about the music choice. Nothing special
Aesthetics & Music Average: 25/100
Try to observe other levels to see how they decorate and try to use that as a base. It might help on your next level.
FINAL SCORE: 75/200 37/100
It's a very good first level. To make better ones, observe how other builders design, decorate and sound their levels. It might help out on the next level you make.
Review:
This level sounds pretty good on paper, but your version was well... Meh... The level can best be described as someone's first vanilla stage. Yes "the invasion 2" was vanilla but that was one of the first SMBX episodes ever made. Better episodes were made later with some better levels. This level felt weird. It was too short! You could have extended this to be longer and maybe put more stuff in them. If you used custom graphics, you could make some interesting level design. But those may be just called nitpicks. The short level one though is pretty obvious. The problem is it has nothing to with plumbing at all. Just because it has a sewer doesn't mean it is plumbing. If you extended levels like how a Mario game does its levels, then this would be pretty dang good. Here are some tips and opinions:
Mario's Story: Have the first area be like a Mario level, with obstacles and enemies. And have the sewer be expanded a bit. You can events happening in it. Maybe 3 bosses too. (I'm not complaining if you don't put 3 more).
WARNING THE SPOILERS DOWN BELLOW WILL CONTAIN ACTUAL SPOILS TO THE LEVELS. DO NOT CLICK THEM IF YOU HADN'T PLAYED THE LEVEL!!!!
The final boss needs to be improved. Maybe make it like in SMW. Bowser is flying in a clown thingy and he throws fire. After for about 10 seconds, he will throw out a shy guy and Mario needs to throw it him. And that is it. Plain, Simple, and kind of fun! Having a Bowser battle that resembles SMB3 is kind of boring and unoriginal.
The story has 2 sides to it. One is Mario and the other is Luigi. I like that, I've never seen it an episode before. However the story is boring. Mario does sewer = Bowser. That is the worst Mario story I have ever heard (no offence). It's ironic that this sewer game's story is a turd!
SPOILERS END HERE
The level just is boring. Use the tips above it.
Luigi's Story: So this is more interesting than the Mario one. It takes place in Spoiler Alert:
! But I think it is also really short. The forest area doesn't need to exist and the lava area needs HUUUGE Improvement. Have Luigi meet new creatures or maybe have skull rides. Volcanoes that erupt. ANYTHING!
WARNING THE SPOILERS DOWN BELLOW WILL CONTAIN ACTUAL SPOILS TO THE LEVELS. DO NOT CLICK THEM IF YOU HADN'T PLAYED THE LEVEL!!!!
Bowser's Castle is the worst Bowser Castle yet! Bowser's Castle is hilariously easy by just walking to the right. Just like Sonic 06's levels. Bowser's battle is also the worst, because it has not a lot of goombas. Also is Bowser this stupid by putting a goomba who sits on a switch so lava doesn't come out? I think the battle needs to have 5 bricks that Bowser stomps on and then fake ones (fakes being falling platforms). And after that, Luigi must defeat Bowser by using a flame thrower. He uses a door to get to the fake blocks part. He defeats Bowser and the SMB3 Beat theme plays ending the level. That is what I call a boss battle.
Why does Luigi work for Bowser?! I know Luigi is silly but he isn't an idiot. Oh well it's better than the other Mario Story.
SPOILERS END HERE
The Final Verdict:
Entertainment: Wanted something good, but never got it.
Quality: Meh
Final Verdict: 4/10 Not really good.
Use the tips and maybe you do a good level. I think the choose the story is pretty darn good and original. But even the level isn't really original because there is a level called Mario Worker. Still I see where you are coming from.
video:
Last edited by newsuperhackboys on Fri Jan 22, 2016 7:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
oh boy Title: Super Mario Bros.' Plumbing Adventure! Designer: Flamehawk33
I was disappointed when I played this. I thought it's gonna be good one, but nope, it needs more work. The level starts with the choosing character position, which each one has different story, so hey, it's good to do that. But oh boy things aren't getting good now. Let's start with Mario's gameplay first: in the first section, you start in grassland, talk to friendly NPCs, making the story revelant, then jump over obstacles to get to the next section. While it's not bad, it lacks important things like coins, pipes and emenies. The next section follows Toad Town, nothing that special here. Then we're going to the sewers section and jesusfkingchrist put some decoration here, as it looks bland. Anyway, hitting the message box activates SMB3 Bowser, and after beating him in short time, you go to the pipe and end the level. This run was really short, why not extend the length to 3 more minutes?
Alright, now for Luigi's run, it's not good either. LIke in Mario's run, it also starts in grassland section. The next section has pipes and piranha plants, and you have to jump over them in this whole section, which is boring and it also lacks decoration. The next sections are much worse, you have to jump over the pits and lava, which they lack not even decoration, but also emenies in there. The castle section is pretty much the same as the last ones I've mentioned, except that there's friendly activated npcs and you don't need to jump over da pits. The last section is pretty much like in Mario's run, activate the message box to get into SMB3 Bowser battle again, this time he doesn't jump out from his position, so you have to be pretty carefully to avoid it to hit the big goomba unless you're big luigi. After hitting it, this happens after killing bowser and getting to the goal point, but the problem what's in the screenshot is that the lava tiles cause goddamn cutoffs, if you look closely, also it's a bad placemend for place the right corner ones like lavafall tiles. Eitherway search for some lava fall graphics in this forum or just use something else that won't cause cutoffs like that. Like Mario's run, it's also short and could've extend it much longer.
Anyway, so that's the review of this level. The main cons that came is that its length in both runs are short, lack decoration, emenies, and something else in most of them. So yeah, this is a trash can scored one and I'm sorry if I was harsh at it.
You could have extended this to be longer and maybe put more stuff in them. If you used custom graphics, you could make some interesting level design. But those may be just called nitpicks. The short level one though is pretty obvious. The problem is it has nothing to with plumbing at all. Just because it has a sewer doesn't mean it is plumbing. If you extended levels like how a Mario game does its levels, then this would be pretty dang good. Here are some tips and opinions:
