Super Mario Bros. X Forums

mariogeek2 wrote:Okay, I'm not very active in the SMBX community, so I decided I might as well do something to increase my activity in the forums. That's why I've decided to do episode reviews. For my first episode review, I've decided to do an episode that everybody in the community knows. Anyway, I'm going to rate 5 different aspects of the episodes I review: Story, difficulty curve, good level design, atmosphere, and climax. Be warned, there will be something along the lines of spoilers. So here's my review:

Story - The story in the tower of biased 6 was really well done. It had the perfect pacing. At the beginning of the episode you're given just enough information to let the know what's going on. As the story progresses, you learn a little bit about what's going on, but you don't fully learn what's happening till right near the end. Each time the story progresses the player learns just enough to keep him/her satisfied, but enough unanswered questions are left to leave the player wanting to know what's going to happen next. The player is kept in the dark about who the leader really is for most of the episode. And it has a really interesting ending to satisfy the player, but it ended sort of abruptly when (Spoiler Alert!) you fell down the hole and talked to deadfish. I thought I was going to go to the roof and beat the crap out of Valtteri. That would've been the perfect ending. But I guess I was asking too much from a TOB episode. So my story rating is...
7.75/10

Difficulty Curve - This is a Tower of Biased episode, and all the levels are placed in sequence based on their score instead of their difficulty level. I understand that. But that still doesn't change the fact that it has a sloppy, unorganized difficulty curve. You'll play a super easy level, and the next one will be this hard-as-crap level that you have to beat to move on in the episode. Although, it is a bit better than all the previous TOB 6 episodes. My difficulty curve rating is -
4.3/10

Good Level Design - Are the levels in this episode designed well? I'd have to say...yes. The Tier 2 levels are okay levels, not that bad, not that good...average. But from there it only gets better. Sure, there are levels occasionally that make you ask, "How in the world did this level get this high in the ratings?" But for the most part the levels are well, or at at least decently, designed. So, my good level design rating is -
8/10

Atmosphere - One of the things that sets this TOB episode apart from all the rest is the atmosphere. This episode had the perfect example of what an atmosphere should be (That's not perfectly true. It really depends on what kind of episode you're making.). This episode tries to achieve the dark, mysterious, technological atmosphere, similar to the Metroid series. And it does this with flying colors. It has a really, REALLY good atmosphere. And the story enhances the atmosphere all that much more. So my atmosphere rating definitely is -
9.25/10

Climax - All right, your episode can have good level design, awesome music, a good story, and epic bosses. But if the ending sucks, it'll leave a bitter taste in the mouth of the player. However, if you have average level design, average music, an average story, and average bosses, but the ending is epic, then that can convince the player that the episode is better than it actually was. The finale was certainly good, but (like I pointed out earlier in my story review) it was kind of a let down when the episode ended (Spoiler Alert!) by talking to deadfish. Also, it felt sort of rushed. My climax rating is -
7.8/10

So, I guess I would have to rate this episode...7.42/10. It's definitely worth a play, and certainly better than all the other Tower of Biased episodes, but it's not the best out there. It has a lot of inside jokes relating to the community, so if you're new to the community, those won't make much sense. It's certainly not a 'Have-to-Play' episode, but there's nothing that really kills the episode.

P.S.- If there's an episode you want me to review, just PM me or post your request in the comments below.