Woah geez, this is one hectic level. And I'm saying that in a.....surprisingly neutral way. I'm not actually mad about it as I thought I would be.
Let's talk about the design first: Right when I start the level I'm basically ASSAULTED with content. Complex pipe structures, piranha plants popping up from pipes, an ace coin locked down there, bob-ombs set up on the safe platform nearest to me... holy crap man, give me SOME room to breath! It really doesn't help that the shapes of the pipes make you feel really claustrophobic, as you can fall in a single-block hole and waste a second or two accomplishing nothing.
Sadly, this problem persisted throughout the whole level. Shutting the player in tight spaces CAN be fun in itself, but in this scenario, where you'll meet a lot of dead ends and underwhelming rewards while trying to figure out what's solid and what's not (call me blind but I really had difficulty separating them), it makes the level scary to progress through. Here's the worst offender:
I don't know what's in that ? block, but it better give me a free trip to Glasgow or something, otherwise it's NOT worth it.
On the positive side, I liked your usage of gimmicks, having a high focus on projectiles, with piranha plant fire and bullet bills synergising pretty well, and bob-ombs being a viable tool throughout the level, being used as ammo or as a shield. The unstable red-ombs were pretty nice in theory, I've always liked the "dangerous to touch" idea, but...I'm not happy with the fact that I can't just spin jump on it. Then again, you did your best signalling the player that "HEY THIS THING HURTS YOU KNOW", so it's just me wishing I could press Alt-jump more often.
I also liked how you used them as simple explosive projectiles in the second area, forcing you to think about your jumps and your steps on moving platforms. The steam jets were pretty nice, but it was more of a waiting game than anything. There were a few instances where you had to dodge attacks while waiting, you should focus on that sort of stuff more.
Graphically, I found it....decent. The background helped set the immersion, and I definitely got a construction feeling from the tileset. Sadly, as I've mentioned earlier, the contrast between FG and BG feels really low, making me wonder why I'm running into something that's "not there", even though it's a solid wall. You might want to enhance the dark greys of non-solid tiles. (by BG I guess I really mean the sky clouds and the decorative tiles that you can't reach)
also those walking SMB3 koopas are a sin please remove them
Anyway, I've had fun playing this level, certainly has flaws, but still a good ride. Probably a 5.7 or something in my book, not that my scores matter
. Keep it up.
