Postby TLtimelord » Tue Jul 08, 2014 5:59 pm
This level is so eventful! It's like an episode all in one level!
Visual Appeal
The fact you made sure every section, from Ossissus Hills to the underground, to sand temple, to lava, and all the way to fighting Foroze, transition very smoothly, and I'm deeply impressed you did that with the extreme differences between those themes. The background in Ossissus Hills isn't the original, but it's downright beautiful. I tried my best to like the original sandy pyramid graphics, but I never did, as it just looks like they're a little higher in quality than most everything around them. The lava section looks rather astounding, but the real seller is Foroze's battle arena, which I'm sure can have just about everyone wishing they could find a use for a tileset as amazingly recolored as this one is. I loved it in the episode and I love it in this level.
9.5/10
Design
I have issues with the tiny corner grass blocks used as decoration in the fill areas in in Ossissus Hills section since there are better ways of using scenery within the filled areas. Although, that section is still spot on grassland theme from the episode and same with the underground section of it, which is also loosely based off one of the early water cave levels, and the water rising gimmick is used excellently. The sand temple is laid out just right and the gimmick is also a highlight from the episode. The lava section is spread out a bit thin when it comes to the massive propeller jump. The Foroze boss fight is also done very similar to the one in the episode. Although this level IS a medley of the episode, it still has massive amounts of originality and creativity to it.
10/10
Gameplay
Since this is based off the episode, the difficulty is also similar, especially in the lava zone. I have a particular issue with the two podoboos that make it real hard for me to maintain a power-up past them. Either I just suck at playing or it truly is really difficult to get past them without losing one, or dying from lava because of waiting for them to fall back down into the lava. For the most part, the sandy temple is easy, but the Thwomps are well hidden (and I payed little to no attention to detail) and almost act as a cheap shot in that sort of fashion, which isn't in itself a bad thing, just a mistake on my part. I would, however, nitpick that the moving sand block goes up rather slow. I didn't like it but it shows good boss making abilites how you made it near impossible to camp by the bomb generator and easily avoid attacks, forcing the player to move around a little bit which creates more and greater challenges and adds to the quality of the boss fight, so props to you on that, Quill!
8/10
Music
The music felt rather loud in my ears when I played this, since all the other music I've had or listened to through SMBX weren't near as loud as Ossissus Hills' (including underground) or the Lava sections' music, so my ears felt a little blown out after the level. Although, it doesn't stop them from being fantastic music choices and even the other ones besides Ossissus Hills overworld were all original, to my knowledge. They were a little bit loud, but great music choices.
9/10
Amazing medley level Quill! This has got to be one of the highest quality contest levels, and I don't know how it didn't win MAGLX by a landslide.
The scores roughly average to 9/10.
Moved to Best.