Storming the Fleet

[as303298]

Original Date Created: 3/14/14
One of my favorite levels I designed for SDG's cloud world "Nimbus Mountains" (WIP name..)

Credits:
Design- as303298
Tileset- Various GFX Packs
Music- Space Storm Galaxy / smg-airship

YouTube Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsQ8J261o7Q


Download:
https://www.mediafire.com/?gk4hy58c43nbc41

[JupiHornet]

UNOFFICIAL REVIEW of STORMING the FLEET by AS303298

Hm. An interesting level here.

Design (4/10)
Earlier, I had reviewed a level called "Misty Canyon." To progress, you had to get 9 coins in a huge area. It was easy to get lost and very tedious and boring. This level is pretty much the same, except with switches and keys. Now, maybe I suck at puzzles, but I got lost at least 5 times in the FIRST HALF of this level. The pipe on the small ship's backburner is a bit vague and took me a while to find. Also, if you hit the OFF/ON switch more than once, the anchor will keep moving downward, making the level unbeatable. The second half was a bit more linear and easy to get around. Also the way you have to get to the secret star is hilarious XD

Atmosphere (7/10)
OH MAN THAT BUOY BASE MUSIC THOUGH. The music at least entertained me and the level looked nice. Also, your attention to detail is great, especially that enemy that explodes and leaves behind a poison mushroom.

Other Comments: It took me about 20 minutes to beat this level

Overall 5.5/10 (Average)
Sorry as, but I didn't really enjoy this level. It's still very good, though!

[MECHDRAGON777]

I have not checked the levels du forum in about 5 months and I find you have not one, but two levels in here! I will have to download this and record them on Thursday!

[Imaynotbehere4long]

Bear in mind, I purposely make hard levels. I personally dislike levels you can complete on the very first run; I prefer levels which actually challenge the user.

Yet you made Starry Adventure, one of the most boring levels I've ever played (and that's saying a lot considering all the Basic Grass Levels I've played).

Anyway, my review:

I have to agree with smrpglover: this level is waaaaay too long. A good rule of thumb is if it takes you more than 5 minutes to get from the beginning of your level to the checkpoint (and, by extension, more than 5 minutes to get from the checkpoint to the end of your level), it's too long. After all, since you know everything about your level, it will take you much less time to beat it than first-time players, so if a first-time player dies while playing your level, that's much more than 5 minutes of progress he/she just lost, and being forced to re-do something that takes a long time to do just because of one death is annoying, not challenging.

However, length isn't the only issue with this level. To begin, you forgot to put something in this ? block, so hitting it does nothing:

Spoiler: show

Plus, you make the player wait nearly 8 seconds from when the ON/OFF switch is hit to when the anchor is in position, and waiting = boring = not fun, especially if the player got killed and just wants to get back to where he/she was previously. It's also annoying and unintuitive that the player has to hit the ? switch again after getting the spring.

Next, you have this area of the airship guarded with Bullet Bill projectiles, but there's nothing over here:

Spoiler: show

Also, the part with the spring and the split-path was annoying, not just because of the sudden and fast cannonball projectiles, but also because, unless the player bounces on one of the cannonballs, you force the player to go through Section 4 twice (and this artificially lengthens the already-too-long-level).

Another annoying aspect of the level is the secret star because it's really unintuitive to get. Not only does the player need a Racoon Leaf (of which there is only ONE in the entire level (and it's in a ? block, so if the player is little, it's just a mushroom)) to reach it, but the player is also required to take a leap of faith in an area where there are Chase-AI Paragoomba generators (the only part in the level where there are any Chase-AI NPCs at all). All things considered, this might just be the most unintuitive and annoying secret in any SMBX level to date. I recommend removing one of the key-walls before the checkpoint, removing the key at the bottom of the last airship in Section 1, and removing the blocks between where the key was and the area where the secret star is (so that the switch block run becomes optional and the secret star becomes intuitive).

After the checkpoint is when the level gets really annoying. There isn't anything necessarily wrong with the specific designs, except the large clusters of flames that force the player to wait (and waiting = boring = not fun) and this:

Spoiler: show

The player can skip every hazard to the right by performing a running jump from where the fireball is.

However, the part of the level after the checkpoint is long enough that it can pretty much be its own level (the start point would be at Warp 21/22 and the checkpoint would be at the start of Section 7). Seriously, if you want to make a level as long as this one, you should implement some form of multiple midway points, like SMW stars.

However, the level's biggest problems by far (again, aside from its length) are the bosses; they're just too lazily made and easy to beat, especially when compared to the rest of the level and the statement you made on YouTube. Take the fight against the Birdos, for example:

Spoiler: show

Due to the position of the Birdos and the SMB3 Bob-omb sprite-swap generators, the player can literally just stand (or duck if he/she is super) in one place and do nothing while the bosses slowly die, especially since the generators' delay waits just long enough for the previous Bob-omb sprite-swap to explode before generating another one. If the optimal strategy for beating your boss is "wait," you've done something wrong. Aside from that, there's nothing to set this Birdo fight apart from all the other generic Birdo fights.

The other fights aren't any better. Oh, there are two Boom-Booms in a room instead of one? Wow, that's not a lazy way to give the illusion of increased difficulty at all! Also, there's an SMB3 Bowser fight at the end, also without anything unique done with the setting. This fight might have actually been a bit challenging (mainly due to the fact that it takes 20 hits to kill an SMB3 Bowser, and fireballs do way less than 1 point of damage to SMB3 Bowsers), but there are mushroom generators on both sides of the screen, so if the player gets hit, he/she can just grab a mushroom and heal himself/herself. While I was a bit surprised to hear a song from Chrono Cross, its basic-enemy battle theme fits a basic SMB3 Bowser fight quite well.

Summary:
GOOD:
-Graphics aren't terrible.
-Music would probably fit the level if the level wasn't so long.
-Block placement is done well.
-NPCs are also varied and placed nicely.

BAD:
--THE LEVEL IS JUST WAY TOO LONG. I MEAN, SERIOUSLY, HOW DID YOU NOT FIGURE THIS OUT DURING TESTING?
--LAZY BOSS FIGHTS.
--EXTREMELY UNINTUITIVE SECRET STAR.
-Empty ? block.
-Well-armed dead-end.

In conclusion:

I like difficult levels as much as the next forum member, but if a level is too long, it doesn't matter how difficult it is: that's just bad level design and that alone would cost your level Pretty Good status. Plus, those boss fights were lazily designed (with the Birdo fight in particular being laughably easy) and just seemed like they were there to pad out the already unnecessarily long level. Also, that secret star was so unintuitive, I would not have been able to figure out how to get it if it weren't for your video play-though, and that's also bad design. Because of all of these bad decisions, I'd say this level deserves a 3.5/10. Better luck next time.

[bossedit8]

Well, here is my playthrough back then in 2013 when I played "Tower of Biased 3":



Original link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtcO4Ixd2Jo

[JupiHornet]

@IMNBH4L: I got the secret star by putting a key next to a pipe, then when I came out of the pipe I glitched through the wall backwards and got the star.

[as303298]

Hm well this airship was the first one I had ever designed, so I just went for whatever I saw unique at the time. Sadly...switch puzzles were the "go-to" thing at the time. The bosses however were filler, and will get removed before they get put into SDG, as well as the bowser boss being completely redone. But I guess a lot more of this level needs to be redone...

[Imaynotbehere4long]

@IMNBH4L: I got the secret star by putting a key next to a pipe, then when I came out of the pipe I glitched through the wall backwards and got the star.

Oh, I see how you got it. I was wondering why you thought it was funny.

Anyway, judging by the wording of your posts, it seems you figured that out by accident, so even if that was the intended way to get the secret star (which, judging by the video, it isn't, meaning that's another design oversight), do you think the average player would have been able to figure that out not by accident? Especially a player like you who had trouble figuring out how to beat the level normally, even going so far as to compare it to Misty Canyon. I admit it can be a bit annoying for first time players, since they won't know which path leads where and how each path helps them proceed, but it doesn't take long to figure out.

maybe I suck at puzzles

switch puzzles were the "go-to" thing at the time.

I wouldn't call those "puzzles." It basically just amounted to "hit the switch once, go to where the blocks were, and get the item that's behind said blocks," and that, much like the majority of Super Mario Enigmatic, isn't a puzzle. Even the one at the beginning that has to be hit twice (once to get to the spring and again to bring it to the airship above) doesn't take much effort to figure out. Just because a level has switch blocks doesn't mean it has puzzles.

[JupiHornet]

Yeah I figured out the secret star by accident.

And yes I thought the level was like Misty Canyon ;-;

rip