Zeldamaster12's gr8 Levels

Zeldamaster12 · Postby **Zeldamaster12** » Thu Aug 18, 2016 4:08 am

Welcome to my display of SMBX creations. I haven't done too much with SMBX, and my earlier creations aren't really good, but in my personal opinion, my levels get better every time. Hope you guys enjoy!

First Level

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Grassy Hills

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SMB1 Overworld

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Deep Woods

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Vanilla Land!

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Deep Cave Exploration #BackToBasics

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HeroLinik · Postby **HeroLinik** » Thu Aug 18, 2016 9:12 am

Review of Deep Woods:

This was an OK effort. The level's got what it's going for with the atmosphere, and this is nailed by the graphic choices used. While the forest theme was enforced well, the sudden transition to the overworld at the end was a bit jarring; the forest graphics don't fit in the overworld area. The usage of the decoration was also not so good. While it's there, the level is over-decorated. Most of the time, there are too many bushes and trees cramped into one spot, and it gets a bit unsightly. Also, while the level is predominantly SMB3-styled, the SMB2 trees do not look good in this level because they're too lightly-shaded. And while we're on the topic of graphical flaws, there is a cut-off with the bushes being placed too close to the edge, as here:

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However, the music tracks seem to fit fine. In terms of the gameplay, the level's pretty linear and has a respectable length, which is considering that the player is supposed to take their time navigating the level, even though it's basically just running and jumping on enemies. While that's fair in all respects, there are a few points where it's too cramped and hard to move around, especially with the droves of NPCs coming at the player. Speaking of NPCs, it doesn't look that good. The coin placement was all right, but the biggest problem with the level is that it is severely lacking in powerups - there are absolutely none! This isn't helped by the fact that the enemy placement is too spammy and, like the BGOs, there are often too many in one spot, and the level can turn into a nightmare because you're only surviving with one life. The Bill Blaster was pretty useless as well because it's only seen once and never again, so it would do better if it was removed.

In all fairness, this level appears to suffer from first-level syndrome, and therefore needs a lot of work. Tone down on the heavy usage of BGOs, make the level less cramped, and some powerups would be welcome.
This gets a 4.8/10 from me.

aero · Postby **aero** » Thu Aug 18, 2016 1:05 pm

Your level quality has increased over time. Your level design was pretty good overall with Deep Woods, and there isn't much to go on about except NPC placement and the fact that there isn't any power ups in the level. Really all you need to do though is get rid of the thwomps, the venus fire traps, and maybe knock off a few enemies in each screen so that there's not more than 4 or 5 per screen. This was the only problem really so idk why Linik droned on about graphics stuff, but whatever.

Keep making SMBX great again fam.

Zeldamaster12 · Postby **Zeldamaster12** » Thu Aug 18, 2016 2:00 pm

Yeah, Deep Woods was definitely a step towards improvement judging from my levels before it.

Thanks for the criticism, y'all.

PixelPest · Postby **PixelPest** » Sat Aug 20, 2016 3:49 pm

Review of Deep Cave Exploration

This was an okay SMB3-styled cave level. I feel that a lot of the issues in this level are similar to that of Deep Woods which The Thwomp King reviewed, since I realized how similar they sound. One of the good things in this level was the coin placement. Although it seemed to slack off near the end (probably about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through and on) where it wasn't so great, the positioning and spread of the coins was well done. One of the biggest issues with this level is its cramped nature. Even though it is a cave level, some of the areas were way too tight. There were a good number of jumps that were overly difficult due to how low the ceiling was and most of the level was generally too tight. This was worsened by the use of jumping NPCs (Paratroopas and Paragoombas) which made some areas very difficult to pass. I would also consider the use of Piranha Plants a little excessive; their use could definitely be cut down just a bit, especially in the area where the player has to jump from pipe to pipe to pipe to pipe, all of which contain Piranha Plants. Almost every pipe in this level contains a Piranha Plant, which isn't necessary. Often if you make 1/3 to 2/3 of the pipes, not including the ones that contain warps or NPC generators, contain Piranha Plants, that's a good amount, especially when they're in such close proximity to each other as well as other NPCs. Power-up placement needs a lot of work as well. This level is a little unneededly frustrating due to the sheer number of NPCs that are used, but only giving the player two power-ups in the entire level even worsens this effect. Since there are so many cramped areas where the player can easily take hits, power-ups are needed even more. This level could have probably contained 4-6 of them in the cave section. I also felt that the tiny water part was completely unnecessary and also contributed to another great amount of the continuous NPC clutter. It might of also been good to include a few BGOs, since some areas were a little bit bland in the cave section in terms of decorations.

I'd like to devote a whole paragraph to talking about gimmicks in this review. I think the gimmick briefly used in this level involving using Bob-ombs to break blocks is really, really overused, however a lot can be done with it to make it worthwhile. This level didn't do that. The player had to break two walls (one with two hits and another with one) with Bob-ombs spawned from a pipe. Bob-ombs don't appear anywhere else in the level, except from that pipe. It was an interesting idea to make the player have to run as fast as they can with a Bob-omb to get to the second wall, however in this level with the lack of power-ups and how close the player is cutting it to place the Bob-omb in front of the wall before it explodes is a little too much. My main issue with this is the lack of use of this gimmick; it's there so briefly and then it disappears. It started off correctly (introducing it to the player ina relatively safe environment) and then built on it nicely with the challenge, but then it was done. I would recommend having started this gimmick at the beginning of the level with that configuration and leaving the speed challenge to near the end, but building on it in between and not ditching it after having it exist for only a brief time. For example, find different and innovative ways that the player can use Bob-ombs to break through things. You could use them to break through walls in different direction, through floors, or even find different configurations of blocks and spawners that may challenge the player. You could also use Piranhcus Giganticus as another part of this gimmick to make the player have to destroy those NPCs to pass. You still shouldn't clutter up this level with this gimmick such that it isn't slow moving, but not be barely using it either. I'd also suggest that you just choose a few enemies to specialize in your level, such as using only Spinies, Bob-ombs, and Paragoombas throughout, along with Piranhacus Giganticus if you were to use that as part of the gimmick. This would just help it appear less cluttered and a little more natural.

4/10