Stipkip wrote: ↑Sun Aug 28, 2022 7:15 pm
Anyways, this probably won't get a lot of attention right now with the contest levels being played at the moment, but I would highly appreciate you leaving a comment if you do get to play this! Feedback is always welcome! And, well... have fun!
Quite a nice level. Shame that you didn't make it in time. For such a simple, dare I say, Vanilla gimmick, you can make it fun and enjoyable. As your last year's entry preceded this, which only uses the in-game built TNT blocks, you did very well utilizing the gimmick with a lot of setups (more so with rooms.lua since you can retry as many times as you want). The difficulty, as well as the complexity of each individual setup/trick, increases linearly, and I don't think it is too unfair in the end. Some parts are repeated, mostly about how to pass through walls of fires and beetles as a normal platform. Nonetheless, the progression in skill and level design feels very natural like most other good levels that use rooms.lua.
The chase sequence at the end is a good climax. It puts everything for the player to go through in one sequence without stopping. While it appears short, I can't come up with any possible setups except. Maybe a vertical section with the chase sequence would work better instead of ending with the big Beetles stopping while you wait on the ledge. I also suggest toning down the Earthquake effect, since it is very distracting to the tough platforming you have to do without stopping.
I think there exists a problem where some jumps are precise and require quick reflexes. The SMBX physics doesn't work in favor of its slow acceleration and change of momentum. It is easy to miss a jump, or failing to gain enough momentum to make distance across the lava. In some time, you also have to wait out for the cooldown of the Raccoon suit since you can't go into Statue mode in quick succession.
I feel like there is a great potential for a 2nd version. Just replace the Big Beetles (which drops when standing) into the Small Bettles (which rises when standing) as a more difficult version. Not only does the space you can stand on it is smaller, but also gives a new whole variety of setups without changing a single block in the level.