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.