AirShip wrote:Also, I made some little modifications to the level.
Cool; that was what I was waiting on.
AirShip wrote:Cinnamon:
SMQI's "CreamShot" worked as a pun in English, but that one doesn't make sense.
Anyway, my review:
This level isn't too bad. The level's most prevalent issue is that SMBX slows down when the screen is nearly filled with the water foreground images. If you had them swap the ghost house railings instead (background-49), which are also foreground images, this would cut the number of BGOs onscreen in half while still giving the water a foreground effect. Another big problem with the level would be the overall lack of power-ups. Not only are there are only two in the entire level, but they're both fairly close together as well as placed about 1/3rd of the way through the level. Plus, the second one is a stock mushroom rather than a fire flower in a ? block, meaning that even if the player still has the first power-up when he/she reaches the second one (though, like I mentioned earlier, the distance between the two isn't much), the player isn't rewarded with an upgraded power-up. The only way to get a fire flower is to intentionally skip the first power-up, grab the mushroom, then backtrack, which is unintuitive for first-time players. On top of the lack of power-ups, the Thwomp in Section 3 is placed in an unfair spot; not only is the player moving up in this section, but the Thwomp is partially masked by a foreground pillar, meaning the player won't see it until it's too late. Of course, the lack of power-ups wouldn't be as big of an issue as it is if it weren't for the fact that there's
no midpoint. I had gotten all of the shiny stars and made it just before warp 5/6, but I bounced too high on the Paragoomba, got caught in the ceiling, lost my momentum, fell onto the spikes, died, and had to start from the beginning of the level, which was really annoying. Speaking of, why are warps 5 and 6 even in the level? All they do is move the player 2 units to the right and break the flow of the level; they, and their pipes, should be removed.
Also, the fire still doesn't come out of the statues' mouths. To fix this, make only the bottom-half of the face sprite-swap the Bowser statue, then make the back of the top of the face sprite-swap a block and the front of the top of the face sprite-swap a background image. If necessary, place an invisible jump-through-able block under the Bowser statue to prevent the nogravity=1 slow-fall bug.
Summary:
GOOD:
-Graphics aren't terrible.
-Music fits the level well.
-Block placement is good.
BAD:
-Foreground-water spam.
-Lack of power-ups.
-Unfair Section 3 Thwomp.
--NO MIDPOINT.
-Pointless warps.
In conclusion: This level has potential, but there are a few pretty big oversights in the level as well. I'd say this deserves a 5.5/10.
P.S. Do you have a hidden sheep-block in all of SMMP's levels?
(Also, I know this is off-topic, but what happened to your fourth contest? Did nobody else send in reviews? I remember that I sent you mine)
