Winter Contest: The Winner and the Runner-up

[MECHDRAGON777]

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!

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.

I guess I did not catch that since I never played Tower of Bias 6

If you think I am more creative, then how come I neve out tier you? You only did so poorly then because of dialog boxes, yes I remember, just never my own tiering in that one, or yours, I thought I also did terible!

[Grovfu]

I guess for a level made in ~3 hours, 40th place isn't awful. Thanks, judges!

[Mivixion]

I'm surprised to see many people who usually place high to be so low in the scoring. It's intriguing.

[MECHDRAGON777]

I'm surprised to see many people who usually place high to be so low in the scoring. It's intriguing.

And those who normally place lower are placing higher, that is a good thing! Kinda.

Edit: 700th post!

[Mivixion]

It would be cool to see someone who's usually a 6-7/10 designer win this contest.

[Sux]

I'm surprised to see many people who usually place high to be so low in the scoring. It's intriguing.

Who for example? Only GMarinaX than in CC9 placed high, and now place low. He's a bit unknow level designer, but your level from CC9 (PGE Moonstone Inc ) was my favorite
Well, my guess for top 10 is:

SuperMario7
Valtteri
Darkonius64
zlakergirl357
Bomber57
Shinbison
FireLink
sezixor
Emral
Dark Mecha

It would be cool to see someone who's usually a 6-7/10 designer win this contest.

This happen in CC5 and CC7
Is these two, some judges reviews was removed to this happen...

[Mivixion]

Others who usually place in the highest and second highest tier have placed in lower tiers (2-3).
Not anyone in particular, just generally.

[Sewpah]

I was expecting that I would be in the Top 40. Looking forward to the rest.

[RudeGuy]

Didn't expect my level still getting the top 30, it's quite buggy and I know 2 judges didn't like it.

[Magna]

Wow amazingly I'm still in. I didn't think my level was that good. Congrats to the people who are still in!

no I haven't returned

[Willhart]

My level was a big reference to a game I played once, and it was mostly made for fun.

Spoiler: show

It also used a ton of invisible blocks and some creative offsetting to make the enlarged player sprite work correctly and line up with the tiling.
You could technically have him ride some other things too, but making the sprite any larger will move effects too much.
(I've been trying to find a way to enlarge the player sprite without lunadll and this was the result).

[JupiHornet]

I just realized:
Based on the scores, if I had submitted Forest of Terror into CC9 then I would have gotten Tier 5 ;-;
Oh well. Good luck to those who are still in it!

[TangledLion]

Wow, mariogeek2's level seems to be doing well... I don't even see it yet!

Since I didn't submit a level this time I'm waiting for HIS level to be released so I can play it!

[Valtteri]

Tier 4 Places 21-30

Spoiler: show

30. Thegreatrainbowyoshi - Huge Lands (6.1/10)

• Chad (5.8/10)
  • A short giant-themed SMB3 overworld. Design is decent, offering some solid platforming and good use of giant things, and it offers a few bonuses as well. The difficulty picks up slightly at the end in an entertaining way through the use of clever pipe placements, and the second star is well-devised. The exit pipes related to the key were sort of lazy though, because you just come out of the tileset or level boundary when you could just as easily put a pipe in both spots, but not much to complain about other than that. It's a relatively standard level, overall.
  Joey (5.0/10)
  • This level was really quick and didn't offer anything new or interesting, but I will say I haven't seen those Venus Fire Trap graphics before.
  Quill (5.5/10)
  • This level has very, very strange warps. Not really sure what's going on with them, but oh well. It's pretty short, too, which is a shame as I was quite liking what was going on during the level, but then it just ended, which was a shame.
  Layla (6.6/10)
  • Carrying the key causes this level to become a nightmare in difficulty because of that wave of piranha plants towards the end. I'd suggest making a seperate path or something of the sort to cater to key-carriers who want the second star. Aside from that, it's a fine level that felt very short. You did a pretty good job keeping a nice SMB3 giant land feel, however, so I'll give you props for that.
  Valtteri (7.6/10)
  • This is a basic level that uses SMB3 Giant graphics. Nothing too special. It looks nice and is fun to play. Please don't place pipe warps on mere ground, it looks stupid.

29. Valtteri - Castles in the Sky (6.13/10)

• bossedit8 (8.75/10)
  • Ahh. Nice SMB theme going on here. This was a relatively nice level with the design choices and even secret areas as well as some good variety. This makes me feel I am playing the regular SMB and SMB - The Lost Levels but in a completly different design style. I do like your flying Bloopers like in SMB-TLL but the problem is if you destroy the Blooper, his water layer is still active, allowing Player and the NPCs have interraction with the Water. This applies to every Blooper in this Level. There needs to be an event that if you destroy the Blooper, the water tile disappears as well and that for every Blooper. There are more issues in this Level and one has to do with the Castle Walls and Breakable Blocks. They are mostly fine but at one place where there is a row of them with a Hammer Brother on it, it seems like he is floating but when you hit something under it there are Breakable Blocks with Coins in them. Not all that noticeable for beginners. Another problem is that there are a lot of Cheep Cheeps around the area which was nice for having a different challenge to it but one single Cheep Cheep just falls from the air. This is because in the NPC's "Advanced" it was on "Swim Left/Right" and not on "Projectile". No idea if that was intentional or not but it seems weird that only one of the Cheep Cheeps just falls from the Sky like that instead of jumping from the ground attacking you. The third issue is those Para-Koopas that are placed before the Checkpoint. You have to jump over multiple Para-Koopas to get over a much bigger gap which was ok but they are respawning relatively fast (about 1-second delay), resulting in easy 1UP farming if you keep jumping back and forth on the Para-Koopas. I know that if you are putting Generators on these Para-Koopas that you always have a chance to jump over them with no issues but the fact that they are spawning that fast can be taken advance of in the form of farming a lot of lifes if done correctly. The fourth and last flaw is at the water area with the big Firebar. It is dodgeable of course but getting these Coins is a real pain and it can maybe result in damage taken trying to collect them. I don't think it was a good idea to put Coins at a tough spot like this especially if it is worth 1 anyway. Other than these flaws I have mentioned, it was a very nice Lost Levels throwback with new details. There are no Stars what so ever to be found in this level. At the end you get a Flagpole. I do like your music choices in this level as they are very fitting.

• Chad (6.0/10)
  • An interesting take on a SMB1 sky level. It's a fairly challenging run, as not only does it consist of many places to fall, but there are plenty of sky-Bloopers, Hammer Bros, and a couple Lakitus to encounter. All of these difficult elements are well-placed and never felt overwhelming, so good job on that. The jumps are satisfyingly tricky and not excessively difficult too, and there are even flying fish that feel difficult but fair. Some small issues are still present, though. The placement of the water segments that hold the Bloopers make attacking it with a shell awkward, and you don't hide the water after they're dead, so you can swim around in that tiny invisible space. Also, putting brick blocks in front of scenery that looks identical to them is strange and confusing, you didn't end the level in a star, and the moving platform in the (unrewarding) cave can actually crush you against the pipe. It's a decent level aside from those odd bits.
  Joey (3.0/10)
  • This was just a bunch of random mushroom blocks, clouds, castles, Hammer Bros., and pipes. It looked haphazard and the NPC placement caused some unnecessary difficulty toward the end (with the Hammer Bros. and Lakitu). There's not much else to say here other than this level just looked like a messy combination of SMB1 sky elements.
  Quill (5.5/10)
  • Oh man, the castles in the sky are pretty adorable, since they're so small. Anyway, this level is cool, it plays like an ordinary SMB1 level which adds to its charm. There could have been more variety in the platforming though.
  Layla (7.4/10)
  • This was a nice and easygoing level that simply just moves to the right. There's not too much special about it, but it still has a cheery atmosphere and it doesn't even need too much to look and feel like a nice solid level. The pipe lines reminded me a lot of SMB3 (strange cause it's a SMB1 styled level) and I like that the atmosphere of the level can invoke a classic feeling to it. There are plenty of items to be collected throughout the level as well, but not very many coins to collect. I have couple other couple issues, however. I never liked how people did the sky bloopers because when they are killed, the floating bit of water that carried them along stays invisible in the air. You also forgot the star, which is required.

28. Ludwig von Koopa - Ludwig's Malevolent Palace (6.24/10)

• Chad (2.4/10)
  • A decent design for a castle. This level is four sections of a good tileset layout, some careful jumps, and clever enemy/hazard placement. However, you expect the player to do all of that, plus avoid Thwomps that blend in with the background (the first of which is impossible to safely trigger), then fight an enormously-long SMB3 Bowser fight (in which there's two breakable floors around 7-10 rows high), all without ever taking a hit even once. There isn't a single powerup in this level, or even a midpoint. Powerups and a midpoint, as well as fixing the Thwomps, would make a world of difference to this level. However, as it stands, it's not a rational challenge.
  Joey (8.0/10)
  • This castle was pretty good-looking and was really just a standard castle; the NPC placement was nice and most of the graphics fit. My only complaints were that the blue-colored enemies with red eyes didn't look that good (and the thwomp was hard to see), and that the Ludwig fight dragged on too long. One phase through breaking the blocks is enough, and you could maybe add something to make it more interesting.
  Quill (6.0/10)
  • Fairly decent level. My only real problem with it is that there is little variety. A large part of the level seems to be just running in a direction for a long time, fighting the same enemies and dealing with the same obstacles. This is more prominent towards the end. The boss also drags on for a bit too, without much variety for him either.
  Layla (7.9/10)
  • I must say, the 3rd, 5th, and 6th sections all looked quite a bit the same. They weren't exactly the same thing, but I noticed they looked quite similar to each other. The good thing about that is that they're all good sections. In fact, the general quality of this level is very good. It's high in difficulty but I imagine this must be towards the end of an episode. The music, being SMG2's galaxy generator and final battle music, felt a little bit grandiouse for a koopa kid level, so I'd tone that down a little. NPC placement was great and they were all nice choices and fit very well into the atmosphere. Now for the Ludwig "battle" it all pretty much involved a 7 block thick layer and a 10 block thick layer for him to break through, and this all amounted to an incredibly boring and tedious "battle" to go through. Try adding a little more pizzazz than a couple goombas on the second round.
  Valtteri (6.9/10)
  • This is an okay castle level. I like the looks of it for the most part, and it's pretty fun too, even if a bit repetitive. What are the spikes in the ceiling for? There's no way you can hit them. The blue enemies with red eyes are ugly.

27. RudeGuy07 - Pyramid with Sednaiur's SMB3 Graphics (6.27/10)

• bossedit8 (4.25/10)
  • Misplaced starting point! After I put the starting point from near the halfway point next to Luigi's (2nd Player) position, this Level is ready to be played. This level surely was large to get to the end. The overall design was between ok and great but there were a lot of things that were not good whatsoever. I do like the several room layouts with one section being regular yellow while the other sections were blue with ghosts and blue enemies around. That's actually nice. About the Switches you had to press in order to get further, it was a nice idea for having to speed up (by the way, it feels like a Sonic level to be honest even though I rarely play or watch it) to get to a specific point in the level but later on where you even have to be fast to avoid getting crushed by the sand from the bottom it gets too much for the player to handle. I even encountered slowdowns while I was at the rising sand from the bottom which means that this level is way too strong for weaker PCs which is normally bad. Speaking of the sand rising upfrom the bottom, it was a horrible idea to add slopes in it aswell since they have the tentency to glitch horribly and it can lead you to deaths as well. There is one secondary pathway which is very hard to pull off by flying up into the higher areas but even if you did go up, once you get to the end at the blue section, that pipe doesn't lead anywhere so you're forced to go back and get to the regular path. Was there something missing since the reward we have currently isn't even rewarding for doing difficult things like this. During the sand rising section there is one Switch that opens the pathway and closes as soon it opens which was kind of funny to be honest but due to the fact that you can press the switch while the blocks are moving it can be completly messed up since that Switch normally needs to disappear while that blockade is moving. At the blue sections with the Blue Koopas, they have a messed up hitbox. If I am trying to jump over it very closely I get hit since his hitbox is inaccurate unlike with the regular Koopas in this Level. The same thing applies to the Blue Para-Koopas. There were coins that were almost impossible to get in a regular way (by that it means no helpful devices like a Leaf power-up). Some jumps at the line riding section can be very difficult to do especially if the places are narrow. Speaking of narrow, there were some places where jumping over enemies was a bit difficult. At the section where you had to climb to get further, it was a bad idea having moving blocks (sand from the bottom rising up for example) since these background fences tends to glitch out once you stand on a moving block. It would have been better to use climbable NPCs over these fences to prevent that. Later near the end there are paths to choose which was very nice for having a variety of ways to get further. At the beginning of this level, these Bully NPCs are missing their original death effect. Overall, the design was ok but there were way too many flaws. The slowdown was an especially big issue.
  Chad (3.5/10)
  • The layout of this level is quite immense, and there's a large amount of effort on detail, exploration, and moving gimmicks. The execution, however, is unenjoyable. The switch-operated walls give you an unreasonably small amount of time to get past, and nothing short of a perfect run and complete memorization of the level will get you past any of them. It doesn't help when many of them rely on waiting for moving layers or line platforms, and avoiding enemies that take more time than the player reasonably has. The level has numerous occurrances like this, and on top of that, enemy placement in general is often excessive and the level doesn't always give room to avoid them. The rising sand area, though interesting on its own, carries you through areas that seem to be designed without the gimmick in mind, because there are a lot of inaccessible areas you go past. Climbing the fences is unreasonable because the sand triggers the moving layer bug with them, too. There's also a second path that in Section 1 that requires a ton of backtracking, then precise flying, and then surviving a Billy Gun gauntlet only to reach a dead-end with a warpless pipe. All of this is mixed in with some lag that speeds up and slows down unpredictably even with frameskip disabled because it has way more blocks than it needs, and a lot of signs that are unclear until demonstrated. Overall, this level is a decent offering in the looks and immensity departments, but from a functional standpoint, the whole thing felt like a bunch of ideas that weren't given as much thought and testing as they deserved, resulting in a lot of unfair mechanics. Sorry, but this just isn't good.
  Quill (7.0/10)
  • Oh noes, misplaced starting position! Anyway, holy fucking shit, this level is long! There's some nice variety, but not enough to justify this huge level. The start of the level seems really familiar to me too... I can't put my finger on it, it's like I've seen it before, yeah? The sand rising is glitchy as hell, and it's really easy to screw up because the sand rises so fast.
  Layla (8.7/10)
  • This level is rather long, but it does have a cool concept with the rising sand layer when you hit a block. Hitting the ! blocks causes a door to shoot out and slowly close again and I thought that was really cool as well. One major issue that really destroys the fun of the level in section 4 is the moving layers cause climbing tiles to bug out like crazy, so I'd suggest moving those around so it's not buggy in section 4. Other than that, it's not too bad of a level, even with some tight spaces.
  Valtteri (7.9/10)
  • This is pretty nice. Looks great, which is surprisingly rare. When people use Sednaiur's stuff they just slam all of it in the same place and the result is a horrible mess, but not for this level. The sand rise thing in the beginning is actually pretty clever. The enemies keep getting crushed between blocks which isn't very good. You should place enemies so they don't die on their own. I can see the edges of the sand floor near the end.

26. krazykat - Epicmode Jungle Ruins (6.32/10)

• Chad (6.3/10)
  • Pretty expansive forest level. I like the structured ruins design, where it's mostly a tunnel of various obstacles and climbing methods to progress. The gimmicks range from standard stuff like note blocks and elevators, to more creative implementations of moving layers, such as the ones in Section 4. It's a good variety that's presented along with a polished layout. However, I experienced a number of issues in this level. For one, I didn't care for the falling layer in Section 3. There's no sense of how much time you have left, so all you can really do is run full-speed ahead. Turns out going as fast as possible is completely necessary, but the enemy placements don't really allow that. Also, requiring flight over the level boundary in the midpoint section is an odd design choice, especially where it's possible to get stuck if you don't clear it right. You also shouldn't leave a gimmick like the elevator section in an buggy state if you know that it is. It's still purely passable if you know what to expect, but even Toad is somewhat vague about it. The sky area is especially bad, as it's completely out of place, impossible without the leaf, level wrapping that is purely leap-of-faith, and a Lakitu all at the same time. I think my favorite parts of the level were actually the ones where the challenge is purely based on the structure and enemies rather than the gimmicks, like Section 7 for example. Overall, this is still a fairly good level, as it does a lot right with its ideas and execution in other places, and the issues are still completely manageable if you know what you're doing, but they can definitely pose a few undisclosed problems if not handled correctly.
  Joey (8.0/10)
  • This was a really solid level. I liked that you kept it simple and didn't go overboard with custom graphics; if there's something to complain about it would be that there were some tiles that were really close together while others were spaced out, but overall this was pretty good.
  Quill (5.5/10)
  • Interesting level. The background is super crazy, not sure what the purpose of it is. The level is pretty glitchy; you shouldn't admit that in the level either, you should try to fix it. Overall, it's a decent level.
  Layla (6.8/10)
  • Way to go to have one of the strangest backgrounds I've seen in a while: a bunch of crazy animating bushes in the regular SMB3 forest background. If you were trying to go for a relaxed forest ruins kind of atmosphere, the animating background as well as the random sky section right at the end don't do anything to help with that. Now if you WEREN'T, then that makes this level a lot better because it feels like more of a trippy kind of level. Aside, the desiging is fairly decent and I couldn't find many parts that could easily cause a player to die in a cheap manner. You were also nice enough to give the player plenty of leaf power-ups, considering they seemed necessary towards the very end. I did also like the music as it could go well in a nice forest level. I'm also glad you mentioned a potential SMBX caused glitch in one of the sections, but too bad it's fairly easy to nerf that with a leaf power-up.
  Valtteri (5.0/10)
  • That is a stupid background... The level keeps jumping between a decent grass/ruins level and a weird bunch of crushing platforms and pipes and swarms of enemies. It's inconsistent and that's bad. I thought it was funny how you needed to have a long message describing how glitchy one section would be and it took less time to play through it than to read the message. Moving blocks keep randomly overlapping with blocks and it looks glitchy. You should avoid doing that.

25. Lwiri - Bone-Rock Desert (6.38/10)

• Chad (5.7/10)
  • A comfortably short, but reasonably challenging level. The first half is a fairly standard run, you move forward and avoid enemies and quicksand, but it's made somewhat difficult by the increased number of enemies such as Spinies and fire Piranhas. It's a fine setup, although the enemies are slightly excessive, especially in the spaces with low ceilings. Most spots felt like they had two enemies for every one that they needed, but it's still manageable. The second half is entirely devoted to a short disco-shell mine cart course, and it's great that you not only made the course doable, but kept it brief and put the midpoint right before it, because the shell gimmick is quite difficult to control. I like how you incorporated the Munchers, too. You could still die from hitting the underside of the upper track, but other than that, it's a good design. The level's biggest issue, however, is that Dragon Coins are not only mandatory, but you also don't tell the player that at all. Some of them are quite tricky to get, which would be great for a secondary star, but failing to get all of them results in a useless run because a SMB3 exit does nothing for a hub. The coins are in great spots on their own, but as required things, it's asking a lot. Also, the coin trail at the start shouldn't land you right in front of enemies. Otherwise, it's a decent level. The layout's fine, the graphics chosen to convey the desert theme are pretty nice looking, and the gameplay was generally fine.
  Joey (6.0/10)
  • The minecart was a cool idea but I couldn't get it to work. Other than that, I didn't really like the background you used - but I guess it would be appropriate if you were going for a more smog-like desert. This level was pretty good overall, but there were also some graphical errors (mainly in the pipes).
  Quill (6.5/10)
  • Neat level! I liked the atmosphere, it was simple yet effective. I would have liked some more variation in the terrain, there were segments which felt too simple as they were just a run to the right while avoiding enemies. This normally isn't a big issue, but there were too many of these segments.
  Layla (5.9/10)
  • You didn't make the star mandatory to retrieve by the end. How did this happen? You never told me It was required for me to retrieve all the dragon coins. This is a really big mistake on your part. Getting to the rest of the level, it's not actually a bad level, having a few oopsies here and there. The dark reddish palette actually seems to look fairly nice for a desert and even if the music is a little loud, I think it fits very well. You are, however, missing a few graphics (Pipe corners, certain pipes in general, and I can see the axes. Also, screw you for putting in a minecart "tracks are lava" gimmick in. If you're an experienced user here in the community, you should know by now how much of a bitch those are to play.
  Valtteri (7.8/10)
  • This is a pretty fun level. The atmosphere is successful in my opinion; the level looks beautiful! The minecart ride at the end was well done, I think. The first trail of coins leads dangerously close to a Spiny. I would move back the Spiny a bit. A couple of graphics seem to be missing from this level: Invisible axes and pipe pieces. Please place quicksand tiles half a tile lower than the BGO if you're placing ground on the same level as the surface of the quicksand as otherwise the player will get stuck on the edge.

24. SuperWingedYoshi - Just Chill! (6.52/10)

• bossedit8 (8.5/10)
  • Some trouble with the Yoshis in this level! This level was relatively nice. I like the concept. The design was great. The scenery placements is good. There were some little issues. There were places that seemed incredibly small for getting pass the enemies, especially the jumping ones. There were also some annoying jumps to deal with in the cave areas since the blocks are slippery and you necessarily need a running start to get over these gaps more easily. Other than that most of it was fine. Your secrets and the secondary pathways are relatively neat. I do like the idea of if you get past a specific area, one pathway gets closed and there is no way to get back to the area where you can get certain items. Now let's talk about the secrets in this level. One secret is unveiled by hitting the unreachable ? Block with a Shell which was a good idea but at the first timer you can miss it most easily since you have to actually hold the Shell and kick it on the edge of the Bridge (you can also jump and then kick it) to hit it. The second secret was a Toad getting all the items before the player could reach it (there were no items once you reached the section though anyway) but once you talk to the Toad there are blue Rupees to collect at the bottom and at the right bottom there is water. Once you actually get to the water you end up in a horrifying section which is secretly just messed up. The third and last secret is to carry the Yoshi after the P-Switch run til the end of the Level with the Berries at the right side and that door leads you into a room filled with Yoshis and a Star for you to collect.
  Chad (4.0/10)
  • This level starts out fine, with being a nice dose of snowy platforming with the clever gimmick of sealing off certain routes after you've chosen them to commit you to that path. However, I don't care what the messages say, that joke section is completely unnecessary. Not only is it ridiculous to navigate, but also a complete eyesore and its escape method is ambiguous. Even with the hint, pressing down on the block isn't clear, and not figuring it out means having to quit out of the test mode. The design after that is also pretty bad, because you have jumping enemies bouncing around extremely narrow passageways unreasonably, and the platforms in the cave should generate but don't, so winding up stuck and forced to die is extremely likely. The skull raft segment was enjoyable, though. The obstacles and Munchers are pretty well-placed to offer a fair challenge, so I'd say that was my favorite part of the level. The unfair and actually somewhat game-breaking aspects of this level really made it hard to enjoy it as a whole though, as about half of the level is made up of that. The other stuff is fine, but I had trouble trusting the gameplay during those parts.
  Quill (6.5/10)
  • Oh man, what a cute level. The story was pretty generic, but it was still pretty fun. The level itself was nice, with some nice freedom on where you can go. That was pretty cool! There's nothing too special about this level, but what it does, it does good. Try to add something to spice this level up, in my opinion. Make it stand out!
  Layla (7.5/10)
  • This was a nice little level with an interesting small multiple paths gimmick, where if you take the bottom path, you appear to not be able to return until you go all the way through. I really can't find anything wrong with the gimmick especially since the bottom path usually has some sort of reward, which makes blocking it off after you pass through the paths have more of a meaning to it. I'm not sure if you couldn't come up with a boss or something but then the player goes back through the very same level once you reach the end and retrieve the Yoshi eggs with virtually no resistance, save the various enemies throughout the level. Nevertheless, it was a fun level with plenty of power-ups and coins.
  Valtteri (6.1/10)
  • This is a rather simple level. You go right until you see eggs and then you go all the way back. There isn't even a boss. It's really easy but easy isn't bad. Just a tad boring.

23. Magna - Blurred Bluff Escalade (6.52/10)

• Chad (5.3/10)
  • This was a weird level to play. The general layout's pretty good, with lots of exploration as the readme stated, with complex design and rather nice visuals, but interacting with enemies was strange. I'm perplexed as to why the Grand Goombas turn invisible when they face right, and why you didn't just use the ones that natively come with SMBX. It was a recurring problem throughout the level, and getting consistently hit by something I can't see is annoying. Enemies in general seemed to have trouble with slopes on occasion, too (although they might have just been running into the Goombas come to think of it). Placements are otherwise fine, but the above combined with the music not playing (it's in there, called "DKC-TF - Ground", but is named wrong in the editor) made the whole level feel incomplete. The issues basically saturated the entire level, making it awkward to play.
  Joey (6.0/10)
  • This level would've been really good had it used some different graphics and ideas. I liked the overall structure of moving around large areas with multiple paths that the player can take, but what threw me off was the randomness of everything else. I don't know what the point was with recoloring the Koopa Troopas or making the Goombas move faster. There was also a point where it looked like the giant Goombas were warping wrong - I don't know why they were warping in the first place, and it was kind of annoying to have Goombas appear out of nowhere. In addition, the music didn't work at first because the file name was wrong. The bridges also had inconsistency in whether or not they could be jumped through (which is expected because parts of the bridges were sloped) and also in the transparency of the railings. There was also too much going on across all of the graphics - it looked like you were trying to make everything a spectacle in itself. I would pick something you want to highlight and then tone down all of the other graphics so it's not a mess of color. Not too bad overall, just fix up that stuff and this level will be a lot better.
  Quill (6.5/10)
  • Not a bad level. The music is broken, so I just added in ordinary music. The level wasn't really that bad, but had a lot of minor issues that added up. For example, parts of the level felt a tad cramped, areas could have been made more open. There were also some background objects covering sizables, so it would look like Mario was floating in mid-air. The slope bridges were also solid. I won't be too picky about that one, as the process to fix this issue can be a little difficult even if you're experienced with the editor. Overall though, it wasn't a bad level. Everything else was done to a satisfactory extent.
  Layla (8.1/10)
  • Very nice and easygoing short level. It looks great, minus a few small graphical errors inside tiles that includes a thick outline for the SMW styled bush. The mixing of the tilesets looks very nice and overall is detailed very well. One thing: you have no music. I looked in the folders, but it's gone, so I pulled it up on youtube, and I can say it fits really well with the level and plays onto the atmosphere very nicely. Design wise, it's got its issues like an ace coin that has little to no point of being in a section all by itself. I think it's a fairly solid level with a few errors that can easily be fixed.
  Valtteri (6.7/10)
  • This is a nice little level, really. It's fun ascending the level, and it looks cool, too. Although I don't like the background, it looks messy with the mismatching clouds and hills. There's a patch of grass inside the ground with black background near the beginning, you should fix that. The sloped bridges are solid unlike the bridge tiles, and usually you should avoid designing with them so that the player can hit the slopes from below. It might confuse the player near the first Advance Coin as the jump is slightly trickier than what it would be if the slopes in the bridge right above that part were go-through. I was able to fly through almost the entire level after you gave me a Super Leaf.

22. bulletbill43 - Bazuka's Pirate Ship (6.56/10)

• Chad (5.8/10)
  • This is a gorgeous looking level. The ship design is excellent, with different ledges spread out to really capture the feeling of size as you travel across it. There are quite a few good gimmicks as well. Avoiding cannonballs, jumping past collapsing terrain, and swimming past fast generators are tricky and well-executed challenges that give the level some good variety. Having ships in the background is pretty creative, too. You shouldn't have required Dragon Coins for a level this long and difficult, though. A lot is thrown at players in this level, and we're expected to do everything but the boss in one go. The coins are quite difficult here, which makes it really easy to die and need to restart at any given point, so you should have used them for a second star. The third coin especially needs to be fixed, as it's placed in a blind jump that the player not only has to expect before reaching that point, but you also have to somehow know that the platform beneath it will rise. Neither one can be expected until a leap of faith is taken. The boss is pretty cleverly devised, though. The cannonballs there should be easier because they practically cover every space, and Bazuka shouldn't reappear right where you're going to stand, but other than that the fight was a great challenge. The midpoint being at the end is really helpful given the difficulty of the battle. In general, the level's fairly good, but the Dragon Coins being mandatory singlehandedly makes playing it a pain.
  Joey (6.0/10)
  • There wasn't much variation in this level, with the exception of the underwater part (which I wasn't expecting, so that was cool). There were only three or four NPCs throughout the whole level, and the ship felt empty. The cannon minigame was a good idea, but I would remove one or two of the ball generators. What really through me off about this level was the boss fight - seriously, 3 Birdo runs plus cannons plus chasing bees? That's a bit much. There wasn't much that went on in this level, but what did go on was alright and I liked the Donkey Kong theme. Also, there was a wall that I couldn't get through that blocked the pipe leading to the area with the midpoint. I tried backtracking but I couldn't go back through the other pipe at the start of the area.
  Quill (6.0/10)
  • This level is okay. The design is fairly good and the enemies were placed decently, providing some challenge. Add in a way to retrieve missing dragon coins, such as warps back. If you miss one, you're screwed. The boss was pretty annoying too, it dragged on for far too long and it just wasn't fun. The cannon balls falling from the sky are even more overkill than the ones at the beginning of the level, and you have to deal with that twice.
  Layla (7.8/10)
  • This level had quite the widespread feel to it, which I guess worked for the level. I would right away like to congratulate using Dragon Coins and not using them as optional and hiding them but making them mandatory and easy to grab. Anyways, you really used AirShip's custom cargo ship really well and it plays a huge role, giving the level a great atmosphere. The minigame was a nice addition, but I feel the bullets generated a little too quickly, especially for the boss. The last "unstable" platform was also a cheap kill just in case the player fell down to the dragon coin platform after they landed on the last falling one, because this made the jump right there impossible.
  Valtteri (7.2/10)
  • Great level! It does have one fatal flaw however. You're stuck in the room before the boss unless you collected all the Dragon Coins. Also, I find it undesirably inconsistent that you cannot stand on the small barrels, only the massive ones. Besides this, it was a very solid level, and I appreciate that it's entirely customized. It's not boring either, lots is going on, like ship parts falling down and whatever. The cannonball minigames are simple but suitably challenging.

21. Emral - Peaceful Plateau (6.6/10)

• Chad (6.3/10)
  • A pretty pleasant level. The difficulty's simple, there's a lot of good exploration, a nice amount of detail in how the level's designed, and there's some decent reliance on Yoshi and puzzle-solving. This level has a couple of neat touches to it, but also some less helpful ones. The coins at the start are good at letting the players know that the sunflower petals can be climbed, which is not always certain in YI-themed SMBX levels. The custom line platforms are nicely made, and not having them automatically loop is great because then the level would be constantly filled with sounds. Those are some thoughtful design choices, but there are a few that hinder you, such as enemies interacting unpredictably with fruit while trying to jump on them. You also shouldn't use a timer gimmick for something that's considerably far away and also unclear, like the gray/blue blocks area. The timer is otherwise used really well with great indication intervals, but that part was a bit much. The worst part, however, is the red switch pipe. Not only does it take away Yoshi and I can't imagine why, makeing the Big Reward impossible because you can't collect the apples in Sections 4 and 5 at all, but you also can't re-explore the spike area safely to find the unmarked locked pipe that I was convinced simply didn't have a warp attached to it. It looked suspicious enough, so after choosing the red pipe over that, trying to get back there doesn't work. Similar to the apples, no Yoshi through the red switch pipe means no grabbing the key and taking it through the unclear specific route back to the unmarked locked pipe, so the second star is impossible too. I also didn't care for how some of the clouds on the bottom border are solid and others are not, which is an inconsistency that can trick players into death. Overall, this is a fine level in terms of the main route and has some generally good design and intriguing elements, but one unnecessary and easily preventable issue breaks a large percentage of optional bonuses, alongside some other questionable implementations. Basically plenty of good, plenty of bad, but the primary objective at least holds up well enough.
  Joey (4.0/10)
  • It's really hard to make a Yoshi's Island-style level look good. The grass tileset you used didn't fit well, and the rest of the level was jagged and mismatched. There were not enough slopes, and the blue in the background didn't fit with anything else. It really looked like you could land on the clouds at the bottom of the screen in the last section, too, and I don't know why you lined the top edge with clouds and blocks. Overall, this level was full of randomness and inconsistency across all categories.
  Quill (8.0/10)
  • What a cute level! I actually enjoyed this, it had quite a nice charm to it. There's a fair amount of variety too. The design is good, though not outstanding, but it is still efficient enough to do the job. While I don't really have an issue with this level, there could have been more variety. While it was fair, some more could have made this level more fun.
  Layla (7.4/10)
  • Very happy-go-lucky Yoshi's Island styled level. It had somewhat decent level design but a couple of the gimmicks like the platform gimmick (I wouldn't say it would be easier for you to use regular platforms cause the way you have the lines set out they would have been rather buggy) really stood out, in a positive way. Anyways, it's a fine YI level, with good NPC placement, but a few cramped places. I liked how certain aspects tended to get more complex as the level went on, like certain blocks disappearing and others reappearing to unlock new secrets in the level for a short time. Stuff like that added a lot of complexity to a seemingly simple level.
  Valtteri (7.3/10)
  • In this level you hit switches and whatnot to open paths and reach the exit. I haven't got much to say. I like the Yoshi's Island stuff. Except the background has 1x1 pixels. The terrain isn't too great, it's all blocky. More variation would be great.

[zlaker]

And the Top 20 list is?

[underFlo]

Top 20 is already better then I expected. I'm really excited for how well I'll place.

[XerX]

I passed Emral and Valtteri???? That can't be.

[PROX]

Nice lol I'm in either tier 5 or 6

[Flying Brick]

I... passed Tier 4...? On my first contest? Ohmygush yes.

[underFlo]

I... passed Tier 4...? On my first contest? Ohmygush yes.

Same here lol. But I did put a lot of effort in my level, so I'm happy it pays off.

xXx ~ ELSA TIER 5 NOW OR RIOT ~ xXx