1. Shrine of Dolls
Haunted Contest 2 Judging.
Spoiler: show
Shrine of Dolls by RPG_MagicianBot (8.1/10)
The Thwomp King (7/10)
The visuals do this level justice with the lotz music to create a very unsettling atmosphere. While the darkness adds to the uneasiness, there needs to be some brightness added so the player isn’t cringing their eyes trying navigate through the level properly. Some NPCs could be mistaken for the background too like the hung men bgos and the thwomp npcs looking nearly identical to each other. The NPC and coin placement was pretty consistent, but make sure your custom coin NPC applies to all coin NPCs. The boss was a lot spammy too with NPCs, but other that NPCs were fine. The level itself plays well, and I enjoyed trekking through it. It’s a dark theme for the level, and you use what you had to make something pretty memorable and fun.
MECHDRAGON777 (9.1/10)
This level is just to creepy and I hope playing this level an hour after midnight does not give me nightmares. This level talks about a lot of stuff I hate, and downright despise, and the replication of a gimmick used by GluigiX back in Tower of Biased 7 is also kinda scary for me on a personal note. It resolves around suicide, people who hung themselves, and all sorts of other demonic stuff. I would not like to be mario in that situation. The boss was great as well, even for a spam filled rinka fight. The effects on the coins were however glitched, and the blarg seemed a bit out of place. The last hint means nothing to me, and so was that single white tag I got in the level. Kinda Creepy. I may not understand the lore of this due to me hating horror based stuff, but the level is good at least. I can see this level winning the contest, even though I would hope it would not. (Too creepy) So far, best level I played. Also, the talkative NPCs were parasites, right?
bossedit8 (9/10)
One dark place to live in! I absolutely love the atmosphere that this level has and everything from enemies to tileset is amazing as of how it's played! I like how everything looks different from the tileset to the actual special blocks like it's an completly different game (except for the player's sprite) and I like that. There were some issues though like that Venus Fire Plant's hitbox, if you stand next to the vase where that NPC is even if it's inside it you get hurt. I do like those hints that this level give it to us like "Danger below!" for example. The secret star, it's not all too easy as of what you think... you need to reenter a door where you came from first... not always easy to catch that. The key hunting area was nice as of how it's done and enemy placements and such were alright. The boss was a bit spammy though but least that boss has only 3 hits then it's defeated and you get the star that ends the level. Overall, a very good spooky level and I absolutely like as of how it's done!
Linik (7.9/10)
Nothing is scarier indeed! This is one of those rare levels where the blank background is actually put to good use. Everything in the level, from the creepy eyes in the background to the changes to sections as the player backtracks, was designed solely to make the level scary, and I even got a little unsettled playing this, which suggests the level's scare factor was done well. I was a bit disappointed not to get any jumpscares or anything though, but the level was still quite fun to play. Ideas were very diverse, ranging from key-hunting to operating a Propeller Block with light attached to it, and while the latter is a good gimmick, it's poorly executed. Yes, I understand that it's explained in the readme file, but you still continue to use it regardless, and even providing ways to cause these issues. A good way of implementing broken gimmicks is to build the entire section around the flaw so it doesn't happen. As for the boss fight, it's impressively set up. There are some creative attacks used, and nicely executed as well. Unfortunately, it was a little irritating that you were only given one mushroom to last it, and at the same time the player is dodging a hail of Rinkas and fireballs. Fortunately it doesn't drag on for too long, but it's a shame the same can't be said for the level preceding it.
PROX (7.5/10)
Really spooky atmosphere. It was very unsettling to say the least. The overall structure of this level was pretty strong. It was not repetitive, it kept the player engaged with numerous twists and turns. I thought the enemies were pretty cleverly done as well. It's nice to see some Zelda 2 enemies for a change since they are hardly ever used. The faces that moved toward you had to be the creepiest part for me personally. As someone who has played numerous horror games in the past, I'm pretty used to it. This level has its strong points; however, I didn't really care for the length of this level. It was pretty long and kinda dragged out imo. Especially once you get to the boss. This level would definitely benefit if another checkpoint was used since it's possible to do that now. Either that, or just place the checkpoint next to the boss, and make the level somewhat shorter. Another problem I faced was the fact that some enemies were pretty hard to see such as the venus fire traps. They blended in very well which made it pretty difficult to see coming. The fast boos were a bit of a pain to deal with as well, but it wasn't all that bad. Overall, this level is pretty well done. Good job!
The Thwomp King (7/10)
The visuals do this level justice with the lotz music to create a very unsettling atmosphere. While the darkness adds to the uneasiness, there needs to be some brightness added so the player isn’t cringing their eyes trying navigate through the level properly. Some NPCs could be mistaken for the background too like the hung men bgos and the thwomp npcs looking nearly identical to each other. The NPC and coin placement was pretty consistent, but make sure your custom coin NPC applies to all coin NPCs. The boss was a lot spammy too with NPCs, but other that NPCs were fine. The level itself plays well, and I enjoyed trekking through it. It’s a dark theme for the level, and you use what you had to make something pretty memorable and fun.
MECHDRAGON777 (9.1/10)
This level is just to creepy and I hope playing this level an hour after midnight does not give me nightmares. This level talks about a lot of stuff I hate, and downright despise, and the replication of a gimmick used by GluigiX back in Tower of Biased 7 is also kinda scary for me on a personal note. It resolves around suicide, people who hung themselves, and all sorts of other demonic stuff. I would not like to be mario in that situation. The boss was great as well, even for a spam filled rinka fight. The effects on the coins were however glitched, and the blarg seemed a bit out of place. The last hint means nothing to me, and so was that single white tag I got in the level. Kinda Creepy. I may not understand the lore of this due to me hating horror based stuff, but the level is good at least. I can see this level winning the contest, even though I would hope it would not. (Too creepy) So far, best level I played. Also, the talkative NPCs were parasites, right?
bossedit8 (9/10)
One dark place to live in! I absolutely love the atmosphere that this level has and everything from enemies to tileset is amazing as of how it's played! I like how everything looks different from the tileset to the actual special blocks like it's an completly different game (except for the player's sprite) and I like that. There were some issues though like that Venus Fire Plant's hitbox, if you stand next to the vase where that NPC is even if it's inside it you get hurt. I do like those hints that this level give it to us like "Danger below!" for example. The secret star, it's not all too easy as of what you think... you need to reenter a door where you came from first... not always easy to catch that. The key hunting area was nice as of how it's done and enemy placements and such were alright. The boss was a bit spammy though but least that boss has only 3 hits then it's defeated and you get the star that ends the level. Overall, a very good spooky level and I absolutely like as of how it's done!
Linik (7.9/10)
Nothing is scarier indeed! This is one of those rare levels where the blank background is actually put to good use. Everything in the level, from the creepy eyes in the background to the changes to sections as the player backtracks, was designed solely to make the level scary, and I even got a little unsettled playing this, which suggests the level's scare factor was done well. I was a bit disappointed not to get any jumpscares or anything though, but the level was still quite fun to play. Ideas were very diverse, ranging from key-hunting to operating a Propeller Block with light attached to it, and while the latter is a good gimmick, it's poorly executed. Yes, I understand that it's explained in the readme file, but you still continue to use it regardless, and even providing ways to cause these issues. A good way of implementing broken gimmicks is to build the entire section around the flaw so it doesn't happen. As for the boss fight, it's impressively set up. There are some creative attacks used, and nicely executed as well. Unfortunately, it was a little irritating that you were only given one mushroom to last it, and at the same time the player is dodging a hail of Rinkas and fireballs. Fortunately it doesn't drag on for too long, but it's a shame the same can't be said for the level preceding it.
PROX (7.5/10)
Really spooky atmosphere. It was very unsettling to say the least. The overall structure of this level was pretty strong. It was not repetitive, it kept the player engaged with numerous twists and turns. I thought the enemies were pretty cleverly done as well. It's nice to see some Zelda 2 enemies for a change since they are hardly ever used. The faces that moved toward you had to be the creepiest part for me personally. As someone who has played numerous horror games in the past, I'm pretty used to it. This level has its strong points; however, I didn't really care for the length of this level. It was pretty long and kinda dragged out imo. Especially once you get to the boss. This level would definitely benefit if another checkpoint was used since it's possible to do that now. Either that, or just place the checkpoint next to the boss, and make the level somewhat shorter. Another problem I faced was the fact that some enemies were pretty hard to see such as the venus fire traps. They blended in very well which made it pretty difficult to see coming. The fast boos were a bit of a pain to deal with as well, but it wasn't all that bad. Overall, this level is pretty well done. Good job!
Spoiler: show
Download: https://www.mediafire.com/?8g2gr15i88zq39c
WARNING: This level depicts suicide and some form of blood. You have been warned.
WARNING: This level depicts suicide and some form of blood. You have been warned.
Weather/Hazard Contest Level
Spoiler: show
ThunderCloud by RPG_MagicianBot (???/10)
Review currently ongoing....reviews...
Review currently ongoing....reviews...
More coming soon I guess.
