My submission for Chocolate Contest 2024 and it got 5th place. I was working with an entirely different idea for the contest but I remembered my SCC submission that has the same gimmick but with Thwomps and cracked ground. I expanded the idea a bit to include other NPCs and used clouds as visual blockers. I'm pretty proud of it so go play, also my favorite name among all of my levels
My submission for New Year Vanilla Contest, it's inspired from Subterranean Caverns by worldpeace125 but I added some things to the idea like powering down pause and starman preventing powering down so go play
My Scicon 2023 submission. It's based on a jank I found where the player can jump after exiting a door warp. I also incorporated the mechanic where the player has i-frames when entering a door.
My VC2022 submission. It was inspired by The Crow and The Pitcher where the water rises when a rock is thrown on it. I did extend the central idea a little bit so it will only be apparent on the last sections.
I decided to contrast my VC2021 level submission by creating a calm but highly replayable level for CC2021 instead of a one-shot intense level. It worked fine as I intended so I'm proud of it. Playthrough
Last level of the Three Dumb Monkeys (Speak no smart). Spring Chicken with Onion Leeks (Hear no smart) and g'raph (See no smart). This probably has the most potential to be in a serious level.
Design
The design is this level was great. Obviously, it a lava/fire themed level so there are lots of aspects that add to the theme. The fire and red coloured enemies create a nice feel as you traverse through the level and the vines are a red shade as they have been burnt etc. The whole level takes a very dark theme which adds to the experience of a volcano themed level. The music is great and creates a great vibe to the level as the music is a great fit. The deep drums make the level again have the dark feel to it. The bone platforms also are a good fit as they make it look like people/creatures have died in the lava. There was also outside areas which made sure the design was varied and great to look at. Very good design.
Difficulty
There were a lot of enemies in the stage and they all provided a challenge trying to avoid them. When climbing the vines you need to have good timing to avoid all the enemies. As this is a fire level you need to be careful about the lava. This was not really a problem as the jumps between the bone platforms and the ground were quite easy to make and you were supplied with a Tanooki Leaf to make the jumps easier. Fire Flowers were also distributed so you can kill the enemies that proved a problem. The power-ups were placed well and I usually needed one in stock when they next came around. In the latter part of the level there was a sign saying that the bone platforms don't move in this area. I nearly fell in the lava because in the later part of the level there was another platform that did move when I touched it. It was in another area however, so it's much more my fault that the creator's.The level was long enough to enjoy and was did prove a challenge in most areas.
Enjoyability
The level was a great length so it did not become boring but provided a good playing experience. The level was not unfair and challenged the player in most areas, if it was jumping through enemies, or climbing vines, it was challenging. The areas were also diverse and even though they were all fire-designed areas they all had a new feature. This made sure it didn't get redundant and was fun to play. I loved the music as Mother 3's soundtrack was a great fit! A very fun enjoyable level to play!
Overall
A really great level to play and I really hope the creator's makes more levels. The design and music choices were great and was challenging in areas. I didn't die maybe because there was a lot of power-ups placed but this is only a small problem and does not really take away from the difficulty as you can still make many mistakes from the lava. Really enjoyable to play and a great level overall!
You've already got a nice review here and theres not much else I would say that doesnt echo youngtomlin's comments, but I would like to say your using the lava lotus fireballs as "drops" coming from the overhead lava was very cool. I also would give this a high rating and hope to see more levels!
Aesthetic/Atmosphere: 8/10
Very nice looking level, it fit well with the ice theme, and the atmosphere and background were all nice to look at. Couldve used a little bit more variation in the BGOs used, but what you did use looked good. There were some instances of minor cutoff, mostly in the Lava Bulbs (or, ice bulbs?) where they could be seen under the first layer of ice, though honestly im not sure why. It seemed as if you were using backgrounds to hide them but you did use blocks. Might have had something to do with the layer events. Whatever the case, it wasnt a huge deal. The music was nice too.
Gameplay: 5/10
While it was a pretty fun level, but it was almost unbearably easy. Nothing really challenged me or made me stop and think. For a labyrinth it also lacked any substantial maze, besides the pipemaze in section 3 that wasnt hard either (though that may have been by chance). It wasnt from a lack of NPCs or too many powerups, it was simply too short and not 'labyrinth-y" enough. (is that a word?) Some of the switch blocks werent needed, and served only to force me to backtrack and hit it again, either to see if I just missed something (I didnt) or so I could continue. Also a side note, the sign at the start says there are 8 red coins, when I believe you used blue ones, or canned the 8RC thing altogether. either way its misleading.
Overall: 6.5/10
I think its a neat idea, the layer switching ice/water. But I feel it needed executed better by expanding the level a bit, adding more of a puzzle feel to the level.
I forgot to delete that sign, sorry. I'll fix that later.
And thanks for notifying me about the bug in ice podoboos. I used lava for it since foreground BGOs doesn't work.
