Critiques
Whenever I refer to a time, I'm referring to the youtube clip you posted.
I am a
harsh critic. Please, don't take anything personally!
One note: Everyone set up water + pipes to give that ugly transparent pipe effect. This is a bug and as far as I know, there's no way around it (it even happens when you play it on the actual DS). The only proper route, in my opinion, was to not use the combination that creates this effect. In the future, I will dock points for this kind of thing.
dirbaio
Challenge Met: Yes.
10/10
Design: Your level is pretty straight forward. There are just enough secrets and paths to take without it being confusing or hard to mentally remember where you are. I liked the areas with the rising water (except for one bit), and the outside area with the Hammer Bros was pretty neat. Finding the Star Coins was tricky, but not impossible.
Some of the areas are kind of annoying, however. At 2:55, that small gap is a pain to get through. Trying to get into that little vertical tunnel with the three bloopers barreling down on you (and being able to go above the water) was too tough and frustrating without fire balls. The door on the left right after that tunnel leads to an infinite loop, which was annoying because it doesn't seem like one for a few tries. The door on the right leads to an area that looks exactly the same, and the confusion about whether or not you're going in the right direction leads to sort of an analysis paralysis. Some of the tile's visual and placement decisions aren't very attractive and feel like they've just been dumped out of a big bucket and placed whereever they landed.
13/20
Polish: The pipe at 1:04 exits out of a pipe that isn't connected to it. The pipe at 1:25 doesn't follow the orthographic movement (like a rook in chess) of pipes. At 2:00, if you go up right first, the button doesn't do anything. It should have been made impossible to get up there before hitting button on the left. At 3:00, it's possible to take the left route to hit the other button first. The bricks above your head will be destroyed but the water doesn't rise. From here, if you wall jump up, there are flying bloopers. The area with the Hammer Bros is missing trim on all of the tiles.
12/20
Total: 35/50
NsmB_PrO
Challenge Met: Yes.
10/10
Design: I like the general make up of this level. The first part feels like it's inside a mountain, and the second part feels like the summit of that mountain. Most of the pipe layout was great and the general flow of the level made it clear to figure out where to go. I loved the cut outs of the terrain where you can see the pipes in the first underground area.
The icicles really, really, really bugged me. First of all, they're all very tough to see and I was surprised when I died a few times. Some of them were placed unfairly (like the one on the ground when you exit the first yellow pipe), and almost all of the ones hanging from the ceiling were off camera until you jumped up and they poked you. Fixing the camera properties would have helped a lot here (the properties that determine how close to the top of the screen mario must get before the camera pans up).
Some placement of objects feels strange, like the blocks that are pressed up against the ceiling, and the coin layout at 1:35. I couldn't run fast enough to get from the red ! block to the end of the area where I could jump up the space on the right of the pipe there. That little lower level is neat (I like cubby holes), but it was unneccessary just to get a powerup. The part where you've trapped a star coin in the wall is clever, but too 'crazy'. When you break the wall with the button, the remaining tiles look bad.
There is a soft lock in your level. If you go down the yellow pipe at 1:58, you get stuck in the room with the koopa in it, since the pipe doesn't work both ways. I take off 3 full points for soft locks of this type. For future reference, I take off 1 point for softlocks that are hard to predict (like if the only way out of an area is with a vine leading up, and the player butt pounds the block, causing the vine to go down), but in this case, you just didn't test this pipe connection.
I liked the feel of the level, but it's got some issues with unfairness.
14/20
Polish: Most of the aspects of this level I would recommend polishing have already been mentioned above. There were lots of camera movements that weren't orthographic, which they almost always should be. Also, the pipe in the underground area that you go in right after pounding the switch leads you to a pipe it isn't connected to.
17/20
Total: 41/50
gridatttack
Challenge Met: Yes.
10/10
Design: This is the type of level that sells strategy guides! I love your intention, but the major flaw in your level is that it's just too much. It's a very confusing level to navigate, and I got frustrated and lost with it quite a few times for a few reasons. 1) Many of the pipes you come out of are either exit-only or go to a new area when you go back, meaning you cant go back to see what's in other pipes to help build a mental map. 2) This level is
tough! The enemy placement is unfair in places, and I felt cheated a few times. After exploring for a very long time, I get killed by one of four fireballs flying in my direction and I wanted to quit. I never did find the half-way point. I'm not even sure there is one. I got frustrated with having to start over from the beginning each time, still not even sure where it was I was supposed to go.
I like how there were a lot of 'micro areas', like the bit with the trap doors (although this part took too long to get through), the part with the bricks on the floor, the pipe filled underwater area, and the little pipe maze towards the end. They served sort of as land marks where I could go "ooooh, okay, this is where I am now.. Not sure how I got here, but I'm here."
The placement design of many objects felt arbitrary and not very visually appealing. I did really like how there were three thematically different areas, though - the underwater, the ground, and the sky. If the level was shorter and it was easier to mentally map, going back and forth between these types of areas would have been a huge blast.
15/20
Polish: Aside from the points I mentioned already, this level could use some serious spit shine. There is a huge over-use of those blue blocks and plenty of opportunity to use different tiles to make it more visually interesting. Check out
this image I made where I beautified part of your level. As you can see, the objects are in the same places, take up the same space, and don't alter the level design at all, but it looks more diverse and recognizable. It stands out. Most of your level needs this done to it.
15/20
Total: 40/50
ray
Challenge Met: No. I only counted eight pipe transfers.
8/10
Design: In this level, there's a certain amount of chaos going on where it doesn't quite feel like it actually exists. I can't explain it, but it just feels too random with it's placement of tiles, blocks, and coins. I liked the underground area, but I had assumed it went down farther than it actually did. Im not sure why I assumed this, but I died when hopped down from some blocks and was surprised it happened. The first ? block with the power up inside is kind of tricky to hit, and if you go right, then come back left, it's real tricky to get back to where you started. The switch in the underground area is easy to hit, but afterwards, it's tricky to get out of that little tunnel. The Star Coins are not very hard to find. Each of them have wrong sprite data. The first one goes in slot 2 and both the second and third ones goes in slot 3. The first one was tricky to get, but not too bad. The appearing blocks impact the game very little since you've already jumped over them (because if you didn't you would have fallen with the donut lift) before they even start going. Overall, it's a short, not very challenging, random level.
10/20
Polish: It's not bad polish-wise. There are some areas where you could have made it flow a little cleaner and look a little more interesting, but overall, it's pretty polished. Your main problem here is the design from the begining.
18/20
Total: 36/50
I may be editing this critique now and then, so my scores are not finalized until the critique deadline. Remember, players who don't do critiques lose points.
____________________
)
