Super Mario Bros. X Forums

Bossedit8 - 2.00
One ghost house that I have to say... it's bad. Design by itself was ok but to me I would of played the one ghost house from The Invasion rather than this one because this... has some unfair mechanics to it. Not only that there are warps that leads you back to the beginning of the same area, you have invisible switches later on that makes a warp appear with a timer that the warp will disappear again. Not fun. Also your enemy placements are sometimes very cruel like your thwomps on narrow spaces and such. Boss was at least ok.

ShadowStarX - 1.50
Urgh, this level… It’s not enjoyable and also uncreative. The invisible switches are placed unfairly, especially the second one. (the one that activates a pipe)
They’re unreasonably hidden, but the first mini-maze is also quite cliché. Well, the enemy placements were at least acceptable even if they were a bit spammy. The boss is also ridiculously easy, but the biggest flaw of the level is that I couldn’t complete it without checking the switch spots in the editor. I only give a point for the meh placement and half a point because of the little effort you’ve put into the level.
side note: does W.D. stand for Gaster or Waddle Derp

Zipper - 4.60
Eh, not a huge fan, sorry. Despite being a puzzle themed ghost house, the puzzles were just dumb blind luck. The first area is literally "try until it eventually works", which for me means "enter like 6 different doors because you have the worst luck on the planet". The next 2 areas tried to be smarter about it, but all I got out of it was frustration. I managed to find the switch necessary to proceed by sheer stupidity, I just decided to tap Jump while near a door because my hand slipped. The second time this happened, I was a little more aware so I did notice the suspiciously empty platform, but it didn't make it any more pleasant. The thing with this level is, the platforming is perfectly fine and enjoyable. You have a good sense of enemy placement, and the difficulty is acceptable. If you re-coloured this to a different theme and made it linear, I might have enjoyed it a lot more. Perhaps if you re-arranged your puzzles to make the player move around instead of just kicking them back to the start, this would work a lot better? A way to make the player be aware of the switch's existence would be nice too, perhaps with coins, or suspicious blocks, I dunno, you're the level maker here. The boss having removable floor was nice, except I didn't have a sense of urgency at all, since throw blocks shred through Boos like they're nothing.

Chad - 0.50
Not really a good time. It's already copying off of DO NOT ENTER as it is, but the differences involved aren't really worth it. The puzzles consist of either "enter a series of luck-based doors" or "hit an invisible switch block you couldn't possibly have known was there", and in both cases I had to quit and look in the editor because I was not given any reason to expect them. Also, redoing entire long sections just because of a wrong choice is tedious, and it's sort of a troll move to have all three of the pipes in that one room be false. Other than that, the design is very rudimentary, just platforms and open space. Work on trying something different, and you need to give players a chance to figure out what they need to do.

ElTipsta - 4.00
I think I found the ghost house you liked Wraith. Because this level is beautiful in all it's trolling and enemy placements, and door warps. A masterpiece in how to get the player to dislike ghost houses.

Bossedit8 - 6.00
Well... a land filled with multiple themes together into a grassland with water and even lava at places... and holes, never forget holes. Obstacle wise was ok for the most part but this world is just kind of weird if it's mixed up together into one section without any envioremental change in the background or even better, sections splitup to multiples so it's more natural this way. I find one of the dragon coin placement to be silly where you need a super leaf just to even get it. I do like your additional decorations though like at the pipes holding a tank piece area. There's one secret area which are just sonic rings once you found it after checking in a Metroid based warp that are spawning SMW Spiny Eggs... at least that one disappears after you went to the secret area to prevent unfair hits from the spawner.

Wraith Adamknight - 0.00(Original score of -1.00 was rounded up to 0.00)
This level doesn’t get a review. My advice, uninstall SMBX.

Zipper - 2.40
Ironic shitposting is still shitposting. Graphic spamming for cheap laughs doesn't change the fact that this is a flat piece of land that does everything it can to annoy you. Bouncing fish are irritating alone, we don't need podoboos or banzai bills to back them up. Putting rinkas, bullet bills and bowser statues in the same screen is not fun either. Something tells me you knew exactly what you were getting into when you made this, so I won't say much.

Chad - 3.50
Well, it's not really wrong. I almost don't know what to make of this, because the design alternates between seeming like it's either trying or not caring as quickly as it changes tilesets. The level was obviously intended to be a mishmash of chaos though, and that's pretty much how it turned out. It actually does play somewhat like a legit level most of the time though, and has a bit of strategic variety in its own weird way.

ElTipsta - 6.00
A linear level with lots of clash, which is probably the only time you'll be able to get away with it. This is well done and all the major themes are covered here well. Kinda wished you did more than one section (not including the bonus room) just to spice things up tbh.

Bossedit8 - 5.00
Difficult forest and castle level! I mean sure, let's just use a lot of wooden spikes with boos, swoopers and shooting spiny eggs from the pipes above to the bottom while climbing with volcano lotuses and some kamikaze koopas on my way... and yes you have to collect all of the dragon coins to get to the secret star which is very difficult to even guess because to get to the castle, press the gray switch 2 times to make a purple pipe appear after the orange one and then kill all the boos in the next area to get keys to the castle itself... that alone took me a while to guess without any hints to share. Then, good luck trying to get up again after you hit the red switch because momentum is needed and at the secret star, only Mario is able to get it. At the regular path later on, it's pretty annoying that you have to get several switches to get further on while climbing with boos and all kind of hazards going around the area! Least the level isn't long but for it's difficulty enviorement it was for sure an evil experience.

Wraith Adamknight - 1.00
This is a vanilla contest, not a challenge contest. IF you want to make a level like this, then find an appropriate contest. Content like this is unacceptable for this contest. Switch Hunting, Boos on Climbing Games, Switch Platforms that constantly lead into boos and spiny generators around spikes while climbing gates. This level doesn’t warrant a playthrough at all. I will only give you points simply for participating however, since you obviously tried but clearly don’t have the right mindset.

Zipper - 3.50
Holy ****. Put everything aside for a moment. I'm sorry I can't appreciate the level for what it is because I KEEP DYING EVERY 3 SECONDS. There's a way to make the player have a hard time, and starting them off in a tight enclosed space with a lotus plant harassing them, followed by two rooms of what could be described as a "Touhou dodging with wooden spikes" is NOT a good way. Not only is EVERY challenge accompanied by 2-3 boos that WILL screw you over on a fence because turning on a whim is impossible, but wooden spikes are literally EVERYWHERE and WILL kill you many times. I just gave up and cheated my way through after realising dying 9 times to a different wooden spike won't make me advance any further. The last section of the cave was probably the biggest offender. I refuse to believe any normal human being can go there for the first time and go "oh yeah I can beat it without dying 4 times". It's so bad that spikes can randomly push you to other spikes while you're falling BETWEEN them(yes this actually happened). I'm sorry that I couldn't take my time to talk about the level design, because your ideas are actually smart. Manipulating falling platforms to hit switches, climbing fences to manuever around tricky obstacles, giving a bonus path to the harder-to-use character...They're all just executed in such an abysmally difficult way that it's hard to actually talk about it.

Chad - 2.00
I want to appreciate the complex design, but so much happens in this level that's only there to make the experience painful. You have to babysit non-generated items with no way of knowing beforehand and an incredible likelihood of losing them even if you did know, you're expected to understand that hitting the same switch a second time will yield a different result with not so much as a single clue, that same pipe leads you to an immediate onslaught of enemies with no idea that you're supposed to kill Boos with a shell you didn't know you needed, and the rest of the level involves sudden and merciless Boo/Spiny Egg/Shell behavior in tight spaces. You do have a pretty intricate layout here, but it'd only be enjoyable in a context where the player is given any warning and any time to adjust to anything. It's highly evident that the level wasn't made with the experience of someone besides the designer in mind. I had to do some editor investigation before I could even learn half of it. The castle is a lot saner and the propeller block room in particular is built nicely, but it doesn't salvage the rest of the experience that you still have to deal with partially to get there. Sorry, this just isn't a good time.

ElTipsta - 7.50
A really challenging level that was fun to play, with a variety of enemies used. The first boo in Section 8 needs to be removed, likewise at least a couple of the others. That section is a little too hard in comparison to the rest of the main path IMO.

Bossedit8 - 5.00
A castle with... firebars, grinders, dry bones and statues. Well at least you get variety on NPCs but the level itself has lack of elevations... also your midboss is a Boom Boom. Your boss is a Toad controlling evil stuff and you can just skip it and also mess it up aswell. At the end, cutoff by missing the border pieces from the castle tiles before the main boss' door.

Wraith Adamknight - 0.00
This level doesn’t get a full review. It is pretty much “run right”, the level. All this level has is clever messages blocks, and that’s it. It’s too linear, difficult in certain spots and overall not a good level.

Zipper - 3.70
Well this sort of just came and went. The first area flew by me in like 15 seconds, with nothing of interest happening. The second part was a little more interesting, using saws in challenging ways, but again, it didn't do much with it other than "dodge vertically, dodge horizontally, dodge diagonally, repeat". The boss actually looked stupidly fun, until I realised I only need to grab ONE block to beat it. Then it was sort of underwhelming.
So yeah, overall, it's a good start, but it lacks a lot of substance.

Chad - 5.50
Pretty decent stuff. The player is given reduced space, but not to an extreme extent and it's used rather well for tricky jumps and enemy setups. While most of the level is sort of a plain rectangular tunnel with the same hazards, each one requires a different cautious maneuver from the player. The level could have gone without Boom-Boom though, as he adds nothing but a pointless delay in progress and a spawn point too close to where you talk to the friendly NPC. The actual boss, while really just a spin-jump up Grinders with an ice brick in hand, is an alright end to a level of this short length and difficulty. Kinda generic, but not bad and does offer its fun.

ElTipsta - 6.00
This is quite a difficult SMW castle level with a funny boss which I enjoyed. There were many traps in this level which were placed well, though powerups were a bit sparse in the second section personally. The boss required spin-jumping ehich isn't too difficult to do once you know what you're doing.

Bossedit8 - 6.00
For sure it's an interesting concept going on that you transport to different games via pipes per singular rooms and such (SMW to SMB3, SMB3 to SMB2, so on and so on...) but as of how the design goes it's not quite the best. I mean, there are areas that are hard to navigate like jumping on enemies in a small area and such... other times there are enemies that are either randomly stuck or even take an unfair hit after you come out of the warps. The rest was ok but it could of done better with it's design. Also you can get stuck if you break too many blocks in one section if you really want to.

Wraith Adamknight - 3.00
Level was unique in the concept of having each individual room be different, which I really liked. However, it also took the concept from Super Enigmatic World, in which each section is compact and lacks too much substance. Considering this is a puzzle, I was expecting the level to challenge me outside of guessing the correct path to walk. Another issue I had was that the level reused the same mechanics but kept switching the "game" style and music, which got incredibly irritating. I would recommend expanding each individual section a little bit, and try to recycle ideas creatively rather than create the same obstacle over and over. Quality over quantity, remember this.

Zipper - 3.50
"No custom graphics" doesn't NECESSARILY mean "you should use literally EVERYTHING that's not custom!". I get that you wanted to create the feeling of a bizarre labyrinth, but when the connections are extremely arbitrary AND are jarring, then it's not going to work. (My personal opinion, SMB1 Underground does not go well with anything. But that's irrelevant.) The gameplay is simple to grasp, needing to navigate a maze of sorts by going through many 1-screen challenge rooms. Rooms that offer almost nothing new, and are sometimes easily ignorable(Hi SMB2 Overworld area!). It was a bore until I realised a mistake can mean very slow backtracking(pipe room, TWICE, I had to make sure I didn't miss a path), then it just became irritating. I do like the idea of having to carry a power-up to proceed, except you need to carry it so far that if you lose it at any point, might as well kill yourself and start over because you're not getting that back any time soon. Overall, having an area span across multiple screens while providing more connections to the player could be nice. And holy hell please have some internal consistency. You could've used SMB3 castle/desert/sea/grass/cave only, and it'd look much better AND feel more connected. Rockman 4 Minus Infinity did a great job of demonstrating this at Wily Stage 3, but then again, that one depended on bosses and Megaman's weaponry, so it might not translate well here.

Chad - 3.00
Not the biggest fan of this one. I do somewhat like how each room is exactly one screen large and all laid out differently, as well as being a tour of several different themes, but most of the level consists of picking warps at random until you get somewhere useful. Many of the rooms have awkward or excessive enemy placements, which are often either practically on top of you as soon as you enter a section, or interact weirdly with the claustrophobic design. There is something interesting about needing to find a Kuribo's Shoe and take that to the final warp, but if you lose it on the way, you've got quite a lot to retrace even if you've memorized the correct route. You were nice enough to allow NPCs on all of the warps so the option exists of just carrying it, but that's still a considerable distance to babysit an item.

ElTipsta - 5.00
I like the creaitve usage of the vanialla graphics in this level. It is essentially a labyrinth that while it looks hard at first, is actually relatively straightfroward once you know what you are doing. Apart from a couple of minor errors (the spike top in one of SMW cave sections) there isn't muh to point out on, apart from I think the hidden star could have been hidden away in a different puzzle. Otherwise, nice job.

Bossedit8 - 5.75
Please... whenever you make a vertical section with level wrap, make sure you put blocks at the offscreen area and make sure if one side has blocks the other side has blocks to or else this happens:

Anyway, level itself was ok as of how you did with the pipe section going up. Pipe choicements and then enemies to deal with but with all those pipes connecting into offscreen it's kind of awkward to deal with without blocks at the other side. After that one section, hi SMB2! I do like the variety for sure but there's one area that lacks enemies and that is at the area before the waterfall with a lot of pickable grass and after the waterfall, the waterfall connects to nothing at the top right of it which is really weird. Now to the stupid part, you gotta find a key so you can enter the door that leads you immediadly to the top. First time playing I have no clue as of where it is so I just flew up there with a super leaf. To even get the key, it's hidden in a block over the last Hoopster enemy. I mean sure, let's just hide it like that so not everyone is gonna figure it out this quickly unless I check it on the level editor just so I can see it. That's really bad. Don't do that unless you indicate it to the player better... like seriously. Further on you have 2 choices, go further to get to the regular star with a bunch of hidden blocks that contains a mushroom block or head to the secret area in the middle vase to fight Wart. Doesn't matter what you choose, both contain SMB3 stars.

Wraith Adamknight - 0.00(Original score of -1.00 was rounded up to 0.00)
You clearly have no grasp of the editor to warrant making a contest level. I commend you for trying, but experiment some more buddy. Your level wrap doesn’t have blocks extending off the screen so you just fucking fall off. You require a key, but place it so you need an NPC to reach it AND hide it in an invisible block. Like seriously, why would you design this level?

Zipper - 5.80
Ouch. We need to talk about what to do in a level with horizontal looping. Basically, if I can walk off one side, and FALL to the ground level from the other, you're doing something wrong. Most of the pipe placements felt arbitrary and prone to accidents. That said, I do like everything else about that part. A lot of clever jumps needed to progress, along with threats that are much more notable on a single-screen area. Even though I mentioned "being able to walk off the side" as being a bad thing, the fact that you need to occasionally jump through a warp really adds flavour to the gimmick, it becomes more calculated.
And then we have the second area, which is....Subcon. Well I should've expected that. Sadly, this tries to do MUCH less than the first area, with basic and easy platforming. The only thing that kept me there was the search for the key(which I failed to finish btw, I just used a Leaf to fly up there, the key is hidden TOO well). After that, we have a rock barrier that can simply be walked under(just remove rock barriers altogether), a pipe that leads to a Wart boss fight, and a path that leads immediately to an end star. I don't know why one of them is SIGNIFICANTLY easier to collect than the other, to be honest. Perhaps you meant to make one a collectible? Either way, the first area is quirky but fun, and Subcon is...well....not fun. I don't really have any advice on how to make it better, but making the platforming less stale by increasing section height could be a decent start.

Chad - 4.00
An okay level. It makes use of the SMB3 pipe area level wrap gimmick, but in a pretty minimal sense, although it does sometimes make you think a little. However, you often have to wrap around while surfaces are at different heights, which creates buggy interactions. The second half is a relatively short, but also a fairly ordinary trip through an SMB2 overworld. Compared to the first half, this part felt a bit extra, because the name of the level and length of the pipe area made it feel like it should have ended once you emerged, and the areas after don't really do too much of note. I also didn't care much for the required key in the randomly-placed invisible block that I found mostly by chance. Not a bad level, but very basic and not particularly interesting.

ElTipsta - 5.50
A pretty decent level, and the styles mixed well. However there are a couple of serious issues with the design. The SMB3 pipe section was poorly done with regards to the level wrap. The tiles should be in line with each other on each side so it's a natural transition. The player should be able to seamlessly walk from one side of the screen into the other, not jump. The pipes/blocks ar out of step. The player could fall down or hit a wall like you can do in several places. It was poorly designed, I'd personally remove the level wrap and modify the appropriate sections as you'd otherwise have to redesign the whole thing. Also, I don't know if this was intended but it's possible to get to the top of the sizables near the end of section 1 via the Bob-omb generator spawn point if you jump on top of it as it spawns, so I think I skipped part of the level.

Bossedit8 - 7.00
Nice SMB2 design. I like what you did with the attacks of the SMB hammers from vases and also having those SMB hammers as weapons. I also like it's design but later on it could of done a bit better like the underground area, it's a bit too open for me like I thought the level wraps at first but no, it isn't. Also, getting all of the dragon coins can take some time since some of the warps are hard to guess if that's an actual warp like the small vase in the clouds. Enemy placements was decent... sometimes a bit too much or others a bit oddly placed with the background objects behavour as seen on the one Hoopster being inside the slopes. Anyway, hi Birdo at the end with a Sparky generator. After that there's your star with a message with my name on it. Ok, thank you for drawing your attention to me.

Wraith Adamknight - 1.14
This is just a bad level. It is way too long and makes the player wait on so many unnecessary elements. Bombs, building bridges, taking utterly useless doors; all of these amount to just bad design. What killed it the most was the fact you have a pipe right after the midway point that puts you back at the start of the level. Then there is this birdo fight which was just terrible. Its position means you can only grab one out of two eggs on top of having to dodge sparkies for no reason. Also, Easter eggs to judges don’t equal more points.

Zipper - 2.00
Oh hell, there's no rhyme or reason to ANYTHING in this level. It's like you pressed a random block every few seconds then rammed your mouse across the screen. Grabbable hammers(that hurt you)? PROJECTILE hammers? Boomerangs? What the hell is the point of these? Not to mention you stop caring about the hammers like 6 seconds into the level. In fact, I can call this "Gimmicks with a lifespan of an ifunny joke" : The Level. Hammers, sparks in bubbles, a Clock on invisible platforms for no reason, MUSHROOM STACKING UGH(JUST STOP IT'S STUPID AND NOBODY LIKES IT), a Birdo battle with the most horrifyingly awful gimmick imaginable... etc. Most of your points come from the fact that I can play it without dying violently and it lasts for a while. Next time, try to make something coherent. Have an idea in your head and base the level around it. Don't just randomly add NPCs and hope it works.

Chad - 4.50
It's an okay SMB2 level. The design is ordinary, but functional. A little bit of variety is explored, but most of what's introduced is left behind soon after, like the generating hammers and bombs. The overworld generally felt somewhat planless and the cave felt a bit cluttered and messy, but you handled the key and "Phantos" pretty well, as well as the vine section and Snifit turrets within. Birdo fight's meh, as the Spark generators are a bit too frequent and very little space is provided. Simply made, but not bad.

ElTipsta - 6.50
This SMB2 level has an interesting design. The multiple paths in the underground sections were a nice touch, likewise the backtracking. The heaven section was also an interesting, likewsie the hammers spawning from pipes - I didn't think of that before! The Birdo boss a bit too hard for the level and is a bit out of place, but at least getting the Dragon Coin in that section is pretty easy. The backtracking warps into the top of section 1 is a nice isea but if the player accedentially falls down they have a LOT of backtracking to do, so I would personally question the inclusion of that. Nice job.

Bossedit8 - 2.75
Well... you did put creativity with the whole moving layers and such in this level but there are certain cases that are just annoying to deal with like the whole piranha plant NPCs on moving layers because it hits you unfairly while on a moving layer up and down. Very stupid. Then of course you have to wait until the entire tower is at the bottom while they shoot bullet bills from their pipes at you. Near the end of the level, elevator going up. Beginning not too bad but later on it gets stupid because the blue coins are traps and such. Oh and there's one area that if you break these 2 turn blocks you can't get up anymore because it's too tall for you to jump over.

Wraith Adamknight - 1.71
This was interesting, to say the least, but there are a lot of flaws. Jumps which are just barely possible and a lot of jumps where, if you do something correctly, makes the jump impossible. Quite a few things did interest me, such as webs on pipes and the sidepaths with the dragon coins. However, your level is too long and the elevator section, in my opinion, needs to be completely removed. So, kudos on surprising me and having a neat level, but you’ll have to experiment some more.

Zipper - 4.80
Oh man, moving layers. I love them. Except when they kill you unfairly, then I don't love them. This level MOSTLY seemed to avoid pulling unfair tricks on the player...that is, if you were following the path to the goal, and nothing else. The first Dragon Coin was already tricky. The second one is RIDICULOUS and not worth it for a simple 1-up. And then the third one is extremely easy to collect as well. This inconsistency is somewhat bothersome. As for the level itself, it didn't try to do much, which is sort of disheartening because I have a thing for moving layers. However, it still introduced crushers at a reasonable pace, allowing the player to adapt. I'm a much bigger fan of the second part, with the bomb launchers and moving blocks with piranha plants on them. I really wish you had doubled down on that "rapid bombs but with protection" gimmick, it seemed really promising. What's worse is that the rest of that area was just tapping A to the beat of Soldier Game, while Bullet Bills harmlessly passed you for about 45 seconds. The end area elevator was ..eh. The coin leads were actually surprisingly generous, but then you throw random cement blocks with NO forewarning, which COULD lead to a cheap kill(I didn't die, by luck). Not a big fan of the blue coins either. I followed them and died like an idiot, since I was sleep deprived and didn't pick up on the screaming "BLUE IS BAD" message that popped up on the screen, but I still think deliberately misleading coins are unnecessary when you have LEADING coins right there. Anyway, overall, not too bad, but needs polish.

Chad - 5.50
Clever in some ways, troublesome in others. You really did well at putting the same one or two moving layers to work by repurposing them in several different ways, and for the most part they're clear-cut obstacles that are easy to anticipate and plan around. The setup is reminiscent of classic SMW, and operates pretty smoothly. However, they're also pretty fast and change rather abruptly, and not every area they're used in accomodates this. For instance, the second Dragon Coin barely gives you more than a couple frames as your window for grabbing it, and that's even without the other platforms you have to cross consecutively after it. Piranha Plants don't work on vertical moving layers because standing on their pipes will still hurt. I did enjoy the rapid bomb generator that's partially blocked, and the sinking tower of bullet generators is pretty creative, but the latter hardly gives you time to jump across it before it's fully down. You're already preoccupied with the faster bullets at the top as it is, plus it's lengthy to redo if you die. In general, the level felt like it was designed for a slower set of layers and then was changed at the last second without further consideration. I'd say that the final elevator is also borderline excessive, as the level could have just ended fine after the bullets, but the last segment is actually pretty short and forgiving aside from the array of stone blocks midway through. The level has several faults in execution, but it is still pretty doable, with design and difficulty that hold up rather cleverly in the places that work.

ElTipsta - 8.00
This lava cave level is really nice. The moving layers gimmick is fleshed out well (and the usage of the castle tileset to identify it is very creatively done conisdering the limitations). The last section, the ascent was interesting and a nice way to climax the level, likewise the bullet bill section before it was also a neat idea. The minority of graphical clash (ie. Fire Flowers, SMB1 Special Blocks) can be forgiven conisdering the overall qualtiy of the level.

Enjl & snoruntpyro
Valtteri & Quill
Darkonius & Spinda
Thwomp King & Linik
Circle Guy
Camacho
Sewpah
glitch4
RoundPiplup
h2643
ShyGuyOfMoonside
Catastrophe
MosaicMario
Sux
ssumday
Duster
Ness-Wednesday
RudeGuy
HenryRichard
witchking666
andregemeo23
AirShip
Snessy the duck
Shinbison-kof
Nat The Porcupine
WaluigiTime64
Yoshi678