Act 3 broke my legs, pulled no punches, and dragged me to the abyss 0/10

In all seriousness tho: I hope this leads to more collabs like this. This was a really neat experience, although prepare for CBT/Kaizo-tier shit on the final act.
 
Edited My Post to include my thoughts on all the stages. I put all the thoughts behind a spoiler text box so I can line break all the different stages and their reviews without eating up too much space.


Short review of all stages Pt.1

Potatosack: Nice level! Short and sweet. Nothing ground breaking, but it doesn't need to be. Takes advantage of srb2's mechanics well enough and feels like it could be a full stage if fleshed out. Though with that being said, I really enjoy the amount of foliage and detail that this map has. I quite enjoy the use of different textures for the floors and terrain so things don't feel quite so stagnant. I imagine this took a while to pull off, but I like how it turned out. I suppose I would like to see some more stage mechanics pushed further, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Dylandude: Seems like a great idea/start for a level, but way too short and can be cleared in a few mere seconds. A little disappointing, but I think holds pretty good promise. I enjoy the attention to detail for using the checkerboard pattern for the flooring, but because of it looking similar to the walls, I sort of wish you either used a different color or a different dirt texture all together.

NJ: Nice simple level. Though that slight hidden area that gives you a life but seems to completely traps you is a little annoying. It halts my progress and forces me to go through the stage again. While not long, it's very unnecessary. Adding onto this, I wish you had used the goop mechanics for more than just a monitor or so. I would have loved to see you use the goop alongside the turtle bouncing enemies for use with different paths that change how progressing through the level feels. But the potential is there, and I enjoy it.

GoldenB4: I really enjoyed this section. It feels like it could be part of some larger whole of a RVZ themed level. The ascension in a tower like fashion feels fun, and I like the use of the platforms, springs, and enemies. The only issue I suppose I have with this level is that the first set of horizontal yellow springs to that diagonal spring sort of feels like a pace breaker? Maybe I'm doing it wrong but I can never seem to chain those together with someone like Sonic/Knuckles/Tails who don't jump high enough normally to just naturally get up there. I sort of wish it was a little lower, or there was more space to run up to gain a nice slope jump. Which, speaking of slopes, I love that this little level is comprised mostly OF slopes! It makes it feel appropriately Sonic-y. Overall a very pleasant experience and I wouldn't mind doing it over again.

Lach: Really awesome concept! It would be unfair to say the mechanic wasn't pushed enough (since it was only 24 hours as a limit) but for what it's worth I like what's there. I sort of wish there was a way to get "unstuck" to one of these things though. Sometimes I end up circling around it more than I wish I had to. My extended thoughts on this do not change. I wish I could see this expanded a bit more. I love the concept and was saddened to see how short it ended up feeling. I suppose if there was one critique I'd say I might have is just in that in some areas it feels harder than it should be to line yourself up for the correct angle you want to use. As I became more acclimated to the mechanic, there were still only one or two instances where the level geometry made it hard for me to get the angle I wanted. But the rest of the time it feels like it works entirely as intended.

Marcos: What you have might be kinda cool, but the whole set piece can be skipped because a buzz that seems to start going for you in the beginning if you have a well timed jump/enemy bounce. Visually it looks neat though! However I am not the biggest fan of there being enemies in the dark that you cannot see. If it were possible to restrict enemy movement or affect invincibility, I wish that you could not get hurt in the dark, because it kinda feels super unfair to be hit by something you absolutely cannot see.

Razec: It's... not bad. Kind of average I think. Not offensive but nothing super standout either. I apologize, I don't have a whole lot to really say on this one. I wish this little section had a stronger core mechanic to work with, since right now all the hazards of the stage feels disconnected. My recommendation would have been to focus on one kind of level theme/gimmick and see how you could have used that to your advantage. For example something that would have been cool is to have the fans and laser dodging be part of the level, or design it in such a way that how you approach it is different when you flip the gravity upside down. I can definitely see how this can be expanded.

GomaTheMascar: Like this little level! Things seem pretty neat, though the last segment feels a little punishing, especially compared to the rest of the level. Especially for those who have no means of a thok or a way to stay mid air. I would have removed the enemies personally and I think that segment would be fine. I know the challenge was only 24 hours so I don't want to seem too harsh. However outside of that I would say this one was fun to play. The broken door gives me the impression that things aren't quite right in this area, but it's the only instance of it? If the split open door was meant to imply a break in or potential broken down facility, it would have been awesome to see this reflected in the level visuals a bit more. But also I would probably change the smog enemy to be over a safe to fall down pit instead of lava. However that's incredibly minor, and not a big deal. Overall I am fond of this level.

Kaysakado: Visually neat, but feels completely unplayable. Feels like tails is required to get through this area. Having more decent ground to stand on would have been nice. Without any form of thok this area seems like it would be impossible. It's at least a visual treat though. I like looking at it just not playing it.

Zipper: Despite sharing some mechanics and slight visual elements from something like Marble Zone in Sonic 1 with the purple supports and lava, it still feels like its own unique location in a way. Honestly the only critique that comes to mind is that it's too short and I want more of this. Basically I love this level a lot. It has clear progression, and feels well thought out. Maybe the the mechanics could have been pushed a little further, but I'm still walking away from this wanting more but satisfied with what I have so that's good. Please make more levels.

Short review of all stages Pt.2
Xelork: Level is alright. Forcing the player to kill the remaining tiny bees to even be able to progress feels tedious. Also, when you open the first bridge, you can get stuck and can't escape if you get knocked down one of the sides. Considering the other side of the wall had springs, it seems weird that this wasn't considered for this other segment. To be honest there's just a little too much enemy spam in my opinion and if you were to remove the enemies entirely there wouldn't be a lot of substance to this level. While I know the enemies are an important mix for a level in a Sonic stage, there should still be a sense of fun if they weren't there. And I don't know if I would be getting that here. I would personally recommend some more platform focus with a core level gimmick that you can expand upon.

Mk.EXE: My only problem with this little level is that it's short. Fantastic overall, love all the attention to detail. I demand to see this brought to completion in your own time, separate from this 24 hour project. Because there is a whole lot of depth to this that would be awesome to see in a complete project. I can already picture in my minds eye the kind of alternate routes you might have available to you in a full stage. There's just some great detail in basically every corner of the map and it just seems incredibly thought out. I also like the spring crustacean enemy additions.

Krabs: Map seems pretty awesome and has a cool idea but is honestly incredibly disorienting. I am constantly being flipped and turned around and while I know better since I've played through it a few times, the first time I didn't know where I was going. The camera constantly zipping around to accommodate the constant change of the direction is what made it hard to tell where I'm going. It is awesome to see the Tornado gimmick from Arid Canyon used in a neat way though! The color map looks great and gives it a unique feel. Overall I like it!

SO2RO: I like it, though an enemy placement after some springs seems like a dick spot to put it. Even though I played this whole map pack a few times over to make sure I have my thoughts properly prepared, this enemy still always got me. I don't really care for its placement considering a first time player will not even know they are there first time over. Other than that, it was nice and I enjoyed it.

Glaber: Nothing really standout about the stage mechanically. All the springs make the level feel like it plays itself. The striking green sort of industrial look seems pretty cool, though I wish there was a bigger difference between the floor and wall texture. Some more visual set pieces to make the stage feel less samey throughout would be awesome to see.

Radicalicious: Sorry, no offense but I just skipped this one. Didn't look terribly engaging and when I tried to play the stage legit it was over too quickly. I suppose I can't complain though. The super fast rising platforms feels like missed potential for making a vertically tall map that takes advantage of a platform that launches you.

Man553: I think the spring turtle being on a tiny ledge with not much room to maneuver feels kind of annoying especially when I can't situate myself to see the switch properly. I'm glad it at least doesn't seem to be impossible to clear it with most characters, but I think Knuckles might not be able to proceed if the turtle dies. Overall, this stage needs a stronger core mechanic. Some ideas are introduced as fast as they are removed. I like the idea of the raising light but I don't think either were pushed to their full potential.

Sharb: Not very fun, I'm sorry. I wish I had more to say. I'm glad, at the very least, that hitting the bottom of the stage puts you back at the start quickly without needing to sit through the death screen. That is a god send.

Victorles: Nice and simple. Blue springs to get up certain platforms seems completely unnecessary though. I don't know why you don't just place the platform that raises up much lower. The visuals are enjoyable, though the fencing in the hollowed out tree feels odd. a Stronger red spring or something with a roof at the top to stop any sequence breaking probably would have been better.

The Real Inferno: I liked the minecart section! It was fun. I only wish the there was a bit more to it or some more challenging set pieces. Also, I don't know if it was intentional, but if you jump at the beginning in just the right way, you can skip the entire segment. This did take me a few times to figure out, probably longer than the time it would take to beat the level legit, but I still skipped. Not because I disliked it, just to see if I could.

Short review of all stages Pt.3
Dead: Everything was fine until you started employing death pits in areas where I, as the player, would not be able to see the ground below me very well, or even see in the first place. I tried to give this one a fair shake, but after my death in that first tower with the spikes and the totally black room with spike floor platforms I just really didn't feel like playing through this one much more. I didn't find it very fun.

Garrean: I like how this stage takes advantage of slopes. It's pretty fun. a little short, but fun! I like the consideration with the speed shoes for characters who might not be able to make it up normally. A gold speed shoe monitor would have been nice though, in case you don't make it up or fall back down.

Zippy Zolton: I have a laser! And I will use it. You don't want to be in the way when my laser goes off. I have a laser! And I will use it. You don't want to be in the way when my laser goes off. I have a laser! And I will use it. You don't want to be in the way when my laser goes off. I have a laser! And I will use it. You don't want to be in the way when my laser goes off. I have a laser! And I will use it. You don't want to be in the way when my laser goes off. I have a laser! And I will use it. You don't want to be in the way when my laser goes off. (repeat for 5 minutes)

Boss always seems to get stuck in a permanently invincible state and never seems to get out of it on all of my repeat play throughs of this. I don't know why it's like this. I have to always skip this one.

Evertone: Probably my favorite level in this whole pack. Absolutely fair level design, well thought out, and has an excellent challenge to it. If this ever got separated into its own thing, I would love to see it take on a bit of a strong identity of its own instead of borrowing the visuals of Castle Eggman. This is not a slight on the level itself, as it was only a 24 hour challenge, but if this got to be on its own two feet separated from this, I'd love to see it take on an identity of its own. A unique palette could help with that a bit.

Pencilvoid: I'm okay with everything except the last segment. There's no time at all to prepare or be aware of the challenge set ahead. It just kicks you down to the start every single time because you don't know how to react to it. By the time your camera has finally re-alligned so you can properly respond to the spike balls, it's already too late and you've already gotten hit and are sent barreling down to the start. At least the stage gives you a shield and resets you at the start instead of killing you.

Inazuma: To be blunt, overall not a very good stage. I honestly really disliked it. The stage themeing of Namek looks great for a Sonic world, but the "challenges" in the level are beyond unfair. This is compounded by the fact that if you DO manage to fail and hit back to the start, you don't even get warped back to the beginning like any of the other maps in this map pack, making the walk back to the beginning extremely frustrating. My biggest issue with this stage is that all of the level's challenges are completely obfuscated by level geometry that gets in the way of being able to see specific turns in the level. This stage will waste your time. It is not fun. As much as I would like to master this stage to give better thoughts, the level is not at all fair enough for me to feel any sense of "reward" for beating the stage. This is different to a game like Celeste or super meatboy which is extremely hard, but because of how easy it is to restart the challenge and how the player can easily see the challenge ahead makes getting through those levels feel rewarding to overcome an obstacle. This stage does not give that feeling. It's unfair, it's unfun, and I'm much rather skip it because I strongly feel like getting good at the stage is not worth my time. I have also attempted playing this stage as other characters, such as Knuckles, Fang, and Amy to try and play the stage legitimately (without climbing as knuckles) and Knuckles can't even participate in the level at all because the springs are too high later in the level (and hidden by a waterfall you can't see around at all) alongside springs hidden behind another wall you can't see at all followed by another platform you have to hard turn and hope that you character has enough acceleration to even get to that point. And if you DO manage to get to that point, good luck proceeding with Amy or Fang, who have no means of re-centering themselves on the steep angled platforms that demand you react immediately lest you fall into the water again and are forced to do it all over again. Hard pass, I just noclipped and skipped it.

Kwiin: Mechanic of monitor bouncing and taking advantage of water physics to progress seems awesome. However my super huge complaint I lobby towards this map is at the very end you are expected to bounce on a monitor you cannot at all see normally. Some kind of light pillar to signal where you're supposed to go would have been paramount to making this challenge seem more fair. Overall though, still feel pretty fond of this one.

And there you go, My thoughts on all the stages in this 24 hour map pack.
 
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It was fun participating. Still wish I had more ideas on how to make my segment less bland, though. I originally did intend for more fire jets as decoration, but they were just broken and I couldn't figure out the cause in time.
 
Would be amazing if it wasn't for act 3


-Evertones: Honestly the best of the 3 areas I was able to struggle through. Big issues would be that at its core, its a fairly long vertical section so ANY mistake means you will more than likely just fall to the very start and have to redo it all over and I don't think the level design of this section really helps players to avoid it, with small platforming sections littered with spikeballs everywhere meaning in many cases, 1 small mistake is all it takes to fall all the way down. Despite this, I enjoyed the actual sections when I wasn't making mistakes OUTSIDE the section posted below where there doesn't seem to be ANY way of seeing where you need to go. Along with the spinning triple spike bars, this means you can fall all the way to the bottom just off getting hit by the triple bars AND hitting the red spring which carries your momentum and have no idea where to go, meaning you earned an express ride to the ground floor.


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-Pencilvoid: This section has a massive case of bad directioning, I don't think the entire area being flat colors since its a lot of slope slinging and spring shooting sections where the camera at times goes nuts and everything in the level looks the same making finding out where you need to go. It doesn't help the spring section after the slope platforming section is so reaction based that I can safety say 90% of people are going to eat shit at it. I didn't even make it through most of the spring bs as i somehow skipped all of it by accidentally doing some weird slope bumper jump at the first slope section just shooting myself to the exit so, yeah. Not a fan at all, but I will say it can be salvaged.


-Inazuma: Where do I even begin. This section still has me seething hours after dropping it halfway. So, let me say the start is fairly promising until you get to the ONE and ONLY attraction shield. From this point, you are supposed to go through seemingly the entire area with this shield, going through what feels like a kaizo gauntlet of attraction shield jumps with springs bounding you through it. It's genuinely awful. For example, the first section the player is expected to go through starts with a yellow spring you need to jump under, attraction jump into, NOT onto, a set of blue springs and land on a TINY cliff with water right after. If you land into the water right after OR hit the red spring that is super close as well as seen at the first pic below, you will LOSE your shield and have to go back to the start of the entire section and redo everything. This applies to EVERYTHING IN THIS ENTIRE SECTION, at least as far as i made it. This is something that applies to the past to sections as well, constant repetition because of small mistakes sending you to the very start of the area, but it is the absolute worse here due to the slog being sent to underwater and going thru the area looking for the springs near the start. This level of trail and error is some of the worst i've ever seen and expecting players to slog thru this mundane level design is appalling. While I made it past that section, I stopped at the second pic below. You need to seemingly jump to the yellow springs, just have a fucking psychic vision of whats after the water which btw is a set of blue springs, and know what happens after THAT. I couldn't make it pass this as every single fuck up meant I had to go all the way to the start of everything and it just ruined me mentally.

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Played this last night and needless to say, it's really awesome to see something orchestrated like this. I genuinely had a fun time throughout the majority of the levels and there were really awesome ideas such as Lach's gimmick with the Attraction Shield. My only complaint is the difficulty spike that was Act 3. God bless anyone that completed it in one sitting as Sonic. Even Metal Sonic gave me a lot of trouble when making the almost frame perfect platforming. I did get a little frustrated but I still pressed on.


Hopefully there are more projects like this in the future that more people can participate in. Lot of the level design ideas were really neat to see.
 
Just want to say that act 3 having all the crazy difficulty was on purpose - it would be pretty jarring for some of these rooms to be, say, in the middle of act 1. We didn't want to nerf the difficulty of someone else's work, either.
 
If it wasn't for tails carrying me, i wouldn't have been able to get past inazuma's section. I tried it for about 20 minutes before just giving up and cheating with tails.
 
Is this room just supposed to be inescapable? That's pretty rude...
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Also somehow after I got the 1-up in this room the music just stopped playing, even after hitting Retry it didn't come back. I can't seem to reproduce the bug at all.
 
I was having a decent amount of fun until I got to the dead stage. No offence to the creator, but if you're going to make yours that long, it needs checkpoints. got all the way to the black room, was doing fine until I landed on what seemed to be a teleporter and just straight up died, no idea why. Then it sends me all the way back to the beginning of that stage, and I have to do all the rooms again. At that point I just quit, cause the whole experience was already long enough as it is.
 
Is this room just supposed to be inescapable? That's pretty rude...
Also somehow after I got the 1-up in this room the music just stopped playing, even after hitting Retry it didn't come back. I can't seem to reproduce the bug at all.
You're supposed to step where the Extra Life monitor is placed and then, after hearing the Black Eggman laugh sound effect, you will be teleported back to the secret room entrance. About the music issue, I don't know how this happened, could you give me more details about how it happened?
 
You're supposed to step where the Extra Life monitor is placed and then, after hearing the Black Eggman laugh sound effect, you will be teleported back to the secret room entrance. About the music issue, I don't know how this happened, could you give me more details about how it happened?


Well that certainly wasn't made very clear. I feel like just having a regular old teleport pad would be just as sufficient. Don't know if that was potentially an issue with the map being spliced together or what
 
-Evertones: Honestly the best of the 3 areas I was able to struggle through.

Only struggled through 3 areas?
Damn Inazuma, robbing me of feedback! Haha.
(My stage was directly after his :dramahog:)
 
I never thought a person was so capable of creating so much level within only hours...
I especially liked how so many people took advantage of height in their snippets of level.

Even though this zone technically took 1 day for everyone to create (before stitching), the fact that there were 27 different segments to the zone effectively makes it feel like a zone that took 27 days to create.

Overall, thoroughly impressed by how seriously all 27 of these people took this spontaneous event. There's definitely a lot of inspiration here for me to look toward when working on my own levels in the future.
 
Keep getting a SIGSEGV - segment violation error that crashes the game when at the rotating ice platforming section. : (
 
You're supposed to step where the Extra Life monitor is placed and then, after hearing the Black Eggman laugh sound effect, you will be teleported back to the secret room entrance. About the music issue, I don't know how this happened, could you give me more details about how it happened?
Ah, turns out Tails had broken the teleport effect! I kept hearing the eggman laugh and thought it was just a taunt at the player.
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As for the music issue, I can't really give any better information, I was just playing through the zone at a leisurely pace when I got stuck in that room and the music stopped after the 1-up tune. I still can't replicate it. *shrug*
 
I'm not even gonna sugar-coat it. This mod has a lot of interesting potential and concepts, but most of it overstays its welcome. But it's act 3 which really shines as a pain in the neck. I can recall Pencilvoid, Inazuma and Kwiin's sections from the top of my head for all the wrong reasons. They're easily the worst, all packed neatly at the end of act 3.

Pencilvoid's section lacks any direction, not to mention the dickish use of springs that are purposefully oriented either directly into hazards or into the pit which you really can't see coming the first time and are forced to retry over and over. Not to mention the entire section looks awful.

Inazuma's section is better visually, but at best it looks like bluegrass Grand Canyon. And while the challenge was interesting in nature, it became jarringly difficult from the get-go for virtually no reason and didn't get any better as it went on.

Kwiin's where it laid off for a bit, but the challenges were still noticeably difficult and after all the bullshit from before it was much more desirable to just fly over everything with Tails rather than even bother to get through it legit.

I frankly don't understand the necessity to create things that are unreasonably difficult and the only way to deal with it is "suck it up" and "git gud". Next time I find people angry that players are flying over their maps with Tails and desire him to be nerfed. Wowiee. This is also a mod that starts off relatively fair and has a difficulty curve that sharply peaks at absolute horseshit levels.

I don't expect anyone to listen to me whine, but to any future mappers, please lay off the kaizo bullshit. Games are meant to be fun.
 

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