Fifty Shades of Grey (CC11, 11th place, 8.09/10)
Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:22 pm
by HeroLinik
This level took ages to make. Nearly a whole year. I tested this over 100 times. I raged at points where I had to completely redesign sections. It's completely grey. It's spooky. Ghosts are everywhere as you explore. There is also an awesome gimmick involved in it. I present to you...
Fifty Shades of Grey (My level for CC11, 11th place)
Now before we begin, let's give you a taste of what the level looks like:
And review time:
Download Fifty Shades of Grey! (not the movie, the level)
Fifty Shades of Grey (My level for CC11, 11th place)
Now before we begin, let's give you a taste of what the level looks like:
Spoiler: show
Spoiler: show
Bomber57 (8.0/10)
To be honest I was scared on what I would see within when I opened the level file, but it just turned out to be a grayscale spooky ghost level. A pretty good one. The grayscale works pretty nicely, though sometimes it could be hard to tell the difference between the grabbable vines and the BGO ones. The level introduced a unique concept where friendly boos are attached to platforms, and you manipulate the boos' movement patterns to get you where you wanted. Though, it was rather annoying to deal with in a few areas, especially when you had to move the platform upward. The level designer was thoughtful enough to place signs that give the player tips, though the constant reminders felt like hand-holding. The event at the end where you are launched out of a pipe looked pretty nice. Also, the skeleton graphics look really out of place. Like, they're just really bad.
bossedit8 (9.25/10)
Ohh... what a nice ghostly type level in a forest and then later in a ghost house! I really like the whole design, secrets and the gimmick in this level like the boo traveling with blocks (attach to layer stuff) in order to get further on but my problem is that once they merge it into a regular block while standong on them they can crush you unfairly. I do like that everything is gray with actual different shapes of gray as of how they represent like fire and ice flowers are different for example. There were however parts in this level that you can easily grind up for 1UPs at the interior part of the level (ghost house) due to these enemies never despawn once you're doing this correctly (multiple keys at the checkpoint area or somewhere else without even a key) and wait until you get a lot of them on the screen and chain reaction way to go! There's a small boss in this level and what do you have to do? Kill the wave of boos with your own key. 3 waves to go. I really like the whole variety in this level including in a great length aswell for a ghostly type area. At the end, pressing that switch makes an awesome effect up till the end where the star is.
Chad (9.0/10)
I'm glad this is just a pun on the color. This is a pretty impressive level, though. The Boo-controlled blocks are pretty creative, and require you to act and think differently than most gimmicks while still being completely intuitive. You use them all throughout the level too, which really keeps them consistent. The key-hunting, elevator, and propeller block descent sections are a lot of fun and nicely designed as well, which give the level a lot of variety. The sudden changes to things as you got near them give a lot of spice to the presentation, the miniboss is a neat addition, and the cannon cinematic at the end was very flashy. This level has a lot of ideas and puts them to work really well. The core design is pretty good, and contains a moderate enough difficulty to keep things enjoyable. The only thing I don't really like is that the tile placement in the forest sections feels overly jagged and messy. It's highly functional, but a little odd visually, although that's a minor gripe. It looks better inside the ghost house where it's very tunnel-like, surrounded by blackness to make the path distinct, and still maintains a fairly detailed and decorated layout.
Quill (7.2/10)
The boo blocks were surprisingly complex and I think they added a lot of charm to the level, though sometimes they could be a pain to work with. The level design overall was pretty good and the boo block gimmick helped to reinforce that at times, so good job! The boo battle with the key was random and I'm not sure if it was entirely needed, but it was there. The explosion at the end where Mario was sent flying was adorable.
Valtteri (7.0/10)
This is a pretty great ghost house! It has puzzles but not too hard ones. It has this Boo platform gimmick that works surprisingly well. The level also looks pretty good. Except the unclimbable SMB2 vines are still wrong. The key has an incorrect mask. You can see a transcluent square over it.
To be honest I was scared on what I would see within when I opened the level file, but it just turned out to be a grayscale spooky ghost level. A pretty good one. The grayscale works pretty nicely, though sometimes it could be hard to tell the difference between the grabbable vines and the BGO ones. The level introduced a unique concept where friendly boos are attached to platforms, and you manipulate the boos' movement patterns to get you where you wanted. Though, it was rather annoying to deal with in a few areas, especially when you had to move the platform upward. The level designer was thoughtful enough to place signs that give the player tips, though the constant reminders felt like hand-holding. The event at the end where you are launched out of a pipe looked pretty nice. Also, the skeleton graphics look really out of place. Like, they're just really bad.
bossedit8 (9.25/10)
Ohh... what a nice ghostly type level in a forest and then later in a ghost house! I really like the whole design, secrets and the gimmick in this level like the boo traveling with blocks (attach to layer stuff) in order to get further on but my problem is that once they merge it into a regular block while standong on them they can crush you unfairly. I do like that everything is gray with actual different shapes of gray as of how they represent like fire and ice flowers are different for example. There were however parts in this level that you can easily grind up for 1UPs at the interior part of the level (ghost house) due to these enemies never despawn once you're doing this correctly (multiple keys at the checkpoint area or somewhere else without even a key) and wait until you get a lot of them on the screen and chain reaction way to go! There's a small boss in this level and what do you have to do? Kill the wave of boos with your own key. 3 waves to go. I really like the whole variety in this level including in a great length aswell for a ghostly type area. At the end, pressing that switch makes an awesome effect up till the end where the star is.
Chad (9.0/10)
I'm glad this is just a pun on the color. This is a pretty impressive level, though. The Boo-controlled blocks are pretty creative, and require you to act and think differently than most gimmicks while still being completely intuitive. You use them all throughout the level too, which really keeps them consistent. The key-hunting, elevator, and propeller block descent sections are a lot of fun and nicely designed as well, which give the level a lot of variety. The sudden changes to things as you got near them give a lot of spice to the presentation, the miniboss is a neat addition, and the cannon cinematic at the end was very flashy. This level has a lot of ideas and puts them to work really well. The core design is pretty good, and contains a moderate enough difficulty to keep things enjoyable. The only thing I don't really like is that the tile placement in the forest sections feels overly jagged and messy. It's highly functional, but a little odd visually, although that's a minor gripe. It looks better inside the ghost house where it's very tunnel-like, surrounded by blackness to make the path distinct, and still maintains a fairly detailed and decorated layout.
Quill (7.2/10)
The boo blocks were surprisingly complex and I think they added a lot of charm to the level, though sometimes they could be a pain to work with. The level design overall was pretty good and the boo block gimmick helped to reinforce that at times, so good job! The boo battle with the key was random and I'm not sure if it was entirely needed, but it was there. The explosion at the end where Mario was sent flying was adorable.
Valtteri (7.0/10)
This is a pretty great ghost house! It has puzzles but not too hard ones. It has this Boo platform gimmick that works surprisingly well. The level also looks pretty good. Except the unclimbable SMB2 vines are still wrong. The key has an incorrect mask. You can see a transcluent square over it.
