i dont know how to do intros to these typa things so basically: Me (avery) and Neon played this entire mod fully today and decided to write a review on it!!! awesome yea go read
Starting off, Shoal Coast Zone was really cool and an absaloute great start. The level design was fantastic, the design of the level were really solid to play through and the design was great, the transitions from the beach to grass to cave were well executed and overall it was really enjoyable. As for the transition to the little lab thing, the trap was timed perfectly and transitions well into the lab part with Mecha Sonic (who i'll talk about in a bit), and the fakeout leading into the virtual world bit was really well done and I loved every bit of it! My only ick is the sheer amount of bumblebore spam but everything else was great!!
Sunrise Uplands Acts 1 and 2 were GORGEOUS. The sunset vibe was beautiful and the stage design was really nice and we loved every single second of it. The music was great, the sections were nice to go through and had a lot of love put into them, and overall it was the best levels out of this entire mappack. No complaints regarding this level from both of us, amazing work you guys!!! :DDDD
Much like the first, Shrewd Blizzard was also great. Nothing much to say, nearly same level of quality as Sunrise. Aside from getting lost a little, enjoyed this one! :]
Midnight Gully Zone Act 1 is where the problems come in. Level was generally really empty and boring, was very easy to get lost and if using other characters (i.e: Mario or Cacee) you could just skip over the whole thing. I also died twice at the end because there was 0 indicator on where the goal was and I flew right over it unfortunately. Act 2 is the same except it's way easier to get lost in this one, even to the point where I asked Neon genuinely where we were going, boss was kinda icky too.
=+= Neon Note: ourple water =+=
Terrance Mountain Zone was something. Off the bat music was awful, was a bit too optimistic about it going in but aside from that: Cool concept, executed poorly. Ghost enemies were ripped straight from the base game with changed texture which was cool was still pretty lazy and was spammed EVERYWHERE, level design didnt make up for that either unfortunately.
Suprisingly there was a completely original boss which definetely redeemed this stage a bit, even if the attack patterns were pretty awesome to see! "it was fucking touhou" -Neon
=+= Neon [+ avery] Note: trampolin :))) =+=
Molten Tunnel just sucked. We don't talk about Molten Tunnels.
Amaranthine Outpost Zone was alright, nothing too special here, level design was same as the rest and nothing too interesting. 0 indicators on where to go and generally just a bit uninteresting and empty, not to mention the whole horde of enemies attack was kinda just shoehorned in there without any proper intro, the doors just open and that's it, you don't even have to fight them if you figure out they even open in the first place. However being able to see the enemy concepts was a neat touch.
Nothing too special about the boss, it was custom again so that's neat but not too much interesting about it aside from feeling like the one from Terrance Mountain.
Dry Guldge Act 1, as Neon once said: "this is literally fucking arid canyon from 2.1", whilst yea, it does have a few other bits mixed in, it generally just feels pretty rushed. And the quicksand just made it a pain in the ass. Aside from the quicksand, Act 2 looked really cool and I loved the temple design! Not too much to say from it, gameplay was meh but concept was cool!! As for the boss, I liked the room design but the fact quicksand came in midway just ruined the entire thing. Also there was Fang for some reason?? (fuck fang we hate fang) ((except blitz fang he's cool -neon)
Desolated City zone was a bit of an ick for the both of us. I don't really see how an entire city level fit at all. The level overall feels really empty and lazy. The giant gaps in the floor weren't really explained, and the buildings were just not well placed. Act 2 is just the titanic, no other comments LOL
The boss was just Metal Sonic with no really extra features, however we do like Metal Sonic in this household so its permissable :)))
Cyberdime Zone Act 1 was really dissapointing, I thought it was gonna be a completely new zone until my hopes and dreams were shattered right infront of me as I realised all the zones to get the emeralds were just exact copies of the prexisting zones from the base game but just SLIGHTLY buffed with some original stuff thrown in, not even in a fun way either. We were incredibly sad too because this level looked so promising when we went in but just ending in what it did. I get the premise of this zone was to be like a throwback of all the levels but it just comes off as really lazy. Act 2 was relatively the same as the first, nothing interesting in that part.
The boss is just a whole other can of worms, the start made it seem like were were going to leave the literally Matrix bit but instead we got transported to... just the base final boss. Devastating, I nearly had a heart attack and Neon threw himself off the edge of the map. Music was bad too. Ya'll didn't even change the ending either which sucked. We couldn't even play the remake stages either :(
=+= Neon Note: I COULDN'T PLAY MARBLE ZONE IM GOING TO FUCKING RIOT YOU MOTHER FU =+=
Special stages were actually really awesome, genuinely really creative idea instead of just copying the base Special Stages and the fact it loops so you can fix your mistakes as well makes it even better, gameplay was great, we love to see it :DD (obviously ignoring the last one but it's still in progress so I don't mind :]
The music though was a bit annoying as its literally the same track every time with different instruments, but I'll let that slide as the gameplay was fun.
Here's my main problems with all the stages:
- Firstly, the level design for most of them is confusing in the fact that half the time you literally can't tell if you're going backwards or forwards half the time. This got to the point where I genuinely asked Neon "Are we going the right way or not?"
- Some of the music (I'm pretty sure some was original? Dunno tho) wasn't the best honestly, improvement to be had there.
- Level design post the first 3 zones was really empty and just felt progressively lazier throughout, work to be done there
- Less enemy spam. I fucking beg.
- Story direction is odd, Mecha Sonic was at the start but was never explained as to why and there was 0 transitions between levels.
Overall, we rated it a 3/5 collectively. It's really promising however there's definitely work needed to make it the best it can be. If you're still updating this then don't give up!! This concept is really cool and I'd love to see it fully complete, best of luck :DDD
"im having a fucking annurism" - Neon
thats the review go home