Super Mario Bros. X Forums

This is the first level i designed and completed in literal years. Let's see if I still got it.

Anyway, this is a factory level and it's very difficult, so please do download it, but know what you're in for. It is, as far as I can tell, the hardest level I publicly released (also did some levels for SDG which were absolutely ridiculous, but I'm sure asnumbers can tell you more about that). There's super fast Koopa Troopas, lots of conveyor belts, and a plethora of saw blades to spin jump on. There are three stars to collect, one at the end of the level and two hidden SMW stars, in case you need an extra challenge.

SMW Spikes, pipes, and the thing that goes round with the lines attached to them (no idea what to call it) recolored by me. All other custom graphics taken from the Ultimate CGFX Pack.

Music: For Stronger Bones from Iji (great freeware game, play it)

Screens: Get it here: Have fun.

Review time:

You're meeting all of my standards, help.
Allow me to gush about this level for a bit before moving on to criticism, because this definitely is a refresher from all the monotonous and repetitive levels I see around here. This level does so much stuff right it's ironic how a level from someone who hasn't touched the engine in years appeals more to me than the general stuff I see floating around.
Enemies placed intelligently to both help the player progress, but aswell provide a challenge without being unfair, dragon coins which are actually easy to get, gimmicks which are mixed and matched and expanded upon in multiple ways. This is like a dream, haha.

While I would by no means call this a perfect level, it's easy for me to say that it's one I have enjoyed a lot, despite its difficulty. I really like some of the ideas you've incorporated into this level, such as the grinder (yes that's their name) ride near the end of the first half. I can tell this level was touched up a lot to make the areas feel just right, which is something I clearly don't see enough around here.

I really like your approach when designing, but there's one rather major issue I've had with this level, which is that it tries a bit too much.
I probably could forgive this if you used multiple midpoints, but as it stands the progression in terms of difficulty and the amount of stuff there is in this level feels kind of janky and over the top. For example, I think having a midpoint before the aforementioned grinder ride would be a good idea as I can see it as a common spot where the player would die (I know I did a few times).
As for quantity of good stuff, I find it kind of sad how some of the ideas you had were just one-time occurances, such as the moving layer in the start or the attach-to-layer dragon coin. They're easily overshadowed by the two main gimmicks of the level and it makes me wonder if it wasn't better if this level was split in two - one about grinders and one about pipes.

I'm gonna continue that thought process here because I think I get the intention of switching things up right there after the midpoint, but I think each half does provide enough content to fill in a full level each (albeit without secret stars, most likely, unless you dedicate some side-areas to them).
Overall, I found this level to be very enjoyable. You have definitely not lost your touch (or at least hit a very specific sweet spot with this level). I'd just watch out for where to stop adding stuff in the future. It's weird because everyone else I tell the exact opposite.
8.2/10, moved to Pretty Good.

Hope to see more of your stuff in the future!

Enjl wrote:Review time:

You're meeting all of my standards, help.
Allow me to gush about this level for a bit before moving on to criticism, because this definitely is a refresher from all the monotonous and repetitive levels I see around here. This level does so much stuff right it's ironic how a level from someone who hasn't touched the engine in years appeals more to me than the general stuff I see floating around.
Enemies placed intelligently to both help the player progress, but aswell provide a challenge without being unfair, dragon coins which are actually easy to get, gimmicks which are mixed and matched and expanded upon in multiple ways. This is like a dream, haha.

While I would by no means call this a perfect level, it's easy for me to say that it's one I have enjoyed a lot, despite its difficulty. I really like some of the ideas you've incorporated into this level, such as the grinder (yes that's their name) ride near the end of the first half. I can tell this level was touched up a lot to make the areas feel just right, which is something I clearly don't see enough around here.

I really like your approach when designing, but there's one rather major issue I've had with this level, which is that it tries a bit too much.
I probably could forgive this if you used multiple midpoints, but as it stands the progression in terms of difficulty and the amount of stuff there is in this level feels kind of janky and over the top. For example, I think having a midpoint before the aforementioned grinder ride would be a good idea as I can see it as a common spot where the player would die (I know I did a few times).
As for quantity of good stuff, I find it kind of sad how some of the ideas you had were just one-time occurances, such as the moving layer in the start or the attach-to-layer dragon coin. They're easily overshadowed by the two main gimmicks of the level and it makes me wonder if it wasn't better if this level was split in two - one about grinders and one about pipes.

I'm gonna continue that thought process here because I think I get the intention of switching things up right there after the midpoint, but I think each half does provide enough content to fill in a full level each (albeit without secret stars, most likely, unless you dedicate some side-areas to them).
Overall, I found this level to be very enjoyable. You have definitely not lost your touch (or at least hit a very specific sweet spot with this level). I'd just watch out for where to stop adding stuff in the future. It's weird because everyone else I tell the exact opposite.
8.2/10, moved to Pretty Good.

Hope to see more of your stuff in the future!

Thanks for the feedback! I did touch upon it a lot, I tend to be rather perfectionist so I test shit a lot (maybe even too much) before I release it. I can see why you would feel like there's too many ideas in one level, I guess my overenthusiasm as a result of just getting back into the game is to blame for that.

Multiple checkpoints wouldn't be a bad idea, my only issue is that uh, the whole LunaLua system is entirely new to me and I would first have to familiarize myself with it to see if it's even something I care for. If I get LunaLua I'll consider it.

I did initially plan on doing more with moving layers (for the final section, for example), but the level already was so loaded with dieas that I didn't follow through with it. I could just replace that moving layer in section with a Thwomp, if that seems like a better idea. The Ace Coin gimmick was just a little thing to keep the placement of the Ace Coins diverse, might do more with such a thing in another level sometime, who knows.

I'll definitely try to keep my levels a little more concise in the future, I've always had the tendency to just keep on building and building once I got started on a level because I keep getting cool ideas, I'll try to move some of those ideas to another level of mine then. Once again, thanks for yr criticism!

If anyone else has played this and wants to share any criticisms, do notify me. An 8.2 is pretty close to The Best territory so I might as well see if I can push for that, just gotta make sure any miscellaneous errors are smoothened out (is the music right, is it fine from a graphical perspective, are there any parts that seem "cheap" or whatever, etc)

Right, silly me. I actually had some points regarding tricky areas which I somehow forgot to mention in the review:
[rimg]http://i.imgur.com/5aUpOXd.png[/rimg][rimg]http://i.imgur.com/8enHDB8.png[/rimg]
These two areas I found to be particularly tricky. While getting the dragon coin isn't required, making the bullet jump with the grinder around requires some precise timing. The second screen caused a few deaths for me as I kept bumping against the blocks and lost my momentum. Moving the last spike 1 further to the right should fix this.

The music is nice. It fits the level in my opinion. Though it does go through some different phases (or whatever you call it) and I found some to be more fitting than others (the beginning especially nailed the atmosphere imo).

Graphically I've had no issues with this level. It might not be the most amazing level out there in terms of visuals, but it is what it needs to be and isn't over the top with it, which is good.

Enjl wrote:Right, silly me. I actually had some points regarding tricky areas which I somehow forgot to mention in the review:
[rimg]http://i.imgur.com/5aUpOXd.png[/rimg][rimg]http://i.imgur.com/8enHDB8.png[/rimg]
These two areas I found to be particularly tricky. While getting the dragon coin isn't required, making the bullet jump with the grinder around requires some precise timing. The second screen caused a few deaths for me as I kept bumping against the blocks and lost my momentum. Moving the last spike 1 further to the right should fix this.

The music is nice. It fits the level in my opinion. Though it does go through some different phases (or whatever you call it) and I found some to be more fitting than others (the beginning especially nailed the atmosphere imo).

Graphically I've had no issues with this level. It might not be the most amazing level out there in terms of visuals, but it is what it needs to be and isn't over the top with it, which is good.

On the first screen you were supposed to stand on the pipes of the pipes generator to the right. I guess that wasn't clear enough though, shall I change it? The second screen is an easy fix indeed, and something I should have done earlier since it caused me trouble a couple of times as well.

Ah, the pipes! Yeah that's not very clear. I think a more appropriate reward for getting that is a 1-Up.

Enjl wrote:Ah, the pipes! Yeah that's not very clear. I think a more appropriate reward for getting that is a 1-Up.

Yeah, that might be right. I will replace the coin with a 1-up somehow and replace the coin to a better place