Tramble Lake (SMB Level Expedition's Level)
Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2014 8:32 am
New Level has arrived!
https://www.mediafire.com/?8oh1arj974ob7hb
Spoiler: show
Review - Tremble Lake
Design: 1/10
Honestly, there are so many wrong things on this level I don't even know to start.
Firstly, this level is lacking a lot design-wise. Most of the level's landscape is just some flat land with a few slopes, which both doesn't look very nice and makes the level boring to play. You really need variation on the terrain part, as this isn't going to cut it. The enemy placement also needs improvement, as they seem to be there only to make the level less empty; they weren't added with any thought regarding the level's layout, and it feels like just random NPC spam for now. There's a lot of room for improvement there.
Another problem is that the level doesn't really introduce anything new other than generic enemies and terrain. It starts very basic and stays like that for the rest of the level; it lacks a central theme or any kind of gimmick to be developed during the level. Not only that, but the level also ends way too soon; there's pretty much less than one minute of gameplay. Understandable as there's not much for the author to do without a theme other than unnecessarily making the level drag on for too long, though. I highly recommend to have a few gimmicks planned before starting a level, be it creative use of layers/events, a new theme or even introducing a new NPC.
There's also a star thrown there for some reason, which needs to be way more well hidden; a door in the middle of the path that leads to a small room with it is definitely not a good location for it to be. Try to make it harder to find, as it seems to be there for the sake of filling space as it is now. The SMW star and the level end star also count as the same for some reason.
There are a few minor problems I also want to mention, such as the water (no indication that you can't interact with it) and the weird Dragon Coin locations (too close and most of them are too easy, except for the ones close to the water), but those are the major ones.
Aesthetics: 1/5
Some basic stuff, nothing too impressive. Normally I would give this a 3, but there are a few things that annoy me a lot, such as the glitched background and the random clouds at the top of the first section.
Overall: 1.5/10 (2/15)
I highly recommend experimenting with the editor a bit more, and playing some of the levels here to see what we're expecting. Not that your level needs to be one of the best to be enjoyable, but they are great examples of what a good level is and I recommend playing through them.
