Super Mario Bros. X - Grand Extravaganza! (AWARDS!)

[Mivixion]

Hi, I'm Mivixion, the friendly neighborhood SMBX dog here to start the first official...

(thanks to Intuition for the logo!)

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The Rules

• You are allowed to submit only one level. You may update your submission during the submission period. The latest submission will be judged. Submitting two levels and expecting both to be judged will lead to disqualification.
• You are allowed to work alone or with a partner. You may request a team name if you are working in a team.
• Level must be beatable with a 1.3.x/2.0 variant of SMBX. No 1.4/38A levels are permitted.
• If you submit after the deadline has passed, penalties apply. Details below.
• Judges mustn't know which level is yours. Do not submit a level you have publicly showcased or released in the past.
• Include all LunaLua APIs you're using inside the level folder. Details below.
• SMBX 2.0 Characters are not allowed, since some of them will see revisions before the game gets released that might break compatibility. Other 2.0 features are allowed.
• Either specify which characters your level is made for or include a filter.
• Your level may not end in a warp exit.
• You may include one secret exit in your level. This exit has to end the level and can also not be a warp exit.
• Keep your music files short to reduce the filesize of your package. Converting music to .ogg format and adding loop points is encouraged, but not required.
• Judges are not allowed to submit levels.
• Test your level! Make sure events work, start position is correct, there are no errors, etc. Levels will be judged as they are submitted.
• By submitting you agree that your level will be included in an episode featuring all of the submissions.

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Judging
Judges will submit a written review of each level and then score them based on the rubric below:
Design and Execution: 50 Points
In this category, the overall execution of a level is judged. This includes how the level's concept is executed, how fun the level is, the flow it has to it and the level's difficulty curve. A level should feel good to play, offer a variety of things executed with its concept while feeling coherent and not be boring or frustrating.
Creativity and Innovation: 30 Points
This category focuses on a level's personality, the factor which makes it stand out among others. Here, a level's presentation of its ideas and innovation is judged, both in an aesthetic, as well as a gameplay-specific sense.
Aesthetics and Composition: 20 Points
In this category, a level's overall look, feeling and atmosphere is judged. The level's aesthetics should thrive to improve upon the overall quality on the level and support the experience, rather than getting in the way of it.
Special thanks to Vitor Vilela and the guys running VLDCX for creating the base for this rubric and supporting us!

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LunaLua APIs
In case APIs get updated throughout submission period, judging period or the time it takes to create the game, you are required to include all APIs your level relies on locally inside your level folder. Rename all your APIs by prefixing their files with "local_". You have to rename them in the API.load call, too. Example:

Code: Select all

local eventu = API.load("local_eventu")

Keep an eye on APIs that rely on other APIs in order to function. Please include and rename those, too. You can find these by searching for "loadSharedAPI", "loadAPI" or "API.load" inside the APIs you're using.

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How to submit
Submission procedures are similar to those for the Community Contests. PM me your level in a .zip archive to me and structure it like so:

• Music goes into the level folder to keep the episode folder organized and so we can easily tell which level uses which music.
• Do not include your username anywhere.
• Give your level a distinctive name. Try to be creative!
• You may include a readme if you want to give credits or want to write additional information. Again, remember to not put your name anywhere.
• Make sure the level and custom graphics folder share the same name, and make sure your readme includes your level's name. Name the archive after your level, too.
• Music can be one of many formats. mp3, ogg, spc and wav are the most commonly used ones. Same goes for sound effects.

Your package should look something like this. Keep in mind that graphics, music and sound are not one file:

Outside the level folder:

Grab all the stuff in the 2nd image and neatly pack it into an archive to submit it:

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Submissions Deadline
Your level must be submitted by 11:59PM USA Central Time on SUNDAY APRIL 30TH, 2017. Penalized submissions will be taken up to 5 days after this date.

Judges (bolded have submitted reviews)

• SuperMario7
• HeroLinik
• PixelPest
• JupiHornet
• Sanct

Participants (bolded have submitted levels)

• snoruntpyro + Aristocrat
• thehelmetguy1
• MECHDRAGON777 + Reiuji Utsuho
• Nien
• Waddle Derp
• King of Eterity
• RudeGuy07
• MosaicMario
• timocomsmbx2345
• Lukas
• RhysOwens
• Ness-Wednesday
• Ryaa
• Uzendayo
• glitch4
• Inspirited
• Ryuji231
• ShadowStarX
• Ace + KoopaTheQuick
• FrozenQuills
• Mr Briney
• TheDinoKing
• dragonfan96
• Bowser is ded
• The101MarioGuy
• litchh
• Trace
• bossedit8
• RoundPiplup
• ParmaJon + pikabread
• lolyoshi

Results
31. Amazing maze by ShadowStarX (1.8/100)

Spoiler: show

This isn't even funny.

This level gives a good idea of ​​why I think it would be a bad kind of joke, I do not know, the idea is one of the most honest and lack of creativity, but that's too much! This level of full-scale SIG sand curse a lot, but actually just makes the quicksand a swamp engine. Make a small cave background an atmosphere of praise, but at least it is not purely black. It's just seeming and to ensure "yes" Let it be a good amount.

You can have five points for aesthetics, but literally the most awful thing I have ever played.

I opened the editor, pumped to start reviewing, and the first level I get is this. This.

(TIE) 29. Nintendo Switch Plains by Electriking (7.4/100)

Spoiler: show

The Force is strong with this one.

1 free point to round up to 100

I can’t afford one.

This wasn’t actually a terrible level. I liked the song for one, and as for gameplay, it was actually kinda challenging and fair and not terribly unfun for a level like this. It just really, really needs a powerup at the beginning. I mean of course overall it’s a pretty poorly made joke level, just not as poorly made as it could be, I guess.

(TIE) 29. Tower of Insanity by Ryuji231 (7.4/100)

Spoiler: show

It's just a long vertical flight on a Lakitu's Shoe except with hazards attempting to knock you off, and you can avoid them by going up the side. There's no point to this at all.

I'm disappointed, you can do so many things with a joke level, yet this is what you do.

This level had lots of problems. First of all, there was tons of clash, and no decorations, so everything looked pretty bad. Second, the level wasn’t even fun really, since you almost needed the flying shoe for some jumps, but it was hard to keep the shoe for the whole level because of all the things jumping out at you and some obstacle crowding in areas. And if you couldn’t keep the shoe, you had to go all the way back to the bottom which was pretty dumb. So yeah, while I guess I saw some effort into making this level a bit, different, the execution wasn’t really there. This level was insane alright, but not in a good way.

28. bowser's castle by lolyoshi (13.8)

Spoiler: show

Can you at least think of a level name that's more imaginative than this? Seriously, I've been in the community for 5 years, and this is like the 10th or something time I've seen a level called "Bowser's Castle". Aside from that, this level is incredibly bad. Although there's platforming present, the entire thing is just really short and bland, with very little stuff to interest the player, and the Bowser fight at the end was really bland, as well as the fact that YOU DON'T EVEN NEED TO FIGHT HIM AT ALL BECAUSE YOU CAN JUST RUN PAST HIM. If that's the case, then why is Bowser even there? I have a feeling this level was rushed because it doesn't even seem to be finished. Also, don't put a Dragon Coin down if you can't put four others down. Just put something like a 1-Up instead.

This felt like someone's first level. It's not BAD for a first level, but it's way too short. The concept of avoiding Bowser to beat the level was unique, though.

This level feels very unfullfilled, I don't have much to say about it as there isn't much level. The bowser boss is actually so non-threatening it's hilarious.

This level was very bland, short, and poorly designed. It had poor enemy placement, and choice in respects to some NPCs, for a castle level. It was not at all fun to play though as it was short and slow, with nothing memorable to it. The boss battle was just ridiculous as all you had to do was run across the screen and grab the star. However, the level was structurally not awful in terms of the way the blocks were placed so I gave it a little bit of pity in the design category.

Lots of problems with this level. First of all, there’s only one dragon coin, which is kinda dumb. Also, the first section seems pretty much pointless, and the boss is poorly designed. That middle section required some interesting obstacle maneuvering with those basic NPCs, so I see some potential there, but besides that, it was a pretty standard, underdecorated castle level that didn’t have particularly anything in it to make it stand out.

27. Timothy's Casino by timocomsmbx2345 (24.8/100)

Spoiler: show

Okay timocomsmbx2345, if you're going to make a contest level, at least have the common sense to not spoil that you made it in the contest topic as well as the level name. Anyway, as for the level...it's not bad, but it's not the best either, and it's very easy to smell the fact that this is a first attempt at a contest. It feels quite rushed, as evidenced by the fact that there it's rather short, there are are 3 Dragon Coins as opposed to 5, and the fact that the last section is really massive, yet you can only explore a small part of it, and the key and lock puzzle just seemed there for no reason. Also, it's really hard to find platforms in this section because they blend in very well with the background, there are random tiles for no reason, and the warp into the last section is on the chip pile rather than the pipe. Also, the 3-Ups were a bit of overkill and can serve as an easy life farm. But other than that, it was a rather satisfactory attempt at a casino level, but please test your levels in future!

Well. Um. This level is a mess. The whole thing is pretty flat and eventless, but that's not my issue with it. The design is just...so bad. Part of that has to do with the bad use of the graphics. In some places, particularly the ones with the yellow background, it's way too hard to tell what's a platform and what isn't. The midpoint is sandwiched in between two blocks, and it's REALLY hard to see when you're focusing on avoiding the enemies. At the end, you put a warp in a stack of poker chips instead of a pipe, which is one of the most bizarre design choices I've ever seen. I actually had to look in the editor to find that warp. Also, there are three key barriers at the end, but you only need one key to beat the level. There are also random blocks hovering around, which leads me to believe that the level is unfinished.

This is honestly the funniest level in the contest, it's my favorite level. I love it. Make more levels, you're my favorite person.

This level was an absolute mess. Everything seemed randomly placed, especially in the last section. There were many cramped areas, poorly placed collectables, and eyesore, flashy visuals. There were also blind falls into enemies and very little distinguishability between background objects in blocks. Furthermore most of the NPCs were friendly (other than the chips) so it was hard to know what was friendly and what wasn’t, plus also due to that there was very little challenge at all. The level also had no gimmicky or creative aspects to it and mostly just seemed random and boring.

It’s an alright level. The graphics look fine, for one, and the level is pretty well decorated (plus the music fits). However, some of the graphics interfered with the gameplay department for me. NPCs that are usually enemies were friendly, some stars were enemies and some weren’t - it all just ended up being a bit confusing and difficult to get used to, but it’s not really a big deal considering that’s just what happens when you use different types of graphics for an SMBX level. Still, there were parts that were just dumb, like when you had to walk past a pipe and inside traveled to the final section through a stack of coins, and when that palm tree background acted as a physical block. So yeah, this level wasn’t really bad, but it had some minor issues, and it definitely didn’t introduce any particularly unique mechanics either.

26. Creepy Crypt by The101MarioGuy (27.2)

Spoiler: show

I'm sorry, but this was absolutely atrocious. Seriously, it's 2017 and people still don't know how to test their levels? If anything, this level demonstrates how not to make a level. First of all, the entire premise of the level was so bad in that it builds entirely around the ! switches, which were only there just to lengthen the level and section off areas while forcing the player to explore other areas, or in this case try and hide just how short and linear this level is, but in this case the player can sequence break the whole thing by only hitting one switch! In line with the switch blocks, after the first batch of switches is removed, the player has to find a hidden block in order to proceed to the second section, and no hint is given other than the fact that there's a pipe in one of the sections, and the player may well be stuck if they don't discover it, which is likely to be by accident. Seriously, leave a small hint or something like coins! Also, considering how long the level is, it's also really unfair. Not only is there spam in several sections, but there's also a lack of powerups or even a checkpoint. At least the puzzles in the room offer a variety of things for the player, but the pipe maze in the second section is the worst. Not only is it unnecessarily long and cramped, with the risk of getting jumped by a Dry Bones with little room to dodge, there's also the possibility of warping the player to instant death, or all the way BACK TO THE START OF THE LEVEL! Talk about unnecessary padding!

Honestly, this level has some of the worst design decisions I've ever seen. First of all, there REALLY needs to be an indication that the purple water is instant-death, because I thought it was swimmable. Anyway, the inside portion. I'll take this one room by room. Yellow Room 1: Probably the best room in the level. Straightforward elevator section. Blue Room 1: Nothing but Firebar spam. The timing to get through here is REALLY tight, so you should probably do this room first. Green Room 1: Another straightforward room with climbing enemies. Red Room 1: All of a sudden the level's difficulty increases by a ton with this line ride section with grinders...why? So you do all that...but you're not done! Also, did I mention that THERE'S NO CHECKPOINT WHATSOEVER ANYWHERE IN THIS LEVEL? Red Room 2: Simple P Switch run, nothing too hard. Blue Room 2: You have to pick the right pipes to go through to get to the switch. Now this room...THIS room is where the level fails. The concept of having several pipes send you back to the beginning of the level FOR NO REASON OTHER THAN TO WASTE YOUR TIME is such a bad idea, and does nothing but cause the player to hate the level (especially if they forgot the correct route). Green Room 2: Pretty short and easy skull raft ride. Yellow Room 2: The very last room, a fairy section with 8 Red Coins. There's no checkpoint here, so if you die it's gonna be painful. Seriously...the level looks nice, but the design is just so...baffling, it really ruins the experience.

This level ran my patience to -56, 8 switches with no midpoint in between, a luck-based pipe area that brings you back to the beginning if you fuck up. I couldn't finish this level properly because after the luck-based pipe bullshit I didn't want to redo the first 5 switch puzzles before that, this level has nothing fun about it.

It’s much easier to explain my feelings about this level using a picture than with words:
I did not enjoy this level at all; it was a total mess. It was a giant switch hunt that bored me out of my mind with its overused gimmick rooms, cramped passages, unfitting graphics, poor music choices, and don’t even get me started on the random pipe choosing room where you basically have to choose the right pipe or it transports you back TO THE BEGINNING OF THE WHOLE LEVEL--what kind of idea is that? Why did you think it would be fun to play? Guess what. It wasn’t. I’ll give you some pity points for effort and maybe one interesting idea, but other than that this level was very poorly done and not fun at all. I’d never play it again and had a miserable time doing so. From the poorly placed collectables and enemies, the cramped passages, poor NPC choices, and unfun concept it needs some serious work. There’s also the fact that the level can be beaten really quickly due to the use of switch blocks to poorly and not completely block of doors.

I really like all the different obstacles you put in this level to make it fresh and interesting with every twist and turn. Except there were points where the level was extremely frustrating because it was really challenging and confusing. Also, the pipe maze section was horrible - forcing players to die for no reason and/or going back to the start of the level just because of bad luck is very unfun and unfair, so I’d recommend changing that section so you can only go back up the pipes or something. The outside of the crypt looked really awesome, but the inside was sorta bland, so I think you would’ve been better off with a more detailed tileset there as well as more decoration.

25. Foresty Forest by Bowser is ded (31.6/100)

Spoiler: show

So here we've got a silhouette level. This one certainly looks really cool in terms of the atmosphere, with rather beautiful scenery (especially the water) and ambient music to go with it, giving off a mysterious, laid-back feel. Gameplay is pretty standard in being a traditional overworld romp with a short underwater section halfway through, without any fancy layers and events, but in this case it actually works very well with the level's laid-back atmosphere. Unfortunately, the level seems to be a victim of its own gimmick, because at a few points it detracts from the enjoyment. While the silhouettes blend in well with each other, it's very hard to pinpoint enemies due to being obscured by background objects, often resulting in unfair hits, and the fact that a dark background was used makes it harder still because it becomes harder to spot the silhouettes. The Jelectros in the underwater sections didn't help either, because it's really easy to mistake them for platforms. Overall, this was a nice, beautiful-looking level, but it just needs a lighter background to make the silhouettes stand out a bit more.

There's a reason silhouette levels like this aren't popular anymore. Not only is this level extremely ugly, it's hard to see ANYTHING. I can't stress how annoying this level was, because not only is it hard to see, but you took the fact that it's hard to see and used it in the cheapest ways possible, the biggest example being a line ride that goes through a black space and then drops you right in the middle of it when you can't see the line. Also, the Volcano Lotuses are barely visible when you're focusing on other enemies. The only thing I really liked about this level was the music, honestly. It just wasn't fun to play at all.

I can't judge this level because I can't see shit. If anything was even well designed it's completely lost because of a complete lack of visibility. I like the music choice. Do you have some kind of contrast thing on your desktop that's always cranked up to max? Because I have no idea how you even thought anyone could see anything in this level. You could've made the background like 24 times lighter and I would still have trouble seeing anything. I can't judge the gameplay of this level as I can't judge something I can't see.

I found that the silhouette aesthetics really inhibited my enjoyability of this level. Clustered background objects made it hard to see enemies and the placement of enemies wasn’t great either. These kind of levels are hard to get right and this one totally failed from my view. It was slow, inconsistent in terms of difficulty, unnecessarily tight in the underwater places, and presented nothing special besides the aesthetics. Mario’s graphics also seemed very unusual. Overall I found this level hard to enjoy and it didn’t bring much to the table. At least it was short and a reasonable length for what it had to offer.

The level was decently designed overall, but it had plenty of problems. The silhouette graphics for the enemies often blended in too well with the BGOs and the background. The lotus plants and the jellyfish were particularly problematic in this regard. The silhouette effect is cool if used in the right way, but with such a dark background, there were lots of visibility issues. And the thing with the silhouette stuff is, while it gives the level a bit of a unique feeling, beyond that, it’s hard to make things look particularly good, so aesthetically, the level was also kinda lacking. Not a bad level, but one that can be improved in a lot of ways.

24. Sticky Situation by ParmaJon and Pikabread (39/100)

Spoiler: show

Playing this level gave me a few Invasion 1 flashbacks (specifically, the water world) due to the reliance of a background tile to serve as a "background", but honestly, it wasn't fun. While it revolves around an interesting gimmick where you have to go through sticky nets that reduce your movement to nothing, and this is played up in a lot of ways such as introducing Thwomps, this easily starts becoming an annoyance later on in the level due to not many other redeeming factors, and the fact that it's easy to trap yourself without any reliable means of committing suicide. That aside, the worst part is towards the end, where the player is expected to manipulate a standard and a side-scrolling Thwomp in order to proceed - a shining example of a gimmick working against the level it was meant for. The sticky net on the standard Thwomp's path brings the player into the path of the side-scrolling Thwomp, and with little means of dodging, they'll be knocked off and forced to get up again. Even if the player makes it up to the ledge, the fact that the side-scrolling Thwomp is placed too low makes it hard to force it to move without getting hit, and if they do manage to get past the two Thwomps, to add insult to injury, the level doesn't even end thanks to an SMW star as opposed to an SMB3 star, leaving the player to simply leap off the edge into the abyss, leading me to believe that this level was not tested properly.

A sign explaining what to do if you get softlocked isn't really a good way to start a level, dude. The gimmick itself is neat, but it can be REALLY punishing if you mess up your jumps. Softlock punishing. Mario was going left on a conveyor belt and he got stuck on a music block. Wouldn't it have been easier to just get rid of the music blocks in the conveyor belts? Or place them so that Mario can pass under them if he doesn't make it across the conveyor belts in time? Yeeeeah, this level wasn't fun to play. At all.

The first section of this level is quite fun, got stuck once but that's sort of due to the nature of the gimmick (there's probably a way to get out of softlocking but that would've compromised the design quite a bit so I'm not really mad about the softlocking part of the level). The second section though, it's not nearly as much fun. The gimmick itself hinders your movement, which takes some getting used to, but an autoscroll section right after that seems pretty harsh honestly, it looks like you knew that though, because there's way less sticky "webs" in the autoscroll section. This level needed a lot more polish honestly, but it has a lot of potential to be great.

When you choose a gimmick for a contest level, don’t choose an annoying one just to show off how you can Lua, choose one that people will actually want to play. This level was a mix of poor aesthetics, annoying enemy placement, and a gimmick that inhibited gameplay a significant amount and was never used in a context that was actual fun or interesting. It basically just slowed the player down in the most annoying parts of the level and in some spots was completely unavoidable.

The sticky gimmick was interesting, but the execution was a bit spotty. It was kinda weird and unintuitive in itself (especially since the graphics for the sticky stuff were, no offense, pretty bad), but you actually did a pretty good job introducing it safely. However, parts were way harder than they should’ve been, especially the part at the end of section 3, which seems like it’s almost impossible to complete without taking damage. Still, you made a level that used a unique gimmick in different ways throughout, so I’ll give you props for that. I would’ve liked to have seen more of the stick stuff used with the ice - I feel like you could build a whole level that’s more fair and fun out of that. Aesthetically, the sticky graphics need lots of work, as does the amount of clash and lack of decoration in the level.

23. This Level Was Rushed by thehelmetguy1 (40.2/100)

Spoiler: show

Well, this level started out with some high hopes, but towards the end it came crashing down. The first section was a classic airship stage with well-placed hazards and decent platforming with the addition of crates, but the coin placement was somewhat sporadic at parts, especially with them on the ground near Bill Blasters, and sticking a Poison Mushroom in the very first block is a very cheap move. The second half was a total disaster in comparison. First off, the player should not be forced to make precarious jumps across small platforms, especially with a low spiked ceiling, because it's really difficult without getting hurt or dying (and the level's still at it with the Poison Mushrooms). After that, the player is then railroaded into hitting a switch to progress further into the airship, and while it's not bad in its own right, it forces the player to deal with cannons, a Boo and a Bob-omb in close quarters, which makes it more difficult than it's supposed to be. As soon as that's done, the player is forced to do even more tight platforming with low spiked ceilings before crossing underneath the keel of the ship to face the boss, which, despite the cannons and Bill Blaster, is still uninteresting, partly due to the fact that the player can just stand (and maybe duck) in a certain spot to avoid getting hit. To be honest here, this would have been an enjoyable level if it weren't for the overly cramped sections.

This was probably one of the most boring levels I've ever played. It was basically just a slow autoscrolling section, an interior section, another exterior section with really annoying jumps, and a boss. The main issue with this level is the cannonballs; they move way too fast, and in the first section you have to move slowly or you're almost guaranteed to get hit by one from offscreen. For a level that's full of projectiles, there also weren't NEARLY enough powerups. There were only a few in the whole level, and they were all mushrooms at that. The boss wasn't good, either, and it felt like someone's first SMBX boss. It would have been okay with just the cannonballs, but the Bullet Bill made it more annoying than it had to be. Overall, this was...not a good level.

First section is unbearably long and slow, cannons appear out of nowhere and kill you because the cannon balls are way too fast. If the level was just what was after the checkpoint it would've been a lot better. The boss is conceptualy flawed as you can just jump on him without moving and completely just ignore all the obstacles, then again if you did make him move this fight would be absurdly difficult.

Pretty obvious that this level was rushed. It was basically just your average airship level with extra-fast projectiles. There were some cramped areas and annoying precision jumps, however the boss room was well-designed and it stuck very nicely to the SMB3 airship style. Coin placement could definitely use work since it was very inconsistent and most of them were just in large clumps. There were also some uncalled for difficulty spikes and a significant amount of the enemies seemed to just be scattered around with no real intent to their placement. Furthermore the actual structure of the airships was poor as it was too rectangular (just really long strips of airship blocks and the background objects were often just placed in large rectangles). It would be much better to see some variation and more, almost abstract, placement of these blocks. This level also just didn’t have much interesting to offer since it was just another airship level without any kind of flair.

This design was alright. First of all, the first section (the one with the moving screen) had the problems that most moving screen levels have - boring, with things jumping out. So I definitely think you can step up the speed, or get rid of the moving screen component altogether. Beyond that, the level was pretty enjoyable, with some effort put into exploring different parts of the airship, which I appreciated. The boss was also fun, but the level didn’t end up being too ambitious and ended up a bit forgettable, unfortunately. As far as aesthetics go, the level looked fine, but more detail and decorations would go a long way.

22. An Afternoon Generic Level by litchh (43.2/100)

Spoiler: show

It's a fairly standard SMB1 overworld run that has a rather nice atmosphere to it. The design's pretty basic, and the gameplay is pretty standard fare as far as levels go, but towards the end it starts to drag on due to ideas getting recycled over and over despite the checkpoint, and the Kirby section has no point to it whatsoever. The moving platforms were interesting but it's rather easy to get the hang of the rhythm and while building up momentum, simply jump off the platform as soon as you land on it without having to wait for it to cross to the other side, eliminating any challenge they would have provided. Overall, with the exception of the Kirby section, it was quite a nice overworld romp which wouldn't look too out of place in a classical Mario game.

This level lives up to its name. It's basically just running right and waiting for moving platforms...until you get the Super Leaf, then you can just get to a high place and glide over everything. That's about it, really. Pretty boring level.

Generic is not a selling point. The only thing this level tried to have is moving platforms, everything else is just randomly placed NPCs and terrain. The moving platforms aren't even that great because they don't even have a pause period, which they really should have, as like this they can be very disorientating. This level does feel like it ends before it really begins though, there's nothing much done with them and I wish you could've made this a bit more interesting.

This was a pretty solid level but it was very basic and didn’t really have anything memorable to it, neither in a good nor bad way. The enemy placement through it was relatively well done and had some good variety as more enemies were introduced as the level progressed without seeming messy. Although this was good and the placement of enemy NPCs was intuitive, coin placement was somewhat lacking and was quite inconsistent. The level overall was relatively visually appearing as there was a fine sprinkling of background objects that weren’t cluttered but just helped contribute to its overall feel. However, the use of platforms was somewhat poor as it was very repetitive and required a significant amount of waiting on the player’s behalf compared to what the rest of the level offered in terms of flow. This level really didn’t have anything interesting in it though and mostly just followed suit with the original SMB1. The graphics used in it were fine and everything seemed quite natural except for the use of the mushrooms randomly at the end which was kind of sudden and unnecessary; it would have been much better just to continue the level’s trend in graphics. The music chosen was also not a great fit but didn’t take away from the atmosphere too much.

This level is kind a cool remix of a classic SMB1 level, with graphics that fit that overall theme pretty nicely. The design is simple, but still pretty fun, although I was getting a bit bored by the end of it, so I think it could use more variety, with more interesting obstacles rather than the usual stuff you see in any old SMBX level. Another suggestion would be to add more decoration. However, it was still a decently well-made level, so good work!

21. Eclipse Temple Bots by MosaicMario (44/100)

Spoiler: show

What an incredible Zelda II level that doesn't force the player to be Link, for once! The references and homages to Zelda II in some parts like the fake walls helped with the immersion, and the atmosphere is handled very well with the addition of the day/night dichotomy, which was a cool concept which was handled very well with having two palaces - a "night" one and a "day" one seemingly in opposition. One of the shining aspects of this level is that it encourages the player to do some exploring to proceed, with this being introduced right from the start of the level, and it also makes discovering secrets seem rewarding. Unfortunately, the entire level revolves around key-hunting, and it gets to the point where it starts getting stale despite the variance in later sections, and some of the backtracking gets tedious. The boss at the end - Ludwig, I believe - was a bit of a let-down for such an epic level despite the Bots on the floor, because the player can just stand on one of the raised platforms and drop down from above.

Yeah, um. No. Putting it bluntly, this was a really, REALLY bad level. I can't stress how badly designed and unfun this level is. It was just a bad experience, and I don't ever want to play this again. The only thing I like about it was the Bot reskins, which were creative. So first of all, you get put into this dungeon area with 2 locked doors that need to be unlocked via keys. The first key is pretty easy to get, at the top left area of the temple. The SECOND key's location is told to you by one of the talking purple Bots, down a pit below some falling blocks. But honestly, WHO is going to think to look down there if not for that Bot? Nobody. Also, the platforms that take you from the top to the bottom of the temple suddenly drop you over a pit, which WILL kill new players that don't know it happens. And if you die ANYWHERE in this area, you have to do everything again. After that, you wake up a blue Bot named Midnight and he unlocks the entrance to the next temple. To be honest, the second temple probably has the worst graphics I've ever seen in an SMBX level. Everything is bright yellow, and it's actually painful to look at. Also, the second key never appeared even though I killed all the enemies in the kill room, so I had to use cheats. The last section has a pointless fake floor gimmick that killed me because I thought jumping through the floor would lead me to an item, similar to the falling blocks in the first section. Nope! You just have to go through a random maze to get the key, and go back to the beginning and fight the boss (which is ridiculously easy if you just stand on the platforms). So yeah. This level is a perfect example of why you should have your levels tested by other people, because it really felt you didn't have other players in mind when making this, especially the first temple. You can do better.

This level, it has a lot of problems. First off, the fact that every eenemy is a bot with a different color makes it super confusing to tell what each one does, this also might be one of the spammiest levels in the entire contest. The entire first half is only doable if you talk to the big stationary bots, because otherwise there's really no way to wake up that fucker on the roof or get the second key. The second half is marginally better, not being an attempt at making something open ended and instead trying to be something that's actually a level, it still fails. One of the biggest problems is that all the power ups are in pots and a lot of this level focuses on carrying things, which just makes it more obnoxious (and it was obnoxious to begin with). The boss is lame and completely shows how spammy the design of this level is.

Interesting Metroidvania level but it just went on for too long. There were some interesting ideas in it but one of the biggest fallbacks, in my opinion at least, was that you couldn’t tell how the different enemies would react since they all looked the same. The atmosphere was very good though and there was lots of variety, just not enough though for such a long level. The boss was also quite anticlimactic and disappointing after such a long level. Didn’t have much innovation other than the overall concept of the bots and the unique HUD. Was pretty enjoyable for the first few minutes but it was just overkill at the beginning and all of the ideas were used in the first few sections. The overall design was well done in some parts although others were a little cramped or cluttered. The music choices complimented the different sections well.

The overall design of the level was decent, with some nicely complex and varying zones that had a good amount of detail. Still, the level certainly had it’s fair share of problems. First of all, it was really confusing and hard to advance through in an unfun sort of way, so I think you should make the level a bit more straightforward, with less emphasis put into tedious backtracking. Additionally, the level was mostly just difficult because of an overabundance of enemies, so I think you should take some of those out and replace them with more creative obstacles (but be careful not to let the level get cramped). I also think you should make the powerups more obvious to get, because searching through literally hundreds of those bags just for a powerup got pretty boring really fast. But aside from those problems, I did appreciate how you made every part of the level look a bit different, from the dark temple, to the golden temple, to the sky zone, and I can definitely see that you put effort into thinking up complex puzzles for players to solve with intricately designed sections. I also thought the level looked pretty solid aesthetically.

20. Jeweled Realm of Violence by RhysOwens (45.2/100)

Spoiler: show

Not a good level, to be honest. It doesn't offer much in the aesthetic sense, in that a lot of the thing felt rather empty, and the background objects don't help with this either because they're sporadically placed. The level also feels rather bland to play as well despite the puzzles, and to be honest everything the level does is only to pad it out. Like with the puzzles as mentioned before, the boss fight is another example of this, because it's just a standard Larry fight. Being on ice isn't enough to differentiate it from other standard Larry fights, and there isn't even any buildup to the fight, so he only just seems to be there to make the level longer. There's also a point where the player has to ascend spinning blocks, and if they break them they'll end up softlocked, a sign which, among many others, means that this level needs some serious work.

I like your musical taste, but other than that this level just kind of...exists. There's nothing happening, it's mostly just avoiding things with the Super Leaf. The boss wasn't particularly interesting either. I do like the graphics, though.

It's clear this level wanted to try something interesting, but it just has no structure. It ends up being boring more than anything. The boss is, well, it sure is a boss! You could've focused on making one thing as polished as possible, but instead you went the route of "let's throw everything at the level until something sticks".

Not a very interesting level that had a poor atmosphere. For what appeared to be a cave level it was very bright and open. The level was also very bland throughout and tried to incorporate a bunch of seemingly random and unoriginal ideas (such as throwing bombs to break bricks) for very brief amounts of time. The music being an underground theme remix kinda fit but there are so many other tracks that would fit what was supposed to be a jeweled realm much better. I also didn’t really see the jewelled part of it either, except for a few crystal background objects. Enemy choice and placement was also not great for what seemed like an attempt at an underground level and the placement of NPCs, including enemies and collectables (such as coins and 1-ups), wasn’t very well done either; there were many cluttered spots and bland spots with respect to both enemies and collectables. The level itself also had some major difficulty spikes with the Grinder spinjumping although the varying of the terrain made it at least somewhat interesting. The Larry boss was interesting with the ice-skating sprites but otherwise aesthetics weren’t very good and a lot of mixing of styles happened where graphics were seen together that didn’t really fit.

This was a nicely designed level overall, that was certainly fun to play through and fair throughout. However, nothing really stood out to me as particularly great or particularly bad in the design department. Atmospherically, the level was a bit more unique, although I think it needs some decoration like more crystals, and probably some more BGOs just to add some visual flair. Still, this was a decent-looking and pretty fun level overall.

19. Prism Nebula by Ryaa (46.4/100)

Spoiler: show

7.8 too much purple. Anyway, this level was absolutely astounding in terms of the atmosphere, and the neon Marios, constant layer movement and dark glistening sky really make this level feel magical, but the good points stop there. This level clearly demonstrates that it's too easy to get distracted by fancy custom graphics to the point where the design and gameplay starts slipping. The whole thing was quite nonlinear in approach offering a varying range of routes to get to the other side, but the level lacks any defining features to make it worthwhile, and as a result it started drifting in several directions without a real aim, and thus the level starts getting worse in a slippery slope of sorts. In particular, it starts feeling rushed towards the end, getting to the point where, despite the cool intro effects, the boss was a massive letdown despite it being more resilient than usual, because all the other enemy NPCs have this same effect in that they require more hits than usual. I understand why, but let's be honest here, the level had a lot of potential that was sadly thrown away because of the deadline creeping up.

That level was...weird. The beginning outside section is really difficult and does a bad job at introducing the blocks that are solid to enemies but not Mario. Also, you can kill the giant crystals by spin jumping on them??? The castle section was way too easy compared to the outside section and was really short and didn't add anything to the level. The room with the star feels like a boss room, yet there's no boss??? I dunno, this level is just strange. In terms of graphics, the outside section looked AMAZING, but the castle looks really bad and combines the different tilesets horribly. Overall, I don't know what this level was trying to be.

This level frustrates me, on one hand, I absolutely ADORE how it looks (granted the aesthetic is very strange and looks a like a bit of a mish-mash), on another hand, the gameplay is so awful I have no clue how someone in their right mind fucked it all up so hard. The spiny platform with the gliding blocks is an example of something that's done extremely badly, the dolphin behavior is strange and the boss is just a boom boom that takes 5 hits (but the animation for it spawning is also really pretty). The player-blocking and NPC-blocking blocks were actually introduced well to the player though, so bonus points for that.

This level was really eyesore. The graphics were way too bright and although there seemed to be some kind of gimmick it really wasn’t obvious; I mostly just wanted to get to the end since the graphics made it hard to enjoy in the least. Coins were always clumped together and the placement of enemies didn’t seem to really have any purpose. It was also short in general and didn’t have much to offer. Furthermore, a significant number of the graphics left the same (such as the switch blocks) did not go well at all with the new ?-block graphic swaps. Some areas were also very cramped and some of the objects and enemies chosen just made no sense. In terms of atmosphere it was also poorly done as the level was really bland and for a crystal-themed level the general shape of the terrain was very rectangular and not very visually appealing. This level would be a lot better if it was not so eyesore and even just had terrain that fit its theme.

What a weird level, but weird in a kinda good way. There were certainly plenty of interesting mechanics that made this level stand out, plus the atmosphere was pretty unique in itself (dolphins in space?!). I liked how you used some interesting obstacles and blocks, but unfortunately, some of these things were a bit unintuitive, especially with all the crazy, bright graphics. For example, it was weird getting used to the blocks that were “invisible” to Mario, but worked as normal blocks for NPCs. So that is something that I think can be introduced to the level in a more intuitive manner. Additionally, the giant spikes hitboxes were quite messed up, and it doesn’t really make sense that you can stand on them. But apart from those complaints, you made a pretty fun, creative level, so good work!

18. Dark Night Forest by RoundPiplup (47.4/100)

Spoiler: show

A rather interesting DKC-styled forest level. The atmosphere is handled somewhat well with the overall dim light and the waterfalls provided a nice touch, but certain areas are sparsely decorated. The gameplay offers a variable mix of standard platforming and vine climbing to tie in with the forest theme, and the switch hunts weren't so convoluted to the point where the level relies on them, but it unfortunately came with the side effect of making the level too linear and forcing the player on one path, as well as the fact that the level drags on for too long without a checkpoint, meaning any death further on gets more unforgiving. And while the NPC placement is alright for the most part, there is somewhat unfair enemy placement in a certain area in section 1 where a waterfall bisects two landforms. Here, the enemy (I don't know the names of DKC enemies, so bear with!) simply walks over the pit, leading the player to think that the waterfall is foregrounded against ground tiles when in reality there is a pit there, which in the extreme case will cause an unfair death. While this needs to be looked at, it was an average level at most. Same with the checkpoint issue.

A generic forest level with some Donkey Kong Country reskins. Overall a pretty fun level, but it's severely dragged down by one thing: there's no checkpoint. ANYWHERE. A level as long as this should definitely have one, and I'm glad I didn't die because it would have dragged my overall enjoyment of this level down by a lot. Other than that, though, the level was pretty fun. I liked that you used switches, but didn't make the player backtrack too much. The bees felt a bit out of place, though.

Oh boy this level feels like something from 2014, there's pointless switch blocks, no checkpoint and no focus. It feels cobbled together just for the sake of entering the contest. You darkened the graphics but didn't even darken all of them, like honestly did you even put any effort into this?

Fine graphically, but just wasn’t that interesting. The atmosphere was very well done and the music complimented the theme quite nicely. However, the level seemed to drag on and was very messy in terms of the extensive variety of SMB3 and DKC enemies introduced right at the beginning. Coin placement was pretty standard throughout although the use switches wasn’t necessary; although it didn’t force the player to backtrack or anything it just didn’t really add anything to the level. There were some graphical elements that could have been used to make the dark forest a little more congruent with what I personally think of with a dark forest (in terms of background objects, etc.) however what was there was fine as far as I could tell.

The level was pretty nice looking, fairly well designed jungle level. I like all the different enemies you used and the vines were a good touch to add to the jungle vibe. The level got a little cramped at times, though, and for that reason, a checkpoint would’ve been nice. Also, I think adding some trees would’ve done the level good, to give that extra bit of fullness which is appropriate for a jungle level. From a creativity standpoint, there wasn’t too much unique about this level as far as jungle levels go, but it definitely had effort put into making each section a little different, so I gotta give props to that.

17. waterfalls from the sky by RudeGuy07 (49.8/100)

Spoiler: show

The level starts out fine, introducing the idea of the waterfalls as a platforming device, and while the level has a nice atmosphere to it with some rather interesting gameplay concepts, the same really can't be said for the overall design. There are quite a few cramped sections which give the player little room to move about, which is compounded by the heavy Cheep-Cheep and Piranha Plant spam to the point where it's impossible to get through as non-Fire Mario without taking a hit. The worst part though, is the switch puzzle. Not only are the switches in obscure locations where the player wouldn't even think to check, considering no hints at all are given to their locations, and the yellow switch is impossible to reach. Way to go, misleading the player! After all this, it may be tempting to investigate a certain cluster of pipes blocked by corresponding switch blocks, but they serve no purpose at all, and one of them dumps the player over a bottomless pit. Even if the player discovers there is no yellow switch, they may think that there is no way to complete the level, but absolutely no hint is given that they are to make a blind leap after the blue switch that could very easily result in death, and then complete the level. Trust me, blind leaps are discouraged in levels. To add insult to injury, there isn't even a star, and the start point is misplaced. With all these hints, this level was most likely rushed. If you don't have time to polish up your level before you submit it, then don't even submit!

This level was just...really not good. There's nothing anywhere explaining what to do, so you kinda just wandr around aimlessly and hope you find stuff. The setups built around the waterfalls aren't fun to play through at all, and it's a really good indicator of why the "floating water" gimmick isn't used much anymore. There are also very few powerups, making the level extremely unforgiving to get through without dying a lot. Overal it's just...not fun to play through.

This level is, it's just the most cramped thing I've ever seen, it doesn't help that water physics make you lose control just enough to make the precise obstacles frustrating to deal with. Also it gets pretty broken at the end.

This was a pretty uneventful level with some attempts at humour that weren’t really funny. Although it had an okay atmosphere, the music choice wasn’t a very good fit. The enemy placement was relatively unintuitive and clustered while coins were also pretty scarce. Graphically this level was quite could however, just in general, I can’t stand levels that use this gimmick. It completely disturbed the flow by having waterfalls with water physics all over the place however they were used in a variety of ways (most of which were bad but some were somewhat intuitive and creative). I also thought that switch block hunts weren’t a thing anymore, but so much for that. There were also a few difficulty spikes in this level that were really unnecessary. Overall it just wasn’t fun to play.

I’m extremely impressed with the way in which this level was designed. Waterfalls are a pretty simple gimmick, but you combined them with some really cool obstacles, such as the thwomps and the invisible blocks, in some really intricate and compelling ways that kept things fresh and interesting throughout the level. However, the land kept getting destroyed at the end of section 6, so I couldn’t get past that (I’m not sure if the level’s completable at all?). But definitely fix that. Also, while most of the obstacles are well implemented, many of them are quite difficult to get past and there are parts of crowding. I’d recommend making the level a bit easier, as well as adding more powerups throughout. But at it’s core, this level really does have very solid design, and quite a bit of creativity behind it. This was also a pretty nice looking on, but aesthetics could use a little work. Just add more decorations - more trees, bushes, maybe some recolored SMB2 bushes. I know in parts you have waterfalls to worry about, but I feel like you still could’ve added more decorations around them. Besides that, everything was properly recolored and worked well together to create a nice-looking atmosphere! Also, the music was too quiet.

16. Pokey Parks by Ness-Wednesday (50.2/100)

Spoiler: show

I would say this is a rather nice level, but to be honest, it isn't even finished. Anyway, this is a rather typical desert level, and the overworld and temple segments are set up pretty well with differing gameplay to suit each environment, yet they both carry their perks. In this case, the overworld is just ordinary platforming, while the temple involves brick block-based gimmicks such as a timed P-Switch ascent, and even use of the Billy Gun, and the timed explosions were very neat and made the level feel like a living, breathing thing. Unfortunately, the level falls short in several regards. The riddle makes no sense at all and to be honest, it's unnecessary, and if anything, it's only really there to mess with the player considering it's coming from an unfinished level. Also, some of the effects are broken and it's hard to find the background pink pipe tiles in the temple section where one of the Dragon Coins is, and said area is cramped and has a Dry Bone in it, meaning that it's really easy to get cornered and die.

Okay, so you have a gimmick. But you didn't DO anything with it! Tbh this level is just annoying, because its setups really just feel like they're there to waste your time. I'm mostly talking about the parts with the quicksand and the Billy Gun section, The level wouldn't change much if these were remove, ESPECIALLY the quicksand. I have no idea why the quicksand is even there, as all it manages to do is halt the flow of the level and annoy the player until they mange to pass through it. The Pokeys themselves, like I said earlier, are a gimmick that's never really expanded upon. All they do is carry things. Nothing interesting is done with them. Maybe have one blocking off a path and you have to use bombs to blow it up? Do something interesting! Another thing is, there are custom enemies in this level, but most of them only show up 3 or 4 times. It kinda felt like this level was made to say "hey look at this neato custom stuff i made!"

Uh, this level sure exists. Those quicksand jumping sections were dull and the bullet bill section kinda happened. The level doesn't really feel coherent, also what even is that riddle, I think it's broken.

Not much more than your average non-linear level. It had a pretty nice atmosphere, despite it being almost overworked, but just wasn’t enjoyable overall. It had some variation and well-placed collectables but overall just wasn’t fun. Also just don’t use a graphic for the sake of using a graphic; with respect to the Hammer Bros. which threw coins which transformed into actual hammers, or so it appeared, they were still just hammers which was off-putting if the player tries to collect them before they transform into actual hammers. There was also a bit too much enemy variation as some enemies weren’t seen more than once or twice. The use of background objects in some places wasn’t completely justified and took away from the desert feel since they just didn’t fit. No idea either what was up with using the bombs to blow up switch blocks to make sure the player can’t turn back; it just made the level feel really unpolished and there are so many better ways that could have been done (set it in the editor to do so automatically, etc.). The riddle part made no sense either and I couldn’t get to the secret area no matter how hard I tried. Coin placement wasn’t great either and quite inconsistent as although they were spread out, they were found in large clumps together and sometimes just inexistent in a large part of a section. One of my least favourite things to see as well in a desert level is forcing a player to swim through quicksand, which hurts the flow significantly and is just not fun, and then having quicksand that doesn’t actually have quicksand physics with the same graphic that just acts as a background object. There were also just a couple overused gimmicks in the level that were just shoved in briefly and served no purpose.

This was a nicely designed level! It was fun throughout, with lots of different enemies and the bullet bill section and shoe section to keep things interesting (however, I would’ve liked to have seen these more creative elements used in more interesting ways). One big suggestion would be to take out the sandfalls that the player has to jump through. The first one is really hard to make the jump off of, and the second one just takes a ton of time to get through. Aesthetically, the outside sections of the level actually looked REALLY good. I love all the decorations and details you put into creating a detailed desert setting. I wish you would’ve put as much emphasis on aesthetics in the inside sections, because they looked kinda bland in comparison. I’d suggest adding more BGOs, maybe some BGO-sandfalls, some better-looking pillars, torches, perhaps even some sand mixing in with the pyramid blocks. Also, the sizables you put in the background of those sections don’t look good - I think you should replace them with sizables that go with the tileset you used (but darker, of course). And one more thing: there was a bit of clash. Still, the problems were minor, and the level was quite good overall!

15. emerald hills by TheDinoKing (51.8/100)

Spoiler: show

Go-gogo-go-go-go-go-gotta go fast! Gotta go fast! Gotta go faster faster fasterfasterfaster!! Ahem. Anyway, in many intents and purposes, this was hit-and-miss at parts. When playing this, I felt like I was playing an actual Sonic stage, and the structures used, the nice-looking graphics and the use being made out of the "Speed Shroom" as I'm going to call it, which makes you go as fast as Sonic (well, Mario needs it, cuz he's too slow) certainly helped with the immersion. The Rinka chase was an interesting means of varying up the gameplay by introducing a stage hazard, and the climactic collapse sequence was done well while not asking too much from the player. The level did get a bit repetitive though in the first two sections, and the addition of elements from other games, especially SMW, killed the atmosphere. It may look nice, but MARIO AND SONIC DO NOT MIX, FOR GOD'S SAKE (except the player character)! The coins are subject to this, because they could have easily been replaced with the Sonic rings. If this was 1992, then you'd have been executed on the spot by Nintendo! The secret exit was badly-done, and there was also a missed opportunity, especially considering the amount of water and having the music volume lowered for the underwater effect, to have a drowning mechanic introduced. Overall though, this was quite a change from traditional Mario levels.

First of all, the music in this level is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. With that out of the way, this level felt very inconsistent. The blue mushrooms imply that the level wants you to go FAST LIKE SANIC, but almost every time you placed one, a block was obscructing the player's path. In a level where you have to move quickly, this is REALLY frustrating, especially when you're stuck swimming in the water with Hammer Bros. and whatnot nearby. I noticed how the music got quieter when I entered the water, that was a nice detail. Overall, this has potential to be a good level, but it could use some tweaking.

This level's gimmick causes the player to ignore the level's design, the second section is filled with water that also completely contradicts the level's core theme. That secret exit is completely idiotic and you could've just put a generator of those mushrooms.

I really didn’t enjoy the speed gimmick in this level despite its creativity; it was hard to play with and considerably janky. The use of Sonic, SMB3, and SMW elements did not look good together and a lot of the NPC placement in this level was quite poor. The airship section also seemed very random and didn’t add much to the level. Also don’t see what the point of changing the Starman theme was since the new track was a very poor choice. It also seemed to drag on for a while despite the lack of variety and overall just wasn’t very fun to play.

The whole fast mushroom gimmick made the level SUPER fun. But beyond that, you did an excellent job making the level straightforward, but also expansive, with lots of different directions to take. However, things got a little unfair sometimes just because of the speed the character goes (so obstacles like, jump out at you). Also, there was a poison mushroom that looked too much like the blue mushroom, so I think you ought to recolor that. There were some aesthetic problems as well - I’m not really a huge fan of the sonic graphics, and the SMW and SMB3 stuff didn’t blend well together with it. I do, however, gotta give you big props for quieting the music in the water - that was a really cool effect. In terms of creativity, I’m actually kinda blown away with the way you used the speed mushroom. Running over water was awesome (and I would’ve liked to have seen more of that), as was jumping really high off of those jumps. Plus, the end part with the battleship was really unique, so yeah, awesome work making a level I will not forget!

14. Submerged Corridors by Nien (54.6/100)

Spoiler: show

Quite a decent level that makes use of Link, as well as a few Link-centric gimmicks such as downthrusting Muncher patches. The watery atmosphere and the music gave an almost mystical feel to the level, and the use of boss NPCs as regular NPCs was interesting. Other than that, it was quite a simple castle level revolving around simple key and lock puzzles. The boss at the end though...well, it was a bit bland despite the Volcano Lotus providing a hazard, and too easy as well because the player can simply downthrust on Dark Link's head for an easy kill, especially with the powerups provided before the fight. The level was a bit short though, but the biggest flaw is that after the checkpoint, the Link filter is missing and the player is forced to go in as Mario, meaning if they lose the Fire Flower, the boss is unwinnable. Also, if you want to make a Link level, don't put rupees all over the place, especially the blue and red ones, because it'll be so easy to rack up lives. To be honest, this level had a lot of potential but this was thrown away due to bad choices on the side of the designer.

This level disappointed me. At first it was really fun (considering it's a level where you play as Link) and relatively easy to get through. The first pit of Munchers is annoying to get past because of the Birdo, but other than that it's a really solid level. And then the boss happens...which was the main reason your score isn't higher. First of all, the Volcano Lotus makes it unnecessarily difficult. Either you stay in the middle to avoid its shots but risk getting rammed into by Dark Link, or you go all over the place and hope nothing hits you. In addition, there's no block that changes you back to Link when you die, meaning you can fight the boss as Mario, and if you lose your Fire Flower the fight becomes unwinnable, meaning you either have to do everything without getting hit or restart the level and play as Link so you can have another try. Because of that, I don't think this level was tested. It's a shame too, because it's not a bad level at all!

I was expecting something really long and drawn out but honestly, this was legitimately pretty fun. The keys don't add much to the level as a whole though, but the design was very aparent and the designer knows what they're doing. The boss at first seems like it's gonna be a pain to beat, but there's a very clear strategy and it's pretty fun. There may be a bit too many red rupees though.

An interesting Link-based level that made use of his abilities quite well, however it just wasn’t fun. It was relatively short and uninteresting with various difficulty spikes and poor enemy choice and placement. There were way too many Rupees which made the level just feel even more cluttered. It didn’t have a great atmosphere either since a lot of the enemies seemed out-of-place and it felt kind of off in general. Some things like the bright green lava and Muncher resprites were quite eyesore and other parts of the level were quite cramped. This level just didn’t have much to offer and wasn’t very appealing in multiple respects.

Pretty well-designed level! It was fun to play through, with the right length, with some cool use the keys and other obstacles. It also looked quite nice. The custom graphics were used well, and the level was well-decorated. However, the boss was really poorly designed - it was just a Dark Link graphic as Bowser (and he’s not a good boss to begin with, because he takes too many hits to kill).

13. Crystal Caverns by dragonfan96 (55/100)

Spoiler: show

Wait a minute...MISSING DEATH EFFECTS?! Someone didn't test their level properly! Well, at least that's one issue kicked out of the way before I get to the meat of the review. Anyway, this level had some really nice visuals, especially with the crystals in the cave portion and the falling snow in the overworld, but the first section features a cut-off between the SMB1 snow fence and a pipe. The gameplay is pretty standard, and I liked some of the risky platforming involved, but providing the player with a free Yoshi was a bit of overkill because he can just eat everything on sight and cruise straight through, especially with the level being just as completable without him (and I still don't understand how he can eat a snowman that's twice as big as him). The alternate sections served no real purpose due to a lot not containing anything of good use, and were only really there just to pad out the level. Also, they don't need separate music because the player already knows it's not part of the main level. If you're going to include alternate sections, at least provide something of use or just remove it altogether.

This looks nice, but it's honestly a pretty boring level. It had some ideas, like the disappearing ice block gimmick, but they were only used once and never expanded upon. Shortly after the midpoint, there's a hill with coins and it looks like it's meant to be slid down, but it just sends you into a pit. Also, the secret exit is insanely easy to find...that's pretty much it, really. This level just kind of existed.

Man, I honestly wish this level had more of that beat block section. This level had nearly nothing fun about it, it was a "I placed NPCs randomly" sort of level, but I can't say it's devoid of care or effort. It's clear the person who made this wanted to make something interesting, I can tell from the really dull secret area that at first glance looked really interesting. That area wasn't really fun, like, at all, I was expecting a puzzle but all I got was carrying a springboard. Do continue making levels though, there's definitely potential here, focus more on the gimmick.

This wasn’t a bad level at all actually, though it did have some flaws. Coin placement was a little inconsistent at times but quite good overall compared to many of the other levels submitted to this contest. For the most part the graphics looked good with each other, however there were some elements like the SMB3 vine that neither looked good nor made sense where they were. The gimmick that was made use of was poorly implemented and used only in one place really. There wasn’t any kind of warning as to when the blocks were to change (unlike other levels where a sound and/or visual is present as an indication) and it allowed the player to clip into the wall. This could have been used much more throughout the level and in a much better way but in this case was pretty much just unoriginal and random. Enemy placement was quite good throughout the level though and it was mostly enjoyable, just nothing out of the ordinary or memorable. I also didn’t like the choice of music for the overworld and found some areas a little cramped. For what it was worth though I enjoyed it.

Pretty good level overall. I really liked the moving ice block things. It’s a cool idea that I think can be explored a lot more, so I would’ve liked to see those throughout the whole level and used in more intricate ways, rather than just being present in one tiny part. However, I think you should have at least two icicle things present at a time, and when the next set appears, there is an overlap between the furthest icicle and the new one, so players don’t have to jump from thing to thing, which is too much to ask. Apart from that, the design was a little varied, but still rather plain. In terms of aesthetics, it looked pretty nice overall.

12. Bowser's Castle by Aristocrat and snoruntpyro (56.2/100)

Spoiler: show

Oh god, not another one...seriously, what is it with the amount of levels called "Bowser's Castle"? Seriously, try for something better for once. Anyway, rant over. This one starts out as a decent SMW castle level without many real complaints, despite the fact that the second section is rather cramped and asks a lot from the player in terms of platforming. The level has a lot of ideas thrown out to the player, like Thwimps, Big Steelies and diagonal Podoboos, but there are too many of these ideas to the point where it's hard to find one that stands out from the rest. although it should be noted that the line-guided Big Steelies towards the end of the level give little room for the player to jump. After the first Bowser encounter about halfway through though, things started getting rather trippy, and it becomes an absolute mess of broken tile placement as the player has to retrace their steps through the level except everything is warped (even though the psychedelic effects are cool), and while it's attempted to be justified as Kamek's magic, it was weird to look at, and the rainbow block is a little hard on the eyes. The last section just before the star gives no hint that there's actually a floor below the "pit", and the player is expected to either make a blind leap or throw a block down it only to realise that there's a floor. However, it was a good level nonetheless.

O NOES I BORKED DA WORLD ((((( That was a nice fakeout this level did. The thing is...I'm not a huge fan of the setups in the main castle section, and I REALLY don't like the concept of Grinders that you can't spinjump on. The SMW assets were nice, though, and they animated really smoothly. The "tearing apart reality" part is super neat and creative, and it's fun going through the whole level backwards and seeing everything just being completely broken. Overall, I did enjoy this level, but I'm not the biggest fan of the setups in the main area...those Grinders ;-;

This level introduces it's gimmick extremely well, but I really wish it was a bit longer. Parts of it feel unfullfilled. I love the second half though that's amazing and pulls a twist on everything in a really fun way, especially the magikoopas in the last 2 sections, they're pretty fun.

Not very enjoyable and quite poorly designed in many aspects and turned out to almost seem like a joke level. Many of the graphics were eyesore and the difficulty curve was extremely inconsistent. Enemy placement was relatively poorly done overall and the level itself needed more coins. Big groups of ?-blocks were really overused in the first castle section and the level just got more painful to look at and play as it went on. At some parts I didn’t know if it was safe to jump down or what was even going on with the level. The visuals were very messy and unpolished and although there were some creative ideas such as attaching a key to a door to make the door move as the key moves was interesting, but ideas like this were not lingered on or used in multiple ways, they were just gone after one encounter for the most part. Many sections were also cramped and music choices could have been a little better for a classically-appearing SMW castle. In addition to these sections being cramped, there was very poor flow to the level since they were very short. This level also proves that use of LunaLua and SMBX2 features doesn’t automatically make a level good.

It started out as a pretty innocent-looking level, then turned into something that was really impressively designed, and then eventually devolved into something that… well, it was something alright. Anyway, before all hell broke lose, the obstacles were getting progressively more crowded, eventually to the point of being unfair, but still, you made an excellent use of varying obstacles to make things fun and interesting, so good job! After Kemek does his thing, I got some error and everything messed up (I think) but I’m not sure if that’s my PC’s fault or the level’s. Either way, I had to cheat to beat the rest, and it’s kinda hard to evaluate what actually happened after that but whatever it was it was certainly intensely creative so I applaud you for that. In terms of aesthetics, this level looked okay at first, then ended up looking really good by the middle. Nice use of custom graphics without going overboard.

11. Cherry Gardens by Trace (57.4/100)

Spoiler: show

Kirby levels are rare, but this one was a little hit-and-miss at parts. The level pretty much epitomises the meaning of the phrase "take it easy", with the rather laid-back feel of the level. The gentle music is one thing, but with the decoration, especially with the heavy use of pink shades, a mystical feel is evoked. The laid-back idea is brought forth by the overall gimmick of the level involving using Waddle Dees as a moving platform to get to different places, and while it was fun at first it started becoming an excuse to pad out the level, especially with the last section being very boring with no hazards aside from approaching platforms and the odd sky-based enemy, even though the latter was forgotten completely halfway through the section. As well as this, with the amount of slopes, the leaf can break the level by allowing parts to be skipped because with the longer platforms, it's so easy to just build up momentum and fly over sections, and judging by the fact that this will be in a hub episode someone is undoubtedly going to bring a leaf. If anything, this would have been more enjoyable if it were leaf-proofed and the player is forced to use the Waddle Dees to traverse the level, because that's where it suffers the most.

This level technically has everything. The graphics are great, the music is nice and relaxing, the enemies are creative...but it's just so BORING. Most of the level is just waiting for the Waddle Derps to take you places. There's nothing really going on during that time, except in the last section where you actually had to dodge stuff. Add more action during the flying sections and this could be a really great level!

The color palette of this level is really the first thing I noticed, because it looks strange, but it's not a huge deal. I really don't know what to say other than "you tried", because this level tries for sure, but it isn't invested enough in what it's trying. There's like 3 different gimmicks, and you can tell that the designer was running out of ideas, because 2 of them come after the checkpoint. What I can say though is that the level requires a lot of waiting, due to the nature of the gimmicks. Even if the gimmicks are like that though, they don't excuse the fact that you spend a good portion of this level just sitting around and doing practically nothing while waiting for one of the waddle dees to come down, or standing on one of those jumping waddle dees.

Not too bad. Had some interesting usages of the Propeller Waddle Dees that were quite well done and varied, however gameplay was slow due to the nature of the level being mostly just wait, jump, wait, jump, wait, jump, etc. Enemy placement was pretty well done; there was sufficient variation and no clustering and the overall design of the terrain was varied and quite nice. There were inconsistencies with the graphics though that were somewhat disappointing although the music contributed nicely to the calm atmosphere. Collectable placement was quite good too though coin placement could have been a little more consistent and less clumpy per se. Overall this level lost a significant amount from me because, despite its interesting use of the Propeller Waddle Dees and pretty good atmosphere overall, I just couldn’t enjoy the slowness and excessive use of slow-moving platforms in it.

Oftentimes, when someone makes a level as pink as this, the colors are almost sickeningly sweet. But you actually did a really good job balancing the use of colors to make a pretty attractive level. In terms of design, this level was fairly well made, with some good use of those propellor guys. There was nothing particularly wrong about any aspect of this level, except for the fact that it just didn’t do anything unique or creative from a design perspective.

10. Electric Cyberspace by Lukas (58.8/100)

Spoiler: show

This level shines on the "electric" part, but I don't even understand where the "cyberspace" is coming from because it's more of a laboratory than anything despite the Super Mario Galaxy music (which doesn't even seem to fit the level), and we only get a glimpse of space at the very end of the level. But still, this level maintained some good atmosphere, but the overall gameplay and design was a little hit-and-miss at parts. While the electricity gimmick was interesting and provided a stage hazard, no hint is given as to when it will activate, and this is telling in the third section because the player has to jump over electrical barriers when deactivated, and should it activate at the wrong time, they'll die unfairly. Considering how difficult the jumps are already, this is a rather unfair difficulty spike which asks a lot from the player. It also wasn't introduced until the second section and even then, the first section dragged on for a bit too long. The electricity-spewing Piranha Plant was another neat idea and it had a lot of potential, but it went to waste as only two of them appear. To be honest here, even this level has a lot of potential to be something good, but it was wasted by bad design choices and unnecessarily short length.

This level looks nice, but...the design is really lacking. First of all, for the amount of item blocks in this level, you were unbelievably stingy with powerups. There were only 3 or 4 of them in the entire level. The electric Piranha Plants were a neat idea, but there were only a few of them in the level. The majority of them were placed in ways where they could be avoided easily, but the very last one is ridiculously hard to get past without taking a hit. Besides these things, the design was okay...until the vertical section with one jump that's very hard to make without dying. Also, the electricity REALLY shouldn't be instant death. Just having it damage the player is more than good enough. This level had some good ideas, but none of them really reached their full potential.

The electric piranha plants seem glitchy, also that maverick thwomp in the first section is a dick move. The gimmick switches completely in section 2 to lasers for like no reason and there's a ridiculous jump with a platform going over and then under a laser. If you had just expanded on the piranha plants this level would've been much better, basically everything involving the lasers was underwhelming or frustrating. Section 3 starts ramping up the difficulty to stupid and unfair measures and honestly the thwomp corner jump to the falling platform is an idea which made me want to throw you off a bridge. Probably the level with the most wasted potential in the entire contest

This was quite an enjoyable level overall. It had quite a nice and aesthetically appealing set of visuals however the music wasn’t a great choice in my opinion. The flow was pretty good through the first bit however the introduction of the lasers made it a sudden stop-go-stop-go pattern that was kind of disappointing after the nice flow at the beginning, especially since there were no audio or visual indications as to when the lasers would turn on. Power-up and enemy placement was very reasonable and intuitive although coin placement was a little inconsistent and unusual (though for the most part not too bad). The mix of SMW and SMB3 elements seemed to work pretty well for the most part although whether it looked good or not the fog effect didn’t make sense with the level’s theme. One of my biggest problems with this level was the one jump that was completely a difficulty spike and involved a spinjump on a Thwomp to jump up to a platform which was a little bit uncalled for and frustrating since the rest of the level was relatively easy and there was no filter to block Peach (who couldn’t make it past that part). The plants shooting the electric lotus pollen were interesting though not very polished, though the use of a sound effect was good, and although their placement seemed justified it would have been nice to see some similar effects throughout the level.

This level was really good! You did a great job adding some unique obstacles to spice up the design, such as the sideways thwomps and, especially, the zapping walls. They really made this level stand out, but beyond that, the more ordinary obstacles were well-used in varied ways that constantly shook up the gameplay. A couple issues: the first sideways thwomp kinda jumped out, so I think there’s a better way to introduce that enemy a bit more tamely. Also, on the vertical section, one of the jumps where you had to quickly jump on some blocks then jump on the thwomp before you get zapped - that part should be made a bit easier. And lastly, there was some clash (make the SMB3 stuff SMW-styled). Apart from those minor complaints, this was great-looking, super fun and interesting level. Great work!

9. fuCK OFF furnace by Uzendayo (66/100)

Spoiler: show

Going to have to be honest here, with a name like that and rather goofy, unfitting music, this level is quite hard to take seriously. But that aside, this level was stunning to look at; the rising fireballs went well with the lava and its glow, providing an almost hellish feel, and the lava-based hazards such as the side-on Podoboos and the firebars helped with the immersion, while providing some neat gameplay to go with it. Speaking of which, it was pretty good, having a neat mix of basic platforming, platform riding and dodging hazards, and the way the secret star is hidden was quite clever, despite requiring an upgraded form of Mario to go through. Unfortunately, the boss fight was a disaster. While the Batafire fits with the level theme, the bombs generate too quickly, making for a laughably easy fight despite the Rinkas. Even the secret Mouser fight was somewhat underwhelming as well, and if anything, the Hammer Bros. after the boss provided more of the challenge than the boss itself. But then again the level's pretty hard to take seriously, so...meh.

Explicit name aside, this level kinda felt like a bunch of random castle/fire-related stuff thrown together. It wasn't particularly interesting, and some parts (mostly the beginning) were really annoying with all the enemies everywhere. It was probably a bad idea to put a Super Leaf by the midpoint, because the line ride section afterwards can be cheesed with it (just hold the jump button and float to the bottom). The boss was also pretty boring, it was just a floating Mother Brain with two Rinkas generating out of it. The fiery cloud effect looks AWESOME, but there were spots where the graphics got in the way of the design, specifically the part where you had to climb all the chains. Overall, this level could have been done better.

If you're playing this level first time the particles can really distract you from the spikes, the boss is also lame. Other than that most of this level is very fun, maybe a little cramped in places, but fun. Except that god damn secret star I hate you for that garbage bullshit.

A pretty interesting level with a good atmosphere, however it was a little bit of sensory overload with its eyesore visuals and painful music choices. The use of background objects was also pretty overkill since a good number of them didn’t even make sense or fit in the setting of the level. Coin placement was also inconsistent and a significant number of the coins were in giant clumps. Furthermore the enemy variety was a little bit overkill and messy, and there was at least one type of enemy used as a joke, although there placement was pretty good. The green pipes did stick out in this level like a sore thumb but most of the other graphics seemed to work relatively well together except for the parallax at the end which was also a little messy being at the wrong priority. Was looking forward to the boss(es) in this level with the way it had unfolded but then they ended up just being resprites which was a little disappointing. The level was a sufficient length though for what it had to offer and had some variety in terms of the player’s movement with a very complex structure overall.

Fantastic. This level was clearly crafted with care and deliberation, making the level varied, fun, and challenging throughout. It was at times extremely difficult, but difficult in a mostly fair sort of way (although occasionally obstacles seemed a bit too crowded and relentless, so I’d suggest making a few more areas that are safe where players can just catch their breath, especially towards the end of the level). Still, while there isn’t any crazy gimmick in this level that totally blew my mind, each section had it’s own unique obstacles that built off of each other, and the boss was original and well put-together. So just putting some of the more basic features of the SMBX engine to excellent use and combining them in unique ways is enough innovation for me. In terms of aesthetics, this level looked amazing. The embers and the lighting blew me away, plus the decoration and attention to detail was all spot-on. Great work with this one!

8. Fire; Grand Ruins of Lava's Past by MECHDRAGON777 and Reiuji Utusho (66.6/100)

Spoiler: show

MECHDRAGON777, you try to hide the creator of this level and yet you clearly give it away in the level itself! Make your mind up, man! But anyway, this level certainly nails it in the atmosphere department, but it was overworked; a lot of the BGOs don't even make sense with their placement (for example, bushes in lava) and a lot of parts of the level feel rather crowded and detracting. The gameplay was pretty standard for a lava level, offering things like Skull Raft riding and springboard-hunting and being able to see the interior of pipes was a clever concept somewhat similar to Clear Pipes, but overall, it was quite wishy-washy in that while several small objectives are presented to the player, they seem disconnected from the rest of the level and only really serve as a means of collecting stars. As a result of this, there isn't even a star at the end of the level. Also, powerups are given away too frequently. It would be OK if one or two were given away, but giving away 4 or something before the checkpoint makes the level too easy.

This was a really neat level with a lot of creative ideas and nice little details. I really liked how you can actually see THROUGH the pipes. I also liked the challenge with the green coins. Overall the level provides a nice challenge and looks great! However...there's a bug near the end of the level that makes it impossible without cheats. The moving platforms get stuck in a loop when you need them to take you down and to the exit. This REALLY needs to be fixed. Other than that though, good level. Also, nice green star tease

This level is very distinctly mechdragon. Why? Because there's useless shit crammed into it everywhere, like for example: Sambo's NSMBW API, green stars, a green ring that summons coins for which all you do is ride a platform. Funny thing is, most of this badness is in the first section, the section section is way more fun (and doesn't cram as many useless features in order to seem cool into one section). Still less pointless hud elements than Nuclear Facility though, so there's some improvements being made. I wish the whole level was like the second section, because the first section is filled with nothing.

Quite an enjoyable level but it didn’t do much out of the ordinary. It had a consistent difficulty and intuitive enemy placement however the placement of coins was somewhat unusual and inconsistent. It was also very polished although the NSMB walls were used in some ways that didn’t seem to make sense and somewhat inhibited gameplay. There was very good placement of star coins and secret stars too. The level also had a nice flow to it and despite its use of moving platforms the player rarely had to wait very long. Some areas seemed a little overworked however overall the atmosphere of it was good. However, the music wasn’t a great fit and the graphics didn’t make it feel at all like ruins. Quite well done overall though and very enjoyable to play.

Awesome level! Travelling through the pipes at the beginning was especially cool, so I would’ve liked to have seen that theme play out through the whole level, rather than just the first half. I feel like you could’ve integrated it into the second main section. Still, great work designing the whole level - it was consistently fair-yet-challenging, and clearly crafted with a lot of thought, with every section feeling really fresh and creative throughout. And beyond all that, this is one great-looking level. The way you mixed the ground and the lava, the level of thought and detail put into every inch of the level in both visuals and gameplay - fantastic work.

7. I FORGOT TO SUBMIT MY SVLC 2016 ENTRY by FrozenQuills (66.8/100)

Spoiler: show

This is a bad level. My advice to you, uninstall SMB-*offstage voice telling me to shut up* Ahem. Anyway, this is one of the better-designed vanilla levels that I've seen, and while sporting nice decorations, it gets really creative in terms of the really good use being made out of the Grinders and Kamikaze Koopas, first trying to dodge them before manipulating them to your advantage, and it seems to be done rather well. There are some rather tricky platforming segments, especially in the second section, and the bit at the end with the Propeller Block just seemed...there. It wasn't a bad idea having to knock the shell up to the top platform with Jump Blocks, but it seems to have been shoehorned in for the sake of making the level longer. Overall, this was quite a fun vanilla level that made some good use out of usually little-used NPCs.

Well then. That level happened. You did some really creative stuff with layer attachements in this level...it also looked alright, but I think the SMW night background would have looked better. The thing is...it kinda overstayed its welcome. The vertical section was already extremely challenging, but the section after with the vine attached to the shell wasn't really necessary in my opinion. You have no idea how annoying it was to not notice that the shell section ended, only to jump too early, die, and have to redo the vertical section again ;-; I really liked that part with the music note blocks at the end though, that was very well done. Very creative level overall, it's just a matter of knowing when to stop.

Man, this level is great, it focuses on rainbow shells and grinders and it explores the gimmick to the fullest. It has a couple of problems, like the swoopers for example, even if some of them did good for the level, most of them felt tacked on and unnecessary. The end of the level felt strange and drawn out (the note block bit specifically, the rest of that section is pretty great although exploitable).

This level was just a mess of interesting gimmicks smashed together with vanilla graphics that didn’t look good together. Most of the gimmicks weren’t even fun and there were various difficulty spikes throughout the level. It was painful to play and I didn’t find it enjoyable at all. Enemy choices were also unusual and just because most of the elements used were SMW-styled doesn’t mean they should be used together. Coin placement was also very unusual in this level and definitely could have been used to help direct the player in spots.

I’m actually extremely impressed with the design of this level. It was thoroughly challenging, but challenging in a really fair, engaging way that made me want to complete it. So not only did I have lots of fun playing this one, I also really appreciated all the different ways you used the vines and the saws and the fences to create a consistently experience for the player. The level was pretty reminiscent of classic SMW levels, which I actually really liked. It was refreshingly simplistic aesthetically, which stopped it from standing out in this way, but hey, you let the design speak for itself, which is something I think a lot of other designers should take note of. Still, I thought the level could be cleaned up a bit, aesthetically, but apart from that, playing through this was a very enjoyable and challenging experience.

6. Miznow Palace by glitch4 (68.2/100)

Spoiler: show

This was a pretty good Link level, and it does a good job at challenging his abilities, with some sections being designed with those in mind such as one of them requiring the use of the downthrust on spikes. The level seems to introduce something unique to every section, ranging from simple key-hunting, to an elevator and flying over a pit using the fairy pendant, thus keeping the experience interesting, and the town was an interesting idea serving as exposition and setting up the general purpose of the level, but it didn't really serve any useful purpose aside from that, and it was quite flat and barren as well. The boss battle with the Thunderbird was well-executed and the Rinka fireballs allow for a thrilling battle that doesn't rely on just chucking bombs from one of the platforms. One minor gripe I noticed was that several sections were extended far beyond the playable area, and also there are a lot of graphics in the folder that aren't even used. If they're aren't being used, get rid of them because they'll bloat up loading times on slower computers.

That was a fun level! It's like a real dungeon level, but a very well thought-out one that makes it clear where you have to go. Unlike a cERTAIN OTHER LEVEL, you remembered to place a Link block near the checkpoint. However, I think you missed the fact that you can skip the fairy section completely by bouncing on the spikes and get the powerup by stabbing it through the wall. Also, it can be hard to see the bats on the ceiling with the blue curtain there. The boss was...okay, but it kinda felt unfinished. It only had two attacks before it just kinda sat there and let you throw bombs at it. Other than those issues, though, this was a very solid and fun level. Good job

This level really captures the feeling of a zelda dungeon, good job on that, I also liked the trap part even if it's a bit bare bones. The rest of the level is not that great though: the enemy placement seems utterly random, the checkpoint could've been placed next to the boss. Speaking of the boss, it's pretty okay. It's a fast paced mother brain boss and that makes it a bit more fun than 95% of all other mother brain bosses, so good job on that.

This was quite an interesting level centered around Link, especially since it made use of his abilities that make him unique which I’d like to commend. Overall I really enjoyed this level with it’s few little jokes, significant variety, and somewhat maze-like sections with very limited backtracking. The placement of enemies and the distribution of power-ups was very well done through sensible choices that definitely improved gameplay. Aesthetically this level was amazing with its use of beautiful graphics without being overworked. The atmosphere was developed very well within all aspects--the music, graphics, and general structure of the sections--and had a great effect. The boss battle was disappointing being a mother brain after the rest of the level and despite being a bit of a difficulty spike was justified at the end of the level. Since the placement of the rupees seemed to mirror the way in which coins were placed in Super Mario-based levels, it would have been nice to see a little more consistency throughout the level. Despite some picky issues with this level, it was quite fun to play since it had a reasonable length for what it had to offer including a significant amount of variation. It would have been nice to see some more creative aspects here though to really make it distinct from other LoZ levels.

Pretty nicely designed level. It took a while to get into some of the more interesting obstacles, but once it did, I was pretty impressed, particularly with the fireballs (although I thought they could’ve been used in more complex ways) and the elevator section. There were some minor crowding issues, and I think you could’ve been a bit more elaborate with some of the obstacles, but aside from those minors, I really liked the design of this level! Aesthetically, I liked the progression from the village to the grassland to the castle. The inside of the castle looked pretty good, but the outside sections seemed a bit sparse - I’d recommend adding more bushes, and maybe even some trees in the first section.

5. Bowser Jr's Fleeting Airships by bossedit8 (68.8/100)

Spoiler: show

Well, here we've got an airship level, somewhat reminiscent of the original ones in SMB3. The cannon and Hammer Bro. placement was quite good, providing a nice difficulty, and the level has some really nice decoration which also supplemented the platforming with the addition of crates. The secret stars were a neat concept, forcing the player to do different things for each one which also helped to vary up the gameplay, but having three of them seems to be a bit of overkill. The boss fight was actually quite fun with the different phases, although the final phase seems to have just been copied from the first, and it seems to drag on for quite a bit. Losing at this stage is quite punishing because the checkpoint is placed too early into the level. After the boss is beaten though, the level doesn't even end with a star, thus forcing the player to go out of their way to get the stars. Secrets like this should act as optional paths that reward the player, not mandatory paths that are required to advance.

Was this level made for an episode? Because it would fit into one PERFECTLY. The whole level is really solid, and it felt like an actual Mario level. The design was good, and the methods you used to have the player get the green stars were very clever. I liked the diversity you had in the enemies you used, using some from both SMB2 and SMB3, with a few other reskins like the cannonball bombs. Of course, though, my favorite part of the level was the boss! It was very well designed and fair, but I wish a bit more was done with the final form than a Ludwig reskin. Still, though, this was a great level. Nice job!

This level isn't anything to write home about, there is a part where you have to throw bombs at a wall and I hoped this would become a gimmick of some sort, but no, it was just that one wall of bricks. In this context that wall seems very pointless, but oh well the boss was probably one of the best and flashiest in the contest.

A.K.A. your typical airship level, for the most part. Most of the enemies in this level were placed relatively unintuitively and most of its difficulty came from projectiles. There was a lack of anything memorable except the bossfight at the end was somewhat innovative. Some of the projectile launchers seemed to be placed in areas that made sense and provided a sensible challenge although for the most part they seemed to just be there to slow the player down. The level made use of some very basic ideas in an attempt to provide some variety but utterly failed overall in building on them and providing an enjoyable experience; it just dragged on for too long without much different, other than the interior part that just made use of most of the same ideas and just changed the atmosphere. Enemy choice was a little unusual as usually Goombas aren’t the most common enemy for an airship and the use of SMB2 Bob-ombs didn’t really seem to have any purpose; like the projectiles, the rest of the enemies also weren’t placed particularly well. Coin placement was also severely lacking in this level and very inconsistent. The only thing I really liked about this level was the bossfight at the end. Although it was a little repetitive, it was quite innovative in the use of vanilla elements and graphical ideas and was quite enjoyable despite its jankiness in some respects. The music didn’t really fit overly well though for that part. Overall there wasn’t really any aesthetic issues with this level other than a few small things to do with the bossfight. The secret star was also interesting although it would have made sense of the gimmicky idea used to reach it was used elsewhere in the level.

The level was lots of fun to speed through, and a little challenging to make things interesting. Nothing was too exceptional from a design perspective (just all-around good) until I got to that boss, and wow, that was pretty creative! Aesthetically, the level looked pretty good overall - pretty normal stuff for an ordinary airship level. As a whole, this level was quite solid.

4. Hot Chocolate at Late Night by Mr Briney (73.6/100)

Spoiler: show

I like the atmosphere this level has, especially with how well the chocolate lava and the night sky background go together, and the gimmicks involving the Skull Rafts were rather cool and worked in quite nicely, and the Dragon Coins were placed in risky spots to make it all the more rewarding collecting them. The level had a smooth flow to it, introducing ideas to the player slowly but surely, but to be honest it was quite short yet had some potential. The screen-locking in the section after the checkpoint was quite cool, but it has the annoying habit of tending to scroll in the middle of a jump, freezing the player and increasing the risk of death. However, the biggest fault lies not with the level, but with the designer because the level wasn't tested properly. The bonus section was badly-done, because the warp is somewhere out of the way with no reason or hint given to it, and the warp out kills the player due to the screen not locking at that point yet. Also, the sideways Podoboo death effect is broken.

First of all, THIS MUSIC IS SO GOOD ;A; Second, this was a pretty solid level! It looks great, has unique ideas, and is overall fun to play. My main issue is with the last section. The screen randomly scrolling like it does REALLY messes up the timing of my jumps. It would be better if that was just one big section. Besides that, though, this level is great!

This level is pretty nice, except for the fact that it doesn't bother trying to introduce it's gimmick and just throws out a sign at you, which in both cases was very unnecessary and could've been shown through gameplay. The upwards moving skull blocks also posed pretty much no threat whatsoever. In the third section the constant screen setting irritated me and caught me off-guard in the worst places possible, you could've placed the axes better and not at the edge of the screen you're trying to set.

A pretty basic level. The gimmick was enjoyable but it also had some cramped parts. Despite that it was pretty consistent. I feel like the music choices could be a little better although the atmosphere was pretty nice. Could use some background objects just to seem a little less bland but not so many that it would feel overworked. The usage of the vertical square skull rafts should have been explored a significant amount more since they had a lot of potential to be implemented in very cool ways but weren’t. For the vertically moving rafts, something like a vertical section with offset rafts moving upwards forcing the player to jump between them was what I was personally hoping to see. Also be aware that you don’t have to explain every little thing in signs; especially when it’s pretty evident the player often can just figure things out for themselves which is part of the experience too. The use of moving the camera didn’t really seem to add anything to the level and seemed somewhat random. Personally it seemed to take away from the level as it disturbed flow. The use of collectables was very good though and added some replay value with the intuitive and challenging placement of Dragon Coins. Overall the level was mostly enjoyable but pretty short and uneventful, however the feel of it was great with respect to Super Mario World’s style.

Nice level! It was pretty simple and straightforward, with plenty of different obstacles to keep things fresh and fun. I would’ve liked to see you use the things that made this level stand out in more intricate ways, like the sideways fireballs and the floating skulls, but other than that, the design here was pretty great! If you just added a lot more BGOs, this level would look fantastic as well. Chocolate lavafalls may be a good option, as well as more plants and bushes, but even without all that, it looked pretty decent.

3. Funky Day by Inspirited (74.6/100)

Spoiler: show

Well, time for something completely different. At first glance, it's a simple overworld level without much to differentiate it from similar designs, but this one has a hilarious, unique gimmick in that sizeable blocks, background objects and coins jerk up and down rather fast, which made the level really weird, and the gimmick is played up in a few ways, such as using the raising sizeables to get to higher platforms and dodging a spike using the lowest point of the jerk. In terms of the design, the platforms are nicely arranged to account for the gimmick, but it's quite easy to just scoot through a majority of the level because it's largely just standard platforming. The level was a bit short though and could have seen more work of the jerk gimmick, but it was still fun nonetheless, breathing new life into an otherwise boring level.

It's amazing how you can take what would normally be a boring romp and add one thing to make it that much more fun. Watching everything move up and down in time with the music is so entertaining, and makes the level so much better as a whole. I do wish more was done with that gimmick, though. The part where the moving blocks push you up into spikes was good, but I wish there was more of that. Still though, this was a great level.

This is honestly the talkhausiest thing to come out of an smbx contest. This is a really dumb level, and I love it. Though, the gimmick presents issues whenever you'd try to do something a bit more complex with it, like, the goomba part is probably the most complex you can get out of this without being frustrating. The checkpoint cracked me up though.

This was a very fun level. The music was a little unusual but made sense with the level which took a simple idea and built on it in multiple ways to provide a great experience. I would have been happy to see this level be even longer since it seemed to have a lot to offer yet its creator just scratched the surface. There were some sections that seemed a little overworked in terms of the number of background objects and the placement of coins was a little inconsistent and then overkill with many in clumps. A little bit of aesthetics was sacrificed in moving the power-up blocks which made the level seem a little less polished (putting them in bubbles might have been better for this level, or avoid moving ?-blocks with power-ups in them) and the placement of enemies could have had a little more intent, but still wasn’t bad at all. I did really enjoy playing this level though. Definitely one of my favourites in terms of gameplay and replay value.

I think this level is actually one of the most fun levels of the contest! It was a blast to play through, with an edge of challenge that didn’t make anything too hard or unfair. The level was short, simple, and sweet, and really, really fun. I just wanted to see it go on longer to see what other stuff you could do with this! The fast-moving objects made this level unforgettable. It’s a rather simple idea, but something so rarely used in SMBX, and you did a great job using it and exploring some of the different things you can do with it to add challenge to the level. This was also a decent looking level, but there definitely can be improvements made in that department, particularly with adding more decoration and detail. The music was great though, and a fitting choice for the level. Overall, this one was just a blast.

2. The Cosmothedral by Waddle Derp (77.6/100)

Spoiler: show

This is a pretty great autoscroll level. The graphics and music mould together very well to create an almost ethereal, eerie feel to the level that doesn't rely on Boos and other ghostly enemies, and the mid-air dash gimmick is very cleverly executed by use of special lanterns that force a horizontal or vertical dash. While it's good on its own, the way said gimmick is handled is where it really shines - while the player is told how to do a mid-air dash, they are expected to figure out how the lanterns work by themselves, which gives for a more rewarding experience, and the idea is expanded on and used in creative ways while still retaining the core concept. The collapse sequence was awesomely-done and adds a sense of urgency, helped by the fact that the autoscroll speeds up and the music changes, but at some points it leaves little room for error and thus it can be pretty punishing. The level was a bit short though, and could have done with some more expansion of the ideas. Also, the sounds.ini file doesn't work because while the sound effects are in the folder, they haven't been replaced. However, the positives certainly outweigh the negatives, and this is a level that I definitely enjoyed playing.

Not a fun level at all. The main issue is that there's no room to test out the air dash gimmick (which is super wonky and inconsistent) before getting thrown right into danger. Most of my deaths came from just trying to learn how the thing works. The fact that the level is so dangerous and there are no items or midpoint anywhere just made it even more frustrating...it looks awesom3e, though!

The first dragon coin feels finicky, it feels like I'm doing the exact same thing and yet I'm getting different outcomes. The rest of the level plays out fine, though the dash feels like there's a bit of delay on it and that it triggers at points where it shouldn't be triggering, also the crumbling part is very underwhelming difficulty-wise. The fact the background fades out during the more open portions is very cool too.

This level was right on point with what I wanted to see this contest. It’s an amazing level that presents a great challenge and presents stunning and intriguing visuals. The atmosphere is well developed and the level has a constant build to it as the autoscroll increases its speed and the music builds. The gimmick was incorporated very well with very little explanation but enough such that the player understands what to do. It builds on the gimmick throughout the level, incorporating it in various ways that challenge the player to both think logically to collect well-placed Dragon Coins and also to make the player think fast as the autoscroll catches up to them in tight areas, which in this level is completely justified. It was great to see a level that was enjoyable, challenging, and had not only great visuals but great and intuitive gameplay that accompanied it like a fine-tuned machine.

I couldn’t figure out how to use the alt-run thing to double jump or whatever, but that’s probably just me being dumb (but even so, maybe you can explains it a little better for players like me =P). I’m just gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and accept that the level is probably completable without cheating, but yeah, I used the jumping cheat code to get through it. Anyway, the level itself is actually quite good beyond that. The gimmick is interesting and unique, and you use it in some interesting ways. I especially like the part where things get really intense and everything starts falling, and the music shift adds to that effect incredibly well. This was also a quite nice looking level. You did a good job mixing tilesets and adding enough decorations so that the level looked nice throughout. My biggest complaint, however, is that there are some parts that just seem ridiculously hard and cramped (and they mostly involve those spikes). Overall, though, this was a very creative, cool level!

1. Slick as Sliced Ice by Ace and KoopaTheQuick (79.6/100)

Spoiler: show

Why does this level feel really familiar...wait, what is this reminding me of? Anyway, this was quite a hilarious, yet fun level. It's got some really nice atmosphere in the first half with the falling snow projectiles (which are meant to be manipulated), and the dungeon portion in the second half of the level provided a nice contrast while still maintaining nice decoration. The level revolves around an interesting gimmick in that they need to freeze projectiles such as shells and Bullet Bills and use them as platforms to advance, and it was executed rather well, although to be honest it starts getting a little stale later down the line, especially in the dungeon section. However, this level makes up for it in its witty humour and lampshading of various SMBX tropes - the Rinka-dodging sections is one of them. While they were a little redundant and out-of-place, it served as a humorous parody of Touhou levels, although the first one drags on for a bit. Also, the ending was quite funny in that it turned out the Toad who was guiding you in the first half was actually evil, wanted to kill you, and had the star all along! A fitting end to a level with that kind of nature, to be honest.

That level was LONG. Like, really, REALLY long. But it was also so much FUN! The gimmick was really creative and I loved the setups you made with it, particularly in the vertical sections. The main part of the level was in the dungeon, though, as well as its biggest flaw...it's REALLY hard to tell where you have to go in the first part. Everything is blue, so it's hard to see the passage above the shower. Another thing, the "boss" was really annoying because of the Roto Discs. Everything else was really solid (get it? XDDDDD). Honestly, this felt more like a mini episode than a level, but that's what made it so fun. The Toads are funny and the level has a nice story. If all of your levels are like this, I'd love to see more from you!

This level starts off really good, the gimmick is shown in an enviroment where you don't have control and you can just observe it, then you're given a red shell to throw into some iceballs to show you what you're gonna be doing for most of the level. The second section makes it seem like the designer doesn't know what he's doing with the gimmick though as that section is easily the least fun out of all of them, in fact, most things that involve bullet bills in this level aren't fun. The fake trap lasts a bit too long, but it does do some nice foreshadowing. This is where the level becomes really cool and it combines it's flavor into the design itself to make something really clever. The sparky section is a very fitting end to the level since the whole level up to this point had a very steady difficulty curve. The boss is a bit dissapointing though, bullet bills in this level are just a signal of something being unfun.

What a cool gimmick. This level was quite fun to play and used an interesting gimmick that saw many variations throughout the level; it was challenging but still fair. The placement of collectables was kind of unusual, however the atmosphere was quite nice, at least in the first section. I would have been happy to see this level without the dungeon section which is where aesthetics kind of went to hell and it was just a mash-up of jokes. Despite the fact that not all of the elements used in the first part were SMB3-styled as were most of the elements, everything did seem to fit, however I couldn’t say that for the dungeon which was kind of a mess in an aesthetic respect too. Overall it was fun and engaging though.

The gimmick was awesome, and you did a fantastic job using it in clever and complex ways. Often, freezing the stuff so you can advance was ridiculously challenging and time-consuming, so I’d suggest making some of those parts quite a bit easier, particularly in sections 2, 5 and 10. Apart from that, awesome job designing the level, not only in terms of ideas and execution, but also in terms of aesthetics. I’m pretty sure you didn’t use any (or many, at least) custom GFX in this level. This proves that levels can still look awesome with just the basic stuff available for SMBX. Every section was full, well-decorated, and even unique-looking, all-the-while retaining some of the basic themes that make a Mario level a Mario level. Also, the music was fantastic. And on top of all that, this level was genuinely funny, which is something a lot of people can’t really pull off in an SMBX level. The toad in the shower’s line killed me.

The winner of the Design Category Award is...

Spoiler: show

Slick as Sliced Ice by Ace and KoopaTheQuick!!!

And the winner of the Aesthetics Category is.....

Spoiler: show

The Cosmothedral by Waddle Derp!!!

And the winner of the Creativity Category award is....

Spoiler: show

Slick as Sliced Ice by Ace and KoopaTheQuick!!!

The Judge and Host Picks Awards go to...

Spoiler: show

SuperMario7 - Fire; Grand Ruins of Lava's Past by MECHDRAGON777 and Reiuji Utusho
HeroLinik - The Cosmothedral by Waddle Derp
JupiHornet - Bowser Jr's Fleeting Airships by bossedit8
PixelPest - The Cosmothedral by Waddle Derp
Sanct - Slick as Sliced Ice by Ace and KoopaTheQuick
HOST PICK - Hot Chocolate at Late Night by Mr Briney

Here is all of the data from the contest, including raw scores, judge scores, and other details!

Thank you to everybody who helped this experimental contest become a reality, despite the numerous issues with hosting, judging, and scheduling.

[PixelPest]

Here’s another something a little different than usual…

This year each of the seven judges has put together a little blurb so that you can get to know what our amazing panel is like. We’ll give you a little insight into our experiences and our judging styles/preferences. So let’s roll!

PixelPest: Heya. I'm PixelPest or sometimes just "Pixel". I've been into SMBX for just under two years and have had the joy of being both a Level Judge and Level Designer. I'm less into making levels now and more into smaller projects with LunaLua, but have slowly been getting into some more design projects recently. I look forward to seeing some snazzy, gimmicky levels and though my reviews may seem critical and even harsh at times I'm just here to share what I've got with y'all. Anyway, my socks are on. Let's knock 'em off!

Enjl: Hi! I'm Enjl. I make videogames. I've been in this community for longer than I'd like to admit and am constantly on the lookout for levels that are fun to play and surprise me in new ways. There's a lot of undiscovered potential in this engine and I wanna see levels that take an idea and just run miles with it. I've also been studying Game Design at university for a year so don't expect to impress me with something tedious and rompy. I wanna see cool ideas in this contest, stuff that's thrilling to play, so that once the contest is over and the episode's done we can slam it on the table and be proud of all the cool levels we've created!

SuperMario7: Hello, I’m SuperMario7, and I’m super excited to judge this contest! I’ve always had a deep love and interest in level design, so I take contests as a way to be see the best and boldest the community has to offer. I’m looking for levels that will push the boundaries of what I think an SMBX level can be, all-the-while remaining fun, fair, and interesting throughout (and not lengthy or repetitive). As a long-time SMBX enthusiast, I’ve participated in my fair share of contests (landing in the top five five different times) and even judged a few, so trust me when I say I’ve explored the engine quite a bit. So blow me away, be ambitious, and I look forward to seeing some great levels.

HeroLinik: Hey, I'm HeroLinik, but you can just call me Hero or Linik, or to a lesser extent, castlewars. I've been in the community for five years now and have also been a level judge five times, and I'm also a judge in The Thwomp King's contests, as well as having also judged two official contests, so I feel well versed in level judging and should know what to expect. I don't really post levels that often, often keeping them to my project, but I often partake in community contests and have even gotten shy of top 10 in one of them. When I'm not doing SMBX stuff, I'm usually making Pokemon-related videos on YouTube, and some of you have probably seen them! Anyway, I can't wait to see what kind of levels the contestants have brought to the table; let's do this!

Sanct: Hi, I'm Sanct and I'm a meme if you didn't know already with how much I stuff it down everyone's throat. I'm not gonna bother with saying how long I've been here because that's unnecessary. I've had experience with all aspects of level design (making graphics, Lua, making levels themselves etc). If I see a level is made by someone new to level design my wording (and my wording alone, the score is not going to change from what I think) will probably be less harsh than usual. I like levels that mix aesthetics and gameplay together and create a focused gimmick they work around creatively. My base review value is basically 5/10 and It'll go up and down depending on what your level excels at and what it's bad at. I judge harshly and don't expect to get a high score with Bowser's Castle #46.

JupiHornet: Hey. I'm JupiHornet (also known as Turtwig) and I've been in the SMBX community since late 2014. I've wanted to judge an official contest like this for quite some time now, and I'm really glad I'm finally able to do so! I generally hold gameplay above graphics, but they're both important. Bad graphics can make the gameplay experience worse, say, if the player can't tell what's a block and what's the background. So, I'll be keeping an eye out for that stuff. And of course, make sure your levels are FUN! Video games are about having fun, right? So good luck to you, and I'm looking forward to seeing your levels!

Sorel: Hello there, folks. I'm Sorel, the Talkhaus representative. Although I'm past my prime in terms of making levels (my last finished level was released in early 2015), I still enjoy playing levels to this day. Speaking of which, I enjoy all kinds of levels, as long as they are engaging, entertaining or interesting. I may have no prior judging experience, but I have no intention of failing at my duties. Now that everything is said and done, I hope y'all are having a great time with the contest, and who knows, maybe YOU will make the best level I have ever played!

[Valentine]

*Train crashing noises*

[Alagirez]

Aaaaauuu im in

[snoruntpyro]

I can't believe you FUCKING STOLE the penalty system from MaGMML2.

(also i'll probably vomit garbage up for this)

[PixelPest]

I can't believe you FUCKING STOLE the penalty system from MaGMML2.

(also i'll probably vomit garbage up for this)

Um...it was...Enjl? It's a good penalty system though tbh

[Thehelmetguy1]

Passengers, the hype train reached the station. And I am signing in this contest!

[JupiHornet]

I can't believe you FUCKING STOLE the penalty system from MaGMML2

sorry

[Thehelmetguy1]

I can't believe you FUCKING STOLE the penalty system from MaGMML2.

[underFlo]

i hope i win

aka count me in

[Marina]

pyro and i are gonna be on a team i think

[Thehelmetguy1]

Team salt?

[timocomsmbx2345]

Maybe beta 4 will be in april?

[Marina]

Team salt?

team the sound of you shuttin the fuck up

[MECHDRAGON777]

I told Sanct I was participating in this a week ago. I do not know why I am not on the participants list. Anyway, I wish everyone good luck, but have a question. If any level makes a 99 or higher, do they have to make revisions to there level if they are fine with there score?

EDIT: If I am in a team for this later, I am not sure. Just hope it is not an issue of signing up first gen asking for a teammate later.

[Thehelmetguy1]

Team salt?

team the sound of you shuttin the fuck up

Yeah team salt

[MacDuckBeat]

Maybe beta 4 will be in april?

Why should this text exist in this contest?

[PixelPest]

Maybe beta 4 will be in april?

The end of the contest and the release of SMBX 2.0 Beta 4 are not related at all. If that happens, it would be purely a coincidence.

I told Sanct I was participating in this a week ago. I do not know why I am not on the participants list.

Sanct didn't make this topic.

If any level makes a 99 or higher, do they have to make revisions to there level if they are fine with there score?

We invite every member of the top 10 to adjust their level based on the feedback they got and send an updated version.

No, you don't have to. Although with seven judges with different perspectives and opinions, I'll be surprised if we see a level over 95.

So someone make it happen now

[MistakesWereMade]

I'll make this competition look like a 40 page scat fetish comic

i'm in

[MECHDRAGON777]

Can you enter as a group of three?