We have 2 more reviews on the way!
I'm still going through the updated levels as well. This time i played:
- Koopa Kaboose by Mogu94
I literally didn't see any changes made, i even looked at Lunar Magic, so my previous review is still valid for this level.
- Frozen Grassland by Yoshi9429
This level had quite a few changes! So it's the first one that will be getting a re-review! It's coming on the next post!
Now let's go to today's reviews!
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Adventurous Ascent by Roykirbs
Design: 38/60
This is a pretty cool level!
I like the platforming in it, there’s a lot of variety and it keeps the level pretty engaging! It’s very fun to play, and flows pretty well!
I really like the use of the terrain in this level! It makes a great use of extended level height! And i like the fact that you used a horizontal level as if it was a vertical one!
There is a nice focus on vertical platforming and climbing in this level, and it has a great variety in the platforming, platform formations and climbing setups that makes it very engaging and enjoyable!
It also has some great exploration elements with the Yoshi Coins and a few coin blocks, though a few Yoshi Coins felt too simple: while the first two had alternate paths for them, the others pretty much only required an extra jump.
The use of sprites is pretty good! It has a nice variety of sprites and some pretty interesting setups with them! The sprites really help making the level engaging!
The Dry Bones bouncing setups are pretty cool! It’s quite a nice idea! But most of them can be skipped by doing a running jump, since you put a higher block in most of them (which wasn’t needed at all, as Dry Bones will already stay on ledges). I also like the way you used Sparkys! They always felt pretty interesting and threatening! My favorite setups are these platform formations! They remind me of setups in Super Mario Bros 2/Super Mario USA!
However, i’d say the use of Dino Rhinos and Dino Torches felt a bit out of place, as the level uses mostly castle sprites. And they weren’t really too interesting, as they’re mostly just simple obstacles. In the beginning of the level they looked quite promising, as you designed around their jumping mechanics, but then it seems you completely forgot about that for the rest of the level.
Also, i found a few gameplay issues:
- The most noticeable one is this ledge, which is too high to reach. It requires Mario to have P-Speed, and even then the jump has to be quite precise.
By looking at Lunar Magic, i noticed there is a Hothead in that platform, and we’re supposed to spin jump on it to reach the ledge. However, the Hothead can easily despawn when we go to the left side of the area, and since his spawn point is the left side of the platform, we can’t scroll it far enough for it to respawn. If you had placed it in the right side of the platform instead, we would be able to respawn it.
- This Goomba can fall on our head when we jump up here.
- This Wooden Spike is quite hard to see as it hides behind the bush.
- Here we can get up to this Rope platform by using the Goomba to do a “Goomba jump”. This allows us to get the Midway Point without having to go through the pipe, skipping the entire Subroom on level 25.
Creativity: 14/30
This level has a few nice ideas! The first thing i could say i really liked is how well you used extended level height! This level has a great vertical oriented platforming!
The idea of bouncing on Dry Bones is quite good as well, though the execution wasn’t the best, and many jumps can be skipped.
As for setups, there are a few pretty interesting ones! The setups with Sparkys were particularly cool! A few Dry Bones setups are pretty good as well! Some platform climbing segments are also really cool!
This level also has a nice amount of aesthetic creativity! It has a great theme! And i love the buildings made with Castle and Ghost House tilesets!
Aesthetics: 8/10
This level is beautiful!
I really like the way you used graphics! The tileset mix was really well done! I love the buildings you made with the Castle and Ghost House tiles! The decorations were also used nicely!
The palettes look mostly good! I really like how you made them work for the buildings! The only palettes i don’t like are the purple ones for the Castle Stone Blocks, especially the skinny ones.
The Layer 2 BG is good, though the Layer 3 clouds are way too bright due to the translucent setting. They look plain white, and feel really weird!
The song is really good! It’s pretty catchy, and fits the level pretty well!
I didn’t find any aesthetic issues, the only nitpick i could mention is some Castle Stone Blocks look strange having no corner tiles.
Total: 60/100
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Phantasmagoria by LotusLandSigma
Design: 5/60
Uh, this level is just really random!
The design is all over the place, and it doesn’t have any focus at all! The level barely tries to execute any ideas it presents.
Note that i won’t be saying many good things about it, so sorry in advance for being quite harsh.
There are a lot of different ideas and gameplay styles mixed together, wall-running, platforming, bouncing on enemies, vines, flying, but none of them were really executed well, it seems like they were just thrown into the editor with no thought put into them!
The design is all over the place, the terrain is mostly made of random flat platforms, and while it does have a bit of variety thanks to the different ideas used, it really isn’t interesting.
The use of sprites is actually not completely bad, as there are a few setups that can be a little bit interesting, but for the most part it’s purely Boo spam.
If there’s one thing i could say i liked is the Yoshi Coin placement, it’s actually quite decent, and each Yoshi Coin has a pretty unique idea! The problem is that these ideas aren’t always well executed.
- The first one requires spin-jumping on Sparkys, and it’s quite interesting, though there’s a Boo off-screen above it that can hit us as the screen doesn’t scroll up.
- The second is hidden on top of a ceiling, pretty simple, but there isn’t any issue with it.
- The third requires us to lure Boo Blocks and use them as platforms. But the amount of Boos makes this segment really frustrating!
- The fourth is my favorite! We have to drop into a Ghost house hole.
- The fifth is blocked by an invisible block, but it’s quite trivial as we have the P-Switch active.
There are also some very noticeable issues with this level! Other than the already mentioned Boo spam throughout the whole level, the last 2 sections are quite flawed.
- The P-Switch section has a few blind jumps, as we can’t see the rows of blocks below. Also, this section uses the bottom row, which isn’t visible to the player! And it's made of P-Switch Blocks, so it disappears if the P-Switch runs out!
- The flying section is just really random and uninteresting! It’s simply a completely open area with a lot of Boos spammed everywhere! There’s no defined path to take on it, and it’s really easy to just run into a Boo while we’re flying, which interrupts our flight and we fall on the Bottomless pit!
Also, it’s possible to completely bypass this area by going over the ceiling where we grab the P-Switch and then flying above the screen until the end.
Overall it’s a really uninteresting level that seems like everything was just randomly put into the editor. And it’s a shame, as the level actually presents a few interesting ideas! It could have been a lot better if you actually focused on developing those ideas.
Creativity: 7/30
This is actually the best aspect of this level! It has a few quite interesting ideas used, especially when it comes to the Yoshi Coins! I like the idea of falling through a Ghost House Hole to reach a lower area! The idea of using Boo Blocks to climb is somewhat interesting as well, and so is the bouncing on Goombas on tile 1F0!
However, the execution isn’t really well done, and the segments are really random, and this hurts this category.
Aesthetics: 2/10
It doesn’t look good.
The level looks really empty, there are just a few platforms, no details, barely any decoration in it, and the BG is really empty as well!
The graphics are vanilla, but they’re as simple as it can get. There are two bushes used as decoration in the beginning, but they feel out of place.
The palettes don’t go well too, especially the back area color. And some choices are weird, like the Boo Block/Reflecting Boo Stream.
The music is pretty good.
There are also a few cutoffs, like the vines, and this dirt has no “ceiling”, you could have used Map16 to put one here. (Act as: 25)
Total: 14/100
My Youtube Channel
I'm still going through the updated levels as well. This time i played:
- Koopa Kaboose by Mogu94
I literally didn't see any changes made, i even looked at Lunar Magic, so my previous review is still valid for this level.
- Frozen Grassland by Yoshi9429
This level had quite a few changes! So it's the first one that will be getting a re-review! It's coming on the next post!
Now let's go to today's reviews!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Adventurous Ascent by Roykirbs
Design: 38/60
This is a pretty cool level!
I like the platforming in it, there’s a lot of variety and it keeps the level pretty engaging! It’s very fun to play, and flows pretty well!
I really like the use of the terrain in this level! It makes a great use of extended level height! And i like the fact that you used a horizontal level as if it was a vertical one!
There is a nice focus on vertical platforming and climbing in this level, and it has a great variety in the platforming, platform formations and climbing setups that makes it very engaging and enjoyable!
It also has some great exploration elements with the Yoshi Coins and a few coin blocks, though a few Yoshi Coins felt too simple: while the first two had alternate paths for them, the others pretty much only required an extra jump.
The use of sprites is pretty good! It has a nice variety of sprites and some pretty interesting setups with them! The sprites really help making the level engaging!
The Dry Bones bouncing setups are pretty cool! It’s quite a nice idea! But most of them can be skipped by doing a running jump, since you put a higher block in most of them (which wasn’t needed at all, as Dry Bones will already stay on ledges). I also like the way you used Sparkys! They always felt pretty interesting and threatening! My favorite setups are these platform formations! They remind me of setups in Super Mario Bros 2/Super Mario USA!
However, i’d say the use of Dino Rhinos and Dino Torches felt a bit out of place, as the level uses mostly castle sprites. And they weren’t really too interesting, as they’re mostly just simple obstacles. In the beginning of the level they looked quite promising, as you designed around their jumping mechanics, but then it seems you completely forgot about that for the rest of the level.
Also, i found a few gameplay issues:
- The most noticeable one is this ledge, which is too high to reach. It requires Mario to have P-Speed, and even then the jump has to be quite precise.
By looking at Lunar Magic, i noticed there is a Hothead in that platform, and we’re supposed to spin jump on it to reach the ledge. However, the Hothead can easily despawn when we go to the left side of the area, and since his spawn point is the left side of the platform, we can’t scroll it far enough for it to respawn. If you had placed it in the right side of the platform instead, we would be able to respawn it.
- This Goomba can fall on our head when we jump up here.
- This Wooden Spike is quite hard to see as it hides behind the bush.
- Here we can get up to this Rope platform by using the Goomba to do a “Goomba jump”. This allows us to get the Midway Point without having to go through the pipe, skipping the entire Subroom on level 25.
Creativity: 14/30
This level has a few nice ideas! The first thing i could say i really liked is how well you used extended level height! This level has a great vertical oriented platforming!
The idea of bouncing on Dry Bones is quite good as well, though the execution wasn’t the best, and many jumps can be skipped.
As for setups, there are a few pretty interesting ones! The setups with Sparkys were particularly cool! A few Dry Bones setups are pretty good as well! Some platform climbing segments are also really cool!
This level also has a nice amount of aesthetic creativity! It has a great theme! And i love the buildings made with Castle and Ghost House tilesets!
Aesthetics: 8/10
This level is beautiful!
I really like the way you used graphics! The tileset mix was really well done! I love the buildings you made with the Castle and Ghost House tiles! The decorations were also used nicely!
The palettes look mostly good! I really like how you made them work for the buildings! The only palettes i don’t like are the purple ones for the Castle Stone Blocks, especially the skinny ones.
The Layer 2 BG is good, though the Layer 3 clouds are way too bright due to the translucent setting. They look plain white, and feel really weird!
The song is really good! It’s pretty catchy, and fits the level pretty well!
I didn’t find any aesthetic issues, the only nitpick i could mention is some Castle Stone Blocks look strange having no corner tiles.
Total: 60/100
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Phantasmagoria by LotusLandSigma
Design: 5/60
Uh, this level is just really random!
The design is all over the place, and it doesn’t have any focus at all! The level barely tries to execute any ideas it presents.
Note that i won’t be saying many good things about it, so sorry in advance for being quite harsh.
There are a lot of different ideas and gameplay styles mixed together, wall-running, platforming, bouncing on enemies, vines, flying, but none of them were really executed well, it seems like they were just thrown into the editor with no thought put into them!
The design is all over the place, the terrain is mostly made of random flat platforms, and while it does have a bit of variety thanks to the different ideas used, it really isn’t interesting.
The use of sprites is actually not completely bad, as there are a few setups that can be a little bit interesting, but for the most part it’s purely Boo spam.
If there’s one thing i could say i liked is the Yoshi Coin placement, it’s actually quite decent, and each Yoshi Coin has a pretty unique idea! The problem is that these ideas aren’t always well executed.
- The first one requires spin-jumping on Sparkys, and it’s quite interesting, though there’s a Boo off-screen above it that can hit us as the screen doesn’t scroll up.
- The second is hidden on top of a ceiling, pretty simple, but there isn’t any issue with it.
- The third requires us to lure Boo Blocks and use them as platforms. But the amount of Boos makes this segment really frustrating!
- The fourth is my favorite! We have to drop into a Ghost house hole.
- The fifth is blocked by an invisible block, but it’s quite trivial as we have the P-Switch active.
There are also some very noticeable issues with this level! Other than the already mentioned Boo spam throughout the whole level, the last 2 sections are quite flawed.
- The P-Switch section has a few blind jumps, as we can’t see the rows of blocks below. Also, this section uses the bottom row, which isn’t visible to the player! And it's made of P-Switch Blocks, so it disappears if the P-Switch runs out!
- The flying section is just really random and uninteresting! It’s simply a completely open area with a lot of Boos spammed everywhere! There’s no defined path to take on it, and it’s really easy to just run into a Boo while we’re flying, which interrupts our flight and we fall on the Bottomless pit!
Also, it’s possible to completely bypass this area by going over the ceiling where we grab the P-Switch and then flying above the screen until the end.
Overall it’s a really uninteresting level that seems like everything was just randomly put into the editor. And it’s a shame, as the level actually presents a few interesting ideas! It could have been a lot better if you actually focused on developing those ideas.
Creativity: 7/30
This is actually the best aspect of this level! It has a few quite interesting ideas used, especially when it comes to the Yoshi Coins! I like the idea of falling through a Ghost House Hole to reach a lower area! The idea of using Boo Blocks to climb is somewhat interesting as well, and so is the bouncing on Goombas on tile 1F0!
However, the execution isn’t really well done, and the segments are really random, and this hurts this category.
Aesthetics: 2/10
It doesn’t look good.
The level looks really empty, there are just a few platforms, no details, barely any decoration in it, and the BG is really empty as well!
The graphics are vanilla, but they’re as simple as it can get. There are two bushes used as decoration in the beginning, but they feel out of place.
The palettes don’t go well too, especially the back area color. And some choices are weird, like the Boo Block/Reflecting Boo Stream.
The music is pretty good.
There are also a few cutoffs, like the vines, and this dirt has no “ceiling”, you could have used Map16 to put one here. (Act as: 25)
Total: 14/100
My Youtube Channel