My Review:
Atmosphere [5/5]
As many issues as I have with this level I must give credit where it is due. Jumping from iceberg to iceberg to cross this fleet of ice-ships was a very nice choice of atmosphere. I could've done without the giant hills, which is in "Level Design", but the atmosphere was spot on.
Level Design [0/5]
A lot of problems were made in the level, which I'll list off individually below.
-Tight jumps with ice physics with a plethora of enemies isn't fun. Its a mixture of tedious and just unfair at time.
-Why the heck was there a Banzai Bill generator? That almost killed me because it is not only out of place but not even indicated correctly.
-Constantly, and I mean CONSTANTLY, going up hills via note blocks is annoying after the first....5 jumps. To do three hills of this on top of breaking ice blocks with fire balls while jumping is just tedious. I highly suggest restructing this section a lot.
-Why am I given powerups that are mandatory, yet they aren't on a generator themselves? There's way too much room for error to validate this design style, especially when the purpose of the fire flower is just to get rid of ice blocks that are just in you way for the sake of doing so.
-In the section where you climb onto the first airship, you can get stuck unless you want to kill yourself. This should never happen, the level should punish the player in its own fashion, but not by forcing the player to kill themselves because of one tiny error.
Graphical Continuity [3/5]
I don't have that many issues with the way this level looks, aside one major flaw. If the atmosphere of the level is to be going through airships and jumping from icebergs to icebergs...then why is there wood everywhere? I highly suggest using something else, because using wood on top of all this just looks bad. On top of this, a ship made out of ice is highly impractical. Use a re-textured airship tileset if you intend on doing an airship-heavy level.
BGO Placement [3/5]
I am only giving points for effort, essentially because you only used propellers and hills. IF you are going to make an airship level, put a lot more time into making these airships have depth. Not only are they made out of ice, but they are compleyely 2-Dimensional. I suggest looking into airship levels to gauge how to utilize their aspects. I highly recommend watching this level: "Storming the Fleet"
Link:
NPC Placement [1/5]
This level's usage of enemies was strictly to pose a challenge. Some times you need to stray away from trying to kill the player in order to distract them or please them in some fashion. Try having a frozen goomba walking around, or koopas flying around for no reason. Also, the SMB2 bombs dont act the way you expect them to. They don't do contact damage, meaning they are really only a distraction until they detonate on something.
Difficulty / Replayability [2/5]
I am awarding points because I genuinely liked the atmosphere. However, this is certainly a 1-time plaything kind of level due to the difficulty and tedious design choices. I suggest focusing less on the tight platforming and expand more onto your airship idea, especially considering the level's name. And again, if you are going to force the player to juggle powerups but not punish them entirely for losing one then place them on generators on pipes.
Overall Score: 14/30
Final Score: 4.6/10
Judgement: Average
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqUGJU0HAp4
