May/June 2011 Voting

[Mystic]

Welcome to the May/June 2011 SRB2 Official Level Design Contest voting topic! In this contest we have eight single player, five match, four capture the flag, and two circuit entries.

To vote, play a few games of each stage in a division in the intended gametype for judging, and give each map in the division a vote from 0 to 10, no decimals and with 5 as average. You can not vote on your own map, but if you vote on the rest of the stages in a division the lowest score on your map for that division will be dropped. For votes to count, the voter must vote on every map in a division (excluding their own entry if they have one). Votes where the voter obviously did not play the level in its intended gametype, or where the voter did not play the multiplayer maps with other real players will be discarded. Please be as unbiased as possible for the author or the look of the map. It's all about how good the map plays, nothing else. For reference, the scale is as follows:

10 - Epic
9 - Awesome
8 - Great
7 - Good
6 - Decent
5 - Average
4 - Mediocre
3 - Bad
2 - Awful
1 - Horrendous
0 - Unplayable

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 his skill for future attempts. If your votes are dramatically different from the rest and you don't describe why, you may be asked to justify your reasoning.

Judging will end July 14, 2011 at 7 PM local time in the eastern time zone of the United States. Like the entry deadline, this counts the United States's daylight savings time between March and November. Votes submitted after this time by the forum timestamp will NOT be counted in the average, so if you want to be counted, don't vote at the last minute. After the deadline, the scores will be then averaged, and the person with the highest score in each division is the winner.

The entries are as follows:

Single Player:
Greenflower Sunset Zone by Fawfulfan
Flower Cave Zone by Miles Knuckle Power
Sparkling Icecap by Thompson
Frozen Hillside Zone Act 1 by Blade
Stronghold Forest Zone Act 1 by KO.T.E
White Mountain Zone by Kuba11 (Disqualified due to having no exit.)
Waterway Ruin Zone Act 1 by Chrome (Disqualified due to not loading when a new game is started.)
Jadeflower Zone Act 3 by blahblahbal

Match:
Ponies Suck Zone by Fawfulfan
Flux Satellite Zone by 742mph
Southern Sands Zone by akb778
Aries City Zone by EternallyAries Red X (Disqualified due to not actually having a header that makes it load in match.)
Frozen Tundra Zone by Chaos Zero 64

Capture the Flag:
Majestic Grove Zone by Scizor300
Mystical Heights Zone by Metal Fighter
White Pass Zone by Kuba11
Sylvan Shrines Zone by Spherallic

Race:
Croissant Mountain Zone by D00D64
Frozen Hall Zone by Metal Fighter

As a final reminder, please make sure to play the levels in the intended gametype, and above all, have fun judging!

 

[Bbop800]

Just gonna vote on single player maps, as always.

Single Player:

Greenflower Sunset Zone by Fawfulfan: 7/10

I'm quite a big fan of Tortured Planet, and you still continue to deliver in the quality of your levels. Which isn't really much of a surprise to me. :B
Well anyways on to the level. The level looks gorgeous, and is filled with content, which is what I like to see. The only real problem with it is that there's nothing special in the level that makes it really good. The level mostly consists of platforming and death pits. I wouldn't say it's the best level you've made, but it's certainly not a bad one compared to your other works.

Flower Cave Zone by Miles Knuckle Power: 4/10

Well, I haven't seen a single emerald hunting map since that (awful) SA2B mod. So it's kind of weird judging this. For starters, it's really small, and doesn't have much to offer in it whatsoever. I was able to finish the level in about a minute. Sure, you put in a bunch of your own enemies, but they just function like any other regular enemy. Nothing about the level is fun, really. It's just a small single-room cave that can be completed in no time. *yawn*

Sparkling Icecap by Thompson: 9/10

This is by far your best level. It was challenging, long, gimmicky, and just beautifully original. There were a couple of frame rate issues though (some of them were HUGE) and sometimes there is too much platforming in a single room. Which makes falling much more annoying, since you have to do it ALL OVER AGAIN. Other than those issues, it was outstanding.

Frozen Hillside Zone Act 1 by Blade: 8/10

This one feels very similar to Thompson's level, odd.
The level itself if very enjoyable, with two custom enemies and a very polished feel to it. Good job.

Stronghold Forest Zone Act by KO.T.E: 7/10

This was definitely better than the original Stronghold Forest that you made. The camo-crawla is pretty cool, but it dashes at you WAY too often to the point where it's just annoying. The level design itself is good, but not necessarily great. It still felt like generic platforming, with little exceptions here and there. It's still better than the old SFZ though, which is good.

Oh, and the pony... just why?

White Mountain Zone by Kuba11: 6/10 DISQUALIFIED

EDIT: Okay, so apparently there is no exit sector at ALL. So I guess I'll just review this level from what I've seen.
The level itself is okay, but it mostly consists of a bunch of platforming and lava. It's VERY generic and feels kind of boring at times.

Waterway Ruin Zone Act 1 by Chrome: 7/10 DISQUALIFIED

Not bad at all. It's flows nicely for a water-themed level (HAH GET IT?). It has its own unique visual style and the music fits it nicely. It's quite a refreshing level, really. It's too bad the level doesn't start up as soon as you enter a new game. Derp.

Jadeflower Zone Act 3 by blahblahbal: 2/10

Um, what just happened? I jumped and thokked a few times and it was over in 30 seconds. Well that was quick and boring. Please make longer levels next time. :(

Overall the single player division turned out really good. It's nice to FINALLY see good levels here for once. :D

 

[Azure]

First post just cause I can.

Gonna play the singleplayer maps now. :3

You beat me. :<

Anyways there are a lot of Single Player maps this time. I sure do hope they're not horrible.

Now for the voting.

Single Player:

Greenflower Sunset Zone by Fawfulfan - Very interesting level. For some reason I found it a bit too cramped. I didn't get lost though and I felt that the level progressed smoothly. I did find the level very enjoyable, I do however think it wasn't as good as some of your other maps in Tortured Planet.
Rating: 7/10

Flower Cave Zone by Miles Knuckle Power - Um what is this? This level is just a giant room with custom enemies, that I found weren't even needed, a giant waterfall, a tree that is apparently underground, with other things that I found were too bland. Not only that, but it's an Emerald Hunt level which really doesn't fit in my opinion. I highly suggest you work on it some more.
Rating: 2/10

Sparkling Icecap by Thompson - This level really impressed me. I loved the start and the way it progressed, however I found that as I kept going the map lagged. I got lost in some parts of it too and in some rooms it was a bit unclear on what to do to progress. Still I really enjoyed it.
Rating: 8/10

Frozen Hillside Zone Act 1 by Blade - This map, is quite possibly the best map in the Single Player division in my opinion. As I played it I enjoyed every bit of it. I enjoyed it so much I played it over 30 times before I finally got bored. Blade you did a magnificent job on this. I hope you continue by making an act 2.
Rating: 10/10

Stronghold Forest Zone Act 1 by KO.T.E - I think other people already said this, but this map is better than your other Stronghold Forest Act 1. I found it very enjoyable. Too bad I kept getting rammed by the Camo Crawlas. I still liked it though.
Rating: 8/10

White Mountain Zone by Kuba11 - Well I see this one was disqualified. What a shame since it actually had some potential. I'll still give you a good review. Your map to me seemed too cramped. Maybe you should try to avoid this in future Single Player maps. Another thing I didn't like was that there were no enemies. I know maps don't need enemies to be good, but I feel if you added some it would've been better.
Rating: No Rating(Disqualified)

Waterway Ruin Zone Act 1 by Chrome - Of all the maps that had to be disqualified, why did it have to be this one? This was a map I really enjoyed and I would've given you a 9/10 if it were still in. I loved the way you had to follow the torches to proceed and not fall and I also loved the music(nice music choice, it really fit the theme). If you make a Waterway Ruin Act 2, make sure it doesn't get disqualified like this one.
Rating: No Rating(Disqualified)

Jadeflower Zone Act 3 by blahblahbal - What is this I don't even? Lava in a themed level like this one? That doesn't even make sense to me. I also found it to be too flat. Still you did have a few things that were decent, but the thing I really didn't like about this one was what I mentioned above.
Rating: 3/10

Match:

Ponies Suck Zone by Fawfulfan - Indeed they do, but in all seriousness I enjoyed this map. It was simple and not complicated(and I loved the spamfest).
Rating: 7/10

Flux Satellite Zone by 742mph - Oh no what happened to the gravity. The gravity gimmick you used was very annoying and I often got lost. When I was outside I'd get railed by someone and wouldn't be able to get back which annoyed the hell out of me.
Rating: 3/10

Southern Sands Zone by akb778 - HOM how annoying. The level seemed very simple to me and it was pretty fun too. I found it to be a bit too empty in some places, but it's still a decent map to play on.
Rating: 5/10

Aries City Zone by EternallyAries Red X - Ahhh Aries you forgot to change the header!
Rating: No Rating(Disqualified)

Frozen Tundra Zone by Chaos Zero 64 - Is it just me or does this level lack rings? Simple layout, but quite frankly I didn't like it. I still loved the bounce spam. <:
Rating: 5/10

Capture the Flag:

Majestic Grove Zone by Scizor300 - My god this is a giant CTF map and it doesn't lag like mine(lol). I really had fun playing/exploring this map. I also really liked the detail. Great map, great job.
Rating: 8/10

Mystical Heights Zone by Metal Fighter - Oh hi there. Reading some of the other posts I think many people didn't like the colormap I added. Oh well. In all honesty I focused to much on how the level looked than how it played. I'll be sure to keep this in mind as I continue to make maps. Also I didn't notice that some parts in the death pit didn't work. Probably under the wood bridges since those were the last things I added.
Rating: N/A

White Pass Zone by Kuba11 - Giant Ice Cave CTF map. The caves that held the flags seemed too small and cramped to me. Someone could easily spam bounce in there and hit anyone inside. Other places like where the grenades are also had this same problem. Still the map was decent and fun.
Rating: 5/10

Sylvan Shrines Zone by Spherallic - I enjoyed this map a lot. The most obvious problem with this is the map lag, and I guess you already know. I also didn't like how there was only one path, the bridge, to get to the other bases. I still liked the detail though.
Rating: 7/10

Race:

Croissant Mountain Zone by D00D64 - Ah precision jumping we meet again. This was what I really hated about the map, but other than that things in the map looked decent. I would say someone with Tails or Knuckles would do better than someone with Sonic, but then again I could be wrong.
Rating: 4/10

Frozen Hall Zone by Metal Fighter - Hi again. Here we are at my confusing Race map, that apparently bugged the hell out of many people. I was actually going to submit another update to it before the deadline, but I wasn't fast enough. Oh well.
Rating: N/A

 

[akb778]

Alright, lots of SP maps for once. DL'ing now!

EDIT: Review time...

Single Player

Greenflower Sunset Zone, by Fawfulfan - 7/10

This is pretty much like Blade's level - pretty straightfoward with some impressive visuals and a well-executed gimmick.

Flower Cave Zone, by Miles Knuckles Prower - 2/10

Ooh, an Emerald Hunt level... and a bad one too. Some of the emerald locations are too obvious and some of the rest are too cryptic. Plus it's only a single room with bad texturing IMO.

Sparkling Icecap, by Thompson - 6/10

Fawfulfan pretty much summed it up - laggy + HOM-city. I quit at the same spot as Tyler52. I still give it points for some impressive visuals.

Frozen Hillside Zone Act 1, by Blade - 8/10

...Which means the other ice-themed SP map here gets my vote for the win. (I'm a hypocrite, am I?) The custom enemies here are excellent and the level design is pretty straightfoward. Typical Blade I guess - mapmaking machine that produces winner after winner.

Stronghold Forest Zone, by KO.T.E. - 7/10

This is waaaaaayy better than the original SFZ1. The visuals and gimmicks here are very good. The custom enemy (camo crawla) can be a bit annoying sometimes though.

White Mountain Zone, by Kuba11 - 0/10

Not giving this a review until somebody finds out how to get past that one part.
EDIT: Metal Fighter found out that you can't get past that one part because there is literally nothing after it. Was this map even finished, or was that one part going to be the exit?

Waterway Ruin Zone, by Chrome - 8/10

For a water level it's really good. Lots of stuff here was executed very nicely.
Wait, wha... o_O This was DQ'd?

Jadeflower Zone Act 3, by blahblahbal - 2/10

Any level that you can complete with zero effort in less than a minute gets an automatic minus from me.

Match

Ponies Suck Zone, by Fawfulfan - 5/10

I would give this a 10/10 based off title alone, but I won't. It's just your average Match map with no SKYNUM in the header.

Flux Satellite Zone, by 742mph - 4/10

CTF map turned into match map much? Also, having reverse gravity everywhere, even though it was a good idea, made it a little confusing to navigate.

Southern Sands Zone, by akb778 - HOMs/Fail

Whoops, forgot to mention that this map magically breaks software mode...
EDIT: Managed to fix the HoM problem with this + improved various other areas.

New screenshots:

Old screenshots:

Aries City Zone, by EternallyAries Red X - 7/10

It's bad to see this and Waterway Ruin DQ'd because they were both good maps. This seems like it was somewhat based off Tyr City or something like that. Only problems here are that it's a little laggy, and why is this map an SP map in the header?

Frozen Tundra Obligatory Ice-themed Match map Zone, by CZ64 - 5/10

This map was kinda like my map - nothing too special here but at least playable.

CTF

Majestic Grove Zone, by Scizor300 - 6/10

This map manages to be really big and really good at the same time. The layout's not bad but, just like Fawfulfan said, it would take a lot of players in order for this map to be exciting.

Mystical Hights Zone, by Metal Fighter - 7/10

A little laggy at some points but the visuals are really good and it's pretty straightfoward, too.

White Pass Obligatory Ice-themed CTF map Zone, by Kuba11 - 5/10

The team bases felt cramped, otherwise it's just an average CTF map with nothing too spectacular.

Sylvan Shrines Zone, by Spherallic - 9/10

This gets my vote for the CTF division. Amazing design combined with a good theme equals awesomeness.

Race

Croissant Mountain Zone, by D00D64 - 3/10

First off, if you fall in the water at the precision-jumping area you have to backtrack. Secondly, precision jumping just doesn't work with Race mode. Thirdly, what's with the title?

Frozen Hall Obligatory Ice-themed Race map Zone, by Metal Fighter - 6/10

Typical race map of the times with some creativity to break up the thokfesting flow.

 

[Shiron]

Downloading SP now, judging later.


EDIT: RESULTS!

SINGLE PLAYER DIVISION

GreenFlower Sunset Zone By: Fawfulfan
8/10
Wow! The theme you chose was actually executed correctly!
The visuals are awesome, the gameplay isn't excellent, but still pretty good!
The gimmick where you jump on the orange statue to open the door is a good touch!
Some parts of the zone remind me of GreenFlower, some of Arid Canyon, and some of Jade Coast.

Flower Cave Zone By: Miles Knuckle Power
1/10
Emerald hunts are aloud? o_0
Anyway, all it is is a huge room with trees that grow without sunlight and falling rocks that don't sink in the water right.
Oh, and the emerald spawns are placed in the WORST locations, they're either too visible or floating close to the ceiling.

Sparkling Icecap Zone By: Thompson
5/10
*Read Fawfulfan's post*
I rage-quited in the huge room.

Frozen Hillside Zone By: Blade
10/10
Everything about this level is perfect.
The music, the enemies, the visuals, the gimmicks, and the gameplay.
That snowman enemy brings back memories of Sonic 3-D Blast's Diamond Dust Zone. Thank you!

Stronghold Forest Zone By: KO.T.E.
9/10
About as fun as FHZ!
The camo-crawla is actually a nice addition, and the theme resembles 2.1's CEZ!

White Mountain Zone By: Kuba11
0/10
Next time, make sure your map is finished.
kthnxbye.

Waterway Ruin Zone By: Chrome
0/10 :_(
Man, it sucks that this map got disqualified, it had everything!
Good gimmicks, level design, gameplay, and visuals!
Oh, and Tidal Tempest Present Music FTFW

JadeFlower Zone 3 By: blahblahbal
2/10
Finished in 0:43 WTH?
Not much gameplay, gimmicks or good visuals.
And the lava at some parts doesn't hurt you. =/

 

[Fawfulfan]

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SINGLE PLAYER:
---------------------

Greenflower Sunset Zone by Fawfulfan - My/Level
As you may have gathered, I was working within a self-imposed constraint. I sort of challenged myself to take a dull idea and make a decent level out of it. Certainly I think I ended up making something passable, but I don't consider it to be exceptional in comparison to some of my other work...and certainly not in comparison to lots of the other maps in this contest. Hope you guys get some enjoyment out of it in spite of this. Oh, and I'm really sorry about that Armageddon Shield...I meant to remove the Death Pit sector effect from that place, and must have forgotten. *facepalm*

Flower Cave Zone by Miles Knuckle Power - 2/10
Emerald hunt, eh? Well, I'm sorry, but this is one of the worst ones I've ever seen. In spite of all those extra graphics and sounds, it looks ugly and plays boring. Frankly, I think your race levels were more interesting than this.

Sparkling Icecap by Thompson - 7/10
You can always tell a Thompson creation from the pack. They all share the same common strengths...and flaws. As usual, the gimmicks were top-notch, gameplay was extensive, and the new enemies were tastefully done. But I'm taking away one more point than usual because of my dislike for that one huge room. It was laggy, full of HOMs, and I was thoroughly stumped on where to go and what to do. I appreciate the use of Cut-Away Views, but they really don't help much because the level is just so huge and textured so uniformly that I can't really keep any of the landmarks in my mind. Consistently, your biggest weakness (amid myriad strengths) is your nonintuitive path layout. The platforming path was slightly better in this regard, but it still took a fair amount of searching to discover the correct route, and the level also doubled back on the cavernous rooms so frequently that it was all too easy to fall and end up back in a much earlier part of the level. Make it easier for players to find their way through your levels, and you'll become an unstoppable levelmaking force.

Frozen Hillside Zone Act 1 by Blade - 8/10
I gotta tell you...the ice theme has been done to death, so it's an incredibly refreshing change of pace to see an ice level that actually looks original. The graphics and enemies are superb. I just have two small gripes with you. First, the jump height reduction. I know it's totally necessary for all your platforming challenges to work in the clever, inventive way that they do, but it still felt annoying in places (and what's with the river of snow? What's the physics behind it?) Second, I found myself going around in circles from time to time, but I usually caught myself pretty quickly. Otherwise, good job!

Stronghold Forest Zone Act by KO.T.E - 8/10
Yet another level full of good SOCs and sublime visuals, as well as a decently original theme. Even the screenshots of the upcoming CEZ don't look this good! I will say that, because of all the myriad non-climbable walls throughout the level, this place is hell for Knuckles. But hey, I'm to blame for stubbornly sticking to one character. There are loads of great levels here, but you get my vote for the big win!

White Mountain Zone by Kuba11 - N/A
The visuals aren't half bad, but there's a pervasive feeling of claustrophobia throughout. It's never unbearably cramped, but nor is it ever open enough to allow for any real breathing room. Also, how the heck do you get past that low room with platforms on the sides and lava falls in the center? I had to stop there because I couldn't find a way out, but I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and rating it under the assumption that it is beatable. Oh, I see, there IS no way out of it. Why did you submit an uncompleted level?

Waterway Ruin Zone Act 1 by Chrome - N/A
Huh? This map got disqualified due to WHAT? I dunno about you, but I think if I can get it loaded and play it through, it should count. Anyway, another level with consistently good aesthetics, but this time interspersed with lots of cheap deaths. I think there were rather more enemies in this level than would be optimal; certainly there were too many Snailers and Jet Jaws to allow for comfortable navigation of the real challenges. Also, there need to be more rings; I frequently got slammed by badniks just after hitting star posts. If its difficulty were nerfed, I think this level would be more fun.

Jadeflower Zone Act 3 by blahblahbal - 3/10
And now, we end this phenomenal Single Player lineup on a low note. Granted, this is better than your other Jadeflower creations, but it still suffers from some crippling issues. First of all, it's way too short. Generally I won't vote high for any level that can be completed in under a minute, because it simply doesn't have any replay value. Second, the themes in this level are totally incompatible...grass followed by lava? And by the way, is that super-shallow lava river supposed to hurt you? Check to see if it has the Fire Damage sector special. Just having more content would have probably earned this a few more points, but you had a pretty weak theme anyway, so I wouldn't hold my breath on it having been a real gem.

----------
MATCH:
----------

Ponies Suck Zone by Fawfulfan - Also/MyLevel
*Fawfulfan gets high-fived by one third of the people here and lynched by everyone else.* Anyway, yikes, forgot SKYNUM. Sorry about that, fellas.

Flux Satellite Zone by 742mph - 4/10
Red and blue segments? This is just SCREAMING to be a CTF map. Anyway, it's not terrible, but it might be more interesting if there were some substantial differences between the regular and reverse-gravity areas. The space countdown when you stray from the satellite is a nifty idea, particularly since the incessantly reversing gravity gives you some chance of recovering, but the stage itself is boring and symmetrical. The ring placement was annoying...the way they were spread out, I had to zip all over the level just to have enough to fend off opponents, and use of the Auto Ring is more or less precluded. Also, lots of items that should be deafed aren't.

Southern Sands Massive Twin HOMs Zone by akb778 - 3/10
Seriously, those things are incredibly distracting...not that there's much to be distracted from; it's pretty plain and spread out, and doesn't offer much in the manner of interesting gameplay.

Aries City Zone by EternallyAries Red X - N/A
Shame about being disqualified. I know making a decent city level is hard...which is why I'm pretty impressed with the job you did. Visuals are decent, and the layout doesn't suck. It's no Sparkling City Zone, but it certainly is a breath of fresh air after all that mediocrity.

Frozen Tundra Zone by Chaos Zero 64 - 2/10
YAY GENERIC ICE LEVEL! It's empty as hell, has way too much vertical variation, the spring placement makes no sense whatsoever, and the item pickups look as though they were arranged by a three-year-old. Tails players can also abuse the hell out of it by raining destruction from above.

--------------------------
CAPTURE THE FLAG:
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Majestic Grove Zone by Scizor300 - 6/10
Perhaps you should have called this "Massive Grove Zone", "Mondo Grove Zone", or "My-God-This-Is-Huge Grove Zone". Point being, it's big. Very big. But not terrible. It's got a competent layout, certainly. I just think it would probably take a whole lot of players for this stage to achieve its full excitement potential.

Mystical Heights Zone by Metal Fighter - 7/10
Good visuals, good layout. Pretty laggy in the outside areas, and the fog pit wasn't pulled off as nicely as in Clockwork Towers Zone, but that's nowhere near enough to ruin a good level. Nice job.

White Pass Zone by Kuba11 - 4/10
What is it with this contest and ice levels!? I could understand if this was Nov/Dec or Jan/Feb, but May/Jun? It's freaking SUMMER! Are you guys all at some kind of SRB2 convention in Australia that I didn't get invited to? That aside, this level was pretty unexceptional. It was rather plain, and the ceilings were uncomfortably low...and besides that, it brings nothing novel to the table.

Sylvan Shrines Zone by Spherallic - 9/10
What exactly is "sylvan" about these shrines? A better name for this level would have been "Awesome Shrines Zone"...a little arrogant, possibly, but perfectly true. You've taken a tired old theme and reinvigorated it for a great CTF stage! There's just the right amount of vertical variation, and a great level structure. I heartily commend you for this level.

------------
CIRCUIT:
------------

Croissant Mountain Zone by D00D64 - 1/10
AHAHAHAHAHAH!!! What the heck is this supposed to be? Precision jumping is never good, but Race mode is just about the worst gametype for it (except maybe Mario Kart). At least there should have been death pits for when you fell, to send you back to the star post instead of forcing you to backtrack...although come to think of it, that might lead to a City Jump-esque Game Over fest. And by the way, where on Earth did you get that name? It makes absolutely no sense.

Frozen Hall Zone by Metal Fighter - 5/10
Bland and unoriginal, but otherwise not terrible. Structurally, all I can complain about is the rapid succession of some of the turns, which can be confusing, particularly if a player ahead of you already took the direction-indicating rings (arrows might have been better for this particular purpose).

 

[Krabs]

Will be updating this post as I play through the maps.

Single Player
Sparkling Icecap by Thompson - 8/10
As much as I love the tons and tons of effort you put into everything, I really didn't like this map for one reason. At many points in the level I felt lost and confused. For example, I pushed a gargoyle onto a button and it suddenly flew upwards. I then fell off of of it and was lost searching for a way back up until I found out that the button comes back down if I stand back next to it. I had to just give up once I got to the rising lava (which made zero sense coming out of an icicle, by the way.)

EDIT: So, I just finished playing the map again and the second path (taking the bridge at the start of the map) changed my opinion about the stage. The second path was more focused on platforming and it had some really awesome freezing affects and "cutscenes" that made the level more exiting and fun. Also, on that second run of the map I was able to get past the snowflake room. My advice to you would be to have a way for players that take the spring to the 1up to get back on the right path instead of jumping in the lava.

Frozen Hillside Zone Act 1 by Blade - 6/10
This was a good level, but there wasn't much about it that was interesting besides the custom enemies. The music was also a bit annoying.

Flower Cave Zone by Miles Knuckle Power - 2/10
First of all, the custom enemies weren't really needed. The music was very unfitting, the level was very small, and it used the most annoying game type srb2 has to offer.

Greenflower Sunset Zone by Fawfulfan - 7/10
I know people might think it's odd to give this level a higher score than Blade's and Thompson's, but it was really nice to play a simple level with good gameplay that didn't make me lost or have lots of nice graphics and whatnot to cover up the level design. Great job.

Waterway Ruin Zone Act 1 by Chrome - 8/10
Another great level. I liked the scenery and all of the different gameplay mechanics you added like the platforms that rose through the glass tubes. However, in some areas of the level I found missing textures and those stupid ACZ pulley walls.

Stronghold Forest Zone Act 1 by KO.T.E - 8/10
Wow, you did the impossible: Make a crawla worth something other than extra points. :P The only thing I can think of that I didn't like were the bouncy platforms having no sound.

Jadeflower Zone Act 3 by blahblahbal - 3/10

White Mountain Zone by Kuba11 - 3/10

 

[Super Chris]

This contest is pretty amazing if I say so myself but here are some "bugs" I need to say.

Match

Ponies Suck Zone by Fawfulfan - 6/10
Ok, I don't get the point of this level. They talk about ponies on some occasions. It's probably because it's their favorite show. If you don't like ponies, then deal with it.

Flux Satellite Zone by 742mph - 2/10
I like the space theme, but the gravity here is too confusing. It's going to be hard to hit players because of the switching gravity.

Southern Sands Zone by akb778 - 5/10
This place must've been based on Baked Brawl Zone from Tortured Planet. There are some walls that contain HOMs that needed to be double-checked before being published.

Aries City Zone by EventuallyAries Red X - 4/10
This city was taken from a popular hangout wad called "house23-b.wad". It takes place in the daytime and in the same place.

Frozen Tundra Zone by CZ64 - 7/10
I like the icy theme, but it's just a half-circle arena where Tails players have a huge advantage here.

CTF

Majestic Grove Zone by Scizor300 - 8/10
I like the forest theme and the water that surrounds it, but the only "not-so-majestic" thing about it is that it's a long run from base-to-base in this level.

Mystical Heights Zone by Metal Fighter - 6/10
This is a high level, but it's too cataclysmic to be going from one castle to another because the holes in the castle windows are passable. All sides must be solid for a unpassable linedef.

Frozen Pass Zone by Kuba11 - 7/10
The level is wide, making it call for a no-armed shootout, but the narrow pathways to the bases makes easy pickings for players with rail rings to hit the flag runners.

Sylvan Shrines Zone by Spherallic - 8/10
This level is good. In difficulty, the level is similar to Cloud Palace Zone. I like the waters that are good here.

Race

Crossiant Mountain Zone by D00D64 - 2/10

This level is weird. The outside part is slightly easy, but when you fall in the water, you have to run back to the beginning. Sonic players will have a hard time playing this while Tails and Knuckles players have a breeze.

Speaking of which, I don't know how this map ended up in the Match rotation. There was a error with the 'TypeOfLevel' entry.


Frozen Hall Zone by Metal Fighter - 7/10
The level had some parts taken from Frost Columns. Although, I still like the level.

 

[Thompson]

Sparkling Icecap Zone by Me: N/A

This map is actually Act 2 of Sparkling Icecap. As you can see, the end of the map's theme transitions into the theme of the upcoming level.

Eh...I felt this map would get ticks cause of framerate issues. I'd recommend everyone to play in the 640 x 400 resolution (For those that usually play in the 1280 x 800 resoltion) as it reduces the amount of lag you get during the level. I really have no idea how to make the puzzle path more clear. I didn't want to start adding scripts telling you specific instruction on how to proceed through the level. Which I thought seemed lame... So that's why I've created a less confusing path I call the platforming path which is the upper corridor near the beginning of the level. If your that confused on the puzzle path (that you all seem to be only taking for some reason as I assume I haven't gotten any critism on the other yet...) and your lost. Simply take the other path.

Greenflower Sunset Zone by Fawfulfan: 7/10 N/A

This map, is just... platforming. Nothing seemed to interest me in this map. I haven't really found any big flaws about this map, except one. It took me a while to find out just what to do in this area where there are pillars coming out from a sky pit and there's a totem pole button. This button needs to stand out a bit more. I ignored it and thought I was at a dead end and kept checking the area for about 5 minutes. But other than that, This map is pretty okay.

Flower Cave Zone by Miles Knuckle Power: 1/10

Miles, I would love to give you a higher score but, man, you keep doing levels that are pretty boring, short, and horribly made. Emerald Hunt is really not a favored mode by most users, including me. The emeralds are pretty blatant to find. There were only about 3 areas to check anyway including that it was only one huge room. Submit a normal single player level for once. Nothing else to say about the map.

Frozen Hillside Zone by Blade: 8/10

This level was pretty average too, but added in with fancy snow gimmicks. The music you used, I really hated and thought it sounded really...'happy'. I don't know what else to say about this map. I just would really want to see you push your limitations to mapping. As this map has no flaws, it's just I wish there was a little bit more.

Stronghold Forest Zone by KO.T.E: 8/10

Eh. It really is better than your Stonghold Forest in you Choas Domain Level Pack. The Heavy Crawlas function a little odd... I didn't expect them to have actions like that. And the sounds that came from them that were placed ALL over was pretty annoying. I did get lost a little in one part of the map. You used a Cut-Away effect for this area. I could not find out where it was for a little while. So I looked everywhere around the area to find what you were trying to help me look for. But still didn't find out what it was. And at about 5 minutes I lost the image of the Cut-Away view. So I refreshed the map and tried again. I found the area that you were showing but still didn't find anything yet. But then I saw this structure that looked REALLY similar to your Cannons from side-views but it didn't shoot out anything so I checked it and turs out it was a button. Make this button stand out more. Aside from that your on the pretty alright side with me.

Jadeflower Zone Act 3 by blahblahbal: 3/10

I saw you tried to make multiple paths at the beginning, but didn't really make the cut of actually being optional paths because of how short they were. The ending to this map was kind of hilarious. Why is the level end sign among the middle of a wall in a cave like that?

White Mountain Zone by Kuba11: 0/10

This is SO cramped... Though so much detail. Finish your map.

Waterway Ruin Zone by Chrome: 7/10

Ah... I remember this map. I remember testing this. Your still missing textures at the same spots I've remember testing this..and I see you haven't took my suggestions. Your theme and texture choice for this level was great. It's great and atmospheric. I loved some of your gimmicks for this level. There's this underwater section where bobbing platforms act as crushers that I had a problem with. The bobbing platform crusher with the CLIFF6 texture is too fast and I really didn't notice the safe holes because how the textures were the same. Also, there was a fan area which seemed really cheap, and cramped which made the area lame... some areas are still bland btw.

 

[Blast]

All the levels have good intentions but, some of them need more work my Favorite Match Level would have to be Aries City because city levels are not hard to make and he put a lot time into making it really cool! 9/10 for Aries city.

 

[M[T]P]

Quote from SRB2Player Fan:
Aries City Zone by EventuallyAries Red X - 4/10
This city was taken from a popular hangout wad called "house23-b.wad". It takes place in the daytime and in the same place.
---------------------------------------------------------------
I'm sorry but you're wrong.
It's released as Bigcity first by Aries, then he renamed it to Aries City.
After that Sonic Jr see that the wad's decent enough and wants to port it for house22.wad (emerald city).
That's how it is.
---------------------------------------------------------------
my rating will be on soon, don't worry. :P

 

[Blast]

Quote from SRB2Player Fan:
Aries City Zone by EventuallyAries Red X - 4/10
This city was taken from a popular hangout wad called "house23-b.wad". It takes place in the daytime and in the same place.
---------------------------------------------------------------
I'm sorry but you're wrong.
It's released as Bigcity first by Aries, then he renamed it to Aries City.
After that Sonic Jr see that the wad's decent enough and wants to port it for house22.wad (emerald city).
That's how it is.
---------------------------------------------------------------
my rating will be on soon, don't worry. :P

EternallyAries Red X did a really good job

 

[Azure]

Just gonna vote on single player maps, as always.
White Mountain Zone by Kuba11: X/10

Spoiler

Um... does anyone else have any idea what to do here? Because I'm completely stuck at this point. Will actually vote once that gets solved.

That's where the map ends according to the Doom Builder. There seems to not be an exit sector.

Maybe the map is unfinished?

 

[Mr. Awsome]

Single Player:
Greenflower Sunset Zone by Fawfulfan - 7/10 - Someone finally uses the Greenflower theme. Its Pretty good. Its acually better than Sunshine Atoll Zone ;)

Flower Cave Zone by Miles Knuckle Power - 3/10 - Its small and too easy. It isn't that fun.

Sparkling Icecap by Thompson - 6/10 - Its Good but very confusing. pretty much like Fawfulfan said.

Frozen Hillside Zone Act 1 by Blade - 9/10 - Best Ice Level I have ever seen. Great Gimmicks, The New Sprites are amazing, Another Beautiful work of Blade.

Stronghold Forest Zone Act 1 by KO.T.E - 8/10 - Pretty Confusing, Knuckles is Pretty usless in this level. But its still pretty Awesome. And its pretty funny how stupid Camo-Crawla's are.

White Mountain Zone by Kuba11 - 1/10 - This is sad. Its cramped and fustrating. I wanted to bang my head on my desk. I can't complete it.

Waterway Ruin Zone Act 1 by Chrome - 6/10 - The Level overuses Snailer and gets dark alot, I can't finish the level :(

Jadeflower Zone Act 3 by blahblahbal - 2/10 - Whats with the volcano theme? It jumps from a grassland to a volcano. Whats up with that?

Match:
Ponies Suck Zone by Fawfulfan - 3/10 - Wrighto, Fawfulfan, I agree that ponies suck but this was just a lazy-done map. You Could have done Better

Flux Satellite Zone by 742mph - 2/10 - This level was confusing, it was hard to hit people. the Idea was original though.

Southern Sands Zone by akb778
Frozen Tundra Zone by Chaos Zero 64

Capture the Flag:
Majestic Grove Zone by Scizor300
Mystical Heights Zone by Metal Fighter
White Pass Zone by Kuba11
Sylvan Shrines Zone by Spherallic

Race:
Croissant Mountain Zone by D00D64
Frozen Hall Zone by Metal Fighter

 

[Scizor300]

Single Player

Greenflower Sunset Zone by Fawfulfan - 5/10
All in all, a pretty average map. Nothing bad, but nothing downright spectacular either. The music choice could have been better, though.

Flower Cave Zone by Miles Knuckle Power - 2/10
So, I start off in a waterfall listening to some mangled version of GHZ, and I notice that this is an emerald hunt. I leave the waterfall, and I notice enemies that use sprites made by Senku (i think). Did you even get permission to use those? Anyways, the level was rather dull and easy to beat, so nothing really good here.

Sparkling Icecap by Thompson - 7/10
The map is pretty good, but it would be much better if it didn't completely kill my framerate. At least I finished it, though.

Frozen Hillside Zone Act 1 by Blade - 9/10
i swear to god, the only thing wrong with that level is that the music needs to be in higher quality and looped better ;-;

Stronghold Forest Zone Act 1 by KO.T.E - 8/10
Pretty cool, but could have been a bit longer. Nice texturing, though.

White Mountain Zone by Kuba11 - N/A
What a shame it was disqualified, it was actually kind of decent too :<

Waterway Ruin Zone Act 1 by Chrome - N/A
I still had a good amount of fun with this one.

Jadeflower Zone Act 3 by blahblahbal - 4/10
This map would have been better if it weren't less than 30 seconds long.


Match

Ponies Horses Suck Zone by Fawfulfan - 4/10
your horse is lovely

Anyways, joking aside, this map was a complete spamfest, and it didn't even have a sky

Flux Satellite Space Acrobatics Zone by 742mph - 3/10
Completely confusing, and it looks like a horrid CTF map turned into Match.

Southern Sands Zone by akb778 - 5/10
Empty and rather dull, but at least playable. The weapon layout was also strange and lol massive HOM

Aries City Zone by EternallyAries Red X - 1/10 (lol DQ'd)
bahahahahahahahahaha

this is a rp map, you didn't even bother to change the gametype.

Frozen Tundra Zone by Chaos Zero 64 - 4/10
A tad devoid of rings, and, to be honest, it felt kind of small.

Capture the Flag

Majestic Grove Zone by Scizor300 - hi/guys
So yeah, this map had a ton of issues with it when I actually started playing. Everyone was wondering where in the hell the Bomb ring was, and the map was chock full of WRMs, even the team monitors. Otherwise, the thing I really liked about this map is that you really need to work to get the flag, and it's also not completely unfair doing so. There's not a ton of chokepoints (Besides the bridge in the middle), and the visuals were balanced to, somehow, not lag as horribly as the other maps. I'm not completely sure if chunks of the map should be cut, because there's a ton of small acloves to explore to get weapons and random monitors, rewarding exploration instead of just having everything out in the open and having the player do a 20-second run to the flag and back while somehow getting every weapon panel along the way. All in all, I'm really satisfied with how the map turned out, even if it only took 10 days (probably less) to make.

Mystical Heights Zone Ow My Framerate Zone, Act 1 by Metal Fighter - 5/10
Anyways, coming back to this map a second time, I'd have to say that the experiences from my server are not much better than the first. The bases are much too vertical, and are incredibly easy to hide in, making it easy to ambush players. The content in the middle of the bases was also rather bare and easy to skip. My computer also chugged quite a bit on this map.

White Pass Zone by Kuba11 - 3/10
So yeah, the main gripes I have with this map are that there's barely any alternate paths to the flag, and the only one is incredibly easy to camp or just spam grenades everywhere. The bases themselves weren't very good either, being that they are incredibly hard to navigate and not get hit if someone has grenade or bounce rings at their disposal. There's also a small hiding spot behind the Auto rings which really should not be there. The central area was also rather forgettable, with nothing really eye-catching there.

Sylvan Shrines Zone Ow My Framerate Zone, Act 2 by Spherallic - 6/10
So, this map is still pretty good, but it's also extremely easy to camp. The bases were much too large and vertical, and there was only one way to the flag, making the person going for it easily suspectable to being ambushed by anyone sitting by the flag. All of the detail in the map also made my framerate chug as bad as Mystical Heights. There's also absolutely nothing interesting inbetween the bases, which is really sad. You made the theme look great, but you sacrificed a ton of potential gameplay for it.

Race

Croissant Mountain Zone by D00D64 - 8/10
The thing I really like about this map is that it's not incredibly cheap (although a tad hard with lag), and it looks and flows extremely well. The teleports and checkpoints are really the only problems with the map. I, personally, love race maps that have good amounts of platforming while still managing to not be completely unfair. The visuals in this map, although clashy at times, still turned out to be extremely well-done, balancing texture variation with regular scenery and not lagging the game. I also really liked the subtle shortcuts you put in the map.

Frozen Hall Zone by Metal Fighter - 6/10
This ice level was pretty well done, but it also had some problems that really stood out. Why does the water in one single spot of the level not hurt you, even providing a shortcut? The part that has that little waterfall also suffers from a lack of texture variation, making it rather hard to see where you're going. Otherwise, the map was pretty decent, but nothing really spectacular.

Okay then, now I'm done with that...

EDIT: Redid some of my votes

 

[sims]

Greenflower Sunset Zone - 6/10
Your map is pretty solidly built. Nothing really stuck out as terrible, but nothing really stuck as as spectacular either. It's a pretty generic GFZ-clone. Though, parts of the level look so similar that I questioned whether I was going backwards at one point.

Flower Cave Zone - 2/10
Holy slowed down green hill theme batman, an emerald hunt level! So, what is there to say about this level. Well for one, it's pretty uninteresting. You're in a very dull looking room with some platforms scattered around looking for emeralds. One of which was placed on the ceiling and probably impossible to get as Sonic. In the future, try to use better texture choices. The fact that almost everything is the same color makes it look incredibly bland.


Sparkling Icecap - 6/10
details later

Frozen Hillside Zone Act 1 - 8/10
details later

Stronghold Forest Zone Act 1 - 6/10
details later

Jadeflower Zone Act 3 - 3/10
okay so we've got an okay looking level so far. go left at the second split and suddenly we're in RVZ. okay that's fine I guess we're chugging along and.... that's the end. 30 seconds in. I load again to take the other path. it's much shorter and lasts 17 seconds. okay, I know this looks like it's going to be a first level thing, but still, you need to make your level longer. also, the exit seems kinda thrown in there like you couldn't figure out where else to put it.

 

[Mystic]

Single Player:
Greenflower Sunset Zone by Fawfulfan - 6/10
This map reminds me of Mystic Realm really heavily, in both a good and a bad way. Very consistent platforming, but really quite devoid of gimmicks and with hazards that make no sense, such as painful mud. I also dislike how the Armageddon Shield at the bottom of the waterfall looks like you can jump to it, but the floor there is a bottomless pit despite not looking like one. Otherwise the stage is really quite average. I like the wet tunnels despite how they're nonsensical, and the use of a totem pole as a switch is neat, but you don't really do anything interesting with any of these gimmicks.

Flower Cave Zone by Miles Knuckle Power - 2/10
Well, emerald hunt is something I haven't seen in forever, but you do a really, really bad job of it here. The entire map is a single room, and all emerald hunt really means is that the end of the stage involves a spring to a height you can barely see at, requiring the player to bounce multiple times until they luck into getting it right. Otherwise there is nothing to this stage at all.

Sparkling Icecap by Thompson - 8/10
First thing's first. I really like this map, like your other maps of a similar design. The issue is that it's inherently confusing, and some of your design choices here really push that to the forefront. The main, worst problem in this map is that you're extremely inconsistent with texturing and what things do. Sometimes breaking ice requires a spindash, sometimes you can just shatter it by touch. This makes no sense at all, and adding to that, you don't even use the same textures for breakables, and use the same texture you use on breakables on non-breakables. You need to make it consistent (and preferrably, shatter on touch, because being able to spindash jump to break things makes no sense in Sonic games). You have water that hurts and water that doesn't in the same stage, even. The fact that the lava also doesn't prevent you from going under it caused me a senseless death as well, and the enemies in general need to be toned down dramatically, probably to just the penguins, because I was having things like Buzz hit me during cutscenes. One of the most offensive examples of cheap death was the reuse of the rock texture that was breakable earlier in the stage right before the escape sequence. I spindashed and jumped at it like I had earlier in the stage, fell down as it wasn't breakable in a really weird angle so that when I received the useless instructions I didn't hit the dash plate properly and died. I'd personally just make that a full cutscene and have the player on dash plates constantly, even after you give the player control for a bit. Finally, you have an extremely inconsistent framerate; even after I lowered my resolution the icicle room and the room with the FOF snowflake still chugged. While I appreciate how pretty things are, I'd rather some things got toned down for the sake of playability.

Frozen Hillside Zone Act 1 by Blade - 10/10
I really have no idea how to improve this map. I want a second act. Now.

Stronghold Forest Zone Act 1 by KO.T.E - 7/10
This stage is entirely composed of annoying sound effects. I really like the way it looks and some of the gimmicks are great, but you do a really horrible job of introducing them to the player. Especially the room with the bouncy floors and the oil under it. That was my first experience with those floors and not only do you have oil below it with almost no way out and tons of pillars everywhere making it a royal pain to move, you have a bouncy CEILING that leads to an absolute, no questions asked hit the first time, then a collapsing floor right after. This is just unreasonable for any sane difficulty curve. If you're going to do that, make sure the player sees the mechanics before-hand, because as it stands now, I actually DIED to the oil the first attempt due to having fallen in like, 5-6 times in a row with no clear way to get more rings. Also, that charge noise for those enemies is infuriating.

White Mountain Zone by Kuba11 - 0/10
Well, the level itself is mediocre, and I spent a good 5-6 minutes in the last room trying to figure out how to advance. Eventually I gave up and noclipped and used devmode to see the map, to find out that's all there was. I then opened the map in SRB2DB and searched for an exit sector. It doesn't exist. Isn't this kind of common sense?

Waterway Ruin Zone Act 1 by Chrome - 3/10
Ugh. This stage is one gigantic cramped, cheap death. I'm given no warning when the stage is about to kill me for no reason, and things that were safe earlier, like dark floors next to torches, suddenly become bottomless pits without warning. Then there are crushing platforms with no warning, and those same crushing platforms lead out of the room. Then there are the pits without warning on fan sections that prey on the player's normal plans. The whole level just feels like a very unenjoyable version of IWBTG. Now, there ARE some good ideas here, as I really liked the dark passages when they WEREN'T randomly lethal, and the gimmick of using floating platforms as elevators was kinda neat. It's just that the rest of the stage is so randomly unfair as to ruin it. Also, -1 rating for not making the level boot up when I start a game, and forcing me to HUNT to play this map. (For those reading this who haven't already played the pack, this is MAP04)

Jadeflower Zone Act 3 by blahblahbal - 3/10
Well, I'm impressed. You've managed to make a playable stage. This is still bad, but more because it's boring and there's nothing to do than because of any crippling design flaws. Why does the shallow lava not hurt the player? Why do I keep running down stairs into turtles I can't see? There are also no gimmicks to speak of and the stage ends abruptly. Try adding some actual content to your stage.

Match:
Ponies Suck Zone by Fawfulfan - 5/10
This stage is a complete and total spamfest. The layout isn't terrible, although the visuals need work and you need to not use redwall as a sky, but the stage is certainly playable. The main problem is that there aren't enough rings, nowhere NEAR enough shields, and the stage just turns into a giant spamfest in the center.

Flux Satellite Zone by 742mph - 3/10
When I booted this up, I'll admit, I thought it was going to SUCK. Miraculously, I actually ended up having some fun despite the major flaws here because the concept was actually quite unique. First thing's first, the level is symmetrical and that really hurts you. There's no way to find what weapon I want and this stage really demonstrates that fully. The navigation is also a mess, with springs everywhere necessary to do ANYTHING, and the inability to get anywhere from the outside when you end up stuck in the middle is a huge problem with your design, forcing the player to go out to the edge of the stage to commit suicide on purpose, which sucks. The stage doesn't have any good ways to get around, not enough rings which aren't floating above the ground, and no powerups to speak of.

Southern Sands Zone by akb778 - 3/10
There's nothing horrifically wrong with this stage's basic layout, but it manages to both be way too open and way too cramped, depending on where you are, and having too few rings or too many rings, depending on where you are. There is no item balance, causing everyone to end up constantly in the same areas spamming rings. Try reading the section of Level Design 101 about match item placement, as it would do you a world of good.

Aries City Zone by EternallyAries Red X - 0/10
I may come back and play this later, but you haven't flagged your stage for match, so it doesn't load in match by default. Did you even properly test your stage in the intended gametype, or just take a hangout map, throw weapon tiles into it, and send it in without even checking if it worked?

Frozen Tundra Zone by Chaos Zero 64 - 2/10
More spam, but in a far more boring stage. This is a rush job, so I'm not going to bother giving you detailed feedback since you were in the game I was in and you know what's wrong with it. Just don't use ? monitors for the love of god.

Capture the Flag:
Majestic Grove Zone by Scizor300 - 8/10
I'm probably going to get flak for this, but I actually really liked this stage. It's really large and hard to capture the flag, but when you get across for a capture, it feels earned, and it's not impossible to make it all the way there, you're just going to have to fight for it. I do suggest putting a Super Sneaker box or two into the stage without random respawn, though, to help make it a bit more sane to run the flag all the way from base to base. I also would suggest putting a weapon tile in the bases themselves, probably Automatic, along with the ammo to use it, as the confrontations in the bases often degenerated into red ring spam of epic proportions.

Mystical Heights Zone by Metal Fighter - 6/10
Well, nothing exciting here, but nothing broken, either. I don't like the use of the colormap to just dull the graphics everywhere, and the temple in the middle is boring with a completely basic layout and long bridges to the left and right. The bases are nice and defensible and the stage is a good size. The main problem is that the central area has a lot of useless territory and there isn't a good alternate path between the bases.

White Pass Zone by Kuba11 - 4/10
Also not an exciting map, but it isn't awful either. The worst problem is that the entrance to your bases is completely invisible unless you're right next to it, while there's a cave right NEXT to the base entrance that looks like the entrance. You also have absolutely no alternate path between the bases, making everyone go through the central route. Otherwise the stage is honestly pretty decent, if a bit boring.

Sylvan Shrines Zone by Spherallic - 7/10
This stage is a bit broken on the flow between the bases, and the long central bridge desperately needs an alternate path. Perhaps add floating platforms for some dangerous platforming between the two upper staircase alcoves with the item I forget. I also don't like going up through a platform as a choke point, and would rather be at least able to see up at what I'm up against. I DO like the base design, item layout and the great visuals, though. Just a bit more path variety would do a ton of good.

Race:
Croissant Mountain Zone by D00D64 - 2/10
So you see, the idea behind the Star Post Activation sector is to make it physically impossible to miss a checkpoint by having the sector cross the ENTIRE path. Considering you missed a checkpoint in your OWN map, clearly the problem here is obvious. You also have stupid teleports that are painfully obvious padding the stage. If you're going to have me warp around the level, don't ALERT me that it's going on. It just feels cheap. The visuals are pretty decent, and the layout actually isn't awful with the exception of teleporting players around, but those checkpoints are just atrocious.

Frozen Hall Zone by Metal Fighter - 3/10
Cheap deaths abound here. I really hate the collapsing platforms, confusing layout, pits you don't see coming, and exceptionally easy shortcuts. If there's no risk to the shortcut, don't include it, as it just makes winning being about who knows the level layout.

 

[fickleheart]

Single Player:
Greenflower Sunset Zone by Fawfulfan - 7/10
This kind of relaxing experience is something I look for when playing SP. It had a good sense of progression, and the first time through, it flowed in a way that not only guided me to the end, but also guided me into the little goodies you placed around the level. It gave me a nice sense of reward.

However, I didn't like the music choice, and the damaging mud, while it works in the layout of the map, is unintuitive and should be replaced with something else. Also, the platform-hopping segment at the end needs a starpost at the beginning; if it already has one, it needs to be made more obvious.

Flower Cave Zone by Miles Knuckle Power - 2/10
You're kidding, right? I found two emerald pieces right next to each other, in the middle of giant falling boulder spam. The rest of the map was also unremarkable.

Sparkling Icecap by Thompson - 3/10
That gimmick with the falling icicles was stupid, unneeded, and only served to cause confusion and occasionally crush me under one. I also don't see how a spindash-jump would break ice when a regular jump wouldn't. The final nail in the coffin was the last part I played, where you were supposed to outrun the lava. In comparison to the slower nature of the rest of the map, it's unforgiving, cheap, and doesn't belong. I couldn't get past it. Sorry, but I couldn't enjoy this. At all.

Frozen Hillside Zone Act 1 by Blade - 10/10
I played this one as Sonic. I enjoyed the inventive gimmick with the heavy snow and the ice blocks. I enjoyed the enemies. I enjoyed how Eggman monitors were placed in cunning locations that actually trip people up.

I played it again as Sonic. I went and looked for alternate paths, taking my sweet time. I noticed my tendency to hit every Eggman monitor I came across.

I played it as Knuckles. I enjoyed finding the little things I couldn't reach as Sonic. I soaked in the scenery, and the custom textures that, even though they were just recolors of official textures, worked so well I didn't notice them at first.

I played it as Tails. I began to mourn the fact that every Speed Sneakers or Extra Life I found restarted the music. I loved it when the enemies were an actual threat to a flying player.

I can't say anything, really. Don't open this in DB again, please. Since I can't find "perfect" on the scale, I'll use the next best thing.

Stronghold Forest Zone Act 1 by KO.T.E - 7/10
I was quite impressed. The map flowed nicely, although I did find myself going backwards at the end, and the one time I experienced the bouncy floor gimmick, it was used in a nice, challenging way. It could have been introduced better, though, but apparently it is on another path. I wanted to see something done with those mushrooms, though. (Are they supposed to glow under like that? It creates a nice, eerie feel in the level.) Also, those buzzing crawla army chief things were unremarkable.

White Mountain Zone by Kuba11

Waterway Ruin Zone Act 1 by Chrome

Jadeflower Zone Act 3 by blahblahbal - 5/10
That was really short, and the volcano area looked really plain. It was ok, though, I guess. Not much to say here.

Match:
Ponies Suck FUCK YOU Zone by Fawfulfan - 3/10
The beauty of making a map like this is that I can't dislike the map, lest I be told I'm "just mad because your precious ponies are being insulted". That aside, the cramped quarters, the lazy item placement, the lack of decoration, and the REDWALL sky make this map impossible for me to enjoy. Also, go learn to draw ponies. That's a terrible Pinkie Pie you have there.

Flux Satellite Zone by 742mph - 2/10
It's an interesting concept, but the design doesn't do it justice. The symmetrical design means it's impossible to memorize item locations, and it's way too easy to get stuck on the outside edge of the map.

Southern Sands Zone by akb778 - 4/10
The map was open and flat. My game was fairly small at 4 players, but still, I literally did not find anyone through the entire round. However, consolidate the outside a bunch (and open up the cramped indoors sections) and I could give this map a couple of extra points.

Aries City Zone by EternallyAries Red X

Frozen Tundra Zone by Chaos Zero 64 - 4/10
For starters, random monitors. You have the wrong kind. There was also more than one of each panel, which detracts from the experience just a bit. Otherwise, though, I enjoyed the verticality of the layout. It's always nice to have something to keep Sonic players under control.

Capture the Flag:
Majestic Grove Zone by Scizor300 - 5/10
The 9-person netgame I held on this was quite fun, but it was impossible to play with any less. Therein lies this map's biggest flaw; it's too big. And when you do get enough players in it, the weapons are too far apart and it turns into a red ring fest! Such a shame; this map could be a lot better with a lot of trimming.

Mystical Heights Zone by Metal Fighter - 4/10
The choke point in the middle is really uncalled for, and the mess off to the sides is impossible to use properly and basically is pointless. However, due to that, the map as a whole is way too small for any decently-sized netgame.

White Pass Zone by Kuba11 - 6/10
This was a fairly enjoyable map. The various choke points makes it possible to defend, but not too hard to get in, and the rest was quite enjoyable as well. The singular path between bases would usually bug me, but it was open enough here to work. You might wanna do something about that grenade room, though; it's way too easy to camp in there.

Sylvan Shrines Zone by Spherallic - 5/10
The complete lack of any way between the bases for flag runners outside of that wide open bridge is a shame, but it doesn't really detract from the map that much. The huge bases make it easy to hide away, and one would probably make a good Match map; a good start to one, anyway. Also, the source of the waterfalls right by the flag alcove is a great place to hide. Too good, in fact; once I showed it to Blade, we had no problem hiding the flag in a netgame.

Race:
Croissant Mountain Zone by D00D64 - 8/10
I really enjoyed this concept. The map is well-balanced for each character, something I don't usually see. Your platforming is a bit unforgiving at the beginning, though.

Frozen Hall Zone by Metal Fighter - 4/10
I'm not really sure what to say. The map wasn't broken in any way, but there was one point where I ran around in circles a couple times with no clue where to go. The rest of the map was also fairly boring to me. I know it's supposed to be solely based on how the map plays, but a bit of decoration to distinguish the rooms really makes the difference in a Circuit map, same as any other gametype. It gives a sense of making progress in the map, which I didn't feel.

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Spoiler: Have a quote from one of our netgames in MGZ

<Mr. Westen> sciz let me show you the problem point
Mr. Westen switched to the red team
Illegal color change received from Mr. Westen (team: 1, color: 10)
Got unknown net command [14]=107 (max 22)
Mr. Westen has been kicked (Consistency failure)

 

[Mystic]

A few of the maps for this contest have been disqualified, as I didn't bother to check through everything before posting the contest. You do not need to vote on disqualified maps for your votes in a division to count. Feel free to vote on them if you'd like to give the author feedback, though.

 

[EternallyAries]

Oh man i fuck up on setting it all up for match.

I even test this out like lots of times and it even loaded up as a level for match.

Oh well that was only one mess up.

At least it look good for a match map that i work and made real fast lol.

Sorry for messing up the settings.