Score - 15,75
idol
Fun/Gameplay: 10/25
The level design here is rather straight forward with nothing to write home about. I’d call it mindless, but the setups involving the Venus Flyin’ Traps negate that by being placed rather annoyingly. There isn’t much spark to this level, with little thought put into it’s composition. For example, screen 7-8 has an alcove with three Turn Blocks and a Question Block. However, none of these Turn Blocks contain anything, and the Question Block contains a single measly coin. There’s also a Venus Flyin’ Trap close by who can shoot into the hole slightly. Why would this be a worthwhile endeavor for any player to go into? There is no reward, and there is a lot more risk than it’s worth. Coins are placed haphazardly, albeit rarely, and you have another wonky Turn Block + Single Coin Question Block setup right before the Goal Post. It feels like this level was composed on autopilot.
Sprite Usage/Creativity: 7/20
Spriteset 3 is a pretty hard spriteset to use well. For starters, the Venus Flyin’ Trap is an incredibly annoying enemy to handle, and using it in sort of closer spaces where jumping over it is hard becomes pretty tedious, especially in conjunction with the Monty Moles who throw rocks / bombs. The Spiny’s also seem to be placed more to just fill a quota rather than naturally filling a role in the composition of the level. The same goes for the Bomb Koopas, this level feels pressured to use every sprite in the sprite set rather than naturally creating an environment for these sprites to be used well.
Aesthetics: 2/5
This tileset isn’t appealing to really look at, being rather simple and somewhat ugly. But the biggest detractor is the cacti, which impact the gameplay by appearing as a solid hurtful block when they can be gone through. The rock pillars underneath the 8 pixel thick platforms have a lighter outline to signify they can be walked through, and yet the cacti and trees have black outlines. This is pretty inconsistent, and in the cacti’s case genuinely misleading.
Total: 19/50
Tob
6 / 5 / 2 -> 13
There's nothing really outstanding in the level. But there weren't any parts that made me raise an eyebrow so that's good.
The only sprite that really gets used is the flying venus trap and the other sprites seem
like they were just placed for the sake of it. The venus flying trap had some nice set-ups though.
Aesthetics arent anything special. Simple custom gfx for FG and BG and fitting custom music.
Some HDMA gradient would've helped here.
SincX
F: 9
C: 5
A: 3
Total: 17/50
Comments:
This feels more like a "regular level that happens to have custom sprites" than a level that actually uses them in interesting ways, as the challenge would imply. The Venuses seem to be the favorite here but they don't contribute any value to the playability; rather, they're just in the way and clearly not thoroughly thought out/tested, judging from the couple that send their fireballs right through the floor. The Spiny eggs could have been a good focus for this if they were used more, and the other enemies feel completely tacked on and useless--you might as well have just used vanilla Koopas. It's still not terrible though, and would fit as a standard desert level in a hack somewhere.
Erik
Fun/Gameplay: 5/25
Sprite Usage/Creativity: 7/20
Aesthetics: 2/5
TOTAL: 14/50
Comments:
Inconsistent level all around. We have some parts here that are way too easy, and then we have these annoying flying venus/jumping spiny setups which I just tanked through most times. There’s some areas where the venus’ fireball just clips through slopes, or others where you are being bombarded with their annoying fireball in every direction. Outside of these, though, there really isn’t much of a challenge or even anything interesting to comment on. I can thus conclude this level’s difficulty is based in the worst possible usage of the venus plants. I was actually glad of the positioning of the moles this time around because they helped kill the plants with their bombs. The bomb koopa’s palette looks messed up too, and the sky color is terrible.
Fun/Gameplay: 10/25
The level design here is rather straight forward with nothing to write home about. I’d call it mindless, but the setups involving the Venus Flyin’ Traps negate that by being placed rather annoyingly. There isn’t much spark to this level, with little thought put into it’s composition. For example, screen 7-8 has an alcove with three Turn Blocks and a Question Block. However, none of these Turn Blocks contain anything, and the Question Block contains a single measly coin. There’s also a Venus Flyin’ Trap close by who can shoot into the hole slightly. Why would this be a worthwhile endeavor for any player to go into? There is no reward, and there is a lot more risk than it’s worth. Coins are placed haphazardly, albeit rarely, and you have another wonky Turn Block + Single Coin Question Block setup right before the Goal Post. It feels like this level was composed on autopilot.
Sprite Usage/Creativity: 7/20
Spriteset 3 is a pretty hard spriteset to use well. For starters, the Venus Flyin’ Trap is an incredibly annoying enemy to handle, and using it in sort of closer spaces where jumping over it is hard becomes pretty tedious, especially in conjunction with the Monty Moles who throw rocks / bombs. The Spiny’s also seem to be placed more to just fill a quota rather than naturally filling a role in the composition of the level. The same goes for the Bomb Koopas, this level feels pressured to use every sprite in the sprite set rather than naturally creating an environment for these sprites to be used well.
Aesthetics: 2/5
This tileset isn’t appealing to really look at, being rather simple and somewhat ugly. But the biggest detractor is the cacti, which impact the gameplay by appearing as a solid hurtful block when they can be gone through. The rock pillars underneath the 8 pixel thick platforms have a lighter outline to signify they can be walked through, and yet the cacti and trees have black outlines. This is pretty inconsistent, and in the cacti’s case genuinely misleading.
Total: 19/50
Tob
6 / 5 / 2 -> 13
There's nothing really outstanding in the level. But there weren't any parts that made me raise an eyebrow so that's good.
The only sprite that really gets used is the flying venus trap and the other sprites seem
like they were just placed for the sake of it. The venus flying trap had some nice set-ups though.
Aesthetics arent anything special. Simple custom gfx for FG and BG and fitting custom music.
Some HDMA gradient would've helped here.
SincX
F: 9
C: 5
A: 3
Total: 17/50
Comments:
This feels more like a "regular level that happens to have custom sprites" than a level that actually uses them in interesting ways, as the challenge would imply. The Venuses seem to be the favorite here but they don't contribute any value to the playability; rather, they're just in the way and clearly not thoroughly thought out/tested, judging from the couple that send their fireballs right through the floor. The Spiny eggs could have been a good focus for this if they were used more, and the other enemies feel completely tacked on and useless--you might as well have just used vanilla Koopas. It's still not terrible though, and would fit as a standard desert level in a hack somewhere.
Erik
Fun/Gameplay: 5/25
Sprite Usage/Creativity: 7/20
Aesthetics: 2/5
TOTAL: 14/50
Comments:
Inconsistent level all around. We have some parts here that are way too easy, and then we have these annoying flying venus/jumping spiny setups which I just tanked through most times. There’s some areas where the venus’ fireball just clips through slopes, or others where you are being bombarded with their annoying fireball in every direction. Outside of these, though, there really isn’t much of a challenge or even anything interesting to comment on. I can thus conclude this level’s difficulty is based in the worst possible usage of the venus plants. I was actually glad of the positioning of the moles this time around because they helped kill the plants with their bombs. The bomb koopa’s palette looks messed up too, and the sky color is terrible.
Score - 18
idol
Fun/Gameplay: 11/25
Not being able to spinjump on the Pyro Guy feels pretty silly, but I recognize that’s a fault of the sprite itself and not you, so I will ignore it. What I won’t ignore is the Pipe-Dwelling Bullet Blaster on the first screen being behind the fog. While this is an aesthetics issue, it also hampers gameplay by having essentially “invisible” enemies. Also I was able to crash the game very early on, the reason of which I’m not sure how, nor were other judges able to replicate it, but it’s still something rather odd. Another minor gripe would be noting how the hitbox of the upside-down ship portions feels janky as hell, and it would’ve been better for you to use the upside down slopes of the cave tileset or something. The design of this level is rather tepid, and I found very little to comment on other than minor bickering. This level having no midpoint would probably make this level feel arduous if there was much to it, but it doesn’t seem to have much ambition beyond a simple idea.
Sprite Usage/Creativity: 12/20
The sprites are all here, but none of them seem to be here for any purpose besides being here. The Shotzo’s are placed annoyingly, giving the player little room to deal with them. The Pendulum Mace’s feel slightly out of place with the levels seemingly core focus on projectiles (Pyro Guy’s shots, the Pipe-Dwelling Bullet Blaster, the Shotzo, and the Bullet Generator), and the NSMB Propeller Block serves virtually no purpose whatsoever other than a single Dragon Coin. I’d even say it’s detrimental to hold onto after getting that Dragon Coin, as the platforming right after seemingly does not take it’s added glidingness into any beneficial consideration.
Aesthetics: 4/5
The fog drowning out the Pipe-Dwelling Bullet Blasters is a no-no. However, the level makes up for it in looking pretty nice all around otherwise. Really liked the aesthetic of the second room as well.
Total: 27/50
Tob
08 / 02 / 03 -> 13
The level contains all custom sprites but none of which (except for the fry guy, maybe) really get used quite well.
You could probably replace them with other (vanilla) sprites and the level would be just as challenging. The propeller block is heavily
underimplemented and on top of that it also breaks graphics and behavior when bringing it over to the next area.
It does have consistent GFX and a not so boring yet kinda messy autoscrolling part.
SincX
F: 7
C: 2
A: 3
Total: 12/50
Comments:
I feel like this level focused more on the vanilla Koopas than on any of the other sprites, which were used like no more than a few times each to almost no benefit to the level. The other glaring problem with the level is that it's just not interesting to play; nothing is exciting or fun, it's just a bland waiting game. Slow auto-scrollers have to be packed with content to be any fun, and this really isn't.
Erik
Fun/Gameplay: 12/25
Sprite Usage/Creativity: 5/20
Aesthetics: 3/5
TOTAL: 20/50
Comments:
This is a pretty decent airship/tank level. There isn’t too much to critique on but at the same time there’s not many things that were interesting about it. Like, this feels like just another level that could fit in a hack… it’s okay, but there’s a lot of potential wasted to actually make an impression in a contest. During my playthrough I saw more Koopas than the actual sprites from the set. The Shotzo only appears like two times, and the propeller just feels shoved it with no other purpose than to get a Yoshi Coin: it’s a good introduction to how it works, but apart from that… nothing is done with it. Same thing goes with the rest of the custom sprites.
Fun/Gameplay: 11/25
Not being able to spinjump on the Pyro Guy feels pretty silly, but I recognize that’s a fault of the sprite itself and not you, so I will ignore it. What I won’t ignore is the Pipe-Dwelling Bullet Blaster on the first screen being behind the fog. While this is an aesthetics issue, it also hampers gameplay by having essentially “invisible” enemies. Also I was able to crash the game very early on, the reason of which I’m not sure how, nor were other judges able to replicate it, but it’s still something rather odd. Another minor gripe would be noting how the hitbox of the upside-down ship portions feels janky as hell, and it would’ve been better for you to use the upside down slopes of the cave tileset or something. The design of this level is rather tepid, and I found very little to comment on other than minor bickering. This level having no midpoint would probably make this level feel arduous if there was much to it, but it doesn’t seem to have much ambition beyond a simple idea.
Sprite Usage/Creativity: 12/20
The sprites are all here, but none of them seem to be here for any purpose besides being here. The Shotzo’s are placed annoyingly, giving the player little room to deal with them. The Pendulum Mace’s feel slightly out of place with the levels seemingly core focus on projectiles (Pyro Guy’s shots, the Pipe-Dwelling Bullet Blaster, the Shotzo, and the Bullet Generator), and the NSMB Propeller Block serves virtually no purpose whatsoever other than a single Dragon Coin. I’d even say it’s detrimental to hold onto after getting that Dragon Coin, as the platforming right after seemingly does not take it’s added glidingness into any beneficial consideration.
Aesthetics: 4/5
The fog drowning out the Pipe-Dwelling Bullet Blasters is a no-no. However, the level makes up for it in looking pretty nice all around otherwise. Really liked the aesthetic of the second room as well.
Total: 27/50
Tob
08 / 02 / 03 -> 13
The level contains all custom sprites but none of which (except for the fry guy, maybe) really get used quite well.
You could probably replace them with other (vanilla) sprites and the level would be just as challenging. The propeller block is heavily
underimplemented and on top of that it also breaks graphics and behavior when bringing it over to the next area.
It does have consistent GFX and a not so boring yet kinda messy autoscrolling part.
SincX
F: 7
C: 2
A: 3
Total: 12/50
Comments:
I feel like this level focused more on the vanilla Koopas than on any of the other sprites, which were used like no more than a few times each to almost no benefit to the level. The other glaring problem with the level is that it's just not interesting to play; nothing is exciting or fun, it's just a bland waiting game. Slow auto-scrollers have to be packed with content to be any fun, and this really isn't.
Erik
Fun/Gameplay: 12/25
Sprite Usage/Creativity: 5/20
Aesthetics: 3/5
TOTAL: 20/50
Comments:
This is a pretty decent airship/tank level. There isn’t too much to critique on but at the same time there’s not many things that were interesting about it. Like, this feels like just another level that could fit in a hack… it’s okay, but there’s a lot of potential wasted to actually make an impression in a contest. During my playthrough I saw more Koopas than the actual sprites from the set. The Shotzo only appears like two times, and the propeller just feels shoved it with no other purpose than to get a Yoshi Coin: it’s a good introduction to how it works, but apart from that… nothing is done with it. Same thing goes with the rest of the custom sprites.
Score - 26,75
idol
Fun/Gameplay: 12/25
Decent experience, but the secret exit caused this level to take quite a hit – forcing the player to just replay the entire level but this time without powerups is pretty sleazy, and it really did not add much to this experience other than the repetitious tedium of having to replay this level again with minute changes. This level’s focus seems to drift back on forth – there’s a primary focus on Stretches, but the additional sprites (Balloons, Cloud Drops, Wave Stream Boos) do not seem to be placed in a way in which they complement the Stretches. Rather, every element in this level kind of does its own thing, giving this level a slight identity issue in the sprite department. I’m not too sure what the point of the pipe is near the end of the level considering it’s all the same sublevel, but go off.
Sprite Usage/Creativity: 11/20
The Cloud Drops were used creatively, but I was most impressed by the use of the Stretches. In a way they were reminiscent of the SMB3 Munchers that popped out of the pipes. The brunt of the creativity in this level came from them – otherwise, the level drops it’s interest in the Cloud Drops pretty fast, exchanging them for rather boring Balloon sections that just involve waiting, and Wave Stream Boos that seem to struggle to fit in their
contained areas.
Aesthetics: 3/5
Song is really good, but the palette feels too washed out and too much like a shitty straight yellow filter was applied to it to look good. You also bit yourself in the foot replacing a jumpable enemy (Cloud Drop) with the graphics of an enemy the player knows not to jump on (Piranha Plant). This actually impacted gameplay & sprite usage slightly as well. The sprite replacement for the Stretch was also not too great. However, the sprite replacements for the Balloon and the Wave Stream Boos were really nice, I especially adored the Boo replacements.
Total: 26/50
Tob
11 / 13 / 05 -> 29
This level has nice different graphics for the sprites what gives the level a great level of indiduality.
I got really confused with the (apperantly not accessable) secret-exit and the blocks that appear after beating the level.
SincX
F: 15
C: 8
A: 4
Total: 27/50
Comments:
While it doesn't stand out, this is a generally decent and relatively fun level. The aesthetic is nice, though I don't quite understand the logic behind the piranha head graphic. The Cloud Drops were used nicely, and I would have liked to see a lot more out of them since they seemed to be the focus. Other than that it's a pretty standard romp.
Erik
Fun/Gameplay: 10/25
Sprite Usage/Creativity: 11/20
Aesthetics: 4/5
TOTAL: 25/50
Comments:
A decent level with an interesting sprite usage. The first half is really poor, with some non-interesting starting setups; it just is okay. The second half picks up the pace a bit, though there’s not much to comment on it. The start of the second half has these annoying one tile stretch jumping, and after that the things to comment on just vanish. The P-Switch usage to find a secret is just okay, but you have to do this annoying upwards wave boo stream spinjumping that honestly just makes getting those rewards not worth it. The cloud drops/balloon setups are good, but there’s too few experimentations with those balloons other than that. The sleepy goombas that appear in both sections feel more of an afterthought and add nothing to the level. The secret exit is okay, but having to replay basically the exact same level is boring; you could’ve tried experimenting a bit more with the blocks that appear on the level after you beat it once, or just have it in a different section. That’s what there is to this level; it looks pretty, but the same can’t be said about how it plays.
Fun/Gameplay: 12/25
Decent experience, but the secret exit caused this level to take quite a hit – forcing the player to just replay the entire level but this time without powerups is pretty sleazy, and it really did not add much to this experience other than the repetitious tedium of having to replay this level again with minute changes. This level’s focus seems to drift back on forth – there’s a primary focus on Stretches, but the additional sprites (Balloons, Cloud Drops, Wave Stream Boos) do not seem to be placed in a way in which they complement the Stretches. Rather, every element in this level kind of does its own thing, giving this level a slight identity issue in the sprite department. I’m not too sure what the point of the pipe is near the end of the level considering it’s all the same sublevel, but go off.
Sprite Usage/Creativity: 11/20
The Cloud Drops were used creatively, but I was most impressed by the use of the Stretches. In a way they were reminiscent of the SMB3 Munchers that popped out of the pipes. The brunt of the creativity in this level came from them – otherwise, the level drops it’s interest in the Cloud Drops pretty fast, exchanging them for rather boring Balloon sections that just involve waiting, and Wave Stream Boos that seem to struggle to fit in their
contained areas.
Aesthetics: 3/5
Song is really good, but the palette feels too washed out and too much like a shitty straight yellow filter was applied to it to look good. You also bit yourself in the foot replacing a jumpable enemy (Cloud Drop) with the graphics of an enemy the player knows not to jump on (Piranha Plant). This actually impacted gameplay & sprite usage slightly as well. The sprite replacement for the Stretch was also not too great. However, the sprite replacements for the Balloon and the Wave Stream Boos were really nice, I especially adored the Boo replacements.
Total: 26/50
Tob
11 / 13 / 05 -> 29
This level has nice different graphics for the sprites what gives the level a great level of indiduality.
I got really confused with the (apperantly not accessable) secret-exit and the blocks that appear after beating the level.
SincX
F: 15
C: 8
A: 4
Total: 27/50
Comments:
While it doesn't stand out, this is a generally decent and relatively fun level. The aesthetic is nice, though I don't quite understand the logic behind the piranha head graphic. The Cloud Drops were used nicely, and I would have liked to see a lot more out of them since they seemed to be the focus. Other than that it's a pretty standard romp.
Erik
Fun/Gameplay: 10/25
Sprite Usage/Creativity: 11/20
Aesthetics: 4/5
TOTAL: 25/50
Comments:
A decent level with an interesting sprite usage. The first half is really poor, with some non-interesting starting setups; it just is okay. The second half picks up the pace a bit, though there’s not much to comment on it. The start of the second half has these annoying one tile stretch jumping, and after that the things to comment on just vanish. The P-Switch usage to find a secret is just okay, but you have to do this annoying upwards wave boo stream spinjumping that honestly just makes getting those rewards not worth it. The cloud drops/balloon setups are good, but there’s too few experimentations with those balloons other than that. The sleepy goombas that appear in both sections feel more of an afterthought and add nothing to the level. The secret exit is okay, but having to replay basically the exact same level is boring; you could’ve tried experimenting a bit more with the blocks that appear on the level after you beat it once, or just have it in a different section. That’s what there is to this level; it looks pretty, but the same can’t be said about how it plays.