How would you rate the official levels? - Part three!

Greenflower 1: Simple, fun, fast. I don't really know why the hole in the wall was removed, though.

Greenflower 2: Eh, it's alright. I like the new areas, simply cause of the visuals.

Greenflower boss: LOVE the new area, looks so much prettier. I don't think we really needed to buff this boss, though.

Techno Hill 1: I like everything about this, except for the slime. It's not bad, I love the concept, but it's so SLOW! It takes a long time to do anything if you get caught in it!

Techno Hill 2: The slime is a bigger problem here, and I think the act is a little too long. It feels kind of labyrinthine, too. It's hard to navigate.

Techno Hill Boss: Not much changed. A little boring, but I like having walls now.

Deep Sea 1: I like the new improvements. Not much to say.

Deep Sea 2: I don't actually remember what was changed :|

Deep Sea Boss: Holy shit, what the hell is going on? He split? What?

Castle Eggman 1: I like the new aesthetics and design. I haven't played this stage a whole lot.

Castle Eggman 2: FUCK. THIS. STAGE. I hate the new cannon room, the water room is still there and still sucks, and the new areas, while pretty, are BRUTAL. NO.

Castle Eggman Boss: To easy, I think. It's eh.

Arid Canyon: It was good before, and the layout updates just make it more fun. I'm hoping that when it gets an act 2 it will be just as good. Should be before Castle Eggman if you ask me. Also, it has my favorite music track in the game!

Red Volcano: Difficult and dickish. 10/10

Egg Rock 1: Long, and pretty difficult. It certainly is harder to get through than Red Volcano, because it's fair hard instead of dick move hard.

Egg Rock 2: Nope. Nope nope nope nope nope. Nope.

Egg Rock 3: I didn't really want to touch this stage after how long it took G to beat it. But then I played it and got it on my third try, so...

Egg Rock Core: SO much better than the original final boss. I like it a lot, because I can actually beat it.

Overall: Fuck Castle Eggman 2, make Eggrock a little shorter, and it's better than 2.0. 8/10

Greenflower Zone, Act 1: D
While I rate this stage low, this is because it's not exciting, not because it isn't doing its job as a tutorial stage. I wouldn't mind seeing this extended a slight tad, but having it be completely linear is truly necessary.

Greenflower Zone, Act 2: A
I know I'm one of the few people who still feels this way, but I still really love GFZ2, especially now that some of the issues have been fixed. The stage isn't large by modern standards, but it still has tons of alcoves and secrets to find.

Greenflower Zone, Act 3: B
It's nice having our bosses revamped, and having our first boss actually involve player interaction is great. Obviously it's still simple and trivial to cheese quickly, but that first encounter with him isn't a joke anymore.

Techno Hill Zone, Act 1: B
I'm really happy with how this turned out, especially considering I spent so much time working on it. The new slime is easily my favorite level gimmick we have so far, and there's a ton of stuff we can do with it from a level designer's perspective. I just hope we get around to gimping Tails's downward flight into it before the next major release so those emblems are actually challenging to get.

Techno Hill Zone, Act 2: A
Nev3r is a wizard. While there are still some quirks left, I'm really happy with how this turned out, expanding on the slime concept from act 1 while adding some new ideas.

Techno Hill Zone, Act 3: B
This was by far our best boss in 2.0, and therefore needed the least upgrades for 2.1. I still really love how simple the design is while actually being interesting in practice.

Deep Sea Zone, Act 1: D
While the stage's ugliness isn't a big deal to me, a lot of the rooms in this stage really aren't working out as interesting. At least the nerfs put in make the stage less tedious in places and THZ2's revamp makes the size less of a gigantic shock in the difficulty curve.

Deep Sea Zone, Act 2: C
I like this one a lot better as it focuses more on waterslides, which is a gimmick that actually works out. The updates also make screwing up here infinitely less frustrating, which helps a lot. I just wish that it wasn't so linear and had more variety when the waterslide gimmick wasn't being used.

Deep Sea Zone, Act 3: A
While it's probably a bit too hard, I really do love this boss, especially now that the pinch is actually interesting instead of removing all the boss mechanics like in 2.0. Playing Whack-a-mole with fakes is the way it's supposed to be played, after all.

Castle Eggman Zone, Act 1: F
Well, we tried, but I can fully admit that we failed to make this stage interesting. There are still major issues with direction, and the new Knuckles route is god-awful. Basically the only positive I can take away from this is that the new visuals worked out a lot better than the old ones.

Castle Eggman Zone, Act 2: B
While our zones often have a better act 2 than 1, nowhere is it more dramatic than CEZ. I really love the large, expansive castle and the library area. The water room could probably still use some work, and there are areas that stink of lazy design here and there, but overall I'm really happy with how this worked out.

Castle Eggman Zone, Act 3: B
What a difference the revamp made here. While I think the pinch gets a bit too absurd on the last hit, otherwise this boss is awesome and looks completely sweet. It's also really nice to finally see some new bosses in the game, as bosses have been a traditional weakness of our game.

Arid Canyon Zone, Act 1: A
I still really love this stage, and I'm quite happy with how we updated it for 2.1. There are still a few things that could probably use addressing, but overall this is a highlight of the campaign, especially for those of us who like to explore stages.

Red Volcano Zone, Act 1: C
The updates help, but this stage still shows its age pretty dramatically. I am quite happy with returning to the meaner version of the lava that eats rings, though.

Eggrock Zone, Act 1: B
I'm really happy with how much better this is in 2.1. The stage was always impressive but several of the gimmicks desperately needed telegraphing, which is done much better now, especially in the case of the space countdown mechanic. Some of the worse ideas could really use removal, though, especially the long upwards staircase.

Eggrock Zone, Act 2: A
This is probably going to be the most controversial thing I say, but I think ERZ2 could use some heavy cleanup in places, possibly shortening it by cutting and pasting a room or two into the first act. While long ago I probably would have never believed it was possible for an SRB2 level to be TOO long and demanding, at this point I think ERZ2, despite being a gauntlet of challenge and awesome, is probably a bit too long. Otherwise, though, this stage is still every bit of awesome as it ever was.

Eggrock Zone, Act 3: B
I'm also really happy with how this turned out, although the race section is probably a bit too hard and could use a slight nerf. The fight itself is also a bit meh in mechanics before he goes into pinch. Overall, though, this stage forms an awesome combination encounter that feels a lot cooler than any of its parts.

Eggrock Core Zone: B
Thank god old Brak is gone. I really like this encounter and while it still has a few telegraphing issues, I'm a huge fan of the mechanics, especially forcing the player to kite him into the lava before you can damage him.

Pipe Towers Zone: B
This stage isn't exceptional, but it's well above average and that's definitely not something you would say about our old Mario unlockable. There are probably a few issues that could use working out, but this is a nice upgrade to our secret stage lineup.

Aerial Garden Zone: B
While I still need to do a lot of cleanup work, I'm still really happy with how well AGZ has aged, even without some proper gimmicks. It's nice to see a plain platforming stage now and again.

Azure Temple Zone: A
I'm actually even happier with how this stage turned out than I thought, especially now that the emblems are in the game itself and I get to watch people struggle with them for their 100% completion. Brutal extra stages in games have often been a personal amusement of mine, so I'm glad to provide that kind of masochistic fun to SRB2 proper.

Floral Field: B
In the grand tradition of first stages we have to use as a tutorial, this one isn't as exciting as the later stages. However, it has a few really neat paraloops to do for maximum score, and that makes it a lot more interesting when you aren't just going for the emerald.

Toxic Plateau: C
I don't quite know why I don't find this stage weak, but I do. It's a solid but average stage.

Flooded Cove: C
Unlike SS2, I do sorta understand why I'm not the hugest fan of this one, and that's that it's really kinda dull to go for high score here. The stage is a long loop and there really aren't any clever paraloop tricks to do.

Cavern Fortress: B
I'm really shocked with how well this one turned out, especially considering the track was reused from Slumber Circuit, a stage that I was tempted to include until I noticed how boring it was in comparison. The dungeon area in particular is awesome compared to the original. We just need that last hallway gimmick replaced and something more done with the maces and I'd actually consider this an A.

Dusty Wasteland: C
This stage needs something, but as talked about in dev, I have no idea what we could add. I do really like how the replacements for the lake and the castle worked out, though.

Magma Caves: A
It's funny that this ended up being my personal favorite, but I just love how this stage turned out. It has everything from methodical dodging of moving hazards to a mad dash in the final room. Paraloop trickery and risk-reward in the lava wave room is also awesome.

Egg Satellite: B
This is quite a gauntlet, as is proper for the final special stage, but a few issues hold it back from pure greatness. The yellow cross lasers at the very beginning and end are stupidly hard to dodge, and the laser fan is entered in a way that the player can't see the position of the lasers when entering, which is especially problematic when moving fast. On the positive, I really love how the backwards dash objects turned out, and so many of the gimmicks just fit really well together.

Black Hole: A
Sadistic, pure hell, and awesome for it. As I love extra challenge stages, I'm really happy with how this turned out. It's also great how it visually turned out, as we had a bit of trouble with that in development. Clearly now we need an even more absurd special stage 9 ^_~

Spring Hill: C
While a lot of the ideas here are really neat, I don't think this stage has aged as well as I originally thought. I also still don't like how the on foot gameplay works here, but I don't know if that's just me not liking the way it works in NiGHTS or me not liking this stage's implementation of it.

Greenflower Zone Act 1
It's functional. I'd like the stage to be restructured so that you can't see the thok barrier sky obscuring parts of the level when you fly around as Tails. I also still don't like the narrow, twisted corridor that right after the bridge (it was improved in 2.1, but I'd like it scrapped entirely). Also, if you play as Sonic, you'll hit a dead end if you go down the left path at the end. I feel that would be annoying for new players who find themselves having to backtrack in the very first level of the game.

Greenflower Zone Act 2
Before I knew that Mystic liked this stage too, I thought I was the only one. While the double-sized checkerboard pattern is a big improvement, I really don't like how it's randomly mixed with the normal-sized texture. It looks horrible.



The upper path is still confusing, too. When you're reach the very top you just see the checkerboard texture in all directions, which is confusing enough, but you also get pointed toward the hidden room rather than the river path, when I think it should be the other way around.

Annoyingly, the expansion introduced thok barrier ugliness when the original level had almost none.



But yeah. I still like this level.

Greenflower Zone Act 3
What an improvement! I'm still kind of shocked you guys managed to make this boss good. I think there should be a longer delay between Eggman discarding his spikes and generating new ones—to give him a more obvious "he's open to be attacked now" mode—but otherwise I think this boss is great.

Techno Hill Zone Act 1
I am in awe. How the hell did you manage to turn one of the worst levels in 2.0 to one of the best while making barely any changes to the actual level design? The goo/slime/Jell-O/whatever you want to call it is by far my favourite gimmick in the game now—being launched down the slime slide into the lake is way more fun than it should be. Though, the lake should be made longer (well, actually "wider", I guess) now so that you don't hit the wall so quickly.

In other criticisms, the Knuckles path is a bit dull, and when it merges into the main path it wouldn't be immediately obvious to a new player whether they're supposed to go left or right to continue. Also, now that you have to backtrack slightly just to find the underground path, I don't think it's necessary to hide it with a spindash-only entrance. Give it a proper entrance.

On a side note, I love how you made the green emblem possible to get with Sonic (and, in fact, devoted an entire section of the stage for that specific purpose). Geronimo!

Techno Hill Zone Act 2
This stage is awesome, and everyone agrees, so I don't think I need to repeat all its positives. I will say though that I don't think it's too long—its length makes the transition from THZ to DSZ much cleaner. As for criticisms, one, there's this odd optical illusion at the beginning of the stage that should be fixed.



Two, it's so anti-climatic when you reach the massive Egg Corp building...and you enter it by going down a tiny little hallway way off to the left. It's also a bit confusing for Tails and Knuckles players. Make the entrance big and grand!

Techno Hill Zone Act 3
It's high praise for 2.1 that the best boss in 2.0 is now probably the worst. It's still a fine boss, though, it's mostly just the pinch phase that I think needs to be fixed. It's the exact same problem that made 2.0's GFZ3 pinch phase suck—Eggman throws himself at the player, and that makes it easier to defeat him, not harder.

Deep Sea Zone Act 1
While both acts of DSZ have been improved, I never really liked either of them in the first place. The first room is big, ugly, and probably should be scrapped and remade. After leaving the first room via the upper path, you immediately run along the edge of a large curved room; the room is so dull and uneventful that the game gives you speed shoes so that you can get past it as quickly as possible (I'd say that's a pretty bad sign). The last obstacle before finishing the stage is jumping on bunch of large square platforms in the proper order (all of which are too high for Knuckles to jump on without climbing). It's such a dull stage. But, well, at least everyone expects water levels to suck, so you can get away with it. ;D

Deep Sea Zone Act 2
Better than Act 1, but that's not saying much. Let's look at the forward path first. It begins with the crumbling block maze, which I personally don't mind, but a lot of people do (I agree with a previous poster that the block made should hide a secret path and other bonuses, rather than being part of the main path). Next is the lazy-ass replacement for the waterfall room. After that is the incredibly dull "rising platforms" room that I'm not even sure how it made it into the game in the first place. The stage gets better after that, but it really puts its worst foot forward.

The left path sends you through three uninteresting, utterly content-less rooms before you get to the waterslide. Unfortunately, the nerfing of the slide just makes it boring. If there aren't going to be obstacles, then the player needs to get sent down it much faster (like the brief slime ride in THZ1). The ramp is a cool setpiece, but the jitteriness makes it look really crappy, like the frame rate is dropping like a stone. I don't think this can be fixed using this engine, so I'd recommend scrapping it and replacing it with a water jet or something.

Deep Sea Zone Act 3
A very welcome improvement. I think there should be a slightly longer delay before Eggman electrocutes the water so that you have a chance of getting out without getting hurt. You might also want to consider making the fake Eggmans more distinctive—it can be difficult to see who the real one is at low resolutions. Maybe some sort of marking on their vehicles?

Castle Eggman Zone Act 1
It's not a fantastic stage, but apparently I'm one of only people here who likes it. I really like the retexturing as well, though the stage in general could stand to be a little bit brighter and more vibrant (I feel that making the forest lush and tropical but the castle dark and depressing would make the stage look a lot more interesting). Both of the two starting paths (but especially the right one; the left one is okay-ish) should probably be scrapped and replaced. I really don't like being forced to kill all enemies in a room before I'm allowed to continue—these spots should be removed in both Act 1 and Act 2. It's also really easy to fling yourself high enough that you can see above the skybox, particularly with the final swing; that should be fixed. Otherwise...meh, it's okay. I'm fine with the stage.

Castle Eggman Zone Act 2
The flamethrower staircase should be moved to RVZ. The room right after that, with all the square platforms, should be cut entirely (besides being dull and slightly confusing, the camera often gets stuck behind pillars in that room). The water room should be kept but reworked (I'd also like the water to have a more dramatic effect, like lifting the giant pillar in 2.0. Just lifting a tiny block of wood is pretty boring considering you just flooded a massive room). The alternate path shouldn't be hidden behind a painting. The final room should have a cool skybox instead of just boring grey clouds.

Otherwise, this is an awesome level, and I really enjoy it. I disagree with what other people have said—keep the Egg Guards in the platforming sections. It makes it tense and interesting.

Castle Eggman Zone Act 3
An awesome and fun Sonic boss. Tails can just cheese it with hardly any effort, and Knuckles is kind of forced to cheese it because he can't jump high enough to play the boss the normal way. I'm not really bothered by the level not being balanced for Tails and Knuckles, though; no other stage in the game is either. ;)

I'd recommend putting a trail of rings in the air leading to the other swing during the pinch phase. Like everyone else, I initially tried to hit the boss from below. But yeah, this is a great boss, and the pinch phase is epic.

Arid Canyon Zone Act 1
I have exactly three criticisms of this stage. Number one:



'Nuff said. I am so confused as to why this is still here. You removed the other ones; why didn't you remove this one?

Number two:



The correct path here is going left and then back. If you go forward, then you start going through the level backward. This is awful level design on its own, but it's even worse because it contradicts the level design in the rest of the game.



If you went left and then back here, you'd just go backward down an alternate path. That's how the game is set up. Always go forward, because the paths behind you are the exits of alternate paths. This part of ACZ contradicts that.

Finally, there's the "upward crushers" cave. This room is so unfair. There is no warning that you're going to die, and then you die. Its design seriously resembles I Wanna Be the Guy or a Super Mario World hack. The falling rocks cave in the other path is also bullshit, but it's more forgiving because you can easily outrun the falling rocks even if you don't expect them. For the falling rocks, I think there should just be clear shadows that show where the rocks will fall. For the upward crushers, just cut it. Upward crushers don't even make sense in a desert.

The rest of the stage is great. ACZ has always been great, so not much really needed to be done besides the new ending room.

Red Volcano Zone Act 1
There's not much I can really say about this stage; it's aged shockingly well. The new enemies are cool; I like them. I really love the "circling flamethrowers" effect—it's very fluid and vibrant. The springs that bump you into the lava are hilarious. The lava is far more deadly now that it eats your rings, which is something it really needed. I guess one criticism is that it's far too easy for new players to accidentally go down the wrong path when the paths merge, so that part should be restructured. Otherwise, all this level needs is an expansion.

(I really hope Act 2 has a section where you briefly exit the volcano and end up in an area using the Blue Mountain Zone textures.)

Egg Rock Zone Act 1
The concept of jumping out of your spindash to cancel it should probably be introduced in some manner before you die if you don't figure it out in two seconds; it can be as easy as having the first moving platform not a be over a bottomless pit. The "running up the stairs" room also needs to go. Otherwise, this level is as awesome as it's always been. Now that the outer space sections have been improved, I really can't think of any way to make it better.

Egg Rock Zone Act 2
I find it really telling that you need to beat this stage in five minutes to get the Time Attack emblem, while you only need to beat Aerial Garden Zone—a stage so massive it almost breaks the engine—in four minutes. I love this stage, but I think it could be shortened a bit. Admittedly, I have no idea what I'd cut out, 'cause it's all great, but something. Maybe parts of it could be moved to Act 1 to help balance the paths?

Egg Rock Zone Act 3
I was so shocked when this stage popped up. I love it, and I still love it. I was impressed before the race even started, when I realized the music is timed with the door opening. =D

Iceman404 makes a lot of good points about the race, and his suggestions would probably make for a better stage, but... I disagree with what he said (except for maybe the first point. It'd be awesome it the base was exploding behind you). I think I'd get annoyed if Metal Sonic was attacking me because I wouldn't be paying attention to him. I like the anti-grav platforming section. The final hallway absolutely has a purpose—it slows down Tails and Knuckles who can otherwise cheese their way through the race too easily.

As for the boss, Metal Sonic's charge attack lasts for too long, and—as someone said in another topic—he should make pinball sound effects when he hits the walls to make it clearer that he's bouncing around, not just charging at you. Besides that, it's another great boss. How the hell does SRB2 suddenly have a ton of great bosses?

Egg Rock Core Zone
The sprites are crappy. It's aggravating whenever Brak decides to dance around the lava instead of walking into it. And... that's it. I love this boss. A lot of people have said it should be harder, but I disagree. I like Brak just the way it is now. It's really fun and chaotic and tense and the entire stage turns into an absolute mess of fire and bombs at the end and I love it. The game ends on a fun and exciting note, not a sour note like it easily could have if the boss was too hard.

Pipe Towers Zone
A simple, enjoyable stage. While it has a few flaws, I honestly feel it'd be perfectly fine if this stage was never touched again, and this was the final version. It's perfectly good and functional as it is. If the bouncing mushrooms could be fixed so that you don't have to hit the exact center to bounce, that'd be great, but that's probably more of an engine thing than a level design thing.

Aerial Garden Zone



At least pretend that the level actually exists. Every time you go indoors it's like entering the TARDIS—it's bigger on the inside! Restructuring the level is pretty much impossible, I know, but you could at least give each room a lot more width and depth on the outside so that it's not as blatant.

But yeah. I'm surprised how well AGZ has aged.

Azure Temple Zone
Fuck you Mystic and your evil emblem placement. This and Black Hole are the main things keeping me from 100% completion.

This stage is epic; I don't know how to improve it.

Special Stages
The NiGHTS stages are infinitely better than the past special stages. Hell, they're significantly better than any special stages in the official Sonic games. They're all well-designed, too. My favourite is probably Magma Caves. It has a really vibrant look to it, the lava waves are the most interesting obstacle in all of the stages, and it has a good mixture of slow-ish paced obstacle dodging and reckless speeding.

I think Dusty Wasteland needs something in it that subtracts time from the player. Cavern Fortress has the swinging mace that introduces the concept, and Magma Caves pretty much has everything you touch subtract time, but Dusty Wasteland has... nothing. If you had something in there, it would probably prepare the player for Magma Caves a bit better, as well as make the stage a little more difficult, both of which help with the difficulty spike.

Black Hole was named aptly. It's a black hole of my time! Ugh, getting the A-rank and Time emblems will not be worth it.

SRB1 Remake
It's so dreadfully boring as fuck! Please never finish it. I don't think I'd be able to handle playing through the whole thing in one go if I had to fight a boss at the end of every act.

Greenflower Zone 1: C
I was actually surprised that you had the balls to go back and mess with this stage after its decade-long stasis. All the changes are smart and make the stage both prettier and a better tutorial for the rest of the game. However, I don't see the logic in moving the 1-Up to the end of the stage, hidden behind the mountain, right in front of the end sign, where most new players probably won't ever even look at it and just go for the goal instead, thus missing the anvilicious Whirlwind tutorial entirely.

Greenflower Zone 2: B
It's still a good stage, and the big textures help more than I expected. I'm glad the slow-ass platforms are gone but the new route is a bit confusing and could use better telegraphing. The open area at the end is literally a breath of fresh air but I don't like how the water source doesn't match the rest of the stage's aesthetic, nor do I like how if you drop down a level after taking the spring, you can't get back up and have to go down a second level and take the spring again.

Greenflower Zone 3: D
I really don't like the changes done to this boss. I realize that regardless of all the tweaks over the years this boss has always been a pushover, but I think that's fine; see Sonic 2's first boss, which does NOTHING to actively attack you but throw his drill after seven hits. The spikeball phase was funny and a nice homage to the 1.0 CEZ3 boss, but I don't like how it takes so much time to deploy it and how it resets when you hit him. If you're going to add a decent pinch phase, make sure the boss can actually make use of it.

Techno Hill Zone 1: C
The old THZ was a boring mess, this is now a slightly more interesting sort of mess. I like the potential of the slime as a game mechanic but it needs serious work; I shouldn't have to wait some 10 seconds until my character stabilizes and I can fucking jump again. Maybe make it so you only sink once per jump and then rise to the surface and STAY there.

Techno Hill Zone 2: B
My initial impression of this stage was that it's way too long and complicated for where it is in the rotation. After playing it a few times I now appreciate it a lot more, but I still think it has a bit too much flab. The first room with the slime dive is almost a necessary room, but it's a terrible room to start an Act with, never mind Act 2, which by then you should have the slime mechanics down pat. Other examples of excess fat are the empty hallways which serve no purpose other than join the important rooms together, and all the little slime pools with nothing in them. If you're going to make me waste time by jumping in the slime, then make sure there's something in there for my troubles, or just don't have the slime there at all.

Techno Hill Zone 3: A
This is just my favorite boss in the entire game. It's always been a fun boss, and especially now it's tuned up right to perfection. I question the dated design of the boss arena, though: it doesn't make sense for it to be an underground tunnel anymore now that THZ2 ends on top of a building, and you can barely see the scrolling texture effect through all the safety bubblewrap anyway, so what's the point?

Deep Sea Zone 1: C
All the changes done to this stage are appreciated, and it's an okay stage, but blah blah textures yak yak dated yadda yadda I think Nev3r was already working on something so there's really no point in beating this dead horse blah blah.

Deep Sea Zone 2: D
I really never did like this stage that much and none of the changes really help at all. Why did you remove the death pit from the waterslide? Now it's just a long cutscene. Why did you get rid of the maze? Now it's just a long cutscene with spikes. Why did you remove the falling logs and just leave an empty stub of a room? And while I'm glad that the giant zoom tube is gone, there's now no way to backtrack at all, meaning that you have exactly one shot at grabbing the rings in the underwater slide. Good freaking luck on that one.

Deep Sea Zone 3: C
I like the doppelganger pinch phase like everyone else, but there's a lot of work to be done with this boss. For one, whenever you fall in the water he will immediately try to zap you, and given how long it takes you to get out of the water, chances are he'll succeed every time. Secondly, it's bad enough that whichever path he picks is completely random, but if he picks the center one (which is the closest) then for whatever reason he'll also move about twice as fast, leaving you no time to react. And then finally, if he DOES take the the center path, he will continue to move around at double speed until he retreats from one of the edge paths, which means getting a good time on this boss is purely up to RNG and how many times he picks the center path.

Castle Eggman Zone 1: C
I dunno, it's okay. The Knuckles path is all kinds of bullshit and the whole stage is a bit on the short side, but I like some of the setpieces here and would like to see them remain in the seemingly inevitable third reboot of this stage.

Castle Eggman Zone 2: C
The first part is pretty cool and varied, but then somewhere around the middle it devolves into empty rooms filled with crates, the same bedroom pasted over and over and MORE BOOKCASES. About half of the stage is a fucking library, and about half the library should get scrapped.

Castle Eggman Zone 3: B
This is a fun boss but the attacks need far better telegraphing. There needs to be a clear indication of when the chains are going to stop spinning in one direction and start spinning in the other, because physics simply do not work that way. Furthermore, the fast setting is much too fast; I shouldn't need to run at full speed only to be able to keep up. Finally, why is there only one chain on the bleachers?

Arid Canyon Zone 1: A
Hey, I gotta give some of these an A. This is just a fun stage with nice aesthetics and a fun gimmick. I'd rather just see an Act 2 than more tinkering to this one.

Red Volcano Zone 1: D
This stage is old, and it shows. GFZ is technically older, but this has not aged as well. Most of the stage is just these gigantic hallways with gigantic crumbling blocks, rising and falling lava, and annoying platforming. A veritable cavalcade of bad SRB2 level design. Still, the basic layout is very unobtrusive and quick to go through so it doesn't overstay its welcome. The new enemies are terribly-placed and blend in the darkness, and the spinning flamethrowers are dumb and look messy. The ceiling springs are an incredibly retarded gimmick and a clear sign whoever was polishing up the stage had run out of ideas. Essentially, the perfect lead-in to the last stage in the game.

Egg Rock Zone 1: B
Not much to say about this one since not much has truly changed. The changes to the end of the stage are for the better, but the lefthand path is still very much the superior choice, at least in terms of quality of content. And it's probably still faster.

Egg Rock Zone 2: A
To be honest, I really don't like the wind tunnel's removal; it was an inoffensive part of the stage to me and now the progress feels detached since you just take a teleport to the Mega Man room regardless of which path you choose, whereas in the original version there was a clear desire to make you feel like everything in the stage was geographically connected (even though it was a load of gunk).

Egg Rock Zone 3: C
Metal Sonic is my favorite character, so you can imagine I was quite pleased (and surprised!) to see this level in 2.1. And the sprites are gorgeous! This stage would've easily gotten a much higher score from me if the level design wasn't absolute garbage. At least now you know why they didn't put antigravity platforming on moving platforms over a death pit in Stardust Speedway.

Egg Rock Core Zone: C
Cybrakdemon is an actually fun boss as opposed to 2.0 Brak, and I know it's a stopgap boss, but there's a lot of annoying little stuff that irks me. I don't like how he seems to move in jolts rather than continuously, as you can never tell if he's about to step out of your aim or step into your hitbox. I don't like how he has the tendency to dance around the lava and then fire his weapons through it rather than just getting the fuck in there, and I really don't like how he has the tendency to forget that he's a boss and that he wants to kill you, and just wanders around the opposite end of the stage instead. Still fun at a very primitive level, and I really like the use of the classic sound effects for the electric barrier.


shit this is really going into overtime okay WRAPPING IT UP (sorry rob)

Aerial Garden Zone: B
The Knuckles path is still complete bullshit and has no right to exist, but at least you can get all the secrets now. I liked the old water room, though.

Azure Temple Zone: A
So glad the nuke challenge is necessary for 100% completion now.

Pipe Towers Zone: E
Hundreds of tiny linedefs everywhere does not equal detail and is actually unappealing. Tiny square rooms with a single power-up in them are not rewarding at all and are an insult to the player. And besides the few outdoor rooms the level design is shit and I hate the fact that I have to complete Record Attack in this piece of crap. This isn't an insult to the author of the map, but to whoever decided to make it part of the vanilla game.

Spring Hill Zone: C
Okay, time attacking this was just dumb. But the layout is still fun so I guess I kinda like it is what I'm saying?


SPECIAL STAGES

Floral Field: B
I like this one! I like how it's pathetically easy but there's still a few trick loops you're not expecting.

Toxic Plateau: D
This one is just boring.

Flooded Cove: C
This one is okay but it overdoes the "flying through hoops" gimmick where you need to keep adjusting your height or you bump into something.

Cavern Fortress: B
This one is pretty fackin' but the bit at the end with the moving columns breaks the mood (and often my link).

Dusty Wasteland: B
I don't get it, I really like this one. It's too easy for where it is in the rotation, though.

Magma Caves: A
This is just great. I love how there's both an easy way and a hard way to deal with the spinning flamethrower room without breaking your link, and that you have to do both if you go for a second loop around the stage.

Egg Satellite: B
I think everything up to the capsule is great, but then it kind of falls apart. I've already told you how I don't like the appearing blocks, but then all the lasers after the fact are kinda bullshit and/or repeats of gimmicks found earlier in the stage.

Black Hole: I_Error(): You need to unlock this level first!

Greenflower 1: I imagine this will be quite an unpopular opinion, but I’ve always enjoyed GFZ1. The new changes for the most part I welcome too, although I do question the placement of the whirlwind shield tutorial at the end of the level. Hidden away from a first time player whose attention is going to be immediately grabbed by the signpost with the villains face on instead.

Greenflower 2: Neat, I already really enjoyed this level and now it’s had some improvements made to it. Thank you for completely revamping that long empty corridor near the end and removing the sloooooow moving platforms too. Personally, I feel that blue crawlas in GFZ2 is still a bit too simple though. I understand the reasoning behind using them, but I disagree with it because they are so slow they are an almost non-existent threat when the player can just walk around them.

Greenflower 3: Oh you sly cads, surprising me with your fancy sweeping lasers when I jumped expecting Eggman’s usual nuclear pancake on my first 2.1 playthrough. It forces the player to learn how to dodge in time for the second zone which is quite a welcome change too.

Techno Hill 1: Oh my, the new slime is fantastic! I feel that the player rises to the surface a little too slow, but for the most part I really enjoy how it is utilised. I would have quite liked to see a secret alternate path hidden under the slime (an alternate entrance to the tunnel path, maybe?) and it’s a shame Tails can break this gimmick so easily though. The new turtles are great too, I would have liked to see a few more secrets that required their springs to be reached though, maybe if you find some way to make a Sonic only path in this level (or act 2) they could be put to great use there.

Techno Hill 2: God damn. Nev3r continues to impress me. I love this level to pieces, the new skybox is great too. The level felt absolutely titanic on my first play through which was impressive, especially considering on subsequent attempts I found it wasn’t really that big. Which is a nice balance if you ask me. I also liked how a few of the buzzes placed to catch you off guard if you recklessly bounced off of the turtles backs without looking ahead.

Deep Sea 1: I don’t have anything new to say I haven’t already covered before, I enjoy the level but it has a lot of empty space in the larger rooms. I don’t mind the incredibly repetitive textures, but I have a terrible sense of visual design anyway. Although I have to say, I learned to really appreciate the new emblem system here, because I initially found Tails’ old DSZ1 emblem as Sonic and that quite rightly rustled me back in 2.0’s launch days.

Deep Sea 2: Thank you a ton for fixing the falling log room, even if all you did was replace them with floating platforms. All of the small changed throughout the level are welcome, but I don’t have anything new to say I haven’t mentioned previously.

Deep Sea 3: Hahaha that new pinch phase, which was a fantastic surprise. It’s also far more interesting to have a pinch phase that evolves the whack-a-mole mechanics used previously in the boss rather than strip them down to a more basic level BUT WITH WATER.

Castle Eggman 1: You tried, you really did, and I appreciate it. But this level still isn’t very good :(
To elaborate, the Knuckles path is a guessing game, plain and simple. The player has to make rough estimates on where the next mace will be, with no reaction time at all if their guess is wrong which forces them to repeat the section. And I found the entire first half of the level extremely boring, such as the winding trees the player can run up with absolutely no pressure or threat involved. When the player reaches the fortified areas of the woods the level becomes a bit more interesting, but that’s already quite far into the stage.

Castle Eggman 2: Oh man, you included a secret passage behind a pushable book case. I love you guys <3 I can only hope that me asking for that multiple times on #srb2fun influenced that design decision. Other than that I actually really enjoy this stage now! I’m still not too happy with the rising water room and I feel that the cannonball room is actually worse than it was before currently, but all of the new content I had a blast with, especially that gigantic sprawling library. So many secret nooks and crannies to find oh my. I do feel that the Robo-Hood firing animation needs to be adjusted though, I appreciate that a firing animation is far better than nothing but it’s too difficult to notice at a glance, such as when the player is jumping to destroy it.
I know a lot of people rather dislike the difficulty in CEZ2, but I don’t mind it myself. In fact I really enjoyed the difficulty in CEZ2 even when considering how a first time player would react to the difficulty spikes in certain rooms.

Castle Eggman 3: Hahahaha wow, before I figured out I could cheese the first phase of the boss by standing in the stands as Tails or Knuckles this boss was great. There are some issues with how Eggman’s cage blocks the player from seeing his hand gestures that telegraph the maces speeding up or changing direction, which is a shame. If all else fails, it might be possible to surround him with glass or a laser wall instead if you don’t mind breaking theme for the sake of gameplay clarity. Also regarding the players standing up in the stands to trivialize phase 1, I would love to see an assortment of badniks with foam #1 hands and Eggman flags cheering Eggman on up there, who throw you back into the arena if you try to escape. They can clear out to make phase 2 possible, but I feel that would be a fun and interesting solution to the stand problem.

Arid Canyon 1: I actually feel that this level is a little too easy now, after some of the traps CEZ2 threw at me ACZ’s philosophy of ‘Simple hazards with a very high punishment for failure’ feels a bit lacklustre. But other than that, I still enjoy the stage as much as I did when 2.0 was new.

Red Volcano 1: The new lava behaviour certainly helps increase the difficulty of the level, which is what it needed given how close it is to the end of the game. The new badnik is interesting enough, but for the most part isn’t used in any interesting ways, with the exception being in the corridor with 3 intermittent lava falls, seeing spikes fly at me through the lava was pretty neat.

Egg Rock 1: Mostly the same, with lots of little changes scattered around the level to improve it. The addition of badniks really does help improve the level a lot more than I was initially expecting too, in fact every zone having unique badniks does a lot for the game as a whole.

Egg Rock 2: you sick twisted monsters, the new ring placement made getting a perfect bonus in ERZ2 even harder than it was before, even without the old fan room. Really, my feelings on this level are the same as always, I love it. Although I would like to see more secrets and maybe a hidden path split a third of the way through the level joining the two paths up, but that’s just me.
I hate whoever put a snailer in the Megaman vanishing block room though, that one badnik has killed me so many times ;_;

Egg Rock 3: Blimey, this is certainly quite the boss fight. The Metal Sonic race was interesting, and suitably challenging given that it is part of the final bosses, although I would have liked to see Metal Sonic interact with the player in some way during the race rather than only destroying spikes. Also it really bothers me that there is no logical reason presented for the player to die if Metal Sonic wins the race, other than an arbitrary space countdown. Even if it’s something as simple as a door slamming shut to block the players progress onwards I would be satisfied, but as it currently stands it bothers me every time I play the level. The battle itself was also fun, and it’s nice to see the original OVA inspirations still hold today in modern SRB2 :P

Egg Rock Core: Brak functions just like a cyberdemon now and that’s hilarious. I feel that Brak Eggman is in desperate need of some new sprites though, instead of using edited screenshots of a 3D model. Simply to clean him up visually and make him consistent with the rest of the sprites in the game. I did have fun with the boss and it took me quite a few attempts in single player before I got the hang of it too, I died around 5 times if I recall. I especially like how in the last few hits it becomes a frantic mess to kite him into one more lava fall while the arena is catching fire around you as a result of his attacks causing massive amounts of area denial through fire.

Azure Temple Zone: Mystic you sadistic bastard I was complacent after completing it with 15 lives in the OLDC. Now I only have THREE to do it with. And I love this level for it.

Greenflower Zone - Act 1
It's a tutorial zone, and it does it's job at that. It's not too interesting or unique, but serves as a way to introduce players to the game without overwhelming the player with complexity. It shows everything that needs to be shown. I like it.
Greenflower Zone - Act 2
I.. am liking the changes here! The more outsidey area near the goal post is much nicer-looking than the cave system before, and the changes to the water and item location makes this stage a lot nicer than it was before. Replacing one of the Emerald Tokens with an Emblem was pretty amusing, too.
Greenflower Zone - Act 3
The stage layout upgrade is nice, and the new boss AI completely surprised me.. though I do fear that this is a bit difficult for the first boss, though. The first phase - fine. The new player gets hit a bit, but quickly learns the attack pattern and how to dodge. The second phase - not so much! Suddenly, the boss gets spike balls (nice throwback to 1.09.4 CEZ3 btw) and becomes rather difficult to hit without taking damage. The "weak spot" for the Panic Boss Phase only opens up for a small while, and probably closed by the time you've finished dodging the fired spike balls. Strategy for this boss? Just get hit and abuse invincibility.
Techno Hill Zone - Act 1
The changes here are awesome in a can. The new slime feels a lot more awesome. Also liking the new spring-top enemies, with that little tutorial which allows a skilled Sonic player to grab a 1-UP. Also liking how different collecting the second Emerald Token is now.. still can't see a way to reliably do it as Knuckles - always takes me about 20 tries ;D
Techno Hill Zone - Act 2
Well, THIS one took me by huge surprise. Old THZ2 is no more, replaced by a new and SIGNIFICANTLY improved THZ2. My only gripe is stage length: THZ2 v2 seems a bit long compared to the old THZ2. Also, liking the throwback midway through the level, entering the one area and finding a path forward (to a turret) or leftward (to crushers), as well as the reverse-room where you enter through where the exit used to be. Also, dat skybox yo. (Though admittedly I originally didn't get to enjoy it as I exclusively play on OpenGL mode)
Techno Hill Zone - Act 3
Good: The cart has walls, preventing Sonic from completely veering off the track.
Bad: Eggman is still RIDICULOUSLY easy here, even more so now that the goop dissipates much faster.
A good map.. just ruined by a very easy boss.
Deep Sea Zone - Act 1
Am I the only one not bothered by the textures? I feel like I'm the only one not bothered by the textures. The level is pretty much just as it is in 2.0, though - except with the change of the springs not linking to eachother anymore. Hm.
Deep Sea Zone - Act 2
I mostly feel the same here, too - I'll be honest, I don't really care all that much for Deep Sea Zone. It's forgettable. Except the block maze, though I feel that still serves to frustrate new players. Liking the changes to the ex-rising-water room, though. That was quite annoying to deal with, though the lack of being able to go back into the waterslide took me off-guard, especially as the "path" was still there.
Deep Sea Zone - Act 3
From a really easy boss that only attacks Player 1 for some reason.. to a really ANNOYING boss that still only attacks Player 1 for some reason. The water is shallower than before, giving you even LESS time to get out before Eggman zaps the water. Plus, the Boss Panic Phase gives no obvious indication of which Eggman you're supposed to hit (I know the fake ones are really fat, but that really doesn't make itself apparent.)
Castle Eggman Zone - Act 1
I've always loved Castle Eggman (The 2.0 version, anyway) and this zone just makes it so much better. The changes to the zone are very welcome (especially the weird "jump into the water to advance" part which thankfully got removed, though not without catching my ENTIRE 2.0-playing group off-guard ;D) and it overall just feels like a BETTER ZONE. Robo Hoods are still just as annoying as ever though, but at least you can tell when they're about to fire.
Castle Eggman Zone - Act 2
More like Castle Eggman Zone - Act 2, 3 and 4. Wow this stage is long. It's a good stage.. I just feel it drags on for a bit too long, and overstays its welcome a fair bit. I do like all the changes though, especially making the "main" path (ie: The one where you make water rise) a fair bit longer (I always felt that the length of that section was just abysmal in comparison to the "secret" section.)
Castle Eggman Zone - Act 3
This boss.. is fun. The AI doesn't feel at all cheap when you figure it out. The seemingly random chance of getting hit upon swinging up to the outer area is a bit annoying, though. Not really much else to say here, just that I really do like this boss ;D
Arid Canyon Zone - Act 1
Still my favourite zone in the game, Arid Canyon is just fun. Awesome music and awesome level des- AH GEEZE THEY LEFT THE END BIT IN. Jokes aside, I really do love this stage, and I'm glad that there's another path at the end-conveyor part, just incase you fall off. Also glad that the goal post is a lot more apparent now, helps new players a fair bit.
Red Volcano Zone - Act 1
It's.. mostly the same. The moving of the Force Shield was a sneaky (but understandable) move, and the increase in difficulty of the area with the flame-spinners in is surprising, and a hint of things to come... Overall, still a pretty awesome stage. Shame the music gets repetitive fast.
Egg Rock Zone - Act 1
Ah, Egg Rock.. how we all love to hate you. Or at least, would do - except you've somehow become easier in the transition to 2.1 - free shields abound and slightly simplified gimmicks - this is no longer the hardest stage in the game (now taken by ERZ3), but more a warning of things to come... YOU WILL DIE.
Egg Rock Zone - Act 2
Finally harder than ERZ1, ERZ2 still pushes a serious challenge to the unsuspecting player while still not being completely unfair.. well, mostly, anyway. What difficulty was removed from the now-missing Zoom Tube section got added to the dissapearing platforms section.. which in my opinion, was even WORSE than the Zoom Tube section in the first place. Ugh. At least the Disco Room is still intact, but you can't visit it in multiplayer anymore, which is kind of sadfaic.
Egg Rock Zone - Act 3
My face when I booted up this zone, expecting a 2.0-era Brak Eggman fight. This COMPLETELY took me by surprise, and racing Metal was actually pretty fun (mostly because I have a lot of SRB2 experience and know how to handle Sonic properly) The fight, though.. it's difficult to dodge Metal's attacks. Otherwise, really fun. Tails and Knuckles really get it easy though, if you know where the shortcuts are. (Though really - they SHOULD get it easy. Sonic is supposed to be the 'Hard Mode' character though, right?)
Egg Rock Core Zone
The remastering of this boss was really fun, and his new attacks took me by surprise the first time.. but after learning his (rather simple) attack pattern.. I can't help but feel underwhelmed! After the 20-life-draining duel that was ERZ3, only expending one of my now-40 life stock on the final boss was a bit dissapointing. Hmm.
Special Stage 1 - Floral Fields
A nice introductory special stage. Serves to introduce the player to the new NiGHTS mechanics, while still being a pretty nice stage to play. Also.. Jade Coast music? Eh, the MR tracks needed a reason to be in the main game anyway (now that the original reason got "patched out" probably over 10 years ago) This also seems to be the easiest SS to multi-lap, having to do a second lap just to get a continue, nevermind an A-Rank is cool though.
Special Stage 2 - Toxic Plateau
Still an introduction stage, though multi-lapping this one is fun. Still slowly introducing the NiGHTS mechanics, nothing too wrong with that. This special stage also seems to be the only one where I can LEAVE the NiGHTS track, though - many times have I suddenly left the axis and gotten stuck. Yeesh.
Special Stage 3 - Flooded Cove
The music choice just brings rage within me (I absolutely HATED that Mystic Realm water level), so my views on this stage might be skewered a bit. The special stage itself though is pretty fun, and the player has to move a fair bit more to get the required Blue Spheres to destroy the Emerald Capture.
Special Stage 4 - Cavern Fortress
Now the special stages begin to ramp it up a bit. While this SS isn't particularly difficult, it introduces the ability to paraloop items through walls, which is essential for the stages after. Also, I see you.. reusing Slumber Circuit. The time for this stage is pretty tight though if you want to grab that A-Rank, dual-lapping or even tri-lapping this stage can be a challenge.
Special Stage 5 - Dusty Wasteland
... Spring Hill. This is Spring Hill. Without the water section. This stage introduces the time limit to the player, and WOW does it introduce it big time. My first playthrough of the stage was more relaxed (I expected Spring Hill difficulty :T).. by the time I hit the Egg Capture, 20 seconds were left. Timed out just before the finish. Ouch.
Special Stage 6 - Magma Caves
This is pretty fun. I was expecting 2.0 SS6 difficulty, and I was not dissapointed! This stage is brutal to those who don't know how to deal with it, but to those that CAN deal with it.. a fun challenge.
Special Stage 7 - Egg Satellite
It's.. definitely a SS7. The difficulty of this special stage took a fair few tries to do, but I managed to beat it on my sixth attempt. A fun challenge, definitely one that will not allow new or unskilled players through! Be sure to practice on NiGHTS attack!
Special Stage 8 - Black Hole
Not unlocked.
Spring Hill Zone
Not unlocked.
Pipe Towers Zone
Unlocked, but haven't played around with it too much to give an opinion on it. All I really have for now is: It's LONG, and it gave me a Game Over as Sonic :T
SRB1 Remake
Still the horrible nostalgic mess it used to be, and the levels are still terrible. Don't change it. ;D
Aerial Garden Zone
Hoo, boy. While this is TECHNICALLY an easier version of the Mystic Realm's Aerial Garden (only due to the lack of Jetty-Syn Swarms), it's still a pretty difficult stage which can catch you off-guard a lot. The new background though.. a bit TOO distracting, and looks WEIRD over the bottomless pits. Stage needs work if this background is staying.
Azure Temple Zone
Unlocked, but haven't played around with it enough to give a proper opinion. It pretty much instantly Game Overed me as Sonic though, but a run with Tails and I managed to complete it. Surprised that the stage gave me shields in the gargoyle section though, given that this stage is supposed to be death on a stick. (Even more so than Egg Rock.)

Floral Field: Good level to begin with. Simple and easily beatable in the first try. Nothing special though...
7/10

Toxic Plateau: Meh... this one lacks gimmicks. Since the goop obviously wouldn't work in special stages, some simple hazards could be introduced, otherwise it's just too boring.
5/10

Flooded Cove: Nothing special, but surprisingly appealing visually. Maybe some water gimmick could be thrown in, currently the water doesn't do much.
7/10

Cavern Fortress: The first one that's a bit more gimmicky. However, the visuals could need improvement.
6.5/10

Dusty Wasteland: I really like how this is a classic breath of fresh air where the stage itself isn't difficult at all, it's just the time limit making it difficult. (Kinda like the fourth Special Stage in 2.0).
8/10

Magma Caves:
I only beat this because I beat singleplayer first and then just went to GFZ1, got the token, played the stage, repeat. Or in other words: It's too difficult without a restart button.
Stage: 9/10
Difficulty: 2/10

Egg Satellite:
Fun fact: This took me less tries than Magma Caves. This is because all gimmicks really are fair in this one. It obviously still is a bit to hard though. Imagine someone playing this after collecting a token in ERZ2, it's way too difficult and nerve-racking.
Stage: 10/10
Difficulty: 4/10


Aerial Garden: While simple and sometimes simply dumb (tiny platforms), this level is just extremely impressive and thus fun to play thorugh because it's atmosphere is simply great.
8/10

Azure Temple: I didn't like this at all. I'll admit it, I haven't beaten it (yet), but... a stage is still supposed to be fun, isn't it? AGZ works because it has several refreshing moments and builds its difficulty upon platforming and length. ATZ though as a big part of the level being frustrating because of bad camera and engine limitations (especially in the gargoyle gauntlet). This level would be improved by a ton if the riddle passages at the end would be split up and ocassionally thrown in between the platforming and gauntlet sections. You already gave yourself a difficult task making a water level fun, but this hyper water level seriously needs a lot of tweaking to make it both fun and difficult.
3/10

Didn't play Pipe Towers yet.