I really like this mod, having some solid levels, and gameplay that manages to allow you to travel at a high speed most of the time while keeping the difficulty rather high. If you play well enough, most levels can be completed in under 2 minutes, making it more of a short and sweet mod.
There are hidden chaos emeralds in the first 7 levels, and some of them are mean.
I feel I should leave a complete review, so i'll go over the levels one-by-one.
GREEN PARADISE- B
Kind of generic, but it does its job. The chaos emerald is kind of ridiculous; it's not a place people would generally check. It's a solid introduction to the way the mod's gonna work, and in that, it succeeds.
BOSS 1- C
It's a copy-paste of the greenflower boss. Nothing particularly remarkable here.
TOXIC WASTES- B-
This is the first difficulty spike, and the chaos emerald is clever in a way i find cool and interesting. There's some stop-and-start in the middle, but at the very end of this level is when the mod reveals that it intends to demand precision from you. Going fast will help with that.
SUNKEN LIBRARY- A
This is the level that made me decide I liked this mod. The atmosphere here is great, and despite being a water level, it plays pretty smoothly, and it's great to replay. The chaos emerald is... well, i had to guess to find it. It's out of place, but that does not look like a breakable wall. At all.
FROZEN HEIGHTS- B+
Lots of speed. Icy water that hurts you. Nasty upper path that lasts five seconds (like, if you're going to go that far, at least put something up there!). well-hidden but fair chaos emerald. Atmosphere is nice. I don't really see the 'heights' part of it, though. We're in a cave. It doesn't really matter, I suppose.
BOSS 2- A
Ice and a bottomless pit is a neat twist on the Techno Hill boss. It makes this boss enjoyable. I'd say it's clever enough to replay.
MINE MAZE- C
Lots of stop-and-start, with precision platforming. (playing this level was the first time i realized you could just jump while spindashing to cancel the spindash. I never knew this was a thing. I got the emblems in egg rock without- anyway.) if you don't turn into the springs, the top path is reasonable, but the jumps are kind of risky. chaos emerald is cool.
The cycles here aren't lined up at all. You have to do a lot of waiting. It gets annoying, sometimes.
MOLTEN RUINS- S
This level is incredibly deadly, but you can tear through it regardless, and it's incredible. The chaos emerald is the most obvious one, and i appreciate that. There's a few places where bottomless pits are hard to see, but it's not the end of the world.
QUANDARY CANYON- B
Sudden drop in difficulty. I figure this chaos emerald is meant to be over-the-top and hidden, so I won't comment on it. Honestly I feel this level would be better after Frozen Heights, but it's fine here, too. I like the spin mechanics in this one, using height to your advantage to skip parts of the level.
BOSS 3- A
It's the Deep Sea boss, but the ground is quicksand, making you hit it from the corners, making aiming and positioning important. It's clever in the same way boss 2 is, but I smiled while fighting it. It's cool.
HIDDEN PALACE- B
I... There isn't much to this level. It's okay, and it looks cool. Nothing's bad about it, really. As far as final levels go, it's a bit underwhelming.
SPRING GARDEN- D
This is a playground level as a reward for getting all 7 chaos emeralds. There's nothing here, and there isn't even a way to complete the level, to my knowledge. It's a fairly underwhelming reward, and it's rather uninteresting. It's good to have something, though. Not many mods do that for the chaos emeralds.
Conclusion:
This mod is pretty fun. I wouldn't get the chaos emeralds, the reward isn't really worth it, unless you're interested in 100%ing and searching for its own sake, like me. But yeah, except for Mine Maze, the levels are speed and precision-oriented, which makes it really enjoyable to master these stages. If you're not good at precision, though, at least a little bit, it's not going to be enjoyable. But yeah, a solid 7/10 mod.
