Green Green Grassland

zioy · Postby **zioy** » Thu Aug 14, 2014 2:26 pm

This was meant to be 1-1 of Super Mario Shadow Epidemic. I released it back on the NSMBX forums, so I figured I'd post it here as well.

I have 0% of an idea what this actually does.

silent_ · Postby **silent_** » Thu Aug 14, 2014 2:49 pm

Looks okay. I'm taking a break of reviewing today, so I'll (hopefully) get around to it sometime tomorrow.

And I just thought I'd point out, the tileset looks a bit too detailed and also, the top doesn't even have a black outlining so it technically clashes.

zioy · Postby **zioy** » Thu Aug 14, 2014 2:55 pm

I didn't make it, also, that was one of my reasonings for using the SMB1 enemies They also have no black outline.

zioy · Postby **zioy** » Sat Aug 30, 2014 9:58 pm

This needs a review, I believe.

Postby **Marina** » Mon Sep 01, 2014 10:51 am

Yeah k I'll review this, Kep if you wanna review it pm me or query me on irc, else I'll do it

silent_ · Postby **silent_** » Mon Sep 01, 2014 11:15 am

GLuigiX wrote:Yeah k I'll review this, Kep if you wanna review it pm me or query me on irc, else I'll do it

Nah, I don't want to review it this time around, you can go ahead

Postby **Marina** » Mon Sep 01, 2014 11:32 am

Green Green Grassland

Gameplay: 7/10

This was a relatively short grassland level. It had obstacles that made it not completely linear, and had one or two bonus parts (altough I don't quite understand why there are clouds underground?).

The level was relatively easy, which is perfectly fine for the first level of a game, and it had SMB3 level length, which is ok, if you're going for that in the episode and keep it consistant.

There weren't any gimmicks in this level that enhanced gameplay or anything, but since this is the first level and it's made for inexperienced players, it's fine.

NPCs: 5/10

The enemies were the usual Goomba/Koopa/Piranha triade that you expect from a grassland level. The NPC placement was okaay most of the time, altough in some places a bit crowded, at one point there were 7 NPCs on the screen and no space for the player to dodge them. Personally, I didn't have trouble with it, but since this level is aimed towards inexperienced players, you might take another look at the NPC placement.

There were two powerups in this level, enough for the player to make it through, even an inexperienced one. Personally I thought thought the leaf was an interesting choice, since personally I would've gone with fire flowers in this kind of grassland level.

Design: 5/10

The grass tileset used in this level was very nice, but that was the only good thing this level had to offer, graphics wise. The background was way too bright and blended horribly with the tileset. Also the SMB1 NPCs and the SMW styled special blocks and the SMW pipes didn't fit in with the rest of the gfx. Then at the SMW goal you used SMB3 recolored poles even tough you used the normal SMW poles at the checkpoint. I highly advise you to change up the gfx, make the background less bright and maybe replace the NPCs with SMW enemies.

The music underlined the atmosphere of the level, altough it's really overused. Nintendo themselves is already recicling the track for the third time now, and honestly it's starting to get really annoying.

Besides that, the design is good, it wasn't too linear, and the slopes and height differences made the level look natural. Well, not completely natural, but as natural as it could be expected from a Mario level.

Another little thing: At one point there is this springboard that brings you up on a platform with a block. I thought it was kinda disappointing that the block just contained multiple coins and not a 1up or a powerup, since the block beneath the springboard already contained multiple coins.

Over all, this was an okay level, altough not really outstanding, I still enjoyed playing it. 5.7/10 moved to Average.

silent_ · Postby **silent_** » Mon Sep 01, 2014 11:37 am

Personally you used personally too much in that review

On a more serious note, I played the level a few days ago and thought it was okay. I would have given it a 5 if I wasn't too lazy to write up a review at the time.

Postby **Marina** » Mon Sep 01, 2014 12:24 pm

Well, I use personally so much because that's really just it, my personal opinion of the level. I try to be as objective as I can, but in the end, that's it what it boils down to. An opinion. I can only do so much when it comes to reviewing. This is just what I think of the level or what I think the community would perceive the level as. That's why we introduced the Review Approval System. If someone isn't content with a review, they can just give it their own try.

And well, our scores really aren't that different, I always try to get the score as high as possible, without being unreasonable. I really just want to make clear that even though this level is "just" average, it is still "good" average.