Aeromatter's Amazing Archive

I played drop cave and it was pretty interesting. The way you have to use the buzzy beetle shell to reach the fire flower is really creative and teaches the player that it's important to think outside the box sometimes.

aero · Postby **aero** » Wed Aug 17, 2016 3:41 am

Thank you for playing my game. lol

Postby **Marina** » Wed Aug 17, 2016 8:12 am

again with the alliterations..

MrDaniel · Postby **MrDaniel** » Wed Aug 17, 2016 4:49 pm

Review: Drop Cave

First off, I am very glad to see such dedicated work still happening in the SMBX community, you've obviously put some time and effort into this, but it's not without its minor flaws (Don't worry, I assume you know we all have this struggle xD)

Well, to get right into the review

Graphics

I really like your integration of classic graphics with inventive level design, it gives a certain "Tip" of the hat so to say whilst also bringing something new to the table.
I also enjoy the way you've managed to meld the texture colors in such a way that is very pleasing to the eye.
other than that I can't say a whole lot, as they are just classic graphics.

Level Design

As I was stating earlier, the level design is very inventive and original, which makes me happy because these days I feel like just about everything has been done in the SMBX community, I'd really just like to encourage your line of working and hope to see you come out with more levels of some similarity.

Gameplay

The summarize in a word, enthralling, I don't mean at all to sound cliche, or worse, risk sounding as if I were exaggerating, but I had a lot of fun playing it.
I'd recommend this to just about anyone as it is not at all restrictive in terms of enjoyment, a veteran or a curious newcomer would both be able to find themselves massively enjoying their time, and for that versatility I have to congratulate you.

In closing, I like it, I like you so far, and I hope to see more work of this caliber from anyone here, please take a note from them if you're reading

8/10

aero · Postby **aero** » Wed Aug 17, 2016 4:53 pm

Thank your for your rating and comments, friend. I hope I didn't get too carried with the falling platforms LMAO but I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Zeldamaster12 · Postby **Zeldamaster12** » Wed Aug 17, 2016 9:28 pm

Drop Cave Review

This was a very entertaining platform level. Design was that of a classic SMB3 cave, while the level itself reminded me of something you'd see in SMB3 World 7. The level as a whole proved to be creative, with all the neat platform challenges. I'd have to say, the hardest was definitely the one before the last platform challenge. You had to be on your toes and pay attention to the precise time to jump to the next platform, otherwise you'd fall straight to your death. Doing that obstacle with a mushroom would definitely be a pain for beginners who don't know how to duck jump, but after a few tries with the mushroom, I got it down pretty easy. Enemy placement was nice and simple overall, no complaints there. The shell generator caught me off guard the first time around, but I guess that's my own fault for trying to rush it rather than pay attention to what's next. It's also cool that you added a secret exit. You have to use the shell from the generator before to activate the vine. To make it even more secret to get to, you could possibly remove that music block so that it'd take more thinking and strategizing to get up to the pipe. Not a necessity, just a thought. Overall, I enjoyed this level a lot, and it definitely has replay value. Challenging, but challenging enough to where players of all skill can enjoy. Nicely done!

8/10

aero · Postby **aero** » Thu Sep 01, 2016 12:21 am

Abysmal Desert

Spoiler: show

Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pskiVyXjc5I

aero · Postby **aero** » Mon Sep 05, 2016 1:39 pm

Grayscale

Spoiler: show

Song: CONTRAST03 - California King, Table Lamps, Walk-In Shower, Adjustable Base

Designer's note: Take it slooow

Iko · Postby **Iko** » Mon Sep 05, 2016 11:22 pm

(I'm not really a reviewer, but I'll try to review the level)
Grayscale

Very nice level, pretty basic but with interesting twists.
The difficulty is easy/medium and it's well balanced (it's easy but becomes medium during those donut platforms platforming sections), the only "problem" are a couple of blind jumps if you take the upper route.
I have an observation about the overall design of this level: it feels very open... it's not a bad thing, but it feels strange, like if it was a Sonic level, very open with alternative routes.

Now let's talk about the gimmicks:
I love the grayscale platforms gimmick, it has so much potential! I mean, having 2 parallel worlds with different enemy placement and different moving things that switch with time is very cool, I think that the concept could have been used more and in a deeper way, with more impact on the whole level and not just some specific sections, and maybe (but that would have been very hard, I'm not even sure if it's possible due to looping and loading times/sync) using an audio track that hints when the two worlds are swapping "in a musical way" (like that level in Super Mario 3D Land where the platforms appear and disappear following the rhythm).
But it has a glitch: when you grab a koopa shell from the alternate "dimension" and hold it, even after the shell disappears, you still hold the button, when it will reappear, it will be a walking Koopa, and you are holding it in your hands without taking damage and without the possibility to use it as a weapon.
This is a very interesting glitch, that opens possibilities to even funnier gimmicks for the parallel worlds concept, if exploited (maybe a vanishing key? or something else... probably you can even kill the second player with it XD I haven't tried).

That part where the moving platforms are moving at different speeds has a special atmosphere (or maybe one of them is stopped, I can't really tell since the background is black and there aren't reference points to track the movements), I don't know how to describe it, but that's not about gameplay, it's about the feelings that the levels gives to the player... it may be the music, but that part creates a nice atmosphere.

The lenght is ok, I usually prefer levels to be a little bit shorter than this but anyway it's not too long, it's still very enjoyable and the level design is not repetitive so it remains fun (let's say, it's not too long but it's at the limit, a bit longer than this would have been too long for my standards).

The only thing that I may "complain" about is that there is too much waiting in the first couple of moving platforms, if you don't go at the right moment and the platform goes too low... and the blind jumps, watch out for those! (also at the very end of the level, the last moving platform, if you wait on it for too long you won't be able to see the ground and the army of jumping koopas that will hit you - well you see just a couple of grey pixels at the corner of the screen but the first time I had not noticed them).

On the plus side, the level is very fun to speedrun, because it requires timing to jump on koopas or to avoid them when landing on the ground is better.

I don't want to give a vote because I think I have not enough experience to judge, I just wanted to give some personal feedback.

aero · Postby **aero** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 1:57 am

Thanks for the review! It was a pretty good one too so no need to doubt yourself.

This caught my eye though and I wanted to comment on it because it's at the core of my level:

Iko wrote:That part where the moving platforms are moving at different speeds has a special atmosphere (or maybe one of them is stopped, I can't really tell since the background is black and there aren't reference points to track the movements), I don't know how to describe it, but that's not about gameplay, it's about the feelings that the levels gives to the player... it may be the music, but that part creates a nice atmosphere.

What I was trying to go for with this level was it being sort of "more than open" if that makes any sense. Like I wanted to somehow make the music feel like it was coming from nowhere but not in the same sense that a normal level would with it just being a track playing in the background. I felt like having no background helped this, and it does play tricks on you with the layer movement because there's no constant point of reference which was also supposed to make the player act solely based on the level design alone and not anything else. In the end an open atmosphere is what I was shooting for with this level and having the player feel isolated and be completely in control.