SunkythePootis
Member
I’ve got a better idea on how these voting threads work now, so here goes. Here are my votes for the single player levels, and some bullet point thoughts for said levels in the order I first played them in, for when the thread eventually goes public.
Level Votes:
1. Foliage Furnace Zone, Act 2 by Othius, Kanna, & Spectorious
2. Spiral Hill Pizza by Rogerregorroger
3. Freezer Folley Zone by Fav
4. SunkSea X Zone by Nuhu64
5. Magma Laboratory Zone by RoyKirbs
6. Enchanted Enclave by Vixuzen
7. Zaxel's Thunder Yard Zone, Act 2 by Zaxel Katsugyo
8. Egg Machine Zone by nickls2002
9. Festung Oder So by The Shadow
10. Yearning Yachtyard Zone by PhilJFou/ChaRG
11. Chaos Cove Zone by glaber
12. Tarnish Ward by Princess Plushima
13. Hell Coaster Zone, Act 1 by Voidy2246
14. Bitter Brink Zone by MarbleCheese
Level Votes:
1. Foliage Furnace Zone, Act 2 by Othius, Kanna, & Spectorious
2. Spiral Hill Pizza by Rogerregorroger
3. Freezer Folley Zone by Fav
4. SunkSea X Zone by Nuhu64
5. Magma Laboratory Zone by RoyKirbs
6. Enchanted Enclave by Vixuzen
7. Zaxel's Thunder Yard Zone, Act 2 by Zaxel Katsugyo
8. Egg Machine Zone by nickls2002
9. Festung Oder So by The Shadow
10. Yearning Yachtyard Zone by PhilJFou/ChaRG
11. Chaos Cove Zone by glaber
12. Tarnish Ward by Princess Plushima
13. Hell Coaster Zone, Act 1 by Voidy2246
14. Bitter Brink Zone by MarbleCheese
(I should probably note that these thoughts were made on version 1.0 of the level pack, so some of the stuff I might mention might have been changed in a later update. Just thought I'd get it out there right now, because I just found out a thing I bring up in one of the levels was just addressed in an update as of July 7th)
SunkSea X Zone:
- For the first level I played in the pack, I thought it was a pretty good introduction to the level pack
- The level looks pretty nice for what is mostly using vanilla SRB2 textures
- There’s not much I can really say for describing what the level was like because it was overall, a pretty good standard SRB2 level that I could see myself playing again occasionally.
Egg Machine Zone:
- At first I was quite liking this level with the glooming Eggman symbol in the distance, and the whole level taking place in this computer void, where you press switches to open the next area.
- The ending set piece where the Eggman symbol becomes the last platforming section before the end, was also a nice way to send off the level on a high note.
- However, after the level started to introduce dodging lasers into the mix my enjoyment started to lower a bit as it started to be less puzzle based, and more trying to make these precise jumps to avoid falling into the pit.
- The 2D section was my least favourite part of the level with how it liked to have the moving spike balls every few seconds with not really much room to dodge them. They were kind of annoying in Marble Garden back in Sonic 3 but at least they were few and far between in that zone.
- It did start to pick up again when it started incorporating the bouncy slime. That was pretty neat in that Mario Galaxy 2 water section kind of way, barring the first slime section being kind of frustrating whenever I fell off and died.
- I think if there was a potential Act 2 in the future (like 2 of the levels in this contest), I think the central level gimmicks could be introduced fairly earlier on in the level, so that by the end you could start to mix and match for the last bits of challenge before the end.
- Also I think falling into the pit should just teleport Sonic back to the beginning of the room instead of dying so that it feels less frustrating to fall down in any of the rooms. Checkpoints can still be used of course, but more so for generally saving the current stage progress every couple of rooms.
Enchanted Enclave:
- Huh, I guess Rayman levels are a recurring guest star for O/ULDCs in the same way Mario levels are a recurring guest star in the “Make a Good Mega Man Level” contests.
- Jokes aside, there’s not much I can really say about this level. It was a pretty short level on both side paths with maybe a tower climb at the one of one of them.
- The jumping Crawlas are neat addition to the line up of Crawla Pirates, but them using the jump dash sound effect doesn’t really sit with me very well. It made me think that a sound clip was missing like all the times I saw that happen with SRB2 Kart characters. I think a little jumping noise (like say the Sonic CD jump noise or Dynamite Headdy’s jump for example) would fit better for the kind of action they are doing. Just a little something to differentiate their sound cue to the one Sonic makes with his jump dash.
- The different time of day each time when I load up the level was pretty cool though. Would like to see more of that.
Hell Coaster Zone:
Yearning Yachtyard Zone:
- This is a decently made level but it was rather forgettable for me, as such my thoughts on the level are rather limited.
- For a level named after Yachts, the Yachts don’t really get used much other than being in the background, and housing some rings on an optional path near the end of the level
- I do like the little challenge of trying to jump up a really tight slope to get a chaos emerald
Tarnish Ward:
- This was sadly the only level that I couldn’t bring myself to finish after a good 10 minutes. I wouldn’t call it a horribly made level but I didn’t really have much fun running around in this level
- Part of it might be partly due to the emerald radar in SRB2 being a bit finicky, but I had a lot of trouble finding, let alone getting close to the emerald shards with the rather cryptic positions of them, and the added hint monitors didn’t really help much with how they can only give you one hint compared to the 3 hints you could get for a shard in SA2’s Treasure levels.
- The rather droning music didn’t help with how monotonous the level felt to run around in
- The level does look good for the theme it’s going for and the custom pre-rendered sprites are nicely integrated into the game, but that’s the best I can give the level. Sorry about that :/
Chaos Cove Zone:
- This was much easier to get the emerald shards compared to Tarnish Ward, but with how generous the level is with golden shield monitors, extra lives (which give you 100 rings in this pack) and even Chaos Emeralds, it kind of feels like the level wants me to play it as Super Sonic and fly around it.
- Quite a few of the emerald shards were right next to a chaos emerald, and because of how easy it was to run across them, it makes the level an easy grinding spot for getting Super Sonic on even the first playthrough.
- Other than that, it’s a simple treasure hunting level alright.
Bitter Brink Zone:
- When I saw the fancy level icon for this, I ended up going in thinking that it could be a fun bob sledding level. I was left disappointed.
- The release thread for the pack mentioned that the 2D section for this level was buggy and it was certainly right as not only do the Mario Bros like to go backwards when doing the ground pound roll, but for a minute I had no idea how to get past the first curve of it with how it kept looping on itself.
- For a while I thought that the blue spring was meant to send me towards one of the paths, but then when playing around with Luigi, I accidentally found that the first dash panel on the main path was how you got to the other pathway, and this perplexed me.
- The bob-sled is not really well implemented either as the turning is very stiff, the lack of a backside sprite makes the characters look like they’re floating in the air due to the lack of a seat (I understand this is how the Unleashed bob-sled looked, but I think the back still could have been considered to make the model look more convincing in SRB2’s engine) and nothing is stopping you from still using a character’s jump ability while in the sled.
- I would forgive the bobsled’s shortcomings if the level didn’t suddenly ask me to make quick turns in either a maze of dash pads, or a tricky platforming section over the cold ocean.
- The main path at one point suddenly tasks the player with going through a whole bush of spike balls which never show up again after this, so it kind of feels like a last minute addition.
- At least the bob-sled paper sprites look nice, so it does show that the creator of this level has potential to go places if they keep going, and are willing to learn from their experiences making SRB2 levels.
Freezer Folley Zone:
- This was a short but sweet level, and I’m not just saying that because of all the ice lollies and bouncy jelly that can be seen throughout the level.
- The art style was what really struck out to me while looking around. There’s some nice usage of blue and purple hues for the look of the textures which also translate to how the level is presented in-game.
- The decorations also stick out quite nicely with their pronounced outlines which help add up to an appealing level all around
- It was both pretty funny and genius to have the ending of the level be you climbing up a giant fridge, as if that was what made this area so frosty, like that one gag in Spongebob Squarepants.
- Also it has a little guy sitting a picnic table. How could you not like this level?
Zaxel's Thunder Yard Zone Act 2:
- Forgive me for being nitpicky here, but while I appreciate trying to add a little story to the level, the japanese voice clips used did take me out of it with how it didn’t seem to line up with the dialogue presented on screen. It shows 2 characters talking, but only one voice can be heard in both of the cutscenes, and while I don’t know japanese myself, I was able to notice when a short voice clip ended yet the dialogue seemed like they had more to say.
- It also seemed like a missed opportunity to have a boss battle at the end of the level since the first cutscene mentions that they’re heading towards an arena, only for the level to end with the traditional sign post and Zaxel basically going “I’ll get you next time, Gadget! Next time!” in the ending cutscene.
- While I’m still on the negatives, I would like to point how...just not good the music used was. It seems to want to go for a mix of FM synth with some 8-bit instruments (kind of like the second AVGN Adventures game), but the mixing of the instruments really hinders the composition of the track with a lot of instruments being really loud, including the bass at points. As a result, I had to resort to turning into Super Sonic for the rest of my first playthrough as at least it would allow me to listen to something different in the background. Even on additional playthroughs I would often either go Super or get the Super Ball flower as the Mario Bros just for the music change alone.
- It’s a shame that the music is a huge sticking detractor of the level for me, because otherwise I think it is a considerable improvement over the first act of Thunder Yard.
- The closed in areas don’t feel as cramped, and the more open areas have more stuff to interact with, there’s less bombs to screw you over with the magnet shield, it’s generally a more engaging level to play around in overall.
- The little easter egg at the end of the level was a nice touch. Helped making climbing the castle feel more worthwhile than it otherwise could have been.
- Only thing I would change in the level is to not do the troll pit at the end of the level. Like c’mon, how is anyone going to anticipate that when rolling into the springs for a speed boost down, on the first play-through?
Magma Laboratory Zone:
- Another solid level from RoyKirbs
- Normally I don’t think much of the US soundtrack for Sonic CD, but the usage of Stardust Speedway Good Future was actually very fitting for this level and hey there’s even a MIDI version that I can toggle on if I wanted to.
- There’s some fun usage of the fireballs for some tricky sections where you have to run along while dodging all the incoming fireballs.
- The barrels especially are well incorporation here and seeing the snail badniks set them off did bring quite a few chuckles to my face
- Only issue I had is that the middle part of the level did feel a bit directionless on the first playthrough. This is partly my fault because I thought that the lava river with platforms was one way of progressing forward, but I only ended up backtracking through the level without realising.
Foliage Furnace Zone Act 2
-0/10 no Lava Powerhouse remix This was an incredible 3D rendition of the Sonic After the Sequel level and I think much better than what Act 1 had to offer in a previous OLDC.
- To get the one issue out of the way, I thought the fixed camera for the rising bridge did initially cause me to fall to my death since I was holding forward while going off the spring when that happened.
- The cannons from the original game have some great low poly models, and the way they are used in the level is practically on par with how the DKC games tended to use the barrel cannons as another fun method of traversal.
- I will never get enough of those big slope jumps. Always a great set piece to behold when it shows up, and it’s cool that’s it’s the ending set piece for this level.
Festung Oder So
- I quite like the concept behind this level and the way it introduced itself was done pretty well. It starts with a quiet introduction as you make your way up, pressing the nearby switch in the process.
- Once I got to the gate, boom! 150 time limit! There’s a door blocked off by 6 switches! I don’t know what’s going on but it’s certainly making me want to go fast thinking it’s gonna be one of those thrilling escape sequences but as a whole level!
- The level even gradually starts to crumple apart as you try to find all 6 switches, it’s getting more intense by the second!
- Then the level ends after hitting all the switches in the arena. Oh…..that was short. :(
Spiral Hill Pizza
- This was an interesting mix up. It’s less of a traditional Sonic level, but more of a mini game set in a larger open world in the vein of Spider Man’s famous(?) pizza missions, with the emblems acting as a reward depending on how many pizzas you delivered in the time limit.
- The music even reflects this as it starts out with typical Italian music, but after a while the percussion starts to kick in and the music starts to become more energetic. It helps add a lot of tension to you needing to deliver all the pizzas on time, instead of the usual Spider Man 2 affair of making the music gradually faster and higher pitched.
- Navigation for the locations at first is rather cumbersome, as the directions I was given weren’t fully clear to me, since I wasn’t too familiar with the town I was placed in. There are green arrows to show where you should be going, but they are rather hard to see in the distance with how thin they are. I think much thicker arrows, or some ring trails that pop up as you progress through the mission, could have helped with making the direction more clear on the first go around.
- Once I figured out the path I was meant to go on, I had a really fun time trying to rush through the whole level and get as low of a time as I could. The level is open enough that it allows for quite a few mobility options for the playable cast, and the balloons scattered around add to the fun of planning out an effective route for the run.
- It helps that the town itself is pretty nice to look at. If there’s anything I think Roger does really well with his level, it’s making them feel populated to the best of his own abilities with all the civilians and little references that you wouldn’t normally notice in the average play-through. Makes the reward of being able to explore the town all the more enticing.
SunkSea X Zone:
- For the first level I played in the pack, I thought it was a pretty good introduction to the level pack
- The level looks pretty nice for what is mostly using vanilla SRB2 textures
- There’s not much I can really say for describing what the level was like because it was overall, a pretty good standard SRB2 level that I could see myself playing again occasionally.
Egg Machine Zone:
- At first I was quite liking this level with the glooming Eggman symbol in the distance, and the whole level taking place in this computer void, where you press switches to open the next area.
- The ending set piece where the Eggman symbol becomes the last platforming section before the end, was also a nice way to send off the level on a high note.
- However, after the level started to introduce dodging lasers into the mix my enjoyment started to lower a bit as it started to be less puzzle based, and more trying to make these precise jumps to avoid falling into the pit.
- The 2D section was my least favourite part of the level with how it liked to have the moving spike balls every few seconds with not really much room to dodge them. They were kind of annoying in Marble Garden back in Sonic 3 but at least they were few and far between in that zone.
- It did start to pick up again when it started incorporating the bouncy slime. That was pretty neat in that Mario Galaxy 2 water section kind of way, barring the first slime section being kind of frustrating whenever I fell off and died.
- I think if there was a potential Act 2 in the future (like 2 of the levels in this contest), I think the central level gimmicks could be introduced fairly earlier on in the level, so that by the end you could start to mix and match for the last bits of challenge before the end.
- Also I think falling into the pit should just teleport Sonic back to the beginning of the room instead of dying so that it feels less frustrating to fall down in any of the rooms. Checkpoints can still be used of course, but more so for generally saving the current stage progress every couple of rooms.
Enchanted Enclave:
- Huh, I guess Rayman levels are a recurring guest star for O/ULDCs in the same way Mario levels are a recurring guest star in the “Make a Good Mega Man Level” contests.
- Jokes aside, there’s not much I can really say about this level. It was a pretty short level on both side paths with maybe a tower climb at the one of one of them.
- The jumping Crawlas are neat addition to the line up of Crawla Pirates, but them using the jump dash sound effect doesn’t really sit with me very well. It made me think that a sound clip was missing like all the times I saw that happen with SRB2 Kart characters. I think a little jumping noise (like say the Sonic CD jump noise or Dynamite Headdy’s jump for example) would fit better for the kind of action they are doing. Just a little something to differentiate their sound cue to the one Sonic makes with his jump dash.
- The different time of day each time when I load up the level was pretty cool though. Would like to see more of that.
Hell Coaster Zone:
Yearning Yachtyard Zone:
- This is a decently made level but it was rather forgettable for me, as such my thoughts on the level are rather limited.
- For a level named after Yachts, the Yachts don’t really get used much other than being in the background, and housing some rings on an optional path near the end of the level
- I do like the little challenge of trying to jump up a really tight slope to get a chaos emerald
Tarnish Ward:
- This was sadly the only level that I couldn’t bring myself to finish after a good 10 minutes. I wouldn’t call it a horribly made level but I didn’t really have much fun running around in this level
- Part of it might be partly due to the emerald radar in SRB2 being a bit finicky, but I had a lot of trouble finding, let alone getting close to the emerald shards with the rather cryptic positions of them, and the added hint monitors didn’t really help much with how they can only give you one hint compared to the 3 hints you could get for a shard in SA2’s Treasure levels.
- The rather droning music didn’t help with how monotonous the level felt to run around in
- The level does look good for the theme it’s going for and the custom pre-rendered sprites are nicely integrated into the game, but that’s the best I can give the level. Sorry about that :/
Chaos Cove Zone:
- This was much easier to get the emerald shards compared to Tarnish Ward, but with how generous the level is with golden shield monitors, extra lives (which give you 100 rings in this pack) and even Chaos Emeralds, it kind of feels like the level wants me to play it as Super Sonic and fly around it.
- Quite a few of the emerald shards were right next to a chaos emerald, and because of how easy it was to run across them, it makes the level an easy grinding spot for getting Super Sonic on even the first playthrough.
- Other than that, it’s a simple treasure hunting level alright.
Bitter Brink Zone:
- When I saw the fancy level icon for this, I ended up going in thinking that it could be a fun bob sledding level. I was left disappointed.
- The release thread for the pack mentioned that the 2D section for this level was buggy and it was certainly right as not only do the Mario Bros like to go backwards when doing the ground pound roll, but for a minute I had no idea how to get past the first curve of it with how it kept looping on itself.
- For a while I thought that the blue spring was meant to send me towards one of the paths, but then when playing around with Luigi, I accidentally found that the first dash panel on the main path was how you got to the other pathway, and this perplexed me.
- The bob-sled is not really well implemented either as the turning is very stiff, the lack of a backside sprite makes the characters look like they’re floating in the air due to the lack of a seat (I understand this is how the Unleashed bob-sled looked, but I think the back still could have been considered to make the model look more convincing in SRB2’s engine) and nothing is stopping you from still using a character’s jump ability while in the sled.
- I would forgive the bobsled’s shortcomings if the level didn’t suddenly ask me to make quick turns in either a maze of dash pads, or a tricky platforming section over the cold ocean.
- The main path at one point suddenly tasks the player with going through a whole bush of spike balls which never show up again after this, so it kind of feels like a last minute addition.
- At least the bob-sled paper sprites look nice, so it does show that the creator of this level has potential to go places if they keep going, and are willing to learn from their experiences making SRB2 levels.
Freezer Folley Zone:
- This was a short but sweet level, and I’m not just saying that because of all the ice lollies and bouncy jelly that can be seen throughout the level.
- The art style was what really struck out to me while looking around. There’s some nice usage of blue and purple hues for the look of the textures which also translate to how the level is presented in-game.
- The decorations also stick out quite nicely with their pronounced outlines which help add up to an appealing level all around
- It was both pretty funny and genius to have the ending of the level be you climbing up a giant fridge, as if that was what made this area so frosty, like that one gag in Spongebob Squarepants.
- Also it has a little guy sitting a picnic table. How could you not like this level?
Zaxel's Thunder Yard Zone Act 2:
- Forgive me for being nitpicky here, but while I appreciate trying to add a little story to the level, the japanese voice clips used did take me out of it with how it didn’t seem to line up with the dialogue presented on screen. It shows 2 characters talking, but only one voice can be heard in both of the cutscenes, and while I don’t know japanese myself, I was able to notice when a short voice clip ended yet the dialogue seemed like they had more to say.
- It also seemed like a missed opportunity to have a boss battle at the end of the level since the first cutscene mentions that they’re heading towards an arena, only for the level to end with the traditional sign post and Zaxel basically going “I’ll get you next time, Gadget! Next time!” in the ending cutscene.
- While I’m still on the negatives, I would like to point how...just not good the music used was. It seems to want to go for a mix of FM synth with some 8-bit instruments (kind of like the second AVGN Adventures game), but the mixing of the instruments really hinders the composition of the track with a lot of instruments being really loud, including the bass at points. As a result, I had to resort to turning into Super Sonic for the rest of my first playthrough as at least it would allow me to listen to something different in the background. Even on additional playthroughs I would often either go Super or get the Super Ball flower as the Mario Bros just for the music change alone.
- It’s a shame that the music is a huge sticking detractor of the level for me, because otherwise I think it is a considerable improvement over the first act of Thunder Yard.
- The closed in areas don’t feel as cramped, and the more open areas have more stuff to interact with, there’s less bombs to screw you over with the magnet shield, it’s generally a more engaging level to play around in overall.
- The little easter egg at the end of the level was a nice touch. Helped making climbing the castle feel more worthwhile than it otherwise could have been.
- Only thing I would change in the level is to not do the troll pit at the end of the level. Like c’mon, how is anyone going to anticipate that when rolling into the springs for a speed boost down, on the first play-through?
Magma Laboratory Zone:
- Another solid level from RoyKirbs
- Normally I don’t think much of the US soundtrack for Sonic CD, but the usage of Stardust Speedway Good Future was actually very fitting for this level and hey there’s even a MIDI version that I can toggle on if I wanted to.
- There’s some fun usage of the fireballs for some tricky sections where you have to run along while dodging all the incoming fireballs.
- The barrels especially are well incorporation here and seeing the snail badniks set them off did bring quite a few chuckles to my face
- Only issue I had is that the middle part of the level did feel a bit directionless on the first playthrough. This is partly my fault because I thought that the lava river with platforms was one way of progressing forward, but I only ended up backtracking through the level without realising.
Foliage Furnace Zone Act 2
-
- To get the one issue out of the way, I thought the fixed camera for the rising bridge did initially cause me to fall to my death since I was holding forward while going off the spring when that happened.
- The cannons from the original game have some great low poly models, and the way they are used in the level is practically on par with how the DKC games tended to use the barrel cannons as another fun method of traversal.
- I will never get enough of those big slope jumps. Always a great set piece to behold when it shows up, and it’s cool that’s it’s the ending set piece for this level.
Festung Oder So
- I quite like the concept behind this level and the way it introduced itself was done pretty well. It starts with a quiet introduction as you make your way up, pressing the nearby switch in the process.
- Once I got to the gate, boom! 150 time limit! There’s a door blocked off by 6 switches! I don’t know what’s going on but it’s certainly making me want to go fast thinking it’s gonna be one of those thrilling escape sequences but as a whole level!
- The level even gradually starts to crumple apart as you try to find all 6 switches, it’s getting more intense by the second!
- Then the level ends after hitting all the switches in the arena. Oh…..that was short. :(
Spiral Hill Pizza
- This was an interesting mix up. It’s less of a traditional Sonic level, but more of a mini game set in a larger open world in the vein of Spider Man’s famous(?) pizza missions, with the emblems acting as a reward depending on how many pizzas you delivered in the time limit.
- The music even reflects this as it starts out with typical Italian music, but after a while the percussion starts to kick in and the music starts to become more energetic. It helps add a lot of tension to you needing to deliver all the pizzas on time, instead of the usual Spider Man 2 affair of making the music gradually faster and higher pitched.
- Navigation for the locations at first is rather cumbersome, as the directions I was given weren’t fully clear to me, since I wasn’t too familiar with the town I was placed in. There are green arrows to show where you should be going, but they are rather hard to see in the distance with how thin they are. I think much thicker arrows, or some ring trails that pop up as you progress through the mission, could have helped with making the direction more clear on the first go around.
- Once I figured out the path I was meant to go on, I had a really fun time trying to rush through the whole level and get as low of a time as I could. The level is open enough that it allows for quite a few mobility options for the playable cast, and the balloons scattered around add to the fun of planning out an effective route for the run.
- It helps that the town itself is pretty nice to look at. If there’s anything I think Roger does really well with his level, it’s making them feel populated to the best of his own abilities with all the civilians and little references that you wouldn’t normally notice in the average play-through. Makes the reward of being able to explore the town all the more enticing.
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