Postby zioy » Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:56 pm
Quest for the Custom Graphics by GMarinaX
Reviewed by KoolKat
Cold, Hard Gameplay
Since this level was all about the gameplay, I might as well start with it, right? Anyway, the level started out essentially like something you would find in an old SMBX project - SMB2 and SMB3 elements combined into a single, simple, and linear level. After a while, there were moving layers which spiced up the design significantly. The level seemed to drag on a bit, until the second area, which was way more fun in my opinion. To be honest, linear levels need more spicing up than this was, or they need to be shorter. I know you were trying to emulate full-on vanilla, but at least use more slopes! The design was fairly standard most of the time, which didn't quite live up to the vanilla graphic style, but it was fun during the first 2-3 minutes and in the second and third sections. Maybe I was just being a completionist or something, but the first section took me ~10 minutes to complete, which is good for a non-linear or exploratory level, but not really for a simple linear one like this. I'd say add more alternate paths or shorten the first section and it's good, as the second section and third sections were quite fun and gimmicky, and kept my attention better than the first one. Also, if you don't shorten the first section, move the checkpoint closer to the start as replaying 10 minutes of gameplay if you died right before the checkpoint isn't worth the ~3 minutes after it.
Vanilla IceCreamSphere Atmosphere (sorry, I'm hungry)
Jokes aside, I liked the gameplay well enough, but what about the graphics and music? Well, I know it was supposed to be vanilla, but there's still WAY too much going on in this level. Even with vanilla, you can still be consistent with graphical choices, and you really weren't. The background didn't fit the rest of the level at all, there were trees spammed everywhere, and the bright grass-tree thingy sizables stood out in a bad way against the background. There was no noticeable cutoff, so kudos for that, but fix some of the intragame clash please. SMB2 and SMB3 usually look good together, but the multiple elements used from each game don't really convince me of that in this case, even within the same game. As for the music, it didn't really fit, but it didn't not fit either, so I really don't know how to rate that. I guess it's the best vanilla music available for this level, so I'll put it as a positive, but not a very big one. Overall, this level just felt too all-over-the-place in the graphical choices, staying with a consistent sizable would make it tons better, as well as removing around 2/3 of the SMB3 thin trees.
Overall Score: 6/10
Last edited by
zioy on Mon Oct 13, 2014 4:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Review added.
I think I'm used to clash because I post so much clash... 
