Thunderstorm Run Encore

[newgamer762]

A remake of a level in my old episode.
In this level, your biggest enemy will be electricity. Prepare for some trouble or get zapped in multiple ways.
You can try to get 3 star coins for some extra challenge.
Also, you'll confront some unforeseen lightning bros, I wonder what can they do?
Lastly, I hope you like Swing-bit Brawl, this song is awesome.
Video:

Spoiler: show

Images:

Spoiler: show

Download Link:

Spoiler: show

https://mega.nz/file/ko9nmBRB#Q1-Vn5MzN ... tZ31c4E4ds

Credit:

Spoiler: show

Amp Sprites by Teeks
Fizzlit by MegaDood (Sprites by Squishy Rex)
warpTransition by MrDoubleA
spawn zone by Emral (this one actually went unused, but I forgot to take the codes out of the level)
Thunder effect by Elf
Original code for Piranha Plants in this level by MrDoubleA and LooKiCH
Accordion Bridges by MrDoubleA

[Ness-Wednesday]

Firstly, I like the music choice, the far-away blocks in the background, and especially, the Lightning Bros. Once they lock in, you have to decide your next step swiftly.

That's also the goal of the level. You barely get breathing time to appreciate the visuals because doing so punishes you with desynced setups or enemy ambushes. It makes sense for a level centered around lightning, but at times it got a tad overwhelming to keep track of everything. An extra checkpoint or two wouldn't have been too generous. Alternatively, a few more mushrooms would work. I noticed a ton of hittable blocks in the level that were used as shelter against the thunderclouds or contained coins.

The Star Coin placement is fine: The first Star Coin is my favorite because of how fast you have to move. Naturally, I tried grabbing the second Star Coin not knowing there'd be invisible coin blocks or a POW block. That's on me, I have a habit of jumping in when I see my target. The last Star Coin is annoying to grab because you must line up the thunderclouds. If you're unlucky, one cloud will always move in reverse order.

This is a decent level overall. It's just the pacing is a little overwhelming for my tastes.

Side note: I played this before checking the video because I like entering a level for the first time blind.

[newgamer762]

Firstly, I like the music choice, the far-away blocks in the background, and especially, the Lightning Bros. Once they lock in, you have to decide your next step swiftly.

That's also the goal of the level. You barely get breathing time to appreciate the visuals because doing so punishes you with desynced setups or enemy ambushes. It makes sense for a level centered around lightning, but at times it got a tad overwhelming to keep track of everything. An extra checkpoint or two wouldn't have been too generous. Alternatively, a few more mushrooms would work. I noticed a ton of hittable blocks in the level that were used as shelter against the thunderclouds or contained coins.

The Star Coin placement is fine: The first Star Coin is my favorite because of how fast you have to move. Naturally, I tried grabbing the second Star Coin not knowing there'd be invisible coin blocks or a POW block. That's on me, I have a habit of jumping in when I see my target. The last Star Coin is annoying to grab because you must line up the thunderclouds. If you're unlucky, one cloud will always move in reverse order.

This is a decent level overall. It's just the pacing is a little overwhelming for my tastes.

Side note: I played this before checking the video because I like entering a level for the first time blind.

Thanks for your feedback!
So, about the background.Those blocks in the background are made by me, it's kinda time-consuming but worth it. I also made the Lightning Bro NPC myself, it's a balanced version of the Lightning Bro from the SMM2 rejected updates series (I probably should post this as a custom NPC).
The difficulty is kinda intended. I like making my levels a bit challenging, but I probably should've replaced those 1up mushroom with the regular ones cuz they're pretty much useless.
I think the second star coin placement is OK. It should be a bit suspicious that there's no coins under the star coin, making it not symmetrical up-down.I agree that the third star coin can be annoying to get. You actually can make the one thundercloud moving in reverse order line up with the others, it takes some time, however. I couldn't think of a better way to make the player climb up the vine safely, I did thought of killing the clouds after discovering the hidden block but it makes no sense, so I just decided to make the player do some extra work to line up the clouds.

[cold soup]

been a hot minute since a level kicked my ass this much. but i really liked this level! i think it struck a good balance between consistency and unpredictability. you're always able to think of a strategy for each area, but the slight randomness in the enemy behaviors make it so you aren't performing the same actions each attempt and you have to think on your feet. i really like that! normally i'd complain about checkpoint placement like this, but i think for the kind of challenge this level is, it really works. again, you have to think on your feet, so the checkpoints being so spread out demands you have a strategy down and prevents you from just barreling through everything. it also helps that the star coins don't take much time to collect while still being challenging. i also think most of the enemies have really cool behaviors. the lightning bros are very unique and i've never seen graf patterns this crazy before.

my biggest problem with the level personally is the first thundercloud section. i feel the thundercloud leans a bit too much into the unpredictable end of things. plus while i feel most of the level before gives you enough room to analyze a setup from a safe distance, that ability to take things slow gets taken away from you with the thundercloud. not a huge fan of that. i do greatly appreciate that the bolts themselves don't damage you, but a part of me wishes the cloud didn't either? like the rest of the level, that section can become consistent, but it's just not a challenge i'm particularly a fan of and it's kinda off beat from the rest of the level. also while i didn't like the first thundercloud section, i liked the final one since it's more of an anxiety-inducing power trip where it's easy if you keep running.

i also feel the last star coin is a bit cryptic, and i imagine it could be annoying to get if the thunderclouds don't cooperate

but aside from those problems, i had a lot of fun. this was a very interesting challenge and it felt good getting it right. (didn't want to add an extra paragraph for this but it's really impressive how all the visuals save for the background are vanilla afaik. really goes to show how powerful a good background can be when trying to making a level visually distinct)

[newgamer762]

been a hot minute since a level kicked my ass this much. but i really liked this level! i think it struck a good balance between consistency and unpredictability. you're always able to think of a strategy for each area, but the slight randomness in the enemy behaviors make it so you aren't performing the same actions each attempt and you have to think on your feet. i really like that! normally i'd complain about checkpoint placement like this, but i think for the kind of challenge this level is, it really works. again, you have to think on your feet, so the checkpoints being so spread out demands you have a strategy down and prevents you from just barreling through everything. it also helps that the star coins don't take much time to collect while still being challenging. i also think most of the enemies have really cool behaviors. the lightning bros are very unique and i've never seen graf patterns this crazy before.

my biggest problem with the level personally is the first thundercloud section. i feel the thundercloud leans a bit too much into the unpredictable end of things. plus while i feel most of the level before gives you enough room to analyze a setup from a safe distance, that ability to take things slow gets taken away from you with the thundercloud. not a huge fan of that. i do greatly appreciate that the bolts themselves don't damage you, but a part of me wishes the cloud didn't either? like the rest of the level, that section can become consistent, but it's just not a challenge i'm particularly a fan of and it's kinda off beat from the rest of the level. also while i didn't like the first thundercloud section, i liked the final one since it's more of an anxiety-inducing power trip where it's easy if you keep running.

i also feel the last star coin is a bit cryptic, and i imagine it could be annoying to get if the thunderclouds don't cooperate

but aside from those problems, i had a lot of fun. this was a very interesting challenge and it felt good getting it right. (didn't want to add an extra paragraph for this but it's really impressive how all the visuals save for the background are vanilla afaik. really goes to show how powerful a good background can be when trying to making a level visually distinct)

Thanks for your feedback! And btw, those amps that kept moving back to a place while rotating weren't grafs, I just made a custom NPC for that because I was too lazy to figure out how to make grafs move like that