#00, "The Haunted House" by Wii2 Level Design: 14/30 Creativity: 9/20 Polish: (Negative) 9/10 Total: 22/50 Comments: Not a fan of the opaque fog in the intro. SMW usually makes it transparent so it's not a hassle to see Mario and enemies. The level itself wasn't much to speak of. It's a ghost house, but without any of the elements that make a ghost house really enjoyable, namely puzzles. The secret exit was the closest it came to presenting the player with a puzzle because otherwise the level was a very simple left-to-right affair, with the exception of the weird bullet bill jump into the ghost house itself. Could've really used a more central focus. --------------------------------------- #01, "#0 BIG BOO'S CASTLE" by Lsh0426 Level Design: 11/30 Creativity: 12/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Penalty: -3 Reason: Elevator using Layer 2 sticking to camera Total: 20/50 Comments: The jump onto the moving stone block with the podoboo and falling spike is a pretty tough way to begin. Why wait to give the player a powerup until after the first climbing net section? (Never mind I discovered there's a mushroom in one of the turn blocks there but Magikoopa hits that one with his spell most of the time and if he doesn't, getting it is another difficult matter) Or another one in the boo ceiling part? There's no good reason to be powerup stingy when the level requires careful precision around many randomly timed sprites. Then, weirdly, the vertical part after the boo segment is a relatively simple breather before the midpoint. There's just a ton of weird jumps in this level that cause the difficulty to spike drastically in places simply because there were spikes added to make a jump's clearance lower. And it's a shame because even though the first room is hard I can tell a lot of effort went into some interesting sprite setups. Having Magikoopa drop Koopas on you from the blocks above a climbing grate is clever. Too many ideas (grates + magikoopa, ghost ceiling, vertical layer 2, layer 2 smashers, elevator) made it lose focus. Interesting take on the big boo fight though. --------------------------------------- #02, "#712 BIG BOO CASTLE" by SomeGuy712x Level Design: 17/30 Creativity: 12/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 29/50 Comments: The level becomes more interesting if you go for the secrets, but doing so does run you the risk of a time out. Otherwise, this level feels pretty standard, with some good use of ghost house sprites in the second half helping out. But ultimately, the level didn't feel like anything truly special. The Big Boo fight was interesting, though it was pretty easy to manipulate the four boos into being non-threatening while you grabbed the throw blocks. (This level was played without Switch Blocks turned on) --------------------------------------- #03, "EMERALD FORTRESS" by Nariofan101 Level Design: 21/30 Creativity: 15/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 36/50 Comments: All of the segments with the guided saws were very well conceived. Unfortunately, the block snake could've been better. There's a lot of waiting to be done as you wait for it to return to a point where Mario can get back on it. And if the floor-guided saw doesn't spawn (which it did to me a couple times) then Mario's just sitting there doing nothing for some time. Second half felt really good with a slow ramping up of frequency and distribution of guided saws slowly closing in on Mario. Very well done there. Secret exit didn't do much for the level, but since it was at the start it also didn't really hurt the level either. Overall, pretty enjoyable level marred by the small detail of having to wait for that block snake. (Did I see it right or did the block snake add blocks to its size at points? That's awesome if so.) --------------------------------------- #04, "Subterran Scaffolds" by Centipede Level Design: 18/30 Creativity: 12/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 30/50 Comments: I liked the visual design of the level with the combination of the wooden platforms and diagonal ropes as scaffolding. I know the rocks are warned by the message box and blue coins but I'm just not a fan of things falling from offscreen at a time you can't predict. And honestly, the rocks overall didn't feel like they added much to the level other than a few "Gotcha!" moments when they hit you as you're trying to quickly react to the next platform you're jumping off of or on to. The level feels like it was made with having a cape in mind. Which is great because you can get one fairly consistently in the first half of the level, but I don't think there are enough powerups in the second half to get one. Without a cape, the jumps become MUCH harder. And it's too bad because there's a lot of clever line guide segments mixed in with fuzzies and other types of climbing, but you don't have time to appreciate them in full when you're constantly on the move avoiding rocks, fuzzies and your climbing rope rocketing off into the abyss. --------------------------------------- #05, "FRIGID FORTRESS" by YoFilthyMudda Level Design: 8/30 Creativity: 10/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 18/50 Comments: Blind jump in one location. Ice physics aren't enabled upon midpoint re-entry. The level starts out decently strong with some clever ideas of using the dry bones and bony beetles to get to higher locations or as good obstacles, but quickly turns into a mess of convoluted jumps from climbing grates as the level wraps back around on itself before the midpoint. Getting the Yoshi coins requires the player to make some very dangerous jumps in parts, and the level has a habit of putting spikes all over the place just to mess with Mario's jump clearance. Then the second half comes along and you've got HUGE gaps to cross, sometimes without being able to see your platforms very well because of the horizontal distance involved, And then for some reason I'm required to keep my mushroom in one place while dodging hotheads and ice physics? I wish I'd been warned about that beforehand. There's also no way to reset or gain a mushroom back; that was my last life and it's back to the beginning with me. Then there's a weird P-Switch segment requiring timing a throwing dry bones on your side of a small gap so you can clear it without taking damage from the spikes... It's honestly easier to just tank the hit since there's another mushroom on the other side, if you managed to save the hit until then. At this point I'm just listing the level layout. The bigger point is that the player is afforded very little room for error as they slip, slide, duck and jump through the obstacles presented and as a result, the level just stops being enjoyable. To end on a positive note, the object layout and diagonal podoboo placement in Wendy's fight actually worked really well together, providing a decent challenge that didn't rely on restricting Mario's movement or using spikes as difficulty enhancers. --------------------------------------- #06, "YOSHI'S ISLAND 1.5" by Sariel Level Design: 23/30 Creativity: 15/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 38/50 Comments: What a strange, but good, level. There were enough recognizable pieces of Yoshi's Island 1 to make the level feel familiar, but then the vertical scroll kicks in and the level takes on a life of its own. Some interesting usage of the triangle blocks combined with Big Mario requirements for extra Yoshi Coins, and nice job using the Timed Lifts in a vertical stage setting effectively (since they're primarily a horizontal stage element). Overall solid, but at the same time I think it might've had a little too many ideas in too short a level to properly explore the possibilities. --------------------------------------- #07, "AQUATIC MINE(S)" by Agent Q Level Design: 24/30 Creativity: 16/20 Polish: (Negative) 9/10 Total: 39/50 Comments: I really liked how you explored the many uses for the Water Mine sprite in this level. The first half in particular stood out to me. Going right to left with a moving tide actually allows Mario to swim fast with it instead of fighting against it. Add the mines to the mix and you get some interesting sprite setups with the different speed mines threatening Mario's fast swim. The second half was both more and less interesting in some regards. The addition of the line guides didn't really add much to the level for me and because they were often on Layer 2 you lost out on the nice Cave + Ghost Ship FG/BG combo present in the first half. But the water mine usage was a lot weirder here, using their unique buoyancy properties to send them at Mario from a number of dangerous locations. Overall very fun and interesting but I would've liked to see you cut out the weaker line guide segments in favor of keeping your Layer 2 BG and developing the mine setups even further. --------------------------------------- #08, "Windbreaker Plains" by kamekku14 Level Design: 8/30 Creativity: 6/20 Polish: (Negative) 9/10 Total: 13/50 Comments: Started out pretty basic but not bad until the second half. At that point it became pretty apparent that the level is mostly a Yoshi's Island 3 edit in the second half except for the flying segment. That made me take another look at the first half and it turns out that part feels very inspired by Vanilla Secret 2 mixed with Chocolate Island 2's diagonal landmasses room with all its slopes and Jumping Koopas. Also, why would you add a Bullet generator to the flying segment where one hit by a randomly firing bullet bill causes you to fall to your death? It's safer to just fly above the level to avoid untimely deaths while flying. Then suddenly the difficulty spikes in the third part with some weird jumps on falling platforms followed quickly by a Super Koopa generator and Pitchin' Chucks on diagonal platforms. Yikes. The level lost its focus and its difficulty flew all over the place throughout. As a result, the level kinda fell apart in my opinion. I suppose it's telling that the best parts of the level were the parts that I could tell were directly inspired by actual SMW levels. --------------------------------------- #09, "Floodwoods" by Prizm Level Design: 16/30 Creativity: 13/20 Polish: (Negative) 9/10 Penalty: -2 Reason: Thrown Spinies floating up to the surface is kind of unintended. Total: 26/50 Comments: Lots of little corner cutoff tiles here. Normally I wouldn't make a big deal out of it because even vanilla SMW isn't completely innocent of it here, but there were just so many instances that could've also been avoided by being more careful with your tiling instead of trying to layer FG elements that I can't help but knock it a tiny amount. As for the level itself, I generally liked what I saw here, especially in the second half where the Lakitus used the high layer 3 tide to throw Spinies up to the surface as attacks. But it was all over way too soon in the second half and the level ended before it felt like it really found its footing. --------------------------------------- #10, "Above the Canopy" by Ivy Level Design: 8/30 Creativity: 7/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 15/50 Comments: Over before it began, really. Way too short of a level to be anything more than some long jumps with a lakitu at the beginning. The secret exit also does nothing for the level, instead just requiring the player to play through the whole level twice, then somehow blindly discover the part under the goal by falling and then fly under the exit for the secret. It didn't bring anything interesting to the level. You could've taken the level in many directions such as exploring ways to lay out those "canopy trees" you made with the mushroom platforms, or kept exploring the Pipe Lakitus hiding behind the radish sprout leaves. But in the end, all there is here is some lost potential. --------------------------------------- #11, "MILKA FORTRESS" by Luks Level Design: 26/30 Creativity: 17/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 43/50 Comments: Probably some of the most creative use of Thwomps and their weird vulnerablities that I've seen in years. Using them as platforms, obstacles and timing challenges all in one level, and both halves build on each other. The only bad setup was the first thwomp in the second room; there probably could've been a little extra room for Mario to stand there as you have to dig through the throw blocks. I really enjoyed the Thwomp setups used and the autoscrollers worked really well with level, especially the one in the first half that moved up and down. The autoscrollers also didn't make the level overstay its welcome because both segments were relatively short to compensate for the fact that they're autoscrollers. Very well done overall. --------------------------------------- #12, "Mount Meato" by Cobsters Level Design: 11/30 Creativity: 9/20 Polish: (Negative) 6/10 Total: 16/50 Comments: It felt like there were two levels' worth of ideas in this level and I don't mean that in a good way. The first and second halves have barely anything to do with each other except their loose athletic nature. The first segment is surprisingly claustrophobic at times as you carefully weave your way through some small line guide segments, pipes and expanding turn blocks. The second half is a slower, more deliberate trek through a castle that shares none of the same sprite usage as the first half. Individually, the two pieces are ok but putting them both in the same level hurts it overall due to the lack of focus. And then what was even the point of the tiny autoscroll intro for the Wendy fight? It was so short, why even bother adding it? Also, the first segment felt very messy visually, with pipes, ropes, various wooden platforms, cement tiles and mushroom filler all throw around in an attempt to make architecture I guess. It didn't look particularly good to me. Similar things occurred in the castle with the random addition of the grass platform and the castle rock BG tiles, though not to the same extent as the first half. And this is all before we talk about the secret exit. It's fairly awful and adds nothing to the level. I probably would've scored the level higher without the secret exit to be honest. Not only do you have to play the level from beginning to end twice to get it, you also have to play nearly the whole second half of the level to get a shell, go all the way back to the start of the second half to get the key and then go all the way to the end of the second half to use the key as a step to the door.just to get to a Big Boo fight that's very easy as long as you pay a tiny amount of attention to the bullet bill generator shooting bullets randomly. I'm basically playing the level 3 times because of this. This is very bad secret exit design. --------------------------------------- #13, "VANILLA SECRET 2" by zacmario Level Design: 5/30 Creativity: 6/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 11/50 Comments: There isn't much of a level here. It's more of a strange tech demo for some weird autoscroller you seem to have discovered. And once the shock of suddenly going backwards for a moment wears off, you're just left with a level that doesn't really have any substance to it other than some rip van fish chasing you and a big urchin minefield that looks like it's going somewhere before the segment suddenly ends. --------------------------------------- #14, "WENDY'S HIDEAWAY 2" by glitch4 Level Design: 9/30 Creativity: 9/20 Polish: (Negative) 9/10 Total: 17/50 Comments: The cloud ride in the first half worked well enough, though I didn't like the one part where you used some manually placed Bullet Bills just because they give no auditory hint. But in the second half it all takes a dive and just loses focus completely. The first room after the midpoint contains a variety of climbing grates and fence Koopas, many of whom have sprite memory issues and lose their heads momentarily but towards the end of it there are suddenly a few guided saws guarding the end of the room. Then in the second room (did I mention the midpoint is lopsided in this level?) there's an autoscroller with three distinct ideas: P-Switch run, P-Balloon flight and Star run. Just one of these developed over time with the autoscroller would've been good but not all three. I'd have chosen the P-Balloon because it at least ties back into the flight segment from the first half. Also, did you know it's possible to grab the P-Balloon too late and not deflate in time to actually race over, hit the Star block and get the star before the autoscroller scrolls the star off the screen? Because I learned that the hard way. It's not even an interesting star run, just some chucks on flat spikes. Too bad chucks don't give lives when killed with a star. And then wrap it all up with a Wendy fight that's surprisingly tough and is fairly easy to get hit and die in and you have one heck of an annoying second half to contend with. Focus, focus, focus. Less is more sometimes. --------------------------------------- #15, "Grinding to a halt" by Enjl Level Design: 29/30 Creativity: 17/20 Polish: (Negative) 9/10 Total: 45/50 Comments: Wonderful progression of saws on guides as the level went on. You started slowly with small rope rides, then added saws to avoid while walking around, then longer rides, then hopping saws, then saws + ropes, then saws + ropes + autoscroller... It was just really well done. I have only two minor complaints. The room right before the midpoint, while clever, felt really out of place even if it did incorporate the saws, and the Layer 3 BG palette for whatever reason looked like it had some weird colors going on in it, as if the gradient wasn't properly smoothed out. Might've chosen a slightly wrong BG palette there. --------------------------------------- #16, "TOWER TO HEAVEN" by Blue Leaf Level Design: 23/30 Creativity: 16/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 39/50 Comments: I liked how the level was themed around climbing the vine you hit at the beginning and crossing its path throughout. The saws on Layer 2 were used effectively here as obstacles that intercepted the player's climb. The Mega Mole section, while it was done pretty well and showed a good progression as the player encountered different mole setups, did feel a bit out of place since it had neither vine climbing nor saws in there, a staple of almost every other part of the level. But this is minor. Overall, the level was enjoyable, of good difficulty and most importantly, fun. --------------------------------------- #17, "YOSHI'S ISLAND 2" by Final Theory Level Design: 00/30 Creativity: 00/20 Polish: (Negative) 00/10 Total: DQ/50 Comments: FUNNY JOKES Man, no one understands why Chaos CompleXX was entertaining these days. --------------------------------------- #18, "SUPERTERRANEAN HILL" by Nao Level Design: 25/30 Creativity: 16/20 Polish: (Negative) 9/10 Total: 40/50 Comments: You do a great job exploring different combinations of enemy layouts in order to create a really interesting level. The only problem is that I think it goes a little too far towards the difficult and technical side of things, especially with the final challenge. The level has been teaching you how to run up walls and interact with throw blocks while avoiding enemies, but running up the wall, hopping off and desperately attempting to grab the blocks at the end so you can get to the goal just offscreen borders on extremely precise. It's doable, surely, but the Sumo above doesn't help matters. Also, on the Polish side of things, because there were so many sprites on screen at times, I had a few instances where I couldn't pick up the throw block because there wasn't enough sprite memory available to spawn its sprite form. Still, overall the level is a great example of how to take multiple sprites or objects and find different ways to combine them together to create a generally good time. --------------------------------------- #19, "STAR WORLD 6" by LX5 Level Design: 10/30 Creativity: 8/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 18/50 Comments: Well it certainly felt like a Star World level. I was ready to write it off as a sorta lazy Star World 3 rip-off but then I discovered that there was a level behind the goal and figuring out how to get behind it was just the start. I thought that I was very clever for finding such a thing--and then the level ended as soon as it began. Oh. Well then, there's not really too much to this level other than a semi-subversion of expectation that wasn't developed anywhere near as much as it could have been. I even went back and flew under the second goalpost just to see if I was still missing something but I wasn't. Had potential to have the "secret exit" be a little ha-ha reference to the original game while also having a level there but it didn't take advantage of it. --------------------------------------- #20, "CLIMB 'N DODGE" by Super Stiviboy Level Design: 19/30 Creativity: 13/20 Polish: (Negative) 9/10 Total: 31/50 Comments: My guess is that you ran out of time while making the second half since it's so short. And that's too bad--I was really enjoying the first half and looked forward to seeing how you mixed it up in the second half. Looks like you were planning to explore how sprites interact with the red ? blocks but then it was all over. I thought the first half was pretty well designed overall, with good use of climbing and hazards to make a pretty vertical level that had you going up and down and all around to progress. You probably could've tried using the climbing Koopas more instead of that brief Hotheads section. And if I had a minor visual complaint, the start of the level felt a little messy with its large cement block and pipe use. Nicely done overall, but I wish it'd been longer. --------------------------------------- #21, "STRIP MINE" by FrozenQuills Level Design: 27/30 Creativity: 19/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 46/50 Comments: Wow that was probably one of the most clever vertical levels I can recall. Great job using the ghost house floor hole in a non-deadly fashion, instead incorporating it as an obstacle to progress going up, and later a requirement to progress going down. The ever overlooked gas bubbles were surprisingly effective at getting in the player's way on the way down, blocking off large areas while you carefully navigate to the next drop. Kinda wish they were transparent though, since they covered up a muncher once or twice and I didn't see it until I was in the air above it. I also can't say I've ever see a Fishin' Boo used in a vertical level like that. He didn't stick around long but that's probably a good thing considering how annoying he can be to deal with. The constant back and forth layer 2 allowed for some really interesting maneuvering around obstacles to find the next way up and down, with the bullets bills in the walls providing static and regular threats that you could predict how to handle whenever they were around. Very well constructed, very fun to play. Nicely done! --------------------------------------- #22, "EAZY" by AbuseFreakHacker Level Design: 13/30 Creativity: 11/20 Polish: (Negative) 9/10 Total: 23/50 Comments: Instant reaction required when the level starts to avoid getting hit by sliding koopa. Same for midpoint respawn on a falling gray platform. DON'T DO THIS! Some glitches with sumo fire and chucks on screen at the same time with lots of other sprites present. The midpoint is super lopsided as well, with only a few screens afterward for the player. Taking the bonus pipe skips a bunch of the main level too, making it feel even shorter by that point. I dunno, I didn't find myself enjoying the level very much. It felt like there was always an enemy waiting to intercept every single jump I had to make, which encouraged me to adopt a very defensive playstyle as I went, slowing down its pace a lot. I guess the sprites were set up pretty well, but there were just so many instances of sprites that cover large parts of the screen with weird projectile movements or that have weird paths they run on, such as Sumos, Lotuses, Pitchin' Chucks and Super Koopas, that the level just felt like a slog to go through. I felt like I died at least once to every enemy before the midpoint and sure some of that I can blame on my own abilities or mistakes, but the fact of the matter remains that at times it felt very overwhelming to face, especially in the area around the midpoint where there are so many enemies lying in wait. That fast-throwing hammer bro kept destroying me after respawning at the midpoint. At least the moon and midpoint bars both respawned for the free mushroom and extra lives. Too much reliance on projectile enemies in my opinion. --------------------------------------- #23, "LIMBO" by Flan. Level Design: 2/30 Creativity: 5/20 Polish: (Negative) 9/10 Total: 6/50 Comments: Oh boy a kaizo level submission in a non-kaizo contest. Thanks for making me play it! Seriously though, why submit something like this to a regular level design contest? I couldn't even begin to tell you if this is a good or bad kaizo level. But I do know that it's a bad regular level. Mario's in near-constant danger throughout the whole thing and it requires a huge amount of technical precision on the player's part. The first half is just full of Bowser statue setups that hinder the player, often requiring them to spin jump on flames over pits to open up turn blocks to progress. And then the second half of the level comes around and that lava lotus setup might be one of the worst things I've had to deal with in Mario in ages. I eventually found that there's a way to avoid taking damage at all there, but until then it was a lot of gnashing of teeth as I figured out that there was no way to speed through it without taking a hit or dying because you'd either hit pollen or die to the floating platform dipping too far into the lava as it moved upwards and you land on it. Combine that with a slew of Pitchin' Chucks to fill the screen with baseballs and you have one completely unfun experience. I only persevered through because I knew looking at the level in Lunar Magic wouldn't compare to actually experiencing how unfun it would get. Stick to the right contest next time. --------------------------------------- #24, "Lifty Heights" by NeXuS15 Level Design: 18/30 Creativity: 11/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 29/50 Comments: With the name Lifty Heights and the way the level opened I was hoping that I'd see a focus on exploring how the mushroom lift platforms work in various situations, but the level quickly transitioned into a fairly standard line guide level. It wasn't bad by any means-- the difficulty was high and it kinda felt like a Special World level because of it--but aside from a few standout moments it wasn't anything amazing. The fuzzies always seemed to be timed to get right in Mario's way, which is good, but that one setup with the triple rotating platform and the fuzzy on a small line guide was a lot tougher to deal with than you'd think at first glance. Could've really benefited from a little more creativity. I think you should've incorporated the mushroom lifts more because their opening setup was really cleverly done. --------------------------------------- #25, "DEADWOOD FOREST" by solareclipse13 Level Design: 13/30 Creativity: 10/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 23/50 Comments: The Chocolate Island palette really helped the whole "dead forest" aesthetic, nice job. Unfortunately, the rest of the level is nothing really special. Ghost enemies are used but never really in any great ways and the boo rings don't really do anything other than slow down the player whenever they appear. I also thought it was odd to have a bonus path with a Yoshi coin in it and then have the exit be placed in such a way that you have to go back to the left to get another Yoshi coin you've now missed. It was a good idea to use the Boo Lasers in the cave with a ceiling so that they could be more threatening but this was the only real standout piece of sprite placement. The level's not terrible, but it felt distinctly average. That, and the secret exit didn't really add much to the level. --------------------------------------- #26, "RIVER RAFT RIDE" by alexandrite Level Design: 20/30 Creativity: 14/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 34/50 Comments: A nice little raft ride with increasing obstacles. It doesn't have a midpoint but it's also very short so that doesn't really matter. Could've probably been extended to have a second half after a midpoint if only to explore some more ideas of things to do with that platform. The autoscroller fit the level perfectly since it scrolls at the same rate the platform does. Minor complaints: Those clockwise rotating triple platforms with a vertical wall on them are generally pretty tough to navigate if you don't know how to get past them reliably and could be considered a strange spike in difficulty, and I wasn't a fan of how the munchers at the end could hurt you through the platform since it looks like you're safe from them while standing on it. --------------------------------------- #27, "Goalsphere's Castle" by Sokobansolver Level Design: 24/30 Creativity: 16/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 40/50 Comments: Interesting choice to use the Vanilla Dome 2 autoscroller. It's a much more unpredictable autoscroller for the player to handle but I feel like you managed to pull it off very well. Obstacles are timed very carefully to be dangerous but not overbearing and in a couple instances missing your window to advance forward appeared to not be deadly, allowing a second chance on occasion. The addition of a cape really helped as well since it does get trickier by the end but the cape can mitigate it if you hold on to it that long. Minor complaint: The palette chosen is really not meant to be used on the tiled castle foreground (in my opinion it barely works with the big castle rock tiles either) but vanilla used it so I guess I shouldn't take off Polish points for it. I'd have preferred you use a different palette that fits both the rocks and tiles better though. --------------------------------------- #28, "this one" by mes Level Design: 14/30 Creativity: 13/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 27/50 Comments: It's a neat idea but I really didn't care much for it. If nothing else I appreciate that both areas are mercifully short. But that's only because the first's area's combination of ice physics, autoscroller, precise jumps and side exit enabled was one frustrating combination. The second half's puzzles were kinda neat but at the same time I felt like I only got through some of them because I rushed it, not because I was playing carefully to avoid the mushrooms. I dunno. It didn't really do much for me. --------------------------------------- #29, "Fishing Jumps" by toad64 Level Design: 14/30 Creativity: 12/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 26/50 Comments: A good attempt at using a generally underused sprite. However, there's a fundamental flaw with the jumping Cheep Cheep in that if you just move quickly it'll never have a chance to actually threaten you. That flaw is on full display in the first half, where all of the times it's used you can just pass right by. And honestly, aside from the fish the level feels kind of bare in the first half, with few enemies on land to slow you down either. You attempt to fix this in the second half by forcing the player to use the cheep cheep to jump across tall gaps, which works to some extent. However, the concept is pretty different from the first half of the level and changes it from being a standard level into a semi-puzzle level. I did appreciate the reset doors though. It's not bad, but even though the level does have a focus on the jumping cheep cheep the whole way through, the way it's used it completely different between both halves and ends up feeling less cohesive than if you'd just managed to find a way to make the fish more threatening by creating situations where Mario gets slowed by it. --------------------------------------- #30, "MONTY MOLE MOUNTAIN" by Shiny Ninetales Level Design: 7/30 Creativity: 8/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 15/50 Comments: First life impressions: Oh goody a level that requires the player to keep a mushroom but doesn't have the courtesy to tell them that before they reach that point and feel their heart sink. Second life impressions: And then I discovered after saving a mushroom to that point again that there's an INVISIBLE mushroom sitting on top of the turn blocks you need to break to continue. This is just stupid! A player will see the barrier and say "dang now I have to restart and carefully carry a mushroom over here" then proceed to kill themselves and try again, like I did. But putting a hidden mushroom there makes the player look like an idiot for not predicting that there was one there. Moreover, it makes the whole setup completely pointless since at that point why even have the barrier in the first place if you're going to (secretly) provide all the tools to get through it. It feels like an insult to the player. And it's partly tragic too because the first half of the level before that point isn't terrible. It's hard, sure, but the moles and diagonal platforms are pretty reasonably navigable. It's not until the second half though that my sympathies go out the window. The combination of fast popping moles, lava lotuses and tiny diagonal platforms to jump across is just awful. For whatever reason you don't give the player a powerup at the midpoint, requiring them to get partway into the second half before providing one--in the danger zone of a lotus, making it almost not worth the time to get the mushroom at all if not for the fact the next section is just full of annoying setups and terrain designs. Did you know that the graphics on the diagonal platforms don't actually match their collision boxes? The tips of each platform on both ends are actually just air, meaning those 1-tile diagonal platforms you provided are actually a lot smaller than they look. This level just has so many design quirks and its difficulty just spikes like crazy after the midpoint. Was not a fan. --------------------------------------- #31, "New York Subway" by DogLivesMatter Level Design: 21/30 Creativity: 13/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 34/50 Comments: I don't think the ice physics were necessary. They didn't even really make the level harder, just slightly more annoying as I had to constantly keep readjusting Mario's position. Otherwise, this is a pretty decent skull raft riding level, with a nice balance of on-the-raft and off-the-raft gameplay. There were a decent number of powerups provided too, making it not too difficult to handle the numerous obstacles thrown at you. There did seem to be one or two poorly timed piranhas though, something that I see pretty often with raft rides like these since you can never be certain that the player is going to spawn it at a point where it won't force the player to take a hit. Pretty good overall, but I'm still confused about the addition of ice physics. --------------------------------------- #32, "FRONT DOOR" by lolyoshi Level Design: 21/30 Creativity: 13/20 Polish: (Negative) 9/10 Total: 33/50 Comments: This is actually a really hard level to judge because it's not really a standard level, but instead your own interpretation of the 8 rooms in Bowser's Castle. So I think it's probably best to compare this level to the original since that was the flavor the level went for. In more than one way, your rooms felt easier than the original rooms even without having the switch palaces available. Not all rooms were created equally either--some were much longer or shorter than others, and a few, but not all, actually had powerups in them. Room 2 was really good and I enjoyed the rising/falling pipes but it felt very long in comparison to the others, especially compared to room 4 which was both short and easy. Room 5 has a good swimming section mixed with Layer 2, but I couldn't help but feel like it was basically just your take on vertical swimming layer 2 room from the original. Room 3 was dangerous with the lotuses, but very short and also had powerups. I think my favorite room was Room 6 with the grinders on line guides, but more could've been done to put them in Mario's way. Mario was, for the most part, safe to walk under at least half of them because their tracks did not reach down far enough to touch him if he was small. Room 8 was probably the most creative one, using the wall triangles to make for some interesting climbing, though timing against some of the saws running around was tough. And the final room before where Bowser would be was also pretty well made, but since it was aiming to be a different take on the real level's equivalent room, ended up feeling a lot less unique than the other rooms. It was too similar, and I think that's a problem that applies to the whole level. It feels like a modification of the original level and not a truly unique level of its own. Ultimately, I think you set out to recreate the feeling of the original Bowser's Castle level and I think you nailed it. But I'm not sure how well it translated overall. Some of the rooms in the original level were pretty simple and maybe a few were longer or shorter than the others (the original's layer 2 thwomp room for one) but I think you could've strived to make each one "your own" instead of relying on the guidelines set by the original. In the end, I think the level is still overall good, but I would've liked to see you develop the ideas behind each room more. One Polish note: There was a slightly weird layer 3 BG palette in Room 2. I think you might have used a bad BG palette or something because it didn't look right to me. Also, for whatever reason the first green pipe in that same room would dip down and on the way back up turn into an orange pipe. Weird. --------------------------------------- #33, "The Boney Crew" by Wind Fish Level Design: 17/30 Creativity: 11/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 28/50 Comments: Pretty sure your plan was to remind the player of the SMB3 airship/tank levels with this one. I think it worked, though it was much easier than any of those levels. It seems kind of odd to use the jumping Bowser statues instead of Bony Beetles in a level primarily about bony enemies. However, even if they didn't fit the theme they did provide a few instances of danger throughout the level. The Dry Bones themselves weren't always placed that well, usually just to be an obstacle. Their best uses were for crossing spiked gaps and sometimes getting up fast enough to still be on Mario's platform before the autoscroller moved on. In general it felt kind of bare-bones, no pun intended. Would've liked to see you add more to your ideas. Bony Beetles probably would've helped here. --------------------------------------- #34, "YOSHI'S HOUSE?" by Kyanite Level Design: 10/30 Creativity: 6/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 16/50 Comments: Well there was basically nothing to this level. And weirdly enough the secret exit was easier to stumble across than the regular exit. Just needed more level in general because the brief cave segment started out pretty well, though the swoopers were little threat. Not much more to say because there just wasn't much to see here. --------------------------------------- #35, "GHOST FOREST" by Matheus2653 Level Design: 17/30 Creativity: 12/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 29/50 Comments: Well I appreciate that the red switch palace had more use than to get that one powerup. Still not sure it was a necessary addition at all in the context of the contest though. Anyway this level kinda goes all over the place with its ideas and if you don't do the secret exit it's way shorter. I wish there had been a midpoint for the secret exit just because it started getting a little long (unless there was one hiding behind one of those reset doors). The blue Yoshi was used well, though it was unexpected overall. I did like how it tied into the shell at the regular goal; I was wondering what that was for when I beat the regular exit. Despite all that, the level didn't feel particularly strong, exploring some ideas only once or twice before discarding them, such as the moving floor hole and we also took a brief foray into a ghost house for about 5 screens before finishing the level. I think it could've used a little more focus overall, add a midpoint at the path split, and it would've been better. --------------------------------------- #36, "Crystal Castle" by RussianMan Level Design: 22/30 Creativity: 16/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 38/50 Comments: Argh, another cool level cut short by, presumably, running out of time! I really enjoyed the little bit you presented here, carefully hiding dangers offscreen, requiring the player to pay close attention to their surroundings. Almost all the damage I took was from self-induced reactionary jumps because I thought some enemy was going to hit me...so I jumped headfirst into the spikes above instead. And then the enemy fell off the screen because there was no platform for it. The level doesn't go for an exploration of one or two particular sprites but instead chooses to explore how a variety of sprites interact with the sprite-passthrough Layer 2 setting and the player's expectations. Really wish you'd had the time to finish this one because as it is it's super good but not long enough for it to have gotten going in full. --------------------------------------- #37, "Meringue Heights" by Grugi Level Design: 20/30 Creativity: 13/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 33/50 Comments: I don't know why you bothered putting the blue switch block outlines down when there's no way to access them for the level. They make sense in the context of a full hack but in a contest it just feels like you're saying to the player "this is where I could've made things easier for you but chose not to". But don't worry that's not a huge issue. Most of their uses were just to minimize jump distances for the most part. I also question the necessity of the dino-rhino room though since it had basically nothing to do with any of the rest of the level. Definitely came alive in the second half with the long ride avoiding gradually more difficult saw setups before it returned to the rotating platform ideas seen earlier in the level. I also appreciated the swinging platform bonus with the P-Coins and saws. It was a fun little diversion right before the midpoint. Overall good, maybe should've been a little bit more focused instead of switch between platforms and line guides, and that bonus room definitely should've been built off the themes you'd already explored. --------------------------------------- #38, "Block Snake Skyway" by smwc23105 [Pink Gold Peach] Level Design: 15/30 Creativity: 11/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 26/50 Comments: It's a block snake level, not much else to say about it honestly. The first half had some interesting ideas with the enemies set to intercept the snake's path by walking on tiles that it eventually consumes, and eating through the cloud blocks to get a yoshi coin was neat. The second half used a custom path but had a lot of waiting in it. You probably could've sped up the snake's progress so the player wouldn't be sitting around avoiding bullets as they waited for the snake to open up the next path. Pretty easy overall but didn't explore the snake's possibilities to its full potential. --------------------------------------- #39, "YOSHI'S ISLAND 1" by yogui Level Design: 11/30 Creativity: 9/20 Polish: (Negative) 8/10 Total: 18/50 Comments: There's a segment where you can use invisible coin blocks to get a 1up, but if you do that you'll likely trap yourself and be unable to progress without dying because of how you have the platforms aligned. It's also possible for your guided platform after the midpoint to push Mario straight through it and into the pit if you get trapped between the ? blocks and the platform. I think the level lacked testing overall. Many of the fuzzies were simply not a threat to Mario at all. I also thought that it was really ugly to see these big vertical brown block walls coming down from the sky for no great reason. The brown spinning platforms were used in good fashion but only a couple of them were used for anything more than a glorified platform to get from A to B. Needed more of everything in the level: testing, focus, difficulty, etc. --------------------------------------- #40, "Bullet Bonanza" by Minuy600 Level Design: 23/30 Creativity: 16/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 39/50 Comments: The level gets surprisingly hard after the midpoint. I think that's due to the increased amount of chucks that show up everywhere mixed with the large number of bullets and banzais that shows up. I'm glad you didn't add a random bullet generator though. That would've been too much. I liked the heavy use of thin pipes as colorful detail and also how the only large pipe was enterable, meaning if you paid attention you could easily find the bonus. The midpoint felt a tiny bit lopsided towards the front of the level but that might just be because the second half had a lot more happening in it and was more dangerous overall. In general I think you positioned the bullet bill launchers pretty well, even staggering their horizontal positions slightly so that they would fire at staggered times, potentially catching the player off-guard. The 5 cannon setup right before the bonus room pipe is a perfect example of this. One complaint I have is that I think you could've done with fewer Chucks overall, especially in the last half of the level. They're such a pain to deal with that I just tried avoiding them as much as possible. And since most of them were the Clappin' variety, they couldn't chase me down either. --------------------------------------- #41, "YOSHI'S ISLAND 1" by TheRealGDColon Level Design: 11/30 Creativity: 7/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 18/50 Comments: The level feels like it's lacking substance. There just aren't enough obstacles on the line guides to make them feel interesting, even once the On/Off blocks are introduced in higher numbers in the second half. There was one segment with a fuzzy chasing you on the line guide but that was the only one and I discovered that if you're quick enough you can drop him off the guide when you hit the On/Off block. There's really not much to say here because there really wasn't much to the level. It needed more stuff because as it is it's just a fairly boring line guide level. --------------------------------------- #42, "ILLUSION ISLAND #1" by yoshimap Level Design: 9/30 Creativity: 7/20 Polish: (Negative) 7/10 Total: 13/50 Comments: You shouldn't put blocks or landmasses on top of the tree trunks or leaves because when you hit them they will leave gaps that look ugly. You also had so many sprites on screen after the midpoint that Yoshi's head disappeared and some of the bullet bills would not fire. The midpoint was very lopsided, with the goal being only a few screens after it. There were powerups everywhere, and I'm not sure why you took the time to mention the note blocks in your message box when they were barely used at all. The level just lacked focus and proper length in general. I thought you might be going somewhere with the rising/falling pipes but as it turns out it was only used once and then never again. The secret exit didn't do much for the level either, instead just requiring the level to be replayed and then backtrack once you have the key. Overall, this definitely feels like it was made by someone who's new to making levels. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the level, but there's a lot you can improve. Keep trying. --------------------------------------- #43, "YOSHI'S ISLAND 1" by DaiaNerd Level Design: 10/30 Creativity: 6/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 17/50 Comments: Feels like your first time making a level. There was nothing fundamentally wrong with it, but it felt pretty short and didn't have much in the way of an idea. It was basically a filler sort of level. I did like the piranhas jumping out of the water, but just so you know they won't ever jump out again because water isn't considered a solid tile for them to jump from. Just keep practicing and you'll eventually improve. Try taking a sprite and seeing how many different ways you can use it to create interesting situations. --------------------------------------- #44, "Primeape Bridge" by snoruntpyro Level Design: 23/30 Creativity: 16/20 Polish: (Negative) 8/10 Total: 37/50 Comments: The level started out really strong, kept going and then stumbled right at the very end. You had some really cool setups of saws, both line-guided and grounded, mixed in with throw blocks and moving castle bricks throughout the level. The throw blocks especially acted as good impediments to Mario's speed, causing him to stop and quickly tear down the wall blocking his path before the grinders chasing him could catch up. And you also started introducing the Jumping Bowser statue into the mix in the second half, which made for an additional danger to avoid while progressing. But then you decided to switch up the formula in the last few screens and bring the rapid nature of the rest of the level screeching to a halt with some strange and out of place flying segments that required you to take hits from munchers to proceed through a 1-tile high gap after successfully flying up. It felt really out of place and completely killed the pace of the level for me. You really should've just finished out the level with a few more complicated saw setups and ended it that way; it would've been much stronger. Good level overall, but I couldn't help but feel disappointed at the end. --------------------------------------- #45, "Streamside Grove" by Gloomy Level Design: 21/30 Creativity: 14/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 35/50 Comments: Started out a bit slow but seemed to find its footing around the secret exit. From there we had the dolphins being used as obstacles and platforms, as well as the introducing of Porcupuffer in the second half. The rising and falling tide also saw some interesting combination with the jumpin' cheep cheeps and dolphin generator throughout the level. I don't think the secret exit really did anything for the level other than provide a brief distraction and make me play the first half a second time. Definitely enjoyable as it was, maybe there was one too many ideas of how to interact with the tide in here and could've benefitted from some more focus. --------------------------------------- #46, "LEMMY'S AQUARIUM" by Pseudogon Level Design: 21/30 Creativity: 13/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 34/50 Comments: Pretty decent underwater Layer 2 castle. The level had a theme going with its Rip Van Fish appearing dangerous but actually being easy to manipulate into harmlessness. Even once the Whistlin' Chuck was introduced in the second half, the Rip Van Fish were still possible to avoid or defeat thanks to the design or tools provided. I think the first half could've used another powerup somewhere. I only saw one powerup there and the second half had three. Maybe I missed one, but it was a little odd. --------------------------------------- #47, "CONCRETE VALLEY" by turbofa Level Design: 20/30 Creativity: 14/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 34/50 Comments: I wanted to like this level more than I ended up liking it partially because I liked how you used Dino-Rhinos and partly because I enjoyed the general design of the level. But the secret exit more than anything just kinda dragged me down. Elements of getting to the key didn't really feel that well timed, such as the hops across the munchers on rhinos to get the springboard, then using them to hop back across, or the flying green koopas in the key room being placed in such a way that you barely make it to the vertical moving platform. Then you have to manipulate the Chuck to get to the vine for the P-Switch and you'd better hope you didn't accidentally collect the coins to the keyhole. It also doesn't help that you can't get the midpoint and try for the secret exit again because that falling gray platform setup doesn't allow you to return to the first half so you'd better not collect the midpoint and die or you're stuck beating the level again. There also weren't enough powerups in my opinion, considering the difficulty of the level is decently high. Didn't help that there were a few switch block outlines taunting me through the level, even though there's no way to have them activated. It started out good but wore on me the longer I spent in the level. --------------------------------------- #48, "WHAT THE FUZZ" by ft029 Level Design: 24/30 Creativity: 17/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 41/50 Comments: The level was very creative with its Fuzzies use. That Fuzzy "platform" was especially interesting. My biggest issue with the level was that while it was difficult throughout, not all of its setups were equally difficult. Juggling the springboard with Yoshi while the platform is moving around was tough at first, though I did realize that the moving platform was given some leeway for you to get up and over the wall and pick up your springboard before continuing. Not sure how I feel about the "spitting items through a wall" interaction Yoshi has though, even if it was creative. It's hard for me to rate this level because it's pretty far removed from traditional Mario design, but you did explore the concept of Fuzzies as a platform pretty well as the level progressed so... Overall I did enjoy the level quite a bit. There were a lot of fun athletic elements where it felt like there was no way you were going to succeed but things were timed well enough that you would survive with little issue. I may have mentioned difficulty spikes but they were honestly fairly minor and just required practice and being careful. Nice work --------------------------------------- #49, "YOSHI'S ISLAND 1" by Gamma V Level Design: 17/30 Creativity: 12/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Penalty: -2 (For Pipe Lakitu throwing Spinies through solid objects, unintended use) Total: 27/50 Comments: Just a pleasant little walk through a river forest. I think you used the Pipe Lakitus pretty well, though the waterborne ones looked really weird throwing their Spinies through solid objects. I think you really should've used rope tiles instead since they're passthrough. As they are, it feels really unintended to have the spinies ignore the laws of physics like that. The secret exit didn't really do too much for me since it was so easy to find the key and keyhole, but it did give me an excuse to go back and find all five Yoshi coins, including the one hidden in the bonus room. All in all, could probably have used a stronger focus on Pipe Lakitus but as it is it's not that bad. --------------------------------------- #50, "#6 WENDY'S HIDEAWAY" by LucasRCD Level Design: 8/30 Creativity: 6/20 Polish: (Negative) 8/10 Total: 12/50 Comments: The Red Switch kind of trivialized a lot of the level's harder elements, especially in the second half. Speaking of the second half, where was the powerup after the midpoint? I didn't find one until outside the boss room? That's just bad practice. The level itself started out interestingly enough, though I was stuck waiting for a central theme to emerge. Once I realized there wasn't really any sort of sprite setups being explored I thought that maybe you'd instead tried to see how well you could build a level out of the arch platforms and the "ice" pipes. I was kinda digging it at first. But then suddenly after the midpoint you dropped the design aesthetic that you'd used for the whole first half and part of the second in favor of just a regular castle look. Not only that, but you very much deviated from the rest of the levels ideas by turning the castle vertically and then suddenly introducing swimming in the last part. It feels to me like you just didn't know what you wanted to do with the level overall and as a result just kind of threw a bunch of vaguely castle-related challenges together. The level needs both more work and polish, but also a good central focus. Also those Classic Piranha Plants look funny with only their head popping out of the pipe. I know the stem is glitched, but it still looks wrong for a piranha to be that short. Probably would've been best to just leave them out of the level since they didn't really help in any way. --------------------------------------- #51, "GHOSTLY FIERY WOODS" by dreamworkman Level Design: 16/30 Creativity: 12/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Penalty: -3 (Color math is definitely not intended) Total: 25/50 Comments: Not sure why you decided to do this color math thing. I'm not even sure how you pulled it off to be completely honest but it didn't really help the level in any way. The level itself is nothing special, though I liked the use of the Boo Blocks to cross lava gaps. The Boo Rings just slowed down the pace of the level as Mario has to wait at a bunch of them before he can continue. The level's not too long, but I definitely felt the lack of powerups as I played. With only two to be found the whole time, you have to be very careful as you navigate the various ghosts haunting this forest. It was ok overall, but I wasn't really feeling it when it was all over. --------------------------------------- #52, "Grinder Castle" by msi810 Level Design: 25/30 Creativity: 16/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 41/50 Comments: I thought this was really well designed for the most part, though funnily enough the first half felt harder than the second because line-guided saws are a little more predictable than floor-guided ones. Still, I could really feel a good progression of ideas throughout the level as you explored different types of setups to use saws, turn blocks and throw blocks. It's funny, being Small Mario makes a lot of setups easier just because you don't have to tear down as many blocks on a wall in order to get through. Your second half could have used better powerup spacing, especially compared to the first half where you had a lot of powerups. In contrast the second half started you with two and then gave you two more before the non-existent boss fight. I preferred how you handed them out in the first half. --------------------------------------- #53, "Racing Party" by Kusrry Level Design: 16/30 Creativity: 13/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 29/50 Comments: I like how you tried out a variety of "races" within the context of vanilla SMW but I feel like the block snake part outstayed its welcome. The reset pipes were appreciated for that segment, but the second snake race was not that fun, especially when you had the three invisible coin blocks over note blocks. Too often, I would encounter that bug with note blocks that causes Mario to just run across a bunch of them without actually bouncing. The water segment was also surprisingly tough to finish because of that S curve at the end. Another thing I really didn't care for was the falling Water Mines in the cave segment. They're almost impossible to prepare for ahead of time and I definitely got hit by them multiple times. Secret exit was pretty good and I liked that it was at the start, basically making a completely new segment for me to play without replaying other parts of the level. Though I think it relied a bit too heavily on the bridge building for Mega Mole idea before turning into a simple ride the mole segment before the key. Didn't care for that Banzai Bill at the end though. The timing can be perfect or problematic depending on how fast the player accidentally spawns him. All in all, the level has some cool ideas, executes a few of them well but stays around a little too long in the second half and loses some of its luster because of it. --------------------------------------- #54, "Athletic Jumps" by Luansilva12 Level Design: 5/30 Creativity: 5/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 10/50 Comments: Extremely short level that had barely any enemies or focus to it. The only mushroom was at the end of the level because there was a yellow switch block at the start but no yellow switch? That was weird. There's just not much to say here because of its meager length. Add enemies to the line guide segment so Mario isn't just standing there doing nothing, and then just add MORE to the level. Seriously, this level was tiny. --------------------------------------- #55, "HOLD THE LINE" by MarioFan22 Level Design: 26/30 Creativity: 15/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 41/50 Comments: I can tell this level was very carefully crafted so that all the platforms would work well with the autoscroller basically no matter when you happened to jump on them to start their movements. You did a great job with the timings. My biggest complaint is that there's no midpoint. I know everything is carefully timed with the autoscroller and putting a midpoint in the middle of it risks the timings being off when you restart, but dying at the end and then having to do a fairly long, slow autoscroller amidst the relatively high challenge the level presents is a bit frustrating. The powerups were also kind of dangerous to get in places, often being surrounded by Fuzzies. One was even a fire flower, which was basically not worth trying to get without losing a hit to is fuzzy guardian. The secret exit didn't feel very necessary, but it was really short and right at the start so I guess it's not a big deal. It sounds like I'm being down on this level but many of these complaints are actually pretty minor. I really did enjoy the level and its very well-timed line guide elements. --------------------------------------- #56, "DOLPHIN PARADISE" by Galaer Level Design: 8/30 Creativity: 14/20 Polish: (Negative) 3/10 Total: 15/50 Comments: Well I have to admit I don't think i've ever really seen Dolphins used in a vertical level like this. Unfortunately, for them to be used in the ways you chose, the level's actual Polish score took a major dive. Weird palettes, tons of weird floating water jammed into other tiles, Dolphin sprite glitching and de-spawning sprites were just some of the problems plaguing the level visually. It's too bad because there were some pretty neat ideas in here. The secret exit's idea of going down in a level far enough to trigger the Dolphin generator and then riding them back up was super interesting and cool to play, and I liked the use of the Dolphin generator in the "Heaven" segment to move Mario both up and down through the area. But again it all comes down to how ugly the level looked at times. There were also just some weird water segments in the level that didn't involve dolphins but instead involved note blocks and other things. It turned out to be mostly an idea level, with the dolphin setups being interesting but the level built around it being mostly haphazard and weird. There were some good ideas, some bad ideas and some ugly ideas in here. Definitely needs work, but you made a good attempt at exploring various ways to use Dolphins in all their forms. --------------------------------------- #57, "NO WAIFU, NO LAIFU" by ThalesMangaka Level Design: 17/30 Creativity: 11/20 Polish: (Negative) 9/10 Total: 27/50 Comments: This level was very messy visually. Like, there weren't any bad palettes or cutoff tiles or anything, but there was an excess of...stuff. Lots of vines, blocks, munchers, all just sitting around the level in what I assume was an attempt at spicing up the visuals but it just felt like it cluttered the level unnecessarily. As for the level's design, it was kind of simple, without much focus, yet somehow still fun enough that I didn't mind replaying the level for the secret exit--another part of the level that felt wholly unnecessary to be totally honest. Could've used some more focus, or better development of any of the ideas put in there. Diggin' Chucks, Fuzzies, Yoshi, the Layer 3 tide...they all existed in the level but were barely utilized in interesting ways. --------------------------------------- #58, "Crossroad Canyon" by a hick Level Design: 18/30 Creativity: 12/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 30/50 Comments: Why was the second half so short? Did you run out of time? I feel like the level was trying to use the Diggin' Chucks and rocks with the slopes to provide interesting dangers of falling rocks, but never quite developed its ideas far enough. And then it also ended way too quickly before you could put any sort of ideas into the second half. Visually, I liked the little landmasses and cliffs you crafted. I just wish you'd done more with the level in general and developed the Diggin' Chucks and rocks further. --------------------------------------- #59, "Lost Castle" by Wakana Level Design: 13/30 Creativity: 10/20 Polish: (Negative) 9/10 Total: 22/50 Comments: For being called Lost Castle the level didn't really focus much on the castle itself. Castle FG palette was also a bit ugly in my opinion. Overall it was kinda short, with the secret exit being the only real memorable thing since I had a tough time finding the invisible coin block leading up to the pipe that hid it. It needs more of a central focus for the level to really stand out because as it is now it's very much just a start-to-finish sort of level with a minor detour if you want the secret exit. Not much to say on it honestly. --------------------------------------- #60, "YOSHI'S ISLAND 1" by homerscout Level Design: 7/30 Creativity: 4/20 Polish: (Negative) 9/10 Total (Before DQ): 10/50 Total: DQ/50 (Impossible to beat) Comments: You completely forgot to make the pipe after the midpoint exit-enabled. You even forgot to put the screen exit there. Since the level can't be beaten, this one's Disqualified. However, I may as well give some comments about what I was able to play. There's a huge lack of focus in the level. It starts with Koopas, then goes to an autoscroller with a bullet generator and Banzai Bills, then there's an optional castle segment that felt decently designed but was totally optional for some reason. Looking ahead, it appears the level turns into a lava raft ride after the midpoint that doesn't look awful but also doesn't look super interesting. The bigger problem is that there's no central theme to the level. It just feels like whatever you wanted to put in there without really thinking of whether or not it would make the level better as a whole. Choose one idea and stick with it to build a stronger level. Other notes: You definitely chose a wrong palette to go with the mushroom ledges. Did you know it's possible to desync the koopa jumps at the start so that you hop off the first one and the second one has flown too high for you to reach? Also, the bullet part was both really boring and really badly designed. Bullet generators are kind of awful, and while the Banzai Bills made me react to them, it was also very boring waiting there jumping from platform to platform in relative safety. --------------------------------------- #61, "STALKING CASTLE" by LOLIPOP1136 Level Design: 17/30 Creativity: 12/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total (Before DQ): 29/50 Total: DQ/50 (Whole level is built on an unintended Layer 2 camera gimmick) Comments: Why did you build the level around an unintended Layer 2 gimmick? If it were just a tiny segment you'd probably have just gotten a penalty but this is the whole level. Sorry, but we've agreed it should be disqualified because of this. That doesn't mean I won't offer feedback though. It's a very interesting idea but the execution is very shaky. For one, considering the mental gymnastics you have to go through to play the level and pay attention to all the moving parts, there are barely any powerups handed out. In fact, I found it wasn't even worth it to get the powerup after the midpoint because it was surrounded by a line guided saw, a jumping bowser statue and a floor guided saw. If your powerups aren't accessible, why bother putting them in the level? And it's too bad because the level is in dire need of accessible powerups to avoid the difficulty spike it becomes in the second half. The first half wasn't so bad, usually presenting one saw or statue at a time so you could work your way through, but in the second half you'll often have two or three enemies show up, one of which is probably a saw on a guide surrounding the On/Off switch you need to hit to stay alive. It's a bit overwhelming at times and I definitely died a lot playing it. Thankfully, the level is pretty short overall and the midpoint is well placed, which is a good thing because I wouldn't want a huge level based around this concept. There's an interesting core concept and there's progression of ideas, but the difficulty is just too rough in the second half and you based the level on a disqualifiable concept. That's disappointing. --------------------------------------- #62, "WATER POOL" by Minimay Level Design: 8/30 Creativity: 11/20 Polish: (Negative) 6/10 Total: 16/50 Comments: This level started interesting and turns abyssmal by the end. Going back and forth through the same area but under different water circumstances is a cool idea, but for whatever reason that was all technically optional because there isn't any reward for exploring those parts, not even a secret exit. Hell, at least a secret exit would've made me feel fulfilled exploring there. But no it appears the real reason for those optional areas, according to Lunar Magic, is to bring the Blue P-Switch in the flooded part to the autoscroll part so that you can activate a chain of P-Switches that allow you to get free platforms to to the end of the level. I beat it without that knowledge. Maybe I should've thought to bring a switch to get the mushroom that's surrounded by brown blocks right at the start of the autoscroller, but that artificially lengthens the level by about an extra 100% every time you die at the midpoint. As such, I never bothered trying because it's so out of the way. But choosing not to bring the P-Switch to the autoscroller causes Mario to be totally without powerups for the entire segment because you've arbitrarily locked off his powerup and then randomly put a yellow ! outline in the level despite there being to way to access the Yellow Switch. That's two powerups that you're denying the player. So Mario gets to be small for the whole segment of rip van fish spam, ice physics, tiny water jumps and conveyor ropes. This segment is just atrocious. It looks bad, there's an incredible amount of slowdown, the difficulty is way beyond anything else the level presents and it's just completely unfun to make these wonky jumps between tiny bits of floating water while avoiding fish of all types. And why did the level have like, 7 Yoshi Coins in it? What? This level could've been interesting but all my goodwill towards it left once I started playing the second half. --------------------------------------- #63, "Chocolate Cliff" by Celestial Seraph Level Design: 8/30 Creativity: 7/20 Polish: (Negative) 9/10 Penalty: -3 (Z-Ordering tricks to hide a door behind a Yoshi coin is unintended) Total: 11/50 Comments: The falling segment is so dumb. Coins are supposed to be safety in Mario games. It wasn't even that dangerous after the first unexpected death. Why is this level in such short supply of powerups and why are they placed so far away from the start/midpoint? Why bother explaining the reset door when you only use it once? Why are there these arbitrary P-Switch segments? The secret exit is pretty useless too and there's no indication given that you have to collect all five Yoshi Coins for the door to arbitrarily appear behind it. I had to check Lunar Magic to find it. The extensive land cutout decoration in the first part is also pretty ugly to look at. This level needed focus badly because as it is, it's just a bunch of random segments strung together with some Chucks and cheap shots for difficulty. --------------------------------------- #64, "Lakitu's Grassland" by Everest Level Design: 19/30 Creativity: 12/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 31/50 Comments: There's just no midpoint in this level is there? Why not? This is an otherwise solid, yet unremarkable level but that lack of a midpoint really baffles me. I liked what you did with the secret exit just because I immediately figured out the purpose of the Flying ? Block but what I didn't know was that the key was hidden elsewhere in the level. I also liked the use of Pipe Lakitus hiding in bushes at the bottom of the screen, but they were severely underused. I wish you'd found more ways to fit them in. Unfortunately the level kinda drops off in quality around the time the Koopa jumps come about, mostly because after that segment the level feels like it's over but keeps on going for another half dozen screens without really feeling like a good "end" to the level. I think you should've developed a few of the ideas you had a little more and then trimmed some of the other elements that weren't very interesting or central to the Lakitu theme. --------------------------------------- #65, "#2 MORTON'S CASTLE" by mkwstar Level Design: 8/30 Creativity: 6/20 Polish: (Negative) 6/10 Total: 10/50 Comments: This level has no idea what it wants to be. First it's a castle, then it's a cave with a skull raft, then optionally it's an ugly ghost cave P-Ballooning segment, then it's a vertical climb with layer 2 and ghosts, then it's a boring ice physics autoscroller that last no time at all before ending. FOCUS on one or two elements instead of trying to use everything SMW offers you. Your levels will be much stronger that way. As it is though, this level is pretty bad. No idea is developed long enough for any interesting level design to actually come through. The vertical climb with layer 2 is the hardest part because there's very little leeway given to the player as you climb through the vine and moving spikes. And then right after that comes the very short ice autoscroller that's only a couple screens long and has almost no enemies in it. The ghost cave is really ugly to look at visually, with bad palettes on the foreground, Big Boo and Eeries, as well as a glitched graphic P-Balloon. The secret exit wasn't that great to find either, since I didn't think to turn around and enter the pipe I came out of at the midpoint. Maybe that message box that had no text in it would've told me about it but it was blank.All in all, you tried to do way too much with the level and didn't do any of it very well. --------------------------------------- #66, "SLUSHY MOORS" by Eevee Level Design: 24/30 Creativity: 13/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 37/50 Comments: I liked this level a fair bit. The lack of ice physics despite the snowy palette is explained away by the title: the level's actually slushy. I also liked the use of the "frozen" turn blocks as decorations with "unfrozen" ones just to add a little extra detail and believability to how cold it is in the level. On the topic of sprite placements, I think you might have had a few too many Lava Lotuses in places, not necessarily because they're hard to deal with due to their projectile, but because I noticed that their projectiles were having trouble spawning properly at times. The same could be said of the Sumo Bros' fire strikes. I'd have also liked to see a little more interaction between those two sprites to spice up the level's design. It was a fun level with room for a little more focus and general improvements. --------------------------------------- #67, "GHOST WATER" by Sixcorby Level Design: 27/30 Creativity: 18/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 45/50 Comments: This was a really creative use of the various Layer 2 smashers in a way other than to crush Mario. The transparent water was a good choice for the level, allowing the player to actually navigate the level's hazards properly. I very much underestimated the fast smasher at the end. Who knew Floppin' Cheep Cheeps could be so dangerous? The Porcupuffer is a little hard to deal with at times because of his weird relationship with the camera, and seeing him float in the air is always a bit odd, but using the smasher to make him go up and down was very clever. Powerups were plentiful, which was good because learning the level does take a little time, and overall it doesn't outstay its welcome, instead presenting a variety of different ways to use a Layer 2 water "smasher" both before and after the midpoint. Very well done overall. --------------------------------------- #68, "Agaric Sabotage" by GbreezeSunset Level Design: 27/30 Creativity: 20/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 47/50 Comments: Normally I'm lukewarm on puzzle levels but this was very well made. The level centered around the idea of Mario's size and what he can and can't do in both states. The first half is almost exclusively spin jump puzzles, figuring out how and when to stop a spinjump so you can progress, with setups getting more and more tricky as you go. (Though the Rex setup felt a little too precise compared to the rest--maybe I just was doing it wrong.) The second half started messing around with figuring out ways to keep Mario small despite also needing to find ways through the turn blocks. This meant figuring out how to damage yourself in many cases, even as you juggle a cape, other mushrooms and eventually a Yoshi. I really liked how the level built upon itself throughout, presenting new and different ways to ask the player to use the Spin Jump. I do wish there had been at least one more puzzle that used the cape just so it didn't feel so much like an outlier in terms of an individual puzzle though. Super fun, very creative, mostly steady difficulty and solid progression of ideas. Well done. --------------------------------------- #69, "SELTZER FORTRESS" by HammerGuy Level Design: 22/30 Creativity: 15/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 37/50 Comments: The combination of Layer 2 slow smashers mixed with the moving Ghost House floor was surprisingly effective. Though it is weird that you can't jump up through the holes. I guess there was never a reason for that to be the case in vanilla SMW though since they were always used as traps that led straight to a pit death. There were definitely some signs of level progression as it went on, with setups becoming a little more complex as they went. I also appreciate that falling through a hole wasn't instant death, instead letting you (carefully) navigate back and try again in many cases. I probably would've liked to see the midpoint moved a bit further back from the Boss door, but I did appreciate it being there when I died a couple times fighting Big Boo. Speaking of, that certainly was an interesting way to handle his fight. Though, maybe a better idea would've been to use the Ghost floor and drop blocks through it instead just because it would fit the rest of the level's ideas a little better. Pretty good overall. --------------------------------------- #70, "YOSHI'S ISLAND 4" by Heraga Level Design: 18/30 Creativity: 13/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 31/50 Comments: Started out a little slow, but picked up once you really started introducing multiple saw setups. I was surprised when it ended though, since that point really felt like it could've been the midpoint of a longer level instead. Difficulty was mostly good, though without the yellow switch palace pressed it spikes a tiny bit whenever you have to spin jump off saws. What you had was good overall, but there was definitely potential to do more with the level. --------------------------------------- #71, "Battle Royale" by Steven Level Design: 5/30 Creativity: 6/20 Polish: (Negative) 6/10 Total: 7/50 Comments: This level is just kinda bad. The concept just doesn't work well in a vanilla setting like this. The constant stop and go action of using a P-Switch to progress also makes for a lot of boring waiting around. It's trivially easy to reset the Mega Mole drops so that they never fall on you, which is good because they're unpredictable and will hit you more often than not. The rooms are not of steadily rising difficulty either. Room 6 in particular stands out as a sore point here, with two piranhas that don't act like they should when they get stuck in the mushroom platforms, a flyin' hammer bro and a single cloud. Easily the hardest room in the level just because you probably have to take a hit to the hammer bro to make it through or pray that he despawned. And speaking of despawning, there's a lot of it in this level. Those Mega Moles eat up sprite space like crazy and the other enemies in the level are the casualties. The level also had a number of visual problems: stacked munchers at the start, bad FG palette on the mushroom platforms, sprite glitches on the footballs and podoboos and weird and nonsensical water usage. There are a lot of problems with this level, few of which are easily fixed. --------------------------------------- #72, "Ice Cream Glacier" by MasterSkodwarde [swagassmustafa] Level Design: 22/30 Creativity: 13/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 35/50 Comments: I really liked how you combined the Dino Rhinos with ice physics here. I also liked how you found a palette for them that looked icy; that was a nice visual touch. Honestly though, I think the first half was stronger than the second since the focus was almost exclusively on Dino Rhino setups. The second half introduced a lot of Chucks and some Flyin' Hammer Bros as well, but dropped some of the Dino Rhinos. As such, it didn't feel as focused or cohesive since previously you'd been designing with the dino rhino jump behavior in mind. It's not bad or anything, but it was less interesting. The secret pipe with the Dolphins was neat, but the dolphins themselves were pretty unnecessary since all the jumps were doable without them and there was also water below. All in all, I liked it but wish you'd stayed focused on the Dino Rhinos in the second half. --------------------------------------- #73, "spOOpy FOREST" by MalusAmigo Level Design: 14/30 Creativity: 11/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 25/50 Comments: Why is there no powerup after the midpoint? Did you forget to put one in? The level's not particularly hard or anything but it's a strange omission. The level is pretty basic for a haunted forest, with some big boo rings to slow down the pace. There's really not much to its ghostly setups, with the platforming being pretty light overall. The most unique thing about it was the use of the moving floor hole on the logs. I'd have liked to see that concept expanded upon more. Otherwise, this is a pretty average level in need of a central idea or focus. --------------------------------------- #74, "Basalt Keep" by CondorTalon Level Design: 14/30 Creativity: 13/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 27/50 Comments: The midpoint is super lopsided but boy and I glad it is because the segment that comes afterwards is just AWFUL to play and having to replay a large chunk of the level to get back to it would have been just... Anyway, this level starts out with some interesting ideas of retraversal through places you've already been but with something different, in this case lava or no lava. Difficulty is high though, and powerups are a little scarce at times. Don't forget that grinders can be slide-killed and produce a glitch tile when it happens; one of the ones in the cave segment is set up perfectly for that. And then we get to the Layer 2 Grinder section. This section is just waaaaaay too hard at the end. Everything up to the final gauntlet is tough but manageable with practice. The gauntlet though? Grinders on guides everywhere, ceiling, lava and no safe spaces to stand. This section is a nightmare to get through. I can't even tell you how many times I died trying to get through it. You have to avoid getting crushed by the ceiling, burned in the lava and sliced by the grinders as you weave your way through to get to the end. It's extremely unforgiving even with the powerup right before it and the one at the start of the area. I'm not quite sure what possessed you to spike the difficulty that hard but it basically soured me on the whole level due to how unreasonable it was. Oh, and 500 seconds to beat the level start to finish is definitely not enough time when you have four large sections to explore before the midpoint. An interesting concept that could've scored much higher, but was tanked by a awful difficulty spike at the end. Too bad. --------------------------------------- #75, "DONUT GHOST VILLAGE" by NGB Level Design: 13/30 Creativity: 10/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 23/50 Comments: Oh, Fishin' Boo and your magical warping fire...you're such a good enemy. Honestly the level used him pretty well, putting the player in his danger zone just long enough to be threatening but not unreasonable. But aside from the Fishin' Boo there wasn't much to the level. You tried using the moving floor hole a little bit and it did present some danger, but it didn't really see enough use to be a really interesting element. The level was also really short, short enough that it didn't have nor need a midpoint. The level needed more, well, "level" in it to really get going. Expand upon the Fishin' Boo, or use the floor hole in more ways. And definitely make it a little longer next time. (Looking in Lunar Magic afterwards, the level isn't actually that short, since it's 16 screens long, but the way you spaced out all the obstacles made it feel really short because Mario had a lot of empty space he could just run right in.) --------------------------------------- #76, "Tricky but hard" by KDeee Level Design: 24/30 Creativity: 12/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 36/50 Comments: What I like about this level is its simplicity. There are absolutely no enemies anywhere in the level and only two types of sprites are used: Rotating grey platforms and Falling gray platforms. Everything is timed very well for the player to be able to react to what's being presented to them, leaving it up to them to be able to pull off the tricky jumps required to beat the level. It's also not very long and has a midpoint in it to prevent excess frustration, as well as a free 1-up to mitigate the fact that we're not playing with infinite lives like the final compilation will likely have. The platforming is challenging but feels pretty good most of the time, though the downwards segment right before the midpoint is a little funky to navigate. I also felt like the falling platforms segment at the very end was a bit unnecessary and the level would've ended stronger had you just done a few more rotating platform setups instead. But either way the level, while not extremely creative, was definitely solid. I feared what I'd be playing when I saw "tricky but hard" as the title, but was pleasantly surprised in the end. Solid work, well done. --------------------------------------- #77, "Vanilla Bridge" by Tob Level Design: 20/30 Creativity: 12/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Penalty: -1 The Red ? Blocks are being used in an unintended way. Total: 31/50 Comments: This level uses a lot of athletic elements in kinda strange ways, such as the Brown Swinging Platform at the end of the level. Unfortunately, it never really sticks with one idea, instead choosing to try out almost all of the various platforms and line guide stuff at some point or another. It suffers a bit because of that since the level never really finds an identity beyond "sky athletic". It's not horrible or anything; I had fun playing it for sure and it presented a decent athletic challenge. I just wish it had chosen a few of the elements usually seen in athletic levels and developed those ideas into a slightly better level. You seemed to be on your way to doing that with the checkered platforms and gray rotating platforms, but didn't use them enough to really say that they were the focus of the level. --------------------------------------- #78, "Notable Heights" by Quantix Level Design: 23/30 Creativity: 15/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 38/50 Comments: The Jumping theme is very evident throughout the whole level with wide swathes built out of note blocks and the vast majority of enemies in the level having some kind of jumping characteristic to tie them together. I actually really enjoyed it overall. Difficulty was pretty good though there was one segment with a Diggin' Chuck that could have ended up with a lot of rocks accumulating in a pit. Thankfully you can just scroll them off screen and try again. I was surprised that you didn't seem to use the sideways bouncing note blocks in your level construction, though at the same time I'm a little thankful for it because those blocks in a level that's primarily over a pit can lead to one frustrating time. Generally fun, good length and I liked how almost all the elements had to do with jumping in one way or another. --------------------------------------- #79, "So Safe It's Boring" by Lazy Level Design: 24/30 Creativity: 17/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Penalty: -3 Reason: using Goal Spheres as obstacles, potential for death during the goal walk, weird manipulation of midpoint mechanics to get to the second half. Total: 38/50 Comments: Well I'm not sure how to think of this level since it's so far removed from traditional design. And yet, the level has a focus, it has a progression of idea and it's genuinely interesting and creative in doing what it sets out to do. The puzzle on the secret exit really made me stop and consider how all the various elements given to me would work together and I felt very clever having figured it out in the end. No, the problem is that this level skirts VERY close to that line of unintended behaviors listed in the rules. Dying during the goal walk sequence is unintended, but the goal spheres are being used as they are supposed to. It's the level design around them that causes the unintended effects. And in the secret exit, they're just meant to be avoided and don't kill the player at all. But after discussion with the other judges we decided that a penalty had to be applied here. I think the level is good. I was skeptical at first because these sorts of levels are usually just ways to troll the player but I can tell this level was made extremely carefully (Well, aside from one of two weird Diggin' Chuck rock jumps in the first half that I disliked a lot and discovered that they could desync from the platform you're meant to jump from). Finding the normal exit is pretty simple, but the secret exit is much harder and much more genius. In the first half you avoid the Goal Spheres because they will kill you. In the second you avoid them because beating the level accidentally is basically just like taking a death, but instead you get a victorious jingle taunting you for not being more careful. It's weird, slightly maddening and really satisfying all at the same time. It's just that sticking point about unintended behavior that will make this hard to give a final score to in the end. If the goal spheres aren't penalized, I imagine collecting a midpoint while in the goal walk then dying to access the second half probably will (That was super clever by the way). In case it gets lost later on, I'm giving this one a 41/50 before any penalties that may or may not get applied by a consensus vote. I think you did a great job despite the technical oddities. --------------------------------------- #80, "Volcanic Volcano" by Najeraldo Level Design: 18/30 Creativity: 12/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 30/50 Comments: The secret exit here actually felt ok since it basically asked the player to go through an entirely different path before intersecting the main path for a second on the way to the keyhole. The level itself, however, is kinda all over the place. There's a unifying theme of "volcano" throughout all parts by including lava and lava elements, but none of the elements is really used in any clever way or builds upon itself as the level goes on. Layer 2 lava, Skull Rafts, Torpedo Teds... there are a ton of pieces in here but it just feels like a lot of disparate elements loosely tied together by the presence of lava in each location. It's not bad but it could be so much stronger by choosing certain elements and exploring what there are in terms of possibilities. Some other notes: The upside down piranha plants in the raft ride can get mistimed, making it impossible to proceed without taking a hit from them. Personally I didn't care much for the P-Switch run for the key but at least it was something different. It looked like you started having an idea with the shortly branching paths around the midpoint but that idea was quickly abandoned. --------------------------------------- #81, "#1 Iggy's fortress" by Rykon-V73 Level Design: 12/30 Creativity: 8/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 20/50 Comments: There just weren't enough enemies in the level to provide an interesting challenge. However, there was the spark of an idea in place when you used those flying platforms to block the player's movement through that gap. I'd have loved to see you explore the possibilities of that setup, but sadly it was a one-off. Other than that, there wasn't much to speak of in terms of level design. The level just kind of happens; Mario just heads right occasionally jumping over an enemy or grate on his way to the end. It was very simple and felt very empty without many enemies to face. Really just needed more of everything to be honest. --------------------------------------- #82, "*click* Noice." by ThePat545 Level Design: 19/30 Creativity: 13/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 32/50 Comments: That directional coin block puzzle at the midpoint was surprisingly annoying but I'm glad the midpoint was right there so I could try again more easily. Reset door could've been nice though. The level was alright, opting to be a short gauntlet. It was tough but not impossible, and a lot of stuff was pretty well timed, especially in the autoscroll after the midpoint. Still, it didn't feel super strong at doing what it set out to do, though I did appreciate the widespread use of the green springy wall platforms, an element that isn't used too often in general. --------------------------------------- #83, "Autumn Carnival" by yoshi9429 Level Design: 14/30 Creativity: 10/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 24/50 Comments: I don't really think the Block Snakes really added anything to the level despite being featured throughout it. They all felt arbitrarily placed--obstacles that were there just because they could be--instead of carefully integrated into the level in interesting ways. I guess they helped with getting Yoshi Coins but that still didn't feel like enough to justify their existence considering the coins are optional. While I appreciate that the secret exit at least had new territory to explore, I didn't much care for the fact that you had to go all the way to the end of the level and then semi-backtrack in order to actually get it. At that point I'm basically playing the level 2 1/2 times. You should've focused on better incorporating the block snakes into the level instead of mostly just using them as walls or paths for secrets. --------------------------------------- #84, "EPIC" by Hobz Level Design: 25/30 Creativity: 14/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 39/50 Comments: This level is short and sweet and it sets out to play with one element: The falling Spiny. The level ramps up in its falling spiny setups, eventually adding falling gray platforms and Turn blocks to the mix. I especially liked the introduction of turn blocks because they provided a danger for big players if they tried to spin jump on the spinies instead of dodging them. If you spun jump in the wrong place, you'd break the floor and fall through. And if you manage to stay big until the second powerup, carefully dodging the spinies and spin jumping temptation, you'll get a feather that you can use to float over spinies or defeat them outright. Getting the feather is a little bit of risk vs reward in the level, since you need to keep Big Mario to get it, but being Big means you can't spin jump safely everywhere. Nicely done. A couple complaints: By the end, the setups felt like they were being really rehashed just with more spinies to dodge. This leads into my larger complaint. While I really like how hyper-focused this level was on developing the idea of falling spinies, I think it might have actually gone too far with its focus. By doing this you ended up creating a level that's pretty purely one idea, but that idea doesn't really feel strong enough to sustain a whole level on its own. Adding the gray platforms helped to some extent, but I feel like more could have been done to make the spinies interact in other ways, since they can't stand on the gray platforms and the platforms are not dangerous to touch. --------------------------------------- #85, "CUT HIM TO PIECES" by Sockbat Replica Level Design: 24/30 Creativity: 14/20 Polish: (Negative) 10/10 Total: 38/50 Comments: This feels like a pretty good early game line guide level even with the inclusion of saws, usually a more dangerous enemy. I liked how you used both line guided and floor guided saws in combination with the fire spitting jumping piranhas and line guided platforms. The piranhas didn't seem very dangerous, but they actually do a good job of making the player pay attention to their surroundings while sizing up how to approach the next saws setup. Speaking of, the setups felt pretty simple and similar, but you moved around the pieces for each setup just enough that they all felt different enough. Difficulty stayed pretty flat throughout, which is both good and bad. It's good in that the level is consistent, but it's bad in that I kinda wanted to see more combinations of the various sprites. Were this a full hack, I think I'd have this level early on in it, and then later on revisit the concept with more complicated setups and maybe a new sprite addition to reflect the higher difficulty inherent in later levels in a normal game. Definitely enjoyable, well put together and fun. Could stand to go further with its ideas but as it stands, a very solid entry. --------------------------------------- Level Design: 30/30 Was your entry fun? Did it present a correct difficulty curve, fun gimmick usage and intricate usage of sprites? Creativity: 20/20 Did your entry do more than just jumping over Koopas? Did it go the extra mile by including a gimmick that could be considered unique? Polish: Negative 10/10 Does your level look presentable? If it does not look at least as good as a level in the original Super Mario World, up to 10 points will be deducted from your score here.