Completed the episode. My review:
How can something so technically impressive be so unfun at the same time
+ Lua wizardry at work
+ Beautiful graphics
+ Props to the porters at SMWC
+ Reznor is a fun awesome boss
+ No lives
+ Fast death
+ Short, don't have to deal with the negatives for too long
- Unusual physics, Mario slows down in midair making sections where you spinjump on horizontally moving things harder than they need to be (+ this can be turned off though)
- Unusual camera, particularly disorienting in the vertical section of the castle (can't be turned off)
- A few obstacles in lotus and train are easier to tank a hit through than to complete the normal way
- Black rotating platforms in sky move in an unintuitive way
- Checkpoint fakeout in not so watery is very mean, I went through the pipe before the midpoint had time to emerge from the launcher
- Dragon coin 2 in train is too hidden
- Dragon coin 3 in train is unreactable, and to try to get it again you have to play the entire second half again
- Ice flower graphic not present in train (for some reason? shouldnt the powerup graphics be episode-wide?)
- Vertical camera in castle is awful and disorienting
- Kamek boss unintuitive, player never sure what to do damage to or whether or not their hits are connecting
- Kamek boss phase # of hits inconsistent
- Kamek gives no warning before vanishing, causing occasional unavoidable death by pit
4/10