Edit: v2 review
Permanent link to original submission
Overworld design through-and-through gets the job done. The colors are nice, although the shapes are often straight-edged. The third submap probably looks the best. I liked how the overworld border color changed from map to map.
Beach House is a deserted Yoshi house. It looks lifeless and dried up.
Menace Beach starts the timer in the cutscene, which I don't like. The writing seems to give off the vibe that Mario doesn't want to concern himself with finding Daxx, but the reward is what makes him contemplate the effort. There are some areas with slowdown when too many enemies group together. I also noticed that Porcu-Puffer just suddenly appeared in the second room, so there may be a sprite tile memory issue that needs to be resolved. The level's beach theme was well-done, and the enemies used really helped bring that out. That said, the layer 3 tide usage seemed to be weak, but seeing how it's the first level in the game, I can't expect anything deep at this point. Progression was helped by the use of Torpedo Ted and Porcu-Puffer in the second half of the level.
Sand Tunnels seemed to be loosely wrapped around the snakes and Piranha Plants. Once again, the level puts you into another room after you cross the midway point. Overall, the level felt kind of cluttered and had even more slowdown than the previous level, but it was never unfair. The grassland surface flowed well into the underground tileset wall.
Whitewater Rafting has a strange black hill in the beginning. Anyways, I don't like how Mario doesn't move with the raft. The Chucks create even more slowdown. The untouchable ground looks like you can make contact with it because of the dark outline. In the second rafting room, there is a ton of slowdown. I did not enjoy this level, but the concept is cool.
Angkor Wat is actually fun and has a good design. The background in the first part looks too much like the foreground and it's hard to distinguish it from solid blocks.
Foggy Mountaintop has cutscenes with a ticking timer... also >blowing his whistle - I didn't gather "going insane" from this... if the intention was to make you think he was giving himself a in public, you've done a very good job. Or I just have gutter brain. The music at the actual beginning of the level glitches because the echo buffer doesn't have the time it needs to clear out. The vertical descent was well-done, but the first half of the level felt kind of like "Sand Tunnels" to me. The non-contact ground in the secret pipe under the munchers actually looked MORE tangible than the stuff you could really walk on, which is a bad thing.
Glacial Chasm made good use of layer 2's rising and sinking controls, but the level itself was way too long to be fun. The secret exit was really hard to get - I did not like the use of Blargg behind a platform that sinks into him so quickly.
Yellowswitch Palace was pretty well-designed, considering its core focus on P-switches. That said, the use of the Volcano Lotus and shell-kicking Koopa is becoming really tiresome by this point.
Spectral Ice Pit is a dark and slippery level. I feel like it made excessive use of sprites in the second half of the level.
Nimbus Bridge has a lot of problems with the FG objects looking like BG objects and the BG objects looking like FG objects. I liked the use of Fuzzies. I did not like the use of shell-kicking Koopas. This level became unbearably cluttered, and I didn't like being boxed in after I got the Lakitu cloud until the P-switch ran dry. Words can not express how glad I was to be done with this level.
Zephyr Clock Tower's cogs don't move Mario as they spin, which looks incredibly weird -- there are some conveyor properties under the rope setting that would go better than not moving at all. The second room had a ton of cheap areas, thanks to the munchers. The room with layer 2 smash was nicely designed. To be blunt, I couldn't stand the rest of this level. The boss room has far too many sprites and has a lot of slowdown.
Lone Sal Basilica is all monochromatic... it's hard to see much of anything, ESPECIALLY in the midway point room. The only part I liked about this level was the interesting twist it put on the Big Boo boss fight.
Molten Quartz, actually, seemed like a return to normal difficulty. The BG and FG contrasted well with each other. Flying rock platforms and Fuzzies were well-utilized, but I feel like Sparkies would've had more fitting graphics for this level than Fuzzies. I enjoyed this level.
Funeral Pyres... I _hate_ shell-kicking Koopas... It's atmospheric, but the Koopas and Bullet Bills don't seem like they belong with this kind of theme. The level was very long, and was significantly harder than the previous level.
Ignis Ruins does not work because Mario doesn't move with those scrolling nets. Between this level and Nimbus Bridge, I don't know which was more torturous.
Infernal Feel Zone mutes the death music, and sometimes results in crashing the game -- most of the times, it doesn't crash, but I've heard a "fire sound" when dying when it does. The red "boxes" look like solid foreground, considering how most of the foreground is outlined, and it makes the level more confusing than it needs to be. At the end of the auto-scrolling segment, there is a lot of slowdown. In the layer 2 smash room, some enemies get stuck in the ceiling, which is really funny. Overall, this level is way too long. Without multiple midway points, it becomes beyond treacherous.
Plasma Processing has the same problem as the level before. I also find it really soon to be using that song again, after such a long level. This needs a stronger indication of the blue P-switch because I never knew about it and ended up trapping myself. There was a sprite tile memory problem causing the springboard not to spawn below the turn block bridge and I could not proceed. I felt like the midway point came much too late, and Mario shouldn't be sliding off of that platform in the next room, and the layer 2 spike platforms should be given priority in the room after.
Dystopian Wastes has issues with the Grinder when you slide into it since the death frame was never properly set and those hands that come out of the pipes scare the crap out of me. Dismembered hands and the like are creepy. >_<; Anyways, this level is considerably less hard than the previous few, despite how tight the P-switch timer is for how far you need to go. I really liked the visual presentation of this level.
Norleras West Wing has really unstable difficulty: the ghost room generator creates an awful lot of problems for me. The level has many sprite tile memory issues.
Norleras Main Base has another problem - this one being the P-switch music going on endlessly because it's used in a room without music. The drum roll also went through the ending cutscene. Other than those issues, these levels are feeling increasingly climactic.
Norleras East Wing looked really cool but it made it somewhat hard to see the action going on in the level. For ONCE, I can say this level felt appropriately hard for where it is. I also spit all over my laptop laughing when said "plebeian."
Ending doesn't conclude the way I expected (final battle, good defeats evil, and so on) but is actually pretty satisfying.
This hack has a lot of good concepts with some of the most frustrating level design I've experienced. Some levels are really atmospheric. As the game goes on, you'll notice certain enemies used in similar ways throughout, while some other obstacles are rather interestingly designed. This hack's difficulty falls into "Hard" as far as I am concerned and the first world doesn't do a great job of easing the player into what the hack becomes. For a SMW hack, the plot is excellent and I really loved it, but I feel like the dialogue didn't do it enough justice, and I didn't understand why the villain thought he did the way about the poor/weak, considering his background -- I guess I'll find out later what made him change. This hack has loads of problems with slowdown and several instances where the line between background and foreground are blurred. The game crash in levels that use the Dark World Dungeon music from A Link to the Past is also a big deal.
Thoughts? Difficulty suggestions if approved?
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mockingod
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Just look above you...
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Permanent link to original submission
Quote
The title screen shows the title on the left in gold, with Alex Daxx off to the side. Lava is underneath whatever he's standing on (unsure if it's meant to be a ship or a dock.) It looks cool. The player can still be heard jumping around, and there is a white fragment that appears at the start of the title screen, and I don't think it's appropriate for the title screen to loop. The intro level is brown and rocky, like a mountain or a desert. Mario arrives on the small continent of Delg. What awaits him?File Name: Infinity Edge (1st Version)
Submitted: 2014.01.25 ~ 06:42:56 by levelengine
Claimed: 2014.01.29 ~ 08:51:27 by Counterfeit
Rating: 0.0
Authors: levelengine
Demo: No
Length: 32 exit(s)
Difficulty: Normal
Description: Here's the poster child to Way of the M, Infinity Edge.
This time around, there's more dabbling into non-vanilla material (graphics) and now, even cutscenes (Press Up to advance these).
In this hack, Mario hears of this town hero named Alex Daxx. Daxx had quite the scandal and since then, has gone missing. Daxx's friend, Dover wants you to search for him while you're in the small continent of Delg. Prepare for the sickest storyline yet in my hacks (not sure if anyone topped this before me in hacks).
The hack is short (4 worlds) and gets hard quicker because of that, so just a fair warning, though it's not Way of the M difficult. It has ten kudos moons and a checklist to go with them (just like WotM), so as a bonus challenge, try searching for them.
Good Luck.
Also, rumor has it that the dark sword Stormbringer was in fact being held in Lethamyr...
Submitted: 2014.01.25 ~ 06:42:56 by levelengine
Claimed: 2014.01.29 ~ 08:51:27 by Counterfeit
Rating: 0.0
Authors: levelengine
Demo: No
Length: 32 exit(s)
Difficulty: Normal
Description: Here's the poster child to Way of the M, Infinity Edge.
This time around, there's more dabbling into non-vanilla material (graphics) and now, even cutscenes (Press Up to advance these).
In this hack, Mario hears of this town hero named Alex Daxx. Daxx had quite the scandal and since then, has gone missing. Daxx's friend, Dover wants you to search for him while you're in the small continent of Delg. Prepare for the sickest storyline yet in my hacks (not sure if anyone topped this before me in hacks).
The hack is short (4 worlds) and gets hard quicker because of that, so just a fair warning, though it's not Way of the M difficult. It has ten kudos moons and a checklist to go with them (just like WotM), so as a bonus challenge, try searching for them.
Good Luck.
Also, rumor has it that the dark sword Stormbringer was in fact being held in Lethamyr...
Overworld design through-and-through gets the job done. The colors are nice, although the shapes are often straight-edged. The third submap probably looks the best. I liked how the overworld border color changed from map to map.
Beach House is a deserted Yoshi house. It looks lifeless and dried up.
Menace Beach starts the timer in the cutscene, which I don't like. The writing seems to give off the vibe that Mario doesn't want to concern himself with finding Daxx, but the reward is what makes him contemplate the effort. There are some areas with slowdown when too many enemies group together. I also noticed that Porcu-Puffer just suddenly appeared in the second room, so there may be a sprite tile memory issue that needs to be resolved. The level's beach theme was well-done, and the enemies used really helped bring that out. That said, the layer 3 tide usage seemed to be weak, but seeing how it's the first level in the game, I can't expect anything deep at this point. Progression was helped by the use of Torpedo Ted and Porcu-Puffer in the second half of the level.
Sand Tunnels seemed to be loosely wrapped around the snakes and Piranha Plants. Once again, the level puts you into another room after you cross the midway point. Overall, the level felt kind of cluttered and had even more slowdown than the previous level, but it was never unfair. The grassland surface flowed well into the underground tileset wall.
Whitewater Rafting has a strange black hill in the beginning. Anyways, I don't like how Mario doesn't move with the raft. The Chucks create even more slowdown. The untouchable ground looks like you can make contact with it because of the dark outline. In the second rafting room, there is a ton of slowdown. I did not enjoy this level, but the concept is cool.
Angkor Wat is actually fun and has a good design. The background in the first part looks too much like the foreground and it's hard to distinguish it from solid blocks.
Foggy Mountaintop has cutscenes with a ticking timer... also >blowing his whistle - I didn't gather "going insane" from this... if the intention was to make you think he was giving himself a
BJ
Glacial Chasm made good use of layer 2's rising and sinking controls, but the level itself was way too long to be fun. The secret exit was really hard to get - I did not like the use of Blargg behind a platform that sinks into him so quickly.
Yellowswitch Palace was pretty well-designed, considering its core focus on P-switches. That said, the use of the Volcano Lotus and shell-kicking Koopa is becoming really tiresome by this point.
Spectral Ice Pit is a dark and slippery level. I feel like it made excessive use of sprites in the second half of the level.
Nimbus Bridge has a lot of problems with the FG objects looking like BG objects and the BG objects looking like FG objects. I liked the use of Fuzzies. I did not like the use of shell-kicking Koopas. This level became unbearably cluttered, and I didn't like being boxed in after I got the Lakitu cloud until the P-switch ran dry. Words can not express how glad I was to be done with this level.
Zephyr Clock Tower's cogs don't move Mario as they spin, which looks incredibly weird -- there are some conveyor properties under the rope setting that would go better than not moving at all. The second room had a ton of cheap areas, thanks to the munchers. The room with layer 2 smash was nicely designed. To be blunt, I couldn't stand the rest of this level. The boss room has far too many sprites and has a lot of slowdown.
Lone Sal Basilica is all monochromatic... it's hard to see much of anything, ESPECIALLY in the midway point room. The only part I liked about this level was the interesting twist it put on the Big Boo boss fight.
Molten Quartz, actually, seemed like a return to normal difficulty. The BG and FG contrasted well with each other. Flying rock platforms and Fuzzies were well-utilized, but I feel like Sparkies would've had more fitting graphics for this level than Fuzzies. I enjoyed this level.
Funeral Pyres... I _hate_ shell-kicking Koopas... It's atmospheric, but the Koopas and Bullet Bills don't seem like they belong with this kind of theme. The level was very long, and was significantly harder than the previous level.
Ignis Ruins does not work because Mario doesn't move with those scrolling nets. Between this level and Nimbus Bridge, I don't know which was more torturous.
Infernal Feel Zone mutes the death music, and sometimes results in crashing the game -- most of the times, it doesn't crash, but I've heard a "fire sound" when dying when it does. The red "boxes" look like solid foreground, considering how most of the foreground is outlined, and it makes the level more confusing than it needs to be. At the end of the auto-scrolling segment, there is a lot of slowdown. In the layer 2 smash room, some enemies get stuck in the ceiling, which is really funny. Overall, this level is way too long. Without multiple midway points, it becomes beyond treacherous.
Plasma Processing has the same problem as the level before. I also find it really soon to be using that song again, after such a long level. This needs a stronger indication of the blue P-switch because I never knew about it and ended up trapping myself. There was a sprite tile memory problem causing the springboard not to spawn below the turn block bridge and I could not proceed. I felt like the midway point came much too late, and Mario shouldn't be sliding off of that platform in the next room, and the layer 2 spike platforms should be given priority in the room after.
Dystopian Wastes has issues with the Grinder when you slide into it since the death frame was never properly set and those hands that come out of the pipes scare the crap out of me. Dismembered hands and the like are creepy. >_<; Anyways, this level is considerably less hard than the previous few, despite how tight the P-switch timer is for how far you need to go. I really liked the visual presentation of this level.
Norleras West Wing has really unstable difficulty: the ghost room generator creates an awful lot of problems for me. The level has many sprite tile memory issues.
Norleras Main Base has another problem - this one being the P-switch music going on endlessly because it's used in a room without music. The drum roll also went through the ending cutscene. Other than those issues, these levels are feeling increasingly climactic.
Norleras East Wing looked really cool but it made it somewhat hard to see the action going on in the level. For ONCE, I can say this level felt appropriately hard for where it is. I also spit all over my laptop laughing when
Daxx
Ending doesn't conclude the way I expected (final battle, good defeats evil, and so on) but is actually pretty satisfying.
This hack has a lot of good concepts with some of the most frustrating level design I've experienced. Some levels are really atmospheric. As the game goes on, you'll notice certain enemies used in similar ways throughout, while some other obstacles are rather interestingly designed. This hack's difficulty falls into "Hard" as far as I am concerned and the first world doesn't do a great job of easing the player into what the hack becomes. For a SMW hack, the plot is excellent and I really loved it, but I feel like the dialogue didn't do it enough justice, and I didn't understand why the villain thought he did the way about the poor/weak, considering his background -- I guess I'll find out later what made him change. This hack has loads of problems with slowdown and several instances where the line between background and foreground are blurred. The game crash in levels that use the Dark World Dungeon music from A Link to the Past is also a big deal.
Thoughts? Difficulty suggestions if approved?
(+1)
Users who have earned a point in this thread
mockingod
Everest
JackTheSpades
Just look above you...
If it's something that can be stopped, then just try to stop it!