#\D+ NAME ?/30 Level Design ?/15 Creativity ?/5 Atmosphere * Theme guess ^ YT Desc COMMENT #22 Those Dang Ol' Moles 22/30 14/15 5/5 * Judge ^ Stop! Hammer time! Very inspired by the Game Watch theme. Mixing the hammer with the autoscroller is an interesting combo. The moles were mostly well placed. There were a couple of tricky jumps, but due to the insane amount of powerups, I never felt in danger. Not sure it was a good call to give a mushroom box every couple of screens. Made the whole thing feel a bit short? Not sure another section would have spiced it up Using only moles and mole related sprites was gutsy, but I feel like it held you back a bit. The throwing moles really can't do too much damage in an autoscroller given how they target the player's current location. Still, I admire the pluck. Really enjoyed the aesthetics. You've embraced the flatlaned with this one. #13 Hammers Down! 5/30 13/15 2/5 * Oil Panic ^ Mario definitely wishes he had a helmet, among other equipment. I kinda like the concept. Timed arcade style survival rooms are kinda cool...but this just drags. The various sources of RNG eventually add up to a not too fun time. The choice of the transparent window for the bomb dropping was hard to see...in the levels where it was visible. Room 4 was especially egregious because of the Erie spawner. Second time I got there, one spawned on me before I could move. Not sure why there wasn't some sort of midway, but one would have been appreciated. After room three or something. Eventually cheated my way through just to see what I'd have to do, and seeing what I saw, my interest in a legit clear dropped precipitously. If I wanted to play bullet hell, I'd get some Touhou. Like, good concept, but the execution wasn't quite there. #8 SMW Helmet 21/30 14/15 4/5 * Helmet ^ Spinies make a good helmet, provided they've been emptied first. Six rooms. Disabled running/jumping. Simple enough. You've gone with the game as a direct inspiration, and it works well enough. Adding in note blocks to allow for verticality definitely helps, but I definitely found myself wanting a little more variety. Not quite sure how you'd do that without sacrificing the purity of your concept though. The last room's there and back approach at least shook things up at the end. Room three can be defeated by just holding right, which is kinda funny. Also, I noticed that the text at the beginning isn't correct. A/B are definitely still enabled for both bounce height and regrabs. Not complaining. Life's weird without those. Aesthetics are simple, but fine. The blocks convey the concepts well. #11 sadistic entomologist 29/30 14/15 5/5 * Greenhouse ^ I always get entomology and etymology mixed up. Would have made a weirder level if it was the latter. Moving platforms mounted on bugs. Sounds like a H.R. Giger painting. There's something so very odd about each different insect's lurching movement and how you've used them for make nightmarish moving platforms. Well, maybe not nightmarish, but definitely weird. There's nothing superfluous in this level. Everything has a purpose and serves it well. You get taught right up front that we're gunna be playing stacks and switches and that concept runs through the entire level. Never really gets old either. The variations on those themes work well, though I did get a bit tired of the back and forth switch setup by the poor hammer bro. I really enjoyed this one. Lots of good puzzles. Some very pleasant setups. The finale with the falling spider just adds to the greatness. Couldn't quite make out the iconography at the bottom of the level. Wonder if that'd be an author spoiler if I did. #12 Oil Panic 13/30 10/15 3/5 * Oil Panic ^ "This is more Q than all QLDC entries" -- ASMagicianMaks I'm not sure what to make of this one. It's an odd little rompy level, with some kinda messed up graphics. The oil swimming losing you time is kinda unimportant, given the amount of time you have to work with. The green berries are nice in that respect, but they're never important to go out of your way to get, so they're kinda superfluous. The health mechanic kinda doesn't matter? Giving people 12+ hp is pretty silly in a level like this. Really, this level has some mechanics that don't really have much to do with each other and don't add up to a cohesive whole. If this was QLDC, I'd probably be kinder, but that's not this contest. The ending is probably the most confounding bit. I'm not sure if there was a special p-switch or if doing a p-switch jump ends the level or if it's a sprite count thing. Really, this whole level just left me kinda confused. #5 Holy Men 25/30 13/15 5/5 * Man Hole ^ It's raining men! Hallelujah! Ha, I get it. Took me too long. Anyway, love the simple concept. Self destructing levels have a long and storied past, but this one does that history justice. Starts off showing exactly what to expect and then runs with it. Loved the dragon coin placement. Always just a little off the beaten path, but it makes routing through the level just that wee bit more dangerous. Midway troll's also classic. Adding faster Holy Men in the second half was a good choice to shake up the pattern a bit. I'm kinda torn between this level being exactly the right length or if it could've used a bit more. Not sure. Either way, what's here is enjoyable. Definitely would recommend this one. #19 accounting analysis 27/30 15/15 4/5 * Judge ^ Accounting is my formula for moolah! One screen puzzles. Really clever ones that require knowing interesting things about SMW's internals. Yeah, I'm going to love this. Anyway, the puzzles are well designed. Every level has a logical solution. No guessing is required, just keen observational skills. Really enjoyed the p-switch one, because I think it could be solved by either visual or audio clues. Dang clever. Midways are placed well. Even if you were missing a trick or two, having to guess a path wouldn't be the end of the world. And the troll at the end was an absolute master class in Pavlovian conditioning. Well played! #7 GET PINBALLED!!!! 27/30 14/15 5/5 * Pinball ^ Sonic was the only reasonable choice. Hiro-soft accused the creator of this one of being a Kaizo person...and I think he's right. There's some fairly standard Kaizo setups in here. A few places where regrabs help. The block bridge is a staple of the genre, but even then, this level works on the standard axis. Mostly because of the generous midways. Really appreciated that you couldn't cheese that bridge by spin jumping on the grinder. Definitely felt some SMW hacking experience there. If anything, I think I'd like to have seen a few more sections, given how short they were. The level kinda ended when I was getting going. The flipper is cute. Wonder if it was ripped from somewhere or hand drawn? Anyway, this is a case of taking two simple concepts and running with them to create unique and interesting setups. Always appreciate a level like that. #2 vermin vvrangle 26/30 12/15 4/5 * Vermin ^ Moles into summer! Door into Summer and moles. Classic combo. A very setup based level, which works well. A decent amount of waiting for moles to spawn or fall while also having to manage your shrinking reserve of platforms, though I found a small cheese for one of them. Would have been cool if the hammers actually did kill the moles, but alas. Well placed midway. Never felt like I had to redo too much. The dragon coin placement was really clever. Can't get the first one without being big. Others require clever timing. Never quite got the fourth one without dying. Adds some challenge while also serving well as mile markers. Might've been my favorite bit of the level. #14 Pinball Reverse! 16/30 14/15 4/5 * Pinball ^ Gotta love those huge springs! Gotta love those huge springs! This is a really solid concept. Building levels where the main mode of movement is downward is hard to do, but by keeping the sections short, you've made it work well. Really enjoyed boards one through three, which is kinda the problem. It's sadly too short! If there'd been a few more boards or something, I'd have enjoyed it a lot more, but as your box said, 24 hours is a pretty short period of time. Would have also liked to have seen some more variety in what you needed to do. Just finding the switch every level got a bit stale. Anyway, take your time and make a whole hack like this. I'll play it. #9 Greenhouse 12/30 8/15 5/5 * Greenhouse ^ There's a shocking amount of wood furniture in this greenhouse. This is a perfectly fine rompy level. It's a bit on the short side, and the midway is placed like...four feet from the door. Would have liked something with a bit more meat on it. That being said, the aesthetics are top notch. This good blend of vanilla backgrounds and well chosen off the shelf graphics really works. FF6 music suits it well. The best part was the dragon coin placement. Required some exploration to find them all, and some of them had some fun little fakeouts. If this was the first ghost house in a Standard: Easy hack, it'd be a perfectly fine level, but for this contest, it was just not quite enough. #6 Eraserhead 27/30 14/15 4/5 * Helmet ^ I'd rather have an Eraserhead than The Skittles touch. Dang, this one is something. I'm definitely reminded of FerpyMcFrosting's QLDC2023 level with the layers locked to Mario's position. This is, of course, a good thing. Lots of interesting ideas spring from this concept. The first room introduces the concept gently. The second builds upon it stylishly, though the ending to the second room confused me. I think there was a puzzle there? It didn't seem to work right when I played through. Either it was somehow broken or I solved it by accident. Either way, odd. The third room was...tighter than expected. Maybe I'm just bad at coloring in the lines, but it felt like it dragged a bit, especially because you couldn't stop and wait at any point. The fourth room really took the cake. A discoshell hat is both stylish and functional. Led to some interesting interactions. The ending is just a little trolly, but that works well in the framework of the level. Yeah, this one's really cool. Go play it. #17 Lifeland Rescue 18/30 9/15 5/5 * Life Boat ^ This is the most Yoshi's Island Mario sprite I have ever seen. Fits the theme well. Would have liked a little more interaction with the boat. The only real use for it is the couple of jumps per section where you have to wait for the boat so you can clear a single pillar, which is fine, but not exciting. You can even skip some of the waits with creative jumping. This is a very linear, almost autoscroller like level. Some diversion would have been nice. Maybe a bonus room or something to seek out. Also, this is one of the most on point style wise Mario sprites I've ever seen. Dunno if you made it yourself or ripped it from somewhere, but it looks great in the full Yoshi's Island aesthetic. The level looks fantastic too. #18 The sewer of BOMBS 21/30 13/15 5/5 * Bomb Sweeper ^ Dunno if Wario is the most trustworthy bomb squad member. This is an interesting one. I'm not sure the mop really adds all that much to the level. Its main purpose is to blow up the bombs to setup quick platforming sections, which could be done with almost any other mechanism. It's fun to play with, and the poking animation is funny, but I don't feel like I ever got any use out of it that a cape without flight would have given. That being said, the level itself is pretty fun. There's some jank with the KooPhD sprite, but it wasn't too bad. The midway is placed a little oddly with some waiting before you can get back into the meat of the level. Might have been better placed after the pipe. There were some parts where the bomb throwing mole is placed just offscreen and it's hard to react to the thrown item you're not expecting. That mushroom behind the bomb bombs right after the midway is a key example. Kinda uneven, but I can definitely say the level looks great. #21 Bowser's pinballs fall on your head...for 16 screens 27/30 13/15 4/5 * Pinball ^ Bowser sucks at pinball. All his shots end up in the drain. I swear, that mushroom's looking at me... Really solid level. Good use of the ball theme. Some interesting setups involving, shockingly, balls. A good mix of tight timing and some more sedate sections where you can take your time and work out what you want to do. The long rolling ball section was almost cheesable, which was kinda nice for learning what you need to do there. The second section didn't really introduce anything new, but did give some cute timing setups to overcome. The star of the show is definitely the ball yo-yo section. Kinda wished there'd been a second section full of that to play with. Could have been cool. Maybe even doubling it up. Dunno. The last section definitely felt shorter than the other ones, even with having to double back. Almost felt like this needed a boss to cap it off narratively, but 24 hours definitely wouldn't allow for that... Still, this one's cool. Definitely would recommend. #4 oil panic lol 11/30 7/15 2/5 * Oil Panic ^ If it's an oil panic, shouldn't the red Yoshi catch the level on fire? 🤔 Gunna be honest, this level didn't really do it for me. The combination of slippery well lubed ground and oil currents, while thematic, wasn't a lot of the fun to play around. The football chuck also got a bit old after seeing so many of them in awkward to kill places. Just a lot of awkward parts in general. I really liked the Dragon Coin placement though. Good spots that served as both mile markers and little extra challenges to grab them without getting hit. Also, having Yoshi as the major powerup for a level without doing Yoshi setups is a bit odd. Not sure about that one. Kinda wished you'd found some setups with the red Yoshi to justify having him around. The redness didn't really make a difference and kinda hurt your theme a bit. #10 Greenhouse 21/30 10/15 3/5 * Greenhouse ^ With all the fire in here, it should be nice and tropical! It's definitely kinda green. Maybe greenish house? Not sure the slight recolor of the Ghost House background sells it, but the plants and glass tiles definitely do. You've centered the entire level around the plants more or less, which kinda works. The block escort missions are kinda cute. You could choose to play them straight, or clear the path and go back to get more blocks. It's nice that there's a choice. Adding Thwomps and sparkies in addition to the red Piranha Plants was an interesting idea, but it mostly just makes the player wait for cycles to line up. A couple of cycles together is perfectly fine, but lots on top of eachother can make the player start looking for epicycles. At least with the blocks to clear things, you didn't make it too annoying to wait or kill most obstacles. #15 DODGE JUDGE 27/30 13/15 4/5 * Judge ^ I used to hate Hammer Bros...Still do, but I used to too. I used to hate Hammer Bros...Still do, but I used to too. However, here I think you've used them quite well. The first number platform section definitely demonstrates an understanding of the behavior of Hammer Bros. Jumping onto a different platform to match the jump of the Hammer Bro. was really clever. The first half felt like it was going to be a combination of setups and simple platforming, but you changed it up in the second half with some timing puzzles and wayyyy faster hammers. Other than the Hammer Bro. over the mushroom, all of the setups had reasonably graspable solutions. And I did find the midway and ending trolls kinda funny. At least you gave an out for both, by having the number platform within reach of the landmass under the midway. And adding a Bullet Bill generator at the end was an inspired choice that took the ending troll from kinda mean to really cool. Yeah, this is just a really good level. Go play it. #16 sparkies on a ship 16/30 12/15 4/5 * Life Boat ^ If the raft is also made of wood, shouldn't it be on fire too? 🤔 Cute story to start off with. This level is perfectly fine. Like, I had fun running through it. The setups were reasonable and readable. the big issue I have is that it's pretty short and fairly forgiving. You gave a lot of powerups for how little distance there is to travel. Definitely feel like another section would have sold this one better. And maybe a few fewer mushrooms. It's cute for what it is, but it definitely feels like wasted potential. Also, would have been nice if the level was a bit lower so we can see the other clouds in the background. Most of the time, we're just looking at blue. #1 Space Bomb Sweep 28/30 14/15 5/5 * Bomb Sweeper ^ Bombs IN SPAAAAAAAACE! Dang, this is a good level. I always like a level that shows off its gimmick in a quick, learnable way. Especially if the reason you learn the gimmick is greed. The bombs are simple to understand, but you've used them in some clever ways to create pleasing setups. The very first real setup with the 1 bomb, the 3 bomb and the falling platform is really cute. Powerups are placed in reasonable locations, but I generally felt like the most dangerous obstacle was the floor... Which of course changes in the second half. I'm not sure world wrap really fits with the theme, but it was definitely a fun choice. Also, glad it was a proper ASM wrap rather than tons of greenbeans. If I had any criticism, I think the second half was a lot easier than the first. The bombs and munchers are dangerous, but not dangerous enough to pose a real threat with how powered up I was at that point. I think you could have tightened up some of the setups to compensate for the lack of kill plane. Not really sure. But the fact is, I died plenty in the first half and not once in the second, this it's a pretty minor complaint. Dragon coins were well placed. Encompassing both a reward for more careful platforming and serving as milestones. Anyway, go play this one. It's pretty and pretty fun. #20 Sticky Situation 29/30 15/15 5/5 * Oil Panic ^ The prequel to Mario Teaches Handwashing This is a puzzle level. I like puzzle levels. Pretty sure the hacker picked the oil/water gimmick first and then saw where that took you. Every area exploits the mechanic well, without it ever feeling superfluous. Starting with shells and keys, keeping Mario from spin jumping or forcing Mario to kick a shell he may not want to kick and then moving to living Goombas was inspired, given it forces a timer without making it all explicit that you just can't get rid of the bombgoomba. Dragon coins were placed very well for this sort of level. Either requiring a little bonus puzzle to get or exploring just a bit off the beaten path. They just add some extra joy to this sort of level. On the other hand, the health system wasn't quite necessary. None of the sections were really long enough to justify it. Didn't detract from the level, but it's ultimately a minor quibble. Go play this one. Seriously. Might just be my favorite of the contest. #3 Double Dipper 25/30 15/15 5/5 * Manhole ^ Split screen action! Split screen action! Wasn't sure where you were going with this at first, but it's actually really cool. The screen split felt like it wasn't going to have too much of an effect, but it turns out to be a pretty interesting constraint. Because you've only got one jump of height on the lower section, you really have to focus on short jumps and avoiding general nastiness rather than more involved vertical setups. The Rip Van Phanto Fish as a key example. Or the rubber tree ants. Both of these work well in tight spaces, rather than larger, more open areas where you have the space to work around them. I think you would have benefitted from adding some dragon coins or something to maybe force some other transfers between the two halves. Would have allowed you to spread out some of the more intense obstacles. Not sure. Would have liked a few more sections, given how often there were midways/the reset door. The idea has legs, but I could definitely feel that it pens you in quite severely.