Alrighty then, here we go...
Story: something I usually don't see in levels. The story itself is kinda random and bland. Nothing really happens yet everything happens. I wouldn't really make this effect the score since it really isn't necessary to do to make a good level.
Gameplay
This level is kinda unique in the aspect of going down two story lines to end with two different endings. It's kinda alright that way. But what wasn't okay was how you designed some of the area's in each story line and each fight with Bowser. I admire your use of events to create a full length conversation, because when I was at your level, I couldn't do that either. But that doesn't excuse some of the useless events in the level. In Mario's Bowser fight, you hid the default layer. Try never to do this, as it is quite difficult to load the entire layer back into the game, Although I did see you use a work around that; But that work around honestly didn't need to happen. Speaking of the boss fights, they were both quite easy, especially luigi's. Mario's boss fight had no real danger to it besides Bowser himself, and even then since the floor beneath him was quite thin (I guess), it was very easy to kill him. In luigi's case, I just ran past Bowser and had no idea what to do. There was no clear indication to kill the goomba in the room to cause the pipe to break.
Getting back to the actual level design, I wouldn't call it the best, as it was very inconstant. In Mario's story, the only challenge besides Bowser himself is jumping over falling bridges infront of a waterfall. It wouldn't be so bad if the waterfall didn't give me a headache. It was quite hard to focus on light objects on a light and animated background. In my opinion (and in the history of Mario games), sewer areas are usually very tight, pretty linear and usually involves water. I wouldn't say that I'm upset that you didn't do that, but what you called a sewer, felt more like a cave.In Luigi's story, I see that you transitioned between screens using the instant warp. It felt choppy to move through screens, and in general felt awkward. In the forest, there were too many Venus Fire Traps (fire spitting piranha plants). Just way way
way too many. The player has to dodge all the fireballs and overall makes the platforming quite difficult as it felt like I was playing galaga at some points. Also, if you fell onto a pipe with a Venus Fire Trap, it was quite hard to jump back up to the top pipes and resume gameplay. Most of the time, you might as well made a bottomless pit. The first area with the lava felt pointless in my opinion and the jump from forest to hell kinda felt rushed.
Gameplay Average: 50/100
could have been better, but also could have been a lot worse
Aesthetics & Music
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO boy vanilla graphics.
Its really quite hard to make a good impression with vanilla graphics. But what I saw kinda made me a little disappointed. Maybe I expected too much from vanilla who knows, but the level felt really empty in general, with no SMW forest bgos in the forest, No bushes or grass besides in the very beginning of each story and just remeber what uncle Enjl says about clash:
Unca Enjlil wrote:NOPE
Please never mix SMB3 graphics and SMW graphics together. If you do this, people will not like the aesthics of the level. Since both games have drastically different art styles and drastically different palletes, its very hard to mix the two games together without using custom graphics. Also, I noticed during the waterfall, that there was ground above the waterfall as if the waterfall was coming from the rock or was infront of the rock. It was a clever idea, but poorly executed as since the waterfall didn't really have anything next to it, the platform/rock seemed to be floating in mid-air.
I can't really say anything about the music choice. Nothing special
Aesthetics & Music Average: 25/100
Try to observe other levels to see how they decorate and try to use that as a base. It might help on your next level.
FINAL SCORE: 75/200 37/100
It's a very good first level. To make better ones, observe how other builders design, decorate and sound their levels. It might help out on the next level you make.
You could have extended this to be longer and maybe put more stuff in them. If you used custom graphics, you could make some interesting level design. But those may be just called nitpicks. The short level one though is pretty obvious. The problem is it has nothing to with plumbing at all. Just because it has a sewer doesn't mean it is plumbing. If you extended levels like how a Mario game does its levels, then this would be pretty dang good. Here are some tips and opinions:
