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

[PapyrusSemi]

what the thumbnail is mario holding a football in one of those sand areas at the start of the level. if youtube showed another possible thumbnail for some reason that ain't my fault

Yeah, it looks like youtube's mouseover preview thing jumps straight to the spoilers. So anyone who holds their mouse over the video link before clicking on it (weirdos) will get spoilers and nothing else.

(Doofenshmirtz voice)
CURSE YOU YOUUUUUUTUUUUUUUBE!!

21^st: Vertiginous Path through Whimsical Skies
Aesthetically, this level looks really nice, with the recoloured SMB1 assets really just hitting me right in the Mario Forever nostalgia. In fact, for some reason, this level just feels incredibly... Familiar. Either way, the little wingy dudes were pretty cool, but that parkour segment with them like 2/3 through seems more than a bit overbearing. Also, the switch blocks in the floor of the shell kick zone were a bit hard to see their colours due to the clouds (and also the fact that I'm on a phone, the vid only takes up like a quarter of the screen, and it's in like 360p). The bullets on the shell ride were also a bit silly, but I'm pretty sure that's just good ol' SMBX Jank™. (Also rao those goombas turned around at cliffs)

X^x: raocow Gets The Raong Idea
I dunno about you, but as soon as the glitchy Toad mentioned the Banzai Bill underfoot and I saw it actually go into an accessible area, I knew exactly what I had to do. Not to mention that I messed around with cheats and used the suicide code to die in the Café just to see what would happen.

[KobaBeach]

like maybe it's because i haven't played celeste but the music felt incredibly unfitting and got on my nerves constantly, which is criminal because it's nier music.

EDIT: "non-shy, foot fetishist"

[PSI Ninja]

Can't believe it took this long for rainbow shell riding to show up in this contest. At least, I don't remember it showing up earlier.

21st - Vertiginous Path through Whimsical Skies:
I agree that it gets a bit tedious to have to redo things if you die in this level. In the shell hopping parts, whenever I got hit by Snifit bullets or falling Spiny Eggs as Big Mario, the yellow Para-Shells would continue to move out from underneath me and cause me to fall to my death. A little surprised that no one pointed this out, so I guess this only happened to me. And an odd thing I noticed: you can't enter pipes while the eating vine heads exist. This was apparent on the screen where you enter the pipe to the secret star, and I had to wait for the heads to disappear if I hit the ? block. Doing the secret shell riding path is harder as Big Mario, because there are some places where the low ceilings can push you off your shell and you fall to your doom.

I found the judge audition levels way back while I was still doing Tier 4, a couple of months ago. When I died in the main hub, I got taken to a place in Tier X with a small platform surrounded by pits. When I fell into the pit and died, I warped to the audition levels. I was playing on version 0.9.5 back then, so this was before The Post Game was added to that part of the map. Here are before and after screenshots of that part of the map:

[Draexzhan]

I wonder which terms have been used the most in this contest. Nothing has really stood out to me thus far but I'm sure some terms have been used more than others, and that there's probably a few that never got used.

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

There's a bit of a theme here in these high-ranking levels about enemies being used for friendlier purposes, and it's super awesome when it does happen. The trend even continues today, in a sense. We're in the TOP 20, and that's super exciting.

20th - Dry Dry Dam: While the explanation for the whole gimmick is not done too well, and it's not that obvious you can move around the dried up Pansers at first, but when that information clicks, this level plays wonderfully. The cloud gimmick is super cool, and it's used in good ways. I do think the first half is a bit stronger than the second half, overall, with the final ascent being a bit messy, but the action-focused parts have their charms, too, and there's no bad design in them, rather than small things to improve upon. The level also does a great job of sensing that you're Wario, and is very keen on his strengths and limitations. One thing I'm not big on is how easily the Pansers can despawn, though every instance can be fixed with a bit of backtracking. Great job with this. It's a very nice way to kick off the top 20.

X Audition - Telekenetic Aquarium: While I won't be giving my exact score here, I'll provide an approximate one, along with my thoughts. This gimmick is pretty cool, but I'm not too big on the obstacles headed by Bloopers here. The setting is pretty nice, and the text brings us a nice transition into the level proper, though all forms of narrative are instantly dropped as soon as you get into the pipe, which is a bit of a shame. A few of the obstacles are a touch rough to get through, but nothing too difficult. This is a good level with a midpoint a bit late into the level, though it ends before it can really get into its stride, I feel.

I'd dock like 6-8 points for the used terms, keep around 26 of the creativity points, dock a touch out of difficulty, and give it in the 27-30 range for design. I'm significantly lower on this one than raocow, but the level definitely has some cool things to its name.

[Sturg]

Will post what I did on YouTube here:

So yeah, I made 4/6 levels for this stuff. I'll reveal the other two authors (if they aren't listed in-game already) when they come up. My intent was to gather the community's opinion on who'd they like as a judge, and there were around 10ish people who submitted something -- I decided to assign them a "fruit" to keep it secret.

But this was how Zatsu was selected as a judge and, even though the method can (and has) be improved on, I think it was a neat way to select someone to judge.

DEV LEVEL STUFF:
- For this level, I used a BGO loading system, where BGOs would "unload" once off the screen. This was to prevent a massive amount of lag the level would've caused without it.
-I purposely chose "Mansion" as an term that wasn't really present in the level itself, just to see how people who submitted reacted to it.
-Out of the 10 people that submitted, 2/10 judges marked this level as their "favorite", no least favorite though.

I have the full sheet of scores/names/fruits that I'll post here once they're all beaten.

I wonder which terms have been used the most in this contest. Nothing has really stood out to me thus far but I'm sure some terms have been used more than others, and that there's probably a few that never got used.

I'll have to scan my X3 doc. In fact I might just release the file to the public for fun once this is all over. It's kind of MASSIVE

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

Well, according to raocow I'm auditioning to be a judge now. Unfortunately it's been a while since I've played these (I played them back when they first became available after dying in tier 9), so my experiences aren't exactly fresh in my mind, but I suppose I can still try to give approximate numerical scores.

- Level Comments -

20th Dry Dry Dam: I found this to be a fairly good Wario level, although I find it a bit sad that a good Wario level seems to be one that barely uses any of his unique abilities; this seems like something most characters would be able to beat, other than a small handful of sections where you have to break through bricks.

Anyway, I also took quite some time to figure out that you could pick up the dry Pansers (I even managed to figure out a way to clip through the wall before I thought to pick them up), but once I did I found it quite fun using them to destroy enemies and create platforms. I do agree with Rameau that the bomb throwing enemies don't really add much, and the number of cannons at the end felt like too much to reasonably dodge.

'Janky Gimmick' Telekinetic Aquarium [the Toad outside the level misspells it as "Telekenetic Aquarium", but pausing within the level shows the spelling I used]: Despite this supposedly being a level with a "janky gimmick", it didn't feel janky to me. Maybe I'm just familiar enough with SMBX to instinctively know what to look out for. Anyway, I found this to be a fun level. I feel like there maybe could have been more done with the gimmick, but I enjoyed what was here. Also, "mansion" isn't exactly the first word I'd use to describe this place.

Given how long it's been since I played these levels I feel like I can't really give an accurate judgment, but if I were to assign some numbers to this I guess I'd go with something like 40/50 design, 20/30 creativity, 15/20 aesthetic, and 15/20 gimmick.

- End of Level Comments -

[PapyrusSemi]

Honestly, I don't have any funny ideas for how to say "hey!" so

20^th: Dry Dry Dam
Look guys look, it's another Wario level! Ah hah hah! I honestly wouldn't've thought to pick the dry dude up at first, but I did quickly notice that the ! Switch didn't despawn, so I probably woulda bopped it, it mighta drained the water, and maybe O would've figured out to deliver the (presumably dried-up or at lease a second) dude?
Also, in the small moat area, I probably would've just grabbed a second Panser wholesale. But that Bill trainload at the end was real weird. Also, what's up with the goal ring?
In summary, if the hunt for the Sky Café was Rao getting the raong idea, then man, here, he had the RAONG idea for the first half.

X^{Janky Gimmick}: Telekinetic Aquarium
I was about to say that it was funny that layer-attached platforms were the janky gimmick given how many levels used them (addendum, probably only one or two, I think I overestimated), but then the Bloopers happened. Aside from those, the gimmick seems tolerable enough, and the aesthetics are good.
However, I apologize, but I lack the damns to give to write an entire judge comment.
Either way, seems our fine dining experience aboard the airship cafe in the void that looks like Castle Bleck is off to a great start.

[Le Neveu de Rameau]

I decided to assign them a "fruit"

Ominous.

[Grounder]

There's some awkward level design in a couple of places, but I certainly wouldn't consider that level to be "janky."

It looks like it plays rather well.

[Rixithechao]

The combination of “a janky gimmick used well” and the level starting with effect-heavy textblox messages right off the bat instilled a powerful sense of primal dread until I realized I had somehow seen this level before despite never having auditioned as a judge (and I’m still not, you can’t make me, you’ll never take me alive!!!!) nor having accessed any of the audition levels in my own playthrough after unlocking them.

The resulting recollection — and prompt confirmation — that it wasn’t going to persist was a very welcome reassurance.

[Sturg]

Obligatory YT post:

Fun Fact: GRRROL Control was the level that took me the longest to finish judging, as I had to skip & come back to it due to the ending not working due to the engine issues. Still, super fun puzzle level!

LEVEL DEV STUFF

-You're spot-on with that description at the end. I intentionally added a pointless 2nd exit to see how people reacted to it. It's rather funny though, since in X3, there were HARDLY ANY levels that did that this time as opposed to some of the stuff from X2, haha.
-I tried to limit the main level to one screen, so I just made something that curves back and forth. wow. Same thing with enemy placement, where I tried to be as Vanilla and non-creative as possible hahaha
-Music-wise, I find that Kirby is one of the "rompiest" of all musics. It's sort of what makes the level fun imo haha
-Out of the 10 judges, 1/10 found this to be their favorite (MANGO'S FAV actually!). 1/10 found this to be their least favorite (COCONUT'S funnily enough).

More on that secret exit stuff. X2 sort of prepared me for the worst, in that there'd be dozens of entries with unfortunate second exits. But there's only a handful in the contest that actually do that.

Instead though, much of the levels in the contest sort of suffer from being gargantuan haha

[Enjl]

confirmed: sturg does evil science laugh on bullet points unless he talks about favourism

[Grounder]

[Sturg]

you're pretty funny though ;^)

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

Yeah, the levels in X3 have really been larger than usual. Lots of people here came with lots of ambitions. Most people did well, as a whole. There's fleeting amounts of truly horrible experiences overall. And, naturally, I think the longest of them may have came to pass.

The fun doesn't stop yet.

19th - GRRROL CONTROL: Oh, it's your level! A stream regular, too, and someone who's been nice and active there, too. That being said, there's only one fish, so I'm going to have to give this a 5/10.

....Nah, I'm not going to do that. Seriously, though... this level is fantastic, and the whole narrative is wonderful, as the whole series of operations slowly unravels. The music is also on-point, and the reset system is fantastic for this puzzle level. The ending is such a high note to end it off on, and that's absolutely wonderful. You did great here, and this goes to show Mario and puzzles DO mix perfectly well. Just gotta be careful with a steady hand creating them.

X Audition - Rocky Rocky Romp: Now this level, I don't have nearly as many good things to say about it. It looks fine, and plays okay, but those qualities aren't enough to get it terribly well-liked by me. It's more like the minimum standard. There's also lots of enemies in some places, and just... has no personality to call itself its own separate entity. The secret exit is also quite a mess, given that there's just a cloud of Koopas, and basically just tests if you brought Yoshi along in non-respawning blocks for no reason. It's just poor design there.

While I'm not *quite* as low on it as raocow, the level has big flaws, so my total would be in the 40s or something. I'd slam off around 33 points on design, give the difficulty around a 10, creativity is a 5 or 6, and a 7 for the gimmick terms; it's quite unclear how some of them are used. I do agree with him that this isn't even quite a romp. It's not a *bad* level, but it's certainly not good.

[LunarRainbowShyGuy]

- Level Comments -

19th GRRROL CONTROL: I believe in one of the earlier patches I noticed that this level's asset folder was improperly named. Since then I've been wondering when it was going to show up; little did I know it was in the top 20.

Anyway, I found this to be a rather enjoyable puzzle level. The one part I wasn't a fan of was the last puzzle before the revolution; the fact that the explosions from bomb blocks stop at other bomb blocks does not seem logical or intuitive to me, which resulted in me having to resort to trial and error. I did enjoy the rest of the puzzles though, and I also enjoyed the ending. I like to imagine the owner of this place is also the person responsible for enslaving the Big Steelies in "Big Steely Power Plant".

'Romp' Rocky Rocky Run: I always enjoy a good romp, and I found this level to be one such thing. I will say though that I didn't really like how the key needed for the secret star was hidden alongside a red Yoshi. I feel like it could be fun to use the Yoshi's ability to turn shells into fireballs, but you can't do that when you're stuck lugging a key around. Since you already need Yoshi for the secret star anyway I feel like the key in the wall could have just been put in a place that's accessible by Yoshi (or maybe the secret star could just be removed entirely since I feel like it doesn't really add much to the level).

As for numbers, I estimate I'd give this something like 35/50 design, 10/30 creativity, 15/20 aesthetic, and 10/20 gimmick.

- End of Level Comments -

[songofstorms]

19th GRRROL CONTROL: I believe in one of the earlier patches I noticed that this level's asset folder was improperly named. Since then I've been wondering when it was going to show up; little did I know it was in the top 20.

Oh right. Yeah, I submitted a patch to fix a couple issues in the level that started occurring in Beta 4 Patch 4, but I accidentally misnamed the level folder when doing so, thus necessitating a patch for the patch. Whoops.

Anyway, I found this to be a rather enjoyable puzzle level. The one part I wasn't a fan of was the last puzzle before the revolution; the fact that the explosions from bomb blocks stop at other bomb blocks does not seem logical or intuitive to me, which resulted in me having to resort to trial and error. I did enjoy the rest of the puzzles though, and I also enjoyed the ending. I like to imagine the owner of this place is also the person responsible for enslaving the Big Steelies in "Big Steely Power Plant".

I agree; I realized after submission that that last puzzle was too trial-and-error, but it was too late for me to fix it at that point. I'm glad you enjoyed the level anyway! And I also enjoyed the similarity in theme between my level and Big Steely Power Plant; I was very glad to be able to free the Steelies in that level.

19th - GRRROL CONTROL: Oh, it's your level! A stream regular, too, and someone who's been nice and active there, too. That being said, there's only one fish, so I'm going to have to give this a 5/10.

You are correct, my level displays a truly deplorable lack of fish. I'm frankly shocked it wasn't disqualified for this oversight. (But seriously, thank you!)

[PapyrusSemi]

on this episode of magglexthree, raocow fails to navigate a basic menu

Also, ladies, gentlemen, enbies, et cetera, I should've pointed this out, but we are officially in the top twenty! Using my knowledge of these types of contests, the top tier will be the top 10, so there are 8 more levels after today, plus two MaFABs, 5 judge levels and X¹¹, for a mean average total of 9 more videos before we shove off for the legendary Tower of Infinity. This is, of course, assuming that every level and boss is short enough for a string of 2-level videos (except for X¹¹, which raocow already stated will be its own thing), which knowing the greater MaGL series, is a horrible assumption to make, so adjusting for that, my estimate increases to approximately 12 more episodes.

19^th: GRRROL CONTROL
This is certainly a nice, minigamey level. The aesthetics are definitely a good use of vanilla assets. Nothing too fancy, but it doesn't look bad per se (except for the lava cutoff in the wood blocks and on its edges). Also, apparently, raocow is colourblind, but to be fair, the black and blue switch Goombas do look pretty similar at a glance. Maybe the blue dudes could've been lighter or more cyan to make the difference clear. Either way, for once, I rescind my insult. Glad to see that we're destroying capitalism yet again. What is that, three levels so far? Also, in hindsight, the Tetris music was freaking brilliant, because Tetris is Russian, and Russia is commonly associated with communism, and I'm pretty sure the Switch Goombas and Grrrols are communists. Also, bonus points for switching to Type B when the revolt begins.
I really wish that PMatGR wasn't a last-second affair, because then maybe Ponty could've shown up here, like that witch and that night club level.
also what are you talking about sturg, the grrrols are vanilla as of smbx2

X^Romp: Rocky Rock Run
Once more, I will not be pretending that I am auditioning to judge the Make A Good Level X Contest Three, especially given how I know information the to-be-judges didn't and that I have no clue what a "romp" actually is.
But either way, that level undeniably exists. That triple-layered secret was more than a bit silly, but then again, you could just bring Yoshi to the cliff face and cheese the key-carrying bit by just licking up the key in the wall. Unless it's actually a "friendly" key, but given how this level is one that just kinda is, I can't quite assume whether it is or isn't without checking, and I am too lazy to check.
I'd probably give this level a probably average score. For what it is, it works, and it doesn't do too much else. But marks would indeed be deducted because the music loop is busted.

Also, I guess for raocow, it's been one of those days.

[songofstorms]

Oh right, one more detail I wanted to share about my level - though it relies on colored switch blocks, I tried to make it as colorblind-friendly as I could.

The filters simulating various types of colorblindness in the editor were really useful for that. I used those and found that the blue and yellow Switch Goombas seemed to be distinguishable from one another no matter what form of colorblindness was simulated, so I chose those as my main Goomba colors. Then when I needed a third color of Goomba, I made the recolored black Goomba sprite and tried to make sure that it also used a palette that would be distinguishable from the other two colors of Goomba under any form of colorblindness. (Though in retrospect, I don't think I did a great job in choosing that palette; I'm now finding that I often confuse the black ones with the blue ones at a glance. A white Goomba with black highlights might have been better...)

Then I gave the player the green and red suit switches to control (rather than ! switches) because the suit markings make them distinguishable from one another even for people who are red-green colorblind.

I'm sure there were other improvements I could have made to make it more accessible, but I did feel like it was important to at least try my best. (I'm actually an accessibility tester IRL, so this is a subject I think about a lot.)

[KobaBeach]

[BobisOnlyBob]

[KobaBeach]

[Veruchai]

If possible it would be interesting to hear more about how these test judgements were interpreted, potentially after we have seen them all. For instance 'coconut' correctly identified the themes of the romp level in their written part, but did that mean they 'won'? Surely the scores are relevant although it is hard for me to claim anything between 10 and 90 would be wrong. It's surely a combination of things, I guess judging judges is just as hard as levels.

Actual contest levels have been amazing as expected from the top tiers.
I feel bad not commenting on them individually as they deserve the praise but I'm afraid this will have to do.
Just imagine I commented “This was great” everyday the past week and continually until the contest is over.
“Ty for make”

[Reecer7]

the fact that maglx3 + mafab combined have like, eight different entries that function as marxist critiques is incredibly funny to me.

Make A Good Level Wherein Mario Enters A Factory Using the Slave Labor of an NPC That is Not Obviously Sentient And Frees Them From Their Capitalist Shackles X 3