*X3 WINNER CONGRATS TO ENJL* the one with the seasonal allergies

[KobaBeach]

Haha, aqui é bem raro ouvir essa palavra ser usada, mas ela existe. A grafia correta na verdade é xongas, e significa literalmente "nada", por exemplo: "Não entendi xongas do que ele disse". Sempre achei hilária a sonoridade, por isso comecei a usar xD

O Big Chungus acho muito engraçado tb, mas o pessoal sempre acaba achando que uso o nick por causa do meme

Ya, pensei mesmo isso, desculpa lol

P.S. I also use Reddit for subreddits about game piracy and console jailbreaking perfectly legal things in this judicial system that we all know and "love"

lol

[BobisOnlyBob]

I had a Brazillian boss and a Portuguese coworker for a time. Every time they'd talk my boss would turn it into a language game, especially comparing words that seem archaic to the Portuguese and comparing obscenities. Naturally my dumb anglophone ass could only pick up a fraction of it, but they'd both switch back to English intermittently when they struggled with eachother's accents or anything technical (one was a programmer, the other a designer). Fun times!

[KobaBeach]

I had a Brazillian boss and a Portuguese coworker for a time. Every time they'd talk my boss would turn it into a language game, especially comparing words that seem archaic to the Portuguese and comparing obscenities. Naturally my dumb anglophone ass could only pick up a fraction of it, but they'd both switch back to English intermittently when they struggled with eachother's accents or anything technical (one was a programmer, the other a designer). Fun times!

I actually really like Brazillian accents, people from there feel super friendly and kind a lot of the times so. My main struggle is more European Portuguese slang because I only use slang in English and I generally don't have much PT-PT contact online outside of either the rare chat with VAdaPEGA, or my friend Theo's server (Theo is his yordle fursona's name), we all speak English though because IIRC only like four of us including me are Portuguese.

I will not lie that Portugal and Brazil do seem to have a slight rivalry, at least in anime dub YouTube comments. In Portugal's defense we do not take dubbing seriously at all, the only "talent" and budget is expended in theatrical animation movies (mostly western?) and even then it's pretty rough. Think rao's reaction to the French MN9 dub, but without as much talking down.

Talking to myself in spoiler:

Still have fond memories of the first three Digimon seasons (Adventure 1 had a garbage dub though, rewatching Tamers' Portuguese dub along with playing JRPGs is why I'm the barawhore I am today lol) and technically Digimon Frontier since it's been like 10 years since I've watched it, Medabots (based on the English dub, both the og and Damashii, the latter of which has no subs last I checked lol), Cardcaptor Sakura (another terrible dub but the show was like crack for 6 year old me), Dogtanian (a favorite of my sister), the first Beyblade series (we still get some of the recent seasons on occasion but I'm not very interested), the original Captain Tsubasa series (my sister also loved this, she also loved Rorouni Kenshin, she was surprised when I told her about what happened with the mangaka wrt Kenshin, don't google), Ojamajo Doremi, Tokyo Mew Mew (first half was based on 4kids dub, latter half had to be based off the Italian scripts), Mega Man NT Warrior, Sailor Moon, Kaleido Star (bomb ass show, BR dub too, the only one i can think of who also did this was Corrector Yui and sadly I didn't pay attention to that one at the time) and Let's & Go.

KochiKame (they left in the s-bombs on a children's network, it was so stupid, though the entire character of Maria is treated especially bad by the series (transphobia), which is worse), Keroro Gunsou (i need to start watching this again fuuuuuck) and the Fujiko Fujio anime adaptations (Doraemon, Kiteretsu Daihyakka, Ninja Hattori-kun) too, but those were in Spanish. I also watched Pandalian's English dub which was alright, but for the longest time (read: the late 00s) I could find No Info on it and it was like ????

What I've watched of the 2009 Monster Rancher rerun, Magic Knight Rayearth's English dub, Inazuma Eleven and Pokémon Sun & Moon was alright too, Digimon Xros Wars was based on the terrible scripts from Saban's English dub though. I also kept forgetting to watch Digimon Savers past the first episode (based on Spanish scripts like the first four seasons, though the Spanish scripts of Savers were based on Ryuu-Rogue's subs which, LOL, also we didn't translate TíoDuroLeomon (ToughGuyLeomon), which is what they called BanchoLeomon, which is especially bad since "tio" means uncle to us. oops) and start watching Appli Monsters (based on Japanese version). Also of course, everyone here will not shut up about the Dragon Ball adaptations, especially Z and GT, I personally prefer just DB, never could get into DB in general as much. Super is a hard watch for me due to how terrible the voices are.

[FrozenQuills]

Top 10 of MAGLX3 (alphabetical order)

AirShip
Aqualakitu
Enjl
FrozenQuills (well this is scary considering the standards now)
Genolandia
hennyburgr
Lunikyuu
MrCaves
Shinbison
Zipper

Top 2 of MAFAB2 (alphabetical order)

Cloaytonem2
Rixithechao + Chaoxys (Team Scope Creep)

I loved the desert level today. Sure it's pretty easy and it takes a bit to get going, but I can see it appealing to a wide audience with how polished and simple it is. It's also my favorite of the tier, with the lighthouse level as the runner up.

The motorcycle boss is also super rad with its neat attacks, unusual setting where you're constantly running, and aesthetics; one of my favorite MaFABs in the contest.

[Emral]

Lighthouse is my favourite level of the tier.
Baby's first boss is my favourite boss of the tier.

Desert level has nice presentation, but is much too slow for my liking. It's very expansive and empty, which leads to a lot of downtime. I'm in Camp Rameau this time.

Certainly amusing how both bosses in this tier followed the infinite-runner structure.

[raocow]

so I don't know if anyone remembers, but way back when the contest was going on I proposed to offer, as a sort of pseudo-prize, the ability to directly suggest a game for me to play, like give me a couple of options and I'll just do it. I do want to still honour this, though back then I hadn't realised how my game selection process would completely change

though I guess I can donate my mystery boxes ?

yeah I guess that's what I'll do. *if* the winners are interested, naturally.

plural because I'm counting both maglx3 and mafab2

[PapyrusSemi]

i had a full comment in the works which discussed the level and was planned to also feature the boss but then chrome decided to crash and take everything i had with it so no comment for you i guess

But I may as well provide the ending:

All that's left is cleaning up some unfinished business in the Café, and then we'll be at the grand finale.

[SAJewers]

so I don't know if anyone remembers, but way back when the contest was going on I proposed to offer, as a sort of pseudo-prize, the ability to directly suggest a game for me to play, like give me a couple of options and I'll just do it. I do want to still honour this, though back then I hadn't realised how my game selection process would completely change

though I guess I can donate my mystery boxes ?

yeah I guess that's what I'll do. *if* the winners are interested, naturally.

plural because I'm counting both maglx3 and mafab2

If the winners are patapons, just make them the next royales and forgo the selections for those 2 (assuming they haven't already been royales)

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

- Level Comments -

11th Mush's Quest for Glory: I found this level to be pretty fun. It did kind of feel like two different level combined together, but thanks to the plentiful checkpoints and relatively low difficulty I found this to be a much more pleasant experience than some other levels that felt like multiple levels.

I think my one complaint here is with the Parabeetle riding section right before the ruins; with the autoscroll combined with the fact that they're flying over nothing I found it a little difficult to keep track of how fast they're going, making it easy to undershoot jumps. I didn't find it to be too difficult, and there is a checkpoint right before the section, so dying isn't much of a setback, but I feel like it might help if there were some background objects to use as a reference point.

Other than that I liked this level. I enjoyed the puzzles, and I liked how the camera was offset vertically so you could see more above you (although given that raocow didn't notice that the camera was offset in my level I'm not surprised he didn't notice it here either).

☆ 3rd Motor Problems: Today seems to be the day for stuff that reminds me of my entries, because this boss has the same music that I used for my boss (although this one has the intro; at the time I know how to make a music file with a loop point other than the start).

Anyway, I found this boss to be fun, although there are a few minor things I have issues with. First there's the fact that I found getting the reserve powerup to be a bit awkward. I think I wouldn't mind as much if it fell slightly further back; as it is now, if you drop your mushroom right before the boss uses its wheelie attack, getting it safely becomes rather unfeasible. This is just a really minor complaint though, I didn't mind it too much.

The big thing I'd like to see changed though is for this boss to have tells for its attacks. Maybe the sparks on the ground could appear a second before it starts its wheelie, and the exhaust pipe could flash red for a second before it shoots a fireball. I feel like I found myself frequently waiting to attack because I was uncertain whether it was about to attack, and so I feel like removing that uncertainty could make this more enjoyable. I still did find this to be really enjoyable, I just feel like it could be even better.

- End of Level Comments -

[repairmanman]

I've felt this way for a while but I think this is the ideal time to express it: the default SMBX text box seriously blows for readability when it's more than a couple lines. Seriously look at this madness



Each line is too close together and each word is too far apart! It isn't actually that much text, but my eyes swim over it like a sea. I have ADD and use a reading ruler to pace myself with books, but it's not like I have actual dyslexia or anything. People put far too much fucking text into their SMBX levels anyway - that's probably half the point the level is trying to make - but is it too much to ask that I don't have to actively focus to actually read it?

Justified text might also help as well in readability

According to some research I read, black text on a white background is the easiest text to read.

From my personal experience with horrible astigmatism, I can't even use dark mode on most things without getting a headache.

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

I cannot choose a favorite level here, as they all feel like winners, but my favorite boss here has to be Baby's 1st Boss. If I didn't say too much good about a level here, it was likely due to summer fatigue.

These two entries also feel like winners.

11th - Mush's Quest for Glory: This level's presentation is great, and it really starts off on the right foot. The desert feels very natural, and much less annoying than most deserts. The platforming here is great, and uses Para-Beetles very well. No particular challenge here feels too overwhelming. The platforming does feel slow-paced, particularly in the autoscroller, but even that is pretty darn up there in terms of quality.

The temple itself slows down things a bit more for some puzzles, but the Metroid Zoomers function in all of this is explained very well without a single word. The last puzzle is a little touch and go, yet it feels very satisfying to complete. The Wart reimagining is wonderful, and I don't have anything bad to say about it. It's a pure dynamic and fun boss! The level has a fun beginning and ending too, so very well done!

BOSS: 3rd - Motor Problems: This boss looks and feels like a much more radical but janky version of the first Mortimer fight in Subzero Heroes. Which is a VERY good place to be for a boss. I will say it isn't clear that you can just bump into him, but that's a pleasant surprise of leniency to make everything flow better. The kickback is definitely necessary, though it's a touch rough going straight into fire. I'm glad Mario has three hits here, and overall, this boss is just really cool, and Grand Wheelie is a cool name for it, too. Well done!

[KobaBeach]

here's lunar

[RudeGuy]

huh, this was one of the very few levels I've played. I quite like this level and the adventurous mood it's got going, however I sure didn't notice how much waiting around there is back when I played it. also, I didn't mind the level transforming completely after the midpoint, in fact I like how it marks the difference between the outside desert and the inside temple.

my favorites for this tier were the lighthouse level and baby's first boss.

[Leet]

why would a costume presented as entirely cosmetic change your block fitting size like that! don't do that!

also lol @ level about exploring a minimalist environment gets a review of "THIS IS NOT A LEVEL" but this gets pretty good scores, proving "hi, i'm a level!"'s point

[Le Neveu de Rameau]

why would a costume presented as entirely cosmetic change your block fitting size like that! don't do that!

Costumes frequently have altered hitboxes, and for good reason (See "My Mom Said That Sub Zero Is of the Devil. I'm Inclined to Agree" in MaGLX2 for an example of what happen if you don't). That said, there's a reason why levels have costume filters by default, as changing these sort of things can definitely screw up a level which doesn't take them in to account. Alas, it seems the filter only takes in to account the character you entered the level as, not one you switch to in-level, should they already have a costume applied...

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

...I think my favorite level of this tier is actually the first one, "I Knew I Wasn't Made for Sports". The theming and plot on that one are just fantastic.

That this level today got higher displayed scores than the purely aesthetic one could be due to many reasons, and more than a few of them would insert bias into the equation, one way or another. What we saw was more of a level than that one, but also has its own slew of problems. I'm also with raocow that the judges shown are pretty generous here, and I'll get into why right now.

X/Audition Level - The Ol' Switcheroo: I see that the comment of Sturg is relating this to Kaizo... time to go all out on it, then. The tutorial is nice, but it doesn't prepare you in any way for what's ahead. The Nitro Blocks will explode if you merely LOOK at them wrong. Their hitboxes feel oh-so-slightly wrong, and that makes a world of difference here. Everything after the first third is waaaaay to precise to not consider having checkpointing for it, and the reward is not worth it in the slightest.

ALSO, the fact that chibi-cow isn't fully accounted for in this level gives me reason to dock further points here. I know it was supposed to be Toad, but yeah... let this be a warning to any of those wanting mandatory zips in their level. Don't. That is all. Also, maybe make raocow his own character at this point...?

Design is something like 12/50, given the Nitro fussiness and the super tight zips. There's cool stuff here, but it's too obtuse for most people to sink into. Creativity is 16/30. Difficulty Aesthetic is 14/20, and the gimmick score is 15/20.

EDIT: Yeah, I had a feeling I had one of the things wrong here. Fixed it up in post.

[Grounder]

cover your ears, seriously

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

I was wondering what the description was talking about, and then I noticed that the raocow costume for Toad doesn't fit in one tile gaps and I immediately understood. That really is unfortunate. Given that the part where raocow started playing with invincibility always on was the first part where that was a problem, I can only wonder what raocow's experience here would have been like if he didn't have that issue with the costume. At least I can talk about what my experience was like.

- Level Comments -

'Hard' The Ol' Switcheroo: I can enjoy extremely difficult things if they're well designed, but... well, I feel like this level has problems. First there's the fact that the hit boxes are super generous in favour of the boxes, where if you even just barely graze them you'll die. I believe I've seen it said somewhere that if there's some harmful surface right next to a platform it should be placed slightly lower, even by just a pixel, so that you don't die just from barely touching it, and I think something similar would be applicable here; I feel like if the hitboxes on these nitro boxes were just a pixel or two smaller it would help a lot.

I also felt like this level really needed checkpoints. I've said before that I feel like if a level isn't going to be generous with checkpoints it should at least have a good amount of powerups so that there's something to be gained by replaying things, and that by improving at earlier parts of the level you can make it to later parts with more powerups. Here though the only powerup that's here is so that you can take a forced hit, so none of that is applicable.

I died here 51 times - more than any of the contest levels by a sizable margin (the closest is "Touchdown!", with 39 deaths; the rest have less than 30) - and by the end I was not having a good time. It got to the point that I started making dumb mistakes on parts that I'd been clearing consistently before, and so I was prepared to implement my rule where if I have three dumb deaths I stop playing and try again another day. Once I was at two dumb deaths part of me wanted to die in a dumb way on purpose just so I could stop playing. I ended up getting to the end without any more dumb deaths though, which I'm still not sure if I think that's a good thing or not.

As for what I'd give this thing if I was auditioning to be a judge, I estimate I'd give something like 15/50 design, 20/30 creativity, 15/20 aesthetic, and 15/20 gimmick.

- End of Level Comments -

[The Doctor]

'Hard' The Ol' Switcheroo: I can enjoy extremely difficult things if they're well designed, but... well, I feel like this level has problems. First there's the fact that the hit boxes are super generous in favour of the boxes, where if you even just barely graze them you'll die. I believe I've seen it said somewhere that if there's some harmful surface right next to a platform it should be placed slightly lower, even by just a pixel, so that you don't die just from barely touching it, and I think something similar would be applicable here; I feel like if the hitboxes on these nitro boxes were just a pixel or two smaller it would help a lot.

Yeah, I completely agree on this point. That my only -- yet fatal -- issue with this level. Everything else was great, but those hitboxes made the level so frustrating. You so much as breathe on those blocks and they blow up. I love kaizo hacks. I grinded Cape Fear for 20 hours until I beat it and I loved every second of it. This though? I gave up at the locked door.

Alternating between Toad and Peach to wall jump and float is far more intuitive than you'd think by watching the video. raocow pointed that out too, but it really does feel good. There's real potential for a solid level using these mechanics, either in a kaizo or normal level. Just leave the nitro blocks at home.

[Rixithechao]

why would a costume presented as entirely cosmetic change your block fitting size like that! don't do that!

Costumes frequently have altered hitboxes, and for good reason (See "My Mom Said That Sub Zero Is of the Devil. I'm Inclined to Agree" in MaGLX2 for an example of what happen if you don't). That said, there's a reason why levels have costume filters by default, as changing these sort of things can definitely screw up a level which doesn't take them in to account. Alas, it seems the filter only takes in to account the character you entered the level as, not one you switch to in-level, should they already have a costume applied...

To add to what Rameau said here,

Welp. It wouldn't be a raocow LP without him stumbling his way into experience-endangering jank resulting from a rare five-car pileup of unusual circumstances and conditions.

- The hitbox change was first made for ASMBXT and grandfathered into A2XT and then A2XT2; all 3 collabs have had different organizers/core devs
- The resprites were made by someone who wasn't aware of the hitbox change
- The graphics and config files were repurposed as basegame costumes, and if someone knew about the difference they either didn't account for it, figured it wouldn't be an issue, or simply forgot
- A bug with the costume filter slipped under the MaGLX3 episode team's radar
- rao happened to play this level after either switching to (or being switched to by a level?) the raocow costume at some point earlier in the LP and not switching back because how could he have known it would matter? How could any of the numerous people involved in this chain of events have put all of the pieces together in advance and foreseen this happening?

[PapyrusSemi]

super mecha death christ rip your nuts off hell expurgation level, GOOOOOOOO

X^Hard: The Ol' Switcheroo
So, let me quote some things that I said.

Let me note that I'm pretty sure the only costumes you should be worried about are the ones which make the goomba stomp noise when you switch to them.

Also, I could've sworn there was a level where raocow hit a character swap block or something and he still had a costume despite the costume filter being on and I mentioned it, but I can't seem to find it.
Now, I didn't think that much of it because, despite there being a filter in place to prevent shenanigans like this, surely, there wouldn't be a level which somehow bypasses these filters through some strange, unforseen shenanigans.
And, well, here we are. I don't even mean that in a condescending way, but still, yikes.

- rao happened to play this level after either switching to (or being switched to by a level?) the raocow costume at some point earlier in the LP and not switching back because how could he have known it would matter?

As an aside, it actually happened all the way back in episode 1. Also, granted, the only reason I knew that hitboxes change with costumes is because I played around a hell of a lot in the editor, and saw that some of the costumed made a Goomba stomp noise, including WL3 Wario, who is even 2 blocks tall in his "small" form.

Aside from costume hitbox-related mishaps, that was definitely what it said on the tin: A hard level. And not even hard in that Super Mario Maker 2 sense, but hard because you need to do a bunch of actions with tight timing. But also in that Kaizo SMW sense because it involves wrestling with a new mechanic.

Also, when raocow discovered that -related shenanigans were afoot, please imagine the earrape Harry Potter theme playing
_{^{also does me seeing the costume filter bug a couple levels earlier and outsmarting the devs back in the comments of episode 33 version 1.0 mean i'm eligible for the devteam or something when x4 happens at some point after the doomsday clock strikes midnight /s}}

[Rixithechao]

Also, I could've sworn there was a level where raocow hit a character swap block or something and he still had a costume despite the costume filter being on and I mentioned it, but I can't seem to find it.
Now, I didn't think that much of it because, despite there being a filter in place to prevent shenanigans like this, surely, there wouldn't be a level which somehow bypasses these filters through some strange, unforseen shenanigans.
And, well, here we are. I don't even mean that in a condescending way, but still, yikes.

Actually now that you mention it, I recall seeing that too. I think it might've been the treehouse one with the switch blocks? I don't remember which video it was in though. EDIT: 119th place, video 21, and nope, that one has character changing blocks but rao didn't use them.

[PapyrusSemi]

Let's pray that

1. No more costume hitbox shenanigans ensue
2. That Smebex crash back in tier 3 or so was a one-off

X^{Gimmick, Untested Puzzle}: Bring in the Bullets
First off, the Mii Channel theme was a brilliant choice to set the mood.
The first bit of the level definitely does a fairly good job at introducing the "exploding Bullet Bills" mechanic. Mild nitpick, they should've been yellow to match the Bombshell Bills from Paper Mario. Also, the part where you bop a Bill to get to the sign which tells you to bop Bills was, indeed, pretty funny, assuming you don't flub the Bill jump. After that, in true fashion, raocow Gets The Raong Idea, and just damage boosts through the fireballs instead of doing a super-cool fireball trickshot. Or maybe the "untested" part is because this bit was designed for Luigi.
Past the midpoint, things get funky, with the switch-controlled elevators. I almost immediately got how to toggle the green switch stairs, but to raocow's credit, SMBX is one of only a handful of Mario fangames (and platformer fangames in general, bordering on 2D platformers as a whole) where the goons interact with semisolid moving blocks. And then, in true "me making my commentary whilst watching the video" fashion, raocow figures it out right as I unpause.
The next part is total jankapalooza. The mining wall looks fairly awkward, but at least Gruts (which I now retroactively refer to Sturg deliberately making janky/awkward levels as) had the foresight to make one of the blocks contain a coin and, thus, be indestructible. But, given how the star there didn't end the level, wouldn't that obviously be the bonus?
The attic route is, like some of the other puzzles in this game, is a bit obtuse, but they make you feel like you have an IQ in the triple digits when they finally click (which may result from accidentally solving it).
All in all, a level that feels right at home in Magglexthree.

Footnote one, like raocow said once or twice, there should be an indication that cheats are on. Like the pumpkin in Shovel Knight.
Footnote two, I guess the star just deleted itself from existence again.
Footnote three, I previously made a point about mobile Chrome not crashing this time at the start. It did not, thankfully.

And with that, we are all now qualified to be rejected for judging MaGLX3!

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

On the topic of the judge audition levels... I definitely messed up grading most of them. I had the "Aesthetic" score messed up for a false "Difficulty" score. So most of my scores would be slightly higher due to this error in judgement, given this set of levels has a much better sense of "cool-looking" rather than "sense of balance for the common player" here. Not to say that the group of levels are bad, just that they have a focus on that certain quality than anything else. The rest of the comments do stand, though.

Well, with that aside, here's the last one, judged according to the rubric this time.

X/Audition Level - Bring In The Bullets: This level's pretty filled with jank. Though the central concept of exploding bullets is a pretty cool one, and it does see some good use here. In terms of jank, there's just lots of setups you can force your way through, and there's an overall lack of feedback to say if a particular solution is right or wrong. ....Which is kind of like life, after pondering about this line of reasoning a bit further. Namely, the fire is there to attempt the player to make a trick shot, but they could just bring two Fire Flowers and face tank to the other side. You can also get softlocked if you do this.

The second half is a block destroying cannon sidequest on one side, and a whole bunch of switches with smaller cannons on the other. The latter is significantly more unclear on the condition for winning; the actual single block you need to break is inconspicuous and fairly unassuming, and I could see less attentive players just not noticing that's the thing you need to break. Still though, all that aside, this level's just fine for a contest.

Design's around 23/50, Creativity is 19/30, as the exploding bullets ARE pretty cool, Aesthetic is 12/20, and Gimmick is 10/20.

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

I find it funny that my reaction to seeing "Untested Puzzle" was to think "so this is going to be a puzzle level that might have some niche scenarios that weren't accounted for"; meanwhile raocow's reaction was to think that it would be a nightmare.

- Level Comments -

'Untested Puzzle' [and also 'Gimmick'] Bring in the Bullets: I had a pretty good time here, although I'm pretty sure I did everything here as intended, which, given the amount of variance in judge scores, probably has a considerable impact on how much one will enjoy this level. I've now seen that there are unintended ways to go about doing things, and it looks like things might not go so smoothly if you get caught up trying to do things in an unintended way.

I want to say raocow also did almost everything as intended, except for melting the ice blocks right before the checkpoint, where I believe the intended solution is not to do a trick shot (I'm pretty sure that's physically impossible), but to get one of the cannons near the beginning to hit the very first blue switch while standing up above so you don't just get locked in at the start.

This is definitely the stage I'm least capable of giving a judgement on, since not only has it been so long since I've played these audition levels, I also played this one a number of days before playing the rest of them, so it's been even longer for this one. Not only that, but I didn't know about the unintended ways of doing things here, and now that I know it's going to affect how I think of this level. As such, instead of giving scores that are multiples of 5 like I've been doing so far, I'll be giving scores that are multiples of 10, and those scores are: 30/50 design, 20/30 creativity, 10/20 aesthetic, and 10/20 gimmick.

- End of Level Comments -