CC5 Reviews?

[zioy]

I kinda want to see the reviews of CC5, because I just played through ToB4 again and I reel like reading something SMBX. I have no idea. Does anyone have these?

[zlaker]

http://knuckles96.prophpbb.com/topic14123.html

[Valtteri]

Here.

Spoiler: show

-Tier I-
32. Tournament Entry by Koolkat. =2.33=

Chad wrote:
Knux's Tournament Level Entry: '2'

Quite clearly a joke level, but one that relatively plays like a normal one, at least. The whole level felt really... random. It isn't really sure what it wants to be. It's made up of odd block placements, a purposeless cave interlude, and a short boss that's kind of annoying because of the enemy spam. This clearly wasn't an effort, I'm only giving this score because it at least felt a little bit like an actual level.


SuperMario7 wrote:
Knux's Tournament Level - 2/10:
Only Knux could get away with this...unless it really isn't Knux and someone pretending to be Knux. About the level: It was pretty short and simply designed. The Valtteri and Ace enemies were definitely interesting. The design had a bit of variety, but no real gimmicks. The boss was really spammy, but the rest of the level had a good difficulty for a grassland level. The level was silly overall, but it had a few serious aspects to design so it doesn't deserve an awful score.


Valtteri wrote:
Knux's Tournament Level Entry (3/10)

Uhh... yeah... This is a really plain level besides the weird-looking Adventures of Knux characters replacing the most common enemies and the poorly executed boss. The enemy spawns in the boss room are way too rapid. The player easily gets 99 lives after defeating the boss as the room will be full of spawned NPCs by then.


31/30. Flippy Ghost Hut by Vinyl Scratch. =4.875=

Chad wrote:
Flippy Ghost Hut: '2'

This level has a neat upside-down gimmick that was nicely executed. The graphics, music, and layout all fit nicely into their roles when it comes to properly making this type of level. It's impressive how well the upside-down area matches the normal one. However, that was about all I liked about this level, frankly. For the most part, the level is very barren, with a lot of empty space and flat design. There's almost no decoration, the darker pipes look weird and the darkened walls are hard to see, and the upside-down Dragon Coins not only hurt you, but act like conveyor belts from the top. A friendly NPC or BGO would be excellent in marking a coin that you can't get right now. It would have also been nice if one of those disappeared for every real coin you collected, so you could keep track of your progress and not just keep guessing locations until you found the right one. That said, the Dragon Coins are pretty well-placed and hidden. The hunt was lengthy and tedious, but it's nice that the level makes you think. But after all this, we reach the boss: A big Boo with block physics and a large hitbox that chases you quickly and practically guarantees that it will crush you into the wall. Any one of those aspects of the boss is rather menacing on its own, but they were combined and added onto with spamming a cloud of countless regular Boos at you every few seconds. Plus, the object that you have to throw looks like it hurts to touch, and when the Boo goes behind the wall, there's no keeping track of it. It's nice that the checkpoint is right before the battle and Mushroom generators are provided, but that doesn't really help too much with the pretty much inevitable crushing and surprise attacks from inside the walls. Sorry for the harsh review and the low score, but like I said, the upside-down gimmick and real Dragon Coin locations were about the only good things in it.


SuperMario7 wrote:
Flippy Ghost House - 3/10?:
I don't understand how to complete this level. It's a giant maze and I tried to beat it for a very long time but couldn't. I'm not sure if it's possible, but I couldn't complete it. Therefore, I can't give this level a true score. If I was to give the level a score, though, I would say it was completely confusing to the point of being unfair. The graphics were mediocre and there was bad coin placement and no decoration. The design was decent, but it was so complex that no ordinary SMBX player could complete it without dedication their life to beating this level. If I was to give a score, I'd give it a 3, but of course, I can't be absolute because I only collected 3/5 dragon coins and didn't finish the level.


Valtteri wrote:
Flippy Ghost Hut (5.5/10)

This level has some tricky puzzles and uses the upside-down gimmick quite nicely, but it has a notable amount of glitches. The warp leading up near the start has an incorrect direction. The upside-down Dragon Coins can be turned into Koopa Shells by hitting them with the Racoon tail. They also hit the player from the bottom for no reason. There's a place near the start where you can get stuck behind the pipe. The puzzles are mostly just flyig with the Super Leaf, which is required to progress in most places. There are lots of parts where you will get stuck if you lose the Super Leaf and have to kill yourself. The rest is merely jumping from a platform to another and not much anything interesting. Some places lack enemies completely. The upside-down zone was implemented quite interestingly, though. It used a reversed version of the SMW ghost house theme.


Jayoshi wrote:
Flippy Ghost Hut - 9/10

Design: Awesome. I loved the flip gimmick, and I also liked that even though the level states you have to collect the dragon coins, it's up to you to figure out how to get to them. Each dragon coin felt like it was placed well. However, a few enemies were a too hard to get past, like the big boo in the four-block hallway, or the three flying boos at the end.

Graphics: Also Awesome. I especially liked the flipped graphics; they really made the level feel like it was flipped. Scenery wasn't that present, but that's not a big deal.

Music: Pretty fitting. I also liked that the music was reversed in the flipped section.


31/30. Sandy Sand Mountain by pyroslasher. =4.875=

Chad wrote:
Sandy Sandy Mountain: '2.5'

This level wasn't very satisfying, or even complete. The gameplay is good at a basic level, but the design feels rather plain. It goes from long slope, to flat ground, to long slope, and repeat. The point is that it spends too much time doing the exact same thing without a lot of change to the structure of the level, only occasionally. Also, Pokeys don't get along very well with slopes, and the pipe near the star inevitably gets you hit by a Koopa. Other than that, there are a couple of blind jump secrets, and the underground section is incredibly barren and purposeless (except a Yoshi one can only find through sheer luck). After that, there's the checkpoint and... nothing else. The level ends rather abruptly at the checkpoint. You read a sign that warns to prepare for who knows what, and a switch lowers the mountain slightly, and it's over. Sorry, but there wasn't anything redeeming about this level other than the fact that it's at least playable for a while.


SuperMario7 wrote:
Sandy Sandy Mountain - 4/10:
This level was okay. The graphics are nothing special, but there was not clash or anything, and the music was a nice choice that fit the level. Scenery was covering the whole level, and at times it looked overloaded (and some scenery had cutoff going into the ground). Enemies were not very well placed at all, because there were some places that had too many enemies and it got spammy. Plus, the sliding hill allowed you to get far too many 1-ups (and the jump at the end of the hill could have been easily missed). I thought the design was okay. It was very linear up until the checkpoint, but there were lots of hills to make the design seem a bit better. The sinking mountain was the best part of this level. It was fun to run back down the mountain to find the star. But it was so unclear that the mountain was sinking that I didn't even know where to go after the checkpoint. That definitely didn't make the level more fun, and the spammy enemies weren't that fun to get through either. I thought this level wasn't that good in gameplay, but a few aspects of this level were sucessful, I guess.


Valtteri wrote:
Sandy Sandy Mountain (5/10)

I don't get this level. You hit the switch at the end of the level and the mountain falls. There's a SMW star on the bottom. To end the level you have to fly back to the start of the level to obtain the SMB3 star. What if the player doesn't have a Super Leaf? The design is decent. There are a lot of flat areas and there are parts where the same slope is used to a too big extent, creating huge straightforward slides. At least it doesn't lack scenery. Nearly every spot on the ground is used by a BGO. The custom Goombas are missing the correct death effect.


Jayoshi wrote:
Sandy Sandy Mountain - 8/10

Design: Pretty good. I especially liked the slide. However, there was little (in my opinion) other than that to keep my interest in this level, and I couldn't find the exit.

Graphics: Pretty good. I'm not a fan of the orange cacti, though.

Music: Quite fitting. I like it.


29/28. Infernal Interior by Ragont =5.00=

Chad wrote:
Infernal Interior: '3.5'

This level has some interesting ideas, and the fiery theme (both fire and castle) is very nice. It, along with the music, sets a great mood for the level as you play through it, and the difficulty matches the hectic atmosphere quite well. There are a few creative elements present in the switch rooms that are pretty cool, such as the moving pipe layers (among other moving layers), timed switch platforming, spin-jumping on flying enemies while bouncing on generating springboards, and setting traps for yourself using switches you need to hit like in the yellow switch room. The pipe maze also looks really interesting, and I like how the key section changes as you complete certain tasks in it.

However, I'm afraid the negatives of this level outweigh the positives. In general, the level has little to no decoration and sometimes the ceiling/walls will be missing in an indoor section, the level frequently got unplayably laggy, the green switch Koopa despawns sometimes to throw off your timing, you require players to crouch-slide or glitch in the pipe maze and yellow switch maze, you present the player with unavoidable bullet generators in the key section with Rinkas on top of that (which is not a lot of fun when you're cornered in the narrow space between the new blocks with the key in hand), the pipe to Bowser isn't enterable, the second star is inaccessible if you come back at the checkpoint after dying (the red switch blocks prevent access), that same path is very narrow and filled with enemies that require a lot of room (like Swoopers, Podoboos, bullets, and Nippers), and you give the player four 3ups for free throughout the level.

You had a decent design concept and atmosphere going for the level as a whole, but the above ruins the experience immensely. As you can see, there's quite a long list of things that make the level unenjoyable. The level seems like it'd be a fun challenge if it could be played legitimately and if it weren't for the unfair elements I detailed. Once again, it has a lot of nice ideas, just not very good execution.


Valtteri wrote:
Infernal Interior (6.5/10)

An average level with a door that requires four switches to enter. It was pretty enjoyable despite a few flaws I shall now list. The gameplay could be broken with the Super Leaf as you could fly to places instead of doing it the intended, harder way. The background walls also cut off. They could use border pieces. Near the end there is a hidden vine that is required to progress. You should never hide important stuff like that, unless it's a ghost house. The warp leading to the Bowser battle is placed above a slope, which makes it difficult to enter. The pipe place looks confusing because the go-through pipes don't look very different from the solid ones. The spiked Parabeetles have Spinies' death effects and if you kill them, you get stuck. The Super Mario World lava's color scheme doesn't quite fit to that of the rest of the tiles used.


29/28. Minecart Mayhem by Various Inspiration. =5.00=

Chad wrote:
Minecart Mayhem: '1'

I've never been a big fan of minecart levels in SMBX, and this one is no different. It's a good concept, but the rainbow shell isn't very nice when applied to this sort of task. The rainbow shell moves you really fast and the track is being changed constantly, so the tiniest mistake leads to your death. Not only that, but slopes really mess up your ability to play the track, because they prevent you from jumping when you're near them or being launched by one. Additionally, there are plenty of spots that make you believe you're supposed to jump when you shouldn't, and vice versa. Sometimes a track will be the wrong one, and the only way to tell that is to get on it and have it launch you into the bottom of another. The level is just too chaotic for this kind of NPC, and each piece of the track was too short to really control yourself on. The layout needs to be a lot smoother to better suit the rainbow shell and give the player time to think and act. Constant failures and sheer guesswork are not the best ways of teaching you how the level works. Also, the ending looks very lazy and the music choice could be better (a forest theme in a cave), but the graphics looked good, at least.


SuperMario7 wrote:
Minecart Mayhem - 5/10:
This level is really hard. It's all about memorizing when to jump and when not to. Therefore, it gets really tedious and isn't much fun after a while, despite the original concept being quite fun. Plus, the level was really long considering so there were lots of parts to memorize. The graphics weren't original because they were copied out of Mario Classic. You did a good job using the rails and scenery, though. The music didn't really fit, but at least it was different then the Mario Classic music. This level was well made overall, but it was really tedious and tough to get through. Basically, this felt like a more difficult version of 5-4 from Mario Classic, but at least some effort was put into design.


Valtteri wrote:
Minecart Mayhem (7/10)

That was an enjoyable little ride, although really difficult at first. The ride is designed well and all the graphics and music fit well together, but it's kind of short. It could use another section.


Jayoshi wrote:
Minecart Mayhem - 7/10

Design: Okay. I thought that this was a good idea for a level, since rainbow shell/minecart rides aren't that common. The extra star was a plus, too. However, the way it was executed wasn't very good, as it was hard to tell where to jump and where not to jump, and you had to jump a split second (or less) after landing in some places.

Graphics: Awesome. Nothing was out of place.

Music: I think that this would be better for a forest level than a cave.


-Tier II-
27. biasedhillsofgreenandfish by Pie-Jacker875. =5.33=

Chad wrote:
biasedhillsofgreenandfish: '6.5'


Fairly neat level. The design is simple, being made up mostly of sizables, but they're placed nicely and compliment the gameplay and general flow of the level. There is a good amount of variation though, with the occasional set of pipes or line-platforms thrown in. It's linear and a little short, but there isn't anything fundamentally wrong with its design. There are a few details that make it feel somewhat original, such as the pleasant night-stroll-in-the-sky atmosphere set by the general graphic choice and music, the way the pipes are double-ended and stop at the tops of sizables as a slightly unique touch (rather than simply having one proper edge), and the distribution of brown blocks that feel careful and deliberate, as they make you pay attention to what you're doing. Same with the flying fish, which are spread out in an amount and overall placement that makes them a tricky obstacle without being over-the-top. Overall, I consider this slightly above average with the nice placements giving it a slight bonus.



SuperMario7 wrote:
biasedhillsofgreenandfish - 3/10:
This level was okay. The graphics all fit together pretty well (other than the pokeys), and the decoration was okay. It could have used more BGOs and some clouds, but it was decent, anyways. The design was really linear, but it was average. The big problem here was the enemy placement, though. Let me just say that flying fish are not a good idea to be combined with oversized pokeys, difficult jumps, and quite a few enemies. Those things made the level pretty hard and unfair to complete, so it wasn't much fun.


Valtteri wrote:
biasedhillsofgreenandfish (6.5/10)

Not bad, not bad at all. This level is very simple and pretty short, too, but it's flawless as well. It's a simple level where you walk to the right, jump from platform to another and dodge enemies. Not very orginal, though.


26. Magma Flow Cave by SnifitGuy69. =5.625=

Chad wrote:
Magma Flow Cave: '4'

This was fairly decent, but the design felt rather average. There's two very short sections of platforming, and then a checkpoint about a minute in. That's pretty lopsided considering there's three bosses after it, but what little platforming there was before that was at least set up well. Everything about the layout there is fine, but some graphical choices are a bit random and inconsistent (unfitting dungeon tiles, lavafalls in place of lava itself in one spot, random Reznor tile). The background and tileset look nice, but those few examples make it feel a little weird. The music choice is good, because it's a tame volcanic theme in a tame volcanic setting. But after the way-too-early midpoint is the first boss, which is a simple bubble-spewing Blargg. It's a rather typical setup, and there's no real buildup to the fight or a change in music to indicate a battle's taking place, so that felt a bit rushed and sudden. The energy core fights were more fun and set up more nicely, and the Mushroom generators were helpful considering the low ceiling and Rinkas near the brick spawners. Other than a lack of scenery, the first phase was fine, but the room between the two phases felt like it didn't have much of a purpose. It was just, go through this hallway and lava walls will appear behind you, bounce on these notes, notice that you can run around above the boss door, and that's the end of that room. The second phase of the fight is okay, but since your weapons are powerups, every hit you take can be instantly negated. You almost can't lose the battle without actively trying to. You also neglected to edit any of the boss effects properly. Overall, the level felt pretty average with decent length, gameplay, and design, but it felt unsure of the direction it wanted to take because it kept alternating between very brief platforming and simple bosses, along with a few graphical oddities.



SuperMario7 wrote:
Magma Flow Cave - 6/10:
This level was pretty good. I appreciate the originality of the tileset, but you overloaded the magma tubes inside the blocks. Also, there was some clash between the lava and the other blocks, but it didn't look awful for clash. The design was really linear, but decent. The lava was a well used gimmick, but it really isn't very original. The level was pretty well decorated and the difficulty apart from the bosses was good. The checkpoint was placed right before the first of three bosses, and so the first half of the level was really easy to get through, then the second half was very difficult. The first and third bosses were pretty neat (although the blarg had cutoff). The second boss was really hard to hit, as the red rings kept destroying the throwable blocks. Overall, this was a pretty cool level with some originality, but it was pretty linear and the checkpoint was misplaced. It was still enjoyable so good work.


Jayoshi wrote:
Magma Flow Cave - 6.5/10

Design: Okay/Not good. The level itself was pretty good, except for the note bouncing near the end, But I didn't like the boss battles. The core should be fought only once, (at the end) and I didn't like how both core fights had no variation and powerup spam. Giving powerups occasionally is fine, but that made the core fights far too easy.

Graphics: Not good. I thought the scenery and enemies were a bit fitting, but the core and tileset clashed. The bosses were missing death effects, too.

Music: Pretty fitting. I think it's a good choice for this level.


Valtteri wrote:
Magma Flow Cave (6/10)

This level has simple design. There not much to say about it as it's so generic, but it is good. The black dungeon block BGOs aren't good for decorating and the tileset looks strange. The Blargg replacing Wart isn't very well executed; it shoots bubbles and the part attaching it to the lava is weird. It still has the Wart death effect. Both Energy Core bosses were pretty good, however.



25. Shroomy Heavens by litchh. =5.875=

Chad wrote:
Shroomy Heavens: '3'


A fairly basic level. It's mostly just shroom-and-cloud-hopping, but they're decently placed. The smiling clouds are a bit misleading though, especially the second one whose line you can't even see, so you never know when it's going to drop off. The vine part was interesting, as that's not often done in SMB1, and the Fly Guy carrying the coin was interesting. There's a hidden vine-accessible section that's in a place no one would think to look as well, and other than that, that's the level. It's simple, short, kinda empty because it's just shrooms and clouds and pillars and vines, and there's just not a lot to it. It's very simply made, but at least easy enough to play through.



SuperMario7 wrote:
Shroomy Heavens - 5.5/10:
I thought this level was pretty good. The design was decent, as it starts out with a linear section and then goes into a more expansive section which adds a small flare of nonlinearity. The graphics were nothing impressive, but decent enough. There was a little clash between SMB1, SMB2, and SMB3, but it wasn't bad clash because those three styles fit together okay. The moving coin placement was really cool, I thought, and the enemies were well placed too. For a sky level, the decoration wasn't bad. It had enough cloud BGOs to keep the level feeling full without making the clouds look spammy. Everything in this level was decently done, however I didn't see any aspects that exceeded standards. Still, this was an enjoyable level with a good length and some fun gameplay.


Jayoshi wrote:
Shroomy Heavens - 9/10

Design: Great. This level was pretty fun to play, in my opinion. I especially liked when it switched to SMB2 style near the end. However, the end of the platform ride in the first section was too brief. There should probably be moving layers used instead of a platform line. (or whatever else it is)

Graphics: Pretty good. However, the koopas and peach coins should be in SMB1 style, since everything else is in SMB1/SMB2 style.

Music: Quite fitting. I like it.


Valtteri wrote:
Shroomy Heavens (6/10)

This is a decent level. There are no specific flaws to it. It's just really plain and kind of boring. It's a simple SMB1 cloud level, and after the Midway Point, a bunch of stuff from SMB2 and Yoshi's Island appear. The level would be better if it stuck to the SMB1 theme, in my opinion. The SMB2 enemies were unnecessary.



24/23. Field of Nitrogen Gas by Sux. =6.25=

Chad wrote:
Field of Nitrogen Gas: '4.5'

The layout is pretty expansive and intricate, and a lot of effort was put into the design and decoration of the level, which clearly shows while exploring it. It was neat how the outdoor snowy realm was combined with an icy temple theme on some occasions, and the nitrogen idea is pretty clever and original. The flashing background helps to capture the effect of harmful gas being spewed into the air, and enhances the idea further. However, an aspect of its execution ruined the experience somewhat. It's difficult to get in the habit of dodging what is typically a scenery object, and it doesn't help that it's less visible than everything else. Since that's everywhere, it made the entire level a bit less enjoyable. The level also has an odd mix of graphics, with varying brightness and styles that feel like they were taken from multiple very different levels and slapped together here. It's better down in the darker realm because everything there fits together more, but the dark theme itself isn't all that fitting with what's going on in the ice world and isn't really explained. The falling ice is also annoying, because there's no way to tell which ones fall until you're right under them and getting hit by them. The boss is pretty decent, because the hazards and items placed in a way that made it fun and not excessively difficult, but you shouldn't use scrolling events to push the player offscreen and the Mushroom generator was rather generous. Overall, very well-made level and nicely thought out, but a few annoying parts brought it down.



SuperMario7 wrote:
Field of Nitrogen Gas - 4.5/10:
This level was ridiculously hard. I mean, everywhere there was nitrogen that could kill you, and on top of that, there were lots of enemies and other obstacles. I didn't even know what was nitrogen and what wasn't; I thought the gas leaking out of the ground was nitrogen, and that the clouds were not, but apparently it was the other way around, and I found out that by getting hurt multiple times. The design and graphics were both good, and you had some pretty good decoration and nonlinearness going. I also thought the nitrogen gimmick was genius, but honestly, it was not very well executed. It was just the awful and completely unfair difficulty that made this level too difficult to enjoy. The second part (the underworld area) was really pretty cool, but the dark Mario didn't look very good. Although it was a good change, it was still extremely hard. If you'd lessen the amount of enemies and nitrogen this score would go up a lot. But because of the overloaded enemies toppled with tons of liquid nitrogen, the difficulty was way too hard for a level in any episode.


Jayoshi wrote:
Field of Nitrogen Gas - 5.5/10

Design: Bad. Making transparent clouds (that are also badly placed) hurting objects was a pretty bad idea. Nearly the entire level felt cramped and frustrating to get across because of this, despite the open spaces. The enemies were also placed strangely, which made the situation worse. The boss battle was fine, though.

Graphics: Pretty good. I especially liked the Scientist toads. However, the blue tileset and background was quite out of place.

Music: The snow music was pretty well fitting, but the chaotic section's music was far too energetic.


Valtteri wrote:
Field of Nitrogen Gas (6.5/10)

This level is desined in a rather casual way with a few tweaks such as gas that you can bounce on and of course the dark zone. The level has a successful spooky and, above all, cold atmosphere. The SMB2 poof effects could use some improvement, though. They look like they're missing a few frames. The level has a lot of cramped parts, especially in the falling icicle areas.


24/23. Marble Garden Zone by SkySpark. =6.25=

Chad wrote:
Marble Garden Zone: '3.5'

The level started out nice, but as it went on, it became apparent that it was kind of rushed and even felt incomplete (despite having an exit). The graphics are good and well-used, and the concept of the layout is good, however most of what you have to do is duck and weave beneath moving spike pillars that don't leave you with a whole lot of room to begin with, but they also end up at a slightly lower position each time. That's basically all you did to get the first springboard, with the occasional enemy here and there, and then did the same on the way back. But by the time the second springboard is nearby, the pillars require you to crouch-slide or be small if you want to have any hope of getting in there at all. Once you obtain said springboard, you don't have the same liberty of being able to get out of there, and it doesn't really do anything but allow you to skip the rest of the level. So then, you grab a key, swim through some quicksand, and you're done. The level had a good setup going for it, at least for what little there was, but it was unsatisfyingly short and buggy, and allowed you to skip a whole area at one point.



SuperMario7 wrote:
Marble Garden Zone - 6/10:
I thought this level was decent. The graphical style was rather original, but I saw some clash between SMB3 and SMW (if you don't count the sonic graphics clashing with either of those styles). The design was nonlinear and there were lots of springboards that needed to be collected to advance in the level, and while that's good, it was one of the only nonlinear aspects and it got repetitive. The moving spike gimmick was a good idea, but the spikes moved way too slow when they were going up and it got annoying to wait. You used a wide variety of decoration which I appreciated. I particularly liked the decoration inside of the blocks, especially the megaman hidden in the level. The NPC placement was good overall, but the coins could be placed in more variety. The music fit well (obviously) but it wasn't very original. Overall, this was a good level with some nice design. However, it didn't really exceed any standards and the design didn't expand much out of its' Sonic origins.


Jayoshi wrote:
Marble Garden Zone - 8.5/10

Design: This was Great. The classic "if one path doesn't work, take the other" never gets old, as shown in this level. I also like that the methods used change through the level, and that if you take the top path, you get to the key more easily. However, the level was a bit short, and the spike pillars were too cramped, especially at the end.

Graphics: The graphics were pretty good. Everything, even unseen areas, were neatly decorated. However, some sonic graphics felt a bit out of place, and the smb3 objects didn't fit.

Music: Quite fitting. I like it.


Valtteri wrote:
Marble Garden Zone (7/10)

A decent level. It seems to be themed after some Sonic game. Unfortunately I'm not familiar with the series. Anyways, the tileset looks good and has a lot of eye candy (also spotted a hidden Megaman), but the design is rather boring. It's mostly just enemies and spike smashers on a ground without pits, a Springboard required here and there and a bit too many coins.


22. Winds of Dusk by The X Krahken 7. =6.75=

Chad wrote:
Winds of Dusk: '6.5'

This is a rather neat level. The wind in the background is a unique idea (although the clouds are cut off at places), and it's nice that you made a night version for the second half as well. The level's general focus is exploring and finding switches that restore parts of the level, which is pretty nice to see as that progresses over time. It makes you feel like you're repairing it. The switches that create the line platform piece by piece near the start do a nice job of introducing this in a clear fashion. However, not all of the switches are clear on what they do, so a little bit of the gameplay is wandering around aimlessly until you find their result, but the level overall isn't too bad in this regard. There's a good variety of elements used such as propeller blocks, red coins, and keys. The storyline of the level is also pretty neat, and Bowser's plan is a little bit original by his standards for once. A lot of thought is also put into the overall design, decoration, and event execution of the level. My main complaint about this level is that you can skip numerous areas just by going above the boundary in nearly every area of the level, because you didn't patch that up. The only place that you fixed this from what I could tell is during the Bowser fights, where the invisible ceiling made his jumping look strange and difficult to plan around. Other issues are that the red switch blocks can either get you stuck or be a blind jump depending on their state, and white platform lines would have been easier on the eyes in some places and more visible overall, but the level is still an enjoyable one with interesting ideas and gimmicks despite its issues.



SuperMario7 wrote:
Winds of Dusk - 5/10:
I can see that this level tried to have lots of nonlinear design, but that nonlinearness damaged the gameplay. There were so many places where you needed to backtrack and there were so many switches you needed to hit. It was okay at first, but then everything got really confusing as the level went on with the second half being an awful pipe maze of so many switches. What I mean to say is you tried too hard while designing this level. There needs to be a variety of areas throughout the level for it to have fun gameplay, and your repetitive nonlinear concepts just made the level tedious. The graphics were pretty good, and I liked the decoration both inside and on top of the tiles. However, the sky could have used some clouds or something. The enemy placement was decent, but there were no coins to collect apart from the red coins, and you really should add coins to levels. I really liked the final boss, though. It was pretty cool how Bowser kept falling into pits on his airship and kept coming back. However, Bowser hit the ceiling when he went in for the stomp a lot, and that was annoying.


Jayoshi wrote:
Winds of Dusk - 8/10

Design: Did Emral makes this? Seems a lot like he did. Anyways, I though this was pretty good. The switch-hunting was pretty fun, and they weren't repeditive, either. However, despite that, the hunting went on for too long, considering the boss's difficulty. I also thought that the blocks above the boss were unnecessary, and they slowed down the fight, which I didn't like.

Graphics: This was great. I don't particularly like the tileset used in this, but I chose not to let that affect the score. However, the backgrounds didn't really look windy, and the red background (I don't know about the blue one) was cut off.

Music: The first theme didn't really fit. I thought it should've been in a desert instead of a hill-ish level. However, the second and third theme were a bit more fitting, though.


Valtteri wrote:
Winds of Dusk (7.5/10)

This level is large and goes all over the place, which is good. You don't often see levels that force the player to wander around the level this much. It was designed well, but the background is glitched and the sizables don't differ from the solid blocks enough.


-Tier III-
21/20. Twilight Tranquility by castlewars. =6.875=

Chad wrote:
Twilight Tranquility: '5.5'


This is a rather interesting and elaborate level. It involves a lot of exploring and searching to try to find your way forward, and it's neat how a lot of things are sectioned off so that the general path of the level is sort of a complicated one. The atmosphere of the level is very interesting, both above ground and beneath. The decoration's pretty good on the upper part, but missing in some areas and almost completely barren underground. The NPC platforms are also somewhat creative, because one rises instead of falls. However, there are several parts of the level that make the level's purpose unclear until you've already done most of it and have to piece every detail together yourself. Perhaps that was the goal, but waiting until you've already traversed most of it makes the original playthrough a waste of time. For starters, the Luigi blocks initially give the impression that they conceal some sort of bonus, which would be fine. However, it's not apparent until the very end when you reach the roulette exit that you've still got a lot of ground to cover and that you did actually need to be Luigi. Sure, you could take the normal exit (which is really close to the checkpoint), but you've only really done 15-20% of the level. So then, after going back as Luigi, the player is informed that collecting the Ace Coins is required to enter a certain pipe. This is all well and good, until it becomes clear that there's 10 of them rather than the expected 5 and getting back to that pipe is quite difficult. A few of things happen on the hunt that make the search tedious and little more than aimlessly wandering, such as that one Pokey that you have to kill (no indication that you have to do so) to open up a normal-looking wall on the opposite side of the level (which looks identical to the ones you can pass through), and one could only guess that was even the result. The pit is also inescapable until you realize there's an invisible block there (a simple visible step would have been fine for that). Additionally, the P-switch and POW block leave little room for error (one wrong usage and you're stuck), and I couldn't even figure out the purpose of the latter except for maybe the high Ace Coin by the NPC platforms. The arrows are also unnecessary because that path is just like the rest, and also the amount of powerups is inconsistent. They'd be just fine in some areas and scarce in others (which is unfortunate for the coin that requires a flower). Once you finally get all of the coins, you have to fight a rather generic and unfitting Wart-based boss that leaves no room to avoid its projectiles. Overall, the level has open and expansive design that is nicely done, but this also hurts it when it comes to several aspects of the level that are poorly done due to their tediousness and lack of explanation.


SuperMario7 wrote:
Twilight Tranquility - 6.5/10:
This was a simpler level that had a neat atmosphere and some good design. The graphics all fit together really well together, and create a neat desert/night atmosphere. The music fit with that theme really well, I thought. The ice section was an interesting start to the level, and it fit in okay, I guess. The whole design was quite nonlinear, having you go in all sorts of directions. However, I failed to see any truly original gimmicks to make the level stand out. I would call the design somewhat repetitive if it was longer, but it had a good length so the level didn't get boring. Coins and enemies were very well placed, and the level had great decoration. Overall, this level was decent, but didn't really reach uniqueness in means of graphics and design. Still, it was a pretty enjoyable level.


Jayoshi wrote:
Twilight Tranquility - 8/10

Design: This wasn't a very well-designed level. The aesthetics of the level were confusing, especially the contrast between the cave and the purple area. It was pretty unenjoyable, and there wasn't much to the gameplay other than the boss that made variation. It was pretty much running from one place to the other.

Graphics: The graphics in this level were okay. The cave was a bit weird, because it used non-black outlined pipes, and the buzzy beetles didn't use a dark outline, either. The Cave also neededmore scenery However, the outside area was well-decorated, but needed more distinguished resizable objects. They made some areas look like walls. In SMW, alternate edges were used to imply that you could walk through them, so I'd recommend that.

Music: corrupted, so couldn't listen.


Valtteri wrote:
Twilight Tranquility (7.5/10)

I assume this is a frozen desert of some kind. That's quite clever. This level is desined well. The ground and the platforms are shaped nicely. It's a rather casual level, where you have to hit switches and kill some Switch Goombas to make progress. I enjoyed the level, although it was a bit too simple and could use some more decoration. Maybe you could put grass or something inside the ground to make it look more interesting.


21/20. Volcano Underpass Cross by GreenGreen. =6.875=

Chad wrote:
Volcano Underpass Cross: '4'

The design of this level is rather impressive, with a lot of side areas and switches that the player must utilize in order to move forward. A lot of the jumps are fairly challenging, the background tile and sizable placement adds depth to both the level's design and decoration, and the note block events are interesting. However, a few aspects of this level made it less fun. Several of the alcoves and objects served no purpose at all (like the springboards early in the level) and it was often unclear whether or not you were supposed to hit the green switch. Some areas could only be accessed by leaving it alone, so it felt pointless to have in a few cases. The first line platform starts out on, so it looks like it's gone when you reach it, the bullet section is somewhat frustrating because they're aligned so that you're not getting through that without getting hit (which you must have known considering you provide two Yoshis and a Fire Flower as a reward for that section alone), the section with multiple line platforms has enemies placed in many of the spots that you're going to jump, and the red switch is impossible to hit or even go near without getting hurt. This is only the first half, although it is longer than the second. The volcano exterior is graphically very nice, though. The tileset and decoration really fit with the environment and feeling set by the music, and the black smoke near the entrance is realistic and a nice touch. The second half of the level is a fairer challenge, that tests your platforming skills and precise jumps without being as unreasonable. The falling lava however, is pretty cruel. It only falls when you're underneath it, and all you can do is sit there and burn. The red Yoshi doesn't do a very good job of warning you, either. "There is a risk of falling down" sounds like he doesn't want to fall into a pit. Other than that, the second half was pretty good. The rising lava sections are nicely made, and no complaints about the boss. The red background could be darkened, though. It's the same color as everything else, which is slightly confusing.


SuperMario7 wrote:
Lava Underpass Cross - 8.5/10:
I found this level to be amazing. There were so many obstacles and gimmicks shown throughout this level and it kept the design interesting and fun all the way through. The transition from grassland/hills to volcano was very well done. I would not expect these two themes to work together, but you pulled it off really well and made the level more original. The slopes on the sizables were a great idea and it was amazing how well they worked. The design was fantastic overall. Each section introduced new gimmicks and expanded on the already used ones. The sizables with slopes, switches, and elevator platforms were all notable gimmicks in the grassland that merged together well. The moving lava gimmick in the volcano was really cool, especially when you had to speed up a volcano being chased by lava after facing the boss (which was really easy, maybe too easy compared to the rest of the level). Coins and scenery were well placed. The only problem I have with this level is its difficulty. There were lots of tight places to get through that were difficult with all the enemies. I thought the enemies sometimes were overloaded, although not to the point of being spammy. Also, the jumps in section 11 were really hard to make sometimes, plus the falling lava was really unexpected and hard to get past. Other than that, though, this level was spectacular, and I think it will make it far into this contest.


Jayoshi wrote:
Volcano Underpass Cross 7/10

Design: The level areas had pretty good design, but the level itself went on for far too long, (ten sections) didn't have a checkpoint, and even had a boss battle at the end. I didn't really enjoy this level that much for those reasons.

Graphics: The graphics looked pretty good in the grass areas. However, I thought the the volcano area needed more palettes, because it was hard to distinguish the background, BGOs, tileset, etc.

Music: Pretty well fitting for both areas.


Valtteri wrote:
Twilight Tranquility (7.5/10)
Volcano Underpass Cross (8/10)

What really got my attention in this level were the go-through slopes used in rare occasions. First I was confused and couldn't figure how they were made for my life. After a short investiation I figured out the method used and I think it's REALLY clever. The general design of this level is great. The volcano looks pretty bad, though. The colors of the background in the volcano match with the blocks, which isn't very good. I'm not a fan of the bright red color scheme in the volcano, anyway. The falling lava has cutoff which I would fix. The boss was weird in my opinion, but I liked the escape sequence after it.


19/18. Floating Seaside by Lavalake. =7.00=

Chad wrote:
Floating Seaside: '6.5'

Very pleasant level. The big and open design is enjoyable, and the switch puzzles are nicely devised and placed. It's nice to be able to alternate from swimming to platforming as well, because it adds variety to the gameplay. The lighter graphics bring a fresh and upbeat feeling to the level, and the water is especially nicely colored. The only things I'd complain about are minor. The note block springboards don't animate correctly, there's no checkpoint, and it's easy to run on top of the level in a few places. Other than that, this level is quite good. It might have scored higher if there was a little more to do than switch-hunting, but it was still an enjoyable level.


SuperMario7 wrote:
Floating Seaside - 6.5/10:
I'm pretty impressed with this level. The way you combined the seaside and sky theme is incredible, and it was designed quite well. I do think you overused the switch block gimmick to highlight nonlinearness, and it just made the level a bit repetitive. Still, for the most part, the level was pretty fun. The graphics were both very original and fitting to the unique theme at the same time, and so I thought they were great. The placement was really good overall; enemies and coins were placed well. I didn't like how the scenery overlapped sometimes, but I could see no other visual flaws in the level. The switch block gimmick is overused, as I said before, but the idea of having a water/sky theme made up for that mediocre gimmick. The level was pretty enjoyable, although the design didn't stand out to me that much. Good work overall.


Jayoshi wrote:
Floating Seaside - 6.5/10

Design: Okay, but the highest point of the level. I liked how this level used different paths and methods to get to different switches, and the way the switches were done at the end was a bit interesting, but I didn't really feel anything special or uniquely appealing in this level. There's also a lack of a checkpoint.

Graphics: okay/not good. Several graphics had bad shading, such as the cloud background and BGO hills, but all of the graphics had badly chosen palettes they were recolored to.

Music: this was quite out of place. I didn't like it at all.


Valtteri wrote:
Floating Seaside (8.5/10)

This level is based on two simple sections with a Switch puzzle in both. The level kind of felt like a pushover because it isn't challenging in the slightest and you don't have to look for the switches as they are in obvious places. You know there are too many powerups when you constantly get a third Fire Flower that you can just leave behind. Besides the incorrect mask for Jumping Piranha Plant, I have nothing to complain about the graphics. I wouldn't have used the same colors for the water and the background, but they seem to go well together. Afterall, water reflects the sky, so it makes sense, too.


19/18. High and Low by HealthyMario. =7.00=

Chad wrote:
High and Low: '7.5'

This level is very interesting, both to look at and to play through. It has a really nice flow, going between grassland, cave, and sky themes in a logical fashion. The layouts of the tilesets are cleverly devised, and are nicely shaped to add interest and quality to things such as hidden springboards, switches, and Para-beetle rides. The switches were fun to hunt for, because their locations felt creative. The return pipes are convenient as well, and it's neat how the switches' effects are sometimes demonstrated inside the tilesets. The combination of tilesets is excellently done, they really merge together nicely. The Para-beetle ride was fun, and a bit of a challenge to keep up with at times. The level has a lot of decoration in all three of its themes too, but they felt a little bit excessive when they overlapped. There are some other minor problems as well, such as a horizontal pipe cutoff in the sky, a blind jump at the start of the cave, the starting point was wrong (fortunately I noticed before I started), no checkpoint, a jumping plant getting into the ceiling in the cave, invisible blocks in the sky that can kill you, and the occasional forgotten graphic like a death effect and most notably the rainbow shell. Other than that though, and the level is still enjoyable and nicely made.


SuperMario7 wrote:
High and Low - 5.5/10:
This level truly lived up to its' name, because there are a lot of high points (or great things) and lots of low points (awful things). First off, the positives. The level had some nice design that was relatively simplistic, yet nonlinear enough to be considered well designed. The graphics and decoration were both superb. I really liked how you combined the custom grass tileset with the regular tileset to create a unique and pleasant atmosphere. The cave and sky tilesets were overused, but still pretty good. The level was very well decorated, as pretty much every area had BGOs, but they never overflowed. The layout of the whole level was really good as well. Now, for the negatives. The level was pretty difficult because of a spammy amount of enemies. Everywhere there were so many enemies which made the level very hard to get through. The first nipper you encounter is awfully placed because it walks right up to you right when you start the level. Also, the flying buzzy beetle gimmick in section 6 was a terrible idea. They stopped spawning once the spawner was out of sight, plus if you traveled over a hill (when you were supposed to) the beetle disappeared again. So it required much luck and precise timing to complete that part. Overall, this level could have scored really well, but some major flaws lead to its' downfall.


Jayoshi wrote:
High and Low - 7/10

Design: This level was design pretty well. However, one main probelm is that the first player is placed halfway through the level. Excluding that, there's not too many problems, though there's numerous cramped spots.

Graphics: These were pretty good. However, I don't like that there was a mixture of SMB3 koopas and SMB3 recolored SMW koopas. Choose one or the other, don't mix them. Nothing bad to report other than that, though.

Music: I thought the first theme was pretty fitting. The rest were corrupted, though.


Valtteri wrote:
High and Low (8/10)

This level was well designed but the SMB3 grass tileset and the other custom grass tileset together with the SMB3 green sizables look messy. You can easily get stuck in the cloud area if you don't make it to the Parabeetle before it crosses the pit or kill it or it despawns after you've reached the mushrooms as you can't go back to the Parabeetle spawn at that point. Despite this, the Parabeetle ride is something original.



17. Futuristic Fortress by as303298 =7.125=

Chad wrote:
Futuristic Fortress: '8'

Definitely a very long level, but the effort and time put into it really show, and there were many maze-like elements that really make it interesting. The core design from start to finish is excellent, with a lot of emphasis on traversing every nook in order to figure out the way forward. It's a little confusing how some pillars are solid and others aren't, though. The climbable surfaces are neat-looking, and they accented the routes to the switches pretty well. Their placement is nice in every area of the level, except there's not a lot of warning that there's no ground on the way to the yellow switch (which blends in with the regular item blocks) or the elevator's power. The adjustable pillars are especially awesome, and their control panel has a great indication of their positions and how to change them. Great attention to detail, there. The glass tunnels are utilized well and cleverly placed, and it's nice how their switches basically speak for themselves. The elevator that you have to power on is cool, but there's no need to stop the player's movement and force them to take a Rinka hit. The lag warning before the boss is quite thoughtful, and despite the lag, the puzzling elements about it are highly creative and wonderfully executed. The section boundaries often hid parts of the ground though, which was weird. The significance of the gray orb is set up pretty well, however. Overall, wonderfully crafted level and quite immense at that, but there were a few cheap shots along the way.


SuperMario7 wrote:
Futuristic Fortress -4.5/10:
This level was okay. It was very expansive and nonlinear, but quite confusing as well. You should have explained that the gravity ladders were climbable, because that took a while for me to figure out. The graphics were decent overall, but I don't like how you mixed SMW and this futuristic style together. It didn't really look that good. The decoration was decent (good for the amount of scenery you had to chose from). The enemy placement was pretty good, but the coins were placed limitedly. The music fit the level pretty well. Overall, the level had really good design, but it was so expansive it was hard to find your way and therefore not that fun. The long length also made the level tedious and boring. Everything else was decent, but the level wasn't that enjoyable, despite the well created design.


Jayoshi wrote:
Futuristic Fortress - 9/10

Design: Great. This is probably the best Metroid-styled level I've ever played. The gameplay to it really felt like a metroid game, yet it still managed to mesh with smbx's style perfectly. However, the level was too long, even when counting the checkpoint.

Graphics: Great. I liked a couple of the recolors done. However, I think that using SMB2 or SMB3 styled objects would've been better, as SMW's style is too simple compared to metroid.

Music: Quite fitting. I also like how it changes several times as you go.


Valtteri wrote:
Futuristic Fortress (7/10)

This level pulled a Metroid Prime 2 theme quite well. There's a platform puzzle taken straight from Metroid Prime 2, which is implemented pretty nicely. The Spider Ball Guardian boss is a very good replica as well. There are lots of other references to the Metroid series, too, like the high explorability and the fact that you can see your goal but you have to find a different route to it, to name a couple. You see this kind of levels in SMBX rarely. There are some flaws, however. There are parts where the glass tubes cut off, which doesn't look good. The mix of Super Mario World and Metroid does not work well.


16. Mint Plains by darkonious64 =7.16=

Chad wrote:
Mint Plains: '6'

This is a nice and pleasant grassland level. The design and difficulty are fitting for such an environment, and the multi-layered tile placement looks quite nice. The turn blocks see an uncharacteristically large amount of use in this level, which changes up the gameplay slightly. The progression is nice, as it goes from a horizontal section to a vertical one, and then back again. The length is quite pleasing as well, and there were a couple of unique NPC additions such as properly-working berries and a flying Dragon Coin. The level both looks and plays very nicely, and is a simple and decent experience.


SuperMario7 wrote:
Mint Plains - 6.5/10:
I thought this level was a good revamp of a classic grassland level. It had some variation in design as it went along, but stayed pretty linear, which is rightful for a grassland level such as this. The tileset is a nice choice, and the decoration in it is good as well. The trees in the background didn't really fit for a grassland in my opinion, and I found many spinning hitable blocks to be pointless because they had no coins in them. I did like the SMB3 recolored SMW style. That made the level pretty original, plus the tileset isn't overused. I really thought this level was fun, and while it was rather simple, it was still pretty enjoyable so good job.


Jayoshi wrote:
Mint Plains - 9/10

Design: Awesome. This was a pretty fun level to play for some reason, even though there wasn't much that affected the gameplay. I don't know exactly what it was that made it fun, though I can't find anything wrong regarding enemy placement or such.

Graphics: Great. I'm not a fan of SMB3 recolored SMW graphics, but I'll let that pass. However, the undergrasses are in SMW style, and I don't like the way the background was done.

Music: Quite fitting. I like it.


15. The Great Adventure by Valtteri. =7.25=

SuperMario7 wrote:
The Great Adventure - 7.5/10:
This is a great level. The best part is the idea of a whole Mario adventure in one level, and there are so many secrets to explore and places to discover. The whole level is a huge collision of nostalgia and it represents both old SMBX levels and the new fancier designed levels. No graphics really stood out as original on their own, but combined, they made a great compilation of nostalgic level themes. The design was never that great, but the whole idea of the level felt more like an RPG then an SMBX level, and so in that case, it would damage the nostalgic factor if the design was really expansive or anything. The level was always lots of fun as each section introduced new puzzles. There were some parts of the level that could've been improved, though. Section 6 needed more scenery because it felt pretty empty. The bonus house and toad house could've also used more decoration because they looked pretty bland. You should also consider putting a ceiling on the lava cave section. Another flaw I saw was in the cool gang boss fight. When the screen sidescrolled over to the bosses, I got stuck in the ground and had to jump off my yoshi to get out of the ground. And in that same turn I killed all the enemies and nothing happened, so I had to restart the level. It did work a second time, though, but it's no fun to restart a long level just because of a glitch. Overall, though, this was one of the most original levels I've ever played. The colorful and nostalgic sections each had great gimmicks that kept the level entertaining. I thought this level could use a little improvement, but the level deserves credit for being creative and fun.


Jayoshi wrote:
The Great Adventure - 7/10

Design: I think that for an RPG-ish level, this was pretty great. You talked to characters, they sent you on quests, you complete them, and they give you rewards. However, since this kind of level can't use a checkpoint, (also considering the length it takes to get to stars) enemies and bosses wouldn't be a very good idea. I also thought the SMB1 pipes needed hints in them.

Graphics: Pretty good. Quite generic, but they fit for the most part.

Music: Also a bit generic, but fitting.


-Tier IV-
14. Night and Stuff by lucastoto. =7.625=

Chad wrote:
Night and Stuff: '8'

This level is just excellent. The tile and water placement are great all the way through the level, and the switches are hidden in rather creative places that made them fun to hunt for. The Ace coin placement is similarly clever. The design is open and explorative, and some areas are nice and challenging. It's also neat how some of the cannons are mounted on brown blocks, but the cannons in general should fire from both sides wherever they're not pinned to any walls, because a few times I expected one to fire from a certain side and it didn't. The moving water is especially interesting, though. It was a neat challenge to try and keep up with the water while dodging the pipes and spawning enemies. The corners going in front of the pipes somewhat ruined it graphically, but otherwise it's a creative and fun part of the level. It ran on a little bit long, but not too much, because it ended just as that thought crossed my mind. Very nice level, and the music fit nicely with the mood set by the graphics. The only other issues are that hitting the blue switch is unnecessary (you can hit the green switch first and bypass the blue blocks if you hold a shell close enough to it and let go), and that there aren't enough powerups.


SuperMario7 wrote:
Night and Stuff - 5/10:
I thought this level was decent. The graphics were good, but they were copied from SMSE so they weren't very original. The level was well decorated, though. However, the enemy placement was a little overloaded. There were too many enemies in some areas, especially fish, and it got a little spammy on occasion. The bullet bills were also hard to get by. The design was nonlinear, which is appreciated, but I thought the whole thing was a little repetitive. The switch gimmick is overused in general, and that took up a large portion of the level. There was even more backtracking then usual for a switch puzzle, which made design even more repetitive. The moving water at the end was a good idea, but it was so long that it got tedious. Also, when the water overlapped the pipes, it looked strange. You'd see what I mean if you look for it. Anyway, the level had some expansive design but it just came off as repetitive.


Jayoshi wrote:
Night and Stuff - 9.5/10

Design: Awesome. I wouldn't be surprised if this level won, either. It has some of the best design I've played so far in this contest, and I didn't think it was bad at all. I especially liked the moving water at the end.

Graphics: Also Awesome. Nothing wrong to say here.

Music: Honeslty, the techno music was quite a bit off. I'm not sure what to suggest, but not this one.


Valtteri wrote:
Night and Stuff (8/10)

This level has floating SML2 water, which is quite creative. The design is also great; there is a lot to do in this level. You have to explore the area, press switches and finally there's an original floating water ride where you have to swim along with a floating water square. The corner pieces for the water overlaps with the blocks in that section though, which looks silly. Maybe it should have been designed so those parts don't collide with blocks.


13. Crisis City by andregemeo25. =7.875=

Chad wrote:
Crisis City: '9.5'

This is an absolutely gorgeous level, with design that's every bit as stunning as its visuals. First off, a burning city theme is highly original to SMBX. Even with all the level themes SMBX has had in its lifetime, this one still stands out strongly. The building and lava placement feel very realistic and really make the level feel like a city in ruin. The tileset details, fog/steam effect, and apocalyptic background show this off perfectly as well, and the buildings even scroll differently from the clouds. The wood tiles spice this up as well, and the support platforms and elevators compliment this theme excellently, and the line-platforms and Grinders are placed perfectly. The inside is equally amazing in all of these aspects, and the support beams really fit nicely. Even the background, which is pretty much default, matches nicely with the theme of the level. And after all of this, you go underground to one of the most well-executed mineshaft atmospheres SMBX has ever seen. The wooden doors, support beams, and corridors really make the theme, and the design of the area doesn't fall short one bit. The level does have a few flaws, but they're minor. Mushrooms move so they're capable of hitting lava and triggering an error, Fire Bro fireballs show up as Snifit bullets when impacting a wall, the red switch floor in the mine conceals a blind jump, the last elevator can be triggered really early with a shell, and while the sinking buildings are nicely done, they lasted a very short time. That part should have been extended at least a little, and a checkpoint could have placed right before it, possibly. Overall, this is an incredibly fun level that is fantastically put together in just about every way, stunning to look at, uses a lot of creative themes and ideas, perfect music for the environment and mood of the level, and only a few small issues.


SuperMario7 wrote:
Crisis City - 8/10:
Wow, I really liked this level. It had amazing graphics, and I really liked how you included city, factory, and cave graphics all into the level. This, alongside the large variety of gimmicks, kept the gameplay interesting throughout the entire level. The decoration was perfect. The moving clouds filled in the empty spaces well, and all other areas were well filled out with BGOs. Enemies were placed pretty well. The level was really hard, but not because of spammy enemy placement, so that's great. Design was good throughout the level. It started off with a simple path that introduced the level, and then there was a switchblock that took you through a factory and cave to get. Finally, the falling city gimmick wrapped the level up perfectly. I really liked the large variety of obstacles shown throughout the level, and they were all really well crafted. The only suggestion I have is to add a few more abilites throughout the level to make it a little easier, because while not unfair, the difficulty was really hard and the level might be more enjoyable with an easier difficulty. Overall, though, the amazing apocalyptic atmosphere, fantastic design, and great decoration combined to make an awesome level that might prove too hard for some SMBXers.


Jayoshi wrote:
Crisis City - 7/10

Design: This was an okay designed level. I enjoyed the colored switches quite a bit, but there could've been more powerups. I also noticed that a few powerups were hard to come by; for example, one was placed as a block on the ground that you would need to hit with a shell.

Graphics: This level was okay on graphics. I honestly didn't like the building graphics. They clashed with the rest of the level, despite being SMB3 styled, had bad shading, and didn't feel like they were in a burning city. The background is too hard to distinguish from the level, too. The Cave graphics were great, though. I also like how you replaced snifits with fire brothers, but I saw regular snifit bullets coming out of one. (or was it the death effect? I can't remember)

Music: Despite being Crisis city, the music didn't really fit with the level. Bowser land from 64 would be better to use, in my opinion.


Valtteri wrote:
Crisis City (7/10)

This is an interesting level. Although the idea is unique, the level is basically a Switch puzzle, which you see in SMBX levels often, taking place in a city full of lava and a volcanic cave. As a little tweak, though, the final section has to be run through because the city is sinking in the lava. Overall, the design is flawless, except for the room with the red switch. There's no block preventing the player from falling where the lava fall flows. The level is overly decorated. There are too many elements mixed together; lava falls, fog, wood, buildings, lava, pipes, note blocks. The buildings on the background look exactly like the foreground ones, except they're darker. This all together causes a mess and sometimes you can't tell BGOs from solid blocks. Maybe this is to contribute to the chaotic atmosphere, I don't know. Eitherway, it's too much.


12/11. Sandship by Quill. =8.00=

Chad wrote:
Sandship: '9'

This one is rather stunning. It's pretty much the perfect hybrid of desert temple and wooden ship settings. The airship graphics are nicely recolored, and the layout is very puzzling, requiring you to explore and use your memory to proceed. Everything connects together so nicely in this level, because each new event takes you where you need to go to save a lot of unnecessary backtracking. The events relating to the blue gems are interesting, because it's like you're using a magical item to power a part of the ship that will allow you to proceed. It's like your actions modify a core aspect of the level and transform it to your advantage. Some of them are just amazingly executed, like the indoor one that uses chains to pick up a section of ground, and the outdoor one that fires several bombs at the floor to destroy it and reveal a new door. That one even gives you a little elevator so you can watch it happen. However, others make you wait a little long for their rides to return if you happen to miss them. The boss is a neat surprise and is amazingly done, and it's particularly cool how its hazards appear and disappear in a sequential manner. It's not a perfect setup though, because you sort of have to be lucky not to be in the same spot as a harmful object while it's being triggered. Considering the layout of the fight, this is a likely result. Still, it's an awesome setup. Other than that, the moving quicksand is a bit cruel because not only are you hopelessly stuck while it's rising, but Venus Fire Traps are also present. A blind jump is also present when you return to the starting section after hitting the red switch, but aside from these things, the level was impressive in quite a few ways.



SuperMario7 wrote:
Sandship - 6/10:
This level is decent. The graphics don't fit very well with SMB3, in my opinion, and the jumping plant is SMW styled. The enemies are placed pretty well, though, but coins are lacking in some areas. The atmosphere of the level is quite good, though. The level definitely feels like you are exploring an ancient ship that has been lost for ages in the desert. The crystal gimmick kind of adds to that idea, too. The design is pretty good. It's really nonlinear and uses the incredibly overused switch-block gimmick. There is lots of backtracking and exploring, which is fun at first, but quickly gets boring after a while. This level was pretty average, I would say. Although it does have some neat design and atmosphere.


Jayoshi wrote:
Sandship - 7.5/10

Design: the design of this level was okay. I liked the progression with colored switches and the idea of putting diamonds into generators, but a lot of moving layers were too slow, (except for the quicksand) there were a few places that needed a quicker way to get out of quicksand, and the level's checkpoint is set too far to the end.

Graphics: The graphics were okay. I liked the way the diamonds and generators were drawn, but I didn't like how some things were recolored to yellow. They didn't look that good, especially the background and pillars.

Music: I thought the first theme was pretty fitting. The second theme was corrupted, though, and the boss theme didn't fit.


Valtteri wrote:
Sandship (9.5/10)

This is an impressive level. It had a lot of creative ways of opening paths and the general concept of carrying gems into machines to progress was straight from Apocalyse of Foroze but it's still pretty original. After a long search through the level you find yourself in a wonderfully executed boss that uses the Firebar physics in a brand new manner. It's amazing. Some parts of the level seem a bit plain though. The ship planking could use some decoration, like windows or something. It looks boring when there are just huge bunches of really long logs piled on top of each other. Otherwise the level is really well decorated, and exceptionally well designed.


12/11. Lush Jungle Branches by Uchiha Madara. =8.00=

Chad wrote:
Lush Jungle Branches: '7'


Pretty good forest level. It's big and explorative, and does so without making it too long. There's a nice variation of routes that the player must take to hunt for the different switches, and a number of obstacles to avoid or utilize (Munchers, vines, Grinders, line platforms, etc.) The narrow passageways are nicely made, because they insist that you make more precise movements, and they make the level feel like a forest network of tunnels. In general, objects are nicely placed and hazards and enemies are spaced out pretty well. However, the Zingers are an unnecessary difficulty spike to the level, because they're barely included so they feel out of place, and they're more difficult than anything else around them. The invisible lines are misleading when it comes to the red platform, too. The alignments of the switch barriers are interesting, though.


SuperMario7 wrote:
Lush Jungle Branches - 7.5/10:
I thought this level was quite good. The design was really nonlinear, but never got confusing, so it stayed fun all the way through the level. The level looked and felt very much like a standard jungle level: it had lots of vegetation, some tricky jumps, and a kind of fun design. There were some pretty good gimmicks used in the level, but none stood out as that original for a jungle. The coins and enemies were both well placed, and the was filled with BGOs, which is rightful for a jungle level. The graphics didn't stand out as original, but they certainly fit with the forest theme. Overall, this is a pretty well done level with some nice design and typical jungle atmosphere and gimmicks. I really had fun playing it.


Jayoshi wrote:
Lush Jungle Branches - 9/10

For Design: It are good! I'm like designer for level, it's an almost, perfect! But the level is for short, and needs is longer. (I was ispired by a sign that said something TheAlex99-ish, I thought it'd be funny to write it like this =P)

Graphics: these are pretty good. I'm not fond of recolors, but I won't take points off for that.

Music: It was corrupted, so I couldn't hear anything.


Valtteri wrote:
Lush Jungle Branches (8.5/10)

This is a nicely designed level. The tileset is also well chosen. You can get stuck in the part where you have to get the Springboard. If you break every turn block, you can't get up anymore and you can't get the Springboard to progress. It's weird that all the other Piranha Plants are SMW Piranha Plants with SMB3 colors, but the jumping one is from SMA4.


10. Fossil Fuel Falls by ElTipsta. =8.25=

Chad wrote:
Fossil Fuel Falls: '8.5'

This one is quite impressive. The lava is placed in a very detailed fashion, and merges nicely with the ground. The occasional holes in it during the underground areas are nice touches as well, and the dreary, colorless atmosphere of the level gives the feeling of damage done by the oil, which is interesting to see. The ruinous platforms and pillars (inb4 Quill =P) are neatly placed, and appear as though the oil has burned away a once intact structure. The design and gameplay are every bit as good as the level's setting, too. Every part was clearly devised with much care to make sure that every hazard is dangerous, but manageable. All of the enemy placements felt perfect and deliberate, the Dragon coins are nicely hidden, a good variety of obstacles are used (donut blocks, fences, Podoboo shoe, wooden platforms, etc), and it all made the entire level quite enjoyable. The only issues with it are that the Podoboos blend in with the background a bit, making sure Mushrooms don't move would be good (no one likes run-time errors and there's lots of lava around), and the level is a bit short. That last one's not too bad, because it's about standard length and prevents the level from dragging on too long, but I would have liked to see more.


SuperMario7 wrote:
Fossil Fuel Falls - 7/10:
This was a really neat level. The whole atmosphere was perfect, as the tileset, oil, and music all blended well together to successfully create a polluted atmosphere. The ruins were a nice touch as well, and added more variety in design. Your coin placement and decoration were both pretty good, but coins were placed in repetitive patterns and scenery could have been distributed a bit more. The design was very linear but it still had a few side areas to explore, and the linear design never came off as repetitive because of the great variety of obstacles shown in this level. The oil gimmick was well done, and gimmicks such as the fire shoe and fireballs fit in really well here. However, there were some faults in this level. First off, the background oil-fall doesn't merge with the ground correctly all the time, and it doesn't look good. You should probably use a background that has a waterfall that goes all the way down to the bottom of the screen. There were also some problems with difficulty, here. A jump in section 1 was really risky to make because you couldn't even see the platform on the other side, never mind the spinning fireball. The black fireballs, or oilballs, blended in too well with the background (especially the cave background) so they were hard to see and dodge. Overall, I enjoyed this level, and despite its faults, it still had some decent design and well made atmosphere.


Jayoshi wrote:
Fossil Fuel Falls - 8.5/10

Design: Pretty great. It's a rather hard level, (then again, I'm using controls I normally don't use =P) but it manages to be done in the right way, instead of having enemy spam or lots of cramped spots. I especially liked the platform ride, since fireballs came from all directions. However, I noticed that after you warp to the platform section, you immediately go on to the platform ride, which doesn't give you time to get rid of your boot, and I didn't like the sideways fireball NPCsoutside of the platform ride. They weren't placed very well.

Graphics: Also pretty good. I like how nearly all the objects are in a single grey hue. However, the fireball NPCs are too dark, and it's hard to see them sometimes. I also think the other objects that aren't grey should be changed to grey.

Music: Quite fitting. I like it.


Valtteri wrote:
Fossil Fuel Falls (9/10)

Another great level. I find absolutely no issues in it, except for the horizontal Podoboos' glithed effect. The design is fluid and interesting. You have to cross the oil in many ways varying from skull raft rides to Podoboo's boot. Speaking of Podoboos, there are four types of them in this level, which is pretty clever. In addition to the original one, there are Podoboos that fall from the oil in the ceiling and even horizontal Podoboos which I mentioned above. The level is almost entirely black and white, which is unnecessary. There is too much black and white stuff compared to the colored stuff, and there seems to be no logic of any kind to determine what is colored and what is not. It should either not have any color or have a logic on what is colored.

[zioy]

Thanks. This can be locked now.