Super Mario Bros. X Forums

There was a topic about this already but it's already dead. But now, because joke levels are banned from being posted in the Levels forum, it seems relevant to the topic at the time to discuss what you think about joke levels.

IMO joke levels can be funny but only if executed properly. There was this time when everyone (me included) was making Block Bollocks clones, assumedly sparked by krazykat's Lock Lollipops level and the announcement of joke levels for the TGCA remake, and I have to admit, it stops getting funny if too many people are doing it.

Personally thinking, these whole joke Levels are just in general literally useless since they are getting overboarded and boring... they have nothing in terms of gameplay, just be there to annoy the player. It can be executed well of course but even with that I personally don't like them in a Level. You can joking around yourself or with another People if this is acceptable but please do not do this in a Mario Level as it is just useless and it makes me feel that this is not a Mario Level anymore. I want regular Levels, not Levels that are just joking around.

I agree, they are only funny if they are done well. There is a common misconception with joke levels; a level made half-assed with random things thrown everywhere isn't funny, or even a joke. They are, in my eyes, a waste of time. I've seen decent levels that aren't intended joke levels end up being quite funny. Like most levels, joke levels need to have some effort put into them. Now, I'm not condemning joke levels, nor am I saying that they should never be made, just put a little effort into them and some decent referencing of internet jokes/memes or forum jokes and it might actually make for a good level. With everyone making them, as you've mentioned castlewars, is like eating the same thing everyday, it gets very tiresome. Overall, I can see why joke levels have been banned, for one, some of the joke levels posted were (and in no circumstances do I wish to offend ayone) ridiculous, the originality of the joke level has been abused. Honestly the -1 world from SMB was an accident of the game manifesting a level out of miscellaneous objects (there is a video on YT explaining this), and yet, it's still in a way funnier than some of the purpose built joke levels.

Good joke levels: Cool Hills, aisbwhateverthatcc5levelwasthatquillmadeiforgotthenameofit:(, and uhhh, yeah.
Bad joke levels: Everything else.

Well joke levels are banned because the vast majority of them is made by users trying to be funny & popular, have about 0.00000% effort put into them, aren't fun to play, are most of the time just random blocks cluttered together in one level and literally just take up space.

While I certainly recognize that there are quality joke levels that have actually effort put into them and are even fun to play without the (sometimes horrendous) jokes, those are rare encounters and even then you have to find them funny to like them, so for now I guess they'll stay banned, there's no arguing that.

Turtwig wrote:Good joke levels: Cool Hills, aisbwhateverthatcc5levelwasthatquillmadeiforgotthenameofit:(

I think you mean Aisaeramonater, and it's from CC6, not CC5. This was probably the precursor to Block Bollocks as they were made in consecutive contests and they have similar gameplay. Also Cool Hills is an example of a joke level well made at the time. It's easy to laugh at the sloppy drawing and the funny backgrounds, but the real joke is NameUser's voice as the level music, so it's probably intended to be a poke at NameUser, who was hosting the contests at the time.

castlewars wrote:Cool Hills is an example of a joke level well made at the time. It's easy to laugh at the sloppy drawing and the funny backgrounds, but the real joke is NameUser's voice as the level music, so it's probably intended to be a poke at NameUser, who was hosting the contests at the time.

The only problem at this Level is that it is not beatable in the slightest so you forcefully have to lose a 1UP or Quit out of the Game.