Design: 60 Points How well-designed is the level? Is it overall fun to play? How well does it execute its theme, gimmicks and level setups? Is the difficulty consistent or is it frustrating or boring? Does the level function properly or are there issues such as unintended slowdown? Creativity: 30 Points Does the level present any unique or interesting ideas using SMW’s resources? Does it have any original, nice setups? Is the theme/gimmick innovative? Aesthetics: 10 Points How does the level look aesthetically? Is it polished? Does it do anything interesting with the original game’s graphics? Does the music fit? Is the music a nuisance to gameplay? Are there any broken sound effects or samples? The total score will be out of 100 points. --------------------------------------------------------------- 114 YOSHI'S ISLAND 2 38 8 5 A skytree. Generic kaizo (in spirit, not in letter) visits the vanilla contest, instance the second (this one is not as good as the other one as its obstacles are completely stereotyped in this setting). Coins do not reappear upon resetting. --------------------------------------------------------------- 113 Dude, Jill 53 27 9 This was the first level I played. The theme of this one might be called 'active waiting': Wait for layer 2, moving pipes or bowser flame walls while doing jumps and dodging stuff. There is still some actual waiting (i.e. just standing still) in parts. The level started very generously: You can go slowly, observe things carefully (e.g. that lakitu throws left), and retry obstacles easily. I think having instant death lava as punishment before you get a checkpoint is probably a mistake as the level starts to feel unbalanced the more you replay the beginning. That checkpoint is also hidden, in a sense, as it is on one of two equally unappetising paths, and I am not sure that arrow was sufficient indication. The level isexciting to play when you know how it works, even though I felt there were some awkwardnesses (some of the respawning bowser flames felt chaotic or forced waiting; the level felt easier while small (because of the extra head-room)--I ended up skipping some mushrooms). I enjoyed the 'puzzle' blue coins that had various meanings. Small breaks: you can swim in upside down lava; you can go under the line of fuzzies after the midpoint; you can kill lakitu with the throw block taken through the pipe. Having played it again after playing everything else, this is definitely the hardest proper, non-kaizo level in the contest. I appreciate how it engages the player's creativity in solving its problems (although it is another level that is much more re-playable than playable, in my opinion). Kudos for taking some risks. It was one of my favourites and I shall replay it now and again. --------------------------------------------------------------- 112 Level Entry 25 5 3 There seems to be a lot of space and extra paths in this level but no real reason to explore it: I went right and won. This level does not quite come up to the vanilla SMW standard in sprite and object usage (e.g. compare it with those levels with nets and net koopas). A lot of sprite types were used, but none in any surprising way, and there was a lack of theme and development. --------------------------------------------------------------- 111 CREVICE CLIMB 40 13 7 A nice clean looking level that mixes tilesets in an inoffensive manner (I start by saying this as the depopulated introductory screens seem to insist upon the player remarking on it). The level is generally pleasant to play. Sometimes you may miss a jump and fall and be unable to progress or reset. There are some sprites that are easy to despawn, either coming at them from below, or as they move off to the sides. Again, resetting some of these may not be feasible or even possible. The platforms move right when they land on a line, and there was a part with a moving saw that almost assumes that knowledge, a bit out of keeping with the rest of the level (that part also feels tight even if you know what is going to happen). After hitting a p-switch, there are coins that will be solid 9impeding player movement). There is a one-tile net which is awkward to grab in itself, doubly so since it is against a wall. At one point, a hard-to-get p-switch and some babysitting rewards you with...a mushroom. Green springs are not green springs. --------------------------------------------------------------- 110 PRIMARY PIPES 48 20 8 A lively first half. The second half felt a bit slow. Also, the theme seemed to shift at some point from pipes to rotating platforms. Perhaps some jumps are a little tight compared to the rest of the level. Reappearing midpoint. I don't like that the block you used as a stone block looks like it should have cloud properties to me (probably since it is made from the platform sprite), and you don't have to notice this before it is in a position to impede your jump (in the vertical section). The moving pipe in the vertical section may despawn before you encounter it (the sprite does not do much in any event). The boss fight feels miscellaneous. --------------------------------------------------------------- 109 Magnetic Net 38 20 7 Default pleasant atmospherics courtesy of worldpeace. The level begins by making good use of space, particularly for bonus material. The key cave is rather a deadly place to house a solitary dragon coin; it's even worse when you're one-wayed out of collecting a dragon coin later (as it was so much wasted effort). The stationary thwimps were a strange but not unfitting element. Some careless things with them: You may kill one with a shell at the beginning before you realise what to do (if you kick away the shell to spin jump); one of the ceilings above them is a bit low compared with other jumps in the level. I thought there was a deterioration in the second half with the slow-paced way cool knock-off and surprise key hunt (again, there is something unnecessary about that huge pit underneath the pipe you have to enter on a key). The disco shell part is slightly more tiresome if you are big, but strangely pointless for all that--perhaps it is meant to tie into a tight time limit. Over all, the level feels too miscellaneous or unfocussed. SMW being itself, wigglers do some strange things. Some of the decoration is questionable to me (those sloped tiles look as much functional as decorative; the rock platform acting as completely solid; empty air hurt cubes dressed up as urchins). Green springs are not green springs. --------------------------------------------------------------- 108 Sunset Land 20 5 4 This level does not quite come up to the vanilla SMW standard, in my opinion. Coins scattered about; koopas on ledges; (in the first area) one rex only and one chuck only; (in the second area) one lotus only and one chuck only. Parts of it felt empty and nothing was developed. The palette is a bit bright. --------------------------------------------------------------- 107 OH THAT'S HOT 40 20 7 Pretty successful attempt to emulate a DKC atmosphere in vanilla SMW. The raft ride was quite standard (blaargs and bats), but pleasant to enough to play. The enemy walls are becoming a bit hackneyed by this point, even if they fit in well thematically here. Good attention was given to the playability of the level (see how it indicates the strange behaviour of the skull rafts as they just vanish). This is an another level where having three parts is not necessarily better: Having just two meatier parts might have been more engaging, given how essentially similar everything was. The warning sign could have had a better graphic (it looks like a red switch block). At the first spiny spin jumping part, you can easily outrun the skull raft by accident. --------------------------------------------------------------- 106 Shrine of Souls 55 20 10 This is a very nice sequel to an old favourite, though if I am being honest I prefer that old favourite. The atmosphere is perfect. The level plays almost completely smoothly, except for the one part where you can easily destroy both shells by accident (if you have a fire flower) before you have understood what the level wants from you. There are some clever uses of sprites, and double uses (the two hotheads you avoid from above on the ledge and from below on the ascending ledge). --------------------------------------------------------------- 105 Grandma's Paradise 45 13 6 A level focussed on parakoopas and the expanding platforms. I thought it was pleasant to play, if not the most exciting thing. It did get zippier with the introduction of ice. Is making you want to duck jump all the time design flaw? (I have no idea what people consider a design flaw.) I suppose green coins represent the spawn locations of koopas in the event you lose one. A side exit is used as a reset mechanism for one obstacle. --------------------------------------------------------------- 104 AMBROSE ASYLUM 35 12 3 The major thing contending against this level's playability is the decoration. I was constantly asking myself if this or that were or were not solid. Beyond that, there is decent use of sprites, particularly the rope ride and some of the line-guided obstacles. It was a chore to find where to enter the big door (it always is). There was a map16 disaster on the staircase outside. --------------------------------------------------------------- 103 GENERAL TROTYL 43 25 5 An admirable effort to make a level out of the cannon pipe momentum gimmick. It is an inherently janky gimmick for various reasons: the variable speed out of the pipe; losing speed on the ground depending on how many frames you have stayed there; how long you need to hold the button down and when to release (this last compounded by the different input delays players will have). Nonetheless, I think you gave sufficient margin for error and tested the level enough that these things did not put too much strain on the playing experience. Perhaps an extra mushroom at some point would have been nicer, as avoiding damage should not be part of the challenge (although there is one point where you can damage boost and avoid making a momentum jump). I loved the incorporation of p-switches and spin jumping into the typical koopa bouncing. It is a very ugly level though, perhaps intentionally so--but I liked its old-fashioned appeal. I had a lot of fun playing this one. --------------------------------------------------------------- 102 TO2ALLY TERRIBLE 40 15 5 Every year, people make water levels and other people wonder why those people chose to make water levels. No one ever wonders why no one chose to make a p-balloon level. God bless you, you brave level-making pioneer. For what it is, it is quite well designed. It uses some atypical sprites (parachute bombs, grey platforms) which fit quite well into a balloon ride, although perhaps it is a little repetitive (e.g. the two set-ups with a lakitu plus a tunnel flame). It was suitably short and comparable to the infamous tubular. It is nice that you tried to do something different. --------------------------------------------------------------- 101 GRAND KOOPALOPOLIS 53 20 10 This has some very impressive graphics. But it also has some peculiar graphics (one was what looked like half a swirly lolly on top of half a spike). The inexplicable popularity of red switch block as warning sign in this contest became actual in this level (at least for me--it was the second level, but not the last, I played which had it). There are some other things I could list: the solid bottom of the crate being the same as the semi-solid ledge; two types of throw block for some reason; big boss door with an exclamation mark in its middle; the dotted outline invisible question blocks (being introduced with a grinder mowing the ground). Having to parse some of this stuff was slightly tiresome. Looking beyond this, I think the level was very well made. The was a good variation in obstacles; and a good sense of challenge in reading these obstacles and in the length of the level (it did not feel too long or too short). I think it might have been more adventurous sometimes (e.g. it ends with a nearly unmodified vanilla boss fight). It seems easy to run out of time (I did). --------------------------------------------------------------- 100 MECHA MOUNTAIN 40 10 7 Probably with more restraint, the decorative elements in this level would have been able to shine more effectively. A lot of the decorations are black. There are also black munchers scattered about. As well as munchers, there are spikes and also a different kind of spike. These, too, are scattered about. It is better to make obstacles out of sprites rather than hurt blocks (the hitboxes are more generous and they are just more interesting). Aside from this, the level uses its space well and places sprites sensibly, even if there is not much to beating the level. --------------------------------------------------------------- 99 Mountan Castle 30 30 9 An admirable attempt to combine various warping/wrapping effects (green springs, layer 2 noteblock, invisible yoshi, fireballs and sprites wrapping from the top of the screen, and the invisible warp sprite), this level sets an obvious benchmark in creativity. The major knock on its score is playability. We are used to playing stuff like this with instant retry; having to go to the overworld and transition through pipes was a bit of a nuisance here, and I only enjoyed the level (and was motivated to finish it after reaching the first checkpoint) by giving myself instant retry and making savestates at the section entries. The level is much more re-playable than it is playable. It is a moot question how far I should penalise the level for being designed outside the vanilla retry constraints; I arbitrarily decided on giving it half of what I would have given it otherwise. Even in the circumstances, I would have given it a much higher score if there was less level (just the first area, or with an area you could play immediately after a vanilla midpoint). Still, I enjoyed it tremendously. Nitpicks: the fast shove warp sprite seems to kill me sometimes; the green coin is not a great graphical tile for its effect (no, I can't suggest a better); the water interaction is a tile short of its graphic. Unethical Aesthetic: wrong tile for 1F0. --------------------------------------------------------------- 98 SWEET DREAMS 5 30 10 Not a level. There is one enemy you have to avoid (the rest are too high up to matter). There are a couple of jumps you have to do to get past very small gaps. Perhaps you may even enter the water and have to leave it again. There are two munchers that may be dangerous. --------------------------------------------------------------- 97 Have Sweet Dreams 55 25 10 The level takes some screens to get going. The way the vines became the theme of the level was unexpected and rather delightful. The autoscrolling part was tremendously well done. This level had proper half blocks that you could hit. I think a simpler foreground might have been better: the cave and the forest seemed similarly coloured to me and were hard to tell apart at times. There was one part where you have to drop blindly and quickly grab a vine, and I was carrying a shell there and died. I was disappointed I was not allowed to enter the door with yoshi. --------------------------------------------------------------- 96 Technical Loopholes 53 28 6 A sort of ugly level but at least its look serves its purpose and it is quite clear what is happening all the time, to wit peculiarly looping sprites. At first, it seems as though the level is itself just looping through the entire spriteset and then some, but things pick up when the focus moves to chucks in the second half. Perhaps you have to wait a bit too long on the circle and in the chuck rooms. The second last platform from the end is a little janky. --------------------------------------------------------------- 95 Get the mushroom! 35 15 7 This is a very unusual level. I enjoyed how different it was. It picked a theme and stuck to it. There was a part where you could not reset consistently with the rest of the level. Some of the activities were more straightforward than others and could have been developed more. Peculiar fact: If you climb into the turn-block instead of jumping at it, it does not bounce the shell. --------------------------------------------------------------- 94 PHANTASMAGORIA 25 8 4 Not the best level. The first half is not too bad but lacks focus. Some sprites posed no kind of threat. It was confusing where to go at the midpoint (you have to let yourself fall blindly). The second half is focussed, certainly, but it boils down to flying. People comfortable with flying will not have too much trouble with it, but others might well have. I am not sure the foregoing part of the level properly prepares you for this challenge. It is interesting to use boos in a flying section since they chase you and so you cannot slow down too much. The background was a bit empty. There was an unnecessary invisible block. There was a grinder going behind bush. --------------------------------------------------------------- 93 PURPLE WAVES 58 30 7 This is a highlight. I was reminded of a level from the super Japanese hack SUPER. The idea is marvellous and the execution is a complete delight. This is another level that engages the player's creativity--you need to work to understand this level in order to enjoy it. Some of the line-guided sprites despawned. It was a friendly length for the harsh punishment. The level starts very cleverly by demonstrating the purple water is deadly by displaying a skeleton in it (at least I thought it was clever when Nachos and Fried Oreos did it). --------------------------------------------------------------- 92 Petroleum Pipeland 40 15 7 Generic kaizo (in spirit, not in letter) visits the vanilla contest. Blue coins indicating spin jumps; yoshi ditching; ultra star number platforms ; sprites frozen on 1F0. There is nothing wrong with this in itself; it is just that I feel I have seen a hundred things like this recently. Shell-jumpers may collect a moon. --------------------------------------------------------------- 91 SUPER MARIO BROS? 38 20 7 This was not badly done. I loved the simple but effective way of handling the graphical transitions. The mole rides feel like generic mole rides. I am not sure the coins at the part with the three vines were sufficient indication (the dirt squares confuse things). That part and some other of the more unusual set-ups might have been developed more. Perhaps you could have incorporated the bonus area which must be under the model level. --------------------------------------------------------------- 90 Linear Farms 30 20 10 While the graphics here are extremely impressive, there was not much to beating the level itself. The first half was a very simple run forward; the second half was a bit more interesting with the plunging ground, but ultimately was another simple run forward. Some of the enemies are changed to fit in to the level; some are just pokey. There is some inconsistency at the edges of platforms, with some being slopes and others squares (perhaps both are strange, for different reasons). The graphic for the 1F0 probably looks too solid. --------------------------------------------------------------- 89 Temple of Fish Gods 48 18 8 The platform ride in the second half was brilliant, a nicely balanced and organised section. The first half was less focussed. You have to bounce on line-guided and non-line-guided saws, which have different hitboxes. Some things felt out of place with how tight they were (that ground grinder bounce; some of the platform to platform transitions). I loved the wavy hdma spikes. --------------------------------------------------------------- 88 Militarized Iceberg 59 26 9 This was fantastic. You have so much freedom of movement but there is always something to think about. The best thing was that if you hold run and forward and do a big, big jump when you need to jump, you will hit something at the end of that jump. That is the true nintendo quality design. There were memories of a hollow metal heart as I stood still and watched a bomb blow itself and some flames up; positive deja vu as the layer 2 scrolled with para-men coming down. It was an excellent notion to use wall-running with the larger level size. Some minor things. At one part a grey platform you do not actually need does not respawn if you fall down (you can also despawn the moving pipe after). The final part with layer 2 was slightly janky in some ways (you can stand on below the screen layer 2; sometimes jumping up at the smashing ledge kills me; there was one part it was quite easy to naturally reach the smashing layer when it was too late). Altogether, this was so much fun to play--collecting the dragon coins was three minutes of bliss. --------------------------------------------------------------- 87 Black and White 18 5 3 And also some yellow in the bushes. This level does not quite come up to the vanilla SMW standard. The first half was not too bad, but the second half is short and feels unfinished. Buoyancy was not enabled so the fish are not able to swim. A curious thing: Just after the midpoint a koopa got stuck to a wall. --------------------------------------------------------------- 86 Sunny Shoreline 25 10 6 Not too bad, but it might have been a little more ambitious. It was a very short level and SMW's own tide levels probably have more going on. I entered a bonus area, moved a considerable distance, and emerged from the pipe I entered originally. The background looks a bit odd scrolling as it does (the sun need to stay where it is and the other things to either scroll differently or look further away). --------------------------------------------------------------- 85 Industrial Desert 30 15 2 I remember once reading the phrase 'preposterous gallimaufry' in a novel. The graphics in this level took some getting used to (e.g. the set of lazy tongs with a part that fell off) and it was hard to guess at the solidity or other behaviour of divers things in the tileset. There is an animation that is not synchronised. Why were there goombas frozen on clouds? The light switching gimmick was interesting; I recall it being used in VIP5 and it was nice to see it again here, even if it is not the best gimmick (it encourages standing still at the switch till the last moment to give yourself as much time as possible). The level was nicely populated with sprites, particularly indoors (by the way, part of the ground was not solid here). After leaving an area, there was a message telling you about a technique you could have used there--a useful message. --------------------------------------------------------------- 84 CANYON OF BOMBS 40 15 7 I quite liked this one. You get a good sense that the level is using a big space. The obstacles are tweaked slightly throughout the level. The vine at the end did not spawn the first time I reached it. I am not sure the gimmick of hiding bubble bombs behind the hill is very effective as they do not hurt you in themselves and you can just move through them quickly. Some of the kicked shells may take you by surprise if you go quickly; simlarly, in some situations bombs can fall down and take you by surprise, or some can be exploding as you reach them blindly from below. --------------------------------------------------------------- 83 Bouncy Ruins 57 26 8 This was a joy to play. I liked how you forced the player to use all parts of the spring, naturally teaching how they worked. The level was tremendously focussed without being repetitive, and introduced new sprites at just the right moment. The second half was perhaps a tad too long, or perhaps the first half was too short. Anyway, an excellent, classical level with no frills. My major graphical beefs would be the use of spikes as well as munchers, seemingly indiscriminately, and donut platfroms acting as ledges. On replaying it, there was one part in the second half where I managed to get the camera too low and there was no way to raise so I had to guess at the head-room. --------------------------------------------------------------- 82 BLUE DABADI DABADU 50 23 5 This level has some strange coin trails. There is one at the beginning leading over a pit of lava (I like to think I, unassisted, would have worked out how to get past this). It was a very focussed, tough and exciting (when you get to the end and do not want to die) level. My big complaint is that lakitu is so high you cannot always tell which way he has thrown. I think it would have made for a more dynamic and friendly level if you had allowed the player to get a fire flower to deal with spinies. There is a jump at the end of the first half that is rather terrifying big (if you hit your head you will get crushed dead) and there is no way to hurt yourself. The palette was almost ugly to me and the music was too loud. --------------------------------------------------------------- 81 dont climb mountain 45 15 7 The first half was fine, but the plants were not enough to carry a level by themselves, although there were some nice set-ups. The wall-running was a great addition to the level. The way sprites spawn with this new lm is obviously very weird: small changes in what I did led to very different things happening or sprites not appearing. There was coin trail at a blind drop which you might have had to repeat without coins if you ducked out of the wall-running at first (not a huge problem). --------------------------------------------------------------- 80 bridge i guess 45 10 10 This was very pretty. The level was not very adventurous with its obstacles. There were some nice uses of platforms (rotating and hammer bro), but the ideas were not explored much. It used stationary rocks for no particular reason. There were two instances of a parakoopa with a parakoopa inside of it. --------------------------------------------------------------- 79 Flames of Muspell 44 20 4 This level takes a perverse delight in confounding the seasoned SMW player. First of all, it gives the hopping flame graphic to a solid block that hurts me. Then it gives a different graphic to the hopping flame sprite, which graphic it then gives to the spiny. The spiny egg has a different graphic that looks like nothing at all and is very hard to see. The stationary bowser statue is coloured to look like the jumping one. There is cave ground that is not solid because it does not have the flashing yellow line, but there is ground indoors that does not have the flashing yellow line that is solid (as well as there being flashing yellow line ground). There is a coin trail directly into the path of a podoboo. There are columns of munchers disguised as lava hidden behind real lava that rise up when you are directly above them (eventually, I notice the red coins). The level was fun once you got past its crusty exterior. It was nice that it gave you a cape with which to kill the dangerous things you encounter. There was a pop-up message. Some of the sprites are chaotic (RNG podoboo; respawning bowser statue flames from the left; spinies walking on lava slopes): I did enjoy how difficult is was, but 160s of this stuff was perhaps a bit much. The second half had less of this kind of thing and was shorter and so much more enjoyable (the smashing layer 2 part was smashing). I liked the boss fight. The reticular effect in the ground looked fantastic. Nice choice of music. --------------------------------------------------------------- 78 Vanilla Plains 20 5 5 This level does not quite come up to the vanilla SMW standard. It might have been more focussed and inventive and it might have played more evenly. The vines and wall-running were present but not correct. There was a blind jump over a pit. The part where you had to jump at the extreme edge of all the platforms was out of place. --------------------------------------------------------------- 77 VLDC11 - getthefish 33 15 5 The level began innocuously enough before the second half terrified me with its Way of the M era levelengine look and gimmick. Fortunately, it was short and not too hard. Again, the strange sprite behaviour with this new lm is visible when I was under a thwomp and it stayed where it was (see some other levels in this contest). The level might have done better to have focus and the unusual castle theme and dispensed with the more generic grassland. --------------------------------------------------------------- 76 Dents D'Ouranus 35 13 9 This is very short and felt unfinished to me. Some of the jumps are a bit awkward (the blind fall; waiting for a rising koopa to come down; the koopa bouncing after the grey platform can be easily mistimed if you move too far forward on the platform; the jump off the springboard if you go down there at the end is quite tight). One of the sparkies refused to join the party. Excellent atmosphere. --------------------------------------------------------------- 75 THE GROUND IS GOLD 50 23 8 The level incorporated sliding very neatly in using it for progress and secrets. It also hid things nicely in other ways. The falling statue part was the best part, though; there were some excellent ideas here. I would like to have seen it developed even further. --------------------------------------------------------------- 74 HIDE AND SEEK ITEMS 35 23 5 Name on title screen. This level would not stop talking to me. Running out of time was a joyous moment. Replaying it, I still cannot muster much enthusiasm for the level. A lot of the tasks seem trivial and uninteresting to me. --------------------------------------------------------------- 73 Vanilla Valley 44 14 10 It felt as though the level ran out of steam before it got going. The first half was more on point than the second, which ends with a bullet generator (with an exit forcing you to the side of the screen). Another extremely pretty level. --------------------------------------------------------------- 72 THE LEAVING SKIES (won't load beyond title screen--change music bypass in C5 to play) 35 11 4 So many mole holes, but no moles. So many berries buried in the dirt. I looked up what moles eat. The internet said, "Earthworms and insect larvae. Sometimes also lizards and tiny snakes." So the prevalence of berries in the dirt can explained by the fact that moles do not eat them, and the abscence of moles by the fact that the dirt is filled with berries and not their preferred foodstuffs. Beyond its curious environment, the level makes a not entirely unsatisfactory impression. There is a decent use of space with not too strenuous backtracking; still, there is backtracking. Sprites are placed environmentally and without too much care (sometimes one that is supposed to be there will not have spawned, or a few will pile on top of each other); this carelessness is exemplified in the use of a bullet generator. It is possible to reach the blue switch without having seen the wall of brown blocks (I did this); this is stranger when the springboard position is punctiliously marked by a green coin. Some of the items might be skipped (by hopping on an enemy for the first spring; by doing this and taking the firsr spring to skip the second spring). The grass to cloud to cave transitions end up making the level feel unfocussed (it just ends in the cave). The palette animation in the cave is not completely successful in my opinion, although a more admirable effort than the peculiar decorative elements from earlier in the level at giving an atmosphere. --------------------------------------------------------------- 71 LIME GREEN LANE 30 9 6 A very green level. Without doing anything wrong, it was too unadventurous and straightforward. Very short. --------------------------------------------------------------- 70 MURAMUR 48 14 8 This was very well put together. While being simple, it is never trivial (e.g. the sparky around the power-up block at the beginning)--it always makes you think about your jumps. It could have been a little longer and more substantial. The reflectors wander off after a few bounces. --------------------------------------------------------------- 69 Altair 25 15 3 This level kept giving me lives even though I started with infinite lives. I did not want them. There was a bonus area with a moon in it. This was not hard to find; it might have been the way forward. The level layered things on top of or underneath other things. There were spikes in lots of places. Many of these were hard to see and avoid. There was an invisible ceiling at one point under the canopy that brought me into some spikes. Many other ceilings felt low and the dolphins were awkward to jump on or off. An animated piranha opened one side of his mouth before the other. At the end, a million feathers fell from the sky. --------------------------------------------------------------- 68 Koopa Kaboose 33 15 8 This looks quite nice, particularly the first three rows from the bottom and the background (the rest of the foreground being a little miscellaneous). The level is not the most exciting to play, being a slow autoscroller sparsely populated with sprites. (This is a common problem with train levels.) It felt like it ended a bit sooner than it started. The koopa seems to be in the title for mostly alliterative purposes. --------------------------------------------------------------- 67 Panic at the Docks 25 13 5 The podoboos should have made whooping noises when they jumped up. The level does not feel as if it goes anywhere with its basic ideas (e.g. the podoboo shooters might have been more dangerous; more use might have been made of the bullet shooters). The indoor part with a bullet generator feels tacked on. You get a springboard at one point; if you jump off it immediately you can go over a wall and die. The ghost house non-solid pillar is used outside as a solid object; not the greatest crime in the world, but worth mentioning, apparently. --------------------------------------------------------------- 66 ATHLETIC SYNERGY 0 10 7 This is a very poorly constructed level. Sometimes you have to find invisible blocks to progress. Sometimes you have to bounce awkwardly on something. At one point you must swim under the level--or at least I think this is what you are meant to do, but the camera does not go low enough. Perhaps there was supposed to be a secret passage ([LATER] yes there is: you hit a turn block somehow and there is a passage behind it). Progress ended here. Coins are scattered everywhere; I cannot tell if they mean anything. There is a dragon coin at the beginning surrounded by seven sprites. Or you can just ignore this and deal with zero sprites. UPDATE: I played past where I got stuck. This is the contest's kaizo: hard level for people who want to use a thousand savestates. A hundred screens of invisible blocks and precise jumps on fish while rocks fall on your head. Not featuring a checkpoint. Some ultra precise re-grabbing at the end and a pointless post goal death trap. --------------------------------------------------------------- 65 Muncher Mountain 50 18 8 Good level. At one point in my playthrough I encountered a moving wall of stacked munchers. I panicked and died. Perhaps you had to wait slightly too long to lure this abomination into the lava. The midpoint starts you in a pretty cramped position. The second half forgot to give you a power-up, unless it was that I was too stupid to find one. There were lots of mole holes. Mario's fireballs are strangely coloured. --------------------------------------------------------------- 64 Forest Blitz 10 15 2 I am not sure what I was supposed to do in this one. I did a shell jump and stole some clouds or flew with the cape. It was very confusing as to what was solid, etc. Sprites are placed haphazardly, unfairly behind things, or in cramped positions. Things fall on you unfairly. There are unexpected holes. The time trial of the second half was slightly more tolerable, but only slightly. The wiggler and plant section was the most interesting. --------------------------------------------------------------- 63 Olivine Pass 40 10 8 A pleasant enough level. The second half was less distinct than the first visually. The level was not all that inventive and did not seem to go anywhere with any ideas it had (e.g. the trees are there as part of the scenery, for all you go on top of one at some point). Some of the jumps felt out of place among the other obstacles of the level (e.g. hitting the vine block over the munchers at the end). --------------------------------------------------------------- 62 YOSHI'S ISLAND 1 48 15 10 I suppose with the hole fixed you are reliably able to use it on munchers like this (you used not to be able to). There was decent variation in obstacles and the level always gave you things to think about. There was some careless sprite usage (the boo circle used in its conventional time-consuming fashion; in the part with the four holes, they can be perfectly lined up and since you cannot see two layers down it is potentially an unfair drop; a stray bulletat one point; a chuck that faces the wrong way when you die and restart; you can use koopas against the boo as well as keys). Graphics and colours were nice. (Noteblocks change colour with no other effect.) All in all, an enjoyable play. The boo fight was a bit messy and did not seem up to the standard of the rest of the level. --------------------------------------------------------------- 61 Sky Castle 38 10 3 The colours in the outside part were not that pleasing (the vanilla colours indoors show this up). The level also looks a bit empty outside. The indoor platform ride was nicely done (although there could have been more space in parts). The outside parts were less focussed but mostly fine. At some parts, things felt more cramped and awkward than elsewhere and sprites could spawn on top of each other making it feel haphazard. The second half seems undeveloped compared to the first. --------------------------------------------------------------- 60 Reach ForThe Summit 45 20 10 This level did not quite win me over. I wish I could like it more. It was either too ambitious, or not polished enough (to the extent that it was often exasperating). If you die after getting the midpoint, you will get to skip a lot of the things you had to do--if I had known this the first time I got the midpoint, it would have saved me running out of time (the timer is not visible for most of the level). The level does look incredible, but it makes lots of choices that impeded my enjoyment of the level. There is a door you have to enter at the extreme left edge. There is water outside that is black with flashing things in it. There is something not water indoors that is black with flashing things in it. The brown blocks are coloured differently from normal so it may not immediately be clear where to go after hitting the p-switch. The cloud in the final section does not look like something you can stand on (comparing it to the other objects in that area), and I wasted a try following the funicular line. The spikes in the final area do not quite match their graphic. There are other minor nuisances aside from these graphical quirks. You get a fire flower indoors, but there is nothing to kill with it. When you get the first flower, you have to have remembered where the ground was since you will not get another chance to look before dropping. There is a generator and you have to stand at the side of the screen. Sometimes the ball'n'chain and the statue shooting above can synchronise awkwardly, or the generator does with another ball'n'chain you would like to bounce on. There was an awkwardly big jump in the final area to land beside a spike. These things add up; inattention to detail can detract from the playing experience. Anyway, stepping back, the level feels too big and unfocussed. The first half is much stronger than the second half. (The bowser statue area was the best elaborated.) The second half has a sort of flying theme, but it was not executed well. The dedicated flying area did not amount to much and it felt like it was just there for you to waste time (successfully so for me) as you are bamboozled by the tileset (and you have to make two tries at everything since you will not know where the holes in the ceiling will be). The two flying obstacles in the final area felt as though they were just filling in the space. In the rest of the final area, there was no real development of ideas. At the filter, I could keep a feather by pressing select. --------------------------------------------------------------- 59 Loopy Labyrinth 25 10 4 It did not feel very labyrinthine; I never felt lost. The way forward is mostly clear and directly ahead, except at the one part where you have to loop once to get both switches (and here, it may be harder to find the reset pipe than the way forward). Perhaps I am being misled by the level name, but there was not much to the level beyond this exploring aspect (e.g. sprites could have been used more adventurously). Mostly it uses an abstract background with the normal cave foreground; it uses a normal background in another part of the level. The foreground palette is not great. --------------------------------------------------------------- 58 Timber Tower 45 15 7 A quite well done level with a strong focus on the moving layer. I value this level for being very different in approach to many others. There were a few parts which involved passive waiting which were not the best thing to replay. Some parts of the level had set-ups that were easy to misread (e.g. a hole where you had to wait for the layer 2 to be moving right or you were dead). Perhaps the moving parts could have been coloured differently from the stationary parts. SMW being itself, wigglers do some strange things. The double throwing lakitu was evil; I loved it. --------------------------------------------------------------- 57 TRAUMEREI 57 23 10 Excellent level. I wish it had been a little longer. It could have been clearer that there was a thwimp conveyor line at one point, as it is easy to think you have to keep pace with the first one. The muncher replacements do not look solid to me, but at least they were noticeably solid on first appearance, which is more than many would have thought of making clear. Collecting the dragon coins was fun. It is perhaps a bit iffy to force standing on a statue shooting fire (if you stand on the left, the flame can hurt you when it spawns). --------------------------------------------------------------- 56 MUSHROOM LANGS 50 10 6 Does a great job of emulating the original SMW in feel and design, to an extent (SMW would have had a perkier cave for the dragon coin). I think the level manages to achieve what it was aiming for, it just does not manage to do anything particularly creative beyond this. The mushroom tileset is tastefully differentiated from the vanilla one; perhaps the cave tileset should have been too. --------------------------------------------------------------- 55 NIGHT GRASSLAND 35 5 5 Many mole holes. No moles. The level is short and undeveloped. Sprites seem to be decorating the landscape. Some things are out of place even then (near the start, you land on the red para-koopa and the banzai runs into you). It was missing something to make it special. --------------------------------------------------------------- 54 ok boys lets get it 35 15 10 While being confused by what a koopa was doing to a wall, I found a hidden passage and one of those dirt flowers I had seen at the beginning. I went in a door and was trying to hit a block with a throwblock when something that did not look like a bullet shooter shot a bullet in my face. A lot of time must have been spent making the background in this level. I am not sure what the point of the little castles are, as I tried to enter many of them and was never able to. Perhaps they are there to confuse me as to which parts of them are solid. There are moments in the level when sprites do not behave as I am used to seeing them behave; the trick is to spin jump on everything. This year's favourite switch block, the red switch block, makes his appearance as a warning indicator of some kind. An animated yoshi has an unsynchronised animation; it looks unfortunate. When exploring, I found a door which you are obviously only allowed to exit from, and then I went back the way I came. --------------------------------------------------------------- 53 YOSHI'S ISLAND 2 37 18 6 I entered the level and started moving forward. There was a muncher depending from the canopy. Unsurprisingly, there were more munchers later on. Yes, they often felt very low down. There was a strangely oriented turn block that you could hit to make it spin, and when it stopped spinning it became on ordinary turn block; there may be some kind of moral here. There are arrow signs pointing the wrong way. I have rarely seen a set-up where you have to jump from one hammer bro platform to another without them being able to be misaligned; this one was no different. The dark area was extremely dark. There were things hidden in the darkness that you would want to avoid. There was a hole in the ground hidden by a tree near the end. There were many different colours of vines and I could climb them all. This level had a robust attitude to leaving cut-off things cut off. I liked how dangerous and well placed the sprites were and the tricky jumps I had to do. I liked how clear and clean the level looked beyond its fripperies. The ground becomes a grey concrete mass after you beat the level; there is some kind of moral here. --------------------------------------------------------------- 52 Metallic Metropolis 45 20 10 It's that ole red switch block again. This time he is blushing. I spent the first hundred or so seconds dropping things into the grinding machine. Despite this, I forgot later on in the level that the straight line over it was not something I could stand on. I was often stopping and looking at all the objects on screen to try and determine what would be safe to stand on. Some of the colours could be more differentiated (e.g. the sparky uses colours that match the background). There were many fabulous touches: the grinding machine; the mallets; the moldorm entity; the giant face. The level was not built around anything in particular; it was very much focussed on its environment. I do not think it made full use of its ideas. No use was made of the grinding machine's property which was introduced at the beginning (i.e. that it kills sprites). The layer 2 falls section was very typical of layer 2 falls sections. There were a couple of conveyors in the level, very far apart (one was placed solely to confuse me when I tried to enter a vertical pipe). I felt the face on the wall was rather too grandiose for the content of the level. Far all this, an enjoyable play and a competently designed level. --------------------------------------------------------------- 51 (bad patch?) --------------------------------------------------------------- 50 Crystarp Hollow 53 27 9 I was not sure about this at first as feeding yoshi is often rather slow and cumbersome. The first couple of feeds were like this (well, the second one was; the first seemed like it was meant to be a sort of tutorial, but was rather inelegant, to my thinking) but things picked up with the vertical feed and the second half of the level, with the change to unusual fireball activities was fantastic. There were many clever sprite uses. I appreciate the symmetry, now I think of it, of yoshi being thrown to sprites followed by sprites being thrown to yoshi. Thwimps sliding on 1F0 seems to be a topical effect in this contest; it was nice to see it coupled here with the similarly-behaving bowser statue. There could have been more margin for error to make it nicer to play at points (yoshi can avoid falling in the one tile gap at the turn blocks and goomba part; the part where you are ascending the staircase and have to stand between the rocks to make the camera scroll). The hammer bros were an interesting obstacle, but were placed suboptimally: the first you can avoid easily by standing on the flowers; the second surprises you by appearing directly under you when you go to the edge of the ground. Some of the reset doors should have had a more convenient something near them to hurt yourself on. The part at the yoshi drop and fireball throw had a pit under it that might have contained a reset. I thought the translucent effect was sometimes intrusive as it applied to mario and yoshi. --------------------------------------------------------------- 49 DEEP DELUGE 40 15 6 This was quite well done. You have to move around the level in many directions and it never felt cluttered or empty. Perhaps this new lm will be a boon to water level enthusiasts. Boo circles work better under water when you have to actively tread; however, some of them here allowed you to stand still. I could go above the screen at one point to no purpose (there is a blue coin there and blue blocks and I cannot tell what any of it is for). doyou havekey. Why the need for a key is underlined later rather than when it is first required, I do not know. When re-playing, I noticed some sprites despawned easily (the urchins at the start; a p-switch from a block despawned--is it no longer a permanent sprite in this cursed ROM?--the key from the block is also easily despawned (in the dark area, not, seemingly, at the beginning)). There are blue blocks scattered about--if they are meant to help me swim more quickly, they do not help me swim more quickly downwards, which is the way I am going). Fake coins appear for no discernible reason. --------------------------------------------------------------- 48 Knuck if you Chuck 42 12 6 I was quite excited at the start of this as the chuck hopped from one block to another--I thought this idea might be developed. Alas, the level was a little more conventional than this (although, in another exciting moment, a chuck ran down and sat on top of a question block). There might have been more elaboration of some of the elements used (rocks, turtle platforms). There was something of a disjoint between what the level looked like at the start and what it looked like at the end. The level was fairly coherent in action, but not in time and place. So much for the dramatic unities. --------------------------------------------------------------- 47 Deep Soda Sea 38 10 6 Another water level. This was a bit more straightforward than the other one. A bit short and conventional, if competently enough constructed. There were half blocks of blocks I can normally hit that I could not hit; yet torpedoes come out of their quarter boxes quite handily. I could swim under much of the level. A whistler wakes up exactly one fish. --------------------------------------------------------------- 46 G. U. C Plains 40 10 4 The level was very miscellaneous, to no good effect. If it had tried a smaller canvas, it might have done better. I think the message is saying that if I ever see two arrow signs, dragon coins will be found by following the lower one. I could jump over a wall at one point and land in the dirt (and at another place). I could bring buzzy to a place for which he was not intended. I liked the part with the grey platforms and the reflectors (although you can just jump to the blocks and ignore what is happening). The palettes look a bit washed out. The background effect at the lava is clunky. Sometimes pipes are two-way and sometimes not. I ran up a wall and a goomba fell down and hurt me. --------------------------------------------------------------- 45 Skyway Sanctum 38 15 7 You have to be very Observant as those blocks are barely visible. At one point I was standing on a pipe and the jumping piranha jumped out, in violation of the conventions of proximity; this is what is called smart sprite loading. Some of the brick ledges are hard to distinguish from the decorative ones. Some situations wee blind (a drop; a thwomp from above).The flame I have to spin on is not introduced very well (there is a pertinent message, but only after this obstacle). I liked the miscellaneous monument gimmick of being behind the net as parts of it were moving (some of the earlier uses of flipping seemed a bit trivial); but even this was a bit pointless as staying behind the net just leads to a power-up. This is another level with thwimps sliding on 1F0. The level was a good length. The spin jumping corridor seemed trickier than other parts of the level. Sometimes you could fall down a long way. --------------------------------------------------------------- 44 Underworld Chapel 35 15 5 The level is very cramped, but it gives you a cape or two to help deal with this. There are often a lot of sprites about, some of which feel misplaced since they have been repawned from the other direction. It is quite easy to miss the midpoint, but perhaps you could consider that this encourages exploration. There are various paths to the flashing room; again, perhaps the obnoxiousness of some of these paths encourages you to look for other ones. The initial area is a little too dark. This is another level where the look of it changes drastically. Mario's palette is tied to the exanimation, although he lights up and does not dim down. The ghost blocks being black here was not good. It seems that capes spawned from blocks high above you may be easily despawned with this smart sprite loading. Bouncing koopas could also despawn easily. --------------------------------------------------------------- 43 CLOUDY LAKE 25 15 6 Avoid anything orange (not the pipe you enter from though). Another water level. This one is more adventurous, but has some problems. The sloped cloud has a graphic that does not match its hitbox, meaning that empty air may hurt you; it is also extremely annoying when you have to damage boost over these apparent slopes. I am not sure why you would have a gimmick like this and use munchers all over the place as well. The level was fine when you were not worrying about the unsatisfactory block interactions. It could have done a bit more with its design elements (e.g. you hardly have to deal with sprites when you are swimming in the water clouds). You can swim under the level directly to the midpoint. --------------------------------------------------------------- 42 Fort Hoversaw 25 20 6 It was not bad. We all know this is not the kaizo contest, yet this is another kaizo level, complete with saw bouncing and re-grabs. It is short, and therefore fair, and reasonably creative. I think I know why the other kaizo level exists; this one, I am less sure about. I applied the penalty from the other kaizo level to this one as well. This might have been a good level for the romhack races people. I loved its slightly janky presentation (the half wendy). The second half was shorter and less inventive than the first; the double dose of RNG (wendy and bullet generator) in the bos fight was a little too much. --------------------------------------------------------------- 41 NEVERLAND 45 20 7 This was well done. It does not start all that promisingly, with a bullet shooter staring me in the face. I tried to get the moon at the beginning that I had seen when I went over the roof, but the level would not let me (I worked out how to get it later). I loved when the level stated making me go into little rooms. The climbing parts felt fresh compared to some other levels in this contest. I am not sure the split path was necessary (was it shorter, easier? was there some kind of bonus?--I did not notice). Sometimes I could go places without being able to return (some of the stone blocks between the munchers; going over the roof after hitting the p-switch). --------------------------------------------------------------- 40 BONEY BASIN 25 5 5 This level does not quite come up to the vanilla SMW standard, in my opinion. It feels empty in parts in the cave. It is natural to jump up from the skull raft to see what is up there, but then the raft is despawned. The ride lasts for a screen. In an almost completely vanilla tileset, donut blocks act like ledges. --------------------------------------------------------------- 39 Turrim Caelo 45 15 9 This was fine, taken as a whole. The message box seems inelegant. I do not think the doors are marked logically (it is a good convention that has dark and light doors--here, you may try to go in the first and ignore the next). Some of the sprite replacements seem rather pointless (we were always told in my youth that having differently coloured buzzy beetles was a Bad Thing--this is not functionally different). There were unmarked fast lines (although this never seemed much of an issue). Some of the platforms rides just involve standing still for a while. The dangerous windows in the castle might have been more clearly marked. Some of the baseballs are invisible under you when you fall. The SURVIVE part was a little repetitive. The spikes were nice; and nice rows of jumping munchers (the middle muncher always being particularly excited). --------------------------------------------------------------- 38 Rocky Forest 25 10 5 Another level not that far removed from SMW, but SMW would have focussed on sprites more and had less foreground. I thought there was going to be an emphasis on dinos, but they soon stopped appearing in the level; later, there was only that one green dino that talks to you. Perhaps the entry into the exit pipe in the cave was a little tricky compared with the other obstacles in the level. The wobbly bushes were frightening me; I was glad when they went away. It always seems strange to me to see bushes marking the pits; perhaps they are like the 'piece of bright green moss which I had always learned to think would never bear' one reads of in Lord Dunsany. --------------------------------------------------------------- 37 VANILLA EMULATION 38 23 8 Another kaizo style level, less generic than the other ones but a bit harder and more clumsily put together. Some of the block grabs are a bit awkward. At the part where you HURRY you can hurry too much (more than once). The SPIN LOW at the step of spinies is also awkward (it is easier to ignore the lower one). --------------------------------------------------------------- 36 Silver Sky 28 10 7 There was not much to beating this level. The spike balls did not come into play substantively, so I wonder why they were there at all-- as decorative hurt blocks, perhaps. Or perhaps everything is meant to be frozen (the platforms look as though they are surrounding by pieces of dirt, as if they had just exploded into being); if that is so, I wonder why the ninjis are moving. The slow autoscrollers were very, very slow. --------------------------------------------------------------- 35 Overless Night 30 10 4 The bottom of the upside down mushroom top is solid. I suppose that is logical. The top of it is also solid. Farewell, Logic! Logic, farewell! Strange things decorate the ground. This becomes more immediate when some of them start moving (the thwimp). In a move from dirt decoration, we now have mushroom platform decoration. The real world justification is that mushroom stalks often have hammers and rocks embedded in them. A line-guided platfrom did not spawn. There are quite a few places in the level you can jump to that have nothing there to justify your exploration. Reappearing midpoint. Bullet generator. Another piranha not respecting proximity. The level just ends with an orb. --------------------------------------------------------------- 34 go directly to jail 48 23 9 Excellent level which stuck to its theme. It had a nice sense of challenge. Some things were introduced inelegantly (the blocks the thwomp ignores). The second half is less interesting as it relies on the generator, though it was a good thought to use water to keep you active. Some of the generator eerie spawns can be tricky to deal with. Some things were too tight and felt out of place (spikes one tile above ground). There was a stray eerie at the beginning; perhaps he is there to foreshadow the existence of other eeries. There is sprite power-up for technical reasons, probably (flowers stay still)--a curious thing is that fireballs sometimes pass through the cage). --------------------------------------------------------------- 33 Dimension Traveling 42 20 5 I am curious as to the framing story for this level. Why does it begin in the Place of the Urchins? The part where you are going in and out of pipes is cool if clunky. It is not very clear that you will be dodging stuff when you exit the pipe. I remember an old level being made out of the invisible ground gimmick; it appears here apparently to make the level more miscellaneous. The net part later was an interesting twist, but completely undeveloped. The second checkpoint pipe could be more clearly marked in the midway area (remember people will forget what the area looked like). The level autoscrolls at the end. Flashing yellow stone blocks. Rock platforms solid when they are frozen (inconsistent with other frozen sprites keeping their behaviour). Ground grinders easily despawn at one part. --------------------------------------------------------------- 32 Frozen Grassland 35 13 5 It was not clear that the grey box the message spoke of was the ghost house stair, and this led to some confusion foe me. Day and night levels are always hard to pull off. This one is not bad, but I think a lot of the obstacles are not different enough or interesting enough backwards--even though the level 'cheated' with changing objects, I did not get a sense of development (the stairs in particular were not used to any effect). (Perhaps this level suffers in my estimation because I played it directly after 'Dimension Traveling', which also involves changing the same level and manages it much more effectively.) It seems fashionable to require spin jumping on a ground grinder (no one is bothered by its hitbox, apparently). The background stars have a bad palette. The final message is unnecessary. --------------------------------------------------------------- 31 hunted as wolves, folly and brey. 58 28 10 Here is another level that has a first screen that allows you to admire its graphics. There is black block that I can stand on and a black block that hurts me; I am not sure that this is the best thing (and, indeed, every time I play the level, at the jump between screens 05 and 06 of level FD it always looks as though there is a roof there to me). The puff from the lava is familiar from some older levels and I never liked it. But once the level stops trying to impress you, it starts to impress you. The saws moving at different speeds are subtly introduced and I only noticed them gradually; it was a pleasant realisation. There is a strong focus on elements that are continually developed in pleasing and unexpected ways. There are many small touches which prove the level's attention to detail (a net in a recess at one point so that you can see what is coming above--many, many levels in this contest did not think of things like that; being able to grab a net against a wall). There was a fretful coda written on a stave (the coda might have been improved by having some saws coming from the left as well, vide 'Have Sweet Dreams'). It was a pleasure to re-play and collect the dragon coins. Note to self: Play the beta version at some point. I like how the cut-off ropes were justified by placing saws alongside them. Another subtle touch was the bamboozling half-blocks at the end. --------------------------------------------------------------- 30 The Frozen Way 43 10 7 Mostly an environmental use of this gimmick. Rather than having one-tile block jumps with ice, it has one-tile frozen enemy jumps with ice. I would be curious to play the melted version of the level at some parts (e.g. the platform ride); perhaps the level is referencing something I am unfamiliar with. --------------------------------------------------------------- 29 Tangerine Wetlands 18 5 5 A lot of sprites are not placed very carefully here. The level compares poorly to vanilla SMW levels using these elements. There are problems with sprite tiles disappearing, slowdown, and sprites not spawning (there are many empty line guides). We visit a vertical level to collect the goal tape, preserving, at least, the layer 3 at the cost of freezing time. If you swim under to collect the dragon coin, you have to stand directly where fish appear (the pipe does not function here). (Apparently the level does not use the base ROM.) --------------------------------------------------------------- 28 Cold and Colder 27 10 3 Why is there a pit with goal tapes in it? I went in there and nothing happened. Having any object that is a single tile block hurt you is not a good gimmick. I am not sure the level quite comes up to the standard of vanilla SMW. Parts of the background and foreground are hard to tell apart in the white cave. --------------------------------------------------------------- 27 HARMONIOUS HEAVEN 50 18 10 It seemed strongly reminiscent of some other levels from the past in some respects, and perhaps played out as a sort of mixture. The bomb theme was the strongest point and was developed well. The no spin jumping platforming was well handled. Taken as a whole, perhaps there is a slight lack of focus between the three parts. The shortcut was not marked all that clearly. One of the fuzzies is completely underneath the cloud, posing no danger. The blue green spring looks solid to the player. --------------------------------------------------------------- 26 Easiest Judgment 10 5 2 As the name says, this one was a welcome relief from all the entries that were hard to judge. --------------------------------------------------------------- 25 THE CAMPING EPISODE 25 7 4 I am not sure the level quite comes up to the vanilla SMW standard. Single coins are scattered around haphazardly. I am given yoshi but there is a normal door at the end; if you bring yoshi through this door anyway and fly, you may see bits of unassembled level. There is an easy to get moon. The palette is not very good in the second part. Something strange and not vanilla in this level: in various ways, you can get the bubbles to change direction. --------------------------------------------------------------- 24 Cloudcracker Ruins 35 10 9 Very attractive foreground and very pretty colours. This level is too carelessly made to score very well. I can stand on some of the plinths with the goombas but not others. All the doors are strange to enter. The grinder goes behind the background. There is a grey platform above an empty line guide. There are other empty line guides later. I do not know why, but climbing down on the moving rope sometimes makes me fall off it (and not when getting hit). You can just stay at the top of the rope for almost all of the ride. Item memory destroyed the message in coins at the end. --------------------------------------------------------------- 23 BUSTER QUARRY 40 12 6 This does quite nicely without doing anything very innovative. There was some nice elaboration of grinder set-ups but some other things felt miscellaneous (e.g. the torpedoes). More proximity-defying piranhas (see other levels). This is one of those levels with a platform that descends on a long line from the sky instead of having one you can start moving yourself. There is one grinder hopping on its own at the side. There is a long detour for a dragon coin (there was a lot of waiting here and you could just run ahead to fill in the gaps and go back, so it did not feel that exciting). A pencil descended meanly at one point and I fell in a hole. Nice symmetry puzzle for a 1-up. The song did not bring out the level very well. --------------------------------------------------------------- 22 Greystone Grotto 48 25 6 Conveyors seem popular this year. There are many interesting things to notice about them (e.g. mario does not move with a bowser statues). This level is much better than some of the others in exploring the possibilities. There were nice effects with a springboard, pokey, bowser statues, and a lotus. I loved the part with the row of spike-tops where each one gathered itself before sprinting forward. Parts of the level seemed unfinished or insufficiently polished. When I got a cape, I was able to fly over the level straight to the midpoint. The descending layer 2 part has some unexpected things (a line of frozen podoboos; a thwimp who is hesitant to jump). Later on there are more podoboos; they seem rather unreliable in their behaviour. There was a line of four regressing bowser statues and they only shot occasional fire. There was a pipe that took me back to the midpoint; I would rather not have gone back (later I see by some magic it was the same area I had been in before; still, the pipe could have been blocked off perhaps). These kind of things knocked the score down. --------------------------------------------------------------- 21 HOUSE OF HOLES 36 12 3 The level had fairly standard platforming. The palette was not good. I do not know what the moons meant; perhaps I am not supposed to. The level was short and a little too simple. There was an off screen ceiling at the end. I played it again and thought it was a better level than it first appeared. Many sprites offer more danger when you try to get the dragon coins. Some strange decisions hold the level back. --------------------------------------------------------------- 20 The red ghost house 35 13 5 Usually when we call a house red, it is the outside we are referring to. What if the boos hired an interior decorator? Just something to think about. The level is not bad, but it could have used more focus and more careful placing of sprites (some areas felt empty). You can get stuck if you do not run forward as the layer 2 descends but instead wait (thinking it will rise afterwards). The layer 3 smash is not set up properly and can appear in variable positions. A koopa killed himself on a shell. --------------------------------------------------------------- 19 Flyin Fish Fort 40 10 6 A very creditable level in its straightforwardness. It could have been a little more ambitious. --------------------------------------------------------------- 18 Quiz Mario Academy! 0 30 7 Not a level. I got D-. You shall get the same. --------------------------------------------------------------- 17 Darkmoon Riverside 35 10 3 The palettes are not that good. Having to jump up near lakitu and the falling para-men can be unfair. There is a wonky layer 2 ship journey; you may skip this by swimming under the level to the end--I notice you may also use the cloud, so that is obviously an intended shortcut. The sprites were a little chaotic here--they seem to be as poor sailors as I am. I was thankful when I found a star. A fun game for players would be to see how many sprites they can collect on the stern of the boat. I managed six. --------------------------------------------------------------- 16 PLAINS WATER 40 25 10 The first screen and I already hate this. Everything vaguely of this shade of blue is water. I understand What but not Why. Inconsistency: I found a blue arrow sign that was not water. The midway tape as well--so much missed potential. I liked it when the moon was not a moon; a good tip would be to make it a muncher (I found the real moon--level redeemed). There are two types of outlined blocks; some are invisible noteblocks; some are outlined blocks. Entering and exiting water from the sides is a bit ropey in general; it is not too bad here except when it is. The moving layer concept in the second half gave the level an effective twist, even if the lava is wonky (given that you can swim in parts of it); in another twist, many podoboos appeared without warning (yes, I died here). The boss fight was worthy of a guffaw. Although, reading this over, I sound rather snarky, I thought it was reasonable effort, both in concept and execution. Perhaps it suffers from being not introduced all that well (e.g. the mishmash of blue vanilla objects and retextured sprites as objects) and a general lack of polish (e.g. there should perhaps be more space to swim at the parts where munchers are on water pipes). --------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Brown Block Factory 52 25 8 I recognise this moving line of blocks from that JUMP level that also had moving berries set in stone and dirt. You, anonymous author, are at least a tasteful thief. I do not know why that JUMP level used that animation as it did not make any use of brown blocks; ultimately this level did pretty well in finding things to do with both brown blocks and fake brown blocks (did I also recognise a YUMP level, BALKS?). Perhaps even more could have been wrung out of the vanilla sponge: the moving lines of blocks could have been used as conveyors instead of ropes; some other sprites could usefully have been re-skinned; and some of the ideas could have been explored a bit further. Using the diagonally falling blocks as obstacles was a bit janky. The background is so dark it will probably not be visible to many people. Some familiar miscellaneous graphics used elsewhere in this contest: a favourite vine replacement, the very thin rope with adjacent climbable air; and our old friend Mr Red 'Switch' Block, the friendly neighbourhood warning sign. --------------------------------------------------------------- 14 YOSHI'S ISLAND 1 50 27 8 Twenty-eight years after Super Castlevania IV was released, VLDC contestants have finally woken up to how cool it is to go behind a grille. I think this was the only level of the thirty-odd levels in the contest using this mechanic in which Mario's activities sub retis are not as completely useless as Simon Belmont's. This level is more thematic and incorporates some nice wonky layer 2 movement and screen-scrolling puzzles. I encountered a bonus room where I thought layer 2 was going to go up and down; it only went down. I understood later that these two bonus rooms are really alternative paths (with their own dangers). These were balanced well and added interest on replaying. (Because the dragon coins seem almost integral to the design of this level, I should mention the first dragon coin is poorly hidden compared to the others as it just involves wasting your time at the beginning before playing the level.) [Some more or less minor issues follow.] Doing the long jump to the bowser statue shooting flames with the muncher roof above you can be tricky depending on when he is firing. Some of the set-ups are not that friendly to experiment with (e.g. the set-up for a dragon coin where you have to scroll the smashing layer to the left; again at the end where you have to scroll right and a reflector may spawn directly at the side of the screen). Some of the thwomp gates can be passed without using the grilles (killed with a shell; flight with cape and invincibility frames and, of course, taking damage)--there is nothing wrong with this; perhaps it is intentional for quicker playing. On re-playing, I notice having nets on both layers can be a little janky (not being able to move off the edge of the layer 1 net even if it is overlapping a moving net--perhaps it happens when both edges are lined up or nearly lined up). --------------------------------------------------------------- 13 KingOfTheMountain 20 15 2 This one seems to have the author name visible in more than one place. The level does not make the most favourable first impression (the graphical replacements are not in the best of taste and I wanted to turn the music off). The level proceeds in a desultory fashion for the most part, although there are attempts at venturesome design. The ON/OFF idea is a workable concept and is not too badly implemented here. There were many accumulating issues throughout the level. It would have been an awkward jump with yoshi if I had not known to run over the gap. The rock chucks are placed unfairly, and there are other things that can fall on you in the level besides rocks. A background just cuts off in one room and the blaargs hide behind it. Coins are used inconsistently in the second ON/OFF section with the moving layer. I was disappointed to see a 1-up checkpoint. There is a pop-up message; it appears more than once. The level ends but seems to continue after the level. (This was another level that used jumping plants; I am surprised so many levels have them and the bizarre proximity problem is never mentioned, accounted for, or abused.) --------------------------------------------------------------- 12 ZA WARUDO TOWER 42 26 7 I think I wanted to try and use this jumping ban idea once but I had more sense. One problem is that you cannot touch the water off the ground from the side as well; this made some of the jumps here a bit awkward. Still, the first half was not bad, despite the wonky gimmick. The second half had a really neat gimmick and ended all too soon. Some things that do not look much like ground are used as ground. There is a reset door on the falling layer (it was not clear I was racing the grinder here). It was nice to see apparently useless sprites come into play as I went backwards, although (as there is player movement in both directions) some sprites may despawn easily. The fish can spawn in the wrong direction, as you enter the room; and they can respawn in annoying positions easily; they make use of RNG when they spawn so using them to make set-ups like this is inadvisable. Both fake goal orbs got me. --------------------------------------------------------------- 11 GLOWING IN THE DEEP 15 10 2 This is a place of confusing colours and objects; hitting the switch does not help with this. (Playing it again, I now see it is more interesting than I thought it was: You may choose your favourite colour scheme, the only problem being that I did not care for any of them.) At one point fake objects are introduced. There are fake and real munchers. Sprites are plentiful and placed carelessly and often to no purpose. There is a hole or secret passage in the ground at one point. I went down it and got hurt. Shortly after I emerged, a goomba came out. Perhaps he lived there. --------------------------------------------------------------- 10 STALWART RAMPARTS 45 17 7 A supporting player takes centre stage. I am not sure the hammer bro platform was able to carry the level as well as he carries the hammer bro. One nuisance is that you almost always have to wait for the platform to swing back. The level was nicely built if conventional for the most part. The level felt a bit drawn out and might have benefited by being more compact. The horizontal row of platforms is a bit wonky as you cannot run freely across it (the contiguous platforms double the effect on player speed--perhaps you could have explained the 'still jump', where you do not move left or right); still, it was a pleasing idea, even if that particular section felt a bit long and repetitive (indeed, I am not sure how many people would choose to play this section over the other one). Some of the colours could be better (background; foreground bricks). Coins are placed haphazardly and often seem to be contending with the decor. A block was used as solid and as not solid. Thrown hammers went behind a pillar at a couple of spots. --------------------------------------------------------------- 9 YESCROLL 48 25 7 This level started off by looking rubbish but it is ended up being pretty good. The first area is very slow and the sprites seem suboptimally placed; it is only when you are coming back that they start to make sense. In the cave, at first it seemed as though I had to beat the autoscroller at the line of coins (and I died attempting this); going up through the turn blocks at the start was another death. Once the level took shape and started to make sense it became very enjoyable. The cave might have been more carefully made (depending on how the camera has moved, the bats may be hard to see at the top of the screen; there is a blind fall at one point, with a stray muncher down there). Afte the midpoint the level was brilliant with sprites being dangerously placed and used very cleverly. Perhaps the set-up where you jump under the thwimp to the para-koopas was too tight. --------------------------------------------------------------- 8 Plumbing Job 50 15 7 This was really a job for a sanitary engineer. A simple, nicely made level. Some of the colours could have been better differentiated (particularly the crate thing you could interact with). I liked how you were able to get past the rips easily (by using shells). --------------------------------------------------------------- 7 Le Reservoir 51 21 10 Good level. The background reminds me of Mega Man X; perhaps the conical hills do not fit in very well and could have been mechanical structures. Some of the thwmops coming at you from the top of the screen felt unfair. Some things were a bit tight compared to the other obstacles (e.g. if you wait to see which path you should take in the second autoscroller). I liked how the goombas were slightly dangerous in this level. The drop down after the first switch is a bit iffy since there may be a goomba where you land. --------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Adventurous Ascent 50 13 10 Very pretty level; the buildings looked fantastic. There was some nice, classic platforming and the areas were well populated with sprites. Some sprites are not placed carefully enough: a hothead you need to jump on despawned in the lower path to the midpoint; a stray goomba fell on my head at one point. --------------------------------------------------------------- 5 Getting up 5 20 1 This was quite bad in obvious ways and yet it was also quite imaginative. There are many blind upward jumps with thwomps there or ceilings or munchers. Clouds and solid blocks are hard to tell apart. Often when you fall there is no way back up. A spin jump off a thwomp near the end is extremely tight; I did this by sprinting instead (I decided to savestate at this part). The spring and pencil combination well worth stealing for a better level. The palette is very bad. And the music. --------------------------------------------------------------- 4 SUGARLESS CAVE 30 10 7 Not bad, but there was not much going on in the level. I am not sure how clear it was where you are meant to hit the p-switch (a beetle may drop on your head while you are wall-running as well); anyway, it seemed out of keeping with the rest of the level. There was an interesting steam effect in one of the side-areas--it might have been better to build the main level around that notion. --------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Bounce and climb! 20 5 5 The level is lacking something and not quite up to the vanilla SMW standard. There was a the part where I hit a p-switch and then I had to wait till some other brown blocks changed back into coins. Lots of it feels empty of enemies. --------------------------------------------------------------- 2 YOSHI'S ISLAND 1 39 18 6 Parts of this are very awkward. The jump back with a shell is very tight (perhaps you are supposed to use the vine--that would be awkward in a different way). Then you have to throw the shell and not grab it again when it falls back down but grab the springboard instead. The pipe can be entered standing on a springboard rather than a key. The platform ride when you are behind the status bar is a bit iffy. You easily skip the midpoint thinking there is a split path there. I was able to ride the ghost block up to the top of the level and jump over the wall (no, I do not know why I did this either). The boo cloud felt unfair, as boo clouds generally do (there never seems any way of avoiding a boo appearing directly where you land or are forced to stand). The cloud tile in the canopy was a bit odd. Trees hide holes in the rope on the path to the key. Still, the level was full of points of interest (e.g. the way the diggers were used--set up above the platform ride they were very well placed; I also liked the brown block one--it was funny when the chuck did his digging animation and thew rock appeared ten tiles above him.) --------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Vanish Castle 50 28 5 The level begins with a VLDC11 staple: an opening area with peculiar decorations. The switch seems like it must work by magic. Let me scroll the screen to the left so I can see the enemy vanish before my very eyes---the enemy stays where he is. A magician never explains his tricks. (Of course you can just ignore the switch and go above it to its horizontal position or scroll right some way before it.) Once I have stopped being silly, I notice the level is very well done. I've seen this throw block gate before but there were some nice variants on it here. Again, the wrapping effect has been seen elsewhere in this contest but it is nicely handled here; I particularly like the knight's move thwimps and the dance of the bowser statues. The boss fight is an interesting concept, but it is rather repetitive, and there is not much to killing three blue koopas. The decorations were unnecessary and I think you could have done without most of the signs as well, they often seemed rather intrusive. --------------------------------------------------------------- 0 BRAMBLE CLIMB 43 17 7 The final level I played. Another level with under-the-net activities. The way it is used here seems rather pointless. It is explained in a message, but I think most people would be able to work it out for themselves; the same goes for the conveyor behaviour from the second message. The bramble graphics worked out surprisingly well, although there are instances where you can get hit by the empty air (carelessly arranged sideways brambles), or the sides of seemingly safe tiles. Some of the sprite palette changes seem a bit off. On the whole, not a bad level but I felt it was missing something to make it stand-out. ---------------------------------------------------------------