A2XT: It's Over

[jayScribble]

Looks like raocow destroyed "Za Warudo". How would Dio Brando be able to stop time now?

"SuperHigh Skyway" is a level that can either be long or very short, and is the frustration is too much, the latter is the best option. The design of the level seems inconsistent in terms of theme and in some instances gameplay.

"Castle of the World" seems to have incorporated all of the playable characters and went to town with it. The boss seems a bit on the easy side, but as posted by others before me, it used to be on the tedious side, so take that as you will. Overall, a long but fun level with a fun boss.

[Bean]

I liked that castle for doing the all-in-one playable character deal. The design worked, too.

[Moosh]

Wow, Castle of the World got changed all over the place. I could barely recognize it.

The Ambiguously Cannon breaking was a shame. Anyone know what happened? Originally it was supposed to shoot you through the air to the log bridge which didn't originally extend all the way to the ship. Personally I would have put an NPC next to it saying, "Well that didn't go as expected. Guess you better hoof it." Or at least some form of explanation would have been nice.

The warning indicators for the maverick thwomps were a brilliant idea. If I'd thought to do that during testing, I would have sped them up a bit too. I actually slowed them down a little during testing to make them dodgeable, but I guess they were still too difficult.

The difficulty got nerfed all over the place. I agree that the level was long enough and difficult enough to warrant some nerfs, but some of it felt a little extreme. A lot of powerups got added in to the point where hits didn't really matter. Kood's section got changed pretty significantly which I find odd since he already had I think the shortest screentime of the level. raocow's section I'm pretty sure had enough powerups that you could tank everything and not die. The level didn't feel like it got worse by the revisions, but it didn't feel like World 7 material to me for anything aside from the atmosphere.

On the bright side, the boss got made a whole lot better. I didn't think it was possible to change Mother Brain's HP, but you guys did and that's great. The banana snake was a neat change too. I feel like I tried a banana snake during testing but didn't use it because I couldn't change Mother Brain's HP. I guess everything came full circle. It looks like the level went through multiple revisions. I hear talk about bombs and caterpillars, but I looked in my unedited version of the level and it didn't have either. So thanks for all the work you guys put into it. Bosses mean a lot to me and I was a little bummed that I couldn't have this level's boss as I originally envisioned it. With your changes you got it pretty spot on. Praise lunadll!

[Mabel]

Wow, Castle of the World got changed all over the place. I could barely recognize it.

The Ambiguously Cannon breaking was a shame. Anyone know what happened? Originally it was supposed to shoot you through the air to the log bridge which didn't originally extend all the way to the ship. Personally I would have put an NPC next to it saying, "Well that didn't go as expected. Guess you better hoof it." Or at least some form of explanation would have been nice.

The warning indicators for the maverick thwomps were a brilliant idea. If I'd thought to do that during testing, I would have sped them up a bit too. I actually slowed them down a little during testing to make them dodgeable, but I guess they were still too difficult.

The difficulty got nerfed all over the place. I agree that the level was long enough and difficult enough to warrant some nerfs, but some of it felt a little extreme. A lot of powerups got added in to the point where hits didn't really matter. Kood's section got changed pretty significantly which I find odd since he already had I think the shortest screentime of the level. raocow's section I'm pretty sure had enough powerups that you could tank everything and not die. The level didn't feel like it got worse by the revisions, but it didn't feel like World 7 material to me for anything aside from the atmosphere.

On the bright side, the boss got made a whole lot better. I didn't think it was possible to change Mother Brain's HP, but you guys did and that's great. The banana snake was a neat change too. I feel like I tried a banana snake during testing but didn't use it because I couldn't change Mother Brain's HP. I guess everything came full circle. It looks like the level went through multiple revisions. I hear talk about bombs and caterpillars, but I looked in my unedited version of the level and it didn't have either. So thanks for all the work you guys put into it. Bosses mean a lot to me and I was a little bummed that I couldn't have this level's boss as I originally envisioned it. With your changes you got it pretty spot on. Praise lunadll!

do you still have your original copy? I kinda wanna play it again despite it being the only level I had legitimate trouble beating(no really even out of postgame levels this was one level that was so hard it took more demos off me than

the secret exit in "that" W9 level

now, as for some of the things being nerfed to the ground It was actually me who changed the boss once, I kinda didint like how cheeseable the boss in comparision to the overwhelming difficulty the stage was so I tried to make it into an actual boss after the stage was nerfed to the ground...it worked but apparently working with bombs is too tedious for some, then SAJ had the bright idea to make the boss have 50HP and use a bananasnake(although It should have been 100HP so you at least got to see all the attacks of the world(btw I also changed it so those lasers werent instant kills).

[Unaniem]

Full maps of both world 6 and 7:

World 6

A2XTWorld6Outside.png (127.98 KiB) Viewed 4058 times

A2XTWorld6Inside.png (108.66 KiB) Viewed 4058 times

A2XTWorld6Island.png (26.38 KiB) Viewed 4058 times

World 7

A2XTWorld7.png (74.66 KiB) Viewed 4058 times

[Rixithechao]

Iris hating Pal is in-character? It seems we have something of a pet rivalry going on here between the sisters!

But holy hand in a heckbasket, that was amazing. It's always cool when games have you play all characters sequentially like that for a climactic endgame level, and despite having spoiled it for myself beforehand,

Mishi erasing herself from existence

was executed so well that I still laughed like a loon. Not much I can say about Superway Highsky that other's haven't already said.

[Moosh]

do you still have your original copy? I kinda wanna play it again despite it being the only level I had legitimate trouble beating(no really even out of postgame levels this was one level that was so hard it took more demos off me than

the secret exit in "that" W9 level

now, as for some of the things being nerfed to the ground It was actually me who changed the boss once, I kinda didint like how cheeseable the boss in comparision to the overwhelming difficulty the stage was so I tried to make it into an actual boss after the stage was nerfed to the ground...it worked but apparently working with bombs is too tedious for some, then SAJ had the bright idea to make the boss have 50HP and use a bananasnake(although It should have been 100HP so you at least got to see all the attacks of the world(btw I also changed it so those lasers werent instant kills).

http://www.mediafire.com/download/dcyz5 ... eWorld.zip
Here you go. I found I had a harder time with some of the stuff in World 3 than my own levels, but that's probably some creator bias in regards to the difficulty. Everyone finds their own levels easiest to beat I suppose. Now having said that when I get to Castle of the World in my A2XT playthrough I'm gonna get wrecked I bet.

I think my justification for basically giving up on balancing the boss was that the level itself was difficult enough without a tough boss at the end. A lot of people do midpoints before the boss, but I'm just not one of those people. I'm glad that the thing lasts long enough that you can actually see some attacks now.

Did I mention that end of world cutscene had me rolling on the floor? I feel honored really that I got to have the level that inspired that.

[raocow]

Anyway, it looks like tomorrow raocow will play arguably my favourite level. Can't wait for reactions.

it's a pretty crazy level alright!

[Maiku Wotaharu]

Please tell me it's

Mikkofier's level

!

Best level ending ever, IMHO.

[Crow]

You could say that the Ambiguously Cannon was, in fact, ambiguously a cannon.

I had it work for me but I never updated past the first version of the game (and had no issues with it, anyways.)

[Voltgloss]

Please tell me it's

Mikkofier's level

!

I'm guessing it's

Docopoper's

.

[Sebby19]

This is why I never updated my game. I just knew an 'update' would break something, like the static in the World 6 finale, and the cannon for the world 7 finally. Version 1 for me runs flawlessly, I'm not really sure why an update was needed in the first place.

I'm actually disappointed that Mishi erased herself from reality. It would have been better if she quit history. A real missed opportunity.

Status of the siblings:
-Science: Plotting
-Pandamona: Still at large
-Garish: Dead
-Nevada: Dead
-Pily: Has joined your side!
-Mishi: Quit reality
-Calleoca: Still at large.

We get to see Pily again tomorrow! You know, for such a great breakdown of all the siblings she gave, it's too bad she didn't dwell on herself. Just makes me all the more interested in her. I'm really curious on what kind of person she is. All that I could gleam from her info dump is that she may be a government conspiracy theorist, and she is immune to lava. Too bad we don't get to know much about her in this game, so I really hope the siblings return for Ep 2, we got the makings of some good characters, and I want to know more.

[Crow]

I'm actually disappointed that Mishi erased herself from reality. It would have been better if she quit history. A real missed opportunity.

oh
goddammit
why wasn't it this? oh my god.

[sedron]

Status of the siblings:
-Science: Plotting
-Pandamona: Still at large
-Garish: Dead
-Nevada: Dead
-Pily: Has joined your side!
-Mishi: Quit reality
-Calleoca: Still at large.

Nevada is still alive. Garish probably is too, but I don't believe there's confirmation in-game.

World 7 wraps up with a couple of somewhat divisive levels.

SuperHigh Skyway- Where do you draw the line between "Vippish," and "Youtube level?" This level feels like the latter to me. It's not overwhelmingly hard by any means, but like many of the mediocre levels in this game, it just doesn't have much going for it. The level design is pretty sloppy and doesn't seem like a lot of thought was put into it. Things just kind of happen. The enemy choices are random and not utilized well, and the large number of stationary enemies at the beginning are awkward. The aesthetic is the hallmark of lazy design; a cloud background with blocks all over the place isn't interesting. This is the kind of level that isn't actively unfun to play, but I have no desire to touch it again.

Castle of the World- Thank God (or whatever deity/lack thereof, I don't particularly care,) this level got so many revisions. The Maverick Thwomps used to be totally unmarked, and even when they were marked the exclamation points had to be moved further in advance to give the players adequate warning. I'm still of the opinion that they don't add anything to the level. The filter pipe for Kood used to be skippable, except not really because if you don't go through it you can't use the door to get to the midpoint (which is due to the pipe actually leading you to an entirely new area.) Sheath's room is made up of obstacles she can't really deal with all that well, which isn't really fun. It feels like you're using a gimped character. I think that room was toned down a bit. The boss fight was also drastically changed, and from what Moosh said it seems like the version I played was already different than the original. There used to be a hammer suit outside of the arena if you wanted it, which meant if you took it you could end the fight in seconds. If you didn't, the lasers would probably kill you. At the time they were insta-kill and had no warnings. The current version is much better. Overall this level does have its charm. The premise is fairly in-jokey, but a lot of it works regardless. The level looks pretty nice, and the Cave Story music is a nice fit. A lot of changes made this level more bearable on a mechanical level. Having played the earlier versions, it's pretty hard for me to forget that when looking at it again, but I think it's a lot better now.

[Heavy Sigh]

In my defense, the block choices were meant to signify a level that wasn't finished (as the toad at the beginning said), and therefore not very pretty to look at. The switch was meant for anyone playing as Sheath to make the level easier.

I'm somewhat surprised it took this long for anyone to complain about enemy spam or 'bad design' (whatever that means) considering the amount of testing this game got. Oh well.

Also, dangit raocow missed the secret.

[raocow]

let's be fair, I missed a lot of secrets

[docopoper]

Aww man. We finally start getting to my levels tomorrow. :D

let's be fair, I missed a lot of secrets

You probably missed one tomorrow too.

[ztarwuff]

Am I too late to advise you, raocow, not to use the music cheat in the level, Pavlov Gold? It's unnecessary. You'll know what the music is when it starts playing.

[raocow]

It's not too late, so I'll keep this in mind.

[Leet]

"JUMP"? No, no, wrong collab, SuperHigh Skyway, this is A2XT!

I'm actually disappointed that Mishi erased herself from reality. It would have been better if she quit history. A real missed opportunity.

...somebody back-in-time and fix this

[GauRocks]

"End of world 7" was the best joke.

The LP can stop now, this game's not going to top that.

[Joseph Staleknight]

After making their way through a construction site for a future superhighway in the skies, Demo and Co. finally get to fulfill their recently-invented destiny and DESTROY! THE! WORLD!
...even after the cannon they were planning on using broke down.

SuperHigh Skyway (Heavy Sigh): This level is pretty tricky to get across, though you could rush a few areas and not get hit (such as the path to the jet platform before the midpoint). Even the gourd late in the level, good as it is, won't stay when I get to the next level. Still, I really enjoyed playing through the area, especially to the tune of an awesome song from a Megaman X fangame.

As for the end area, Calleoca and Feed are rather odd choices for surprised people, especially since they should be used to Demo's antics by now.

Also, if you

climb on the fenced window and jump up to the lone coin in the area right before the end, you'll get to see a King Charles and his crew still working on that other section of the Skyway. And Luigi's grave and all that.

Castle of the World (Moosh): An awesome level with an exciting boss. And this was from the same guy who did Spooky Surprise Ghost House! What?

Anyway, I was disappointed to find that the Ambiguously Cannon no longer blasted you dramatically across the vast atmosphere to the castle. That was one of the major moments for a level based around, well, destroying the world and everything inside! Now it's just reduced to a pitiful spittle that only mutters, "Destroy a random house in the middle of nowhere, I guess...". Oh well, at least the Maverick Thwomps are still intact. Dangerous as they are, they're rather cleverly programmed.

Now, the gimmick of all the characters tackling various areas of the castle is made rather unique in that, unlike Qraestolia Caverns, you only have access to that one character for the entire section. While that sounds less powerful, the level design helps make it count since the sections pretty much rely on the character's quirks: Demo gets a simple beginning, Kood floats over a pool of lava, Sheath can bounce on spikes and block fire spat out by statues, raocow gets to wreak havoc with his double-jump and a cannon, and Iris's jump height benefits her onslaught on the World, especially when she has to dodge the laser from the bottom.

Speaking of the boss fight, while 50 HP is a bit much to wail through, it makes sense for the entire world to be tough to take down. Still, it's no sweat with grab-able Bananasnakes, even when I kept losing them to the Caterpillars! Overall, a tough but very rewarding boss fight that commences a well-made stage! Too bad about the Ambiguously Cannon, though.

End of World 7 Cutscene: Serial Experiments Mishi With a Side of SMB3 (Demolition): ...Wait, why did I put Mishi there? I don't even know anyone with a name like that!

Jokes aside, this cutscene is a pretty sweet homage to the victory scenes from SMB3. "Toadsdebt" was a rather amusing name for the poor guy sitting in for the Toad. At least, it beats "Homeless Vermin" by a mile.

Talupena: This world is a breathtaking piece. The levels were varied and yet, even when they were quite tough or tricky, none of them felt like a complete drag to go through and/or get leeks from. Well, save for one huge exception in the Ghost House. The town also felt very fresh with its own citizens and culture, which is saying a lot for what is effectively something most other players only visit to find out what leeks they're missing. Talupena may technically not be a planet (just a ball of atmosphere), but the atmosphere proves you don't need a huge rock with or without vegetation to make an interesting world!

Notes from the Spire X:

15. "Super high / amidst the skies / a single coin / marks a surprise." (Nice and Easy/Superhigh Skyway): I actually held off on mentioning this clue when raocow first got to the Library, since it's ambiguous enough to refer to two levels: one with the coin being at the apex of Nice and Easy's mountain, and the other accessible by

climbing what looks like an ordinary window

. Sure, the former may be canon, but I still like to think the latter also qualifies.

[Leet]

Serial Experiments Mishi

this makes me very happy

[Voltgloss]

Notes from the Spire X:

15. "Super high / amidst the skies / a single coin / marks a surprise." (Nice and Easy/Superhigh Skyway): I actually held off on mentioning this clue when raocow first got to the Library, since it's ambiguous enough to refer to two levels: one with the coin being at the apex of Nice and Easy's mountain, and the other accessible by

climbing what looks like an ordinary window

. Sure, the former may be canon, but I still like to think the latter also qualifies.

Actually, the latter is canon. The clue is intended for Superhigh Skyway. "Super high /amidst the skies" is to taken literally.

Nice and Easy doesn't have an entry in the Library because I felt its secret was already sufficiently clued within the level itself.

[likesorange]

For some reason sky backgrounds with, just like, block patrols, they remind me of VIP

Me too, raocow, me too