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[FAN JUDGE] y'all levels any good? [39/86]

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Hey everyone, it's been a minute. While I've mostly moved on from SMW hacking, I still cherish the memories and community. Especially the VLDC's have always had a special place in my heart. Even though I doubt I'll be working on a level of my own, I'm interested in seeing what all of you manage to come up with. Since I have a thing for rating and ranking stuff and look back fondly on my previous fan judging experience. While I wouldn't consider myself neither an expert at level design nor aesthetics, I still believe I can provide feedback, which may help a few of the contestants, or at least make them feel more comfortable with their submission.

I will start off by reviewing the levels in order of submission, but I'm more than open for requests, which I will be prioritising. Please bear in mind that reviews might end up taking a while. I prefer and intend to go more in depth, allowing me to both take time to appreciate what each level does well, but also to detail where I see room for improvement. So I want to apologize in advance for all requests I may not get to in time.

Now, with all that out of the way, let's get started with the reviews:

Index:
New judge comments (alphabetical order):
2pvenezuela - bry
codfish1002 - Enjl & Waddle
Fostelif - Humberto Quackenbush
idol & Squirrelyman157 - Klug


Previous reviews:
001 Heraga
002 GbreezeSunset
003 Samuel Zuccati | (UPDATE)
004 Kori
005 ninj
010 IronFoxGaming
011 DetectiveZvarri
014 Infinity & Green Jerry
016 Ryman
017 Donut & Segment1Zone2
018 arghhh5
020 Anas
021 LuigiTime
026 RZ1 | (UPDATE)
041 PiyoPiyori
qantuum
Kusrry
MrMartley64



001 Heraga


Design: 46/60
First, I've got to applaud the bravery of submitting a p-balloon level to a contest. Not gonna lie, the level name had me worried. While you weren't lying about upping the difficulty, you fortunately also managed to up the fun-factor with clever setups and great pacing throughout. The two sections while very different in gameplay, feel coherent and like a logical delevopment of the level's gimmick.
The first half benefits a lot from being an autoscroller, making sure every obstacle gets enough attention, while also getting rid of the annoyance of the p-balloon timer running out too early. I encountered one or two slight bumps in difficulty in the first section, which threw me a little off on my first playthrough, like this one, but most obstacles have the perfect balance of being tricky but fair.
The second half shakes things up in an intersting way, requiring you to dodge the p-balloons this time around. While I love the creativity, it overall felt a little ruffer to play. It might be just me, but the balloon hitbox always felt a little janky to me, making the fairly precise jumps feel very demanding. During the first half you usually had multiple approaches or cylces to attempt each obstacle, whereas the second half leaves even less room for error. Still, don't get me wrong the setups in the second half are very clever and varied, and a ton of fun to breeze through once you've got them down, with the only execption being this one, which I still struggle a lot with.

Also I did happen to play the first version of the level, which included a third section. While I did enjoy a lot of its ideas and thought it fit neatly into the overall concept of the level, I did consider it to be easily the weakest section of the level. Whereas the rest of the level, while tuff, appeared to be beatable on the first try, the time trials gave the player way too little time to react to obst acles, making it overall mostly a frustrating trial and error experience.

Creativity: 24/30
The level succeeds in both presenting an interesting gimmick and theme for the level as whole, as well as providing tons of unique setups, which will make sure to keep you on your toes. Especially the twist on the key gimmick in the second made sure to keep things fresh. Great job!

Atmosphere: 6/10
While aesthetically the level does little to stand out, it manages to feel feel very polished. Both the music and palette are decent and fit the overall mood. The grass decoration works and helps the ground look less empty, although the few dark brown pixels stick out a bit too much for my taste. My only minor complaint are the glitched tiles when bouncing on note blocks, but since I'd assume that it counts as "known visual glitch", it won't affect the score anyway.

Total: 76/100


002 GbreezeSunset


Design: 37/60
Let me start off by saying, wow, this might just be the most creative gimmicks I've seen in a vanilla level in a very long time. I'm almost certain, a lot of people will take inspiration from it in the future, which is why it pains me to say, that I didn't find a lot the level particularly fun to play. Aside from the third room, which is more on the puzzle side of things, a lot the level essentially boils down to resetting a room over and over, till you jump on a platformer or throw/kick an item at the exact right time. Aside from the key room, which I struggled a lot with, the difficulty of the rooms was fine, I just didn't happen to like most of them on the gameplay side of things, which most likely is just a me-thing. The yoshi coin room was a ton of fun though, and how I wished more of the level would be like.

Creativity: 30/30
I can't justify giving this level than a perfect score in creativity. Not only is the gimmick something I've never seen before, but the indiviudal rooms happen to be just as clever and perfectly showcase how much versatility the concept allows for.

Atmosphere: 5/10
There's quite a bit to like about the level's atmosphere. The palette is pretty and the background, while repetitve, fits the level's theme insanely well. I'm not exactly sure how you pulled off the timer, but it did help immensly in making the gimmick feels as intuitive, as it did. There is quite a lot of obvious cutoff (vines, lava) and most of the foreground consisting of nothing but ghost house blocks, which brings the level down on the visual side of things. Also too bad I didn't get to hear more of the music, due to constanly having to press p-switches.

Total: 72/100


003 Samuel Zuccati


Design: 31/60
A mostly satisfying collection of tuff 1-screen rooms. While I do have my issues with a number of rooms and the consistancy of the difficulty, there's a lot to like, even if I clearly prefer the first half of the level. The first two rooms neatly introduce the level concept and the two eating snake block rooms shortly after maximize the level's potential, giving the player all the time in the world to observe the room, and being all about timing your jumps right. The thwomp room is the only I actively dislike in the first half, being both way too precise, while also only allowing for a single attempt. The second half is unfortunately where things start to fall apart a bit. We start off very strongly though with one of the few rooms not based around precision or timing but pure speed with a neat twist. All upcoming rooms except the very last one now require you to ride a line-guided rope while dodging saws, which gets dull rather quickly and at times way too difficult to find a reliable strat for. The room I disliked the most was this one, because I often times wasn't able to jump high enough to reach the falling platform. My biggest complaint overall though, and luckily an easy fix, is that half the rooms can be cheesed by being able to grab a throw block from the starting positon. Take the screenshot I posted above (not the one I linked) as an example.
With a few changes made to balance the difficulty and some more variation in the second half, I could really see this level doing well.

Creativity: 19/30
The concept is simple but something I've rarely seen done before, especially in non-kaizo levels. Most of the setups in the first half were pretty neat, unfortunately the second half wasn't quite able to keep up. I would have loved to see a bigger variety in terms of enemies.

Atmosphere: 7/10
A decent effort overall. Visually and musically the level gives off quite a mysterious vibe, which I like. The background is mostly kept as is but the additional cloud layer and greyish tone certainly adds to the atmosphere. As for the FG palette, I would have maybe liked a bit more constrast or at least darker outlines though. Aside from that, there is some interesting tileset mixing, and a very neat and clear visualisation used for tile 1f0.

Total: 57/100
Wish I could deduct points for the yoshi house though.


And this is where I'm going to leave it at for today. Feel free to ask, if you want me to review your level.
Check out my new hack thread:
Do mine #smrpg{:O}
Finished three more reviews, including the two new requests. Hope you enjoy and find the feedback useful.

004 Kori


Design: 56/60
I stuggle to recall the last time I played a level which flowed this well. Every platform and enemy placement feels perfectly calculated, making sure the way to pass each obstacle is easy to grasp, which is a must for a fast paced athletic level. Every single enemy is able to catch you offguard, making sure to constantly keep you on your toes.
While the enemy variety stays fairly little throughout, setups fluently increase in complexity, so the level stays fresh all the way through. The final section, although it might drag on a bit and a death near the end ends up being very punishing, is an insane climax to an already fantastic level. Successfully pulling off all sections in one go is incredible fun and satisfying.
My only minor complaint is that the checkboard and falling platforms look to much alike. On my first playthrough the first falling platform, which requires one to jump off almost immediatly, caught me by too much of a surprise, I wasn't able to make the jump.

Creativity: 26/30
The level is filled to the brim with clever setups and jumps with little to no dull moments. Even if there's no major gameplay gimmick, but pure platforming action, the level manages to stick out with how fluently the already impressive individual sections are stitched together. The final section shakes things up interestingly, while staying true to the vibe, the rest of the level is going for.

Atmosphere: 10/10
Everything about this level's visuals screams perfection. The background clouds and sky gradient are beyond gorgeous and the palette change during sunset is the cherry on top.

Total: 92/100


005 ninj


Design: 23/60
While I do think the level offers lots of interesting ideas and setups, the execution and especially the pacing bring the level as whole down by a lot.
Levels, especially gimmicky ones, should usually feature some sort of progression, to have them feel intuitive and coherent. This includes starting off by introduing the gimmick on safe ground, which your level does very well. After that you slowly raise the complexity and difficulty, mixing the idea up with previously known elements and introducing new twists. This where I think your level falters.
Ideas feel like they are rarely properly explored, for example lakitus are used in only a single section. The difficulty curve is all over the place with one of the tuffest sections (I took the screenshot of), coming right after two easy introductory setups. The cramped second pitchin' chuck setup, I have yet to beat without getting hit, is followed up by two pretty much empty screens with the only wiggler in the level, posing little to no threat. Lastly the level ends way too abruptly and right when it started to catch my interest, making it feel like you ran out of ideas.

Please don't get me wrong and take this review and score as me saying the level is bad. I think the potential is huge, it just isn't quite there yet. Don't discard what you've made so far, but extend the level and think about how you could edit or move the sections around, to have the level as a whole feel more coherent.

Creativity: 21/30
Although I've seen the "looping" enemies idea before, I do enjoy your own spin on the idea. The water bubbles gives dodging the thwimps a lot more spice, because you have to consider your lower speed in water, and generally make for interesting setus. The layer 2 blocks and munchers, solid for mario, also make the level stand out.

Atmosphere: 4/10
Visually I think the level is interesting, but also has a tad too much going on, at times even hindering the gameplay. The biggest offender is probably the backgroud, because its colors mostly match the foreground. I do think the warning signs are a neat touch and help though, but they seem to be missing in muliple instances.

Total: 48/100
sus


RZ1


Design: 38/60
For the most part a fun yoshi-centric level. The first half sets the key ideas up fantastically while holding back on the difficulty, partially through cement blocks blocking yoshi from running off too far, which I appreciate a lot. Pokeys are excellently used to block to your path and slow you down, making yoshi an essential design element of the level, with setups continuously getting more complex throughout the level.
Unfortunately the timelimit is one of the main issues I have with level, especially with it being part of the main level's main gimmick. Time is never an issue in the first half, but you usually come out of it with less time than before. Due to how close the time in the second half can get, usually I was better off restarting from the midway point. I would instead maybe recommend adding a way to reset the timer, once you reach the midway point. Also with most berries in the second half being so few and out of the way, the timer ends up feeling like more of an annoyance than the main gimmick.
The sublevel near the very end unfortunately felt very tagged on, with the blue shell section being my biggest issue. The pitchin' chuck is a big difficulty spike, with one mistake leading to immediate death. You can neither stay low because you're near the very bottom end of the screen, nor high up because the chuck then tends to jump and the munchers are in the way anyway. Also with the blue shell only being used in that very small section (and to get the 3-up moon), the idea feels very underutilised.

But even with all that, hopefully not too harsh critism aside, I enjoyed my time with the level overall and could see it, with a few slight adjustments, doing well in the contest.

Creativity: 14/30
While I do enjoy the level's main cocept, I do feel it has too little effect on the gameplay. The first half can be completed in time fairly easily, even when ignoring every berry. The second half has very few berries and most of them placed very out of the way, making the time gain barely noticeable anyway. On the other hand the enemy placement and setups were mostly neat. Especially pokeys were used well, mostly as a way to slow you down, while having to dodge other enemies.

Atmosphere: 6/10
While I doesn't do anything unique visually, nothing sticks out negatively and the palette brings a neat summery vibe. Lovely music choise as well.

Total: 58/100
Check out my new hack thread:
hello Mad Lad,
if you are interested, please do mine.

My thread's link
judge if you want:
https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=121326
I haven't gotten feedback from anyone yet so
https://bin.smwcentral.net/u/53990/VLDC13_COLD_V2.bps
 Segment1Zone2 and I made this.
Pls fanjudge
(p.s.: you're awesome)
Sorry for the huge delay in getting back to the reviews. I've managed to finish the first two current request for today, but have played, made my mind up and started writing about the other two levels. I'll do my best to get them done for tomorrow. Hope you enjoy.

011 DetectiveZvarri


Design: 47/60
I'm more than pleasantly surprised. What started out as a mostly flat, classic forest level, quickly turned out to be a tightly designed platforming-heavy level, with top notch enemy placement and perfect utilization of the expanding turn block bridges. Especially chucks made for a fantastic obstacle, because their timing usually perfectly lined up with waiting for the bridges to expand. Keeping the enemy variety fairly low, also surprisingly, didn't hinder the level, by having setups naturally increase in complexity, instead of hastily throwing new concepts at the player near the end of the level. The fantastic difficulty curve blends the individually fun sections into one a fantastic, coherent experience. Great job!

Creativity: 19/30
Although the level has very little in terms of a central gimmick, the level blossoms with creativity in its setups.
Note blocks are introduced in the second half and could help bring some additonal spice. As of right now though, I do feel there's still potentital left, as most setups currently just boil down to jumping over parakoopas, or to timing your jumps on the expanding bridges right.

Atmosphere: 5/10
This is easily where the biggest room for improvement lies. While I don't dislike the palette used, I do think some of the color transitions are a little harsh, for example in the treetops and certains bits of the background. The glow on the tree trunks on the other hand is pretty neat. The music choice is quite fitting, but might be a tad too chill for such an action packed, platforming-heavy level. Still, with how creative other levels are visually, this level does too little to set itself apart from your usual vanilla forest level.

Total: 71/100


qantuum


Design: 19/60
Certainly one of the most unique and cute levels I've played thus far, but I'm not sure as in how well it works as a VLDC level. Most of the level's challenge comes in trying to collect coins and 1-ups, which in the context of this contest unfortunately doesn't mean much. The best example is probably the p-switch room, which can be skipped in its entirety by just running to the right. Instead I would recommend an apporach more similar to the first two rooms, where enemies can always pose a thread, but coins / bonus items can be collected for an additional challenge.
The first room starts of very well, with especially the ball & chain setups offering a neat balance of risk / reward. The shell less koopa setups are fun but feel too optional. If the first one is skipped, you have two screens of nothing going on. To spice things up you could, for example, have the koopa jumps be a requirement to cross a bottomless pit, and have the 1-up be an additional reward, if you mange to consecutively jump on all of them. The last few screens unfortunately feel a little rushed: Giving away a fireflower for little to no reason, when the level is already very liberal with powerups, is probably best left out. The final setup is even more odd to me, as the grey castle block is unable to pose any threat. With the midway point being right next to it, you do not even need to have preserved your powerup, trivialising the whole setup.
Next up is the auto-scroll room, easily the most creative of the bunch. By placing the ground on layer 2, you keep the player dragging behind, making positioning and dodging enemeies and spikes trickier and more interesting. The only issue is, that you use the same ground tiles on layer 1 as well, making both for a weird visual effect, as well as unnecessarily making Mario's movement a lot more confusing, as you don't slide on layer 1. Unfortunately I can't shake off the feeling, that some of the enemy placements are a tad random. Most put you in harm's way, while some can be dodged way too easily by staying on the ground (e.g. screen 7). Placing multiple instances of the same enemy in a row usually is not more threatening, than placing one optimally. Also I feel the variety in setups and enemies could be greater, the positioning of the koopas and thwomps for exaple quickily becomes too predictable.
The third room, I have unfortunately already mentioned as a negative example, needs a lot more spice. The first step for that should be to introduce gaps in the p-switch bridge and have it be a lot less flat. Secondly try to have your coin placements be more coherent, instead of placing 2x3 constellations, mostly on the same height.
The final room in't as flawed but very repetitive and shallow. Especially the first half only consist of flat ground covered in spikes with the occasional gap or chuck. In the second half we get to briefly explore yoshi's different abilites to grab some coins. Unfortunately with how short some of these ideas come, they more feel like a tutorial of concepts that exist (second half), than actual setups to challenge to player, which is a huge shame.

Just as with ninj's level I believe the potential is there. I certainly appreciate creating something fresh, even if it is tuff to execute well. I'll almost always prefer playing something unique but flawed, over a generic, inoffensive experience, I'll quickly forget about. If I came across as harsh at times, it's because I care for your level and really wish to see you succeed with it.

Last but not least, you might want to look into SomeGuy712x's VLDC11. Although I'm not exactly able to explain how it was pulled it off, he was able to check if coins were collected. With that I think you would for example be able to build a bridge of cement block, which can only be crossed, if all coins have be collected.

Creativity: 14/30
The idea of having switch palace-like bonus games mixed with the challenge of a regular level is a fun one. Each of the four rooms feels clearly destinct and gimmicky, even if the ideas rearly feel properly explored. Other than multiple clever setups in the first room, very few other sections stand out positively on their own.

Atmosphere: 6/10
I enjoy the switch palace-like tileset you've created by yourself. The background, even if the transition between the different shades could be a little more smooth, and especially the animated "bubbles" are very cute. With both the FG and BG being blue though, I think a little more color variety wouldn't hurt. There are a few very minor graphical flaws, like the nets in the first room being cut off on the sides, some of the bushes in the fourth room having wrong tiles when they overlap or the pipe coloring in the exit room being off, but they should all be easy fixes. The music is catchy and fits the level as whole very well.

Total: 39/100
Check out my new hack thread:
can you play my lvl plz i need help
Would be awesome if you could check out my level too.
Thanks in advance!
How 'bout this?
My Mode 0 guide.

My Discord server. It has a lot of archived ASM stuff, so check that out!

Originally posted by Mad Lad
I'll do my best to get them done for tomorrow

...well, that was a lie.


Anyway, I finally managed to finish the other two reviews, as well as quick update of a level I judged at the very start.

I'm glad to see new requests have come in. arghhh5, LuigiTime & Anas, you'll be up next.


017 Donut & Segment1Zone2


Design: 34/60
While fun all throughout, it's mostly just the second half, which manages to leave a great impression gameplay-wise. The design of the first half is perfectly acceptable but offers very little to stand out. Enemies are placed in such a way, that they pose very little threat and instead encourage breezing through most of the level. I usually enjoy my time with simpler vanilla levels, which I definitely did in this case, but especially the first half lacks a proper gimmick and clever, memorable setup to excell in the design category. A spontaneous suggestion from me, to (hopefully) make things more exciting, would be to offer multiple ways of traversing through the level. You already have water near the bottom end of the screen, but do little to nothing with it. Currently, you're even more safe if you stay in the water, allowing you to skip multiple setups with not a single enemy in your way. Alternatively you could make the waterfalls swim-able and include some platforming elements in the first half build around that.
The second half on the other hand, while still mostly straightforward, adds excellently paced athletic level elements. Even though the scale platformers are never used to gain height, they don't allow the player to stay still, therefore keeping the action high, especially when lining up the jump onto or off the well-timed hot air balloons.

Creativity: 18/30
I'm not very sure if aesthetic creativity counts towards this category as well, I assume it does, so please correct me if I'm wrong. Because, what this level lacks in gimmicks and unique setups, it easily makes up with magnificent visuals. The animated waterfall, hot air balloon, forest vines, background sun and the fresh new temple-like tileset are all great examples of clever usuage of vanilla textures. Gameplay wise the mix of scaling platforms and layer 2 was a neat idea as well though.

Atmosphere: 9/10
Absolutely gorgeous! The silhouette FG and dreamy horizon BG fit perfectly together, have top notch coloring and set a fantastic atmostphere. My absolute favourite are the hot-air balloons in the second half. If I had to criticize anything it would be that the second background feels a tad empty around the middle.

Total: 61/100


PiyoPiyori


Design: 41/60
Having your level be full of spikes, in most instances, feels like a cheap way of adding challenge to a level. Fortunately this is very much not true for this level, and actually instead helps it stand out as a level with a bigger focus on platforming. Jumps never feel too demanding and the approach to clearing them is always made clear. Yoshi coins either provide an additional fun challenge or are neatly hidden, like in the last room. I do think the rooms are very much on the shorter side of things, bordering on being too short and generous with powerups and checkpoints. Especially the last room felt like it didn't need a checkpoint beforehand, with how short it is.
I do have a few minor complaints, concerning either unfair enemy placements or awkward jumps, I for sure encourage changing though: The very first bullet bills are poorly introduced, as even with the warning sign, it's near impossible to see the them coming and react accordingly, when already in mid-air. Secondly the very first flying koopa in the second room can also unfortunately lead to an unfair hit, as the screen only scrolls once you've already bounced on the note-block and it's too late to dodge. My only other issue is with the scale platform jumps just before that. Jumping off the right one (the one you reach first), feels very tight, compared to all other obstacles, with how close the spikes are. But also jumping on the left one is unnecessarily awkward, with how high up it is.
With all that aside, I had a blast playing the level, and would love to see the level and ideas be slightly expanded or rebalanced (please don't force it though).

Creativity: 17/30
The big focus on spike-based platforming with such good execution, in a non-kaizo level, feels refreshing. Instead of clever setups with regular enemies, which the level still has a few of, there is a lot of emphasis on the spike placement, to find the right balance between fair but challenging. Scale platforms, note blocks and the grey and brown rotating platforms were used cleverly, in order to avoid pixel perfect jumps to create artificial difficulty, but instead have the player on their toes to keep the player challenge and the flow of the level intact.

Atmosphere: 7/10
For how vanilla you've kept the aesthetics, there's a lot to love. Most noteworthy are obviously the note block and scale platform clouds, which I find insanely cute. Tileset mixing was used to great effect with both the mushrooms and brown platforms fitting the level's theme. The signs also look very neat, especially with their softer outline.

Total: 65/100


Last but not least, Samuel Zuccati asked me if I could give their level another go. I'll keep things brief and only mention the very few complaints I have, as well as give the scores a quick update.
I still can't believe how much of a step up this is to the previous version I played. From the visuals, to the huge improvement in variety and fairness, as well as a whole brand new section, which might just contain the very best rooms of the entire level. I'm beyond impressed.
The only room I dislike is this one, being very tight with its timing, and with the 3-up moon room after it doing the same thing, just in a more fun and surprisingly also easier way. Also the obstacle with the purle triangle, "circled" by two chainsaws, in the very first room of the final section, seems a tad too demanding in my opinion. Other than that though, the new rooms are fantastic.


003 Samuel Zuccati (UPDATE)

Design: 52/60
Creativity: 25/30
Atmosphere: 8/10

Total: 85/100
Check out my new hack thread:
Here is my level.
Thanks again since vldc11!
Hello! Would you be able to review my level?

Here it is!
--------------------
IS THAT YOUR FINAL ANSWER?
Hey everyone! Thank you for all the new requests. With the deadline creeping closer though and already quite the backlog of levels to play and review, I'll put the option to request on hold for now.
Although I've got my thoughts written down for most levels as bullet points, I'll likely need a few more days to formulate them.
Check out my new hack thread:
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