6-6 Bowser's Keep

[Kixubug]

6-6 Bowser's Keep

NOTE: This is My First level that I have submitted in the level forums

Level Information:

This is the sixth level in World 6 and the boss contains Bowser in 2 sections one being the first battle and two being the last battle. in the sections, and a key to open to fight the first battle of Bowser, and finally after you beat the first battle, you will enter the checkpoint and ride on the platform to reach and fight the final bowser battle. NOTE: There are only 3 Star Coins in a Level.

Level Difficulty
Intense

Screenshots

Spoiler: show

Download
http://www.mediafire.com/file/8k9vv1pbz ... s_Keep.zip

[Matt_The_Slime]

This is a solid level! However,there is a HUGE lack of powerups. One power-up at the beginning of the level, there`s a starcoin you can`t get because it is blocked by ice, which you can`t melt because getting a fire flower is impossible. And then the section after the bowser fight, no powerups at all. And that section is really unfair, especially when you get hit by a poodoboo you can`t dodge at all. Just fix some of these, and it`d be better!

[PROX]

PROX's unofficial review (man I haven't done this in a while):

Spoiler: show

It's a Bowser's Castle level, and quite a hard one at that. I wouldn't even call it hard. Unfair would be a better word to describe it.

Atmosphere: The atmosphere in this level is pretty good. It has fitting music, and the graphics all seem to work well with each other. No clash to speak of. There is some cutoff with the bowser paintings and the tileset itself, but that's very minor and it's more of a nitpick than anything.

Score: 5/5

Gameplay: One phrase can perfectly describe this: Out of the frying pan and into the fire(no pun intended). Seriously though. You avoid one hazard just to end up landing on another one. You basically have to memorize this level in order to finish it, and even then it's still a pain. I shouldn't have to map out every hazard in order to avoid them. Your best bet is to space out the hazards in such a way that the player has time to strategically plan out his or her next move. The level is cluttered with hazards and very lengthy with only 3 power-ups. The entire level was just one huge endurance round. The section before the elevator fight had npcs all over the place. We have hammer bros, podoboos, venus fire traps, and very cramped areas. Due to all the hazards in that section, I had to carefully stand in the precise spot on the platform down to the pixel, or else I would get hit by something. I also had to figure out where to stand due to constant trial and error. There was one area toward the end with a venus fire trap that I couldn't go past without cheating. In that spot, I had to avoid a podoboo, a hammer, and a firetrap. If I stood on the leftmost side of the platform, I got hit by hammers and the podoboo. If I stood on the rightmost side of the platform, I got hit by the venus firetrap. The firetrap was also located in an area that was 4 blocks high, so that certainly didn't help anything. Thankfully there was a checkpoint beforehand, but you could have the courtesy to include some power-ups in the checkpoint room. Speaking of power-ups, there's an area with a star coin in it that has frozen blocks in front of it. It's not possible to obtain without a fire flower, and there isn't one provided in the level. Now let's talk about the boss. The boss itself is easily exploitable. The first phase is a Ludwig with areas that you can jump onto which allows you to let him run into the wall constantly, and then jump on him. The elevator phase was a cool idea, but poorly executed. For one, you can jump on the areas with the pillars and let the elevator get low enough for Bowser to de-spawn, or you can trap Bowser on the spikes and just avoid the hazards. You had ok ideas for this level, but they really need to be executed better. If this level had more power-ups and less npcs with more space for the player to work with, this level would have been fine.

Score: 2/10

Overall Score: 4.6/10

[ElectriKong]

This level is unfun for obvious reasons.

Why is there like one power-up and loads enemies. And the star coin behind ice blocks is impossible if you lack a reserve item, which would mean the trick is to come as big mario or not use reserve items other than to collect the fire flower. I honestly don't know why you did that and it is a sign or little to no play testing. You should probably check over the level and check that it is 100% possible. Also, since all the enemies are immune to the fire balls, the fire flower is basically redundant.

[Kixubug]

I apologize that this level is too impossible, I give my self a 1 out of 5, that I made the level, Too Impossible, A Lack of Power Ups Making the section to impossible, The Elevator fight is very similar to the Mario Gives Up A SMW ROM hack by Cyber, The Platform section was very hard, I tried to do this without god mode, even thought I don't like this level So I added a Posion Mushroom at the beginning, Making this level hard. This is my opinion.

NOTE: I like Hard Levels.

[PROX]

I apologize that this level is too impossible, I give my self a 1 out of 5, that I made the level, Too Impossible, A Lack of Power Ups Making the section to impossible, The Elevator fight is very similar to the Mario Gives Up A SMW ROM hack by Cyber, The Platform section was very hard, I tried to do this without god mode, even thought I don't like this level So I added a Posion Mushroom at the beginning, Making this level hard. This is my opinion.

NOTE: I like Hard Levels.

if you can't beat a level without god mode, then that should be a clue that it's too hard, and the difficulty needs to be more balanced.

[aero]

This is a pretty well put together level. It could do better with some difficulty balancing - there's a lot of moments where the enemies can be a bit too overwhelming, with some really tight jumps - but other than that I don't see much wrong with this as a world 6 castle. Couldn't find any bugs or glitches in your level so that's a plus. A good place to start for making tweaks to the level's difficulty would be with the powerups. Given the amount of enemies and obstacles powerups other than mushrooms would be nice.

Also in the part with the moving platform this can happen:
[rimg]https://i.imgur.com/5a4XnOP.png[/rimg]

Bowser can get caught on the spike platforms that extend from the left if you jump carefully enough. From there Bowser will despawn and you just have to deal with the bullets. These are just a few minor things, but other than them this is a decent level.

[ElectriKong]

I decided to rate it meh! I would have rated it 3 but that says it is fair. This level is definitely not fair at all. The difficulty really needs to go down. The difficulty conversions are:

Code: Select all

For creator                For Player
Too Easy                    Very Easy
Very Easy                   Easy
Easy                           Normal
Normal                       Hard
Hard                           Very Hard
Very Hard                   Extreme
Extreme                      Kaizo
Need cheats or GM?      Fuck this level, it is too hard

[IAmPlayer]

I don't like this level for reasons. But i like the concept of hard, don't get me wrong. But this, i should say will be the annoying level of deaths. Here are the reasons :
1. Cheap Death at Beginning and after 1st Bowser Boss sections. I looked at the level and tested it. There's a lot going on. Hammer Bros, Volcano Lotuses and some annoying things that keep me died for some reason. And the checkpoint is far away. Seriously, i don't like cheap deaths. It makes the player's motivation to beat the level feels like "Well, this is unbeatable." and that makes the level got a lot of bad reviews.
2. The annoying Bowser Statues and Fire Bars. If i would suggest, this is the best way to make the level have less cheap deaths. By removing Bowsers statues that are unneccesary to the level to feel like a thread and changing Fire Bars to Roto-Disks. I feel like more than 3 Firebars in one screen feels the level with anxiousness.I know it will make it easier. But it's better than a cheap deaths.
3.The annoying part at the end even though a few only reaches that section. Bowser's fight at the end feels anxious no matter what. It fills the player with Anxiety to just Kill Bowser and get easier deaths by the Bullet Bill and the Bowser Statues' Flames. It is annoying,really. If you want just use something easier to dodge and something makes the final battle easier. It's annoying.
4.How difficult and cheap the level is. If i ask you, "Do you test the level?" and you said "Yes." That could be correct. But, Do you really test the level and see how many times you died by the same thing? Maybe it's a no. Or it's a yes. But please, nerf this. People will not like cheap deaths.

[ElectriKong]

Review

While I agree the level is unfair, I do think there are a few points I disagree with:
First I don't see why there needs to be a limit on the number of firebars there are on one screen, as long as it is not unfair. Also I don't understand what you mean by anxiety. If you mean layers should not be made to feel scared then I honestly don't believe there is anything wrong with that. It is OK if you make the player feel like they could die at any moment in game and feel a bit scared, it can add to the action, again, as long as it i not unfair, hich yeah, this is not one of those cases.

[IAmPlayer]

While I agree the level is unfair, I do think there are a few points I disagree with:
First I don't see why there needs to be a limit on the number of firebars there are on one screen, as long as it is not unfair. Also I don't understand what you mean by anxiety. If you mean layers should not be made to feel scared then I honestly don't believe there is anything wrong with that. It is OK if you make the player feel like they could die at any moment in game and feel a bit scared, it can add to the action, again, as long as it i not unfair, hich yeah, this is not one of those cases.

The anxiety that i meant is how player afraid to lose their power-up when rushing, but will lose it too when they are not so they can't do anything after invincibility frames. Well, also even if there's no limit of Firebars, i still see the more, the harder to dodge. That's all.

[erkyp3rky]

i would rate fair, but its the opposite of what it is

[ElectriKong]

While I agree the level is unfair, I do think there are a few points I disagree with:
First I don't see why there needs to be a limit on the number of firebars there are on one screen, as long as it is not unfair. Also I don't understand what you mean by anxiety. If you mean layers should not be made to feel scared then I honestly don't believe there is anything wrong with that. It is OK if you make the player feel like they could die at any moment in game and feel a bit scared, it can add to the action, again, as long as it i not unfair, hich yeah, this is not one of those cases.

The anxiety that i meant is how player afraid to lose their power-up when rushing, but will lose it too when they are not so they can't do anything after invincibility frames. Well, also even if there's no limit of Firebars, i still see the more, the harder to dodge. That's all.

I don't see why that is a problem

i would rate fair, but its the opposite of what it is