Single Player:
Poison Prison [SonicMaster] -
4/10
It's definitely a nice change of pace from all of that NiGHTS crap you were churning out, but still, it's not fantastic. I liked how you integrated the whole "holy crap, it's a poison prison" into the design, but it was a bit too open. You could've done so much more with that space. In other parts, it was cramped. It's a basic design: Platforms, floors, enemies, obstacles, death pits... not really any pizazz to it to leave a lasting effect of "wow" on you, or any uniqueness to give you a sense of the author's own style. I liked the horizontally moving door, but you did it wrong (just saying; you could've done it a lot better if you tried harder). One thing that really ticked me off was the area right before the end. Empty, a few enemies, and that path right above the death pit. What would've been better was slime that hurts you, and a current that brings you back at the beginning. You could easily lose a life if you don't turn and jump at the right time. A mouselook user such as myself didn't have much of a problem, but the turns are just so awkward and linear, it served no salvation for the map's design. Overall, it would be okay as a first try, but you, having experience, should be capable of a lot, lot more.
Triopolis Town [GemEarthBrandon] -
2/10
This is the same one used in your mod without the snazzy music choice. Oh dear...
Linear design + citylike landscape. The framerate lag from the excessive FOF usage was failure incarnate. Basically, the goal is to thok continuously in a straight line with an occasional turn, and reach the end without dying or getting sidetracked. Just like the rest of your modification, it was huge, featureless, linear, and boring. There's nothing else to say about it. By the way, before you go off saying "BUT THERE ARE BUILDINGS EVERYWHERE IT'S NOT FEATURELESS", if they don't interact with the player in a way that adds to the
gameplay, they have no real use.
Metal Mechanism [Hyperknux] -
5/10
The design is solid. I have to hand it to you; you successfully combined both of THZ's maps in a way that promises to deliver a decent amount of fun from playing it. Sadly, it kept reusing the same gimmick over and over and over and over and over and over again (rising platform). Sure, it's nice to use here and there, but when you use it almost ALL OF THE TIME, it loses it's specialness, and becomes "oh yay, another platform. Whee...?" You could have used the huge openness to your advantage, but you only did average work with it, as well as used a fair amount of cramped areas to ruin your map. (Side note, I noticed you have a waterfall without damaging effects. Fixup time?) Overall, a technically sound map, but it just fails to stand out from any other map.
Flooded Mine [Boinciel] -
6/10
This map was the best out of all of them. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good. The custom content wasn't stunning, but it served it's purpose, and it did it well. The amount of detail you put into the map really brought out its individuality and superiority from this contest's entries, but it wasn't enough to fill the map sufficiently. The custom enemy was cute, by the way; it makes those evil designs of 1.1 crawlas just pale in comparison. What you could've added is more gimmicky stuff that would go with the "the mine has flooded zomg" theme you have. All it seems to be is a cave with water in it. No mine visible. I know it's difficult to accomplish in SRB2, but it seems that you didn't really try. Sure, you have a random, relatively minor mine accent all over the place, but it doesn't make it any more mine-like. Other than that, you've got some good ideas. I'm sure you could make this map so much better with time.
Green Hill Game Gear 2 [Glaber] -
3/10
Awesome intro, but my expectations were not treated well. The music doesn't loop very well, by the way. Anyway, classic case of Glaber Syndrome; you can't really port Game Gear to SRB2. You might've done better with 2D mode, but otherwise, it was kinda confusing. The design was linear, plain, and not fitting for SRB2. I actually got stuck, not knowing what to do, and apparently you can spindash from one part of the map to the end with the wind shield you provided. It definitely said "Hey, I'm different! I'm new!", but it didn't say anything about any of the other factors of a map you really need. Cool, but cool doesn't always make the grade.
Undersea Palace [GCFreak/Callum] -
5/10
At first glance, I was severely disappointed. I don't know why, but I expected a lot more from you, even though I have no previous knowledge of your mapping style. Pretty plain, and way too open. The music choice was nice, but it didn't really fit the map well, only because it didn't wreak "Tidal Tempest", but whatever, that's not important. The major flaw was the lack of real obstacle. There isn't much else to it. What intrigued me, and probably many others, was the duplication of the water slide from the 1.1 preview video, but you created a cheap system to make it a bit difficult to land on the platforms at the top, so you would land on the bottom, make your way up, and be forced to go through it again, as if you were quietly murmuring in the background, "Look at my slide, fools... Look at it. I SAID LOOK AT IT!" Neat, but it didn't help your map, sorry.
Singleplayer Notes:
I thought because of the large amount of SP entries this time around, the quality would be off the charts, but I was sadly mistaken...
Match:
Carnage Palace [Zanyhead] -
3/10
The design looked cool, but it was small, and cramped in most of the map. Still, the ring combination was a good choice for this type of map, so you obviously knew how to add a proper balance.
Metal Spire [SonicMaster] -
1/10
Weird concept, but it works... somewhat. The map is only a small square with a rectangular inlet, duplicated three times on a z axis. It was boring over the net because... well, there was almost nothing there. I could've easily just made 3 sectors, and it would essentially be what you have now. Um, bravo.
Voiced Concern [Glaber] -
10/10
Magnificent. Simply amazing.
The way you voiced your concern for 1.1's new match system involving the emerald really swayed my opinion toward your point. Having emeralds available in the map and having a player turn super in a match may not be a good idea after all. As I see it, you're going to get tons of underrated scores for just having them in the map, without people understanding why you took the risk of losing this contest. The thing is, what you did was essentially is now in SRB2. "Oh, you got points off for emeralds", but they're in all of 1.1's Match AND Capture the Flag maps. Do the official maps get points off for it too?
Brilliant execution, and I liked how you placed the emeralds in their proper areas in an "elemental" fashion. Though the design wasn't that great, it was still okay for online, and it fit well with everything else. I noticed your fail in the greenery area, and I agree; it fails. I hope my rating saves your map from the
sheer ignorance of any other people who underrate this map because of your gimmick.
Match Notes:
All of the entries were below par, and because of the low amount of them, that's all that's here.
Capture the Flag:
... There's just... nothing I can say that can accurately express my disgust in the CTF portion of the contest this time.
Circuit:
Frantic Factory [Roy] -
3/10
It's lazers, random crushers, conveyors, and poor, linear design. There's literally nothing else to say about the map; it's
that plain.
Barren Ambition [Glaber] -
3/10
As far as NiGHTS maps go, it's not too bad. As far as regular maps go, it's not that good. What I realized is that because of the lack of exposure to the NiGHTS gametype, the community isn't ready to see maps made of this type. With enough practice it may become mainstream, but as of now, I haven't seen enough NiGHTS content to know how good "good" is, or how bad "bad" is. I liked the cacti you made (plural of cactus, just so you know), and the background wasn't horrible either, but it was pretty uneventful.
Mine Maze [Blade T. Hedgehog] -
4/10
Spacious, and it fit the theme, but otherwise, fairly boring and annoying. The turns were very sharp, and most of the jumps were exactly the max jumpheight (96 units, similar to CEZ1) causing a large amount of disruption in flow. It played poorly, but it looked nice, so I gave you points for that.
Circuit Notes:
See Match Notes.
That's it. I grade kinda roughly compared to others, so here's my scale to better explain what I mean:
Weird, I know, but it works.
>_>
<_<
