A2XT: It's Over

[SAJewers]

game really makes me wish you could 'start view' the maps like in smw :( They are so nice looking.

Which world did you pick?

[Garlyle]

how has it taken this long for a level like Another Castle to come into existance

I mean really how

[ztarwuff]

Woo! Terraria graphics in a raovid! :D

Still, can't be as bad as that hidden 3-up room in my level, MAKL Vanilla. Nobody's seemed to have found it yet.

The one with "HI!" spelled out in coins? I kinda found that by accident due to my controller being screwy at times and wanting to register a down press every now and then.

Haha! Cool.

Actually the clue is...

That bush is the only one where an enemy doesn't pop up out of it. If nothing's coming out, what's down there?

[Kil]

I noticed a small error in the music credits. The grass overworld music was made by prsynth111, not me.

[glitch4]

game really makes me wish you could 'start view' the maps like in smw :( They are so nice looking.

ME 2 :(

[Joseph Staleknight]

how has it taken this long for a level like Another Castle to come into existance

I mean really how

One of the greater mysteries of the world...

Anyway, with World 1 done it's time to make some remarks about the last few levels in particular and the world in general:

Pet Rock (Weston Smith): This was a rather amusing level to play through, mostly because of how the gimmick is made apparent. There's nothing that says "Your pet means so much to you" like having it destroy the world as long as you don't let go. Essentially this was a neat level, and I'm honestly looking forward to seeing his other levels in this episode!

Also, I did something funny in that level during my play-along.

Using the secret watch I found in Steeltown Mine Co., I stopped time and tried to walk through the level to see what would happen. What ended up happening was that I inadvertently let go of the rock--getting myself killed--because it too was affected by the watch. Whoops!

Another Castle (Dragondraikk): Oh dear, Peach has snapped and gone on an egotistical rampage. Bowser, you didn't annoy her more than usual, did you? Anyway, other than that gimmick I can't really say that I find anything exceptional about this level, but it's still a pretty solid castle romp. The boss fight was epic, but I conveniently dispatched her in the last phase by tricking her into falling into the lava.

End of World 1 Cutscene: Castle-Crashing the Talkhaus/Our First Interdimensional Portal* (Darkychao): This just might be me, but I think this could have been two separate cutscenes (with the latter half appearing for the very first time you enter the HUB in a save file) given that they feel pretty distinct from one another. Oh well, at least we got a good joke out of the first half and some useful exposition for the second.

*Yes, I'm going to give my own subtitles to these cutscenes from now on.

Easy Peasy: Planet of the Cheezy: This is a neat introductory world for the game. The tutorial serves to freshen up the players' skills, the other levels aren't too hard at this stage (but they're still levels, with one or two arguable exceptions), and Steeltown Mine Co. is a good example of what to expect in other towns: Leek Pillar Sanctuaries, NPCs to talk to, and some witty humor to go along with the whole deal. Now, though, it's time to move on to bigger adventures. Goodbye, Easy Peasy. You've been a blast.

Let's hope World 2 keeps up the pace set by World 1!

[YelseyKing]

Wow. I somehow managed to die *ten times* on Pet Rock, because I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the text box without causing Demo to let go of it and fling it across the room, killing herself. That text box popup is probably in the worst position possible. Urgh.

Otherwise, the stage was great. I also found that Peach castle absolutely hilarious; I played it before raocow did, and... had no idea what to think. (I'm actually a bit ahead of him in my playthrough, due to inadvertently stranding myself in world 2 without finishing all of world 1... whoops!) Seriously, the whole game has been great so far. I hope it stays this good, and doesn't devolve into kaizo nightmare stages by mid-to-late game (and especially in the postgame)...

[Doctor Shemp]

Pet Rock is my favourite level of World 1. It's extremely fun to play, destroying everything in your path like that. Another Castle, for me at least, wasn't fun to play at all. Admittedly I was a little tired when I came to it and was still getting used to SMBX again, but I found it visually confusing and relying on guesswork as to what half the Peaches were. It doesn't help that there are distinct enemies and powerups in the level that share the same sprite.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to either World 2 or 3, depending on which one raocow chooses to play first.

[cheez8]

Wow. I somehow managed to die *ten times* on Pet Rock, because I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the text box without causing Demo to let go of it and fling it across the room, killing herself. That text box popup is probably in the worst position possible. Urgh.

I'm pretty sure that what you do is cancel the text box by using the run button. You know, the run button. The one that lets you run. The one that lets you hold things. The one that the textbox specifically tells you to press to continue. That run button.

Sorry but I seriously don't get why people have had such a problem with this concept. Text boxes go away when you press a button. If you want to keep holding something after the textbox goes away, the button you should press is the button that lets you hold things. It's not complicated.

[YelseyKing]

Wow. I somehow managed to die *ten times* on Pet Rock, because I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the text box without causing Demo to let go of it and fling it across the room, killing herself. That text box popup is probably in the worst position possible. Urgh.

I'm pretty sure that what you do is cancel the text box by using the run button. You know, the run button. The one that lets you run. The one that lets you hold things. The one that the textbox specifically tells you to press to continue. That run button.

Sorry but I seriously don't get why people have had such a problem with this concept. Text boxes go away when you press a button. If you want to keep holding something after the textbox goes away, the button you should press is the button that lets you hold things. It's not complicated.

...really. The hell was *that* all about? You're defending a bad decision, and somehow *I'm* the incompetent one? Judging by the overall hostile tone of that post, this complaint has come up before, and you made the executive decision to completely ignore it and instead ridicule anyone who had an issue with it?

The problem was that I *was* pushing that button, and it was causing Demo to throw the rock. That text box honestly did not even need to *be* there, since literally all it does is screw with your timing. A sign next to it could have accomplished the same exact thing without being quite so intrusive.

Edit: All right, apparently somehow I just missed that the text box explained that, getting too annoyed that it kept popping up at all; I apologize. But it doesn't change the fact that your post was needlessly rude, and that the text box did not need to even *be* there (unless it was necessary to trigger the effect, but I doubt it).

[ano0maly]

Also he also missed the princess boss music. Though if he has to go back and make sure he's identified all the music - this LP is going to get pretty annoying for him to record. xP I'm not sure if it's worth worrying about people can easily either get the game themselves or ask in the comments.

Maybe if there was a way to have the music auto-display when a new music track plays, for a few seconds?

It wouldn't be a secret then. It is possible, but the text floating on screen tends to take a lot of attention from the levels.

I meant that maybe the cheat code would toggle the auto-display ON, and as long as it's on, it displays a given music for the first few seconds it's playing.

[WestonSmith]

STUFF ABOUT TEXT BOX

I apologize for the confusion and any problems the text box caused. The text was an issue initially (though I don't recall others stating as such, I know it caused problems for myself), which is why I added the instructions at the end. In retrospect, removing the text altogether may have been the best course of action, and I'd be fine with any future updates doing just that.

Thanks for playing, and glad folks liked the level. I'll see y'all again come World 3.

[YelseyKing]

STUFF ABOUT TEXT BOX

I apologize for the confusion and any problems the text box caused. The text was an issue initially (though I don't recall others stating as such, I know it caused problems for myself), which is why I added the instructions at the end. In retrospect, removing the text altogether may have been the best course of action, and I'd be fine with any future updates doing just that.

Thanks for playing, and glad folks liked the level. I'll see y'all again come World 3.

To be honest, after replaying the level, I really have no excuses. Of all the text boxes to skip, I *would* pick *that* one. But, once I, you know, stopped to *read* the thing, I had no problems. The stage is great once you know what to do. I actually wished it was a little *longer*, because I love those silly "destroy everything" romps. Still one of my top 3 stages so far. Awesome job!

[CodeGorilla]

Oh man, the music thing is possibly the greatest thing about this game so far, in my opinion. My favorite music credit is in world 5

for the music when you get eaten by the flower during the Nevada fight.

Priceless.

[Validon98]

Oh man, the music thing is possibly the greatest thing about this game so far, in my opinion. My favorite music credit is in world 5

for the music when you get eaten by the flower during the Nevada fight.

Priceless.

Oh god that freaked me the hell out when that happened. I guess the Flesh Lord isn't partial on eating armless cycloptic alien demon minions, huh?

[cheez8]

...really. The hell was *that* all about? You're defending a bad decision, and somehow *I'm* the incompetent one? Judging by the overall hostile tone of that post, this complaint has come up before, and you made the executive decision to completely ignore it and instead ridicule anyone who had an issue with it?

The problem was that I *was* pushing that button, and it was causing Demo to throw the rock. That text box honestly did not even need to *be* there, since literally all it does is screw with your timing. A sign next to it could have accomplished the same exact thing without being quite so intrusive.

Edit: All right, apparently somehow I just missed that the text box explained that, getting too annoyed that it kept popping up at all; I apologize. But it doesn't change the fact that your post was needlessly rude, and that the text box did not need to even *be* there (unless it was necessary to trigger the effect, but I doubt it).

Well... yeah, I'm sorry too. You're right, this has come up before, and I really didn't get it then either- even though no solution was mentioned it just seemed pretty darn intuitive to me for some reason and I didn't get why it was a big stink back then. Then it happened again when the text even said how to avoid problems, and I guess I got way snappier about it than I had a right to be. Not exactly feeling proud right now of the way I acted, I'm really sorry about that.

...You know, thinking about it more clearly, you make a very good point about just putting a sign next to it to steer clear of that sort of problem. It does make it a little silly to open up the possibility of kicking the rock away when you put it that way.

[Sturg]

Yay! I now don't have to worry if there aren't any issues with the music cheat yayyy, that thing was super tedious to do but super worth it.

also there may or may not be silly things if you were to type 'music' in some places without music

Both world's 2 & 3 are both great imo so I don't care which one you pick.

[Mineyl]

It'd probably help a ton if only one or two buttons advanced/cleared text boxes instead of any of the inputs. I know I've gotten more than my fair fill of watching raocow accidentally skip NPC text in this engine.

[Lunikyuu]

The fact that you can't exit messages or the pause menu while holding another button is the worst, and you can't exit the pause menu with the run button either, which cost me the secret exit in

The Floor is Lava

(first level in world 9 not counting the intro level) once because I had to pause near the end and when I unpaused, Demo threw the key

off the box I was standing on and onto the ground

. I don't know if you can even respawn the key in that situation either.

[Lunikyuu]

Also, I saw the text box in Pet Rock as a tutorial of sorts explaining that you can cancel text boxes with the run button. I know I also had problems with holding on to items while reading text at first because I thought you could only get rid of the text by pressing the jump button, so I actually thought it was pretty helpful.

(sorry for the double post, that just came to my mind now and I thought that too much time had passed since the original post to do an edit)

[tigermoon]

Apparently I'm more rusty than raocow. He didn't blow himself up once!

[Validon98]

Well I forgot to say stuff about yesterday's stuff.

Pet Rock's a nice little gimmick level that is kind of cool even if some people have problems with the whole "hey you should probably cancel out textboxes with the run button so you don't let go of things" thing. I don't mind that personally, although I can see why people (almost overly so) don't really like it.
I never got the joke of Another Castle until raocow pointed it out. I was wondering what was up with Peach being all over the place! Kind of a weird level but not too bad. Also Demo I think you may have caused the Talkhaustrophe or something, not quite sure what you did there at the end!
Hurray for there being a simpler to navigate hub due to the whole nature of the game being overworld styled. It also looks neat, as always.
I don't have much to say about the world 2 intro. Other than that even if I am someone who kind of likes plot and exposition, an amnesia subplot would be kind of dumb. Also who's Feed/Stephen? Someone from ATXS, or something else?
And last but not least, I was really impressed/worried when I saw that Just Rusty! was a Lemmings based level, but it actually isn't too bad. Conceptually for SMBX it's pretty neat.

[docopoper]

Ahhhh. That forest overworld music.

[jayScribble]

A beautiful world, hidden by SMBX limitations. I have nothing much to say about the HUB and the world preview level, due to being so much more in the HUB, and the preview level explaining itself.

"Just Rusty!" is one technically impressive levels early in the game, doing so by being a lemmings game as the gimmick. The puzzle are just easy enough to solve for the level to be short and not overstay it's welcome.

[Willhart]

Ittababy was the one who pushed trough the change to give better hair for Iris.
It is way better looking than how it was originally.

Holy made the world select art pictures and the basic design for how it works. It was changed a couple of times later in the development.

Here is some commentary for Just Rusty!

This is the first level I made for the episode. I started it during raocow's asmbxt lp. The name is a reference to the first fun rating level from original Lemmings. "Just dig!"

The level was mostly inspired by roundthewheel's playtrough of DoveLems. It is a super difficult and clever Lemmings custom level pack. raocow used to comment on those videos, which is how I discovered that channel. I used to play some Lemmings games when I was younger, but I was never any good at it. It is still fun to watch someone else play that game.

This is basically how the level gimmick works:
The door to the next level will only appear when there are no more Lemmings. They can only despawn by going trough the exit. This was the reason why rooms were only one screen in size. There is also a floor that will save only the lemmings, if they fall to the holes. No lunadll was used except for the music codes. The nuke reset thing was build on top of everything else.

I'm pretty happy with how this worked out length and difficulty wise.