Hey there guys! Took a while again, but i'm here with some new reviews!
Note that i'm posting 3 reviews in this post, as 2 of them are re-reviews.
As for the next reviews, i guess i'll be going back to submission order, though note i'm still here if anyone wants to request a review for any reason!
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Forest Blitz by Wolfnasty
Design: 17/60
This level has a few nice ideas, but i don’t really like the execution! There are quite a lot of questionable design choices that i’m really not a fan of. As always, i’ll try to not be harsh with my comments, and sorry if i do, but i have quite a lot of complaints about things i didn’t like…
The level has a few nice design ideas. The idea of the theme as a heavy forest is pretty interesting, especially when you use the trees in the gameplay! The use of Spring Platforms is also pretty nice, as those are quite uncommon! And the climbing section in the end is pretty nice too!
However, the execution is really lacking!
The biggest issue in my opinion is how much the visual style gets in the way of the gameplay!
There are tiles that look exactly the same, but have different behaviors! The most notable example are the trees, there are 3 different “types” of trees, depending on their proximity to the screen, but, aside from the top trees having a lighter palette in their trunks, all trees look exactly the same! Some of them have higher priority, others don’t, some are solid, others are passable, but they all look the same! There are also the Translucent Blocks that use Question Block graphics.
Another big issue with the visual style is the use of priority tiles! There are a lot of tiles with priority on! And these really get in the way of the gameplay! One notable example is the top of solid trees, as their leaves aren’t solid. It’s especially annoying how you pretty often
hide Clappin’ Chucks behind these leaves! As we have to go through the top of these trees in order to complete the level, these will lead to a lot of unfair surprise hits! There are also some enemies that can be hidden behind the tree trunks.
And in the second half this gets even worse! The whole top and bottom of the level are covered by priority on trees!
There are also the bushes covering bottomless pits in the first half, i’d prefer to be able to clearly see where i can fall on a bottomless pit! And these are an even bigger problem in the areas with Jumping Piranhas! It actually took me a long time to realize there were actually
pipes hidden behind the bushes! So i thought i had to Spin-Jump on the Piranhas! (and it still feels like the intended solution on some of these setups) And the Piranhas are spaced in a way that makes Spin-jumping on them pretty hard, as the gaps between some of them are huge!
Another thing i don’t like in the first section is how some paths are very unintuitive and there are a few dead ends.
This one is an example: we can’t reach the Spring Platform up there, so we need to go back and do a pretty tight jump into the top of the tree, which is covered by top priority leaves and doesn’t look like a platform at all!
There’s also the fact that the first half has a lot of Big Mario discrimination! A few segments in the first area have a lot of
1-tile gaps that are hard to get through as Big Mario!
Also, i really don’t like the use of sprites! Some of them actually fit the theme, such as the Spinies, Piranha Plants and Wigglers! But others don’t really fit the design! And many times, the placement of sprites really gets in the way of the gameplay, it feels like they actually clash with the design instead of complimenting it!
The biggest example is the Cloud Lakitu in the first half! The level isn’t designed at all in a way that fits the use of a Cloud Lakitu! The level has Vertical Scroll, and has a lot of elevated areas, so pretty often the
Lakitu will get in our way when we jump, or sometimes
even when we just stand in an elevated platform! This is particularly annoying when we have to
bounce on Spring Platforms with Lakitu around. Also, since many times we will be in elevated platforms, the Lakitu can cover the ground with Spinies, and we have no way of knowing where is safe to land. There are also a few cramped areas that become
almost impossible with the Lakitu spawning Spinies there! (The Lakitu is hiding behind the trees in the first screenshot!)
Also, in the second area, the use of Piranha Plants is really annoying since they hide in the trees at the top of the screen! And, as you don’t use pipes for them to retreat to, they
can harm us even when they’re hiding! And that whole area is designed to have us jumping from one platform/vine to the next, and
the Piranhas really get in the way of our jumps!
Another problem in the second area is how most jumps are pretty big, they seem to be specifically designed to be made with a cape, but it’s pretty easy to lose the cape in that segment.
As for the third area, it’s mostly ok, a kinda nice tree climbing vertical segment! However, i’m not really a fan of how the
platforms we need to progress are sometimes hidden behind priority trees! And the 1-2 tile vines are kinda hard to grab sometimes due to their hitboxes.
Also, this level is pretty long! I’m not really a fan of having 2 different time limits! (I don’t actually know if this is allowed, as the rules state we can’t reset the timer when switching sublevels to bypass the 500 seconds rule. Though i believe it’s fine since your level is still inside the 500 seconds rule)
It’s especially frustrating because the time limit of the second half is particularly tight! Even knowing what to do and playing at a very optimized pace, i still had around 50 seconds left when i got to the exit. This means that just messing up a little bit on the climbing area we can already get a time-out!
Creativity: 13/30
This level has a few nice ideas. The heavy forest theme is pretty interesting! And using the trees as part of the gameplay is quite clever!
It has a nice variety of ideas, with each segment playing pretty differently! The most interesting one for me was the third area, the vertical climbing segment!
However, when it comes to execution, it’s really lacking! The level doesn’t have any interesting setups with the ideas presented! And the ideas end up being more a nuisance than actually complimenting the design…
Aesthetics: 3/10
While the level has a few nice choices with aesthetics, there are a lot of issues that really bring it down!
The use of graphics is quite good! I like the heavy forest atmosphere you set with all the trees and stuff! But the graphics are mostly a nuisance due to how much they affect the gameplay.
The palettes are quite questionable sometimes. In the first area, the FG palettes aren’t bad, but the BG looks weird! Some objects like coins, blocks, power-ups and berries look weird as well! By the second area it just gets worse, everything, including the sprites, is just a weird mix of green and brown that doesn’t really look good! As for the third area, it gets a little bit better than the second, as the colors are more coherent with the objects. However, there are still some weird brown outlines in a few objects.
Some sprite graphics also look weird, like the Upside Down Piranha Plants using Lakitu heads.
As for the songs, i don’t think they fit the level too well. The level has a bit of a dark atmosphere, but not as much to have a Ghost House song in my opinion. Also, the Cave song in the third area doesn’t fit it too much as well.
As for aesthetic issues, there are some bits of cutoff here and there, such as when blocks are placed on top of trees, when the tree trunks connect to the leaves or when pipes connect to the trees.
Total: 33/100
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Industrial Desert by IronFoxGaming
Design: 30/60
Well, i see this level has definitely improved! Thank you for considering all the feedback you received!
It seems you took the time to fix most of the issues i pointed out, and improved many sections!
The first section hasn’t changed much. It still plays pretty nicely, with a nice platforming and use of the terrain, as well as some nice bits of exploration!
The Yoshi Coin bonus room has been fixed in terms of how the light works! But i still don’t like the fact that you use the enemies to activate the On/Off Switches! As i said before, since the light is pretty much essential for playing this part, i’d prefer to have control over it myself! Also, the thing about pace is still valid, if we go fast enough, we get to the second Koopa with the lights still on, so it turns the lights off!
The night sections have been improved! I appreciate that you changed the “fluidous sand” palette to actually make it different in the night! And having it actually behaving as water helps as well!
In terms of gameplay, this part plays pretty similarly to the first area, it has some nice bits of exploration and a quite nice platforming. The night palettes are still a bit harder to tell apart than in the day section, but it’s better now that you removed the “light areas”!
Also, i see you removed the pitch black section and replaced it with an extension to the night area. I actually like what you did in the extension! Using sliding mechanic to kill Pokeys is pretty clever! Especially with the use of Goombas to bounce!
As for the indoors sections, the design has improved, but the main problems still persist.
As i mentioned before, the main problem with this segment is simply the way Layer 2 On/Off works: Layer 2 will only rise up to its top position, so the higher it is, the less time it’ll stay rising, which makes it so the quicker we hit the Switch to turn on the lights, the less time the lights will stay on.
Also, you are still using enemies to hit the On/Off Switches. Again, since the lights are essential to play this segment, i’d like to have control over them myself!
And there’s another problem with the way On/Off Switches work: The On/Off Switches keep their state when changing rooms. That means if we leave the room with the lights on, the next time we come to that room the lights will still be on! And since you have a Koopa placed to turn the lights on at the start of the room, if they're already on,
the Koopa will turn them off instead!
Back to the design of this section, it has improved! Now these sections feel less filler, there’s actually some nice platforming to them! But i’m not a fan of the use of Bullet Bills in the second indoors section, especially because we can’t see the Launchers when the lights are off!
And i appreciate that you changed the ending! It’s pretty fair now, and using the Winged Block to stop us is quite clever! I also found the Moon! And i like that you provide a cape after we get all Yoshi Coins, so we can get to the Moon quickly!
Also, i feel this level would be better with a timer of 500 seconds instead of 400, just to be a bit more lenient for first time players. While the level can be reliably completed in 300 seconds when you know what to do, it’s pretty easy to time-out on first time playing due to all the exploration.
As for more specific issues:
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This block is too close to the ceiling, so it’s hard to get the Flower when you’re Big.
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This tile in this ledge isn’t solid, so we can fall through it!
Creativity: 17/30
There weren’t many changes in terms of creativity, though there is one i could mention: the use of sliding to kill Pokeys in the night section is pretty clever! The setups are quite nice and pretty interesting!
Other than that, it’s pretty much the same. The level still has some nice ideas, such as the On/Off Switch light segments and the day/night sections! Though the execution is a bit lacking, mainly due to the way Layer 2 On/Off works.
And there’s the aesthetics creativity as well, with the ‘industrial’ and ‘desert’ themes!
Aesthetics: 6/10
The aesthetics haven’t changed much as well, though there are a few improvements!
The night section improved a bit now that you removed the “light areas” with their white palettes! The section feels more consistent visually now!
The other sections haven’t changed much.
The day section is still my favorite! I like the desert ambient you created with the graphics, as well as the ‘industrial’ parts! The palettes are nice, though the BG ones look a bit weird.
The indoors section is the same as well, i really like the BG and the metal parts of the FG! But i still think the dirt palettes look weird.
As for aesthetic issues:
- There are a few random
garbled tiles in the night section.
- There are some cutoffs here and there, such as when you used question blocks in front of the FG in the indoors section. The connection points between “fluidous sand” and “normal sand” look weird sometimes as well.
Total: 53/100
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Harmonious Heaven by Emerald Shell
Design: 47/60
This level is really cool!
It didn’t change much from the previous version, but i see it has a few improvements!
There are a lot of nice gameplay ideas, and it has even more interesting setups now! It was really fun to play!
There are a lot of pretty interesting gameplay gimmicks in this level, each of them having a different depth of execution. The focus of the level actually didn’t change much: the Bob-Omb gimmick is still the most developed in the level, while the others have a shorter appearance. But there was certainly an improvement in the focus of each gimmick in their respective section, and you came up with some more interesting setups for them!
Again, i’ll be splitting the review based on the sections in the level.
First Section: This is the more platforming-oriented section. It has a great platforming and a lot of interesting setups with Line guides, as well as some cool setups with Pokeys!
This section is pretty much the same as before, though there is one change that’s pretty nice, the Scale Platforms setup! I really like what you did with this setup, requiring us to use the Scale Platforms to cut through solid ground! It’s certainly more interesting now! Also, it’s nice that you fixed the softlock with the Line-guided Platform!
I still think the Scale Platforms could have appeared more than once in this section though, as it’s focused on platforming.
Second Section: This is the puzzle-oriented section. It has a clear focus on Bob-Omb puzzles, and executes it very well! It has many clever and interesting setups with getting and using Bob-Ombs!
This section is also pretty much unaltered, with the exception of one new setup using the Layer 2 Clouds! It’s pretty similar to the Chainsaw + Fuzzies setup used in the previous version of the level, though i appreciate the fact you used the Layer 2 Clouds again! However, this gimmick still feels like the least developed one in the level, as it has barely any impact in gameplay.
Also, now that the Scale Platform setup in the first section has changed, the one in this section stands out a bit more!
Third Section: This is the gimmick-focused section, specifically designed around the “No Spin Jump” gimmick. It’s a pretty cool idea, and, despite being already used before, is still very creative!
This section had the most changes made with the latest version of this level, and there’s definitely some improvements made, especially regarding the design focus on the gimmick! This section now has a few more setups that seem to be designed specifically for spin-jumping, which certainly makes this section’s gimmick more meaningful! I like the one in the Line-guided Platform ride, as well as the one with the double Chainsaw!
I still feel there are some setups that don’t fit this section as nicely, such as the common use of Chainsaws placed high, but this is a definite improvement!
Again, i didn’t find any noticeable design flaws, this level is pretty polished!
Overall, this is a great level with a lot of really cool ideas and many interesting setups!
Creativity: 25/30
This level has tons of cool ideas! There’s a nice variety of gimmicks that fit pretty well into the level!
This new version has quite some improvements made to the execution of the gimmicks, especially the ones that felt underused before, and brings some new interesting setups with them, which certainly affect this category positively!
The Bob-Omb gimmick stays as my favorite, though the other gimmicks were made a bit more interesting now!
There are a lot of clever setups with the use of sprites in this! And a nice amount of aesthetic creativity, with a nice and well executed theme!
Aesthetics: 8/10
This level is beautiful! It has a really cool theme and a great execution!
The aesthetics are pretty much unaltered, except for the palette in the Mushroom Platforms, which was definitely improved!
Again, i love the way you use the cloud FG, and how you make it work so well in the level! The palettes are great and really fit the level! And i especially like how they change throughout the level to change the atmosphere! The BGs are great, and so are the enemy reskins!
The song is great, and fits the theme well!
I didn’t find any aesthetic issues, this level is very polished visually!
Total: 80/100 (Favorited!)
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