Frightening Grove

[Spinoss]

I didn't put that much effort in this level like my other ones to be honest, I focused more in trying to get autoscroll to work (something I never got along with) and the boss, but I think it still turned into a pretty fun level. If you don't like autoscrolling levels and spider I wouldn't recommend this level.

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[Emral]

diggin' the pose of the giant spider. But aren't spider webs rounder than this? An octagon would be a more fitting shape IMO. That said, let's get to the stuff which is actually kind of important:
I like the vibe this level gives. It looks like you're in a lair ruled by spiders, and I like that. I might play it later.

[zioy]

Frightening Grove by Spinoss
Reviewed by KoolKat

Gameplay
When it comes to gameplay, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that it took me a half hour to beat this. The good news is that I don't take off points for sucking at speedy-fast autoscroll levels. Anyway, here goes. First off, please, please, please, please slow the autoscroll down. It goes too fast to pick up the majority of the power-ups in the level, and since there are bouncy mushrooms, the player is forced to either blind-jump or wait for the level to catch up with them. In both cases, the player is forced to do something which can seriously affect their progress in the level. I'd also recommend placing the checkpoint in a better location, except SMBX doesn't let you do that in autoscroll levels so I won't take off points for that. The difficulty is pretty extreme, especially with those darned 1-Up prank spiders (the gimmick was fresh the first time; after that it was just annoying). As far as gameplay goes, I'd say the level was fair, but overly difficult at the same time. I've said this before, but linear levels such as this one really shouldn't be this long. The best part of the level, gameplay-wise, is the boss, because even though I've played a bunch like it, this one felt more unique and also more annoying. In my opinion, bosses should be the most annoying part of a level, but not in an unfair way. This boss really did feel fun since the spiders falling from the sky and the ladybugs being dropped had to be balanced out so you didn't accidentally mess up and have to grab another ladybug (that were way too fast in my opinion). Another thing to mention is that there wasn't much NPC variety; I'd try to spice it up with more enemies since spiders upon spiders gets old pretty quick.

Atmosphere
The gameplay in this level was a little iffy. However, as for the atmosphere, I'd like to say:
WOW.
The entire level was designed after an autumn forest which has been overpopulated with spiders. The webs everywhere added so much to the atmosphere, as well as the trees. Every graphic in the level was perfectly meshed to create an amazing blend of forest design. The only things that I'm really going to take off for in this section of my review are the Thwomp-spiders and the vine cutoff. The rest of the level had detailed, darker design, but the Thwomp spiders had much less shading as well as a completely differently-colored outline from the rest of the enemies in the level. A quick fix would be apply the dark-gray outline to the Thwomp spiders and you're good. As for the vines, there was a slightly noticeable cutoff on them which made it obvious they weren't coming directly from the trees, since the trees weren't flat like the top of the vine. Overall though, the atmosphere was totally epic. The music also fit, but I'm sure there were better options out there.

Overall Score: 5.8/10 - Average