ASMBXT Level Review Thread

[Cadwyn]

20 Orders

Very fun concept. The main hangups I ran into were:

Contribute!
This one left me wondering for the longest time what to do, to the point I had to check the editor to see there was a warp over "asmbxt". Maybe instead of the index page it should be the ASMBXT subforum, with the warp positioned at "New Topic"? It's both more intuitive (I was looking for a "log in" or "post" option on the background) and a bigger target.

Answer!!
The hidden block to the real answer is both unmarked, and too high to reach unless you Yoshi jump, and I lost mine every time I came here.

[GlitchedGhost]

Lift Stop by Docopoper:

Not gonna lie, the first time I started the level and that laughter popped up and the background changed I was really creeped out. I laughed afterwards though. I wasn't expecting that.
I really like the level. I've been fond of these kind of challenges. I think I got to around wave 7-8.

- I noticed that you have the event set up to a coin to trigger it. However, I actually managed to jump over it when avoiding that bat and I wondered why it didn't trigger. Possibly removing the bat near that coin might be a good idea so a player doesn't miss picking it up to trigger the event? I know it doesn't get in the way, but the bat kind of led me to try to avoid it/jump on it kinda by instinct, hence jumping.

That's more of a suggestion than anything else, but even with that small thing, I had fun with it. Good level!

[Sturg]

Third section... I have NO idea how you're supposed to get that star, which I only ever noticed by viewing the editor. There's no indication you can get up there, or even if you'd want to. I'd either have a warp lead to that star, or remove it.

All right, here's the solution:

In Section 3 (where the star is), there'll be a pipe you can enter (not telling you which one. In this new room you'll find two generators of keys and a Dragon Coin way up there. Usually what you can do is just wait for a springboard to spawn out from one of the generators. Take the springboard through the exit pipe and you'll appear near the top of the vertical section again. Use the springboard to get up to the next conveyor belt and you'l be able to get the star from there.

The ice block puzzles are decent, though I'd point out they can be cheesed by just holding an object next to them and breaking them in seconds.

Yeah, I've noticed that. I'm not sure what to do about it, maybe place ice blocks in front of it to stop that from happening (?)

Fifth section, I flat out skipped this one as the whirlibird lagged my computer such that it was unplayable. Granted my XP netbook with a gig of RAM and 1.60GHz processor isn't a great machine, but let it be known; this section is unplayable on a machine with those stats. Though looking at how crowded the enemies are I can't say it looks any better without the lag.]

Man, that sucks, that was probably my favorite part of the level. I''m not sure how to fix that problem there yo. Do you think it's just that there are too many npcs (buzz saws and thwomps really) or is it the silly whirlibird itself? That still sucks how you can't play those parts of the level though.

Oh, and I'm not sure if this is a placeholder or a joke. In any case that cactus shooter is way too slow, if you need to stock up (and you will for the next section) it's just slowing you down further, in a level that revels in killing you and making you repeat 10 minutes of gameplay. Generators for powerups should just give the powerups, no waiting game is necessary.

Heh, the sign's a joke. But cacti taken in consideration.

Man, that's a bummer that you can't play the rest of the level, I personally didn't like the flat conveyor section as well so I think I might just scrap it in it's entirety. Also the cramping buzz saws are pretty simple to dodge if it weren't for lag, but my computer runs at a faster pace so I have a fairly bad idea of how others can play the level.
And you can break the ice in the last section and break the level, I even put a sign next to the button exclaiming it, but whatever.

I'm slightly disappointed that lag can really screw up the level, but thanks for reviewing nonetheless!

[Trotim]

Swampy Sky Shrine
[...]

Thanks! It's Swampy Shy Shrine because of the Shy Guys!

Yeah, the raft dragon coin is a bit harder if you don't stay on it but it's not impossible to reach. I might add one-way platforms so you neeed to stay on it for it but I'm not sure. I think I prefer to give the player a bit more leeway, it's not supposed to be a difficult level. Being off the raft being slower and a bit more annoying is probably punishment enough.

The first coin, yeah true it is a bit random. I think taking a hit at the beginning of the level near some easy power-ups is manageable enough so it's not the worst but I'll try to come up with a solution if I get the time.

Swampy Shy Shrine by Totrim:
[...]
Edit: Damn I was beaten to the punch! Oh well I'll post it anyways.

And thank you too! It's Trotim because of The Return Of The Incredible Machine which was my favorite game as child!

Having multiple reviews is really helpful, I dunno why you think it's bad someone else beat you to it.

Ya the green stuff is some sorta slime I guess? Maybe it's meant to be moss.

Mhh I'm not sure if I want to change the hint. Everyone seems to get it soon enough and I like the short moment of "what does it mean??" when the ending fanfare plays and you restart. I'm aware they're called Yoshi/Dragon coins, don't worry.

[Octagon]

"Pit of Obscurity" by Octagon

Pretty lengthy level when you try and get all the stars, I don't know why but I had a hard time with this level, even though the power-ups were plentiful/over-generous. I really like the platforming in the outdoor part of the level, I thought the cave areas were just a tad cramped up (especially at the part with the munchers and Hammer Bro). The reset room was pretty hilarious, though I'm not sure if it works or not since I barely used it, but still awesome nonetheless. The first star was probably the hardest to get, since you do some partially blind jumps to the right and the invisible propeller block that you have to find. You can keep it like this, since it was a neat little puzzle you had to solve. The other two stars are fairly easy to get, and they're all in different sections so no issues with stars. I think you can be less generous on power-ups, since the level wasn't that hard with npcs and but more difficult with platforming and such. The caves had some strange bits such as the tiny little pathway in the narrow hallway with the lone coin in it, I didn't really find a purpose for it. Also the place with the munchers and Hammer bro is pretty strange as well. Other than that the level is great and pretty fun. Oh yeah and the 1st cave music is pretty awesome and I would just keep that the entire cave section so you can be under the 8mb size limit.

Glad you like my level!
You're right about the music, my need to have different themes for the two cave sections was mainly caused by the fact that I designed the level in one go and the first cave music became kind of grating after a few hours.
The reset room only works if you dumped the p-switch in a pit or misplaced it - it won't return if you actually used it, but it's better than nothing.
The first half of the outside section was oversaturated with powerups indeed. I removed two of 'em and added a mushroom in the final part because an extra hit makes the first star much easier and fairer to get.
I felt like adding those little dead ends for decoration... I know that's generally a bad idea as far as level design goes, but I thought you could figure that they're too small to have anything going on inside.

[MrWeirdGuy]

Final Fight - SAJewers

Very nice level. I love the powerup icons. It's a bit of a pain to get re-equipped when you die, but I get it, it's supposed to be kinda epic and stuff because it's the final fight. The glass containing all the Raocows can be broken, and the Raocows can be, um... collected? Not sure if that was intentional, and it's kinda funny, but it doesn't really matter too much. First clown car segment is great, very clever enemy placement. However, when I came to the ship where I was supposed to switch cars, I accidentally got stuck. I was trapped in the car, on the ship, and for some reason, I couldn't get out. I think if you just move the ship down one tile, it'll be fine.
The second half was alright, didn't really wow me as much as the first though. I got to the end, where the password and blocks are, and I tried touching the password. It kinda awkwardly pushed me around. So, yeah. I'd suggest not making it a solid object. Another note for the whole flying section in general: I think you went a bit overboard with extra life farming opportunities. Especially the fish in the second half.
Then I got to the boss. Can't say I really expected that at all. :V
Nice solid fight, though the shield generators were a bit annoying to deal with. But I found that if you just stand on the car and pick up the cannon, you can easily cheese the boss. I'm just gonna assume that's a reward for people that use their brains. >_>

[SAJewers]

Final Fight - SAJewers

Very nice level. I love the powerup icons. It's a bit of a pain to get re-equipped when you die, but I get it, it's supposed to be kinda epic and stuff because it's the final fight. The glass containing all the Raocows can be broken, and the Raocows can be, um... collected? Not sure if that was intentional, and it's kinda funny, but it doesn't really matter too much. First clown car segment is great, very clever enemy placement. However, when I came to the ship where I was supposed to switch cars, I accidentally got stuck. I was trapped in the car, on the ship, and for some reason, I couldn't get out. I think if you just move the ship down one tile, it'll be fine.
The second half was alright, didn't really wow me as much as the first though. I got to the end, where the password and blocks are, and I tried touching the password. It kinda awkwardly pushed me around. So, yeah. I'd suggest not making it a solid object. Another note for the whole flying section in general: I think you went a bit overboard with extra life farming opportunities. Especially the fish in the second half.
Then I got to the boss. Can't say I really expected that at all. :V
Nice solid fight, though the shield generators were a bit annoying to deal with. But I found that if you just stand on the car and pick up the cannon, you can easily cheese the boss. I'm just gonna assume that's a reward for people that use their brains. >_>

1) Wasn''t thinking about being able to break them. If you find it funny though, I'll leave that in.
2)I'll look into fixing that, probably related to something pholtos found with the boss earlier.
3) I noticed that a fe days ago, thanks for reminding me to fix that.
3) I'll look into reducing the life farming possibilities
4) Not much I think I can do about that, though doing it that way does make it harder to avoid the "attacks", i think.

[GlitchedGhost]

Swampy Shy Shrine by Totrim:
[...]
Edit: Damn I was beaten to the punch! Oh well I'll post it anyways.

And thank you too! It's Trotim because of The Return Of The Incredible Machine which was my favorite game as child!

Having multiple reviews is really helpful, I dunno why you think it's bad someone else beat you to it.

Ya the green stuff is some sorta slime I guess? Maybe it's meant to be moss.

Mhh I'm not sure if I want to change the hint. Everyone seems to get it soon enough and I like the short moment of "what does it mean??" when the ending fanfare plays and you restart. I'm aware they're called Yoshi/Dragon coins, don't worry.

That's true enough, ahaha.

Like I said though, it's just a suggestion. *shrug* It's whatever you see fit!

[MrWeirdGuy]

Lullaby - Raekuul & Willhart

Honestly, there's not a ton to say about this level in the way of criticism. It's a solid climbing level. I love the shells being kicked around, but that stuff always entertains me. >_>
There are a few* points I'd like to address, though.
*: By a few, I mean one.

1: The ladybug on the vine frequently despawns or just never spawns at all.

Besides that though, nice work. It's a good early-game level that you can't just rush through.

[Willhart]

Not really a review on FrickinMeta by Darkychao and DoctorShemp.

This level gives me the "runtime error '13': type mismatch" every time I tried to open it. It's probably a problem with windows 7.

Some custom npcs don't seem to work on my computer when they use width and height instead of gfxwidth and gfxheight. Could you use only the latter ones on npcs 198 and 209? Save the level once afterwards for it to work.

[Doctor Shemp]

Not really a review on FrickinMeta by Darkychao and DoctorShemp.

This level gives me the "runtime error '13': type mismatch" every time I tried to open it. It's probably a problem with windows 7.

Some custom npcs don't seem to work on my computer when they use width and height instead of gfxwidth and gfxheight. Could you use only the latter ones on npcs 198 and 209? Save the level once afterwards for it to work.

I'm pretty sure that width & height and gfxwidth & gfxheight control different things (the first pair controlling the size of the hitbox and the second pair controlling the size of the graphic itself) so I don't think it would be possible do ditch the first pair. I'm not sure why it would be saying "mismatch" when both pairs are identical.

Upon checking the level, I found that the Level Start event is triggering another event that no longer exists. Would you be able to try going into the editor and

disabling Level Start from triggering the event Starting raocow (i.e. change the event trigger to blank and the delay to instant) and see if that fixes the problem? I can't check it myself since I don't get the error.

I also checked the debugger to see if there's too many blocks or something but the level's nowhere near any of the limits.

[SAJewers]

I'm pretty sure that width & height and gfxwidth & gfxheight control different things (the first pair controlling the size of the hitbox and the second pair controlling the size of the graphic itself) so I don't think it would be possible do ditch the first pair. I'm not sure why it would be saying "mismatch" when both pairs are identical.

My understanding (someone can correct me if I'm wrong) is that height and width control the size of the hitbox, and the size of the graphic if gfxheight and gfxwidth aren't specified. So, gfxheight/gfxwidth aren't needed unless the graphic is larger/smaller than the hitbox.

[raekuul]

Lullaby - Raekuul & Willhart

Honestly, there's not a ton to say about this level in the way of criticism. It's a solid climbing level. I love the shells being kicked around, but that stuff always entertains me. >_>
There are a few* points I'd like to address, though.
*: By a few, I mean one.

1: The ladybug on the vine frequently despawns or just never spawns at all.

Besides that though, nice work. It's a good early-game level that you can't just rush through.

I'm glad that the level I started was seen through to completion. The ladybug not always appearing is a mite worrisome, and I would prefer if she always spawned, but if I recall that particular segment correctly it's supposed to be a non-issue anyway.

As far as the level name goes, it was originally just a placeholder until I could think up a good name. The reason for using Lullaby as the placeholder name? The name of the music used is "Lullaby of Deserted Hell" from Touhou 11: Subterranean Animism.

[MrWeirdGuy]

Ah, gotcha. Honestly, I was a little bit disappointed that you didn't choose the more obvious Lullaby. You know, "Where does the future go but forward?"
But I guess Touhou music is appropriate enough for a raocow-based video game.

[Willhart]

Groovy by SaJewers.

That was super fun to play. Those donut enemies should have framestyle set to 0.
They are invisible when facing to the right. Also the first donut next to the red koopa thing should be set to friendly, since it is pretty easy to run straight at it and die.

[Septentrion Pleiades]

Is everyone having trouble passing my level? I posted a slightly easier version, since I gotten "so close" many times myself. I manage to conquer the end in one incursion*.

*Final charge at the end of the level. It often ends in retreat and thus makes the player do more than one incursion."

[SAJewers]

Groovy by SaJewers.

That was super fun to play. Those donut enemies should have framestyle set to 0.
They are invisible when facing to the right. Also the first donut next to the red koopa thing should be set to friendly, since it is pretty easy to run straight at it and die.

Blame the guy who made the mpc for that, but I'll fix it, and make that guy friendly.

[Willhart]

Demo Dance Mix by Holy

I think it's good enough as it is. It took view tries to get the timing right and both parts were fun to play. It's also one of the most creative levels in this game.

Edit: "Fun to play" as in "I felt accomplished for beating it"

[SAJewers]

Demo Dance Mix

The DDR Segment is a neat concept. The Bar Mitzvah Segment is downright hilarious. This needs to get in the game.

[Paralars]

Unnamed Contraption:

OHMYGODWHYISTHISSODIFFICULTTOCONTROL
Nah, seriously, it's ok once you figure out what you're actually supposed to do
(I'm still not sure if I'm doing this right)
I understand that the hard controls are probably on purpose, but a little hint or message on what you actually do would be nice, at first I thought I had to somehow control by pressing directions or something.

I'd definitely put it into 'gimmick world', I'm just afraid of it becoming too full. (Though this level really should to go there).

Apart from that, I think the background image looks neat in itself, but
- I think it's a little too much and too HD to fit in with all the other graphics
(you really get tempted with SMBX)
- It should be fixed or paralax scrolling in the background to somewhat work, but the way it is now, it just repeats, which looks weird and even more unfitting
The music seems to not be playing

The layout and difficulty of the level seem good, but it's a bit empty. Controling the contraption doesn't get repetitive, because it's a unique feature in this level, but the whole scenery looks bland with nothing going on except blocks and coins.

[SAJewers]

Unnamed Contracption:

I couldn't actually beat the level, as I keep dying trying to turn the corner. Neat concept though. Just note the file structure doesn't meet the requirements (move the .lvl file a folder up). Aside from what's already been said above that's all I really have to say.

[Septentrion Pleiades]

Unnamed Contracption:

I couldn't actually beat the level, as I keep dying trying to turn the corner. Neat concept though. Just note the file structure doesn't meet the requirements (move the .lvl file a folder up). Aside from what's already been said above that's all I really have to say.

The first corner? That's slightly less than half the level. Oddly, I found this to become the easiest part after many, many tries.

[SAJewers]

Leek Secret Slide:

Aside from possibly making it an automatic level, it gets my vote.

[shaman]

Leek Secret Slide:

Aside from possibly making it an automatic level, it gets my vote.

there are 2 leeks on the level, making it automatic would make the second one impossible to get

[Mata Hari]

Rename it Leekret Lide