A very spooky forest (Patch 1.1)

[Omnion]

The level is a dark, haunted forest.

Difficulty: Medium-Hard

Screenshots:

Spoiler: show

Patch 1.1:

Spoiler: show

Made level less difficult
Removed some backgrounds
Made boss less difficult

Gameplay by Castlemaster712:


Download: https://www.mediafire.com/?0i0oy0y5mn9upqw

Download (1.1): https://www.mediafire.com/?mlrnf9kclwwa7vi

[The_Legend_of_Link]

This level seems to be very good! I'll take a chance and play this level and then I'll review

[Castlemaster712]

I played through the level, and it is hard, but not in an enjoyable way, this level is just unfair.
The jumping fish are almost unavoidable, and the boss battle was pretty much impossible, it would've been better without the enemy spawner at head level (you have to crouch to avoid them) and without the little boos around big boo.
But apart from the insane difficulty, it was a nice level, the music was nice and the graphics are awesome.
The only thing that would've made the graphics better was by adding SMW players.

Oh, also, these things don't have the same color as the water


Edit: "I player through the level" haha that typo, fixed

[Omnion]

Thanks for the review. I'm working on a patch to fix these issues.

[Omnion]

Path 1.1 has been released

Spoiler: show

Made level less difficult
Removed some backgrounds
Made boss less difficult

[Castlemaster712]

Path 1.1 has been released

Spoiler: show

Made level less difficult
Removed some backgrounds
Made boss less difficult

Can I make a video about this level in my channel? I will put the link to this thread and if you want you can put the video here, too.

[Omnion]

Path 1.1 has been released

Spoiler: show

Made level less difficult
Removed some backgrounds
Made boss less difficult

Can I make a video about this level in my channel? I will put the link to this thread and if you want you can put the video here, too.

Sure

just make sure to use the updated version

[Castlemaster712]

Spoiler: show

Here it is

[Omnion]

Spoiler: show

Here it is

Aight thanks

I'll put it up in the front

[as303298]

My Review:

Atmosphere [1/5]
It is a neat atmosphere, I did like your choice. However, it falls in adhering you your level's name: "Forest." This forest stops midway through Section 1, and doesnt come back until section 6.
Not really much of a spooky FOREST if the forest doesn't persist throughout the level.
Let alone, why is there even an underwater section or a section filled with absolutely useless SMW grates?

Level Design [0/5]
The level consisted of two main portions: water and land.
Let's tackle water first:
-Every portion of the water sections are dull, have no BGOs whatsoever and genuinely just wasted my precious time.
-Section 2 is devoted to water, yet has a lot of flaws too. For instance, how can a bubble exist underwater? Surely you know the pressure of water this far underground, evident of this being a cave and all, would crush these things. Let alone these bubbles are the worlds slowest obstacles ever. In my video you'll see me just wait for thirty seconds because IT TAKES SO GODDAMN LONG TO MOVE.
-Section 2 is filled to the brim with jelectros that only pose the challenge of "go left, then go right." This, is it's own right, is artificial extensions put to work: meaning you waste the players time to do an arbitrary task instead of just giving them the means to go forward.

Let's tackle land:
-The very first section starts you off behind a foreground object. I legit have no idea why you thought this was a good idea, unless this was an oversight caused from not testing the level.
-The end of section 1 has a large pool of water under the pipe. Now, considering the level encourages going into water...I fail to comprehend why THIS pool of water is bad for the player to go in. There is nothing in it, and there is no way to get out...so why is there water?
-Section 3 is filled with grates and ghosts...ok...why? Why are there floating grates? Did the ghosts put them there to haunt them? This portion was such an unnecessary addition to the level...
-Section 5 has a boss. Not one boss, but the same boss four times. You thought one Big Boo was fun to fight?, no?, well go fight it four times with no change to the level what-so-ever..
Seriously dude, this was such a pathetic boss. This isn't SMW, fighting Big Boos isn't a thing to this community, and this boss is probably the most boring "custom" boss I have had to deal with so far.
-Watch the video, in the morning, so you can see for yourself how dull this boss is.
-So the boss ends in a cool event string, but I expected it to end with a instant warp instead of a pipe coming upwards. Why did you even need to make another section when you could've just made the boo give me a star?

Overall, the water portions waste your time, and the land portions add nothing to the experience other than to waste more time.

Graphical Continuity [4/5]
SMB3 Jelectro in a SMW Level. If you really intend on using something from another game, try to find a retextured version. Typically, you can find what you need in the SMBX Graphics Pack that ...I think Valtteri made..I could be wrong.

BGO Placement [1/5]
I originally was going to have no problems in this field until I realized the complete lack of canopy between section 1 and 6.
-Not to mention the complete barren water section and lack of seaweed anywhere else.
-Then the level recycles the same bush throughout the level, which got incredibly stale.
-There are two methods to use a BGO: static and dynamic. You level chose the latter yet made every single piece of fog move in complete unison with each other. If you are going to spend the time to make the fog dynamic, perhaps don't make them move in unison...it looks so weird.

NPC Placement [1/5]
A good chunk of the npcs were placed creatively, but there are two massive issues.
-These irritatingly slow poison bubbles. (Already talked about this)
-The jumping piranha plants. Yep, these little guy killed the score. They jump out of a bush once...that's it. Not to mention their hitbox PERSISTS ETERNALLY. Meaning, that little box where a plant would normally recede is still there and can kill the player for no god damn reason.
-Every dry fish was placed randomly. While I was writing this people we asking me how I would rate the underwater sections...to which I didn't even notice there were dry fish in the level.

Difficulty / Replayability [0/5]
-Level was boring
-Boss was boring
-Water section was boring
-Lack of real forest-related aspects
-Not even remotely difficult

Overall Score: 7/30
Final Score: 2.3/10
Judgement: Trash Can
Video:

Spoiler: show