Winter Contest: The Winner and the Runner-up

[Sewpah]

I think my level might be in tier 3 or 4. Well, I'll look forward to the next results.

[SuperWingedYoshi]

surprise that crusher169 made it past Tier 2 as well! I remember his CC8 level took him like 30 minutes or something.

well that's just mean

It was rather meant as a compliment though...! Sorry...

next contest: pretty sure im getting highest tier.

I can see the trend, but I think this is quite optimistic, bud. That means being on nearly the same level as Chad, sezixor or zlaker! I'm not saying this is impossible, but it will be tough!

[MECHDRAGON777]

surprise that crusher169 made it past Tier 2 as well! I remember his CC8 level took him like 30 minutes or something.

well that's just mean

It was rather meant as a compliment though...! Sorry...

next contest: pretty sure im getting highest tier.

I can see the trend, but I think this is quite optimistic, bud. That means being on nearly the same level as Chad, sezixor or zlaker! I'm not saying this is impossible, but it will be tough!

True, what are the odds of someone that claims hey started SMBX to win a contest in the same year? I know I am not one to brag but still!

Still curious how my level is still not placed though! The only time I sumit something that is not an ice level is why I do terrible! Why is that?

[Waddle]

I don't wan't to be arrogant (too late) but I'm half-certain my level will make top 10. My cc11 level is gonna be even more spectoncular :p

[Emral]

Oh man you're seriously telling me that this 3 year old level I submitted got this far already?

[Mable]

Rosalina Text

Not to be an ass but, do you have somekind of fetish on Rosalina or why do you keep asking everyone if you can play as Rosalina?

[Aviici]

I am eager to see more results! I have a question Can we publish our levels now? I did not participate, but I'm asking this by someone.

[MECHDRAGON777]

Rosalina Text

Not to be an ass but, do you have somekind of fetish on Rosalina or why do you keep asking everyone if you can play as Rosalina?

Rosalina is my favorite Mario charater, and I replaced my personal graphics in my version of smbx for tht reason, any time I ask if they aloud her to be playable, I actualy do mean peach, I just use a reskin!

[Marina]

Tier 2

hell yeah B)

[Valtteri]

Tier 3 as I promised...

Tier 3 Places 31-40

Spoiler: show

40. PaperPlayerX - Demented Dungeon (4.97/10)

• Bomber57 (3.75/10)
  • I was actually rather thrilled at first to see a level where you got to play as Link. I then learned this was essentially a pogo-stick challenge that wasn't put together very well. It is good to be challenging, but when you have spikes placed in spots that make it hard if not nigh impossible to avoid. I also could never find the first key, and looking in the editor it seems to be inside the ceiling. How was the player ever supposed to find that? The level only seemed to get harder from there. When you make a puzzle, please consider that the player has no idea where any of these secret things would be when you, as the editor, would.
  Chad (4.4/10)
  • Quite the complicated setup you have here. The puzzle designs are truly brilliant, making ingenious use of various uncommon SMBX elements like Link's spike-bouncing and conveyor belt NPCs to give each room multiple purposes. This really makes the player have to discover and solve in order to find the way forward, and it's really impressive how you managed to do this. However, there are a number of unfair aspects about the level that make it feel as though you designed it with the assumption that players would understand it as fully as its creator does. For starters, how would anyone guess that the fairy section uses the background castle tiles? Nothing indicates them at all, you would have to just plain know it somehow. The conveyor section is excessively narrow, requiring unreasonably tight maneuvering to get through the enemies and tunnels. The elevator section will crush you if you don't perfect-run it before you even know what to expect, because you have to bounce on some of the spikes at the earliest chance while trying not to get crushed by the layer overlap. The level throws a lot at the player and is a pretty long run for having almost no powerups and no midpoint until the end, so you basically have to do everything with zero mistakes. This issue is expanded upon further when the second star requires you to find an extra key in an unguessable block and then do every room twice in ways most players wouldn't even imagine. The "no magic missiles" hint isn't helpful either when the star still doesn't appear if you choose not to hit any of the starting blocks, meaning you got that far and did everything correctly for nothing. In short, the level has really clever ideas, but they're ruined by unfair execution and lack of consideration for how other players are going to pick it up, because people aren't going to beat it without first investigating the entire level in the editor extensively.
  Quill (6.5/10)
  • The place you hid that first key is cruel and relies on luck if you accidentally find it or not. Fix that. The rest of the level is pretty cool though, I especially liked the conveyor room. The puzzle was pretty cool. Everything else was okay, but nothing too special. The second indoor room seems to have no purpose also.
  Layla (5.4/10)
  • Not a bad level. It didn't feel too much like a legend of zelda level even if you're playing link, considering it's all heavily SMB3 styled minus the bots. Various spots in the level were very cramped as well, with a lot of irritating bots getting in the way and making it unfairly hazardous for Link. I did like the conveyor belt gimmick and how a switch at the end changes the entire section to move backwards to once again pose a lot of obstacles for Mario.
  Valtteri (4.8/10)
  • That was mean. This level has one too many cryptic puzzles. The surprise go-through walls are a menace. There are WAY too many enemies in the first conveyor belt puzzle room. And the room with the paths that all just led me to a dead-end, I couldn't for the life of me figure what I was supposed to do there. But I do kind of like the looks of the level, with the mix of the SMB3 dungeon blocks. I haven't seen anything quite like that before.

39. crusher169 - Casual Casino 2.0 (5.0/10)

• Chad (4.5/10)
  • An odd level, frankly. It's mostly a few tricky jumps and you're done. What's offered from start to finish isn't bad, but it's a very small dose of gameplay. It's also somewhat difficult to tell what you can interact with and what you can't, because a lot of the scenery is just as dynamic-looking as the actual obstacles and surfaces. Also, I don't see why you needed to point out the secret exit in the readme when you could have just had that extra block make a sound or something, because most people are not going to want to minimize ToB9 just to open up a Notepad file. But yeah, that's about all there is to the level. It has a lot of detail, at least.
  Joey (6.0/10)
  • The graphics in this level were cool, but it was cut kind of short for some reason. There were a lot of times where the player had to make large jumps over spikes, but I guess there's nothing wrong with that. To make this level better, I would put in some more talking characters and maybe a minigame. You could also develop more on the casino setting itself. Is this a casino that's secretly run by the Koopas and employs Shy Guys for labor underground? There just wasn't enough going on.
  Quill (4.5/10)
  • Casual Casino 2.0: Electric Boogaloo. I don't think I'm going to consider this an improvement over the first. This level lacks the charm the first one has. This level has a bunch of problems, such as tight areas and some lack of creativity, which is a shame. It's not bad by any means, it just could be a lot better.
  Layla (5.0/10)
  • I remember Casual Casino vividly from CC8 and I can safely say that this is a much bigger improvement. It's got a nice little "find the secrets gimmick" but the gimmick is also applied in rather cheap ways (climbing up on top of piranhas causes a power-up to be lost). I'd also make a little bit more room in the cllosed in areas, especially since the jumping stars take up a lot of space.
  Valtteri (5.0/10)
  • The flashing stars are confusing, I thought you could jump on them. In the first section I didn't realize you could enter the Shell spawn first and went right and found the 1UP and a Toad speaking nonsense. There was just a massive pit beyond that so I tried blind-jumping and died. At least take out the pit... Before that was also a jump over spikes with very low ceiling that looked impossible, but was actually pretty easy. I don't know what to think of that really, it was kind of cool in a way! Overall the level is decent. The structure is a bit weird when it isn't boringly plain if you know what I mean.

38. Mr Pancake Guy - Mushrooms of Rosalina (5.08/10)

• Chad (5.0/10)
  • A relatively normal athletic-type level. The design feels a little empty (even for a sky level, there are ways around this like cloud-based scenery and additional platforms and such), but this level does offer a few interesting things aside from standard platforming. There are good uses of moving layers and P-switch runs, such as the decently challenging mushroom ride at the start and the layers with the on/off switches on them. The switch platforms automatically triggered by Koopas are a rare sight that I'd like to have seen more of. However, I didn't care much for the invisible block bridge that makes the Spiny generator excessively difficult to pass, the first P-switch requiring you to step on Munchers, and the boss is a lot more difficult and time-consuming than the rest of the level. Still fair, with a good attack pattern, but the simple difficulty of this level should lead up to something similarly forgiving. Mostly minor stuff though, and other than that this level is okay.
  Joey (4.0/10)
  • There was nothing interesting or rewarding about this level; it was just a bunch of obstacles with no coherent theme or flow. Most of it was poorly designed in that you had to rely on quick jumping/bouncing off Koopas, and the blocks (especially the green sizables) were messy and badly-placed. There wasn't much coordination in graphics either - while they didn't look horrendous, the styles were just kind of random.
  Quill (4.5/10)
  • Misleading name! This level had nothing to do with Rosalina, or her mushrooms. Anyway, the level is kinda lacking in detail and good design. Some things felt a little rushed or just felt like not much effort had been put into them.
  Layla (5.6/10)
  • This wasn't a bad level, but it had a few things that really killed the quality. Normally, mushroom platforms have one stalk, in the center. I also think mentioning the creator himself twice throughout the entire level wasn't a great idea either. Munchers also probably shouldn't float in the air, whether or not there is an upside down one right under it. Aside from all those, the level was rather mediocre with a mediocre boss. I will say some parts, like the platform switches and the koopa shells were a clever touch I don't think I've seen used in that manner before, and I also thought the P-switch section was done nicely, at least for a P-switch gimmick.
  Valtteri (6.3/10)
  • This is a pretty fun level. There's a severe lack of scenery in the first half. It looks bland and boring. The mushroom ride is something fresheningly different though.

37. Cloth pocket - Vicious Volcano (5.2/10)

• Chad (5.5/10)
  • A rather short lava cave level that, despite its title, is actually rather tame. It's a simple tunnel run of jumping over pits and enemies until you reach the end, but the structure of the cave is quite nice and the difficulty is comfortably moderate. There isn't a lot of variation, so there isn't much else to talk about, but nothing to really complain about either. It's a simple and pleasant run.
  Joey (4.0/10)
  • Very short and uneventful. I didn't like some of the lava-styled graphics, mainly the background. Also, having vines that you can't climb up is kind of deceiving - I would change these graphics to something else that doesn't make the player automatically think they can climb them.
  Quill (3.0/10)
  • Well, that escalated quickly. What I played was alright, but extend it, man!
  Layla (6.9/10)
  • For being a somewhat short SMW lava level, I found it to be a rather nice and easy level. It's got all the basics, coins, a couple power-ups, and a small variety of enemies, all needed for a lava-cave theme. Although, that background is incredibly bright, and I would definitely tone that down. I'm also not sure when we decided to start using SMW vines as background objects instead of SMB2 vines. It was also a pretty cramped level.
  Valtteri (6.6/10)
  • This is a pretty little level. It takes hardly a minute to complete. It's just a cave run with some lava on the bottom and a few enemies you have to jump over. It does look neat though. Except I don't get the red plants. Have you ever been inside a volcano? There is no vegeation inside a volcano, I can assure you. Not even red grass.

36. MECHDRAGON777 - Fabrik in Weltraum (5.4/10)

• Bomber57 (4.0/10)
  • Well, we all knew it was coming folks. This level is the Operation Star Snatcher clone. And one heck of a clone it is. This uses nearly every gimmick from that level right down to the walk-through walls. Except instead of the walk-through walls being a little thing for the side star, the walk-through walls are a major gimmick in this level. Specifically, having to deactivate a laser barrier by happening upon a hidden wall and flipping the switch there. That aside, there are many other issues I would like to talk about. First is enemy placement. There are sections where there are swarms, and I mean SWARMS of flying robots while Mario is on a line platform. This can be tricky to avoid, especially over pits and around other harmful objects. The outdoor space sections also didn't add much to the level and simply felt like an excuse to have slippery physics for the hell of it. A thing I have the biggest issue with in this level is the overall layout of it. In Operation Star Snatcher, the level was put into various distinct areas to give the level a sort of atmosphere and also help the player when navigating around the facility. Here it feels very messy. I also don't like how later on there are some doors that will take you to the start and then you can't go back to where you were, meaning you have to cross back over a chunk of the level again. Hidden walls seem to be a large thing throughout the entire level actually. That means that the player has to hug every wall and jump up and down mashing your face into the cold metal surface hoping you'd find the hidden switch or barrier to let you progress. Then there is a final section where you have to go around hitting four switches, and this section has all the bad parts of the level in one. Enemy spam, poor enemy placement and choice, random and unecessary slippery physics, hidden areas that are hard or impossible to reach (I had to use shadowstar at one point), and obscure puzzles that the player could never solve. Again, this level has the serious issue of puzzles that the level MAKER could solve, but the PLAYER could never figure out. I find this level to be a rather disappointing use of the marvelous graphics Sednaiur made for Operation Star Snatcher.
  Chad (4.0/10)
  • This level asks way too much of the player. It offer a massive amount of variety, interesting event execution, and intriguingly complicated design all the way through, but this level just had no idea when to stop. It takes at least 30 minutes to complete, and that's just if you don't die. On top of that, you're expected to find 4 hieroglyphs (and the midpoint's useless when it comes to this), most of which are hidden in secret passageways that look exactly like the rest of the tileset, so there's really no way to find them except by luck. I managed to find 3 of them, but ironically the one I missed was right at the start and I couldn't go back. You do offer a door back to the start in one area, but I didn't want to redo everything before I was even finished. Most of the gimmicks are annoying along the way, such as Rinkas with no warning, clusters of flying enemies, timed platforms that are difficult to keep track of while watching everything else, and electricity that spends way more time on than it does off. Also, apparently you have a Touhou spellcard segment at the end of the entire hieroglyph run alongside some electricity, and quite frankly I'm not subjecting myself to that. The level already feels like many levels crammed into one before that. The only things I can really say positively about this level are that the visuals are excellent, the overall structure of the level is astoundingly complex, and the amount of effort put into this level is clearly immense. It's just that nearly everything about the gameplay and length is handled poorly to the point that it just isn't fun.
  Quill (7.0/10)
  • I dunno man. This just feels too similar to a previous contest level. It doesn't really add much to the table, either. It's not that bad by any means, but it drags on for quite a while while offering only some variety.
  Layla (5.0/10)
  • I'm not sure what went through your mind to made one block high platform areas, tunnels with no indication that they are there inside the filler walls, several annoying platform havens, mandatory to hurt yourself to hit a switch, tedious waiting for blue lazers to turn off, and all of this in one insanely long maze of a level. I am happy to see this great lab tileset by Sednaiur used again, and I'm going to admit you did it some justice, but there are too many issues with the level that I had a very hard time enjoying it. I will say I liked the small elevator element towards the beginning and the amount of power-ups and coins are decent.
  Valtteri (7.0/10)
  • Please don't make the player look for invisible paths inside the walls... Luckily I was able to find them fairly easily and got out of the level relatively fast. Besides that, it's an okay level. I don't have much to say, it's pretty simple really if you take out the laser beams and whatever you took from Sednaiur's level for the 8th contest.

35. Willhart - Ghosty Lake (5.68/10)

• Chad (6.0/10)
  • This level is refreshingly different. Using water as a full-blown solid tileset is certainly unusual, but very interesting at the same time. It opened up the similarly-creative possibility to conceal aquatic enemies within the tileset, which made the first few sections entertaining to traverse through. I also enjoyed the generally restrictive block placement, as it gave the level a lot of detail while requiring deliberate planning from the player. However, the design felt lazy towards the end, as it basically set up the joke and did nothing more. The quicksand blocks also threw me off quite a bit. You should have just made them swimmable, because then you'd have some neat reversal of solid/water surfaces. Otherwise, this was a fun and silly little ride, with some entertaining design in the first areas and a bit of innovation too.
  Joey (4.0/10)
  • The duck mechanic was cool.
  Quill (6.5/10)
  • what the fuck
  Layla (1.9/10)
  • I have never played a level that could make me break out laughing like that before. I must say, with the comical inner tube gimmick that was actually pulled off rather well, the strange ghost and motorcycle sprite, and the Christmas graphics and music all amounted to a really hilarious level. Sorry to say it, but the design isn't serious.
  Valtteri (10.0/10)
  • I laughed my ass off at the motorcycle ghost... This is great! How did you come up with the duck thing and how to make the ground so you can't walk on it? That is so weird! This is truly clever and the implementation is excellent and beautiful. Fantastic job!

34. Sandra - Frosty Land (5.72/10)

• Chad (6.0/10)
  • Nice SMB1 level. It's a relatively normal snowland run, but with tricky jumps, strategic pipe placements, and Hammer Bros. to require more deliberate action and caution from the player and add a bit of challenge. It's comfortably short with some clear attention to detail when planning the difficulty. You might want to avoid placing brick blocks in front of castles though, as they blend in extremely well. Other than that nitpick, this was an enjoyable minor twist on an ordinary SMB1 setting.
  Joey (6.0/10)
  • Not too bad, but some of the block placement was really awkward. For example, the single pillars of dirt/grass often looked jagged and out of place. The brick blocks were almost always in front of castles, which can cause the player to not see them. The level also didn't really offer much variation in structure - it was largely the same jump over pits/dodge Hammer Bros. formula. Other than those things, this level was alright. The music was interesting, too.
  Quill (4.5/10)
  • Cute level. Too bad it was short, it had some potential. From what I played, it wasn't too special either. It wasn't that bad though, it just could have been more.
  Layla (5.7/10)
  • You should really check all your surface blocks to make sure they all are slippery or all not slippery, because I had a lot of parts where I ended up dying because I either thought it wouldn't be slippery but it was and parts where I thought it would but it ended up not being slippery. It tells me you didn't test your level very well and is a fairly big design flaw. Other than that, I wouldn't say there were many other redeeming qualities, other than it was a somewhat enjoyable level with some tricky jumps and expanded out NPC placement. And the graphics and music all helped to make it a cheerful snowy atmosphere, and I think that really played a role into making it a fun level to play as well. Overall, it was a fine level, but you should really test more to prevent any deep designing mistakes.
  Valtteri (6.4/10)
  • A decent snow level. All the flat blocks are slippery and the slopes aren't. That's weird.

33. Turtwig - Forest of Terror (5.76/10)

• Chad (5.3/10)
  • A sort of unique take on a day/night gimmick. The level design is relatively simple, but it does a good job at supporting the gimmick, and it's nice that you made it clear what changes. Although, even with the warning, the enemy placements aren't especially fair when things switch. You caution the player about how to act around the ghosts, but you could just place them higher and more out of the way instead of right above the ground. They'd still catch up with you rather easily. Avoiding the daytime ground-based enemies is purely luck, because there's no telling if they'll appear exactly where you are and unfairly hit you. Also, the Paratroopas in the bonus section are a complete troll move since they all swarm to your location in seconds. In summary, it's a decent level with interesting gimmick execution, but enemy handling should have been given a lot more consideration.
  Joey (5.0/10)
  • The day/night switch was a cool idea but the rest of the level just seemed bland. I don't think the rest of the graphics fit well with the dark forest background. You might want to try making a layer with a semi-transparent BGO that covers the whole screen and makes everything darker instead of changing the background.
  Quill (6.5/10)
  • This is a really unique level. I loved the gimmick; it's super unique! A little more could have been done with it, some more variety between day and night would have been nice, but what you've already done is acceptable. It's kinda glitchy to hold shells as when they pass over to night, they disappear but Mario still appears to be holding something. When it goes back to day, he'll be holding an actual Koopa Troopa. One time, it went to night and I was holding a Boo. Not sure what happened there. Overall, you did a pretty good job.
  Layla (7.0/10)
  • Heh, this was actually a really clever concept, and I can't say I've ever seen it used before. You did warn about the enemies that could kill you in cheap ways, and with a gimmick like this, there's not much you can do about that, so I give you props for having the decency to warn us about it. I'd also like to give you props for using virtually all vanilla elements and still making this out to be a decent level with a great gimmick (even if it was a executed in a rather rough way). NPC placement, even if it was randomized from the day and night gimmick, felt a little bit overflowing, and I'm not completely sure a thwomp or bowser statues fit in a forest level.
  Valtteri (5.0/10)
  • Odd concept... I guess warning the player with sound effects so they don't get unfairly hit by enemies during the day/night transitions works, although I could come up with several less clunky methods. You could make the background go dark through a couple of phases so the player has time to react. The spinjump part with the Eeries was dangerous, maybe a bit too hardcore.

32. beanluv - Emerald Hill (5.86/10)

• Chad (5.8/10)
  • Decent Sonic-themed level. For the most part it's a pretty standard course. You get over some hills and ledges, avoid enemies, cross a few bridges, and that's mostly it. However, the level does a good enough job of that. The length is fine, the difficulty is fair, and the graphics look nice. The boss is interestingly devised and somewhat original, although you can't really figure out how he works until he runs you over at least once because there's no real indication. Other than that, it's a fine level. Nothing's really bad about it, but nothing's really special either besides the aforementioned things about the boss.
  Joey (6.0/10)
  • I liked the use of elements from Sonic, and I liked the boss at the end (I thought that spitting the fireballs made it more unique). However, this level was really spaced out - there were long stretches of flat and sloped tiles. I know this is more appropriate for a grassland-type levels, but I think you could either cut some of the open spaces or add more blocks/scenery/etc. to them. There were also a lot of repetitive structures (blocks/coins grouped in threes, fish waterfalls). Not too bad overall, but I think you can make it a bit more interesting.
  Quill (4.0/10)
  • Cute level. It wasn't that bad, but the level just seemed to repeat itself as it progressed, there was no real variety. There was land, then a bridge, then a spring, and so on. The boss was okay, but the Ice Block allows the boss to be defeated really easily as it replaces Mother Brain.
  Layla (6.0/10)
  • At first, I was having fun with this level because I thought it was a fine Sonic styled level. As I continued to play through, I noticed that there wasn't anything new or interesting added on after the first two screens. Then the atmosphere became tarnished by some direct SMB3 and SMW elements being added in. Not to mention, it's very easy to break the boss by holding a blue block next to it.
  Valtteri (7.5/10)
  • The Eggman explosion looked pretty ugly. :P This is a pretty simple level that uses Sonic stuff I guess. Nothing too special, done in an idiot-proof way and hence there's not much I can comment on. The random SMBX vanilla stuff in levels like this generally annoys me.

31. Sewpah - Yellow Zone (6.02/10)

• Chad (7.4/10)
  • It's basically a SMW grassland with a ton of yellow, as advertised. It's a pretty decent level, though. Standard fare for a grassland, but the design has a lot of polish to it and enemy placements are quite good and fun to maneuver around. The structure of the land is carefully constructed to provide entertaining and engaging gameplay, and the visuals look quite nice too, especially in the cave. However, enemies around the midpoint should be reduced to prevent a harsh reintroduction to the level, cave enemy placement is a little sudden sometimes given the general upward direction, and it's a little weird that the upward bullets fall back down. Those are only minor issues though, and the level's still enjoyable.
  Joey (6.0/10)
  • Not too bad. This level was fairly easy, and although I'm not as fond of yellow as a color I did like the coordination (the cave looked pretty cool). My only complains lie in some of the structural choices. It seemed like at some points there were too many straight lines for too long to the point where it looked kind of jagged - this can be fixed by either making those sections smaller or adding a few more slopes. The cave section was decent but I didn't like the angled background BGOs. Also, the Swoopers ended up wrapping around and never ending, which was kind of funny. The only other thing was having to jump through that block to get to the top of the cave: I can't decide whether or not I like this. You had to jump through a block that had no graphical indication of where it became solid, but at the same time you did indicate it with coins and it gave it an old-school charm.
  Quill (5.5/10)
  • Not a bad level. It's fairly basic and it was fairly fun to go through. There's nothing much wrong with it, aside from weird bullet bills when shot up, but there's nothing too special about it either.
  Layla (6.2/10)
  • What a nice little SMW level that stays incredibly true to it's theme! It's got a yellow tileset, yellow background, for the overworld. The Underground's orange background hurts to look at directly. NPC placement was great and every enemy had a purpose, save for the direct up and down bullet bills. The upward moving one didn't have much momentum and would fall down again, looking incredibly stupid. I didn't really like the going through what looked like all solid ground in the second section as it personally looks kinda misleading. Other than that it's a fine level to me.
  Valtteri (5.0/10)
  • This is a pretty normal level. I don't have much to say unfortunately. I like how the level goes from right to up and then back left above the first area. I did not expect that! The vertical Bullet Bills (that replace Cheep Cheeps) are supposed to be set to Projectile. That way the upwards one doesn't fall back down. I like how you used the forest fill tile among the normal grass one. It's barely noticeable but it's kind of cool. :)

[underFlo]

Tier 2

hell yeah B)

im so proud of you

[Mable]

Wooooho made it into the normal tier again :D Im glad i came this far.

[SuperWingedYoshi]

I made it past Tier 3?!? I got more than 6/10 for the first time ever?!? Dang, that's new for me! Now I gotta expect anything to happen. XD

[MECHDRAGON777]

36. MECHDRAGON777 - Fabrik in Weltraum (5.4/10)
Bomber57 (4.0/10)
Well, we all knew it was coming folks. This level is the Operation Star Snatcher clone. And one heck of a clone it is. This uses nearly every gimmick from that level right down to the walk-through walls. Except instead of the walk-through walls being a little thing for the side star, the walk-through walls are a major gimmick in this level. Specifically, having to deactivate a laser barrier by happening upon a hidden wall and flipping the switch there. That aside, there are many other issues I would like to talk about. First is enemy placement. There are sections where there are swarms, and I mean SWARMS of flying robots while Mario is on a line platform. This can be tricky to avoid, especially over pits and around other harmful objects. The outdoor space sections also didn't add much to the level and simply felt like an excuse to have slippery physics for the hell of it. A thing I have the biggest issue with in this level is the overall layout of it. In Operation Star Snatcher, the level was put into various distinct areas to give the level a sort of atmosphere and also help the player when navigating around the facility. Here it feels very messy. I also don't like how later on there are some doors that will take you to the start and then you can't go back to where you were, meaning you have to cross back over a chunk of the level again. Hidden walls seem to be a large thing throughout the entire level actually. That means that the player has to hug every wall and jump up and down mashing your face into the cold metal surface hoping you'd find the hidden switch or barrier to let you progress. Then there is a final section where you have to go around hitting four switches, and this section has all the bad parts of the level in one. Enemy spam, poor enemy placement and choice, random and unecessary slippery physics, hidden areas that are hard or impossible to reach (I had to use shadowstar at one point), and obscure puzzles that the player could never solve. Again, this level has the serious issue of puzzles that the level MAKER could solve, but the PLAYER could never figure out. I find this level to be a rather disappointing use of the marvelous graphics Sednaiur made for Operation Star Snatcher.
Chad (4.0/10)
This level asks way too much of the player. It offer a massive amount of variety, interesting event execution, and intriguingly complicated design all the way through, but this level just had no idea when to stop. It takes at least 30 minutes to complete, and that's just if you don't die. On top of that, you're expected to find 4 hieroglyphs (and the midpoint's useless when it comes to this), most of which are hidden in secret passageways that look exactly like the rest of the tileset, so there's really no way to find them except by luck. I managed to find 3 of them, but ironically the one I missed was right at the start and I couldn't go back. You do offer a door back to the start in one area, but I didn't want to redo everything before I was even finished. Most of the gimmicks are annoying along the way, such as Rinkas with no warning, clusters of flying enemies, timed platforms that are difficult to keep track of while watching everything else, and electricity that spends way more time on than it does off. Also, apparently you have a Touhou spellcard segment at the end of the entire hieroglyph run alongside some electricity, and quite frankly I'm not subjecting myself to that. The level already feels like many levels crammed into one before that. The only things I can really say positively about this level are that the visuals are excellent, the overall structure of the level is astoundingly complex, and the amount of effort put into this level is clearly immense. It's just that nearly everything about the gameplay and length is handled poorly to the point that it just isn't fun.
Quill (7.0/10)
I dunno man. This just feels too similar to a previous contest level. It doesn't really add much to the table, either. It's not that bad by any means, but it drags on for quite a while while offering only some variety.
Layla (5.0/10)
I'm not sure what went through your mind to made one block high platform areas, tunnels with no indication that they are there inside the filler walls, several annoying platform havens, mandatory to hurt yourself to hit a switch, tedious waiting for blue lazers to turn off, and all of this in one insanely long maze of a level. I am happy to see this great lab tileset by Sednaiur used again, and I'm going to admit you did it some justice, but there are too many issues with the level that I had a very hard time enjoying it. I will say I liked the small elevator element towards the beginning and the amount of power-ups and coins are decent.
Valtteri (7.0/10)
Please don't make the player look for invisible paths inside the walls... Luckily I was able to find them fairly easily and got out of the level relatively fast. Besides that, it's an okay level. I don't have much to say, it's pretty simple really if you take out the laser beams and whatever you took from Sednaiur's level for the 8th contest.

That is a lot, and this is my beast placing yet! I am still confused about some things though?

Thank you for a lentjy reveiw, but I am shocked I got a "4" from two judges and a "7" from another two judges!

Also, this level is beatable without getting hit, and without useing cheats, there are peach/Rosalina blocks for a reason!

@SuperWingedYoshi; you always out tier me!

[JupiHornet]

Tier 3 B)

Anyways, thanks to the judges for their reviews, and for liking my level that I thought was terribly rushed!

[SuperWingedYoshi]

@SuperWingedYoshi; you always out tier me!

You beat me in CC7 though.

[MECHDRAGON777]

@SuperWingedYoshi; you always out tier me!

You beat me in CC7 though.

I really do not belive that! I looked and you out tiered me every time and I think this was my best level! I have to record my level so I can upload it!

[zlaker]

I'm guessing I'll be 30th then..

[SuperWingedYoshi]

I'm guessing I'll be 30th then..

You're a top-tier level designer, I bet you'll be in the highest or second-highest tier again. At least higher-placed than my level!

@SuperWingedYoshi; you always out tier me!

You beat me in CC7 though.

I really do not belive that!

In CC7, you were #52 and Tier 3. I was #57 and Tier 2.
Also, I think you're a lot more creative in your levels than I am.

[Mr Pancake Guy]

38th place, really good for a rushed level I made in 2 days
All the flaws that the judges mentioned came to my head once I uploaded the level.
At least I know how to improve for the next contest!