Cirom's OLDC Votes (SP Only)

[Cirom]

All levels were played in SRB2 2.2.9 as Vanilla Sonic with no addons other than the OLDC.

1. Hollow Hill Zone by Othius, Inazuma & Spectorious

Oh man, this stage is vibrant in a fantastic way. Great level design (I don't think I got lost even once!), although the colour changes do bring an issue early into the level when you're expected to jump into some springs on a wall. Those springs apparently have Stealth 100, because it took me a good while to even see them. The liquid also has some very weird physics, as it accelerates you when you're not pressing anything. If that's intentional, cool. Honestly, my only major complaint with the level is the excessive use of screenshake in the one temple bit, as I was basically blinded while projectiles were being fired at me. Not fun! Other than that though, the stage is absolutely fantastic.​

2. Abyss Caverns Zone by yyeellooww7

This level's got nice visuals, some basic platforming and nothing outright frustrating about it. It does suffer from Large Corridors Syndrome a bit (where you're just running/thokking through a large area without much to do), but other than that it's a fine level. It's a little hard to mention anything specifically wrong about the level, other than maybe the water in the ice section hurts you when it doesn't look like it should. If I were to make a suggestion, maybe actually introduce a gimmick here and there just to give the level a sense of identity.​

3. Ante-Station Zone by Twins'R'Okay

What a fun way to mess with rendering! I do wonder how you managed to get those portals to work, I can see some really neat things people could do with them! The level itself is somewhat awkward though, with a lot of 2D platforming on 3D-moving platforms, where it's hard to judge what part of the platform is aligned with the 2D plane of movement. I'm actually a little surprised the blue zones on the floors and ceilings weren't portals considering they seem to teleport you to the top, but maybe that was a bit too difficult to implement. Overall, a very interesting level! ... If a bit frustrating near the end.​

4. Mercury Mine Zone by Rexeljet

This level's fun. The ring-drain water is really interesting and used in some neat ways, though I wish the rooms in the level weren't quite so large. So much time in this level is spent just thokking through far-too-large corridors until you eventually stumble upon the next mechanic.
Also, bug report: The water drains your rings while invincible. Not sure if this is intentional, but assuming it's a bug.​

5. Falcon Emissary Zone by InferNOr

I actually quite like this level! Both aesthetic and gameplay-wise, it's good! It just suffers from a SEVERE lack of checkpoints, and backtracking about ~2+ minutes because you fell into one of the many pits is not fun. Also, can you not put enemies which can shoot you right by a checkpoint? Spawning in and immediately dying before you can even reach rings isn't fun either. Other than that though, I quite enjoyed this one.​

6. Teal Tundra Zone by SunCyclone

An enjoyable ice level? Say it isn't so! The ground at the start kinda looks like static, but other than that I found this level pretty fun, if a bit basic! I also noticed the ice physics have been altered here, Sonic actually slows down on ice here (though not as fast as normal, obviously). Honestly, I think these physics are better than the ones used for the Vanilla levels! Other than that, I found this level had a few too many sections where I was just running down wide corridors without a lot going on.​

7. Bombastic Beach Zone by Shapeshifter Boi

The first thing I noticed in the level was the music, which I recognised from Sonic Rush, and also remembered that it's about a 20 second loop. It's fine though, because the level's only 20 seconds long. Man, I wanted more of this! I love what's already here, there's just too little of it!​

8. Ridge Rapids Zone by particle

This level's basic with a nice aesthetic, but not-so-great level design. First of all, the waterslide leading into the pit - the way the level's designed makes it look like you're supposed to go INTO the waterslide, especially considering the waterfall hole on the other side pushes you into it. Turns out, that's a bug. Good thinking about the springs auto-exiting you out of 2D Mode though, I'll admit I was trying to force a softlock and was pleasantly surprised finding out that you'd thought ahead. The area after the first checkpoint could do with work though - conveyance on where to go is just nonexistant and having enemies that push you off the intended path and into a bottomless pit doesn't help things either.​

9. Fort Sunset Zone by DylanDude

I feel like this map would be more fit for a BattleMod arena or a Special Stage than a standard singleplayer level. As a standard singleplayer level, though? It's kinda poor - collecting 500 coins isn't particularly fun and losing them ALL when you accidentally walk into a Baki is worse. I do like that the coins respawn, though - to prevent yourself from softlocking if you collect and lose them all. I appreciate the Drawn to Life aesthetic, it's just... not a good level, really.​

10. Zaxel's Thunder Yard by Zaxel

Aesthetically, I like this level, other than the blue flashing. In actual gameplay though? Eh. There are too many blindside hazards (including pits!), and the enemies which knock you back REALLY should be larger. It's annoying to thok somewhere and immediately fly back because I hit something tiny which I couldn't even see. Also, the two troll exits. (Maybe there's more? Honestly, don't care enough to check.) The first one was slightly annoying, but kinda forgivable considering there were multiple 1-UPs right beside it. But why the hey did you put a CHECKPOINT in the MIDDLE of the second one? That's just not cool.​

11. Koopa Kastle Zone by Glaber

This level's fine. I like the Mario Koopa Blast style and the koopas look good (though I have seen them elsewhere, not sure if they're just unused in the base game or a reusable asset), though I do question why the older 2.1 Sharps were used when 2.2 Spincushions exist. But other than that, the level wasn't particularly memorable. Just some basic platforming (with lava acting as a bottomless pit for some reason) and then a fight with the vanilla RNG Bowser, followed by... the final boss, for some reason? Sure, why not. It's not much different to BCZ3 though, so I'm not sure why it's here in the first place.​

Also, bonus points for using the NSMB castle theme, even if it doesn't loop properly. That theme is so underused.​

12. Lava Temple by Vixuzen

This level's odd. The general design and enemies give me vague Rayman themes (which felt even more amusing when the Rayman font appears later in the level), but other than that this is just a basic puzzle level with poor conveyance. I probably spent a good 5-8 minutes in that one area with the invincible eye guy before accidentally touching a wall which zipped me up top. Like, what? Why are bone walls suddenly elevators now? Also, thanks for the blindside lava during the Sonic section later on. Real fair.​

13. Blizzard Bastion Zone by PhilJFou

Man, I didn't like this level at all. Sure, it's competently made, but it's so easy to get lost and there are so many gimmick sections which just feel awful to play. There's a window near the start which you're supposed to spin under which was completely unobvious and I only discovered it after ~8 minutes or so bumbling around near the start and eventually guessing that you jump into a window. I was wrong, but I must've tried jumping into the right one because only then was I able to see that the bars don't touch the ground. And only on that one specific window. Immediately after, there's a second with a turret firing at you while you're precision platforming on tiny conveyor belts. Given how conveyors mess with Sonic's momentum (did you know he accelerates faster if he's moving?), that took WAY too many tries. On another section, there's a combination of many things I hate: Mazes, spincushions, 1.09.4 CEZ3-style doorways and falling platforms which don't respawn. If your objective was to annoy me to death, you've definitely succeeded.​

14. Drenched Dam Zone by Voidy2246

How many invisible walls can you pack into a level?! Almost all of the difficulty from this level stems from me just not being able to go places due to invisible walls. It's not even that hard (apart from the wind section where the wind is just slightly too weak), it's just trying to figure out which part of the level is actual level and which part of it isn't. The act of racing Metal was pips easy.​

15. Emerald Glade Zone by DoodlesYT

Well this was... a level. It's flat, uninteresting and half the enemies are facing the wrong way. I even managed to softlock myself once because the walls around the area were too high for Sonic to jump over. Also, whose idea was it to place an emerald shard in an area with many enemies which drop springs when they die?​

(Gotta say though, I love how fitting the Meadow Match theme is here, because this level is honestly just as basic.)​

N/A. Music Mash Zone by WasifBoomz

I didn't play this one because honestly, it was an assault on my eyelids and I really didn't want to strain my eyes just to play a level in a level contest. If voting is required on every entry, consider this 16th as it's the only level I couldn't bring myself to play.​