Vanilla Level Design Contest X - 1he First place entry...well d0ne to all.

[Reecer7]

"...It's like a baseball, except you don't throw it at birds♪"
raocow has been to one baseball game ever and randy johnson was there

this is the third time we've heard Super Mario World Theme in Minor, as Performed by an Orchestra of Disk Drives. i hope we hear it again.

[Sugar]

79th: Stageshow Shuffle by Karatekid5

Koopster
DESIGN: 18/50
CREATIVITY: 15/30
AESTHETICS: 9/20
TOTAL SCORE: 42/100

The first half is very stretchy and gets spammy quite often. It's also very visually misleading, things that are solid or not aren't clear and the palettes aren't consistent in that aspect. The second half is a bit more cramped and more spammy than the first. Overall, it's a level that tries to encourage exploration but the fact it's so dangerous to move around doesn't help it, more often than not exploring is not very rewarding anyway, and the level is full of random semi-blind drops. In fact, I only found the second dragon coin because I wanted to check if the brown texture was solid (it seemed to be, but the bridge wouldn't make sense if it was) - it's impossible to foresee.
Overall a boring, unfocused and quite uninteresting level.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 27/50
CREATIVITY: 20/30
AESTHETICS: 09/20
TOTAL SCORE: 56/100

Has character visually, but not very appealling to look at. Gameplay is slightly alright, though it
could use some polishing at certain obstacles. I also had minor trouble at figuring out what would be solid.

Noivern
DESIGN: 30/50
CREATIVITY: 22/30
AESTHETICS: 16/20
TOTAL SCORE: 68/100

This level has problems with difficulty. There is a noticeable difficulty spike in the first half in the area with spikes, and the second half is considerably harder than the first. The level is well-themed and really creative with it's aesthetics and sprites, but the palettes were a bit too saturated. Toning the pitchin chucks way down would have made this a much better level.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 17/50
CREATIVITY: 11/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 38/100

This is a level that tries a bit too hard with the visuals and loses focus in design. Even so, it's very visually cluttered, with foreground colors often being too similar to background colors and several objects being hard to distinguish as passable or solid. While the design isn't outrageously bad, it does nothing noteworthy and doesn't hold interest for very long.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 30/50
CREATIVITY: 17/30
AESTHETICS: 16/20
TOTAL SCORE: 63/100

A fairly open, exploratory stage, and it pulls of the concept reasonably well. The first section offers a large freedom of movement, which encourages looking around and seeing what treasures lie stashed away in various corners. It looks pretty great as well--the bright colors and decorations in the main areas contrasting vividly with the more subdued backstage area. Not 100% sure what that red substance is meant to be--curtains, I would assume, but the shape is so oddly plant-like it's hard to tell. The two Buzzy Beetles with a Spike Top on top is sort of adorable. Still, I feel as though this section could have been trimmed just a touch, as it goes on just a little too long after it's made its point. Still, a solid start on the whole.

The rafter section, though not bad, seems a bit of a let-down. It looks pretty decent, but nowhere near as striking in the first area. The sudden charge in dynamic with the threat of falling (while still retaining a fairly open, multi-pathed format) is an interesting touch, but the overuse of Pitchin' Chucks in this section seems a bit cheap, and all those projectiles do a lot to discourage exploration. I think this section would have benefited far more from obstacled on/between the platforms themselves rather than on dodging projectiles through through the air; this tends to favor a more conservative style of play which doesn't match the level much. In any event, the audience seemed to like what they saw at the end.

+ Vivid colors and atmosphere in first section,
+ Pretty pleasant, exploratory first half first half.
- First section could be trimmed a touch
- Second section a little weaker in terms of both visuals and design.

Other: Lunch at Sardi's every day.

79th: LaMulana by Lester_Vine

Koopster
DESIGN: 19/50
CREATIVITY: 23/30
AESTHETICS: 13/20
TOTAL SCORE: 55/100

Mostly devoid of interesting gameplay. It's not focused on anything and it doesn't flow or progress well. It's very clear you focused on trying to tell a story or create some sort of setting rather than in the level design, but even that didn't feel quite right. The plot you present is very vague and feels really... random, especially in the context of a level. The "puzzle" of memorizing the pillars felt quite out of place too. One concept I did like though was how the small rooms gave tips to dragon coins.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 20/50
CREATIVITY: 18/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 48/100

Has a neat idea, though I couldn't get invested into it much. It doesn't offer a whole lot when
it comes to gameplay besides the path to the secret exit. Visually, it's quite lifeless (dull colors).

Noivern
DESIGN: 15/50
CREATIVITY: 19/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 44/100

A really disjointed level. I really liked the story segment things, but the player is never told they're mandatory until it's too late. The story is sometimes told in somewhat broken english and I didn't get the quiz thing at the end at all; I had to brute force it. The timing for the "boss" is too tight.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 24/50
CREATIVITY: 18/30
AESTHETICS: 15/20
TOTAL SCORE: 57/100

The whole "lore" of this level seems a bit unnecessary, and left me more confused than impressed. Centering your level around the Yoshi coins is great and all but there was probably a more straightforward way to approach it. The design itself is decent, but not noteworthy; the quiz in particular should hae just been scrapped, and the rest doesn't offer any notably interesting challenges. And that intro is definitely nothing more than showing off.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 26/50
CREATIVITY: 23/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 63/100

This is a strange and difficult-to-rate level. At points it shines æsthetically--the introduction is quite remarkable, the first area looks fairly distinctive and the the wall-texture switching near the end is a striking and unexpected touch. On the other hand, many of the indoor sections seem less inspired in their use of elements, and the discolored fields left over by the eaten berries just look bad. The level structure is also quite unique, with lots of little strange secret touches and the inclusion of the "lore" as it were (which admittedly might have benefited from a proofreader, not that I entirely understand what's going on in any event). At first I thought it odd that these most distinctive elements only seemed to have relevance to secret side paths primarily for dragon coins, whereas the obstacles on the main path were sort of nothing to write home about, but it eventually dawned on me that the secrets and dragon coins were entirely the point of the level, it was intended to be open and exploratory in nature. In this respect, I think it would have been best to remove the purely perfunctory normal exit entirely and just have the level loop back, with the dragon-coin based secret exit being the only exit.

As for the secret path itself--the concept of racing the strange vine construction (no idea what that's meant to represent, by the by) is a clever one, but this section is rather significantly impeded by the ridiculously small amount of let one gets time-wise to complete the challenge. What's more, the two biggest time-eating obstacles in the level--namely flipping the column of turn-blocks with a key and removing the wall of throw blocks--aren't really the sort of things one can consistently execute in a timely manner, which adds a certain randomness factor to one's chances of success. Sure, there's plenty of opportunity to repeat the obstacle without dying, but repeating the same section over and over, minimizing one's elapsed time only to be defeated by what is essentially an RNG is not that enjoyable. I was also expecting a bit more of a dramatic conclusion/some resolution to the story upon completing this path, but instead there was just a goalpost.

+ Quite impressive intro
+ Creative and ambitious concept with an exploratory, story-based level
- Realization of the world to be explored, particularly the main path, could have been a little more interesting
- Stingy amount of let on the final challenge makes for too much repetition.

Other: After having played as many levels as I have for this contest, I appreciated the dig at tile F10.

[Implo]

LaMulana level had clever puzzles. I only had big problem with Quiz, because I completely forgot about hints. Or maybe I just ignored them. I solved it with trial and error. Secret exit was really tough for me. I don't think it should be put into this level. Rest of level is pretty slow and has puzzles to solve, secret exit is a race where you need to be very precise, but not smart at all. I would prefer it to be some tougher puzzle. Also there should be a checkpoint for secret exit. And I remember that restarting level while having Yoshi from secret exit will prevent you from entering door to 2nd section (from map sublevel).

Also, raocow, you forgot to get normal exit.

[Sugar]

Also, raocow, you forgot to get normal exit.

He didn't. Doing a single exit is very much intentional. See the description of second VLDCX video.

I only commit myself to playing ONE exit per level. I heard that extraneous dumb unnecessary secret exits are a *thing* in this contest, and my solution is to ignore them. Of course I may choose to play both exits, but don't consider this the norm.

The normal exit in case of LaMulana is pointless (and I think the level would be better of without it), no reason to return to it. In fact, raocow already has seen where it is (13:52 in the video).

[Le Neveu de Rameau]

For those confused by my judging comment for the second level, this is what you find if you bring the springboard found in the interior section back to the gap in the ceiling found slightly earlier in the level.

[Nimono]

I noticed there was another moon right at the end with nearby Rocks to kick at it- I wonder what secret it held? Perhaps a 1-up? At first I thought it was the last Yoshi Coin, but that was in the Quiz...

[Chirei]

Is it a running joke or something amongst all people who make custom mario levels to put in a section with touhou music that is insanely hard for no good reason?

[Grounder]

you've heard of pointless secret exits, now get ready for

POINTLESS NORMAL EXITS

also yeah the death punishment at the end is dumb and doesn't gel with the rest of the level either

[Sinc-X]

Is it a running joke or something amongst all people who make custom mario levels to put in a section with touhou music that is insanely hard for no good reason?

i wish it was a joke

[Ashan]

If you didn't get to the reset door on time couldn't you have just climbed up the vines to get to it? What am i missing?

[Implo]

you've heard of pointless secret exits, now get ready for

POINTLESS NORMAL EXITS

VLDC 12 - You are forbidden to put any exit in your level.

[Reecer7]

dang, did only two of the judges find the secret normal exit? and they ranked it that low without it? i dunno man, the style of this level was superb and really got to me, even if it didn't have a whole lot of ""gameplay"" to it. the fact that over half of you ranked it below 20/30 in creativity is unfathomable to me.

it's as if the things i value in a super mario world level are not the things an actual smu hack enthusiast values

also, i'm assuming from this level there are no la-mulana addmusics known to man, which is a big shame. almost enough to make me transcribe the music to midi just to make one, but not quite

[Sugar]

also, i'm assuming from this level there are no la-mulana addmusics known to man, which is a big shame. almost enough to make me transcribe the music to midi just to make one, but not quite

There are legacy ports of Mr. Explorer and La-Mulana (as in, a track called La-Mulana), which due being legacy ports aren't in Music section, but rather a separate archive. That's about it.

[Sugar]

79th: Crystal Lake by MandL27

Koopster
DESIGN: 17/50
CREATIVITY: 16/30
AESTHETICS: 13/20
TOTAL SCORE: 46/100

I'm not impressed. The level design is very thoughtless overall, it's very empty, spread out, and it doesn't progress. Feels like you tried to let the player take a lot of alternative paths but most of them didn't even make sense. Dragon coins 1 and 5 arbitrarily obsolete a lot of the main level's challenge and dragon coin 3 is out of placingly annoying to get. In the second half, most of the choices you can make are between taking a 2 second versus a 2 minute path. The secret exit was hidden in a very lame way, instead of taking advantage of the potential for puzzles in that section it was just hitting a random block. There was potential to the idea of the secret area itself, but it really did nothing with it. Didn't feel like it was worth it to play the level twice just for that.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 18/50
CREATIVITY: 18/30
AESTHETICS: 11/20
TOTAL SCORE: 47/100

The design is so wonky and gratuitous. I feel there was a shortage of testing at certain parts. The
level feels overall bland, and not that interesting to play.

Noivern
DESIGN: 22/50
CREATIVITY: 21/30
AESTHETICS: 15/20
TOTAL SCORE: 58/100

Honestly the secret exit is kinda bad. That main section is designed well enough to accommodate both normal and secret exit area, but there's no rhyme or reason as to why the secret area exists in the first place, and the "normal area but dead" schitck is overplayed. It also removes the levels gimmick (at least, according to the message block) by getting rid of all of the split passages. Speaking of split passages, each time the path splits there is a path that is clearly better than the other. The best example is the very first split; the top section has only one enemy!

The level design in the first half of the level is boring, with long stretches without any enemies. The autoscroll in the second part only makes this worse, because now I can't jump over these five pits with no enemies on my own time. The level is quite beautiful, with palette animations that were neat but would have been much better if they were smoother, though the secret exit turns it into a drab desaturated mess.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 25/50
CREATIVITY: 14/30
AESTHETICS: 15/20
TOTAL SCORE: 54/100

There's potential here. The platforming is well-crafted, but the major issue is the serious lack of enemies or other obstacles. Pure platforming is not necessarily a bad thing but in this case the majority of the level seems to be set up with enemies in mind, resulting in a pretty underwhelming playthrough. The enemies that were there were used well, so why couldn't you have expanded that to the rest of the level? The secret exit path isn't a ton better in that regard, but the idea behind it is good enough to get you a pass on that one.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 25/50
CREATIVITY: 17/30
AESTHETICS: 20/20
TOTAL SCORE: 62/100

Firstly, this level looks -amazing-. While the sunny outdoor intro screen sets us up for something reasonably good looking, entering the cave and stumbling upon a majestic crystaline cavern has a certain awe-inspiring quality to it. The repurposing of certain background tiles as crystals is a bit of a common trick in the VDLCs, but this level really does succeed in making them look good and different What's more, each section brings a new spin on the idea, each more beautiful than the last. Really an excellent job here.

As for the level itself...The first section seems to be aiming for a bit of an open, multiple paths format, though in practice, only one of the paths really tends to be populated, and the others sort of empty. The second section, in turn, seems to offer a sprawling cavern begging to be explored, but in practice a lot of the paths are dead ends, and of those that aren't, one is unusually decidedly more straightforward than the other. What's more, for a level that seems to want to encourage exploration, the time limit is curiously low to the point where you're almost certain to run out (or at least very nearly do so) on your initial visit.

The secret exit is an odd one; despite the large cavern suggesting searching for some hidden path (possibly with one of those P-switches), in practice you just need to jump around looking for a random block at the beginning of the level. And while the path itself is æsthetically quite impressive, it essentially amounts to an easier version of the main path. I'll admit, I was also expecting a bit more of a trippy ending after the bit with the pipe. Alas.

+ Æsthetically amazing
+ Good thematic progression
- Doesn't quite hit the non-linearity idea
- Oddly low time limit

Other: I wonder whether there's a reason in The Lore why the Lava Lotuses aren't effected by the Great Greying in the secret path...

77th: Generic Flying Fort by Quantix

Koopster
DESIGN: 28/50
CREATIVITY: 16/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 54/100

This level starts to pick up a bit in the second half. The first half is very rompy and doesn't feel like it has much of a direction, while the second one starts to take some ideas and develop them nicely, but it still loses track pretty often - it turns interesting for a bit and then throws in some really boring arrangements. It didn't flow very well difficulty-wise either. The level has a focus problem because it tries to use way too many concepts - a P-switch, bullet machines and even thwimps don't play a huge role in it at all and I would rather have them not be used. Something that focused on grinders (especially line guided) and falling platforms and stuff to make place for setups like the final one would've been a lot nicer. It also suffers a lot from being very stretched out without that much going on. Regardless of all that, it's a decent level to play. I guess it stands for its name, lol

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 25/50
CREATIVITY: 11/30
AESTHETICS: 13/20
TOTAL SCORE: 49/100

It's fairly average, and maybe a bit too long as well. Of course with issues.

Noivern
DESIGN: 30/50
CREATIVITY: 14/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 54/100

Most of the issues in this level are in the beginning grassland area. The biggest is that you can slide-kill many enemies that weren't intended to be killed in the original game (and thus have improper "killed" graphics). There are only a few sprites that are like this, but you managed to use most of them. In this section, grinders go behind the scenery and surprise kill you. Using the fence graphic as decoration usually looks good, but against a white background it hurts my eyes. This whole section isn't really necessary and isn't as good as the actual fortress section, and should have been cut for length and to improve the quality of the level.

The fortress section is where the level gets good. There are some great setups with grinders, especially during the autoscroll section. Unfortunately, grinders can still be slide-killed here. The autoscroll section does a good job of keeping the player from getting bored, and I especially liked the falling platform setup at the very end.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 35/50
CREATIVITY: 18/30
AESTHETICS: 13/20
TOTAL SCORE: 66/100

I wish this level was entirely made up of the castle portion, because the first part is mostly uninteresting, with blind jumps and that P-switch which hardly serves a purpose. The use of the saws in the castle segment is well-done, with some interesting setups, though there are a few that stick out as being a bit too cramped. æsthetically it's about as simple as it gets, which is not necessarily a bad thing, though the palettes chosen are a bit too light, and the dark castle blocks aren't obviously passable at first glance. Not a bad effort.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 26/50
CREATIVITY: 15/30
AESTHETICS: 10/20
TOTAL SCORE: 51/100


Hmm. This does end up feeling a touch generic, even though there are actually some pretty decent setups mixed in there. On the other hand, there's also a fair amount of less-than-exciting filler, especially in the first section. Which is all the more puzzling as the level goes on a bit longer than it needs to, and could probably benefit from a bit of trimming.

Personally, I wonder if the level would not be improved if the first section were removed entirely. Firstly, it's æsthetically discordant, being a grassland with a few castle elements awkwardly inserted, and furthermore, it implies the allegedly flying fortress to also be attached to land. Secondly, it's mismatched in terms of difficulty, being signifcantly easier than the interior section, making for a bit of an odd difficulty jump once we head inside. Finally, it is, as noted, just plain less interesting than the interior section. Excising it would make for a more coherent and tighter level all around, and the remaining material is about the ideal length for what the level has to offer.

+ Some decent setups in the interior section.
- Exterior section feels like a bit of an extraneous hanger-on

Other: Those three inaccessible floating coins in the first area seem to be hinting at a secret, but as far as I can tell, no secret is to be found...

[Sugar]

I had some suspicion that the first level that was played (Crystal Lake) was heavily inspired by Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers, contacted the level author, and they confirmed it.

The sections before Midway Point are based on Crystal Cave. The color choice in the first part is based on floors B1F to B5F, in the second part on floors B6F to B11F.




Beating Crystal Cave in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon provides a checkpoint, provides you a Kangaskhan Rock (indicated here with Yoshi Rock) which can be used retrieve items from the storage (in this case a mushroom or a flower) and lets you continue in Crystal Crossing, on which the section after Midway Point is based on - note the matching wall/background, floor and water colors.



The final floor of Crystal Crossing is known as Crystal Lake, hence the name of the level.

The grayscale part is based on... something within that game. I want to avoid spoilers (considering this is a heavily story based game), so that's all I will say.

[Daizo]

Okay that's actually pretty rad. Kind of reminds me of the Man Eating Forest from SMW: The After Years where that is a level based on a Sin & Punishment location with a similar premise.

This one sort of takes it all the way tho.

[Ivy]

The grayscale part is based on... something within that game. I want to avoid spoilers (considering this is a heavily story based game), so that's all I will say.

The solidified, desaturated environment definitely

was very PMD to me, but I never made the rest of those connections lol.

[TiKi]

also, i'm assuming from this level there are no la-mulana addmusics known to man, which is a big shame. almost enough to make me transcribe the music to midi just to make one, but not quite

As someone unfamiliar with SMW hacking, are you inplying that most users in this contest aren't capable of porting a song if they need it?

[Karatekid5]

As someone unfamiliar with SMW hacking, are you inplying that most users in this contest aren't capable of porting a song if they need it?

Making a good sounding port (especially given today's standards) isn't particularly easy to do, especially when ADSR and samples are involved.

[BobisOnlyBob]

As someone unfamiliar with SMW hacking, are you inplying that most users in this contest aren't capable of porting a song if they need it?

I mean, I think that's accurate? I made a level way back when and even messed with some ASM but wouldn't even know where to begin with audio.

[Sugar]

77th: Danish SUPER BLOCK by Waddle Derp

Koopster
DESIGN: 21/50
CREATIVITY: 19/30
AESTHETICS: 12/20
TOTAL SCORE: 52/100

The gimmick is introduced very poorly - took me 3 lives to understand what was going on. All it boils down to is really finding the question block pattern and keeping it in mind when the blocks come up. The fact the reverse question marks are a little difficult to parse didn't add much to it in my opinion. The gimmick gets really samey quite quickly, and it doesn't help the level much with its very repetitive/copy-pasted design. It threatens to develop into having to uncover the patterns, but that ended up not happening.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 20/50
CREATIVITY: 12/30
AESTHETICS: 11/20
TOTAL SCORE: 43/100

It's unclear what the gimmick was, as it was poorly introduced, felt vague, and missed some more
clearification. Even when I understood it, I think the concept wasn't good enough to be repeated in various
ways, as it still felt bland.

Noivern
DESIGN: 35/50
CREATIVITY: 26/30
AESTHETICS: 5/20
TOTAL SCORE: 66/100

The main gimmick is really creative, but really dumb. Regardless, the level was designed well around it and there was lots of variety around how the grey blocks were hidden. Aesthetics were clearly an afterthought.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 31/50
CREATIVITY: 27/30
AESTHETICS: 14/20
TOTAL SCORE: 72/100

The concept behind this level is really fantastic. It doesn't offer a ton of actual platforming, and what is there can be a bit iffy at times (the flying blocks can be a bit awkward), but it's still very enjoyable and the different ways of hiding the indicator blocks are very unique. They do get a bit confusing near the end, though. This likely would have been a lot better if you had factored the gameplay in a bit more when designing it and maybe made it a bit longer, with some more interesting obstacles.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 20/50
CREATIVITY: 14/30
AESTHETICS: 7/20
TOTAL SCORE: 41/100

This level has an idea which could go somewhere, but the execution is rather a bit underwhelming. Above all else, the level communicates rather poorly; the player is likely to simply be perplexed the first time (or two) they get moidalized by hitting a random coin block, and it takes a while to figure out exactly what the level is trying to communicate with the background ?-blocks and how it communicates this. The thing is, the unclear communication is pretty much the entirety of the challenge, and one you -do- figure out what the background blocks are trying to communicate, there's really not much more to the level, just mechanically looking at the signs then hitting the corresponding block, jumping on top of it to open the gate, heading forward and repeating the process again and again. It doesn't really make for the most exciting gameplay experience, I'm afraid.

+ Has an idea
- Communicates poorly
- Not much left to the level once you figure out the poor communication.

Other: Jeg mistror alt der stammer fra de nordiske lande men alligevel har et navn på engelsk, og denne mistro bliver normalt også bekræftet i praksis. Nogle nordboer konstaterer, at det gør det mere "internationalt", men ideen at "international" er lige med "på engelsk" tyder jo på en latterlig provincial opfattelse af hvad internationalitet faktisk er...

76th: Absolute Frenzy by Pat (ThePat545)

Koopster
DESIGN: 32/50
CREATIVITY: 18/30
AESTHETICS: 15/20
TOTAL SCORE: 65/100

A nice energetic level for the most part, although it doesn't stand out very much since it tries to develop a lot of ideas and none of them stand out a lot. The difficulty curve is also not very well thought out, and certain obstacles are very finicky in comparison to the surroundings. The visuals were a little confusing, not sure why dark purple rocks are solid but the wooden blocks are passable, while light blue blocks are solid instead - but there was nothing too glaringly bad.

lolyoshi
DESIGN: 30/50
CREATIVITY: 19/30
AESTHETICS: 06/20
TOTAL SCORE: 55/100

Linkdeadx2: this level is fruit loops
You establish a gimmick in the beginning, but then completely abandon it for the rest of the level (or it makes
very small reappearances) for some somewhat cool setups. I guess that's fine but there's a big lack of focus.
Visually, this is such a mess to look at, it's a sin.

Noivern
DESIGN: 35/50
CREATIVITY: 20/30
AESTHETICS: 11/20
TOTAL SCORE: 66/100

Uses 1F0 in a really neat way. I think some of the setups, particularly the one in the second half with the big mole and the grinders, are too precise. I couldn't get the second dragon coin. Generally good design, and focused for the most part. Coins in every color look odd and don't contribute to the level much. I don't appreciate being insulted via message block. The background is super good.

You can't get the powerup directly below the moon if you're big. The moon itself is hidden rather poorly. I only discovered it by accident and wouldn't have jumped into that section of the wall otherwise.

Sinc-X
DESIGN: 14/50
CREATIVITY: 13/30
AESTHETICS: 5/20
TOTAL SCORE: 32/100

Right off the bat, the æsthetic here is a total disaster. The colors are terrible, and it's often hard to tell what is solid and what isn't; not to mention it's waay too cluttered--and that applies to the design as well. There are lots of potentially good ideas here but they're really not well implemented. Everything is super cramped with little room for error, and it doesn't make for an enjoyable experience in the slightest.

Rameau's Nephew
DESIGN: 28/50
CREATIVITY: 19/30
AESTHETICS: 11/20
TOTAL SCORE: 58/100

This level seems determined to do every last weird little trick you can do in vanilla SMW. Paradoxically, this makes it seem less distinctive than it it would have been with a narrower focus. The "frenzy" party of the title seems to suggest that a certain chaos is desired, but in practice, one gets less a sense of mayhem than indecisiveness. The result is that many setups either feel as though they have a lot of unnecessary elements, or otherwise seem difficult to parse visually at first glance.

The level does still manage to be reasonably enjoyable despite all this, but there's still a handful of setups that raise some eyebrows even beyond the over-complication aspect. The bit where the platform sinks down into the lava only to unexpectedly reemerge again afterwards is weird, and making the jump on to it afterwards without getting knocked into the ceiling is awkward. Similarly, towards the end of the level, there's a bit where one has to jump from a math platform on to two falling platforms and over a spiked pillar, only to fall blindly back on to the platform again, which is strange, hard to time, and doesn't feel right even when you do it correctly. Right before the boss door, a platform and saw near a spike are also arranged in such a way that the very logical response of spinjumping on the saw causes you to catch on to the ceiling in a weird and unexpect way and fall to your doom.

Æsthetically, the level also tends toward over-complication, particularly as regards colors, which are a bit garish to say the least. I wouldn't exactly call it eye-searing--there seems to be just a hair too much attention to interplay of hues for that--but I don't really think dowsing everything in a bucket of clown makeup will make your level the prettiest girl at the cotillion. Also, I'm pretty sure those layer 3 cloud things are flipping me off.

+ Actually some good setups in there among the confusion and occasional questionable elements
- Could benefit from the maxim "less is more"

Other: Although the path to the moon is careful hidden, I like how Mario's potential interactions with the Rex can nevertheless nudge him in its direction.

[Implo]

Today - 2 levels that killed me a lot. On first level I got killed on almost every obstacle and noticed clues afterwards. I think this level wasn't looking that dangerous, so I was rushing it. Also last muncher block is really rude trap. I remember I was small Mario. I saw these single block and thought I will get my reward. And it killed me. The correct answer:

there is invisible block right in front of goal post and I think it relates to previous clue.

But who would figure it out on their first try?

Second level looks good and has good, energetic music. But also it's precise and requires fast thinking. I'm not good with that.

[Nimono]

But who would figure it out on their first try?

*sheepishly raises hand*

I noticed the backwards-? was below nothing, and then only one ? Block, so I was like "Yeah, this ? Block is the muncher, the real one is invisible."

[Ashan]

raocow probably caught it in editing but that last set of blocks was indicated over the thwomp. I assume the last set of grey indicators was saying there's an invisible block next to the hurt block?

edit: oh I now see that's what the above comments were about and I'm indeed correct. So I guess I can also say, yes I would have figured that out

[Kilgamayan]

Waddle Derp properly betterified this contest, thank you for make

What's in the Yellow Switch Palace?

EDIT: rip fog