Treacherous Temple (Review/Feedback Please!)

[silent_]

I just realized my CC8 entry made it farther than this, which is rather shocking, considering:

-My CC8 entry made it to tier three
-My CC7 entry made it to tier four
-My CC8 entry took approximately two days for me to make
-My CC7 entry had an intricate boss that in itself took two weeks to make the level itself took a month to make

Regardless, though, I consider this my best level I've ever made, and I hope you guys think it is, too. This level also contains some strongly perplexing gimmicks, like changing lava to water and water to lava, and there is a big variety of moving layers that really spice this level up. I also think that this is really difficult, but it's possible, because I beat it without using God mode. And make sure you find all five stars.

Tons of screenshits because why not?

Spoiler: show

SCREEN OF THE BOSS: CONTAINS SPOILERS

Spoiler: show

Download link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j39fedne6mt8z ... Temple.zip

Enjoy!

[silent_]

I don't want to be annoying or anything, but I would at the very least appreciate some feedback on this, I made this thread about two weeks ago and no one has said anything/criticized anything/reviewed anything. Thanks in advance!

[Superiorstar]

I thought the boss was pretty cool, It's not a giant Charlie but pretty cool.

[silent_]

I thought the boss was pretty cool, It's not a giant Charlie but pretty cool.

It's good that you like the boss, but I felt like I could make it to high Tier 5 or even low Tier 6 in CC7 if it wasn't for the boss. It just seemed like in the reviews they said nothing bad about the level itself, yet they were literally only criticizing/ranting about the boss. I'll even bold the parts when they say something bad about the level.

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Spoiler: show

35. Kep - Treacherous Temple (7.02/10)


castlewars: 8.4/10
This is a fairly great level, and combines SMB3 elements with the overall SMB2 gameplay to create a nicely-designed level. SMB2 and SMB3 actually go really well together, and the idea of a forest temple isn't completely original, but the setting comes attached with some nice gimmicks, such as the idea of turning lava into water by the flick of a switch, which isn't really that original but was used here quite well. However, the message still persists if the player hits the switch after the transformation, but the idea of having to make a block from the lava provides a use for changing water into lava. This gimmick continues into the third section, but the second one doesn't feature it, but extends it with the rise and fall of the lava and vines, then new additions are introduced such as having to break away a wall using a Bob-omb, and the broken pillars which give way as the player stands on them. It's all good and proper at the start but the level's quality starts deteriorating as it progresses, as some gimmicks are "tired" or overused, and the first phase of the boss as that leaves no margin for error, and jumps are heavily restricted by the Bullet Bills in that it's nearly impossible to dodge them. The second phase was actually easier because there were no enemies to dodge, and the player knows when the ground will give way.

Chad: 6.7/10
Interesting level with a sort of cryptic design style. It's very nicely decorated in a way that suits an overgrown temple, and the lava/water gimmick is unique. Good job on giving the level a tricky difficulty, and the moving lava part is well executed. However, I think you put too many stars, and the boss was disappointing. Both phases are incredibly repetitive and time-consuming, there's way too much unnecessary dialogue, and the brick wall part was rather long and boring. The second phase had lots of periods of time where nothing would happen at all. The boss would have been interesting if the first phase was all there was to it and the bombs generated faster, because I enjoyed the bullet dodging and precise maneuvering with the bombs. But other than that, the boss wasn't satisfying. The rest of the level is good, though.

Firespike33: 7/10
A treacherous temple with terrible trials and tormenting tiers of trickiness. Aesthetically, it portrayed an underground forest/temple area, and the remix enchanting yet creepy Forest Temple theme from Ocarina of Time. I didn’t like the grass/trees growing on bricks, although this could be fixed by having moss or grass grow on them. Apparently there were five stars, and I only found two of them. The section with the Donkey Kong music (you get bonus points just for using it) has a possible exploit where you jump on top of the level while holding up, and go over everything. You might want to add a ceiling to circumvent this. The rest of the level was good and had a gimmick involving the switching of lava and water.
And then there was--blast!--the boss battle. Boring, bad, Bullet (not Banzai) Bill bonanza, with bona-fide breaks in the battle, bringing Bob-bombs to blast some butt, being better than “block bollocks”! Okay, I’ll stop. Really, though, I didn’t like the boss. The first phase has you dodging Bullet Bills (an easy task, here) and doing the tedious task of throwing bombs up Metal Mario’s metal “buttocks.” The second phase was even more annoying, because bombs barely spawned and all the enemies were easy to dodge. I was so bored that I just spawned bombs on his head with the real-time editor. Pretty good level, but with a tedious and easy boss.

Quill: 6.5/10
What on earth did I just play? Man, that final boss was so weird, yet so slow to beat. You had to wait ages to get your weapon to attack him, and considering he had 10 hits, it just dragged like hell. The boss really needed to be sped up. Anyway, onto the level itself. I liked the water/lava gimmick a lot, but I felt like more could be done with it. I feel like it wasn't used to its full potential. It's a shame, as this level is atmospherically beautiful too!

Valtteri: 6.5/10
This level is all right. It's pretty fun to play. It lacks something that makes it stand out among the rest, though. Yeah, that's pretty much all I can say about it.

---

...See what I mean?

[Superiorstar]

I thought the boss was pretty cool, It's not a giant Charlie but pretty cool.

It's good that you like the boss, but I felt like I could make it to high Tier 5 or even low Tier 6 in CC7 if it wasn't for the boss. It just seemed like in the reviews they said nothing bad about the level itself, yet they were literally only criticizing/ranting about the boss. I'll even bold the parts when they say something bad about the level.

---

Spoiler: show

35. Kep - Treacherous Temple (7.02/10)


castlewars: 8.4/10
This is a fairly great level, and combines SMB3 elements with the overall SMB2 gameplay to create a nicely-designed level. SMB2 and SMB3 actually go really well together, and the idea of a forest temple isn't completely original, but the setting comes attached with some nice gimmicks, such as the idea of turning lava into water by the flick of a switch, which isn't really that original but was used here quite well. However, the message still persists if the player hits the switch after the transformation, but the idea of having to make a block from the lava provides a use for changing water into lava. This gimmick continues into the third section, but the second one doesn't feature it, but extends it with the rise and fall of the lava and vines, then new additions are introduced such as having to break away a wall using a Bob-omb, and the broken pillars which give way as the player stands on them. It's all good and proper at the start but the level's quality starts deteriorating as it progresses, as some gimmicks are "tired" or overused, and the first phase of the boss as that leaves no margin for error, and jumps are heavily restricted by the Bullet Bills in that it's nearly impossible to dodge them. The second phase was actually easier because there were no enemies to dodge, and the player knows when the ground will give way.

Chad: 6.7/10
Interesting level with a sort of cryptic design style. It's very nicely decorated in a way that suits an overgrown temple, and the lava/water gimmick is unique. Good job on giving the level a tricky difficulty, and the moving lava part is well executed. However, I think you put too many stars, and the boss was disappointing. Both phases are incredibly repetitive and time-consuming, there's way too much unnecessary dialogue, and the brick wall part was rather long and boring. The second phase had lots of periods of time where nothing would happen at all. The boss would have been interesting if the first phase was all there was to it and the bombs generated faster, because I enjoyed the bullet dodging and precise maneuvering with the bombs. But other than that, the boss wasn't satisfying. The rest of the level is good, though.

Firespike33: 7/10
A treacherous temple with terrible trials and tormenting tiers of trickiness. Aesthetically, it portrayed an underground forest/temple area, and the remix enchanting yet creepy Forest Temple theme from Ocarina of Time. I didn’t like the grass/trees growing on bricks, although this could be fixed by having moss or grass grow on them. Apparently there were five stars, and I only found two of them. The section with the Donkey Kong music (you get bonus points just for using it) has a possible exploit where you jump on top of the level while holding up, and go over everything. You might want to add a ceiling to circumvent this. The rest of the level was good and had a gimmick involving the switching of lava and water.
And then there was--blast!--the boss battle. Boring, bad, Bullet (not Banzai) Bill bonanza, with bona-fide breaks in the battle, bringing Bob-bombs to blast some butt, being better than “block bollocks”! Okay, I’ll stop. Really, though, I didn’t like the boss. The first phase has you dodging Bullet Bills (an easy task, here) and doing the tedious task of throwing bombs up Metal Mario’s metal “buttocks.” The second phase was even more annoying, because bombs barely spawned and all the enemies were easy to dodge. I was so bored that I just spawned bombs on his head with the real-time editor. Pretty good level, but with a tedious and easy boss.

Quill: 6.5/10
What on earth did I just play? Man, that final boss was so weird, yet so slow to beat. You had to wait ages to get your weapon to attack him, and considering he had 10 hits, it just dragged like hell. The boss really needed to be sped up. Anyway, onto the level itself. I liked the water/lava gimmick a lot, but I felt like more could be done with it. I feel like it wasn't used to its full potential. It's a shame, as this level is atmospherically beautiful too!

Valtteri: 6.5/10
This level is all right. It's pretty fun to play. It lacks something that makes it stand out among the rest, though. Yeah, that's pretty much all I can say about it.

---

...See what I mean?

Yeah, A custom boss in SMBX is usually fast pace like Zephyr's boss battles or a Mother brain attached to a rainbow shell.
Your was very slow and had a lot of talking in it thought.

[Beyond]

I will review that.

Just a note: Now I will consider Design and Placement as one single category (Level Design) and I will analyze the two together, but I will separate notes before and I will make an approximate score from what I think is acceptable to do this.

Spoiler: show

It's an acceptable level, with some pretty interesting gimmicks and with a fine linear design. This have some "amateur" details in some design things and I don't liked this. The mix with SMB1 recolored grassland tileset and SMB1 recolored castle it's a good idea, but I don't liked very much. I think you can use more the castle tileset than the grass tileset. This have some really cramped areas, but the gimmick it's good to the level, since I feel you can use this more during the entire level. I liked the first part of the boss, but I disliked the second part. But it's a acceptable boss.

Gameplay - 3.60/5
It's a interesting level and I really liked the system in that. But this isn't very good as this can be. I really don't liked the abuse of vines in some parts and I think the addon of another atractive things in this linear level can give a upgrade in the gameplay. We have five stars in this level, but I don't think this level have a good replay value if you finish the level and don't collect all the stars (and two stars finishes the level). But I really liked the first part of the boss (since I think you can remove some Bullet Launchers). But I disliked the second part.

Level Design - 3/5

Design:
It's not a really good design, we have some cramped areas and I think you can remove some enemies/fishes in water parts. You can remove some Hoopsters and some Podoboos. I think you can use more the castle tileset. This bright grass tileset don't match so much with the background and with the castle tileset, but it's a good idea (and a good mix). The boss first part design is really good. The boss second part structure is regular (this isn't really good). I don't liked how you created that. And I think this have some "amateur" details (Example: grass scenario inside the water without tileset).

Placement:
We have a lot of Podoboos in some parts. We have a lot of enemies in some cramped parts. We have five stars but this level don't have much good paths to do this. I dislike the fact of this level having five stars. This don't have structure or a good gameplay to support this grand amount of stars. Add some more power-ups (not more Mushrooms). Remove some coins (blue coins too) in some specific parts.

Atmosphere - 3.05/5
This don't really have a fantastic ambient. It's interesting the things you tried to make in this level, but some of them don't really match. But I liked the idea of using SMB tilesets and SMB2/SMB3 enemies with a recolor to everything works fine. The background don't really match (for me).

Aesthetics - 3.35/5
It's a really good attempt with this, but I don't think it's a grand example of aesthetic. This is not very pretty due some details (amateur design details, scenario, placement, etc). It's not as polished as it should. The major problem is: The graphics. They are good, but the tilesets are at a point of conflict in some parts and we have the "amateur design" details along the level.

Overall - 13/20 or 6,5/10