Map votes:
Map thoughts, in alphabetical order:
(Note, all maps were played first using Amy in Software mode, and all in-level emblems were searched for)
| 1. Caustic Crater Zone by Seaballer 2. The Twins Palace by Chaolino 3. Command Facility Zone by Twins'R'Okay 4. Nimbus Lake Zone by Yyeellooww7 5. Lofty Woods Zone by Vixuzen 6. Botanic Space Zone Act 2 by DeltaSanic 7. Blue Glacier Zone by BronsoKip 8. Lucid Landscape Zone by Othius 9. Follow Your Rainbow by Rogerregorroger 10. Invasion Zone by JABSphere94 11. Frozen Fissure Zone by Garrean 12. Digital DeLuche Zone by RoyKirbs 13. Something Zone by Marcos 14. Sunset Summit Zone by Entropy 15. Iron Dominion Zone by MK.exe 16. Junkyard Jeopardy Zone by PhilJFou/ChaRG 17. Powder Park Zone by DakotaSpine 18. Rhyolite Ruin Zone by Radicalicious 19. Grass Planet Zone by Voidy2246 20. Pineapple Prairie Zone by SupaCustardbro 21. Bricked Busted Zone by Mikhael Blur9 |
Map thoughts, in alphabetical order:
(Note, all maps were played first using Amy in Software mode, and all in-level emblems were searched for)
| Blue Glacier Zone by BronsoKip A small map with multiple exits. Due to the nature of the exits I assume the layout is unfinished, but what is there manages to squeeze a lot out of the small play space it takes up.
The central "bridge" area and its surroundings look messy and haphazard at first, but they are very distinct and connect to each other organically, making mentally navigating the level a lot easier than I thought it would be. The ice walls after the falling platform room were a useful visual aid for telling me where I was, and had a nice view to boot. Hopefully if the map's ever finished, that flowy connection feeling that the starting areas have can be felt in the later parts too. Botanic Space Zone, Act 2 by DeltaSanic A nighttime map set in some purple ruins, not that you could tell it's night without looking at the sky, the map's lit brightly throughout. It was unclear where to go at the start, as the path forward is under where you enter from, and looks like another bit of cave wall at a glance. The starting area could use a bit more moody lighting for the cave walls, and unfortunately there's a big HOM in the sky hole due to a structure in the skybox clipping into the room.
There's a neat transition to show the true theme of this second Act, a clever use of vanilla and slightly modified THZ & ERZ assets to make a unique techbase aesthetic, with sector machinery, believable structures, thematic use of flamethrowers and steamjets, along with an introduced gimmick of destroying computers to open nearby doors. Though it's probably from me hanging around in the level too long, I found a few of the jetty-syn frames riding around on conveyer belts getting stuck. I ended up so taken in by the story this techbase was telling and its visual design that I forgot to think about how it played, haha.. On the second playthrough of the map I missed the music trigger for the reveal simply by getting off the elevator before it stopped, and was left with silence until I went back to try and fix it. Further in I got crushed by a different elevator as it didn't wait for me to fully walk off of it before it raised again! Gameplay-wise though, there isn't much to write about for this map, it's very linear and feels more like it's focused on the story and theme side of things, which to their credit are pretty well done, though I wish there was more attention given to the lighting to really sell the atmosphere. Bricked Busted Zone by Mikhael Blur This map is too big and non-directional for its own good. It's a mess of paths that have no clear benefit to taking, there's a lot of tedious platforming and I never really felt like I was having fun, I just felt lost and confused on where I was going, locations somehow felt very samey.
Finding out just how many areas this map actually has when I was trying to find emblems was incredible, and not in a good way. It felt like two maps put into one, and it kinda is, as looking in Zone Builder it's two big maps linked together by teleports, and being linked this way just adds to the confusion on where the hell the player is or going or trying to go to. There was often little visual guidance on where to go besides encountering dead ends, and the effort to get to each path never felt worth it. The punishments for failing in this map are way too harsh, where one misstep can throw the player back into a previous area or dump them in the middle of deep water, undoing their progress (the waterfall in the first area is immensely guilty of this). It's a big map, and a lot of effort was put into it, but it just doesn't work for me. Because I really needed to get it off my chest: Getting the emblems for this zone was hellish, it's a gargantuan map with many paths and one-way points, each character navigates the map differently and the labyrinthian nature of it all leads to many frustrating "but I could get to that location with that character, how do I get there now??" and "Ugh I'm at the end of the map again, time to restart" moments.
Amy's emblem was particularly painful because I went through every single area multiple times except for the one path I was meant to go, because there's multiple "green room"s in the level and figuring out which one the emblem hint means while remembering where everything is too much. I didn't even know what the switch that opened the emblem door did because I hadn't actually found where the emblem was yet! And it's not near the switch at all! And Sonic's emblem, hoo boy. I knew/guessed where it was from playing Amy, but had completely forgotten how to get there by the time I got to Sonic, and ended up playing through the map a few times with him, too. When I finally got to his emblem area and saw what was required to get it, it made me realise how much I was sick of the map's overabundance of precise platforming on blocks of very strict heights, Egg Guards and punishing backtrack (water)falls. Caustic Crater Zone by Seaballer A tech-themed map surrounded by an acid sea, its unusual colour combinations makes it stand out from other maps of its type. There's a lot going on visually as bits of pipe and machinery jut out of the landscape. There's two paths to take at the start, one is more obvious than the other, the more obscure one involves jumping on top of and behind things those taking the other path would have thought were just scenery. Not sure if there's any real benefit to taking it besides getting a shield, but it was neat.
There seems to be a lot of throwing as many different textures in a room as possible, personally it's not really to my tastes, but it does lend to a feel of chaos and oppression. It feels like I'm in a place that has been violently laid waste by Dr. Eggman's industrialization in some sort of bad future, quite horrifying. I didn't expect the level to end when it did, I thought I was just jumping to a platform with goodies on it and there was more to the right; I guess that was the map's other path? guess I'll have to try it out. Ah yes, the spin path is just as sinister as the non-spin path, good. Though it's way too easy to skip the entire first room by just jumping to the exit door as you enter, making this objectively the faster (and easier) path. It really messes with the map's balance in my opinion, and I hope the spin path can be extended or reworked in the future to better match with the no-spin path. There's also a decent length Knuckles path that isn't just an afterthought, it's weird how everything in there is orange though (I guess for climbable wall clarity). There are a few spots however where the acid hasn't been flagged as dangerous and is safe to walk in, specific spots I found were the second acid pool after the second checkpoint, and the acid pool right before the spin/nospin path split, the latter of which I accidentally fell in during normal gameplay. This map is quite a bit more difficult than most in this OLDC, the chaotic terrain makes it easy to slip into acid or step on zapping floors, and badniks are often found in close quarters. Fitting that this map is located at the far back of the Hub. It's a really solid map all around, and I feel it's likely to be top contender. Also, I appreciate that the emblem hints were haikus. Like a few of the other maps in the ODLC, this one is involved in a certain emblem, and I am including this map's part in it here. As with Command Facility Zone, this map actually has the secret room be part of its own set of emblems, so it's a lot easier to find out about. Where it was hidden was alright, but I feel it was too close to one of the other emblems? Command Facility Zone by Twins'R'Okay Ah, hm.. the start of this map is kinda messy, there's an odd wall texture in front of spawn, and if you turn around the skybox is having a weird clipping error with the wall. Moving on though.. oh wow, I wasn't expecting this in SRB2 of all places. An E1M1 tribute! It's not just a blatant copy, the map has its own twists on the Doom original. It's a shame the courtyard isn't visible from the slime room, as gave a decent view in the starting pillar room.
Oh, ohhh there's more. While I understand the level design has been simplified for the sake for gameplay, I kind of feel missed out on using previous Doom knowledge to find secrets, but the changed design and new secrets makes for a fresh take on the time-honored tradition of remaking Doom maps in other games. It took me a while to realise, but all the textures in the map are custom made to be references to Doom textures (Even that wall I said was odd at the start), and I love it. I don't know if they were made for this map, but they're quite good. I should think about this map from the perspective of someone that doesn't know or care for what it's doing, though. The geometry is quite simple, angled and abstract to match the style of Doom, but without that context it looks like the mapper is reckless and uncaring about their sectorwork, tossing the map out without bothering to refine anything. Hell, that line of thinking has happened in the Doom community itself before, and an abstract .wad named Erkattäññe decided to go against the community norm of making a map beautiful and structured and made it as abstract and imperfect as possible to bring the focus down to pure gameplay. That wad got a Cacoward, and proved level design is more than just looking pretty. So is this map fun to play? I think so, though it's very Sonic-centric, with little verticality. I kind of cheesed the later acid portions of this map due to having an elemental shield, but on another playthrough with Tails (where I purposefully avoided flying), they were alright! You're encouraged to get through quickly and I feel that fits the map's theme, a no-frills romp to the finish. This does leave Fang in the dust though, as the acid doesn't stun or slow you, so one advantage he could have over other characters (acid floor immunity) isn't really there. The boss fight at the end is swift, though it can also just be skipped by climbing/flying on top of the goalpost box and activating the goal from above. It can also be skipped by having Eggman wander over the giant "EG" on the ground, activating the exit door. Oversight? The secret outside area in E1M5 isn't very Amy friendly, as it's hard for her to get back inside using the slopes provided. For some reason, in a much later playthrough the acid just stopped deducting rings, I have no idea why. I had to restart SRB2 to fix it. Like a few of the other maps in the ODLC, this one is involved in a certain emblem, and I am including this map's part in it here. Unlike a couple other maps this one's secret room is directly to do with one of its emblems, so it's easier to know about, hooray! "AT THE END OF THE STAGE F CA", though? Was that an error? Anyway, the emblem hint said it's a multi-map series of buttons puzzle, but I only found two in E1M5 and that seems to be all I needed. In the secret room itself I found myself getting shot at by something through the wall on the left, not sure if that was intentional. I'm glad the "x rooms to go" trigger is very hard to miss. Digital Deluche Zone by RoyKirbs Ooh, a map using Black Hole Zone textures, but it seems a bunch of new ones have been made to add variety to the limited colours, and wow that skybox, it's simple but very effective. There's also some familiar badniks to see! Wow though, there's a lot of use of colour and movement here, it's hypnotic.
With such a simple aesthetic, there's a lot more focus on gameplay, so let's look at that! The 2d section that I can best describe as "wobbly red ground" ended up killing me due to the end of it being unexpectedly halfway up a wall in front of a pit. I feel there should be a barrier there (or just not a pit at all) so the player doesn't just run straight into the hole and die like I did. Getting trapped later on inside a "bumper circle" wasn't fun, there wasn't a clear opening like previous circles and Amy can't spin to reduce the size of her hitbox. Also, the final rollout rock segment, I feel it's way too difficult and doesn't save any time compared to just jumping down and taking the seesaw platform path. All that's really gained for taking it is three ring monitors. Second playthrough I took a different path, and it felt more interesting. It showed me the 2d path I took in the previous run from a 3d perspective, which was neat, also neat was the part with the timed slopes, it felt hectic but was quite fair. I liked the idea of the "jello" room where you have to time your jump, but in practice I found it quite finicky. That end of level boss, I was worried waiting at the end might be a hassle later on for anyone doing Record Attack, but I noticed the timer stops when they're killed, so maybe speedrunners don't have to wait? I went to check and that is indeed that case, that's quite considerate. To be cheeky, I tried taking a gravity-flipped Tails back out into the earlier parts of the map, there's no death trigger in the sky in the 2d sections so I got to take the gravity flip all the way to the goal. It would have been really cool to find a secret doing this, but I don't think there were any... Follow Your Rainbow by Rogerregorroger Whoa, 7 emblems to find? Nice! Though there's no Record Attack emblems so I guess that's filling the gap.
Man, I don't know how Roger manages to put so many little visual easter eggs into his maps on top of the effort needed to hand draw all the textures he uses. Admittedly by this point in his mapping career he's built up quite a library of textures to pull from, but there's still a lot of fresh new ones here. Due to this being a Roger map I get very easily distracted by all the little details that he puts in, so it's impossible for me to play through it at a fast pace to feel the map flow the first time. Amy casually walking into a store by literally walking through its glass windows, because she can't seem to use a door, is pretty hilarious. At the end of the first fork in the road, down on the left side in the car park there's these red and yellow cars(?) that seem to be phasing through reality at high speeds, it's quite spooky, and touching them as they pass through causes damage. I'm guessing they're from a different part of the level and they somehow bled into this area? I keep getting hurt attempting to hit the I appreciate that the would-be death pits of the original City Escape are now holes to be filled in with foundation, it gives context to why the holes were even there in the first place, and are a lot fairer for the player. The best part about these pits is that they are built more to slow the player down than make them turn around and try the platforming again, keeping the forward pace. I uh.. I will admit that after a while I lost track of which way was forward, due to all my sightseeing. The area I was in (with the car at the bottom of a lake) didn't lend itself well to a sense of direction. It was really cool how the building at the end of the truck section got closer as if the trucks were really moving! So cool that I tried to run away from it and kinda broke the facade.. it stopped moving and I could phase through it. I got through the next area with all the jumpscare trucks pretty quickly (also I know they're trucks, but could the horn sound's volume be lowered a little? It's very loud), time to play the map properly! I... flew out the top of the loop somehow, was funny seeing Amy fly at the cinematic camera but I don't think that was intended. Ah, hm...even in my second run I find that area I got confused in while faffing about confusing just running through it, there's no clear sense of direction and I'm just hoping I'm going the right way. There's also some finicky platforming going on in areas, most of it on tiny box shapes while you're being shot at (for example, the GUN truck chase, the Santa room, and getting out of construction pits), which kinda break flow a bit. The map's alright, it's just due to the blocky city layout and open mall it's hard to get the correct direction at times. Also this Goemon tune is a bop Like a few of the other maps in the ODLC, this one is involved in a certain emblem, and I am including this map's part in it here. Another map that has the secret room be part of its own set of emblems, thankfully. Using the radar to find it was tricky though, as the radar pings both near the Cakes 'n' Tea shop early on, and in the Christmas store at the end of the map. It's in neither of those areas, and strangely I thought I needed Tails to fly up and inside, but the intended way in was a corridor I hadn't actually checked before, oops. I appreciate all the references though, made this being my last room a lot sweeter. Though it seems the counter is buggy or something because it still thinks I have rooms left... (this ended up getting fixed later on, phew) Frozen Fissure Zone by Garrean A map about navigating a canyon full of icy cliffs, reminds me of the old versions of ACZ Act 1. The penguin and snowmen badniks are quite lethal in this stage, I haven't seen the snowmen used in such a vertical area before and they work really well with how they've been positioned, and the penguins threaten to knock players into the abyss as they guard the cliff ledges.
It's a shame FHZ's assets are so hard to make look like something new, but I feel the map's geometry has its own identity that pushes past the "another map that looks like Frozen Hillside" effect, the chasm that the map is built around certainly helps. Unfortunately a lot of the map looks the same and lacks real notable features to differentiate areas, them being just a series of cliffs over a pit. It's only near the end that things get changed up, where the player has to bounce on springs suspended between a series of frozen waterfalls before finally escaping the canyon, being treated to an impressive view and a final platforming challenge on moving platforms (that like to turn invisible in the Software renderer, agh) while dodging snowman bombardment. Speaking of moving platforms, they do appear earlier on in the stage as well, but there they often change directions suddenly and without warning, making them hard to jump onto and often caused me to fall into the abyss. The map does looks cool to spinfly through with Tails! Also it's a small thing, but I appreciate that the archway teleports keep track of the player's position as they pass through, rather than just teleporting to a set location. Grass Planet Zone by Voidy2246 Set on floating islands above a mountainside as the sun sets. Could really do without the Hive Elementals. Bees will just endlessly harass from far across the map and there's nothing that can be done about it.
It's really unfortunate because the map looks interesting and I want to be able to judge it on its other merits (like the gravity switching), but the usage of Hives in a map like this is just not fun, they have insane range and the player has little ground, making a lot of trouble for players that take things slow or are playing the map for the first time. Also I kept falling through the chainlifts for some annoying reason. At least using Amy's hammer on the balloons and bouncing off Buzzes for big distance was fun, as balloons are the one "spring" she can reuse her hammer from. Invasion Zone by JABSphere94 Lots of custom badniks in this map! I don't know if they were made for it specifically, but I'm going to treat this review as if they were. The map design itself, uhh.. it mostly takes place in a basiccorridor with really high walls, and seems to be really catered for spin characters, with slopes for rolling down and dashing up.
After a while the map opens up into a big open playground (figuratively speaking) that's just begging to be explored. Seeing this large open space was such a surprise, and made me excited after dealing with the claustrophobic hallway for so long. Definitely my favourite part of the map, and it keeps things going from there, with a transition into the clouds! I will say though, this map is not designed for Amy and Fang.. it's a bit painful to get through (or out of) some of the sections designed for spindashers. About the boss, it was frustratingly unclear that hitting the shield was doing anything at all, and it was only through persistence (and lack of knowing what else to do) that I found out I was doing the correct thing. The checkpoint before the boss only gives one measly ring to work with, so I'm glad OLDC converts the nearby 1-up into 100 rings. I'm also glad this map doesn't have a ring emblem, haha.. Turns out there was an alternative path that completely changes the corridor section that only Amy can't reach out of the vanilla 6 unless she uses the spring behind spawn. The ramp at the end of it bypasses most of the playground area (one of the best parts of the map!), boo. The badniks in this map are a bit too oppressive, I feel like the flying X badniks should either have their projectile speed lowered or have a visual cue before they fire, it's less abusive to Fang and lets the player be more reactive when they appear in swarms in the corridor sections. I also feel like the yellow bird badnik's AI could be better, or at least conveyed better. I can't figure why I sometimes get divebombed by them from offscreen and why sometimes they just sit there. I think there should have been a speed booster placed in front of the player at the start of the map (instead of hiding a spring behind them) to "teach" that there's momentum preservation and that you can run through the corridor section really fast. That or make the starting ramp more steep. I didn't even realise there was a global momentum effect until like.. my 4th playthrough? And after figuring it out this map became a lot more enjoyable. Iron Dominion Zone by MK.exe Techno Hill but purple!
I entered what I thought was an Amy path, but it turned out to be a Knuckles path. Then I found a slope that was too steep for Amy, and a bustable hole nearby; after entering I ended up thinking this was a Fang path because such a long jump from a crate is required for her to progress and I wasn't aware of it at first, I even tried breaking the vent textures on the wall since they looked like they were important and the boxes lead up to one of them. At the end of the Fang+Amy path it's a bit unclear where to go, if badniks weren't generally placed facing away from progress it would have been a coin flip picking left or right (a couple days later I tried the map again, and went right because the terrain curves that way and the Buzzes were flying at me from that direction. Ended up having to do the Amy section twice because I accidentally backtracked), not that I picked either since there was a Knuckles+Amy path nearby! I'm not sure why the vent-looking texture is bouncy in the Armageddon Shield room? Or what the point of the room even was, it was a bit odd, and you can't bring the shield past the room. Overall it's a neat map, the palette feels a little harsh with Amy's pink though. I'm glad there's variety for all the characters. Ah, playing the map again with Knuckles, I got to the room where you have to press the underwater button to drain the goop; it's quite hard to see that it's there, both due to its red (I can only assume it's red) blending into purple in the goop, and it's quite far down compared to the rest of the room. After that there's a room with a laser door and a powerline leading from it that leads to.. a ring monitor and a turret? Nothing? After some exploring there's an emerald token under the goop in the room hinted by the bright light casted by the fan, but.. it took me too long to see the cracked wall. I feel like the powerline should lead straight into the crack, rather than the "corner skipping" through solid wall it does now. Anyway, playing it some more and seeing another path I missed, this is a neat map, even though it confuses me with slightly obtuse level design. Junkyard Jeopardy Zone by PhilJFou/ChaRG Ohh. Isn't it an entry requirement for a level to work properly in the Software renderer? Despite the warning at the start I'm going to assume it does, otherwise this wouldn't have been accepted entry, right?
I like the alternating timed platforms at the start, not something that's done often and I feel it works here. (even if I cheesed waiting for the lift by hammering an underwater spring) The Buzzes in the 2d section are spooky, they're inches away but there's an invisible wall keeping them from entering the same 2d plane as me. I ended up getting lost on what to do, leaving and taking the conveyor belt path. The Fang/Amy path has way, wayyyy too many spikes for the Software renderer to handle. Spikes don't need to be this close together, as satisfying as it is to break them! I saw a crawla commander and was about to scold for using the worst badnik in the game, but then it got randomly and amusingly squished by a ceiling crusher. Finished the level, and noticing there's a Metal Sonic path (turns out it was for an emblem) I decided to replay with him, and tackle that 2d "puzzle" section again to see what I did wrong. I figured it out, but it's a bit awkward trying to activate the movers without being crushed. In the second area of the 2d section, Metal Sonic misaligned with the ledge thanks to the conveyor belt on the floor, and I ended up falling into the pit. maybe put that on a different vertical level so as to not accidentally run over it? This part could also really use a checkpoint with all the crushers and hard-to-see crawlas, especially since there's already the escape teleporter there if people want to leave or go back for gargoyles. The level ends kinda strangely in a little GFZ alcove, it was pretty alright to play through, despite rough edges (and I did like the rhymes for emblem hints). I feel like a few tweaks to make the 2d section more bearable and lowering the spike spam are needed, and more player clarity stuff, like making the zappy floors brighter so they stand out, and giving clear marking on the ground where those crushers in the final room land, would go a long way. Lofty Woods Zone by Vixuzen Ooh, lots of custom textures here. Was a bit strange to have all these realistic textures then immediately see an upsidedown tree floating in the air above the start, though.
I like how the map opens up after the first gravity switch, and there's a nice broad view showing what kind of weird gravity bending place the player's getting into. I really like how varied and sloped the terrain is, there were a few points where it wasn't clear where to go though, as the path would be slightly obscured from view or lead back into itself. There's not too much innate challenge here besides bumping into Egg Guards... if you're like me and have the camera set to flip with gravity. The map is actually quite mindboggling with it turned off, and I can see it frustrating people in this regard. Otherwise, it feels like a fun obstacle course to run through and utilize whatever movement tricks your character has available to them. There feels like so many possibilities due to the nature of the terrain and how it folds upon itself. I don't know how hard it is to map upside-down gravity areas, but I *do* know it's tricky to map two seperate areas on top of each other. the Anti-gravity areas don't align to their opposites most of the time, using the negative space the pits of the other side provide. Both a clever way to avoid mapping headaches and it makes for great visuals while playing. Only part of the map I didn't really like was the final cave with the column climb, it feels like more use of the gravity gimmick could have been done here, and the ledges you need to climb are often quite close to the walls, which are easy to get stuck on. Also I wasn't sure about using the cartoony CEZ treeline with all these realistic textures, but its blue tint and solid colours make the more desaturated and detailed terrain pop out, so I think it works in the end. Cool map! I liked the emblem locations too, and the unusual way of obtaining the ruins one. Lucid Landscape Zone by Othius A Sonic CD themed map, quite dense with flowers and trees lining the sides of the path everywhere. Seems like it's also another map with gravity shenanigans!
I got to the Amy/Fang path and suddenly things got surprisingly barren. After how full of plantlife the starting area is, it feels so empty to just have nothing here but green platforms. It felt very unfinished. Exiting the Amy/Fang path I'm dropped into a wide open area with giant geometric shapes and impressive slopes behind me, and it makes me question what I missed by playing Amy. Moving forward into this.. square path? I'm a bit unsure what the map wants to be, as the style of the level design keeps changing from area to area. Falling down in this path and having to retry the entire thing suuuucks. And then suddenly there's the end of the level. Uhh lemme replay this with Sonic. I took the anti-grav spin path this time and... looking above me I can see the normal path, and it looks a lot more detailed. It must be where most of the polish work on the map was spent? Unfortunately the anti-gravity spin path didn't get the same amount of attention, maybe it's just hard to map upsidedown? It feels like I'm wandering around out of bounds rather than playing through an intended section of the level. At least there's an interesting landscape to look at. Went the triangle path this time, and it felt more in line with the rest of level than the square one did. It involves using Super Sneakers to run through a platforming section ala ACZ (or you can do some fun gravity tricks to skip to the end!), it works for the most part but that starting jump is deceptively tricky for non-Sonics and feels like it could have been angled better. I get that the square path is blockier because it has a square theme, but I just feel like it's a departure from the rest of the level's shapes. Also I realise now that the exit is two gravity flipped sides of a single platform, that's neat! I feel like a lot of the plants in the starting area could have been spread out to the rest of the map, it's a little bit too dense there and too barren in other areas. Though I did notice some upsidedown plants in the sky near the two huge slopes, oops.. I will say though, the emblems are where this map has an opportunity to shine. There's a lot of large geometry outside of the main play area, and with the gravity flip added on top of that there's quite some exploring to do with Tails and Knuckles. Though likely due to the nature of the level geometry, the hints were quite confusing, to be honest. Ah, I wish I had better things to say about this map.. it has a lot of effort to make it look good at a macro level, and the starting rooms are promising, but it just sort of gets lost somewhere making the space playable and it feels incomplete. It's taken at least 1 1/2 hours for me to find the last emblem before I decided "screw it", and looked in the editor. Oh. I don't agree with this. Okay. I found them all. Summit. Crater. Ruin. City. Facility. Multiple times. The counter even reset once, because I had the audacity to not do this all in one sitting (blame me for defaulting to no save mode). There turned out to be a bug where one of the maps wasn't progressing the counter, but it's getting fixed now, thankfully. With a helpful hotfix, I finally was able to get this emblem. I really didn't enjoy it, and not just because of the bug... this map was my first exposure to the secret hunt, and it left a bad taste in my mouth, how obtaining this emblem wasn't localized to its own map, how I found out what was going on, and how I wasted so much time in the first place looking in Lucid Landscape to find it. I've put my thoughts on each map's secret room together with the maps themselves, one of the secret rooms (Rhyolite Ruins') was particularly unfair, and required looking in the editor to find. Nimbus Lake Zone by Yyeellooww7 I swear I know this map's music but I can't figure out what it's from! Some DS or GBA game, for sure.
A watery map covered in teal grass and various shades of rock and crystals, it's quite easy on the eyes and spacious, though also quite linear. The map's geometry is quite understated, and its aesthetic and use of decorative objects works really well. Just being pulled through a cave full of crystals by a waterflow looks good. In the first cave I managed to fall down into the water, and getting back up using the spring it's very easy to bonk your head on the platform above, I feel it needs a larger net for the player to pass up through. There's also a short river up ahead that threatens to throw the player into the abyss if they somehow fall into it, and it's full of springs that I assume are there to help the player get out, but I kept having so much momentum that I couldn't save myself with the final middle spring whenever I tried it out, and the other two springs beside it only really work if I can get stuck on the wall. Partway through the map there's a water... fountain? geyser? that has you press a switch to move some platforms up. I didn't quite understand this bit as the switch is right there as you enter, and after pressing it a creaking sound plays, so I thought the platforms were timed. It turns out (after playing the map for the 4th time) that it's actually the sound of a gate up above opening, I really had no idea because I wasn't ever looking at the gate. Further on into a cave I thought there was an opportunity for a path split, but it was just a "you fell down, go get back up" sort of deal, sadly. After that, there's a short underwater section with avoiding fish, and then jumping out to the exit. This map had a lot of varied areas, but still kept its theming consistent and cohesive. A bit on the easy side (the hardest part is actually if you fell down in that one room and decide to wait for the elevator, there are a lot of Minuses down there) and very linear, but I think the focus was on making a place that was pleasant to pass through. It's a small thing, but I appreciate that the goalpost doesn't get activated if you fly over it. Pineapple Prairie Zone by SupaCustardbro I won't rate the map on it, but the custom death screen was neat. The map itself though, it seems to be a corridor gauntlet of gimmicks, where one idea would be tried out briefly before moving on to the next.
There's quite a few strange things in here, like solid rectangular water pillars, Mario coins, and snowmen out in the sun. Frequently springs are hidden inside bushes and clouds, which being hidden from the player was annoying. I feel like the death water could have done with a proper water effect, as it's currently just a small tiling texture that gets quite grainy to look at over a large surface. Unfortunately there's a bug with the water droplets in this map tanking the framerate that keeps me from hanging around for too long.. Powder Park Zone by DakotaSpine A snow/ice themed map taking place in what I assume to be a mountain range above the clouds. It feels heavily inspired by Sonic 3D Blast's Diamond Dust Zone and Sonic 3D Blast's level design, could just be a coincidence but it's the feeling I get from it.
The stage was alright, I can't think of much noteworthy to say about it though, besides the problems I had with the goalpost area. There's a giant invisible wall blocking the player from going near the exit too early, even though there's no way of getting up there; in fact, if you fall down from the goalpost platform to the ledges below there's no way back up, there's nothing down there for people looking for secrets, and the giant invisible wall prevents you from jumping back to an earlier part of the level, forcing a suicide/retry. The invisible wall can easily be circumvented by Knuckles, Tails and Metal Sonic, so there's no real reason for it to be there as it just causes an unfair death to anyone trying to explore. Due to being in a big open space there are framerate issues when looking at too much of the map at once, especially looking at the goal area from the spade emblem's location. Speaking of emblems, I found "I love watching you bounce." uncomfortable and not something someone should be writing as an emblem hint. Rhyolite Ruins Zone by Radicalicious A multi-mare NiGHTS stage with an RVZ theming. Pretty solid overall and doesn't overstay its welcome like some other multi-mare stages can, though a bit low on verticality. However I have to say I didn't like how the third and final mare just gets stuck in a small loop around the exit when you reach the end, instead of letting you continue and do another pass of the course for points. I somehow got the A rank for the emblem anyway, but seeing that C for the mare when I left felt poopy.
The time attack emblem was pretty strict, but doable, and I might have been a bit less efficient than I should have been. Those stupid lavafalls after the Super Paraloop were the bane of my existence. I really feel like the collectable emblems should have had hints, specifically the one that you can't see and need to use the radar to do a blind paraloop to pick up. I'd rate this more highly if it didn't have the final mare and hidden emblem issues. Since first writing this I have come to understand the existence of a certain emblem, and I am including this map's part in it here. The room is too hidden, there's no reason a player would have flown into it as far as I'm concerned. It only opens if the player decides to touch the floor there after destroying the capsule, and the endless loop at the end of the mare prevents the player from getting back to this area, so there's even less chance they'll touch the floor, and unlike other maps there's no emblem tied to it to make players more aware of its existence. Bad form. Something Zone by Marcos A 2D mode map that's basically a "medley" of all the vanilla srb2 campaign maps, made up of short segments giving tribute to each zone (though I don't recall DSZ taking place on a mountain).
There are parts where the player rotates/moves away or toward the camera while keeping the 2d controls intact, I don't think the 2d camera works like this by default, so kudos to getting it to work this way. Each section (except CEZ) seemed to have its own problem: You can get stuck in the GFZ area by just jumping into the gap behind the block where you start. The vent in the THZ area is quite buggy and will often just teleport you straight down instead of taking you where it's supposed to. The spin path in the DSZ area kills you if you rolled under the gap instead of spindashing into it. The ACZ area has a very rude death pit right as you enter, then expects you to blindly go downward after the rest of the map has taught that going down = death. In the RVZ area, the Unidus badnik unfortunately doesn't work well in 2D mode, and will snipe you from offscreen as you approach. ERZ wasn't clear that it was about to make a sharp turn and I ran straight into a Spincushion. I feel the rotating camera views (like the CEZ tower) and moving away into the background are better at conveying upcoming obstacles than moving straight to the right does. Sunset Summit Zone by Entropy A quaint map set on a mountain, it makes for a nice "first stage" for the OLDC.
Playing as Amy here it's a bit easy to break the progression of the level with all the use of springs, so I took the opportunity to spend my time exploring the place and look for secrets. It ended up feeling a bit like I was playing an N64 platformer, roaming around a big setpiece. A pretty relaxing stage (disregarding the dragonbombers), and apparently it had to be remade due to a SLADE issue, which while that makes me wonder what it could have been if the mapper had more time, what we got was still pretty solid. Though I did confuse the clouds for giant floating flowers at first. Since first writing this I have come to understand the existence of a certain emblem, and I am including this map's part in it here. I actually came across the room on my first time playing the map, it was in a fair spot to find, and I didn't think anything of it more than just an easter egg and left using the spring. I hadn't actually touched the floor in the room because it didn't look like there was any reason to go in there, so the secret room hunt was completely unknown to me at the time because the script didn't activate. I don't know if it was a good thing or not that I dodged that bullet... (future me writing here, it would have been nice if there was a big shiny button to press like some of the other maps) The Twins Palace by Chaolino Felt a bit easy at first, picking left at the first fork, but the difficulty smoothly went up as the map progresses, and it might've just been my careful playstyle when I'm playing a map for the first time.
I didn't think the Black Phantom Pressure was threatening at all, until I played again and found out it doesn't just drain one ring at a time, and getting hit into it ignores invincibility frames and kills you, scary! There's a great overabundance of ring and shield monitors, possibly to fill space? At least the variety of shields lets players pick their favourites. I like how the music cleanly changes depending on the area you're in! Gave a bit more character to the level. I felt like the outdoor terrain was wide open and flat, could be an aesthetic choice to match the artificiality of the castle, but the starting area especially was quite bland to look at, being a big rectangular box, and the boost panels felt a bit pointless there as they don't boost you past running speed. Also there's a few curved staircases throughout the level that I feel I should be able to run up, but instead I get stuck on them and have to jump, which doesn't feel too great. When searching for the map's emblems, the spade emblem was found upsidedown for some reason, and the fairy fountain room, the text on the wall is wayy too hard to read on my monitor with the colour that it is. Overall a pretty solid level with a neatly done theme that's a lot more dangerous if you're trying to race through it! |
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