Super Mario Bros. X Forums

Level Description

So basically, I've been trying to get back into SMBX and whatnot. SMF is boring as heck, so I figured I might start doing more on SMBX.

Anyways, I played some episodes and levels, and eventually I went to make my own level for the first time in months. However, I was struggling with the level layout, including enemy placement, tile placement, graphics, etc. I asked for help, and Joey gave me some advice saying to not worry about graphics yet. He told me to focus on gameplay first, and to basically get good at vanilla levels before I jump into graphics. And well, this is pretty much the result of a vanilla level I've created. I actually started on this level around 5:30ish PM, so it's taken me about 3+ hours to complete overall. The level in general is a standard SMB3 level. I know, those are very generic and not many people like to play them, but just bare with me here. I honestly think this is my best work yet, because I think ever since I started this level, I've been getting better and better with SMBX, but I'd like to see what you all think. I tried to make this one more lengthy than my past levels since they were all deemed short, so I'm pretty sure this level averages at about two minutes worth of gameplay. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy because I enjoyed creating this level!

A Level Judge review would also be appreciated!!!

Videos
Graphics

Upside-down bush: Me
Upward Piranha Plant recolor: Me
Vertical Wood Tiles: Me
SMB3 Hammer Bros: Valtteri

Screenshots
Download

The download link only gives you the graphics.

Chip Potato wrote:The download link only gives you the graphics.

the hell

hold on let me fix it, i'll lock this for now

EDIT: I tried downloading it off of Mediafire, and the level was there. Are you sure it's not just you?
EDIT 2: I'm pretty sure it's just you because bossedit8 downloaded it and said the level file is there.

The download link works just fine, and everything is in place.

I'm not really a level judge, so I won't do a review. But, I'll say a few things about the level:
The goombas: Why do they turn around on ledges? This is really disorienting and many times I have gotten hit by a goomba that should've fallen off a cliff. If you want an enemy that won't walk off cliffs, you should just use red koopas.
Pirahna Plants: There is pretty much some kind of pirahna in every single pipe. This gets a bit annoying after a while, particularly because of the fire-spewing ones.
Spinies: For the most part, the spinies are fine, but the ones coming out of the pipe near the end are hell. They come out way too fast to jump over, and most of the time, I had to take a hit as super mario in order to get throught them.
NPCs: The NPC's are rather aggrivating. Having Pirahnas everywhere makes the jumping a bit predictable, the corner-turning goombas are weird, and you didn't give us a lot of koopas to mow down these other enemies. There is also not enough powerups, and you limited the powerups to only mushrooms, which adds on to this level's difficulty.

Graphics: Well, they're vanilla GFX, what am I supposed to say? They were used quite appropriately, and the music went along quite well. Helped the overall feel of the level. However, this level is VERY hard. like, world 6 hard, and yet this looks like a world-1 style level. not that big of an issue though.

Gameplay: This. Level. Is. So. Hard. It's. Not. Even. Funny.

One thing to think about in future levels, the level is always easier for the creator than the player. This level has some of the most devious NPC placement, combined with few items (And only mushrooms too). I'm not giving this a rating, Since this is mostly opinion, so I'll say this:

Keep making levels. This is a good first attempt, and your usage of the vanilla GFX feels authentic. I'm not saying cut down on the NPC's, just space them out more.
I hope to see greater levels from you in the near future!

SecondScolipede wrote:The goombas: Why do they turn around on ledges? This is really disorienting and many times I have gotten hit by a goomba that should've fallen off a cliff. If you want an enemy that won't walk off cliffs, you should just use red koopas.

There's something called cliffturn. It's one of the NPC codes that's actually used quite often.

SecondScolipede wrote:Pirahna Plants: There is pretty much some kind of pirahna in every single pipe. This gets a bit annoying after a while, particularly because of the fire-spewing ones.

Understandable, I'll tone it down a bit in my future levels.

SecondScolipede wrote:Spinies: For the most part, the spinies are fine, but the ones coming out of the pipe near the end are hell. They come out way too fast to jump over, and most of the time, I had to take a hit as super mario in order to get throught them.

I thought someone might say that the Spiny generator is too hard, but actually, I used a gimmick here. I've been planning to upload a playthrough of the level, which will probably go up tomorrow, and it'll show that part too. It's actually not that hard; I made it to where you can even pass the part as Big Mario.

SecondScolipede wrote:NPCs: The NPC's are rather aggrivating. Having Pirahnas everywhere makes the jumping a bit predictable, the corner-turning goombas are weird, and you didn't give us a lot of koopas to mow down these other enemies. There is also not enough powerups, and you limited the powerups to only mushrooms, which adds on to this level's difficulty.

I didn't want too many Koopas because I feel it would make the level too easy, since y'know, you could basically kill everything with a shell. I don't find this level hard either honestly, I can do this level in one go almost all of the time. I didn't want a Fire Flower in the level either because again, you'd be able to kill everything with it, which isn't something I wanted.

SecondScolipede wrote:Graphics: Well, they're vanilla GFX, what am I supposed to say? They were used quite appropriately, and the music went along quite well. Helped the overall feel of the level. However, this level is VERY hard. like, world 6 hard, and yet this looks like a world-1 style level. not that big of an issue though.

Gameplay: This. Level. Is. So. Hard. It's. Not. Even. Funny.

One thing to think about in future levels, the level is always easier for the creator than the player. This level has some of the most devious NPC placement, combined with few items (And only mushrooms too). I'm not giving this a rating, Since this is mostly opinion, so I'll say this:

I honestly don't see how this level is difficult at all.

Still though, thanks for the feedback!

I'm not sure if you did that or not, but if you want cliffturning enemies, use the red Goombas SMBX has by default. It's disorienting if normal Goombas cliffturn.

Additionally, you made the level, so you can't say that it's not too hard because ypu made the level so obviously you're not gonna find it too hard.

Videos of the level have been added to the OP!

Spinda wrote:I'm not sure if you did that or not, but if you want cliffturning enemies, use the red Goombas SMBX has by default. It's disorienting if normal Goombas cliffturn.

I guess that sounds more logical than using brown Goombas.

Spinda wrote:Additionally, you made the level, so you can't say that it's not too hard because ypu made the level so obviously you're not gonna find it too hard.

I understand that, but trust me, it really isn't that difficult.

I'm gonna side with Zeldamaster12 on this one. The level really isn't as difficult as it's being made out. However, I went into the level knowing that the Goombas had cliffturn=1 and that there was a spiny generator, but I don't really think that made much difference. I will go ahead and say one thing: Zeldamaster12, the next time you change an NPC's values like that, you should design the level so that the player can see the difference before being in danger. For example: you could make a small vertical area at the start with a cliffturn=1 Goomba on the ledge the player needs to jump over, so that as the player is climbing the vertical area, he/she can see that the Goomba has cliffturn=1 before making it to where the Goomba is. If you absolutely cannot think of a good way to design the level so the player can figure out the change intuitively, you can always use a message box to flat out tell the player what has changed (but only as a last resort).

Anyway, the level:
It was actually pretty good. It absolutely is NOT a generic level; this level actually has some variety, which is always welcome for me. I only have two problems with the level:

1) The part with the Hammer Bro and the Venus Fire Trap is unnecessarily difficult to time properly. The problem isn't that both NPCs are there, but that the Hammer Bro walks too close to the ledge its on to be able to time a jump properly since the player will have to jump twice (once onto the ledge, then again to kill the Hammer Bro), and this takes too much time to reliably avoid the Hammer Bro and the Venus Fire Trap. Whenever the Hammer Bro started walking away and I was preparing to make my jumps, the Venus Fire Trap came out and spat another fireball, throwing off my pattern and forcing me back down the ledge (attempting jump over the fireball would mean I'd risk getting hit by a hammer), and I eventually just took a hit to make it past that part. I recommend moving the Hammer Bro. a couple units to the right, or at least extending the platform a couple units to the left.

2) The Parakoopas just before the end are placed so that the one on the left will be higher than the one on the right when they're both going up (since it spawns first), and if they're not spawned in succession, it becomes impossible for the player to progress and the player has to de-spawn and re-spawn them. I recommend placing the Parakoopa on the right one unit (or so) above the one on the left to help mitigate this issue.

Also (this is more of a nitpick, though), you had Piranha Plants in all the pipes except one, and said pipe doesn't lead to a secret or anything? Do you not know the intricacies of subtle indications?

Summary
GOOD:
-Graphics and Music don't suck.
-Level design has a nice variety of enemies and obstacles.

BAD:
-Hammer Bro placement
-Parakooopa spawning issues
-Level is kinda short and doesn't have a checkpoint, but these issues cancel each other out somewhat.

In conclusion:
Despite this level's minor issues, it's still enjoyable to play. I'd say this deserves a 6/10.

Thanks for the review, IMNBH4L!