July/August 2015 Voting

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Mystic

Mystic

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Welcome to the July/August 2015 SRB2 Official Level Design Contest voting topic! Sorry for the delay! Note the voting deadline is extended to accommodate for the late start.

To vote, play a few games of each stage in a division and create a list of all the maps in the division, arranging them from best to worst with no ties. If you are voting on a division that includes your own entry, you should list your own map as the best regardless of your opinion on the quality of your own map. Although it's not required for votes to count, it's very helpful to make comments about what you liked and didn't like about the map, so the author can improve for future attempts. Please separate your comments from your votes, though, to make it easier for us to tally the scores at the end.

Voting will end September 17, 2015 at 7 PM local time in the Eastern time zone of the United States. Like the entry deadline, this counts the United States' daylight savings time between March and November. Votes submitted after this time will not be counted in the tally, so if you want to be counted, don't vote at the last minute.

After the voting period ends, the votes will be tallied. For each vote, the map they ranked first gets n-1 points, second place gets n-2 points, third gets n-3, all the way down to n-n (zero) points for last, where n is the number of maps in the division. Each map's points are added together to create that map's final score, and the map with the highest score wins the division. Should there be a tie, the votes are calculated again with only the tied maps included. If this still fails to break the tie, the tie stands and both maps are winners.

The entries are as follows:

Single Player
Proud Sky Zone by Nekoishi and [REDACTED]
Sonic & Knuckles Robo Blast 2 & Knuckles Ft Knuckles & Knuckles FlipgoopStation Demo by "Lat'"
Technology Station Zone by XEFAGame
Sacred Woodland Zone by HAPPYFOX
Scarlet Lake Zone by Zipper

Match
Aquatic Corridors Zone by *icefox*avp*
Final Destination Zone by Nekoishi
Sunlit Wildlands Zone by Brawl

Capture the Flag
Nameless Base Zone by Nekoishi
Rocky Caverns Zone by Brawl

As before, "reserved" posts will be infracted as spam.
 

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Flipgoop Station > Scarlet Lake > Sacred Woodland > Technology Station > Proud Sky

Flipgoop Station Zone
*Creative use of the central gimmick
*Level architecture was confusing in some places and made it hard to distinguish between off-the-path secrets, exits of already-traveled paths, and the actual way forward, most prominently in those big rectangular rooms about halfway through (or maybe there's only one, I couldn't tell). Try curving paths and adding ring trails so the player is naturally led in the direction they're supposed to go.
*The first phase of the Knuckles boss was pretty cool, but when he turns super, he stays invincible for so long it isn't clear that you just have to wait him out rather than attack him by some other means. I'd recommend reducing the number of hits it takes to make him go super and making the super phase play like Super Mecha Sonic from S3&K, where he alternates between vulnerable and invulnerable.
*No Sonic boss fight as Knuckles :(
*No alternate routes except for the character-specific ones, but I imagine the level will be expanded in the non-demo version

Scarlet Lake Zone
*Visuals are pretty cool
*Light power theme is catchy
*The room where you turn on the lights doesn't adequately demonstrate how to kill the ghosts, since it isn't clear that the light coming on is what killed the ghosts as opposed to them being two independent effects of the button. You'd have been better off just making a small room with a few ghosts, a door that opens when you kill them all, and a light pillar placed between the entrance and one of the ghosts' spawn points so it's killed 'automatically' as a demonstration.
*Ditto with the yellow Spring Shells. They're used as a gimmick so rarely that a simple scenario where a clearly visible one is necessary to proceed would've been appreciated just to remind the player that they exist.
*No obvious way to tell which ghosts you have to kill to proceed
*If you spin too slowly into a yellow Spring Shell to kill it, you'll bounce on the spring it drops, but still in spin mode and without any way to influence your momentum, potentially sending you into a death pit
*Couldn't get past second doorghost, gave up

Sacred Woodland Zone
*More consistent gimmicks than last time around
*Best use of invisible platforms I've ever seen
*Some areas are way too dark and hard to navigate
*Bouncy mushrooms are annoying sometimes because there's no way to prevent yourself from bouncing higher and higher when all you want to do is make it across a horizontal gap with a guillotine
*As others have said, the guillotines would be cooler if they hurt on contact
*Fire Robo-Hoods should look different from normal ones, at least in color
*If you step back at the wrong time and the door right before the lowering ceiling section closes in front of you, you're stuck and have to kill yourself
*That death pit during the waterslide section comes out of nowhere
*Underwater gargoyle pushing is not fun

Technology Station Zone
*Challenges are inconsistent, and none of them are particularly fun, especially not the Crawla Commander swarms near the beginning. Try using a few obstacles or gimmicks in a variety of ways throughout the level instead of a bunch of unrelated challenges in one or two rooms each.
*Progression too often consists of you spotting a small nook in the current room leading to a narrow path or elevator forward
*Laser hallway gave me a headache

Proud Sky Zone
*I got a star :D
 
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Flipgoop Station > Scarlet Lake > Sacred Woodland > Proud Sky > Technology Station

reviews? hahahaha

EDIT: I'll just go ahead and eat my own words.

Flipgoop Station
+ professionally made (minus memes)
+ one simple gimmick that's used to its fullest
+ knux path is completely separate from sonic's, which is cool
- texturing is awful; try using different colors for non-climbable walls, floors, and walls you're meant to climb on knux path
- besides the knux path, there aren't any more alternate routes to look for

Scarlet Lake
+ really cool gimmicks
+ rad boss at the end; uses "risky to attack" over "wait for weakpoint to open", which is how i wish all bosses were made
+ pumpkin hill
- flow is broken a lot at certain places, i got stopped and/or turned around a lot

Scared Woodland
+ really cool visuals
+ cool ideas
- except some of them weren't executed well and turned out annoying
- also pushing gargoyles underwater, why would you do this

Proud Sky
+ the joke made me smile
- not exactly the most effort put into it

Technology Station
+ the architecture's cool i guess?
- could you make the level anymore confusing to navigate
- music was okay (but far from a style that i like, but that is just preference) for the first few minutes, then it started to get on my nerves
- texturing is just really bad; unaligned everywhere, and it looks like the textures were randomly applied everywhere
- calling out the shitty seizure laser room, why would you do this; i just ran through it while picking up my dropped rings
- so many 1-ups
- where am i
 
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Singleplayer votes only, per usual. Selecting the top three was HARD. Good work, everyone!

Sacred Woodland > Flipgoop Station Demo > Scarlet Lake > Technology Station > Proud Sky

Sacred Woodland: Best Visuals, Worst Timed Challenges
Ok, holy shit. You have come a LONG way since the predecessor to this map. Lots of this was extremely fun to play. Your visual design chops are 110% over everyone else who submitted anything to the SP division this time around (although I must admit I needed to turn up the brightness in the video settings to full...) Your downfall is, ultimately, your desire to diversify your level gimmicks. Those gillotines are just timed platforms (Make 'em move quickly downwards and hurt you on touch!) and combing the raising water with the raising deathpit (TWICE *screams*) made me not really want to replay your map, ugh. Ultimately, though, I put your work first because when it's good, it's gooooood- and it's a huge improvement over the last map with this name I played. (you didn't take into account my request from last time for you to make the Fire Hoods coloured Orange or Red or something, though...)

Flipgoop Station Demo: Best Gimmick, Worst Memes
Congration, Lat'. You've made an interesting level and run a meme into the ground. I can never play as Knuckles again. Seriously, though, the level is pretty inventive and its biggest flaw is that it's excruciatingly linear. There's one path split and it's CHARACTER DEPENDENT ONLY. (Knuckles paths are fun, but I'd like more pathsplits than that.) And your texturing, god. I'd put you at Worst Visuals if it weren't for poor XEFA (and you hadn't killed the meme). Good thing this is a demo, though. If you'd blown your entire load with just one overly linear path, I'd be disappointed.

Scarlet Lake: Best Enemy Design, Worst Flow
Zipper I love you bro but I gotta be critical. I got lost or had otherwise unclear room objectives a couple times too many in this map. The paths to other rooms weren't obvious, which ghosts you had to kill weren't instinctual (there was a room where I was certain the big one was what I had to draw into the light, only to realise it was triggered by sweeping up all the little ones instead) and the texturing was samey, which didn't help with the getting lost part. The boss was lots of fun, used sound and HUD design very well and definitely one of the best parts of the map (although the 2hoo had a little less character than she who declared YOU SHALL NOT PASS in Starry Sky) and the ghosts were fantastic and I'd love to see them make a comeback in a haunted house map, too!

Technology Station: Best Music, Worst Visuals
Your map was interesting but ultimately not up to the bar set by the other 3 non-jokewads. It was quite linear and you overused the Crawla Commander in the first two rooms, leaving all subsequent rooms quite comparitively bare. Your visual design was also haphazard, although there were a few places (the first room, and the one where you jump across 3 magnifying glass shaped platforms) where a seed of lookin' damn good was starting to sprout. Ultimately, I hope you learn from this experience and keep on trying; I believe in you, and who knows what the future might hold if you keep at it; a shiny gold usertitle? ;)

Proud Sky: Best Jokewad, Worst Jokewad
Nekoishi I love you but please don't pull this junk again. 15 seconds of "gameplay". How am I supposed to vote you anything but last? (and don't think I don't know who you are, [REDACTED]...)
 
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Strong or weak; RULES OF NATURE

Multiplayer

Match
Final Destination Zone > Aquatic Corridors Zone > Sunlit Wildlands

FDZ: 2 stock, no items, sonic only, FINAL DESTINATION
ACZ: Interesting idea but it seems like it could be pretty slow at times maybe?
SWZ: did you even test this, theres homs everywhere because the map is too fucking big

CTF
Nameless Base > Rocky Caverns
NBZ: fart
RCZ: ridiculously huge and ridiculously empty, i can't believe this but i'd actually rather play my garbage map

hosted multiplayer earlier this morning and got some time with other people in on them and they're pretty much all awful tbh
 
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Single Player
1. Sonic & Knuckles Robo Blast 2 & Knuckles Ft Knuckles & Knuckles FlipgoopStation Demo by "Lat'" &̶ ̶̶k̶̶n̶̶u̶̶c̶̶k̶̶l̶̶e̶̶s̶
2. Sacred Woodland Zone by HAPPYFOX
3. Scarlet Lake Zone by Zipper
4. Technology Station Zone by XEFAGame
5. Proud Sky Zone by Nekoishi and [REDACTED]

Match
1. Aquatic Corridors Zone by *icefox*avp*
2. Final Destination Zone by Nekoishi
3. Sunlit Wildlands Zone by Brawl

Capture the Flag
1. Nameless Base Zone by Nekoishi
2. Rocky Caverns Zone by Brawl

Reviews will be written later as soon as I have time and mood for it.
 
Scarlet Lake Zone > Sacred Woodland Zone > Flipgoop Station Zone > Technology Station Zone > Proud Sky Zone

Aquatic Corridors Zone > Final Destination Zone > Sunlit Wildlands Zone

Nameless Base Zone > Rocky Caverns Zone


Enjoy your well-deserved gold, Nekoishi!
 
Match

Aquatic Corridors Zone > Final Destination Zone > Sunlit Wildlands Zone

Aquatic Corridors Zone: To tell you the truth, I find the concept to have a Match game completely underwater to be a neat challenge-- although the challenge doesn't seems to be too present given that there are elemental shields all over the stage, which makes it feel slightly pointless.

Final Destination Zone: Speaking seriously in here... I'm just imagining the chaos that must be playing this in a server with at least four or five players. I imagine it would be enjoyable, and outright hilarious.

Sunlit Wildlands Zone: I.. can't bear the amount of empty space in here. I imagine I would be struggling just to find the other players, because this level is hideously large. Not only that, but I kept getting a ridiculous amount of texture glitches, to the point I thought it was intentional. I can't imagine myself enjoying this, sadly.

CTF

Nameless Base Zone > Rocky Caverns Zone

Nameless Base Zone: To tell you the truth, I never thought about having a CTF level this small. Just like your other level, though, I imagine that this level would be quite chaotic in a way, and somewhat enjoyable. Just imagine playing this level with 8 players on the server, that would be amazing.

Rocky Caverns Zone: First of all... really unoriginal name. Like, wow, a rocky cavern, that's like naming a water level with the name of "Blue Sea". And the level itself... once again, is nothing but empty space. The only decoration within the level is pretty much just tiny rock polygons slightly spread over all of that empty space, making them pretty insignificant. The texturing itself is also really hideous and repetitive, not to mention the composition of how they were put together is really poorly thought out.

And at last, the complexity in the level is completely nonexistent. The level is basically just "walk forward and bounce up that spring!", you're making the players just walk straight lines through a huge level that you decided to fill with nothing but empty space.
 
A brave new world rising; I … I can’t believe my eyes

MotorRoach said:
Final Destination Zone: Speaking seriously in here... I'm just imagining the chaos that must be playing this in a server with at least four or five players. I imagine it would be enjoyable, and outright hilarious.
Click to expand...

I hadn't thought about it much while making it but it might actually be really fun in that way; it'd probably work better with only scatter rings as the given weapons.


too bad no one wants to play MP OLDC together
 
Scarlet Lake > Flipgoop Station > Sacred Woodland > Technology Station > Proud Sky

Scarlet Lake: Honestly I find this level rather pretty myself. What I preferred about this level the most though were the gimmicks with the ghosts (which weren't too straightforward at first but I had little trouble figuring them out). The boss was fun too, even if half of it was just me trying not to get cornered.

Flipgoop Station & Knuckles: An interesting concept. Each path for the two characters had their own challenges and I enjoyed that. The level was a bit of a dull visually, though, and I felt a couple of sections were either tight or deadly if you didn't rush through everything (not that most of them were, they usually lasted long enough for the underwater countdown though).
also someone made a full version of the Knuckles theme fyi

Sacred Woodland: Oh wow, this was visually beautiful and I enjoyed the many, many paths to explore. The invisible floors took me a moment to get used to (and even then I took little chances), same for the rising water segment (nice deathpit). Despite that, though, I see you put a lot of work into this and your effort was rather nice.

Technology Station: The level, honestly, wasn't too interesting. There were WAY more Crawla Commanders than necessary throughout various parts of the large, empty rooms. The 1-ups were easy to get but weren't really needed in a rather easy level to begin with. Lastly, I admittedly got lost at a couple of sections due to either little or no clear indication of what to do. The music was nice though.

Proud Sky: Man, MAGLX2 looks good this year.
 
Single Player

Flipgoop Station > Sacred Woodland > Scarlet Lake > Technology Station > Proud Sky

Reviews:

Flipgoop Station ft. Knuckles and Knuckles with Knuckles K.T.E DEMO: Nice level, LAT! I really enjoyed this lvl so much! This level has some repetitive erz texture walls (and not so many details :c). The boss was interesting. It reminds me Hidden Palace boss. Anyway. Nice!

Sacred Woodland: Last time... on SWZ... The level from 2014 was preety decent. Now... The current Update is Amazing! I really like this map! It really makes you fell, you are in a dark forest! Nice visuals and Design!

Scarlet Lake: This level didn't surprised me. It looks decent but, I tried many things to escape from those Ghosts.

Technology Station: The level looks decent. The song is good. A question. Why didn't you aligned the textures? This map doesn't have aligned textures, I was like... Non Aligned Station.

Proud Sky: I belive, I can fly! I belive, I could touch the sky!

MultiPlayer

Match:
Aquatic Corridors > Sunlit Wildlands > Final Destination

Ctf:
Rocky Field CTF Edition > Nameless Base

Reviews

Match:
Aquatic Corridors: The level was supposed to have more paths and a better skybox.

Sunlit Wildlands: It looks too big! The level looks decent but too big!

Final Destination: Where's the Masterhand?

Ctf:

Rocky Field CTF Edition: The dreams came true! Thanks Brawl!
Nameless Base: Too Simple!
 
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SP/Coop levels

1. Scarlet Lake
This level has an interesting gimmick (ghosts and light), and you did a good job introducing it to us (the room with the ghosts you can't kill, then you switch on the light and they all vanish). Level itself is pretty, and while it doesn't always guide you by holding your hand, it isn't hard to navigate through. The boss battle wasn't too hard, and was quite fun, especially with the music change. Good job on that one!
(Also, played as Knuckles once I was done with the level as Sonic. No regrets ;D)

2. Flipgoop Station
Another level with an interesting gimmick (it's on the map's name =P) and multiple paths (one's for Sonic, the other's for... what was his name again?) and looks nice. Level becomes a bit unfriendly at times, but definitely isn't hard. Finally, the boss battle against... shoot, I can't remember his name! THE BOSS BATTLE was fun, although bullet hell-y when the second phase started. I'm also sad that you didn't make a boss battle against Sonic. Still, that was a fun map.

3. Sacred Woodland
This level is HUGE. There's a lot of paths, and the paths sometimes split themselves too, and you still managed to make the whole level linear! Now, with this level of praise, you'd think that I should have put this map higher up on the list, right? Well, I would have, if not for 2 reasons:
- Level is mean to Sonic players: I know, I know, Tails and Knuckles break any map. But the difference in difficulty is so blatant it hurts. As Sonic, you have to do many platforming sections with moving obstacles, invisible platforms and crushers, while Tails can just fly over that and Knuckles can just climb. Some vanilla levels have sections where the player can abuse that as well, but they also have obstacles to slow Tails and Knuckles users down. I'm not the best Sonic player, but I still managed to complete the map as Sonic, and it was pretty tough.
- Some obstacles are too sudden: there is one specific path that leads to a water-rising section. You have to go up as quickly as possible, then you see those gargoyles from Azure Temple Zone and you get shot down. Yeah, wasn't very pleasant when I discovered I had to deal with that.
It's not a bad map, it just has some balancing issues (if this was intended to be a challenge for Sonic players, disregard what I just said)
Tough choices out of the way. On to the next ones.

4. Technology Station
This level is visually beautiful. I'm a sucker for factory levels and such, but this level is a bit too bland. There should be more enemies around, because just lasers and crushers aren't enough, and the rooms are wide, so don't be afraid to use Crawlas in areas with tight jumps or stuff like that. Also, the level is too generous with 1-Up monitors, and they aren't well-hidden most of the time. The music choice is weird, but it works.
Keep up the work though, and you'll get something amazing.

5. Proud Sky
AND THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T DO DRUGS, KIDS!
---
Match levels

1. Final Destination Zone
There isn't much to say about this level. Forceskins Sonic and it's a small platform where many players can fight on. Just imagine the chaos of 8 Sonics fighting on that small platform. I do think, however, that this map needs to be balanced. Just let the Scatters or remove all weapon rings. Also, remove the emeralds and replace the monitors with ring monitors so that we can really get the feeling of : "No items, Sonic only, FINAL DESTINATION!". Also, it would be better if the level only had a floating platform, mimicking the stages in the SSB series.
It's very simple, and yet it's the best out of the 3 (IMHO).

2. Aquatic Corridors Zone
It's a shame. The level is the best out of the 3 regarding the looks (especially with the skybox), but is ruined by the main gimmick: the stage is underwater. I'm usually fond of water stages, but there's a limit and the map crossed it. You know that people hate Tidal Palace Zone because of the water mechanic, right? Now imagine if Tidal Palace Zone was always completely submerged in water, and there was no platform that was above the water. It just becomes a race to get an Elemental Shield, and if you don't, you either have to become a sitting duck or die, and both are unpleasant in Match, and completely unviable for Tag/H&S.

3. Sunlit Wildlands Zone
This map is huge. It's needlessly huge. Tag/H&S as the seeker becomes a chore, and it's extremely difficult to find anyone in Match. Although I do like the small details (such as the lighter grass that forms a pattern over a weapon ring or the random monitor), the map lacks quite a bit of detail. FDZ is a bigger offender to that, but in this map, it becomes more blatant due to its size. Should you have made the map smaller and added the same amount of details, this would have been A LOT better.
---
CTF levels

1. Nameless Base Zone
Not much to say about this map either. It's small, but hectic with the right amount of players.

2. Rocky Caverns Zone
Another huge map. And it's needlessly huge. If I draw a straight line from one flag to the other, it would also be too big in the vanilla maps' standard. I was genuinely interested when I saw that the map was asymetric, until I noticed that the weapon rings also were placed that way. Word of advice: DON'T! You either give both bases the same weapon rings or place them in the middle so that none of them has an advantage. Plus, blue team has a huge advantage because their flag is only accessible through a spring, while the red flag can be accessed by simply jumping. This gives much more time for blue to react.
 
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Scarlet Lake > Sacred Woodland > Flipmeme Station > Technology Station > Proud Sky (next time, come up with an original joke)

most of the time I couldn't figure out where the hell to go but hey, not bad
 
I … I can’t believe my eyes; We’ve fallen down

Single player!

Proud Sky > Scarlet Lake > Technology Station > Flipgoop Station > Sacred Woodland

Proud Sky: i hope i win!!!!111!1
Scarlet Lake: that was really fun, i need to play more of your stuff
Technology station: a bunch of neat ideas, though the laser maze is kinda seizurific and you can just tank it
flipgoop station: too many areas where getting hit once kills you; not obvious where to go
sacred woodland: where do I go, also gargoyle puzzles aren't fun
 
Flipgoop Station > Scarlet Lake > Sacred Woodland > Technology Station > Proud Sky

You're proud of this? by Nekoishi and... Redacted?

What. I must be a killjoy because I have no fucking idea what this is.

S3&K long name thing by "Lat'"

Well this was pretty cool. Though it's really easy to get lost and and even easier to get maimed for one mistake. And the boss' 2nd phase was a bit.. extreme.

Seizure Station by XEFAGame

Extreme seizure warning. Seriously I had an intense headache not even 3 minutes in. And woe is your enemy placement. Life boxes everywhere, how fun. The rooms are also enormous and music loud and also a nice headache giver. I also had to backtrack a ton before finally realizing where I'm spposed to go.

What gate where?! Zone by HAPPYFOX

Tell your robo-hoods to goddamn sit down. The gimmicks are at once way too many to track, at least in my opinion. Also as my depressingly unfunny rename of the zone implies, it's seriously hard to realize where you're supposed to go. Also people stop giving me lives that I don't need effort to get.

Burning Lake of Fire by Zipper

I should stop trying to rename stuff. Those ghosts are a bit unorthodox, though it's an interesting gimmick. The light power included tends to get a bit distracting but eh. Overall a pretty fun level and hey look, my immaturity speaks, dick-shaped geysers!

Basically half the time I had no idea where to go and other half gave me headaches. What a fun contest. Fitting with my slowly declining humour and seclusion to insanity.
 
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I find some invalid comments to comment on the wall, the level "technology station" was like that.
My guess puts this level and I put it, to add or remove things that are banal, I refuse and I will refuse.
"The Crawla Commander" is a prolème that is interested, I will work to correct it.
Please, comment with respect and maturity.
 
Just so you know, flat-out refusing criticism is one of the worst things you can do to yourself as a mapper. You won't improve and people will stop trying to give advice if you continue doing that.
 
Knuckles the Echidna in Flipknuckles Station 3 & Knuckles featuring Knuckles from the Knuckles May Chuckle series & Knuckles > Scarlet Lake > Technology Station > Proud Sky >>> Sacred Woodland

Punchy the Monotreme: Visuals are really boring but the level is pretty damn good. Puzzles are fun to solve, and the inverted-gravity water gimmick is pretty unique and cool. The Knuckles path was pretty great not only in that there was a Knuckles-only path but it was also really nicely executed (except for the entrance, that looks out-of-place as heck). On the other hand, there a few instances where it's very much possible to land yourself in a previous area of the level because all of it looks exactly the same. Oh, and I drowned a couple times during under(over?)water sections because I failed to platform properly (my fault) and the way to return to fresh air wasn't very clear (your fault). Then there's a couple of enemies that are cheaply positioned - specifically, the Unidus after the first checkpoint and the last Unidus that's in Knuckles' path. And on the subject of Knuckles' path, is it me or are the vertical conveyor belts bugged? I swear, sometimes when I latch onto them they snap me to the right side of the belt, it's really disorienting. So, the boss. The first phase is fine. The second phase is ass. Just run around in circles a few times and then hit him. Or do like I did and intentionally (s-seriously) get hit multiple times until Knuckles becomes vulnerable. It should have just been a harder version of the first phase. And no Sonic boss? Really? D'awww. And you didn't even use this for Oh No Zone Act 8.

Original the Lake, do not steal: Five-hundred bucks say this is gonna be Touhou... *Break the Sabbath starts playing* I knew it. I have to give you points for using the Lake of Blood instead of something Scarlet-Devil-Mansion-related, though. Can't say I expected that. Anyway, visuals are boring once again and I don't feel like the ghost-busting mechanics were properly conveyed. I mean, I did figure them out eventually but I could have done without all the wandering around confused for four minutes. And then there's the fact that it isn't clear which ones of the crowd of bakebakes are the ones that the player is supposed to bust. This is really only a problem in the section where the light tube thing is seen for the first time, but it is a problem and it did add another couple minutes to my first playthrough. The blood-tube near the end of the level was really bollocks (you mean it pushes me forward instead of upward!?), and I couldn't figure out how to deal with that last giant bakebake so I just intentionally got hit and passed through it. Boss is pretty damn awesome, though. Only complaint is that invisible barriers are balls and it felt like a cocktease seeing the solid ground around the arena when you're flown up during the second phase but you can't actually land there.

Technology Station: It feels cramped sometimes, and hard to navigate at all times. Visuals are not entirely bad, but the texturing was completely bonkers at some points. And what was this level trying to go for, difficulty-wise? All the enemies tell me this was meant to be challenging, but it also gives lives like they are rings. The music is very good, but it's too bad I didn't get to listen to it much while playing thanks to the constant life-up jingle. It needs polishing, but overall it's not a bad level. Keep up the hard work, man.

I'M FREE, FREE FAAALLIN': i dont get it

Sacred Woodland: This level has the best visuals, no contest. I especially like the part in the bridge before entering the ruins. And the music choice really enhances the look and feel of the level. I also love how the level is pretty open-ended yet feels really linear and easy to navigate (as a whole). That's about the end of my praises. Invisible platforms!? Are you for real? I'm sorry, but I like having a perfect visual on what I'm landing on, where on it I'm landing on, and how far can I go before I won't land on it any more. It doesn't help matters AT ALL that the level teaches you that if there's stuff just floating in the air it means that there is an invisible platform there, but then later on it goes back on this and has rings floating with no platform underneath. It never got me killed, but I still find it infuriating, why did the platforms have to be fucking invisible!? The fire Robo-Hoods are not good enemies because not only is their attack sound barely a whisper and their positioning dumb (it's very easy to get hit by a missile you didn't know was coming because you didn't see the Robo-Hood) but the fire is permanent and can end up making some areas ridiculously hard to pass without taking a hit. Oh, and that thing that I've said about the level being easy to navigate? That only applies to the level as a whole. It's not exactly hard to get lost in some of the individual rooms. The area with the crushers, the up-down metal things and the timed button was pretty goddamn stupid as well, it's like do you want me to fast? Or do you want me to live? And no, I can't do both because the crushers and the metal things are not in perfect synchrony with each other, so there's no way for me to learn the pattern and skillfully rush through that section because there isn't a pattern so I have to take it slow and wait for the right moments to jump or I die. But I can't do that, either, because lel a timed switch xD. Also, thanks for giving me a warning that there's a BOTTOMLESS PIT RISING ALONG THE WATER IN THE AUTOMATICALLY-RISING WATER SECTION oh wait, you didn't. I guess I was just supposed to know, right? Well, the Game Over screen sure did clear things up there! And that's how far I got into the level. I don't know how it continues after that. I don't care to know, either.

Invisible platforms, for goodness sake...
 
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