Design Usage:
Ahh, such a rarety what we have here... Tanks. This Level was surprisingly neat and also Challenging. I do like the atmosphere of the whole Level. Being at the Night with some Buildings at the foreground and the background and even Bikes as Scenery are some very nice Details to your Level. It feels even more like a City or a Town, hence the Level Title. This is also even a Link only Level which surely is rare to come Link into play in such places like this. There are different type of Obstacles you have to avoid and deal with and not only with Tanks like wooden Spikes you have to bounce off but at one area with a bunch of Electronical Enemies that acts as Blocks that hurts you in Contact is a bit narrow sometimes (or only 1) to avoid especially in a speeding Autoscroll like this. Different variety with Tanks and other obstacles are there but once you get close to the end of the Room, nothing really happens except that is keeps scrolling until at the end. Was something missing there or was this intended to be like this? Oh and the whole Level has no Halfway Point. I get the point that this is a Tank Level and in the original SMB3 there are no Midway Points anywhere but at least put a Halfway Point at the new Room before the Boss so you don't have to deal with the whole Level with different Obstacles again. At least the Level was not too long nor too short. The music on the regular Level and the Boss was fitting even know the Boss' Theme was a bit too epic for a regular Sledge Bro like that but oh well. Point Rating: 4.5
NPC Placements:
The whole NPCs loadout was good. You surely made it specificaly placed out to gain the Challenge to the player. The whole Gas Bubbles do have a weird speed to them once the Bubble has been popped but once you get used to them they aren't completly a pushover. We have different amount of projectiles and Enemies throughout the Level which was a nice variety like one of them are regular Bullets while the others are Bombs and so on. It was very nice but I do saw that two Cannonballs that are right next to eachother, shooting upwards but for some reason they have a collision to them and then destroy while flying up and trying to slow down. Maybe they should be on "Projectile" so they don't have any collisions to other NPCs anymore. All others were alright enough to have even know it feels a little bit spammy aka sometimes too much to watch but that isn't too bad. Coin Placements... or should I say Rupees Placements were absolutely zero but since this is a Tank Level I am not really surprised because in SMB3 there are no Coins for you to collect during a Tank Level but it would of be nice to have at least a few of them but that is just my own opinion overall since you sometimes get Rupees by Enemy destroying anyway. Power Up Placements were alright enough to have but the Fire Flower has a low chance of usage on this Level since you can burn anything in this Level... but that is yet again my opinion. The Boss was nicely challenging with Bullet spawners and Bombs that you have to throw back at the Sledge Bro (yeah, replaces SMB2 Mouser) but it would of be nice to have a Power Up right at the entrance to the Boss especially for a no Midway Point Level since putting new Elements into your Boss Fight surely does give the player on a higher difficulty so at least one Power Up at the Boss Room would of been nice. Point Rating: 4
Overall Rating Score: 8.5
Pretty Good
Very nice and Challenging Tank Level despite with no Halfway Point and few other issues.
Re: Downtown Tanks (Skill tester) [Re-review]
Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2015 3:16 am
by ShadowStarX
Downtown Tanks review
Design & Gameplay: 8/10 (counts 70%) As I see, you've put much effort into this level. Using Link for these types of levels is rare, and even in those cases, it's not executed well, luckily this level is executed well. The level is very challenging but still completable without ragequit. For a challenge level, the powerup vs. enemy ratio is perfect. The different types of bullet bills (such as Banzai Bill or Missile Bill) was a good idea, they fit in a tank level. The NPC placement is well done, at least for a challenge level. I have no problems with no coins, because SMB3 didn't have any in its tank levels. The player also has to use some Link skills, such as spike-bouncing or bomb-carrying. The boss battle is a bit easier than it should be, but still challenging enough. The only complaint is no checkpoint room before the boss, so if the player dies because of the boss, he/she has to start the whole level again.
Atmosphere & Visuals: 9/10 (counts 30%) I liked the whole night city atmosphere of the level. Music is fitting in the level, there are no cutoffs or clash. Thanks to the sceneries, it's also a very detailed level, which is a nice thing to have. I have to mention the boss fight has a bit epic music for a sledge bro, but it's acceptable.
