Hello, I am here to present a level I would like to call: 'The Final Stroll'
I found a tile set that I really like and is not used allot surprisingly. So, quit the jibber jabber and lets a go!
FanofSMBX wrote:Hehe, 4 people already used the tileset. Chad in SMSE, Kyo in TTS, Darkonius in Unforgiving Fortress, and icez in the ultimate stronghold.
Yeh, not allot since how good it feels to use. Its nice and simple to handle .
FanofSMBX wrote:Hehe, 4 people already used the tileset. Chad in SMSE, Kyo in TTS, Darkonius in Unforgiving Fortress, and icez in the ultimate stronghold.
lol you forgot about me in my Bowser's Castle level xP
A castle level with numerous NPC variety and no clash or cutoff as far as I can tell. As far as difficulty, this level itself isn't too hard, but the boss's final form is next to impossible considering how huge he is and the limited space available!
Design: Honestly, the design wasn't that good since there were overlapping BGOs (ex: Bowser painting over Bowser banner), blocks going over BGOs where they shouldn't have, and Bowser painting spam. Also there were areas where the ceiling was so low that it was pretty hard to jump across areas over lava (I was forced to crouch jump quite a bit). Also the Bowser statues were poorly placed since they were clustered together in multiple areas. As far as the Boss goes. The 1st form was pretty hard since the boss had so much health in both forms(Wart and Mouser forms). Also the bomb generators were poorly placed because honestly no one expects bombs to get shot from lava; as a result, unfair hits and deaths are very likely to occur.Also there's very little reaction time to actually pick up the bombs in the wart phase without taking a hit. It took me a while to figure out the pattern before I was able to beat the form easily. Also I found a bug where the wart form transitions as a bomb is being thrown and the wart form rides the bomb to the center of the area thus making it impossible without moving to the other side with a fire flower. Also there should have been a warning between the wart and mouser forms because if it's someone's 1st time playing the level, they're not going to expect that. Now for the final form of the fight. Giant Dry Bowser is WAAAAAY too big. Not to mention his sudden appearance is pretty unfair mainly because somebody might be trying to activate the P switches ahead of time and then BOOM, unfair hit or death. I couldn't safely run under him because of his massive size so I always took a hit or died. Also the billy gun was a pain to get due to the Bowser statues and the narrow opening to where the billy gun actually is. Also don't use "P" switches because it makes the player feel like he or she is being timed so that person tries to rush and get the Billy gun quickly and end up dying more frequently when they don't have to. Also when you playtested this, (assuming you did) did you do it with God Mode on? IMO it's never a good idea to playtest in God Mode because the designer needs to know exactly how hard a level is before he or she releases it (Just some advice). Also the level was on the short side.
Score 3/10
NPC placement: The NPC placement was ok, it's mainly the Bowser statues that concerned me
Score: 6/10
Atmosphere: This level did feel like a castle level. It both looked and felt like a castle level. The music fit perfectly except I think the 1st form and the 2nd form's music should have switched.
Score 7/10
Overall Score: 5.3/10 Level was ok, but there is still a lot of work to be done
A castle level with numerous NPC variety and no clash or cutoff as far as I can tell. As far as difficulty, this level itself isn't too hard, but the boss's final form is next to impossible considering how huge he is and the limited space available!
Design: Honestly, the design wasn't that good since there were overlapping BGOs (ex: Bowser painting over Bowser banner), blocks going over BGOs where they shouldn't have, and Bowser painting spam. Also there were areas where the ceiling was so low that it was pretty hard to jump across areas over lava (I was forced to crouch jump quite a bit). Also the Bowser statues were poorly placed since they were clustered together in multiple areas. As far as the Boss goes. The 1st form was pretty hard since the boss had so much health in both forms(Wart and Mouser forms). Also the bomb generators were poorly placed because honestly no one expects bombs to get shot from lava; as a result, unfair hits and deaths are very likely to occur.Also there's very little reaction time to actually pick up the bombs in the wart phase without taking a hit. It took me a while to figure out the pattern before I was able to beat the form easily. Also I found a bug where the wart form transitions as a bomb is being thrown and the wart form rides the bomb to the center of the area thus making it impossible without moving to the other side with a fire flower. Also there should have been a warning between the wart and mouser forms because if it's someone's 1st time playing the level, they're not going to expect that. Now for the final form of the fight. Giant Dry Bowser is WAAAAAY too big. Not to mention his sudden appearance is pretty unfair mainly because somebody might be trying to activate the P switches ahead of time and then BOOM, unfair hit or death. I couldn't safely run under him because of his massive size so I always took a hit or died. Also the billy gun was a pain to get due to the Bowser statues and the narrow opening to where the billy gun actually is. Also don't use "P" switches because it makes the player feel like he or she is being timed so that person tries to rush and get the Billy gun quickly and end up dying more frequently when they don't have to. Also when you playtested this, (assuming you did) did you do it with God Mode on? IMO it's never a good idea to playtest in God Mode because the designer needs to know exactly how hard a level is before he or she releases it (Just some advice). Also the level was on the short side.
Score 3/10
NPC placement: The NPC placement was ok, it's mainly the Bowser statues that concerned me
Score: 6/10
Atmosphere: This level did feel like a castle level. It both looked and felt like a castle level. The music fit perfectly except I think the 1st form and the 2nd form's music should have switched.
Score 7/10
Overall Score: 5.3/10 Level was ok, but there is still a lot of work to be done
At least it is not under 5, thanks for the review though! Now, I am just waiting for bossedit8's review!
A castle level with numerous NPC variety and no clash or cutoff as far as I can tell. As far as difficulty, this level itself isn't too hard, but the boss's final form is next to impossible considering how huge he is and the limited space available!
Design: Honestly, the design wasn't that good since there were overlapping BGOs (ex: Bowser painting over Bowser banner), blocks going over BGOs where they shouldn't have, and Bowser painting spam. Also there were areas where the ceiling was so low that it was pretty hard to jump across areas over lava (I was forced to crouch jump quite a bit). Also the Bowser statues were poorly placed since they were clustered together in multiple areas. As far as the Boss goes. The 1st form was pretty hard since the boss had so much health in both forms(Wart and Mouser forms). Also the bomb generators were poorly placed because honestly no one expects bombs to get shot from lava; as a result, unfair hits and deaths are very likely to occur.Also there's very little reaction time to actually pick up the bombs in the wart phase without taking a hit. It took me a while to figure out the pattern before I was able to beat the form easily. Also I found a bug where the wart form transitions as a bomb is being thrown and the wart form rides the bomb to the center of the area thus making it impossible without moving to the other side with a fire flower. Also there should have been a warning between the wart and mouser forms because if it's someone's 1st time playing the level, they're not going to expect that. Now for the final form of the fight. Giant Dry Bowser is WAAAAAY too big. Not to mention his sudden appearance is pretty unfair mainly because somebody might be trying to activate the P switches ahead of time and then BOOM, unfair hit or death. I couldn't safely run under him because of his massive size so I always took a hit or died. Also the billy gun was a pain to get due to the Bowser statues and the narrow opening to where the billy gun actually is. Also don't use "P" switches because it makes the player feel like he or she is being timed so that person tries to rush and get the Billy gun quickly and end up dying more frequently when they don't have to. Also when you playtested this, (assuming you did) did you do it with God Mode on? IMO it's never a good idea to playtest in God Mode because the designer needs to know exactly how hard a level is before he or she releases it (Just some advice). Also the level was on the short side.
Score 3/10
NPC placement: The NPC placement was ok, it's mainly the Bowser statues that concerned me
Score: 6/10
Atmosphere: This level did feel like a castle level. It both looked and felt like a castle level. The music fit perfectly except I think the 1st form and the 2nd form's music should have switched.
Score 7/10
Overall Score: 5.3/10 Level was ok, but there is still a lot of work to be done
At least it is not under 5, thanks for the review though! Now, I am just waiting for bossedit8's review!
Well, if a level judge approves of the review, he won't have to review it.
Updated the first post
VER 1.5:
fixed somethings, took off some backgrounds, made the fights simpler and easier, removed the P-switches and replaced it with red coins, took off some bowser statues, upper-ed the roof for a part, increased the final rooms size and swapped the both fights music around.
it's better, but now I see cutoff in certain areas, and the bowser painting at the beginning overlaps the chain bg connected to the platform. Still, it is a lot better than it was.
PROX wrote:it's better, but now I see cutoff in certain areas, and the bowser painting at the beginning overlaps the chain bg connected to the platform. Still, it is a lot better than it was.
Thanks, but does it realy matter about backgrounds overlapping, I dont see that as a problem.
the level just looks bad when it happens. Not only do you want your level to be playable, but you want it to be visually appealing as well. It adds to the experience of playing the level.
PROX wrote:the level just looks bad when it happens. Not only do you want your level to be playable, but you want it to be visually appealing as well. It adds to the experience of playing the level.
Design Usage
Your Design Choicements of this Level was surely nice for a Fortress like this. Even know I have seen this multiple times already with these Graphics it is still a nice feature of a Castle Theme you used here. I do like your different variety of Obstacles you used during the Level and the Boss but for some reason this Level was also kinda short even for a Castle Level like this. At least the whole decoration of the Castle was nice. I do like that one background object that has a sign with a Bullet Bill on it as a Warning. I like that. After that one section you get the Midway Point and some Power Ups and then it leads you to the main Boss, Bowser. He isn't all that difficult once you get used to him but what I do not like is how repetitive it gets since there are 2 Bowsers that are replaced as Mouser and another 2 Bowsers that are replaced as Wart. 1 of each different Bowsers is basically enough instead of 2 that equals as 4 which like I said is a bit repetitive. After you defeated all Bowser's Forms from a Section a Message Box appears that the Message seems to get off the Boundary of the Box for some reason. Make sure that there are spaces between the Words or similar so it prevents that little Error to happen where it gets off the boundary of the Box. Then you can enter another Section that you have to fight a giant Dry Bowser which replaces as SMB3 Bowser. This is the part where the fight gets kind of bad because the Dry Bowser is so huge I can't even get under him properly. I suggest to add some holes so the player can hide from that giant Bowser proper and flee away without taking a hit... it surely is possible to do such things like that so you won't take hits from Bowser or anything else. The Idea of getting 2 Red Coins to even get to the Billy Gun was neat to say at least. Talking to the Room Design by itself, it looks nice but for some reason there are some red Curtains missing at the top left, creating unnecessary cutoff. The Musics you chosed was nicely fitting for all of the Sections. Can't seem to get most of the Secrets out of this Level except for one at the very beginning that there is a 1UP hidden over an visible Item Block. Point Rating: 3
NPC Placements
Your Placements of the whole NPCs was nice for letting the Player challenged into this Level. The whole Enemy Placements were nice except at the first to second Bowser Form as when I defeated the first Form, his second Form spawns a bit off like he teleported for no reason. This can leads to an unfair hit but only if you are next to Bowser where he spawns. Talking to the Enemies, there are Enemies that have a messed up hitbox like all of these revamped Koopas and the one gray Koopa (I do not know what they called by the way). Coin Placements were very nice even know there are a lot of them scattered around in the Level. It was good anyway. Power Up Placements also were good for this Level even know that there are Power Ups during the regular Boss Fight (not the Final Boss with a giant Dry Bowser, that was reasonable although as I stated above, nearly impossible to dodge by going under him). It was ok in generall. Point Rating: 3
Overall Rating Score: 6
Pretty Good
Nicely Designed Castle with Bosses but flaws encountered...
