Super Mario Bros. X Forums

It's a level where you're in the night.

video : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1bzyo ... videogames

Credit :
this music is tales of phantasia treant forest remixed by Catskart.

the tilesets are here : http://www.spriters-resource.com/custom ... eet/31996/
recoloring by catskart

and the others is made by catskart.

Download : https://www.mediafire.com/?yko2qrc1am1cjlt

Level Review #6: Magic Forest by Catskart

Reviewed by castlewars.

Level Design: 7.4/10
Well, this level had really nice atmospheric conditions to play in, and it was fairly linear with the slight addition of nonlinearity to it. It actually felt like you were in a forest when playing this, and the level was quite gimmicky as well. I quite liked the idea in which you had to hit a switch to make some platforms appear, somewhat similar to the P-Switch. However, when the player hits the second switch before the first switch runs out, it causes "timer overlap" or when the second switch's timer has started so it interferes with the timer of the first switch, causing the blocks to disappear temporarily and then reappear. I would suggest you have the player wait on the platform until the timer runs out, and then an event kicks in to cause the second switch to appear. However, if the player is still on the blocks when the timer runs out, they'll be thrown back to the bottom and it will be impossible to get back up because the switch has disappeared. I would highly recommend you fix that flaw. However, that aside, I liked the addition of holes in the floor the player had to go through to complete the level as it was quite a good way to spruce up falling into pits without leaving gaps, and the way you designed the pipes to look as though they're in the ground made the level appear to look naturalistic despite the fact that there was one pipe that didn't follow this convention, sticking out from the crowd. However, the pipe at the end of the section (warp 2) seems to be placed in an absurd position that can throw some players off; why does the player need to enter the pipe from the air? I would say add a block there to show the player that there's a pipe entrance there.

Music: 8.7/10
"Musical clash" in SMBX, which is when the music is styled differently to the aesthetics, such as SMB3 music in an SMW level, isn't as affecting as graphical clash, but I see you've tried to avoid this problem. Still, the music feels really adventurous and makes the player feel like they're on an adventure, and the kinda sereneness can reflect the aesthetics used in the level.

Graphics: 8.8/10
At first glance, I thought that the graphics were 1x1, but in fact, the graphics and other aesthetic features were really great, and they were all used very well, definitely demonstrating the principle that it's not about the custom graphics, it's about how they're used. In fact, a nearly fully-styled SMB1 level is rare, surpassing only SMB2 levels, which are really rare because the tilesets are limited. You did a really good job decorating this level, and your decoration style seems to be somewhat daredevilish, because a lot of the BGOs were placed THAT close to causing cut-offs. Even so, they did a good job in making the level appear to look neatly decorated. However, concerning the SMB1 style, I did spot a block and when I hit it, guess what came out: an SMB3-styled mushroom or Ice Flower. I would say replace the SMB3 mushroom with the SMB1 version and then recolor the Ice Flower so it's in the SMB1 style. As everything fitted really nicely together, there weren't any clashes that made the level look really awkward.

NPC Placement: 7.6/10
The NPC placement did have its fair share of pros and cons. Well, first of all, the coins were placed in quite strange positions such as indicating where the holes are, but they seem to be working well. Powerups were spread out evenly as well so there was always a powerup whenever the player needed it. However, the main problem is with the first Ice Piranha. In fact, the idea was actually a really neat gimmick which seems to emulate Wart's fireball technique, but it's nearly always spitting ice balls that are hard to avoid because it does it every time it surfaces, and ironically, the ice balls are enough to even kill other NPCs. You should restrict that to every other time it surfaces to make the level easier. The checkpoint placement was another problem as well. Not because it appears to be too big, but it's placed right next to a colony of Hammer Bros. ready to damage the player. If the player restarts from the checkpoint they will need to act really quickly before being killed by the hammers. Moving the checkpoint and/or the Hammer Bros. will fix this issue. The other thing isn't really a problem, as it can make the level harder/easier, but there appears to be some red/green-shelled Koopa confusion, causing some Koopas to fall into pits where they shouldn't really be.

Overall Result: 8.13/10 (Level Status: Pretty Good)
A very atmospheric and fun level to play indeed. If this level were entered into a contest, it would score quite highly, in fact. However, if you want your levels to score better, you might want to fix flaws in this level first. This includes the "P-Switch" timer issues, the pipe entrance that appears to be in the air, and the checkpoint positioning.