Re: Community Contest 11 - WE HAVE RESULTS! TIERS 7 & 8
Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 10:30 am
by Valtteri
Tier 7 Places 30-37
Tier 8 Places 21-29
Spoiler: show
37. Superiorstar - Quest to Terminite Castle (6.72/10)
- Bomber57 (6.5/10)
- This was a pretty decent Link level. Personally, I didn't like the orange grass with purple dirt. It didn't blend well together with the colors you used. Also, those floating platforms over lava didn't have an indication at first that they would fall in, so I stood there trying to take care of a flying hammer brother before falling to my death. As for the boss, at least the level admits it would be stupid if it didn't throw a mushroom at you every half second.
- I find this level pretty nice with great challenges going on but I do find some of the enemy placements a bit too much and some speed modification on some NPCs were a bit too much like from the gray knight's projectile even though he's easily defeated by him but I didn't notice later on that his projectile's speed were incredible fast once I'm at the castle part where I saw him sitting on the corner of the screen on a narrowed spot like that. The level by itself, playing as Link is surely a rarety so yay for Link levels although the level itself was pretty decent at least. Boss was only ok since as of how I beat that Larry replaced boss with higher speed you just stand at the middle where the power up spawner spawns from the top and just use your sword to that boss until you defeat him.
- A really nice looking level with a highly mystical feeling to it. This level does an impressive job giving Link a thrilling challenge, with every area clearly having his abilities and limitations in mind and developing a great sense of difficulty from it. The landforms and enemies have cunning placements, which kept me on my toes but never felt stressful. Even if it did though, the level's comfortably short, so any deaths suffered aren't massively punishing. This especially applies inside the castle, where a very tricky boss is introduced quite shortly after the midpoint. The boss itself is interesting, and his high speed is manageable once you learn how he works, but it's not introduced very well because he's already on you as soon as the fight starts. The health generators are helpful, but they do sort of cheapen the fight, because you can pretty much avoid death entirely by continuing to grab them. It's still fun, but not as much as it could be since it's largely about alternating between damage and healing.
- This was kinda neat. The knights you had to fight frequently was a cool idea and I think you used Link pretty well in this level. The boss battle is kinda weird, as you have to just sit below the heart generator and hope you can hit him. I don't think it's that great. The rest of the level was pretty good though!
- Princess twinkle sparks: "Even if he can't, I shall help him!" Dragonbreath: "Hey that's Cheating! if you are going to do that then I shall not hold anything back!" Totally lost it. :D What's a terminite anyway? I liked this level. The pastel colored graphics and Sega Genesis-esque music somehow create a neat mix. The level itself is pretty short but you play as Link and you get several mini bosses on the way, although they're all the same Ironknuckle. The final boss is pretty fast. The constantly spawning power-ups are a big help. :P
- Bomber57 (6.25/10)
- The level was pretty decent. A lot of it was empty, and I spent most of the time flying through the level with the leaf it provides. I looked at some of the more secrety areas and was rewarded with *gasp* coins. The level says there is a second star somewhere but I have no clue, probably in a corner of one of the fuckhuge rooms. The King Boo fight wasn't anything special, but it was tough because there are literally no powerups after the checkpoint and grabbing eggs shot from a cannon midair is hard.
- Yoshi's Island type castle level. I really like that you made a YI styled level like the whole design, mechanics and everything... although there are of course mistakes. One of which is that decimal codes can't be read in the EU rather than the US relative to PCs and SMBX by itself so this makes that one platform NPC go incredible fast so I had to remove the speed decimal in order to work properly. Secrets were nice to find although of course there are multiple ways to discover areas and playing it for the first time most likely misses some of the orange based coins but yeah. Not much to say since it's YI mechanics but into SMBX combined but it was good since those are incredible rare apparently.
- A nice YI level, and one with design and gimmicks quite familiar to the series. The inspiration is clearly present, as it contains camouflaged red coins, Grinder platforms on lines, multiple door choices, key-and-lock puzzles, clever secret areas and block arrangements to make each room and puzzle feel different, a required flight area in which falling doesn't necessarily ruin the run, an enemy kill room, and a tricky boss battle. Much of it is executed quite well, especially areas pertaining to moving platforms. Every room is puzzling in a different way, with a stroke of genius applied to each challenge. The only parts I didn't like are the red coins and the boss. The second star asks way too much of the player. 35 coins is a lot for being items that resemble the normal ones that you can't afford to miss even one of, and some of them are in places that you only get one miss-and-lose attempt at. For instance, it's not clear how to reach Section 1's Yoshi until the opportunity has already passed, and getting through Section 2 requires you to plan ahead, which is exactly what the darkness prevents. You just have to automatically know that you don't jump on the Shy Guy leading to the upper door until you've cleared the area to the right and mapped out that expected route in your head, and even then you can only bounce off the enemy at the last possible second. Or bring Yoshi with you, but that requires the same amount of forethought that the player just wouldn't have. The rest of the level isn't so bad with this, but it does expect you to know the exact order of doors to enter, which ones progress the level and which ones don't, so it's a lot of back-and-forth guesswork when it's already challenging to traverse the areas as is. Everything pertaining to the primary objective is done really well though, because any failures experienced there aren't nearly as punishing and everything's much more clear. It's nice to have the midpoint shortly before the boss, too. I would have liked for King Boo's projectiles to not cover the entire width of the arena, though.
- This was surprisingly elaborate. I love the use of the flying lantern, it's a feature not often see that much as it's fairly complex to put into a level. There was some excellent design present in this level, especially with how you got the key in the first part. I did feel like the level design dwindled as the level progressed, but it was still acceptable and fun to play. The boss could easily be cheesed by holding the egg in his face.
- This is an okay haunted level that's built around the Super Leaf. I could fly through almost the entire level. I dunno if that's good. It made it very easy. I like the lighting effect at the boss.
- Bomber57 (7.75/10)
- This level managed to pull off the "Pit of 100 Trials" theme pretty well, though about halfway through I started getting bored with it. My interest was revitalized with the more survival oriented rooms but in some cases I could find a safe spot and just didn't have to move until I could leave. In Room 19 one of the sawblades didn't leave out the sides and became an annoyance in the higher part of the room. The boss fight was just Boom Boom but with a bunch of projectiles flying around, which I feel is a little harsh. The playershouldn't have had to kill the Podoboos because they were extremely annoying to hit with any of the throwable items, and really extended the time I spent on this level because of it.
- Interesting concept by defeating every single enemies throughout the room in order to advance including variety of enemies and at the near end survivals and even some bosses. I do like your room designs like the atmosphere with cave and castle combined but there were rooms that are kinda too small to avoid/defeat enemies and such. Sometimes though at the near end there were some bugs involved like the grinders at the elevator section depends of the timing since they just launched off through everything once they hit the ceiling or maybe even a corner block. Not much to say since it is just killing enemies and dodging such nasty trials throughout the level.
- This level's rather unique to SMBX. It does an excellent job at having a clear and distinct set of trials, all being completely different in design and enemy arrangement, and they start out super simple and get more complex and tricky as the level goes on. I also like the variety of challenge types, where some are just defeating all the enemies, there are a few survival ones (and I'm highly pleased by how well you've indicated everything), an elevator room, and you found a great way to make Boom Boom more difficult since all of the hazards around him keep you on your toes, but maintain a lot of fairness. Item generators are put to good use, as it demonstrates you're well aware that players will need them for some enemies, and at times the level will spawn new landforms in different ways to guide players to the exit of a room they just cleared. I also like how you've given Section 21 multiple purposes, being sectioned off to contain the start, midpoint, and powerup rest areas at appropriate points of the level. However, the elevator room deserves some revision. Once you reach the Lotus pair, the Grinder that's still on the elevator by then will either glitch into the surface or get trapped in the tiny space you have to avoid the fireballs, pretty much guaranteeing a hit there. Also, if you step onto the solid tiles as the elevator passes by them, the game will count that as crushing the player. It's also highly empty in the space below the Lotuses, so you have the player sitting there a while doing very little before that. Trial 18 could also use some adjustment, because even with indicators, chasing Koopas will get you pretty fast in a tiny room.
- This was an neat implementation of this concept, but I feel like the different rooms could have more variety between them. Sure, there is some, but there's not enough. I'd like to see more unique ways of killing the enemies. The later trials were a bit more interesting, but they were easy to predict. The moving platform at the end moved way too slow.
- I think this is a pretty well done "pit of 20 trials", although I would have liked a real level more. It looks pretty cool but I don't like the music.
- Bomber57 (5.5/10)
- Huh, this level almost exclusively uses vanilla graphics. Thats kinda cool, and looks a little odd in places as you would expect. Though, the level was quite short. I could hold right and jump about without worry for large parts of it. Kinda bland but also a little nice in an odd way.
- Ahh... this was a very nice level and I really like how you did with the whole NPC placements in there but there's one dragon coin at the beginning that is kinda mean since the vine block was invisible with some coind inbetween the left and right side. The rest, there's not much to say since this level has a decent length, it has decent challenges, it was overall a very nice level. I do find it rather weird that there's a Toad just standing at one of the top of the mountain that's rather impossible to reach unless you have a leaf as Mario but the info that he provided wasn't that spectacular either and there's no secrets if you actually get up there so yeah.
- Pretty nice mountain/wasteland level. I like the rugged feel of it and the amount of detail presented, and it has solid design that makes it fun to traverse. It alternates between being a very simple forward run, and occasionally having side areas containing small bonuses. I like the desert/cave hybrid that occurs in the middle, too. Overall, the level doesn't have any central gimmicks or anything unique, but the basic layout and gameplay are rather good and pose no particular issues.
- This is a great level for the little resources it's using. It feels bigger and more explorable than a standard level, yet it's quite simple afterall. The little secrets all over the level definitely contributed to the interestingness.
- You know, this is an alright desert romp! It doesn't have any wacky gimmicks, but the gameplay is solid. The level is short, though and I almost feel like was pushed out at the last minute...?
- Bomber57 (6.0/10)
- Once I finally managed to get past the first room the rest of the level was fine. But that first room was an absolute nightmare to get past. Trying to time dodging the rotating spike balls while on a NSMB-esque green block platform was ridiculously hard. The fourth spike ball is nearly impossible to dodge, especially in combination with the bill blaster next to it. The vertical chamber with 3 spike balls in succession was also way too difficult. Then the difficulty drops to a more sensible level and the rest of it is fine. I thought the idea of the cloud flower was pretty cool (replacing the fairy charm). The Ludwig boss wasn't too hard as long as you stay in the corner. The level was fine otherwise but that first room really dragged down the whole experience.
- Lovely Ludwig's Castle level with difficulty involved. Once you get used to the whole beginning area it won't be that much of an issue but even then, for sure it's difficult to pass. Apparently, at the end of the first section the section begins to lag... apparently but after the first section the lag is gone. Not like it matters on my side but it is noticeable. I do like your enemy variety in this level and your secrets. I found a massive error on this level which is that once I get to the checkpoint, apparently those skewers are offtrack from the event triggers of they had like they have been trigger twice and they go off incredibly depends of the activation and it can be the cases of getting stuck in this level depends of the activation. The boss was Ludwig with some great challenge into it which was nice and after that you get the star. There's even a secondary star once you collect all of the Starcoins and then get to the boss door.
- This is a rather gorgeous castle. The design is impressively intricate and full of tight passages with cunningly-placed hazards. I enjoyed the variety of challenges, different placements of enemy generators, and careful planning the level requires. The attention to detail is excellent as well, and the boss room's hazards are a great way to spice up a Ludwig battle with difficulty that matches the rest of the level, although the overhead pipe cannon is a bit much considering it likes to fire just as you need to get past it while avoiding everything else. However, one major thing I didn't care for was the snake block ride. I already have a general dislike for this method of executing that gimmick in the first place, because it feels unstable when your footing is constantly changing beneath you due to it following an unpredictable path. But in this level, that inherent difficulty is increased even further by the sheer amount of obstacles you have to get around and the large distance you must do so in. In the first part, you have no breaks between dangers to stabilize yourself, so the platforms act as a constant enemy all on their own while everything else is tricky on top of that. Once you head upwards into the narrow passages, players are not going to know when the platform is going to enter and leave spots that require crouching, so you're at the mercy of split-second thinking and possibly not being able to avoid something where you need to be ducking. I probably would have enjoyed the level more if that wasn't its opener and there weren't still two more challenging sections after it before you even reach the midpoint. The passage is crafted really well, and the rest of the level is great, but that gimmick is still a major piece of the level.
- The start of the level and the Cloud Flower segments were neat ideas, but they lasting a little too long for my liking. The start could be pretty unforgiving at times too. The rest of the levle was decent enough and enjoyed the variety. Nothing other than these two features stood out, but it was okay. Overall, good job!
- It's a pretty great level built on the Snake Block gimmick. There's one part where you forgot to drag up the bottom level border. If you jump in the pit you can see some tiles missing from the floor. There's a boss that's spiced up with a pipe that shoots projectiles from the ceiling. It doesn't make the fight all new or anything but it's kind of freshening.
- Bomber57 (6.0/10)
- Graphics were simplistic but did the job well. Level layout left a little bit to be desired, as it was flat and linear. There apparently were secret areas you would discover similar to the "New" mario games, but I only ever found one and it was by complete accident. I think it was a little much to have that volcano lotus in an untouchable spot with a red koopa above in a cramped area. The level was pretty average overall.
- Very nice grassy type level with challenge involved and variety of obstacles. Sometimes your enemy placements can be a bit too much at times like those nipper plants that are trying to even get to a SMB3 wooden platform and being a threat. Your overall secrets and multiple ways to discover this level was just amazing. Nothing wrong to say other than the fact that sometimes you give me a little bit too many enemies but still it was a great level.
- A rather pleasant level. It starts out simple, then transitions into more complicated objectives by making you take alternate routes and explore underground areas for switches. I like the tricky ground placement and line platforms to influence how you go about the route that you take, and the switches are intriguingly placed. Sadly though, after that, the level seems to lose its steam, because the rest of it is a line ride that you almost just sit back and watch, and then the level's over. Still, what's here is enjoyable, and while it feels like it could have been extended, the length is comfortable and not much of a detriment.
- I thought this was an interesting take on a grassland level. I liked the variations in the terrain. I'm not sure how I feel about having to hit a colored switch to advance, but it mostly never involves backtracking that much so it was alright to deal with. I did like how the level didn't overstay its welcome either. It showed the player what it was all about in a reasonable amount of time and then finished. Great job!
- This is a decent overworld level. There is nothing special going on. It's okay for what it is, though. The level is all bright and happy which I like.
- Bomber57 (5.5/10)
- Hey hey everybody, welcome to the annual "everything is red" level. This level contains three boss fights, two koopalings and a bowser fight. The first boss fight is sorta thrown at you, and if you don't know to jump right away when you enter the room you are gonna get hit or die. The most annoying part of this level were the 4 switches you had to hit after the check point. Most of the issue is that if you died to Ludwig or Bowser you will have to do all of the annoying little challenges again. The worst room was the Kurbio Shoe room, you had little room to jump on the Nippers without hitting the munchers on the ceiling, losing your shoe and falling into the pit below.
- He... the name. This level was pretty nice and I do like the variety of it but I do feel that some of the coin placements were like... hard to even reach. I do like the difficulty though. There were 2 koopaling bosses in this level and a Bowser boss at the end of it and I do like what you did with the flame breathing area before Bowser like in SMB and in NSMBWii but once you defeat Bowser while you're further down the area you can get stuck and you are also unable to get to the star. The level itself, I do like the idea of having 4 different paths at the checkpoint to manage to the top of the main castle interior... similar to Yoshi's Island castle 4-4. At the green shoe area, I don't like that you have to squeeze over the Thwomp like that with your shoe since it's incredible narrow but you have to do this once anyway. The red shoe area, make sure you don't have anything on yourself or else you die by not realizing that there's no ground underneeth you but a red shoe waiting for you. The rest were pretty ok and I like the variety of it.
- I guess the level title is technically true. This was pretty enjoyable, the bosses are spaced pretty nicely apart with enjoyable sections between them. I really like the brick placement and decoration, they give the level a feeling of polish. The bulk of the level would be the four different sections you have to complete to open Ludwig's door, and I always like seeing that in levels because it's very obvious about its "choose your path" nature and lets you know there's gonna be variety in the order that you want to experience it. The rooms all have their own little unique gimmick and design, and all are a pretty reasonable short length, so dying to any of them isn't hugely punishing since the midpoint's right at the fork between them. The bosses are pretty typical in terms of usage, but I appreciate that in this case because by the time you finish all four rooms and reach Ludwig, the stakes are a bit higher. That pacing is probably what I admire most about this level, because it does a lot of different things but the designer has a good feel for when the player might want to get to the midpoint/end and what sorts of things would be more costly in terms of redoing everything. Otherwise, great usage of the different shoes, the timestop room makes you think, and the Hothead room does well at making you avoid things without being stressful. The level's planned out really well. However, the Podoboo Shoe entrance should start the player on solid ground. On my first try, I was wearing the Kuribo's Shoe from that room and wasn't expecting to need to do a precise midair dismount in the millisecond I'm given to adjust to the new room. It looks like it was designed without understanding that the player might do the rooms in such an order. I also didn't care for the narrow space around the Thwomp in the Kuribo Shoe room, because although you can finish the room without it no problem, it's practically a required hit unless you duck-jump perfectly into the gap. Maybe that's why the Podoboo Shoe room's entrance is the way it is, but if so, a required hit is not a good intention and the shoes don't really break the other rooms. Upon further inspection, it is technically possible to do only the timestop room and one other and boot-jump to the top to ignore the other two, but you could have avoided that by forcing a dismount-jump (such as a tall vine) at the end of the Kuribo/Podoboo rooms.
- Psst... buddy, this isn't MaGL X! Also, I didn't see much SMB3 Grassland and there's no Bowser Jr, but whatever. The level was pretty neat. Having to fight the 3 bosses during the course of the level was a unique idea. I liked a lot of rarely used items such as the kuribo's shoe and the green p-switch were used in sections of your level. The rest of the level was pretty simplistic, but I had fun.
- I rather like this level. The Venus Fire Traps coming out of lava is a cool little idea. The Stop Switch puzzle was quite well done, I would say.
- Bomber57 (8.25/10)
- Pretty interesting that you get to swim in lava. It's really a water level for the majority of it, but it still keeps the molten theme pretty well. The water is full of undead enemies, and podoboos. Though, I feel that the podoboos moved too fast for how quick they were generated, but maybe I just suck. Enemies were a little much for the space given in general, and it felt like I had to scrape by too many times for my liking. I didn't quite like the section where the giant bully chases you because you run so fast from him that at the end when you hide in a little hole below you don't exactly catch it the first time, so I wound up running into the wall of lava at the end of the section. Going around stomping the red goombas to progress was pretty cool, and it didn't feel like any of them were hidden so I was never left looking high and low for them. The boss is just an undead SMB1 bowser you throw bombs at. Nothing too special there. Also I don't get the point of having dragon coins if you only put in 2. Keep in mind that, unless you have a specific purpose for them, you should always have 5 or none.
- Apparently Mario learn how to swim in lava for once... well, not everywhere though. This level was ok with the whole graphics choicements even though I catch 1x1 pixels on the red cave tiles. There's places where it's very hard to dodge like these high speed podoboos and on top of that they spawn relatively fast, makes them also hard to dodge aswell for the first time players since of timing involved. There's one spot where the one way is basically a legitory death trap because you thought you would be safe to swim through that one tiny tunnel over there at the far right but nope you get a podoboo getting shout into your face with it. The objective of this level is that you have to kill all 3 red goombas in order to get to the castle area where the midway point is which is ok since this level wasn't that big anyway. At the area where you have to run and jump away from the giant Bully, for the first time it's not too easy since how fast everything goes and you have to be fast aswell or else you have to do the entire level again with the podoboo spawners underlava. After the halfway point you nearly immediadly have to fight dry bowser which is SMB bowser and you have to throw bombs at him to defeat this boss and then you obtain the star which end the level. There's only 2 dragon coins in this entire level... what happened to the rest of it? Did dry bowser just thought they're useless or did the giant Bully just push them into the lava like what he always does at the end anyway? Who knows!
- I adore the level of detail in this level. The swimming passages are carefully constructed to give the player a difficult challenge, and I enjoyed the search for the red Goombas and the different placements they had. However, I think the Toad should have mentioned them, because if you pick the path to the right first, you might not understand what the objective is and have to revisit that once you learn. The enemy placements are intriguingly tricky, but the Podoboos should not be several times faster than the player is able to swim, and many of them require high precision. The giant Bully section is unnecessary and poorly introduced, because it's a sudden panic mode with 5 seconds of having no idea what's happening and then flying into a lava wall because you didn't see the coin alcove in the instant you're given to react to it. Not to mention it's right next to you as the whole thing abruptly starts, and the first time I got there I instinctively pressed the run button and dismissed the message before I could read it. The transparent lava room lagged somewhat and had little to show for it besides a midpoint, but the boss has a pretty good difficulty balance and set of obstacles for SMB1 Bowser. That fight is crafted pretty well, but it introduces the player just as suddenly as the Bully. You could have had the room start out empty and then make things appear one by one. Overall, an enjoyable level with a great challenge, but could use some tweaks in some obstacles and how it adjusts the player into new circumstances.
- An underground lava castle is surprisingly an uncommon sight. The red goomba hunt was interesting and had its moments such as with the bully which was pretty neat. The boss was pretty simplistic and not really a challenge. I just feel like the level needs more oomph. Fire Flowers which were the powerup given in this level were near useless as I'm pretty sure every enemy was immune to fire.
- This is a really nice level, actually. The concept of swimming in lava is odd but is done pretty well. In its core this level is really simple and doesn't try to be more. You kill Goombas and then you kill Bowser. It's done so neatly that I just like it. It's a swimming level which are surprisingly rare. Maybe the neon pink cave tileset is a bit odd. Try using the normal cave tiles (with the default dark SMW palette that most of the other tiles in the level use) and giving eveything a red tint. The Bully part is pretty random and weird but I wouldn't mind it so much if the Bully sprite didn't look so bad, haha! Try making the Bully part longer. It ends so soon the player won't expect the wall of lava. Or alternatively add some sort of coin trail into the few coins in the alcove where the player is supposed to go.
Spoiler: show
29. Tervantez2345 - Heated Hotland (7.12/10)
- Bomber57 (4.75/10)
- This level was way too difficult for all the wrong reasons. The length of the level before and after the checkpoint are too long for its difficulty. The main difficulty comes from clusters of enemies and projectile enemies. This level also has a fetish for random Banzai Bills in the most inconvenient of locations possible. This level also has several cutoffs with the pipes. But really, putting hammer brothers, firebars and bullet bill launchers in the same area together is way too much for the player, no matter how slow and careful they play the level. It just felt like enemies were purposely placed to screw the player over, and that's no fun.
- Well, of course we have a level filled with lava but even with bullet bills and hammer bros? Seems fun on some of the areas that they can simply kill you if you don't pay attention on them like the giant bullet bills including firebars. I do like the challenge though but I do feel like that this level is a bit rushed as far as the placement goes since I do notice some missing tiles and others tiles that shouldn't even be there... kind of nitpicky I know but it's for sure noticeable. The area with the coin collecting event, it was nice but I feel like having a different color of the coins would be a better solution rather than having them on the same exact color as the rest of this level. I do find your enemy placements mean especially for the first time players since they do serve as a challenge for sure but sometimes it feels... too much like 2 hammer bros on my way at the end while being small... ouch!
- This was a really enjoyable level! I like how you managed to have lava everywhere without it being a constant threat, sometimes it just stayed behind the tileset and let the highly strategic enemy placements do the work. There are a lot of specifically planned moves the player must do to pass each area, and it made the level tricky without being overwhelming. The length is great in both halves, so the situation is tense but not terribly punishing if you die. There's a good variation of challenges regarding NPC platforms, cannons, and firebars as well, and the Hammer Bros. are placed deviously in a way that's still fair. The attention to detail really shows, and it made everything a lot more fun. I just didn't care for the exit to Section 2, as you can't see the pipe until you take a blind gamble you can't really return from.
- Pretty decent level. The atmosphere helped contribute to the level's enjoyment and several nice ideas were presented here. Nothing really wow'd me, but it was fun. The idea with the 18 coins was neat, it would have been nice to see that a little more. Overall, good job!
- I quite like this level. There was a coin challenge that you needed to complete in order to progress. It also looks neat.
- Bomber57 (6.0/10)
- The level wasn't that bad, but some of the first sections felt rather empty. The touhou elements weren't too difficult at first, but the final phase of the level's boss was too much to maneuver around. I dunno what the point of the toad who saids you need 256 coins to get somewhere was, he doesn't seem to do anything.
- [Joke]Uhuhuu... someone want's to steal my title![/Joke]. Forest of night including some unique enemies you got right there even if it clashes amongst the rest like those fairies. You give me a pretty fair difficulty throughout the level but I honestly don't like that you have to backtrack after you gain the springboard just to get to that one Ace coin. For the rest from basic level design up to the midboss and boss it was very well made and there's nothing I can say wrong about so that's a very good sign for you.
- Oh wow, a Touhou level with reasonable difficulty! The grass sections are short, but nicely made with decent enemy placements and platforming segments, and the little fairies dropping fireballs are a nice touch to spice it up. However, the level quickly makes it evident that those are not the highlight. I really enjoyed the presentation behind the boss battles, and I'm impressed that they created a unique challenge while still maintaining a good pace and fair difficulty that felt like Mario's platforming abilities were carefully taken into account. It was a little difficult to find an opening at the end when the Lotus fireballs came into play, but it's handled well so that dealing with it patiently will reveal an opening, and I really like that balance. It wasn't ever stressful for me, but it kept me on my toes a bit with all the unique things being thrown at me, which resulted in a fun experience where the focus on deliberately providing a good player experience was truly felt.
- touhouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. But hey, it was pretty fun. The fairies were a unique enemy and the mini-boss segments were fairly fun.
- I don't like Touhou levels... But aside those parts it's a pretty decent woods level. I'd do something about the fairies. The sprite doesn't fit with the rest of the level at all.
- Bomber57 (7.75/10)
- This one wasn't so bad, and had a nice variety of snow-themed enemies. Though, there were a few issues involving the placement of things and the platforming, such as having a venus fire trap at the end of a long jump. I also had issue with the climbable rocks, though it isn't your fault too much. Mario likes to slip off of them for whatever reason, so it makes it hard to maneuver around when they are spread real thin. I think you shouldn't have done this in an area with a low ceiling over a pit, because I died a few times from slipping off the rocks.
- Ohh!!! This is so neat! Freeze me please for my happyness in this level! I really enjoyed this level and I really like the whole mechanics, gimmicks and the design of it... although I don't like your coin placements on some of the areas though at it feels that they are hard to reach and after that you have to do that specific part of the level again. More power ups would be nice since there's only 2 of them... really, 2. At least this level wasn't too difficult to pass but for sure more power ups would be more of a fun kind of deal. I do see an enemy that has an missing death effect for sure. As for the rest, it was a relatively nice ice based level and I liked it even for some flaws.
- This is a pleasant wintery level. It's a decently-built run of standard progression with nice enemy placements with the occasional careful jump thrown in here and there. You did a really nice job on the switch section as well, using the climbing rocks in tricky placements and adding some exploration to the mix. While this level doesn't have too much of a central gimmick, it still makes itself a good experience just from having good design and carefully thought-out hazards, and it's rather pretty to look at. The only particularly negative thing was the quicksand-snow not being initially obvious, so I got stuck just as I was attempting to kill the chasing Paratroopa, but that's a minor gripe.
- This was pretty neat! I loved the atmosphere in this level and the music helped out with that. The design was fairly basic, but the way you structured the level kept me pretty entertained and I enjoyed this level! Polish it up and add some more unique features and you'll have a very solid level.
- This is a pretty nice level. You need to climb all over the place and it reminds me a bit of the NSMB mountain levels which fits the title quite well. It looks good also.
- Bomber57 (7.75/10)
- A beautiful combination of different themes here, and the music is very befitting. I really enjoyed the wide variety of enemies, and that required the player to keep an eye out. Though, this also leads to the main issue this level had. There were so many areas where it was simply too busy with projectiles and other enemies. This especially took place in the section with the blue dragon heads, which spawned rinka projectiles. I also think the part after the checkpoint is too long for its own good. You have to get 3 keys to get to the star, but the problem is each segment to go after the keys is rather long. Again, this wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the level's difficulty. Now, I'm going to cut the maker a little slack because they decided to give the player 17 fire flowers across the whole level, but there really is no excuse for having so much going on around the player.
- Hnnngh! This level seems to be way too much going on as I see. Forest, lava, castle and even musical stuff aswell. I feel that this level is just too much to deal with like you have boos in the outside, random notes that are insta-kills, bullet bill cannon that acts like wart... wow really... and then some instrumental enemies and even more that I didn't even count into my own dashboard. I do like what you did with the whole exploration deal but if it's this much going on then eh... I'll most likely die... rip. It was an ok level though.
- This is a pretty immense level. It's impressive that you've managed to combine various different themes, but still have them all fit together well while still maintaining a feeling of consistency between them. Grass, sky, castle, lava, and cave themes are all incorporated in a cohesive way. Every area has a ton of detail and life to it, and the level's design follows suit to make it really feel grand. It's overflowing with exploration and variety, which extends to enemies and secrets as well. The first half is excellent, providing cunningly-designed traps and sections for switch-hunting, but the second half has a lot of minor issues that made things feel a bit weird. It's still great overall and maintains a lot of the first half's charm, and the hunt for keys was really fun. However, there are NPC platforms that despawn practically as soon as you see them (so I had to add them in myself to continue), highly sudden Thwomps due to either being offscreen or blending in with their surroundings, fireball NPCs that are difficult to keep track of (there's enough going on as it is and they don't stand out much), a couple of invisible blocks in upper Section 5 that amount to being Kaizo traps due to being right by edges and being things the player's not going to just expect, and the lava/fences area is asking a bit much that late in the level (especially with all the instakill notes floating around that look like items or safe tiles). These are all things that are somewhat minor on their own and not gamebreaking (aside from platforms), but they made the gameplay feel a little unstable at those points, especially combined.
- The aesthetics of this level were gorgeous and creative, but that's really the only highlight for me. The design is decent, but it drags on for way too long. The three keys part is atrociously long in my opinion and this makes the checkpoint incredibly unbalanced. If there was just one key, the level may have just barely fit what I would consider the ideal maxium length of a level.
- This an odd level mixing a bunch of Super Mario World level types including grass, cave, woods and castle. I don't appreciate the warp pipe that drops you into lava. Otherwise it's a pretty cool level! I had some fun looking for those keys. The lively way the different areas are designed makes the level quite enjoyable.
- Bomber57 (7.75/10)
- Oh man, cheese graphics. This throws me back. Not a bad level, but I don't get why there are 6 Dragon Coins (maybe to get the 2nd star?). Even so, it really should only be 5. Anyway, this level is pretty nice. Enemy placement was a little iffy at times but not too big of a deal. I think the secrets to find the Dragon Coins weren't too bad, but there was one I couldn't figure out how to get in the upper part of the first section. Maybe you gotta make a big jump? I dunno. There was a part of the level where there is a steep incline built sorta like steps. The problem is that you basically are left waiting for the enemies on the steps to get to the bottom so you can properly take care of them, and that isn't too fun.
- So much cheese like that I can just byte one in this world. This was a relatively nice level with cheese-like quicksand and mouse enemies but I feel like that some of the enemy placement in this area seems to be kinda strangely put it out like sometimes they overlap eachother strangely and there is one mouse that is hard to avoid at the ledges so you either have to wait until he jumps down by himself or use a random item that you carry along with you like a shell. Also on some enemies, on the Koopas their death effect isn't right. This level mostly requires a leaf or greater in order to obtain the secret star and other relative secrets that you can only get with a flight ability. Later on there are some platforming sections which they bounce off from the end-line background objects which is nice but once you gain a hit or get a different power up they're losing momentum in the air and they bounce inaccurately. I honestly don't entirely like the idea to force me to fly just to get to that one single Ace coin and some other regular coins in the air because I need to fly in order to actually do it. I would recommend to do something that doesn't necessarily allow to use a specific power up that you can lose at any point in the level if you're not careful enough so you can get to the secrets way easier rather than this right now.
- This was a fun one. I really like the happy style and amount of detail put into the visuals. While there wasn't any sort of central gimmick, the core design is solid and the gameplay is enjoyable, and line-guided/bouncy platforms are incorporated really well (although somewhat short-lived). It has an explorative feel about it and a pleasant difficulty. The Scaredy Rats aren't very good, though. They move really awkwardly with the rugged ground, making them weird to interact with or avoid. There could also stand to be a few more powerups, but other than that, nice work.
- The setting was nice and some neat ideas were presented during the course of the level, but the majority of it felt like terrain randomly slapped together and enemies randomly placed. It wasn't uncommon to see enemies bumping into each other and accomplishing nothing as you could easily glide over them. Better enemy placements where the player had to be careful with what move they did would have been nice to see.
- This is an excellently done overworld level. It's all grand going in all directions but doesn't go overboard. The swell aesthetics and happy music give the level a pleasant feeling. I wouldn't use all the different Goombas, though. That looks messy.
- Bomber57 (8.75/10)
- This was a real strong level, even though it didn't end with a boss due to time constraints. A few things didn't fit well, like the green SMB3 pipes which wound up being a bit of an eyesore. This level has some cool concepts, and I like what you did with the chain platforms and the magic sparkles indicating what they do. Though, this level has a common glitch with the chain platforms. Chain platforms will slide mario around when there are other moving layers. A way to prevent this is to change the chains into BGO and use invisible vine NPCs as the climbable part. This will prevent the glitch. This level also implements the bowser laser statues pretty nicely by having them switch on and off on a set timer.
- Liked the level with the whole dark atmosphere throughout the level and for sure I liked the obstacles and I do like the variety like gimmick wise and such. I do find some of the areas empty though like enemy placements for example. Some secrets involved for sure but there's one secret that's filled with cheese... hehee. The rest is just average castle area but it was pretty decent. There's no boss for ya though but at least there's a star for you to collect before the boss room.
- This level is entertainingly tricky, requiring some careful lava jumps and statue dodging from the player while offering some really neat gimmicks with the fences. The layout of the level is rather intricate, and the enemy placement is generally pretty good, so the level offers a good experience in terms of its core design and gameplay, and you did a nice job of setting up the lasers. However, there are a few aspects which feel somewhat off, such as the moving layer bug with the fences being a recurring theme in the second half of the level once you pass the area with the floating land. If you put invisible vines in front of the fences, you could have negated that problem. The absence of a midpoint is also somewhat of an issue, because the level has no real reason not to have one. It would have been easy to just stick it next to the sign that explains the gimmicks. The presentation was a bit weird too, because practically everything (solid or not) is almost the same color and brightness, making everything sort of blend in with each other. Well, except for the pipes and fences that are somewhat painfully bright by comparison.
- I thought this was neat! The variation with the nets was an interesting mechanic. It was simple enough and it would have been nice to see more elaborate uses for it for an alternate route or something. This level stood out and really clicked with me. I thought it was fun!
- This is an okay castle level. I kind of like the magic thing at the second half where there were different types of magic moving objects or something.
- Bomber57 (7.25/10)
- Beat blocks are fun, right? This level used beat blocks well, but it also used beat blocks poorly. Right away I noticed a lot of the time you are going to have to do those straining jumps where you just barely make it. Not much of a problem in normal gameplay, except in some cases if you are just a bit short the beat block will appear on you and, due to how SMBX works, glitch and send you flying off to one side. There were also areas where it simply got too much, such as one bit where there was lava below you and an Amazin' Flyin' Hammer Brother right above you. Or another where you are in a wrapping, tight-spaced lava section with some horizontal podoboos going around the place while dealing with the beat block mechanic. I feel that this level somehow did the gimmick well and wrong. Oh yeah also there was a part where I got to the end of a skull raft ride and got pushed into the wall and then into lava, so that's fun. I would've jumped off earlier but the section is so cramped that I had to wait for the last moment. The graphics are good, no comments about that.
- Beat Blocks Beat Blocks everywhere, beating me to death everytime... not really. This for sure is an interesting level with multitude of Blocks switching to the beat including enemies throughout the way but the way as of how you did it with the enemy placements especially after the halfway point it gets too much for the player to handle since beating with the blocks including bullet bills and podoboos it kinda pushes the player into the limit since alone to focus on the beat blocks jumping all around is a challenge but to focus on multiple enemies it gets sometimes too much especially if it's incredible sudden at the near end of the level. I do like the whole tile choicements like the multicolored checkerboards surrounding the area like that even with clouds and such. The beat blocks themselfes, they are entirely solid, makes them very easy to clip through and once you don't know anything about that glitch you basically lose a lot of control and then you can easily die after that. It would of been adviseable to have them as sizeables or at least blocks that you can go through regularily rather than having them solid like what we have right now. Also at one part there is a lava ceiling missing where the lavafall is so that looks pretty odd. I do like the ending where you see a giant star formed as blocks once you get to the end.
- This level presents a really unique visual theme in which a lot of the parts are completely different from one another, yet still fit together in their own different way. It's a good setting for the beat block gimmick, which is pulled off extremely well and creates a lot of unique shapes and arrangements to keep the platforming experience different and consistently require high concentration levels from the player. It's an excellent set of challenges that have been carefully devised and constructed to function really nicely. However, this level has some constant issues pertaining to both difficulty and length. Most of the level does a good enough job at keeping you on your toes with just the beat blocks alone, often requiring your movements to be timely and precise, especially with the risk of clipping through one of the blocks and falling into the lava as a result. This means that the player doesn't have as much room to avoid things like Podoboos, Bullet Bills, or Hammer Bros, or at least the amount you've placed in this level. The Hammer Bros. are strategically placed so that even a single instance makes it hard to survive a spot you need to be in to plan out your platforming, but the Bullet Bills and Podoboos cause problems just by their sheer number, so avoiding them almost comes down to luck. This also makes it difficult when there's lava everywhere and the level's long enough that dying anywhere to stuff like this can be really punishing. One section's even almost entirely lava, and in one part requires you to remain crouched on a moving skull raft until it reaches its destination while a Podoboo flies horizontally in the space you're ducking in. I also didn't care much for the coins below the red tetris block in the center of Section 2 because the difficulty in getting back up isn't worth the reward, or the Tanooki Suit requiring perfect precision on the return trip (although I love the basic idea behind reaching that). Overall, the level is really neatly crafted and is highly creative and challenging in terms of beat block arrangements, but the everpresent lava and projectiles plus huge length makes it a bit much. I still had a lot of fun with it and it's still very much doable, but the threat of instant death everywhere is excessive for a gimmick as complex as this. A shorter length would also probably help the minor lag spikes I got from the beat blocks combined with the high block count. The giant star at the end is a great presentation to finish the level off with, though.
- This was a fantastic level! The gimmick was pulled off great, it was used very creatively and it wasn't too frustrating to deal with. There were plenty of extra goodies to find which promoted some exploration and thankfully the path to the star was clear. It's a little on the long side in my opinion. I didn't die so it might be a little annoying to deal with if you screw up, which could happen if you mistime your jump with one of the more elaborate switch designs. Overall though, excellent job!
- I thought this was an enjoyable level. I liked the small creative things like the red switch containing a vine and the lava moving along with the Skull Raft. The Beat Blocks provided a fun challenge, although there were parts where you would often get inside the blocks and usually fall to your death. This could be fixed by using blocks that the player can walk through. From the looks the level reminds me of some celestial setup, perhaps a reference to Super Mario Galaxy since the gimmick is from that game. It's ok, I guess.
- Bomber57 (8.0/10)
- Note: For some reason the music didn't play in this level and I couldn't get it to work. This level was pretty nice and brought some unique gimmicks to the table, such as platforms that occasionally spin to throw you off or, the main gimmick, using switches to alter things for a set period of time. It was pretty cool how you made the munchers stop biting at points, though it was a little hard to get the rhythm of the ones that alternate every 2 seconds. Bits of this level were a little barren but I think thats fine considering most of the difficulty comes from the gimmicks, not the enemies.
- I really like this level and the gimmick throughout this place. Mostly yellow themed in this level... nicely recolored. What kills me is the music. Apparently the music file didn't work for me which killed my fun lmao. Oh well. The rest I really like it so I have no complaints about it... well except for some narrowed spots that you can glitch through if you're big and such. Moving rotating platforms... oh man... never see those as if late until now. Some secrets were kinda lacking though like that one area where I'm just getting a dragon coin from a different section and some coins but ok.
- This is a quite nice level. It's very pretty and detailed, explorative, has some polished design, and contains really interesting timed gimmicks. The spinning platforms are a nice addition to compliment the switch-based timer areas and line platforms, too. However, while the level properly instructs players on how the switches work, and I like the subtlety of the changing Munchers, the automatic ones are not indicated at all. I read the sign upon entering Section 4 and was initially confused by the absence of a switch, but then noticed a few Munchers were off and figured that perhaps some wrong layers were left on or off when the level was submitted. I jumped on the deactivated Munchers and, to my surprise, they came back to life, because the level never gave me a reason to expect that to happen by itself. These also have a poor effect on the maze shortly after towards the end, because I have to move as fast as possible, count to 13 in my head, and count to 2 multiple times in my head all at once just so I can keep track of my movements, the Munchers, and how long the maze is active for. I found that to be overly difficult, especially with no sound cues. I did enjoy everything else quite a bit, though. The design is solid, I really like how each timed challenge is crafted, and the level's difficulty is moderate enough that it isn't stressful.
- This was pretty neat. It had little, but fairly significant features such as the camera boundaries changing and the flippy flip flip things that I forgot the name of. My bad. It added some nice variety to the level and made it fun to play through. It could do with a little more wow factor as while these little extra details are great, it gets a little repetitive after a while.
- I have to admit this level has some pretty clever things going on. I like the block rushes where you hit a switch and a block maze will appear temporarily to help you cross a pit for example. The Munchers closing their mouths and therefore stopping being dangerous is a clever idea.
- Bomber57 (8.25/10)
- Do all the space levels have to use the Magicant music? The space invader enemies were pretty cool, and the level looked beautiful. I especially loved the glowing star trees. Some parts of the level got a bit too crowded with the enemies. You also could've informed the player of some deadly bugs involving the airship pilot section, but otherwise it wasn't too bad. Nice level.
- Lovely space level with aliens hovering around in this area and later a swarm of them. This was a very nice level and I really like as of what you did with the whole airship piece as of how it was used that way. Clever! Not much to say since this level is based on space, has nice variety and challenges... and it was just great. Spinjump requirement to defeat those invaders and some of them are even chasing ones... huhuu!
- This is a cool level. The complex platform and pipe arrangements combined with the cunningly-placed enemies create an intriguingly tricky and careful experience. The atmosphere is gorgeous and compelling too, and contains a high level of detail. It's a little bit shortlived, but what's here is still quite enjoyable. I didn't care much for the fact that Section 2 wraps, though. It's not introduced or explained to the player nicely, so when I got to the left edge and tried to do a running jump onto the sizable, the wrapping was completely unexpected and almost landed me facefirst into a chasing enemy. The airship piece, though really interesting, functions weirdly. There's a reason most people don't attach it to layers. Going through there was awkward because usually the entire ship is your hitbox, so I kept alternating between making sure enemies didn't hit any part of the ship and just blazing through making sure they didn't hit me in particular. The cannons have such a low rate of fire as well that trying to kill them is tedious. I think you should have just gone with the Clown Car or something.
- The sections are pretty short, but there's a decent amount of variety between them. I liked the level wrap in the second section.The mechanic with the boat isn't something you see too often and it was neat, although there wasn't much challenge or length to it. It was fun to see it present though.
- This is a nice level taking place in space. The space ship ride is a good example on how to use the infamous glitchy airship piece from the Lakitu tab. Attach it to a block arrangement and don't place any solid obstacles in the course.
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