A2XT: It's Over

[jayScribble]

Looks like the cold world is not so cold.

"Just Another Screen" is, like the last one, screens with small challenges and memorization needed to progress, but it feels like it overstayed it's welcome after a few of them.

"Soggy Steelworks" is a fair level with a strange placement of a midpoint being earlier in the level than expected, but is sort of justified with the waterfalls, bullets, lava, and podoboos together being quite a challenge to get through.

[tigermoon]

Leave it to raocow to stumble on a secret exit before even playing the level.

Then again, this one could be chalked up to the library being visited the previous day. Who knows.


Also Bowser in an ice-and-lava factory level because reasons.

[Validon98]

Uhh... SOMETHING ABOUT WORLD 4.

Just Another Screen is a neat little sequel to that level from ASMBXT, except it replaces the crazy time limit for the secret leek with the real level 18. A lot of it feels kind of the same, but I see this time around there is a bit more emphasis on having different flavor and continuity between the levels.

Soggy Steelworks meanwhile kind of is a really weirdly short level, it's just that for its length there's a bit of weirdly difficult obstacles, mostly the relaxation room (trust me, I have problems with that). In the end it's not too bad, it just seems like it came and went more than anything. Also, what was that sign out front meant to say, if anything?

[Unaniem]

Belated, but done regardless: World 3 favourites and counterparts

Favourite

Desert Town and Load Bearing Bricks

Desert Town for being all that Willhart's good at: great graphical usage and assembly, lovely atmosphere, very coherent design and a really pleasant secret that once again adds to the atmosphere.

Not much to say gameplay wise it being a town level, but out of all Towns in the game, this one is definitely my favourite.

Load Bearing Bricks for being a stage with a solid gimmick with solid execution. I also actually really enjoy the rather minimal design of the stage, the only blocks used are breakables and question blocks (and the bridge at the goal), the background is solid black and the stage's design is also rather straightforward without being either bland or flat.

It gives off this indescribable feeling for me, but whatever it may be called, I most definitely enjoy it.

Least Favourite:

Sloppy Sands for being the exact opposite of what I said two sentences ago: bland, flat, repetitive and drags on for way too long without much dynamic design involved. The changes to the stage made it reasonable to play through (like many others I find the first draft to be just straight and simple badly designed), but it's still a total bore for me to play through in it's final state.

[Sebby19]

So OFCOARSE raocow discovers the secret exit within 5 seconds. Meanwhile I found it 3 worlds later.

There is a library hint for this level, but even after doing Just Another Screen, I thought the hint was referring to the level 0 of World 1. And then I look through the editor and find nothing, and I'm all like confused. And I also have questions about why the tutorial was built the way it was, but that's for later.

Hey raocow, if you want to stay at the title screen and see what else happens in the background, stay until the song loops once. Should take a few minutes.

[Voltgloss]

Also, what was that sign out front meant to say, if anything?

Reploid Recycle Center

[Ometeotl]

No Canadians allowed:

I'm not sure I like how obvious the Library hint for my level was, but hopefully Rao will forget by the time he gets to my level.

[Willhart]

Factory that makes steam might be a reference to something. It could also be used to melt ice into fresh water. The first level went trough some changes during testing to make it more forgiving.

[Voltgloss]

No Canadians allowed:

I'm not sure I like how obvious the Library hint for my level was, but hopefully Rao will forget by the time he gets to my level.

The consensus of multiple testers (including me) was that the secret in your level is the hardest secret leek to find in the entire game. Even with the hint (which I don't think is as obvious as you suggest), people have had trouble finding it.

That secret leek was the entire reason why I suggested a hint room as a leek-unlockable, because DAMN is it hard to find.

[Validon98]

Oh, do you mean

the one in Fun Fungus Function? Because okay yeah, even WITH the hint, I was only able to find it randomly by bonking my head against the ceiling until I found the hidden warp. It was... what.

[sedron]

Level thoughts for today, wow!

Just Another Screen- Definitely not as hard as its prequel, which is neither really a good or bad thing. This level does feel a little bit less surprising than it's counterpart, and it feels like a few rooms aren't super creative (the generator rooms in particular,) but I understand there isn't a whole lot of design space left for this type of level. I definitely enjoy this level's secret exit far more than the first one's. It's more fun to find and play, while being less stressful. Just Another Screen still does a good job being flavorful and fun. Another memorable one.

Soggy Steelworks- This one is a bit odd. I think, as a whole, it's kind of average. The land layout is oftentimes boring and repetitive, but there's a few neat spots like the entrance. The graphics aren't anything fancy, and the music serves its purpose. The boss fight is pretty bland and relies on waiting for enemies to use as ammo, which is rarely a good thing. It's also the second level in World 4 to utilize SMB3 Bowser (right after a much more interesting fight with him, no less.) I'll give credit to the writing, which does a number of little, neat things. The bit about the door opening was a nice touch, and the NPC's are good additions. So, there's good and bad in this level, but neither extremely so.

[Joseph Staleknight]

Out of a desire to escape the intense cold, Demo and Co. rush into a couple of buildings, knowing little about the challenges and dangers that lurk within.

Just Another Screen (8flight): So once again, 8flight shows his love of jmtb02's games. The This Is The Only Level games are pretty interesting (though quite frustrating, especially the fourth one), so it was a treat to see the homage's triumphant return in A2XT. Granted, some of the gimmicks were more annoying to deal with than others (though thankfully Binding of Light was not (as I feared) one of the more difficult ones), but--aside from a couple that could be unwinnable if you're stupid--it feels very much like something John Cooney himself would have designed. Interestingly, in the beta's version at the two Fluffy-esque mini-levels there used to be signs telling the player to hold up at the doors until they went through (most likely because of the platform screw). I guess adding a static postchamber to those levels facilitated the transition, making the signs unnecessary. Ah well, the level's still a neat way to explore and incorporate gimmicks, just like last time.

Soggy Steelworks (Heavy Sigh): A rather short and simple level, though the ice gimmick before the midpoint was pretty clever (so much I actually based a level for a future episode around it!). I was also amused at Bowser Blazing Lizard's shock in finding a pool of water to drown in, and the nonchalance the businessman had in discovering the leek. Otherwise, this level didn't do much to impress me, but at least it didn't do too much to annoy me either.

Also, only after looking at Voltgloss's post revealing such did I actually know what the sign out front said. I always thought it had something to do with heaters since "Center" and "Heater" have many common letters in the same places.

Notes from the Spire II:

17. "Looking for the real level 18? Check for some symmetry in level 0!" (Just Another Screen): Whether or not raocow remembered that hint, it certainly seemed obvious after a short time of fooling around.

[ano0maly]

The boss battle in Soggy Steelworks was hilarious. I was thinking "What kind of boss is this?" because it's Bowser from Mario Bros, but you fight him like Mother Brain while dealing with the rinka thing, and the music is from Megaman Zero series with a Megaman door transition.

[ztarwuff]

The level has a sign that more or less spells out the gimmick right before the player would even encounter it. Generally speaking, raocow makes a good point of reading every sign present, so I don't think he would've fallen for it anyway.

Not what I was getting at, but it doesn't matter.

I'm glad somebody scrapped the SMB3 Bowser graphic from "Just Another Screen". After all that effort we put into changing the default graphics, it made little sense for that boss battle to use the graphic we went out of our way to replace when the level didn't really require or need that particular graphic for aesthetic purposes.

It made even less sense when somebody did that for "Soggy Steelworks" when the level clearly required some kind of fiery lizard/dinosaur thing to be the boss.

Somebody might have slowed down the wall of faces a bit too much though. It was insanely quick before, but now it semes a bit too slow.

[Heavy Sigh]

The level has a sign that more or less spells out the gimmick right before the player would even encounter it. Generally speaking, raocow makes a good point of reading every sign present, so I don't think he would've fallen for it anyway.

Not what I was getting at, but it doesn't matter.

I'm glad somebody scrapped the SMB3 Bowser graphic from "Just Another Screen". After all that effort we put into changing the default graphics, it made little sense for that boss battle to use the graphic we went out of our way to replace when the level didn't really require or need that particular graphic for aesthetic purposes.

It made even less sense when somebody did that for "Soggy Steelworks" when the level clearly required some kind of fiery lizard/dinosaur thing to be the boss.

Bowser fits those credentials, thank you very much.

There was actually a version with a custom boss, which was scrapped because it was terrible and broken and I was completely unwilling to spend the time required to fix it.

Also, I think this was the first level I ever actually started working on, and it kind of shows. Badly.

[Voltgloss]

It made even less sense when somebody did that for "Soggy Steelworks" when the level clearly required some kind of fiery lizard/dinosaur thing to be the boss.

Bowser fits those credentials, thank you very much.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but I think ztarwuff's point is that, during testing, someone replaced Bowser with the VIP Satan monster (whatever he is) because VIP Satan is, in A2XT, the "default" graphic replacement for SMB3 Bowser. But that didn't make sense to do in Soggy Steelworks, so the change was reverted back.

Basically:

- In Just Another Screen, SMB3 Bowser was replaced with VIP Satan. That's a good thing, because VIP Satan was purposely made to replace SMB3 Bowser, and the level had no reason to use Bowser as the boss.

- In Soggy Steelworks, SMB3 Bowser was replaced with VIP Satan, but later on was re-replaced with SMB3 Bowser again. That's also a good thing, because Soggy Steelworks specifically needed a "flaming lizard" as a boss, which Bowser is.

Unless I'm totally misunderstanding ztarwuff's point. Anyway, the above thought process is why those two bosses are what they are in the finished product.

[YelseyKing]

You shouldn't feel like you can't express your opinions honestly about any part of the game. If you dislike something, you should say so, and if someone is offended by any negative reception of their work then in my opinion they have no business making that work at all. The moment you think you're above criticism is the moment you start making crap.

Thanks. I felt honestly bad about trashing peoples' hard work, but I can't pretend to like something that I just... didn't. And it's not like I thought either level I ranted about last night was irredeemable garbage. I just thought they had some flaws... with the latter one being much more significant.

To be honest, I actually figured out the intended method for that "Bowser" fight fairly quickly, but rejected it and decided that I must be missing something, since doing just that entailed something that was far more difficult and tedious than anything the game had done so far. Sort of a "Well, this would *work*, but given how the game has played out thus far, there's no way they'd *make* you do this..." moment on my part.

That's not to say you should follow negative reception blindly if it's outweighed by positive reception though, any more than you should follow positive reception blindly if it's outweighed by negative reception. Listen to everything and try to please the greatest number of people.

Oh, of course. When I offer criticism, it's not with the intent to put anyone down. It's intended to be constructive. But that's not to say that they *have* to listen to me; I just think they shouldn't offhandedly *dismiss* it, citing "our testers had no problem with it" seemingly as a means of shutting down all further communication on the matter.

That said, I am of the opinion that the discussion in this thread should be about the point in the game that raocow is up to (at least roughly), not significantly before or after that point. More general discussion should be in the game's release thread in the collab section. However, as I said before, I don't have any moral authority to impose that preference. It's just a suggestion to keep things more relevant.

All right, fair enough. I'll keep my future thoughts in another thread... but, could you point me to a place I could freely discuss these matters? I don't want to continue to clutter this thread with these sort of posts, but I'm not sure which thread I *would* be able to do so in.

Edit: Never mind. I checked the A2XT forum and saw a very clearly marked "Review Thread". I dumb.

As to SMBX game mechanics:

You can spin-jump off of vines. That's how you handle the Eeries in Spin! Pierce the Heavens! That part does not require a blind jump.

Huh. I couldn't manage to do that for whatever reason. Maybe I was hitting the wrong button. If so, I feel dumb.

And FYI, Sheath can fit through one-block high gaps if she crouches. It LOOKS like she won't fit, but she will. I agree this is not at all obvious - nor is it required.

... now why was I thinking that Sheath couldn't duck? Huh. I'm silly.

So, about today's episode... that first stage was one of my favorites in world 4. Very clever, very creative. I demo'd more than I care to admit, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It amused me how quickly raocow found the secret exit, but... that's what we've come to expect from him over the years.

Soggy Steelworks, though... man, that wasn't a bad stage at all, but it was kinda forgettable to me. Didn't do anything overly wrong, but didn't do anything that really stood out, either. (Honestly, that's kinda how I feel about world 4 in general. I didn't dislike it, but after having loved world 3, world 4 felt somewhat weaker on the whole... and a lot shorter and more linear, too.)

[Voltgloss]

Edit: Never mind. I checked the A2XT forum and saw a very clearly marked "Review Thread". I dumb.

Actually, that thread is for review of levels for possible inclusion in A2XT episodes. So it's where you'd go to post reviews after trying some of the potential Episode 2 levels. Which I hope you do! We can always use more reviewers and their thoughts!

The thread you want for discussing "levels in A2XT Episode 1 that raocow hasn't yet reached" is this. (I.e., the thread in which the game itself is linked.)

[YelseyKing]

Edit: Never mind. I checked the A2XT forum and saw a very clearly marked "Review Thread". I dumb.

Actually, that thread is for review of levels for possible inclusion in A2XT episodes. So it's where you'd go to post reviews after trying some of the potential Episode 2 levels. Which I hope you do! We can always use more reviewers and their thoughts!

The thread you want for discussing "levels in A2XT Episode 1 that raocow hasn't yet reached" is this. (I.e., the thread in which the game itself is linked.)

Ahh, thanks for that. No, I haven't actually started on reviewing the A2XT Episode 2 levels yet as I said I would... but I will get to it; just been kinda busy lately, and it's kinda overwhelming with ~100 levels and no quick way to download the whole lot of them... and of course it's a lot to review.

[Voltgloss]

Ahh, thanks for that. No, I haven't actually started on reviewing the A2XT Episode 2 levels yet as I said I would... but I will get to it; just been kinda busy lately, and it's kinda overwhelming with ~100 levels and no quick way to download the whole lot of them... and of course it's a lot to review.

I suggest you do what I and 8flight (and maybe Axon? I don't know his criteria for the order in which he's testing levels) are doing. Hit random.org, generate a random list of numbers from 1 to 100, and start playing through levels in that randomly generated order. Download one at a time, play it, play around in it, post your thoughts, and then move on to the next one. Take them at your own pace. We have time; we should make the best use of it. Even if you don't get through all the levels, every review you do provide can only further refine the level in question.

Also note there are additional levels for reviewing on the page listing Episode 1 levels - specifically, the "approved with changes" levels (and maybe some of the "rejected" levels could be salvaged as well). If you want to start somewhere that's not currently being tested by others, you could start with those.

[Septentrion Pleiades]

These levels were somewhat weird and out of place today. Isn't this suppose to be rain/snow world? It's looking more like MB fight world. I know there are better examples of rain levels in this world.

[Unaniem]

I'm pretty sure Just Another Screen would be out of place with any theme.
(Except

Zebraspace, but it's by far not hard enough for that world

)

Rainy Day and Soggy Steelworks were both snow/ice/rain related in a way.

[Voltgloss]

With one upcoming exception (because it's entirely indoors), the rest of the World 4 levels are all in an ice, snow, or rain setting.

[Zygl]

Zyglrox, I don't understand your post - are you saying that you can't access World 5 for some reason?

I've been trying to go to world 5 since I unlocked it. Instead I've accidentally gone to both 6 and 7 because I don't get the arrangement of the world select room or something.
The game (most likely) didn't break, if that's what you're wondering about.

[docopoper]

Strictly speaking there aren't supposed to be world numbers. They're all supposed to be on an equal level.