SMBX (2014 Yacht of Opinions): MaGL X - Whoohoo!

[Sorel]

I think I never told ya, but I actually look forward for a level everyday even more than raocow's lps, Zyglrox.

[Zygl]

I think I never told ya, but I actually look forward for a level everyday even more than raocow's lps, Zyglrox.

Thanks, I guess, though I've been doing a pretty awful job of getting a level done per day lately. No idea if I've somehow gotten worse at this over time or if it's just been a string of mildly difficult runs, but I've been barely even making every other day for the past couple of levels.

Speaking of which, Mountain's shaping up to be a bit more of a thing than I expected, by which I mean I forgot about the 20 red coins I also have to get in the run. I probably won't get it done tonight, but we'll see, I guess.

[Dragon Fogel]

Got the second exit in Gloomglow Grotto. Not really much harder than the first, except you don't get a midpoint. There are a ton of enemies in the level, though. It gets easier once you have the key because you can throw it at enemies, although I brought hammers in anyways. They didn't last through the whole stage, but they helped a lot.

And then I completed The Plot, which was an exquisitely crafted masterpiece and somehow I managed to defeat the incredibly difficult bosses in that level. I'm still in tears over the thrilling conclusion.

After that, I made some attempts at We Will Fall Together. It's not as hard as it looks, provided you kill Bowser early, but it's long and there are a lot of ways to mess up. The tight lava corridors are much more manageable if you let the scrolling help you. Don't try to move down - move left or right and wait for the lava in the direction you're headed to be above you. (watching the video to see how much is left, it looks like raocow figured that out) Most of the obstacles aren't too bad to deal with - you can wait out the Yoshi muncher that spits out creatures, same with the love frog. In general, it's easier if you take it slow. The main exceptions are the ghosts and Bowser statues, where you want to move faster, but those aren't too bad as long as you focus mainly on the row you're in.

I haven't figured out how to get past the Rinka shooter yet, though. Looking at the video, everything after that seems pretty manageable - no worse than what I've dealt with up to this point. Regardless, now that I've actually played the level myself, I can understand raocow's enthusiasm at the end of the video - almost everything is a lot more reasonable than it looks. It's just that the level is long and one mistake kills you.

[Dragon Fogel]

Did it. We fell together.

This level looked really tough from raocow's video, but having actually played it - it's not nearly as scary as it might seem. The angel controls really smoothly, and because of that there was never really a point where the obstacles felt unfair. The lava passageways are manageable because of a combination of the smooth controls and the way the scrolling work, and I don't think I got hit even once by the catghosts or the statue fireballs in all my attempts. And nothing else covers as much of the screen at once as those two obstacle sets. I don't think it would even be excessive if you skipped killing Bowser, though I'm personally not up for trying that. (Maybe Zyglrox will be willing to show that off when he gets there.

But it was long for what it was, and that made it really stressful. One mistake means you have to start over.

Overall, I felt myself feeling the same way raocow did in the video - stressed, but in a really good mood after finishing it.

Of course, after that, I couldn't help myself and had to attempt The Flux of Life. I knew it would be challenging, but amazingly enough, I managed to finish it on my very first try.

Four stages left to 100%, and all the hardest ones are behind me now. I can probably finish this up tomorrow.

[Alice]

I think I never told ya, but I actually look forward for a level everyday even more than raocow's lps, Zyglrox.

I've been waiting for him to finish his run before watching his videos since they tend to be too short to really just watch one whenever he uploads one but I've done a rather awful job at that. I've watched around half of his updates since I first said that, lol.

[Dragon Fogel]

Almost finished!

Shifting Sand Land was fun, but the second half dragged on. I brought in hammers because I'm terrible at actually dodging things, and especially at dealing with Hammer Bros. Still, the moving platforms were generally handled well.

But the second half just plain had too many of them. I finally died on the last set, and went back in with a blue shoe and just rained hammery death on everything past the midpoint. Good level, could have stood to be just a bit shorter.

Rena's level was short and pretty simple. The first half was okay, nothing really stood out other than the part where I killed the shell-kicking koopa with hammers at the right time so I could avoid the switch gimmick. Second half, with the pipes that were actually Quickman lasers, was great. I died the first time I got there, so I switched to Toad for the extra speed. Still took a few tries, but wasn't too bad.

Ryuu's level was fun. I had trouble getting over the first stairwell, then I switched to Luigi and it was simple. Except I ended up dying to Bowser's fireball after he got crushed by the wall. Then I tried it again and dodged Bowser successfully... but the event after he dies didn't trigger for some reason and I got crushed by the final wall. I think I died two more times before finally making it through. Fun level, surprisingly similar to the second half of Rena's.

I made a few attempts at the Ghost House, but I haven't managed to get very far in it yet. Should be able to clear it today, though.

[Dragon Fogel]

Well, that didn't take long.

In keeping with how I've been progressing through this game as a whole, I ended up going in with hammers and a blue shoe, which pretty much lets you skip the entire level. I still died a number of times because I'm not very good, and I didn't remember raocow's video that well so I went in several pathways when I didn't really need to.

So I finished it up, talked to Horikawa one final time, grabbed the last star, and watched the credits.

I'm glad I played through this, because some levels were very different experiences to play through than to watch. On the negative side, we have Starry Ocean Pipes - raocow made it through that level relatively easily, so it looked okay in the video. But actually playing it - if you have trouble with the level, it's really, really frustrating. There's a reason I brought in a blue shoe and completely broke everything, and the tendency for SMBX to crash made it worse.

More positively, there's An SMB3 Level Only More Fluffy and the postgame level We Will Fall Together. Just watching the video gives an exaggerated sense of how frustrating they are, but actually playing them, they aren't nearly so bad. Both levels still have their flaws, but playing them let me get a more accurate perspective on them. I thought Fluffy was, overall, pretty solid, and I actually liked We Will Fall Together quite a bit - I just think it could have benefited from being shorter.

And then, of course, there was clearing Mechdragon and RPGFan's levels with ridiculous powerups but not resorting to god mode at all. That was actually pretty fun... well, not so much on Koopa Devil Bowser, who's tough to beat even with hammers. But by the time I fought him, I'd already beaten Flandre (with the help of a significant exploit) and I was determined to get 100% without using god mode. In the end, I managed it.

Overall, I was impressed. Considering there were 134 entries, and no actual barriers to entry short of "sign up for Talkhaus", this contest ended up having a much higher overall quality than I would have expected. Even the lowest-ranked rarely crossed into outright terrible. If you think I'm exaggerating, go take a look at the lowest-ranked ten in any SMW contest raocow's played and then look at the lowest-ranked ten here. You'll notice a significant difference in quality.

Anyways, I'd just like to thank everyone who participated in this contest, whether as a level-maker, judge, hub designer, or just playing through it and making videos. I really enjoyed the LP and had a lot of fun going through the game myself. There were some low points, but they mostly boiled down to "this level has one really annoying obstacle and would have been better off without it".

And a special thanks to the storage room for letting me get through despite my generally low skill level. Couldn't have done it without you.

Oh, and one last fun note. Horikawa's final message has an offhanded line about "now go play ASMBXT or something". As it happens, I downloaded ASMBXT the other day and started playing it. I'll probably regret it at some point (already had a lot of deaths in Castle of Reflections and on the jumps just after the midpoint in Reverse Zone), but I just thought I'd note the coincidence.

[Sebby19]

Oh wow, your finally done. Congratulations! (Now we can finally put this thread to rest).

You'll get my vote for 'Most dedicated speed runner'.

[Dragon Fogel]

I'm not the speedrunner, that's Zyglrox. I'm just clearing levels by any means available short of cheat codes.

We've still got 36 ranked stages, two boss fights, and nine postgame levels from Zyglrox to see, so expect this thread to get some more activity while that's going on.

[Sebby19]

woops

[Sorel]

Now that I think about it, this was the only time I participated in any contest...

And the first time I enjoyed creating a level.

[Zygl]

Mountain's up now.
Also technically I uploaded the previous video on August 30th and this one on September 1st, which is two days later, ergo I still haven't schedule-slipped past every-other-day. Technically.

Now that I think about it, this was the only time I participated in any contest...

And the first time I enjoyed creating a level.

You should enter the next MaGL (whenever that happens), it's presumably going to be in SMW and therefore not require trying to use SMBX's editor. It'll be great.

[Sorel]

Now that I think about it, this was the only time I participated in any contest...

And the first time I enjoyed creating a level.

You should enter the next MaGL (whenever that happens), it's presumably going to be in SMW and therefore not require trying to use SMBX's editor. It'll be great.

Won't be great for me.

[sedron]

Mountain's up now.

Dang, son.

I wouldn't have thought Mountain to be one of the more impressive ones off the top of my head. That was really awesome to watch though! Great job!

[Zygl]

SMB1 But Way More Epic was significantly easier than expected. Hence me actually getting two videos up in two days for once.

I think It's An SMB1 Level Only Way More Epic is one of the next few levels. It's not particularly long, but I should probably remind you that it's possible to finish the level early by making Bowser fall in a pit during the final chase.

So, have fun actively trying to do that instead of just having it happen by sheer chance like I did.

Why would I do that when I can just stab him repeatedly?

Mountain's up now.

Dang, son.

I wouldn't have thought Mountain to be one of the more impressive ones off the top of my head. That was really awesome to watch though! Great job!

Thanks.

[Dragon Fogel]

You set the video to Private.

[Zygl]

You set the video to Private.

No, I just forgot to click Publish. That's been resolved.

[Dragon Fogel]

That was pretty fun to see. I especially liked blocking the giant fireballs (actually Rinkas, judging by their movement pattern and death effects).

Also, I just noticed that the faces on the clouds turn sad in the final part.

This was one of my favorite levels, and the final Bowser chase was one of my favorite sequences. Of course, seeing you break it with Link was pretty hilarious. I'd completely forgotten the level didn't have a character filter.

[Zygl]

No idea where I got the idea that Imagine a Yoshi's Island Ocean Cloud was a long level that'd take me a couple days to get done, that was actually not even that bad.

[YelseyKing]

It might be another SMBX one and you could use Wohl's editor.

I'll definitely enter if it's another SMBX contest. If it's SMW... ehhh. It's not that I have no experience with Lunar Magic (which I don't), it's that I... don't really like SMW's engine overall. Oh well.

[Zygl]

It's the Holidays in the Land of Hyrule! doesn't have a Link filter, apparently. Could've sworn it did. Anyway it's up now.
Also I entirely forgot it happened but I hit 100 levels completed at SMB1 But Way More Epic. So that's exciting, I guess.

I'd be up for running another SMBX one. I have some neat ideas based on the things I learned from MaGL X. And a new gimmick sort of based on the naming gimmick, but different.

But it'd have to be during Winter or Summer break. No way am I going through that again during the school year proper now.

I'd be okay with that. If I want to ASM I have a hack to get out of that part of development hell where you literally haven't made anything resembling progress, I don't need an SMW MaGL for that.
(Though I'd probably rather judge MaGL X2 than enter it if that offer's still on the table.)

Maaaaaan though that Mountain run was really impressive! You got that stage down!

Thanks. I kinda felt like it was going to be one of those levels where it's disproportionately hard for how it looks on video, but I'm glad that apparently wasn't the case.
Also I just realized that took more attempts than the no-hit Flandre fight. Not sure how to feel about that.

[Zygl]

The Mountains of Stars was much shorter and easier than I thought it'd be. It went rather poorly anyway because I somehow completely forgot how to do a thing immediately after doing it (again), but overall it wasn't that bad.
Kagome Kagome AKA Touhou Level 3: The Good One is up next. I don't remember anything beyond the first 30 seconds or so (I went there to de-midpoint on one of the previous levels and got about that far before jumping into a hammer like an idiot), but judging by Horikawa's comments there's either half a danmaku boss or space reserved for a danmaku boss at the end. Hoping for the former, but either way the level itself seems like a fun time from what I've played of it, so that'll be good.

[Dragon Fogel]

Specifically, there's about one phase of danmaku and then it ends. The level's not that hard overall except the first danmaku room, which still isn't anywhere near as ridiculous as the rooms in A Waltz In Scarlet Devil Mansion or Koopa Devil Manson's bosses.

[Zygl]

Kagome Kagome confirmed for way easier than the other two Touhou levels.

Specifically, there's about one phase of danmaku and then it ends. The level's not that hard overall except the first danmaku room, which still isn't anywhere near as ridiculous as the rooms in A Waltz In Scarlet Devil Mansion or Koopa Devil Manson's bosses.

I feel like Kagome Kagome is the only one to actually do danmaku right. Like, A Waltz in Scarlet Devil Mansion was basically "find safe spot, then either slightly adjust to new safe spot, resign yourself to death because you picked somewhere there wasn't a nearby safe spot, or just stand there because you're literally never going to get hit there" and Koopa Devil Mansion was mostly "dodge all these homing shots in a confined space" when it wasn't doing the ridiculous fireball thing, whereas Kagome Kagome's danmaku struck a balance between homing and non-homing such that you have to lead the homing shots while also dodging the non-homing ones and I feel like that's how danmaku's actually supposed to work. Not that I actually know the first thing about danmaku, but still.

Ugh Mountain of Stars. Not a fan of that level...

Clearly you were playing it wrong, it's both short and easy if you skip the entire first half and float through the entire second half.

You seem to be getting good at the double-Peach-hover though!

Did I do that in the run? It certainly wasn't planned if I did, though it does just kinda happen from time to time so I dunno.

Also, Kagome Kagome is AWESOME. I want to see/play a finished version someday.

Does bossedit do anything bigger than individual levels for contests and stuff? I'm attempting to poke around the SMBX forum to look into if he's done a full episode or something (not that it'd likely be any bigger than like 6 levels, considering how much work must go into making something like this) but the forum seems to be down at the moment.

e: So I saw the word "puzzles" in Horikawa comments about Ghost House, and I figured I'd go take a look and see if it's one of those puzzle levels you can break and beat in like 45 seconds. It was.

ee: Also this post is now literally bigger than my screen so I spoilered the bulk of it.

[Dragon Fogel]

Yeah, A Waltz in Scarlet Devil Mansion's final room was seriously flawed - it's the same attack over and over for the vast majority of the room, so you either find a safe spot like we both did or repeat the same dodging process over and over, which is boring.

Before that, the main issue was the ridiculous fence section. I don't have comments on the first danmaku room because I skipped it. The rest of the level isn't that bad provided you rush it, although most players will probably get hit going through.

Koopa Devil Mansion's main problem was having too many sections. This applies both to the main level and the Flandre fight. There was just way too much to redo when you died. The other issue was that the Bowser fight seemed random - sure, there are ways to reliably trigger each attack, but that's not really obvious when playing it. It would have been better to have every special attack provide you with a way to damage him, rather than one specific attack that lets you get bombs. The only other option the level itself provides you with is the fact that some of his Rinkas are actually bombs or something, but that's not clear or easy to take advantage of reliably either.

Kagome Kagome, though, is just a level with a lot of projectiles and plenty of free health that makes it easy to get through most individual sections. The midpoint is skewed because there was meant to be a full boss, but if you make it through the first danmaku room it's really easy to get to the midpoint from there.

Anyways, I enjoyed that Ghost House level, it was amusing. Looking forward to seeing more of these, especially Desert Oasis Fort.