[REMOVED] "New Kirbys DreamWorld" by Aaronhoffer

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File Name:	New Kirbys DreamWorld Demo
Submitted:	2014-07-03 09:24:41 PM by Aaronhoffer
Authors:	Aaronhoffer
Demo:	Yes
Length:	12 exit(s)
Difficulty:	Normal
Description:	(New Stuff) (Graphics in Levels now look like the Graphics in the Overworld) (Fixed Sprite Limits in Dedede Castle 1) (Made WaddleDees Stompable) (Fixed the bug where you could not play the bonus game)

Since the previous review I've made for this hack, I noticed you changed some things in your hack, although I can't say these were an improvement of most of the bad points of your hack.

The idea of having Kirby as the player in your hack may have improved a little, but it's still not executed well. I noticed you changed a few graphics of your hack, like one of the foreground tilesets and background, although I think you could've changed the rest to make the graphical style of the hack be memorable, as well that it'd avoid graphical clashes of "8-bit" with SMW. The level design could've been worked more as well, because I really noticed a ton of levels that felt like blatant edits from the original levels of the ROM, not to mention they also had other flaws. Lastly, in this topic, you've left the Switch Palace levels unchanged, which was even more boring to play, in my opinion, since players generally expect different levels in SMW hacks, not the original ones or their blatant edits.

In the topic of flaws for this hack, at the end of "DreamWorld 1" you can notice this cutoff at the end of the level. In "DreamWorld 2" the camera settings of the level are really annoying, sometimes I've got hurt unfairly at the grass area you reach with the stairs, because the player isn't forced to only reach that area only using stairs but he can reach in any way he wants, for this, I suggest you to change the camera of this level to "Vertical Scroll at Will" which would work better for this level. In "DreamWorld 3" it's almost impossible to climb this stair since the mushroom ledges are solid and make things get annoying and confusing due to the player's common sense, and at the end of the level, by running a bit, there's this cutoff. "DreamLand 4" was also one of the levels which I mostly felt that was made of blatant edits of the original levels, togheter with "DreamLand 5" which sometimes had sprite memory issues near this area. Lastly, you didn't fix the overworld issues I mentioned before, the border still looks wrong because the colors are off, as well for the sea, causing the impression of cutoff.

To finish the review, I can't say the hack has improved since my previous review. You still lack experience on hacking and common sense, I recommend you to play some of the hacks in the Hacks Section, that'd help you a lot to get more experience and you'd eventually be better at hacking.

Difficulty would be Easy.

---

+1'd users:
- Eevee
- Mayonnai
- Jack-kun
- Wakana-chan
- Koopster

Back to this one again~ I don't see any major improvements I must say.

The level design is still not very good: you said me you used all your creativity, but don't be sad if I still think that your levels are based on the SMW ones. I won't consider this anymore and I'll only say that most of your level design is flat: no actions, gimmicks and obstacles are in the way of lots of sections. As Mirann stated, I'd blame the lack of experience in you, we shouldn't forget that this is your first hack. Try playing other hacks and give yourself an idea of good level design.

The aesthetics...well, meh. Honestly I don't like them much. I can see you aimed for a 8-bit like hack (as everyone already mentioned), but at least, make the BGs look like it too. Other than this, I don't have many advices to give you here. If I were you, I'd use the resources we have in the graphics sections, but whatever. In my previous review I said that "there was too much Mario GFX in this hack": you made a right move by replacing GFX, but its quality isn't this good.

As misc issues, again, the ropemachine glitch is still there, and also a little slowdown in one of the cave levels.

The difficulty is easy due to flatness.

Again, I'm more on the rejection side. As others already said, play a few hacks and get an idea of good level design. This, and also follow others' suggestions, or you won't go anywhere.

So I was going for reviewing the older version, but got kinda lazy. Let's go for this one instead then.

~

The title screen shows the title of the hack in some pretty nice letters. The fact that the border thingies in the top are double bugs me a little, but it's not a big issue. The graphical style is pretty different; it's some mix of 8-bit and 16-bit (the background, the little bushes and the goal posts come to mind). The 16-bit graphics I could spot aren't the most detailed thing ever anyway, so I guess it doesn't cause a too big of a clash.


The first thing I notice in the overworld is that it has a lot of black rounding it, which is pretty different. I assume it should work as some sort of border, right? I don't like it that I can scroll the camera through it with select, since it shows a lot of emptiness around the map. You could go for disabling the scrolling (it's in "Overworld > Extra Options", shouldn't be hard to find).
The design itself is great. :3 I really like the land shapes and the level arrangement overall. So good job on that!


DreamWorld 1 was pretty interesting in the beginning; I liked that not taking those coins in the beginning would let you take those 3 lives up there. There's a lot of linearity after that broken bridge though. The secret exit was really obvious, but this is the first level, so I'll let it go.
I also notice that you can't differ big Kirby from small Kirby, which is kinda annoying. :/ If you could get around that (maybe with some kind of counter in the status bar?), that'd be great.


Yellow Switch is the same as the original - change it. It's not cool to face entirely unchanged levels, even if they're really quick ones.


DreamWorld 2 has a nice and fitting background, so kudos for that.
I find yoshi for the first time in that level. I like that heart above the player when they're riding yoshi, that was pretty creative. :3 The heart doesn't appear in every frame, though. Would be nice if you could fix that, but otherwise, it doesn't matter that much.
I think you played very well with the camera there; in that stairs part, if the player attempts to go by the bottom corridor, they won't see the key that's right above. The problem there is that if I try to run to the top corridor with yoshi (since I can't climb as I ride), the camera won't go up and I'll run into a rex that I can't even see. I'd remove it. I can see the banzai bill, so it shouldn't be a problem to keep it.
Oh, also, I think you're using some weird dirt tile. Dropping an item while on dirt makes it float in a pretty odd way. If you're in doubt of what kind of tile you should use for walkthrougable dirt, just create one that acts like 25 (empty tile).


DreamWorld 3... There's a level I don't really like. To begin with, it reminded me way too much of Yoshi's Island 3 - floating platforms and spiky things. You added line guides with rope machines, but they're pretty pointless for two reasons: it's much easier and faster to simply jump over the platforms, and there's a high chance I'll get to that level with Yoshi, so I can't even ride those ropes to begin with. There's a random idea: why not to make them line-guided platforms instead, and make that so the player has to take them to reach a piece of land with some reward (powerups/coins/the level's ending even)? Also, try to enlargen that level; the average level of this hack was pretty short, but this one can be beaten in less than 30 SMW seconds, which is a really short time.
Also, the goal sphere room has two more issues: if I ignore the sphere and keep walking, I'll find cutoff in the end of the mushroom platforms (which were arranged in a pretty weird way if you ask me...); also goal and layer 3 aren't cool things to mix - the tides will suddenly disappear as you're walking after taking a goal, be it a normal goal or a sphere; it's best to not use tides in that room.


DreamWorld 4 reminded me a lot of Yoshi's Island 4 - the way some falling platforms and landmasses are arranged is incredibly similar to the original... Which is making the think that you didn't start it from scratch, but actually made it out of the original level. Always, no exceptions, CTRL+Del before you start a level; blatant edits are never good.
Also, there's a really way too easy 3-up heart in there; try to make them a bit more secret, since they give you a lot of lives.


Dedede Castle 1 also reminded me a whole lot of Iggy's Castle, especially since the second room is almost identical. For the first room, it just seemed like you tossed out random landmasses and enemies all over the place. This was a pretty unfocused level overall.


Donut Pla- err, DreamWorld 5 was made of Donut Plains 1, that I can tell easily. Same BG, same colors, same music... Maybe you shouldn't be that faithful to the order SMW put their levels. Many people will take that you lazily edited the original level solely for that.
There's a fence part where I either need a cape, or I'll have to ditch my yoshi. For situations like that, an alternative way for yoshi is always nice (such as land with munchers, or just have a blue koopa around so you can fly).
The weird dirt issue from DreamLand 2 happens here again.


DreamWorld 6 has a background, unlike Donut Plains 2, and it's also pretty different, despite being a cave level; that's nice.
The level design is pretty linear though, the level is entirely about going straightforward, which is kind of boring...


DreamWorld 7's beginning is pretty much the same as Donut Plains 3, and the level itself has a pretty similar concept as well... There's a rope machine which this time is necessary for progressing, so there's another instance where I need to leave yoshi. I could get around it in a risky way with a cape by jumping on the koopas, but you still could be friendlier with yoshi. :<

As I finished this level, I got to the bonus game and I noticed something...
For some reason, Kirby can't hit the bonus game's boxes, which got me stuck in there forever. This is an instant denial reason. :/

But thanks to rewinds-chan, I can proceed. :P


DreamWorld 8 is a ghost house and apparently the last level in this demo, too, since I can't proceed after beating it. The secret exit was the most obvious thing ever. I think you should be more creative when making those up... Especially since it takes to the Green Switch, which is a really nice bonus.
The first room ends with some cutoff to the right. Assuming you didn't know: if you want to make a level end and beat the camera from scrolling any further, do that: press F1 in Lunar Magic and make sure that the level ends in the end of a screen; also make sure to not have any little tile or enemy beyond that screen.
Otherwise, it was a pretty simple but alright ghost house regardless.


Green Switch is the same as the original just like the Yellow one. Same tip goes here.


~

This hack's biggest issues for me were the level length (the levels were very short overall) and the blatant edits that were very, very common. In therms of original design, the very first levels seemed pretty promissing, but it just seemed like you got lazy and the hack went downhill right from the second half of the first world.
This hack didn't really bother me aesthetically that much, to be honest. I don't think the 16-bit backgrounds bended too badly with the 8-bit foregrounds, mostly because they aren't even that detailed to begin with.
There's just something aesthetical related that happened a lot in your hack. It's rather minor but bugs me a lot, so why not to mention:



Do what the second screen does, not the first screen.

So yeah, I'm rejecting this for now, but if you can work more on your level design and actually start your levels from scratch, I'm sure this will turn out a lot better. You have everything to make this hack turn out pretty decent, you just need to put some good level designing in action.
If you don't know how to make your levels better, make sure to look up some guides or play other well-rated hacks, so you'll know what we like to play.


Good luck, and I'm looking forward to the next versions!