What are your thoughts on joke levels?

HeroLinik · Postby **HeroLinik** » Fri Jul 03, 2020 12:02 pm

Joke levels have been a somewhat regular fixture of contests, and they still continue to remain popular today. You will likely see them among the first levels being played in almost every ToB and similar contest-related episodes. These levels usually don't take themselves seriously, and aren't supposed to be taken seriously, and can ultimately result in a rather outlandish and funny experience if executed well, or otherwise can end up being unfunny if it doesn't communicate itself well.

What are your overall thoughts and opinions regarding joke levels?

Enjl · Postby **Enjl** » Fri Jul 03, 2020 12:23 pm

Like with all types of levels, quality relates to effort and execution. If someone spends 5 minutes on drawing a switch logo in mspaint and scribbling a level made out of smb3 wood tileset top center platform, of course it's gonna be shit regardless of the amount of spelling mistakes made by the jumping toads in the level. High-effort jokes like eminus' mystery meat romhack on the other hand are excellent.

Archived · Postby **Archived** » Fri Jul 03, 2020 4:36 pm

Archived

Sonya Sanchez · Postby **Sonya Sanchez** » Fri Jul 03, 2020 7:17 pm

The problem with most SMBX Joke levels is that, that the creator often thinks they are funny and all when they actually are not. They are often rushed down and end up being rather annoying and spammy because spam is fun.

Look up some of the Joke Hacks made in Lunar Magic, they maintain a good design but still deliver some amazing jokes and funny moments like Chaos Complex did.

Black Mamba · Postby **Black Mamba** » Fri Jul 03, 2020 10:27 pm

I havent played a fun joke level.

Valentine · Postby **Valentine** » Fri Jul 03, 2020 10:27 pm

Uzendayo wrote: ↑
Fri Jul 03, 2020 10:27 pm
I havent played a fun joke level.

play my fucking game bitch

cato · Postby **cato** » Fri Jul 03, 2020 11:56 pm

They aren't really Joke levels. Most of them are just ear rape, terrible level design, and the use of meme backgrounds/NPCs.
Just like comedy, they are desperate in making the audiences laugh by putting unfunny, edgy and sexualised jokes.

I think I like jokes levels that centre around jank set up and gimmick, like those in the Betterified series.

Postby **ShadowStarX** » Sat Jul 04, 2020 5:38 am

Sancles-Chan wrote: ↑
Fri Jul 03, 2020 10:27 pm

Uzendayo wrote: ↑
Fri Jul 03, 2020 10:27 pm
I havent played a fun joke level.
play my fucking game bitch

Singular?

Archived · Postby **Archived** » Sat Jul 04, 2020 1:29 pm

Archived

Cedur · Postby **Cedur** » Sun Jul 05, 2020 6:45 am

Most "joke levels" out there I'd just consider troll levels. I also don't enjoy most Maglx(2) levels as they're just chaotic on purpose.

Postby **idruinn** » Sun Jul 05, 2020 6:58 am

They are funny for a short time, later they become boring. Nothing else to say about them.

Black Mamba · Postby **Black Mamba** » Sun Jul 05, 2020 11:28 pm

Sancles-Chan wrote: ↑
Fri Jul 03, 2020 10:27 pm

Uzendayo wrote: ↑
Fri Jul 03, 2020 10:27 pm
I havent played a fun joke level.
play my fucking game bitch

i knew what i wrote bitch

Wiimeiser · Postby **Wiimeiser** » Sun Jul 05, 2020 11:49 pm

Eclipsed wrote: ↑
Fri Jul 03, 2020 4:36 pm
Relevant:

I'll admit, aside from graphical glitches, the first 25-30 seconds of that level is fine. Then it devolves into spam...

Idunn wrote: The problem with most SMBX Joke levels is that, that the creator often thinks they are funny and all when they actually are not. They are often rushed down and end up being rather annoying and spammy because spam is fun.

Look up some of the Joke Hacks made in Lunar Magic, they maintain a good design but still deliver some amazing jokes and funny moments like Chaos Complex did.

From what I can tell, it's supposed to be a parody/satire/deconstruction of bad first hacks...

Sonya Sanchez · Postby **Sonya Sanchez** » Mon Jul 06, 2020 3:29 am

They are, but they are fun to play unlike some haha funny Smbx joke level xd

Postby **glitch4** » Tue Jul 07, 2020 6:35 am

I like them only if they are hilariously creative. Otherwise they are likely to be forgetful, forced and not for anyone's taste.

Cedur · Postby **Cedur** » Tue Jul 07, 2020 4:03 pm

Honestly just ban joke levels from previous contest like we already did. If a level is legitimately hilarious, we wouldn't call it a "joke level" by this rule.

stageleft · Postby **stageleft** » Tue Jul 07, 2020 10:17 pm

The thing about joke levels or episodes is, humor is realitive to the creator and the observer. Though I tend to agree that joke levels are usually just rushed and poorly executed levels, there is a tendancy here for people to simply not get the joke. I mean we are talking about a mario brothers editor.. you can fit in some seriously hard to see humor. Many jokes are subtle,and go right over people's heads.
I recall a level near the end of one of the super rmn bros episode, that was flooded with waypoints, and the bar on each waypoint fell to the ground. Which was hilarious because as many people know the waypoint bar usually floats where its placed... so it would have taken some extra effort to make them broken.
Many jokes are just plain not funny as well.

Archived · Postby **Archived** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 12:05 am

Archived

Wiimeiser · Postby **Wiimeiser** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 12:33 am

On the other side of the joke spectrum there's two SMW hacks: Mario's Mystery Meat, which has issues (graphical effects not working on real hardware and liquid conflicts in the spaghetti level being the most notable) but is very well executed; and Super Diagonal Mario 2, which is quite well done because of how the physics have been changed.