So I played this and wanted to write a review, but then I remembered this was for a contest (which explains the poor music) and decided to check out the reviews. Honestly, I almost 100% agree with this one by imnbh4l
Imaynotbehere4long (6.7/10)
Okay, you have all the blue coins on their own layer, but not all of them activate the secret star's event in "No More Objects in Layer." Therefore, if the player collects one of the coins that doesn't have the event set last, as happened to me, the event won't activate. Remember: always make sure all NPCs on a layer trigger their respective "No More Objects in Layer" event before releasing it; I earned that secret star, dang it!!
Anyway, I think that out of all the levels, this has to be the one with the most wasted potential. It tries to do a bunch of things (homing bullet bills, Yoshi's Island flip blocks, rising lava) but doesn't really build on any of them. It's still a well designed level, but I'm always disappointed to see things introduced once or twice, then forgotten for the rest of the level; it just makes the whole thing seem gimmicky. You could have used the homing bullet bills more than once or made the rising lava section more threatening (the lava could rise faster but start lower, and the section could be a bit longer). The Yoshi's Island flip blocks could have been used to add more of a puzzle element to the level, too. Also, the boss didn't need that sign hint (although, like Aviation Attack, you did a good job making the fight unique).
By the way, a bunch of your custom graphics are grainy; remember to save them as PNG files, then use an online service or Paint.net (with dithering=0) to convert them to GIF.
I would have given this a 7/10 if the blue coins' event wasn't partially broken; I took off one tenth of a point for each coin you forgot to add the event to.
However, I do want to add my two cents to it.
While the level overall tries its hardest to stand out and does do so in its own right, it's going a bit over the top, trying too much and ends up being very unfocused. While the experience overall is enjoyable, I think it would be even more so if the level was split in 3. One about conveyor belts, one about yoshi platforms, one about lava movement. The gimmicks feel underutilised and lacked testing/polish. The lava rising room for example is rather difficult to see coming. I hit the switch and wasted a second or two analyzing my surroundings, but by the time I reached the rather difficult to hit springboard, it was already too late.
I also have some things to say about the boss, which was probably my least favourite part of the level. Please place a second midpoint or have a shortcut to the boss. The 2nd half is already longer than the first one, even without the boss, and having the player fight a boss where it's very easy to die is just discouraging without another midpoint. If you don't want to use lunalua you can hide a warp in the checkpoint area and have the sign tell you about it.
Speaking of sign.. the sign was useless. It doesn't give you a tip, it straight-up spoils the solution to a very easy puzzle.
Blah, blah, grainy graphics, blue coins, blah. This level is overall rather enjoyable if you look past the severe lack of polish and focus. I'll give this a 6.2 because I didn't like it as much as imnbh4l, but I think you should definitely note down the points from his review and review your own level/level design style while looking for them.
