Moutainside Clifftops [Re-Review]

[zlaker]

Yeah another level i decided to post here. This is a normal canyon/mountain level with a lot of explosion and oil. This level has taken some elements from levels like Wild Western Walk and Dramatic Deterrence. The level is mainly based Shy Guys Falls from MK8. I was mainly aiming for SuperMario7's style as the level is a part of Super Mario Legends: Part 1. This was originally gonna be my CC10 level, but I decided to not submit it. Anyway here are some screens of the level!

Spoiler: show

Edit 25/11: The level has been updated. I've fixed most the errors that has been mentioned in the review. I'd request a re-review if that's okay.

[Marina]

Looks really nice, I think I'll review this later today ;P

[h2643]

Love the look of the first screenshot, level is amazingly designed
Nice job!

[Core]

Oh man. This have very good design and graphics.

[MrPunchia]

Thank you for fixing the ceiling graphic for the tileset (as it originally made by Aeon, and the ceiling graphic had a full mask).

[zlaker]

Looks really nice, I think I'll review this later today ;P

Thanks, can't wait for the review!

Love the look of the first screenshot, level is amazingly designed :o
Nice job! :D :D

Oh man. This have very good design and graphics.

Thanks for the nice comment.

Thank you for fixing the ceiling graphic for the tileset (as it originally made by Aeon, and the ceiling graphic had a full mask).

Yeah no problem I guess :P

[h2643]

But it was fixed by me, lol

[zlaker]

But it was fixed by me, lol

That's true. I'll add you in the credits when I post them :P

[Darkonius Mavakar]

i'm pretty sure you showed this level in the screenshot thread once, and hnumbers even quoted it...


...so if you sent it i think it would've got disqualified, i think.

[TLtimelord]

i'm pretty sure you showed this level in the screenshot thread once, and hnumbers even quoted it...


...so if you sent it i think it would've got disqualified, i think.

Pretty much the only way you get disqualified in the contests anymore is if you have already posted the level itself. If DQs happened due to screenshots, a large handful of people would be disqualified because of me and my photographic memory. (I hate to disqualify so many people, everyone deserves to be in the contests ;-;)

[Zeldamaster12]

Is it supposed to be doing this?

Spoiler: show

I stood still like the level told me to, and it's stuck like this, and is doing nothing, and I don't know what to do. Any help?

[zlaker]

Is it supposed to be doing this?

Spoiler: show

I stood still like the level told me to, and it's stuck like this, and is doing nothing, and I don't know what to do. Any help?

Hit the skull switch and do not move. Make sure the player is over the boxes.

[Marina]

Moutainside Clifftops


Design: 9/10

This is really great level design! (Not that I'd expect anything else from you ;P) The tileset worked great with the Canyon/Mountain theme of the level, and the music underlined the atmosphere even more, as well as all the oil and dynamite/bomb gimmicks and the the beige color scheme of the whole level. I really liked the way you used the SMW inside-the-ground bushes on the sizables too. I also really liked the vines that still had piranha heads on the top. I'm not sure if palms fit in a level like this, but it's only a minor thing. Another minor thing that bothered me a little was the fact that the music was the same for the overworld and underground. For the underground I would've picked something a little more cave-ish.


NPCs: 7/10

The NPC placement was mostly okay, except for one point where it was really unfair:

Spoiler: show

It's really difficult to time the jump right without getting hit by the hammers or landing in the flames. A similar situation arises in section 3 at the sinking bridge, where either you get hit by the oil podobo, the falling monty, or you die in the lava when staying on the bridge too long.

While I'm at it, the Dragon Coins were mostly cleverly placed. One was just directly on the way thought, and the other one happened to be under said sinking bridge and it was sheer impossible to get without dying.

I also noticed a general lack of coins in the level. There were a few, but mostly it were just 3 at a time and very far scattered around the level. A few more coins would maybe help make the level more lively.

About the NPCs in general, most of them were nice, it was great to see some of your gimmicks like the upside-down ?-blocks or the anti-gravity purple blocks. I especially enjoyed the bomb machine thingy :P. A complaint I have thought is the enemy consistancy. I already noted this in some of your other levels, but you seem to be pretty inconsistant with the enemies. I saw about 5 enemies that only appeared once or twice in the entire level. This would work if it was one NPC and it was some kind of special enemy, but since this was not the case it seemed pretty out of place for them to be in the level at all. My advice would be to not use more than 4 different kinds of enemies in one section or area.

There were enough powerups in the level to make it through, but in my opinion the midway point was set way too early in the level. It's frustrating if you die after you hit it, you still technically have to do 3/4 of the level again.


Gameplay: 8/10

This level played generally well. Most of the gimmicks were fun and enjoyable, like the bombs destroying the boxes or unblocking new paths. I really liked the way the level made you backtrack in some cases, or lead you into a new path but then you ended up at the starting point again. I especially liked the way the arrows changed directions to guard you the way once you do certain things like press a skull switch.

Sadly, there is more than one complaint about this level I have gameplay-wise. First of all, the already before-mentioned sinking bridge in section 3. I get what you were trying to do, and it was a good idea, but generally bad executed. First of all, for a player that doesn't know the level, the bridge that suddenly starts sinking is a nasty surprise, and since it's so close to the oil-lava, you have to react in less than a second to survive. This leaves many players frustrated because they get surprised by it and then lose a life for an unfair situation like this. Once you KNOW the bridge will sink, it's still hard to get over, since the left part is closer to the lava, and since it's not possible to do an approach run on a short platform where the end is already in the lava, it forces you to jump earlier, which makes you jump directly into the podobo because of the spawn-time it has once you enter the screen with the bridge on it.

The next thing is rather a minor complaint, I wasn't sure at first if I should put it in design or here, but it's the slopes on the wood bridges. The normal flat wood bridges are made of go-through blocks, which means you can jump through them from the bottom. The slopes however, aren't. This can get annoying since you always have to watch out wether you're under a slope or not when you jump. To fix this, either use the invisible axe trick, or just use slopes in places that the player will not get beneath of.

Next up are two gamebreaking bugs.

These are actually related, as they happen in the same place.

Both happen after you enter the first pipe in section 2.

Either, you forget to press the skull switch before you enter the pipe. In this case this will trap you inside the room with no escape, and there is not even an enemy to kill yourself, in which case the only way to get out is to reset the game, which will frustrate many people.

Spoiler: show

Fix this by simply setting a warp back to the previous pipe.

The second one was even more frustrating for me, because after the first one occured, I had to replay the level, only to then reset AGAIN, because even if you press the skull switch before entering the pipe, you can still end up in this pit that will trap you.

Spoiler: show

Fix this by setting invisible coin blocks or something (the same thing goes for the pit on the left to it.)

All these things make the level frustrating and unnecessarely hard to play, which is why you only get 6 points from me in gameplay. :/

On another note, the leaf generator over the block in section 5 is set in the wrong direction. The leaves come out of thin air instead of the block.



Over all, this level was great and fun to play, except for all the ways to break it, which dim the fun by a whole lot. Nonetheless, this was still great to play, 8/10, moved to Pretty Good.

[glitch4]

Spoiled because I found something in this level (not a bug).

Spoiler: show

the shortcut to the switch ( you will not die by doing this glitch)

[h2643]

Putting some invisible (Statue) blocks would help, I guess.

[Zeldamaster12]

I was going to review, but I got beat to it, so I'll just state my viewpoint on the level. ;3

So, it was a nice looking level overall. The scenery and looks were phenomenal, and I really liked it. The obstacles were very exciting, and I loved the creativity of the skull switches. I really didn't like those things that GMX pointed out though, with the death traps and that annoying Hammer Bro obstacle. Regardless, a very nice level. Probably would have gotten a high 8 from me.

[Marina]

Due to several people complaining about the score or suggesting a different score, I moved it up a bit.

[underFlo]

Mountainside Clifftops by zlakergirl357 - Review



Looks and Design

This level definitely looked really dang pretty. You got the atmosphere just right - it really felt like you were wandering around in cliffs. BGO usage was also really good, and the only real GFX flaw I have is the Spiny still having the red outline which doesn't really fit to the rest being SMB3 styled. I really like how you combined the bridge, ground and ol lava tileset, it really helped create the atmophere of the cliffs. Just maybe don't put the black Podoboos exactly where the oil fall BGOs are since they're pretty hard to see.
The music also really fit and made the atmosphere even better.
That's why Looks and Design gets a

9/10



Gameplay and Design (counts double)

This level's design was pretty good, but I had a few issues with it. Firs off, if you enter Section 5, do the Shell thing, leave and reenter you're stuck since you have no Shell to ride the oil lava. I also didn' really like how if you take Warp 1 before pressing the first Skull Switch, you basically went here for nothing. That really makes this level less nonlinear because if you have the possibility to go somewhere but it's basically pointless, you could'e just as well made it linear, aswell as the other instances of backacking not really being fun since nothing is really different. Imo you shouldo nl do backtracking if something really changed that alters how the way back works or the gameplay is implemented in a way that it feels different. It may look nonlinea, but it doesn't play too well.

Spoiler: show

What is the purpose of this pipe? Where doesn't it lead anyhere?

Aside from that, the level was really fun, albeit being pretty hard. The Yoshi coin's locations where all over the place: While for some all you have to do is a few-second detour that isn't hard at all, others are fairly hard to get. Maybe try being a bit more consistent with them?
That's why Gameplay and Design get a

7.5/10



Verdict

This level was pretty fun, but in my opinion there a little bit too many flaws to make it get moved to The Best. Still, it's a great level and definitely worth playing.

8/10

Moved to Pretty Good