As #Basic As It Gets

[CynicHost]

Years ago, I dreamt of making the world's greatest SMBX level. It would be complex yet intricate - innovative yet simple. For years I dropped my schooling, working only on planning this masterpiece out in my head.

But then I got lazy and just placed a bunch of blocks.

Screenshot:

Spoiler: show

Features
- Simplistic yet incredible design
- Fun parkour that challenges Mario to the best of his abilities
- Explore multiple branching paths

This level honors the #backtobasics level design, used for creating simple, fun, and innovative levels that challenge Mario and bring him back to his former glory.

Download here

[Emral]

Review:

Uninstall this program. No. You clearly only made this to enter the level. If you can’t make a legitimate level, don’t submit. Seriously. Why would you steal such a great and wonderful level from the absolute best, game that this community has ever been graced the ability to play by the all-knowing and drunk Redigit, also known as Demologic who is also the designer of Terraria; did you know he had to C&D SMBX because he doesn’t love us? Have a cookie. Points Awarded: Chocolate Cookie Honestly: go join Pixel Pest’s terrible contest if you want to do this. No. Clever usage of the SMW Line piece on top of SMB3 Sand. This gives it the illusion of being smoothed out without having to create a whole new graphic, so kudos mate. However; test your level before you send it. Your lines are faulty and I know you used PGE to make this and didn’t bother testing the results. This one doesn’t even get a review. Simply put, lazy designer. This level doesn’t get a review. My advice, uninstall SMBX. This is a vanilla contest, not a challenge contest. IF you want to make a level like this, then find an appropriate contest. Content like this is unacceptable for this contest. Switch Hunting, Boos on Climbing Games, Switch Platforms that constantly lead into boos and spiny generators around spikes while climbing gates. This level doesn’t warrant a playthrough at all. I will only give you points simply for participating however, since you obviously tried but clearly don’t have the right mindset. This level doesn’t get a full review. It is pretty much “run right”, the level. All this level has is clever messages blocks, and that’s it. It’s too linear, difficult in certain spots and overall not a good level. Level was unique in the concept of having each individual room be different, which I really liked. However, it also took the concept from Super Enigmatic World, in which each section is compact and lacks too much substance. Considering this is a puzzle, I was expecting the level to challenge me outside of guessing the correct path to walk. Another issue I had was that the level reused the same mechanics but kept switching the game style and music, which got incredibly irritating. I would recommend expanding each individual section a little bit, and try to recycle ideas creatively rather than create the same obstacle over and over. Quality over quantity, remember this. You clearly have no grasp of the editor to warrant making a contest level. I commend you for trying, but experiment some more buddy. Your level wrap doesn’t have blocks extending off the screen so you just fucking fall off. You require a key, but place it so you need an NPC to reach it AND hide it in an invisible block. Like seriously, why would you design this level? This is just a bad level. It is way too long and makes the player wait on so many unnecessary elements. Bombs, building bridges, taking utterly useless doors; all of these amount to just bad design. What killed it the most was the fact you have a pipe right after the midway point that puts you back at the start of the level. Then there is this birdo fight which was just terrible. Its position means you can only grab one out of two eggs on top of having to dodge sparkies for no reason. Also, Easter eggs to judges don’t equal more points. This was interesting, to say the least, but there are a lot of flaws. Jumps which are just barely possible and a lot of jumps where, if you do something correctly, makes the jump impossible. Quite a few things did interest me, such as webs on pipes and the sidepaths with the dragon coins. However, your level is too long and the elevator section, in my opinion, needs to be completely removed. So, kudos on surprising me and having a neat level, but you’ll have to experiment some more. This is a Vanilla Contest, not a Challenge Contest. If you want to make a Mario Maker level for the hell of it, go join Pixel Pest’s contest. This type of level isn’t welcome here. The level had no substance whatsoever and wasn’t remotely creative with its ONE gimmick. On top of this, a majority of the P-switches come out of blocks. This means that once they despawn they will never come back. If you are going to make a gimmick heavy level, make it fun and enjoyable, not linear and pointless. And make sure you stupid-proof your own level. Kudos for not making a completely ludicrous joke level, but seriously? The fact I was able to give this level any points is shocking enough. If you can’t make a real level, don’t bother even opening this program. This level was just dumb. No atmosphere, guidance or substance. I played the first section and legitimately just gave up on finishing this level. From what I gather, its incredibly linear and ugly, on top of about three birdo fights. Overall, bad level. If someone doesn’t even want to play it once then perhaps don’t bother sending it. I really don’t have much to say to this level. It was long and boring to be honest. It was very nice how you incorporated to many side paths, but don’t have a secret star also end the level. This type of design is frowned upon due to the time it takes to get back to this point. On top of this, if you are going to make a boss….make it required. I simply took the hit and just ran past him. this is one sassy level. It makes you go through the entire thing just to end up back at the start to claim a star. On top of this, the star’s death results in a door appearing. I wasted my time going through the level to see if this door was like some secret path; which it wasn’t. So...it tricked me into playing it more than one…such a sassy level. However, I do have a legit review to write. Level was way too easy and didn’t bother to incorporate anything new, inviting or innovative to the level. So really, it’s just kind of casual and bland. I have no idea what this level was trying to do, but overall I don’t like this level. It is both huge and claustrophobic in my opinion. On top of this, these houses are creative, don’t get me wrong, but they are just so ugly. I know it is a form of Japanese house, and you ported it creatively, but it was just so ugly that I really can’t accept it. On top of this, the level just feels like it ends randomly and suddenly, which is akin to this level’s awkward pacing. Overall, a lot of work is necessary in order to revamp this level. This level doesn’t get a normal review. You get negative points due to so many issues. For one, the boss uses a curse word, which I find bad for as game meant for children. Entire level is filled with ice physics and precise jumps or obstacles. One section is filled with obstacles that you have to avoid with the fairy powerup. Get hit once, and you havew to redo the ENTIRE section again. Then there is the damn boss…that was just both lazy and bad. This was an interesting idea, don’t get me wrong, but a few things both me. For one, this level is composed of mostly tanks, not airships. On top of this, the level doesn’t scroll nor require a specific pace, killing any immersive action a tank level would normally have. One big issues I have is the graphical choice you took in constructing the “border” of the level. I liked that everything faded to black, but this is a concept best left on paper. Seeing the pipes cut off into blackness yet still be solid is a trick to the mind. On top of this, it feels incredibly claustrophobic having a pure black “border” at the top and bottom of the screen. Lastly, work on your difficulty and level length. You had a good idea here, but you didn’t really do anything with it sadly. I loved the simplicity but it also proved fatal for the level. It was much too short and linear to really stick out amongst the rest of the submissions. For a world one level though, this is very spot-on for what would be required. My only real recommendation is just extend the level’s length as it really just ends abruptly. A level that is true to its name until the very end. I must say I absolutely adored this level’s simplicity while still being incredibly fun and interactive. I do have issues regarding your alternate paths requiring so much foresight, but that is really minor. The level was lovely but also very claustrophobic and time comsuming in some parts, such as the moving pipes. Lastly, the SMB2 Birdo was pretty uncalled for in such a nice easy-going level. I really liked this level’s gimmick. Using clash to your advantage, yet still not actually having clash in any specific section. Very clever indeed. However, there are quite a few flaws. Level is too long, midway point isn’t in the middle of the level and the Metroid section is both unwarranted and much too difficult. I will admit, this rating seems too high for a simplistic level, but I cannot find anything that bad about the level. It was a generic SMB1 level that really gave me the vibes of a smb2 level, even going as far as to take elements from the first level. I did love the fact you had side paths to explore, but I feel like more effort was given into making these paths immersive rather than making the normal path worth walking through. The door leading to the last section was annoying to enter as well. It is much less tedious to deal with ninji’s rather than throw a ton of mushroom blocks to create platforms. Overall, the level’s length was pretty lack luster with too little to offer in terms of originality or creativity. Not a bad level, but its graphical consistency was just bad. Grass and wood in a cave full of lava…just..why?! Clearly the lava was the gimmick and difficulty factor for this level, but it did little to do anything to this level other than make the player wait constantly. Overall, a lot of work is necessary to improve this level. I really have no idea what this level is doing. I was constantly lost and confused, which is terrible design on your part. The level has events and platforms that require me to wait around for no reason or trap me if I don’t follow along with it. Always stupid-proof your events and make them as time efficient as possible.Nothing to really say about the level. It was just really generic and bland. Even by SMW standards, this level didn’t really do much with the assets you had available. I did appreciate the use of moving layers in the cave sections. Overall, just experiment some more, as this level was just kinda “meh” in terms of replayability and longevity. So this is probably the most Super Mario World Central-esk level I have ever seen in SMBX. However, this is a vanilla contest, not a difficulty contest. Your ideas were not too shabby, placing clouds in the walls and switching from a mountainous area to a castle, but I am not convinced with your design choices. You clearly only wanted to make a difficult level, which severely hurt your score. Had the difficulty been fair, I would actually award you points for being the “odd one out” in terms of design, but you required too much from the player way too quickly. Even raocow, who does SMW hacks for a living, would probably have a lot of trouble in this level. I recommend focusing more on the level instead of its difficulty next time. I loved this level, including its incredibly ugly but creative boss. However, I do not like the fact you kept shoving these signs down my throat telling me what is happening. On top of this, I don’t really like the usage of the bonus room’s tileset on top of such unfitting music for the level. Overall good concepts, but I just have a lot of minor issues here and there. Very interesting level, which is really strange coming from me. This level was one hell of a clash-fest, yet it works surprisingly enough. I liked the concept of colliding four separate games’ worth of assets into one level, but your decision to make a water level killed the pacing of the level. Work on your level’s pacing and make the level a lot easier, because there was a lot of obstacle spam in this level. simply put, I loved this level. I won’t go into details since I will end up rambling. However, there is are two big issues with this level. For one, the boss doesn’t activate if you enter the section with time stopped. Lastly, the boss itself was cute and clever, but it is incredibly time consuming. I suggest increasing its speed to reduce the time necessary to deal with it on multiple runs. I absolutely loved this level. Its atmosphere was really something else, using grass tile-sets combined with cave music to symbolize an enclosed space. However, the concept of this being a greenhouse isn’t really shown in the level itself, but represented by its name instead. So really, the name gives you the expectation and then the level delivers based off that impression. So, while I loved the level…you sorta fell short on the “greenhouse” part. Lastly, your level was beautiful and that is about it. I found the level to be incredibly linear, only really offering one direct path to take. See this is a joke level done correctly. I don’t really have anything else to say other than this level was actually difficulty. I would recommend lowing the amount of sheer NPC spam. This is probably the best juxtapose level I have ever seen. Using Ghost House atmosphere but using Dungeon-based gimmicks and design was just amazing. I won’t go off on a ramble so I will instead only note the flaws. For one, this level gives you one powerup and no midpoint. This is really cruel even for such a short level. Lastly, the level is just so god damn short. You had a lot of potential and wasted it. Overall, I loved what the level offered. My favorite part is the fact the giant spikes have a sound tied to the event. So throughout 70% of the level you are constantly hearing this event take place, but never see it. This was great suspense build up and only added to the atmosphere. So, great work. This level was just adorable. It is clearly designed by someone who knows what they are doing, but didn’t really care much for giving an actual effort. I praise this level’s creativity however, as it showed a few layer attachment gimmicks that even I don’t know about. So, overall…pretty damn good level. This is what I consider a good joke level. A level that cant itself seriously, but actually tried to do something with itself. I fucking loved this level. This is was a great SMB2 level with cool vine-based transportation gimmicks. However, this very gimmick was a big downfall for your level. The first major one you ride is on an automatic event, so it can just be gone by the time you reach its start point. This means the player will just either sit there trying to figure out what is going on or try their hardest to pass the obstacle and die. The screen altering was a nice touch, but waiting for it to activate every time I die is very annoying. I recommend just separating these sections. I liked what this level did with the “spider portals.” It really helped reduce the amount of time wasted running back and forth. I can foresee this becoming a staple in designing, should it be as well received as I wish it to be. This still doesn’t take away the fact this level was constructed with artificial extensions. Meaning, you are intentionally keeping the player from going forward just to waste their time. I recommend adding in an entirely separate side-path in order to help the fact the level is so linear. Outside of this, I really don’t have any other suggestions.

Moved to the trash can. (Yes I did play it)

[aero]

Copypasta: the review

I agree with the trash can move though, there's nothing in this level that resembles SMB3 at all aside from the graphics.

[CynicHost]

Can someone please delete the topic? Thanks.

[JupiHornet]

Review:

Spoiler: show

Uninstall this program. No. You clearly only made this to enter the level. If you can’t make a legitimate level, don’t submit. Seriously. Why would you steal such a great and wonderful level from the absolute best, game that this community has ever been graced the ability to play by the all-knowing and drunk Redigit, also known as Demologic who is also the designer of Terraria; did you know he had to C&D SMBX because he doesn’t love us? Have a cookie. Points Awarded: Chocolate Cookie Honestly: go join Pixel Pest’s terrible contest if you want to do this. No. Clever usage of the SMW Line piece on top of SMB3 Sand. This gives it the illusion of being smoothed out without having to create a whole new graphic, so kudos mate. However; test your level before you send it. Your lines are faulty and I know you used PGE to make this and didn’t bother testing the results. This one doesn’t even get a review. Simply put, lazy designer. This level doesn’t get a review. My advice, uninstall SMBX. This is a vanilla contest, not a challenge contest. IF you want to make a level like this, then find an appropriate contest. Content like this is unacceptable for this contest. Switch Hunting, Boos on Climbing Games, Switch Platforms that constantly lead into boos and spiny generators around spikes while climbing gates. This level doesn’t warrant a playthrough at all. I will only give you points simply for participating however, since you obviously tried but clearly don’t have the right mindset. This level doesn’t get a full review. It is pretty much “run right”, the level. All this level has is clever messages blocks, and that’s it. It’s too linear, difficult in certain spots and overall not a good level. Level was unique in the concept of having each individual room be different, which I really liked. However, it also took the concept from Super Enigmatic World, in which each section is compact and lacks too much substance. Considering this is a puzzle, I was expecting the level to challenge me outside of guessing the correct path to walk. Another issue I had was that the level reused the same mechanics but kept switching the game style and music, which got incredibly irritating. I would recommend expanding each individual section a little bit, and try to recycle ideas creatively rather than create the same obstacle over and over. Quality over quantity, remember this. You clearly have no grasp of the editor to warrant making a contest level. I commend you for trying, but experiment some more buddy. Your level wrap doesn’t have blocks extending off the screen so you just ####### fall off. You require a key, but place it so you need an NPC to reach it AND hide it in an invisible block. Like seriously, why would you design this level? This is just a bad level. It is way too long and makes the player wait on so many unnecessary elements. Bombs, building bridges, taking utterly useless doors; all of these amount to just bad design. What killed it the most was the fact you have a pipe right after the midway point that puts you back at the start of the level. Then there is this birdo fight which was just terrible. Its position means you can only grab one out of two eggs on top of having to dodge sparkies for no reason. Also, Easter eggs to judges don’t equal more points. This was interesting, to say the least, but there are a lot of flaws. Jumps which are just barely possible and a lot of jumps where, if you do something correctly, makes the jump impossible. Quite a few things did interest me, such as webs on pipes and the sidepaths with the dragon coins. However, your level is too long and the elevator section, in my opinion, needs to be completely removed. So, kudos on surprising me and having a neat level, but you’ll have to experiment some more. This is a Vanilla Contest, not a Challenge Contest. If you want to make a Mario Maker level for the hell of it, go join Pixel Pest’s contest. This type of level isn’t welcome here. The level had no substance whatsoever and wasn’t remotely creative with its ONE gimmick. On top of this, a majority of the P-switches come out of blocks. This means that once they despawn they will never come back. If you are going to make a gimmick heavy level, make it fun and enjoyable, not linear and pointless. And make sure you stupid-proof your own level. Kudos for not making a completely ludicrous joke level, but seriously? The fact I was able to give this level any points is shocking enough. If you can’t make a real level, don’t bother even opening this program. This level was just dumb. No atmosphere, guidance or substance. I played the first section and legitimately just gave up on finishing this level. From what I gather, its incredibly linear and ugly, on top of about three birdo fights. Overall, bad level. If someone doesn’t even want to play it once then perhaps don’t bother sending it. I really don’t have much to say to this level. It was long and boring to be honest. It was very nice how you incorporated to many side paths, but don’t have a secret star also end the level. This type of design is frowned upon due to the time it takes to get back to this point. On top of this, if you are going to make a boss….make it required. I simply took the hit and just ran past him. this is one sassy level. It makes you go through the entire thing just to end up back at the start to claim a star. On top of this, the star’s death results in a door appearing. I wasted my time going through the level to see if this door was like some secret path; which it wasn’t. So...it tricked me into playing it more than one…such a sassy level. However, I do have a legit review to write. Level was way too easy and didn’t bother to incorporate anything new, inviting or innovative to the level. So really, it’s just kind of casual and bland. I have no idea what this level was trying to do, but overall I don’t like this level. It is both huge and claustrophobic in my opinion. On top of this, these houses are creative, don’t get me wrong, but they are just so ugly. I know it is a form of Japanese house, and you ported it creatively, but it was just so ugly that I really can’t accept it. On top of this, the level just feels like it ends randomly and suddenly, which is akin to this level’s awkward pacing. Overall, a lot of work is necessary in order to revamp this level. This level doesn’t get a normal review. You get negative points due to so many issues. For one, the boss uses a curse word, which I find bad for as game meant for children. Entire level is filled with ice physics and precise jumps or obstacles. One section is filled with obstacles that you have to avoid with the fairy powerup. Get hit once, and you havew to redo the ENTIRE section again. Then there is the damn boss…that was just both lazy and bad. This was an interesting idea, don’t get me wrong, but a few things both me. For one, this level is composed of mostly tanks, not airships. On top of this, the level doesn’t scroll nor require a specific pace, killing any immersive action a tank level would normally have. One big issues I have is the graphical choice you took in constructing the “border” of the level. I liked that everything faded to black, but this is a concept best left on paper. Seeing the pipes cut off into blackness yet still be solid is a trick to the mind. On top of this, it feels incredibly claustrophobic having a pure black “border” at the top and bottom of the screen. Lastly, work on your difficulty and level length. You had a good idea here, but you didn’t really do anything with it sadly. I loved the simplicity but it also proved fatal for the level. It was much too short and linear to really stick out amongst the rest of the submissions. For a world one level though, this is very spot-on for what would be required. My only real recommendation is just extend the level’s length as it really just ends abruptly. A level that is true to its name until the very end. I must say I absolutely adored this level’s simplicity while still being incredibly fun and interactive. I do have issues regarding your alternate paths requiring so much foresight, but that is really minor. The level was lovely but also very claustrophobic and time comsuming in some parts, such as the moving pipes. Lastly, the SMB2 Birdo was pretty uncalled for in such a nice easy-going level. I really liked this level’s gimmick. Using clash to your advantage, yet still not actually having clash in any specific section. Very clever indeed. However, there are quite a few flaws. Level is too long, midway point isn’t in the middle of the level and the Metroid section is both unwarranted and much too difficult. I will admit, this rating seems too high for a simplistic level, but I cannot find anything that bad about the level. It was a generic SMB1 level that really gave me the vibes of a smb2 level, even going as far as to take elements from the first level. I did love the fact you had side paths to explore, but I feel like more effort was given into making these paths immersive rather than making the normal path worth walking through. The door leading to the last section was annoying to enter as well. It is much less tedious to deal with ninji’s rather than throw a ton of mushroom blocks to create platforms. Overall, the level’s length was pretty lack luster with too little to offer in terms of originality or creativity. Not a bad level, but its graphical consistency was just bad. Grass and wood in a cave full of lava…just..why?! Clearly the lava was the gimmick and difficulty factor for this level, but it did little to do anything to this level other than make the player wait constantly. Overall, a lot of work is necessary to improve this level. I really have no idea what this level is doing. I was constantly lost and confused, which is terrible design on your part. The level has events and platforms that require me to wait around for no reason or trap me if I don’t follow along with it. Always stupid-proof your events and make them as time efficient as possible.Nothing to really say about the level. It was just really generic and bland. Even by SMW standards, this level didn’t really do much with the assets you had available. I did appreciate the use of moving layers in the cave sections. Overall, just experiment some more, as this level was just kinda “meh” in terms of replayability and longevity. So this is probably the most Super Mario World Central-esk level I have ever seen in SMBX. However, this is a vanilla contest, not a difficulty contest. Your ideas were not too shabby, placing clouds in the walls and switching from a mountainous area to a castle, but I am not convinced with your design choices. You clearly only wanted to make a difficult level, which severely hurt your score. Had the difficulty been fair, I would actually award you points for being the “odd one out” in terms of design, but you required too much from the player way too quickly. Even raocow, who does SMW hacks for a living, would probably have a lot of trouble in this level. I recommend focusing more on the level instead of its difficulty next time. I loved this level, including its incredibly ugly but creative boss. However, I do not like the fact you kept shoving these signs down my throat telling me what is happening. On top of this, I don’t really like the usage of the bonus room’s tileset on top of such unfitting music for the level. Overall good concepts, but I just have a lot of minor issues here and there. Very interesting level, which is really strange coming from me. This level was one hell of a clash-fest, yet it works surprisingly enough. I liked the concept of colliding four separate games’ worth of assets into one level, but your decision to make a water level killed the pacing of the level. Work on your level’s pacing and make the level a lot easier, because there was a lot of obstacle spam in this level. simply put, I loved this level. I won’t go into details since I will end up rambling. However, there is are two big issues with this level. For one, the boss doesn’t activate if you enter the section with time stopped. Lastly, the boss itself was cute and clever, but it is incredibly time consuming. I suggest increasing its speed to reduce the time necessary to deal with it on multiple runs. I absolutely loved this level. Its atmosphere was really something else, using grass tile-sets combined with cave music to symbolize an enclosed space. However, the concept of this being a greenhouse isn’t really shown in the level itself, but represented by its name instead. So really, the name gives you the expectation and then the level delivers based off that impression. So, while I loved the level…you sorta fell short on the “greenhouse” part. Lastly, your level was beautiful and that is about it. I found the level to be incredibly linear, only really offering one direct path to take. See this is a joke level done correctly. I don’t really have anything else to say other than this level was actually difficulty. I would recommend lowing the amount of sheer NPC spam. This is probably the best juxtapose level I have ever seen. Using Ghost House atmosphere but using Dungeon-based gimmicks and design was just amazing. I won’t go off on a ramble so I will instead only note the flaws. For one, this level gives you one powerup and no midpoint. This is really cruel even for such a short level. Lastly, the level is just so god damn short. You had a lot of potential and wasted it. Overall, I loved what the level offered. My favorite part is the fact the giant spikes have a sound tied to the event. So throughout 70% of the level you are constantly hearing this event take place, but never see it. This was great suspense build up and only added to the atmosphere. So, great work. This level was just adorable. It is clearly designed by someone who knows what they are doing, but didn’t really care much for giving an actual effort. I praise this level’s creativity however, as it showed a few layer attachment gimmicks that even I don’t know about. So, overall…pretty damn good level. This is what I consider a good joke level. A level that cant itself seriously, but actually tried to do something with itself. I ####### loved this level. This is was a great SMB2 level with cool vine-based transportation gimmicks. However, this very gimmick was a big downfall for your level. The first major one you ride is on an automatic event, so it can just be gone by the time you reach its start point. This means the player will just either sit there trying to figure out what is going on or try their hardest to pass the obstacle and die. The screen altering was a nice touch, but waiting for it to activate every time I die is very annoying. I recommend just separating these sections. I liked what this level did with the “spider portals.” It really helped reduce the amount of time wasted running back and forth. I can foresee this becoming a staple in designing, should it be as well received as I wish it to be. This still doesn’t take away the fact this level was constructed with artificial extensions. Meaning, you are intentionally keeping the player from going forward just to waste their time. I recommend adding in an entirely separate side-path in order to help the fact the level is so linear. Outside of this, I really don’t have any other suggestions.

Moved to the trash can. (Yes I did play it)

Best review in the history of the forums

[PixelPest]

What's so bad about my contest?! This is almost becoming like a thing now

[Yoshi021]

What's so bad about my contest?! This is almost becoming like a thing now

You do know that the review is all of Wraith Adamknight's reviews of SVLC.

[CynicHost]

You do know that the review is all of Wraith Adamknight's reviews of SVLC.

why do I feel so honoured

[PixelPest]

What's so bad about my contest?! This is almost becoming like a thing now

You do know that the review is all of Wraith Adamknight's reviews of SVLC.

Oh wow. Lol. Didn't even notice that