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[W3] Crystal Islands

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I figured I should give my level its own thread. So...here it is! Also, I updated the level. Rejoice! Or not.




Crystal Islands is a space-themed level...sort of, with colorful floating rocks and an underwater background. Enemies include Bullies, Paragoombas and Volcano Lotuses. The main gimmick is a cannon called the Billy Gun. Players can carry it and watch it automatically blast Bullet Bills in the direction they're facing.

The music used is "Outer Space" from Super Paper Mario.

Changes in the most recent version:
*Music looping fixed (for the most part) and converted to MP3
*Midway point moved back a bit
*Elevator section completely redone, now utilizing the billy gun like the rest of the level and with less Grinder Glitchiness
*Last room shortened to just the star, the last dragon coin and some bricks

Link

EDIT: fixed some file name inconsistencies.

This level is very fun and looks amazing. I really love the graphics used, and love how genius you used the friendly bullet bill cannon.

I do actually wish the midpoint was moved a bit further into the level, though. I felt like I had to do a lot more easy stuff over. However, if you don't want to change it, that's fine. That's just my personal opinion.




The elevator part is sooooooooooooooooooo much better now. I think the midway point could be moved to right before the elevator, but that's your decision. If I was on the Quality Control team, I would call this accepted.
The level itself is fun enough, and I do think the level did a great job exploiting the bullet bill blaster power-up. However, I think it did it too well in a way. The main problem is that in the beginning of the level you're given a description on the bully enemy. This gives the impression that the level will focus on the bullies for most of the level, but in reality they're not focused on that much. They're used plenty of times, but they just come off as the usual enemy with them not being the main obstacle most of the times they're used. I think it'd be better to save that description for a different level that would be placed before this level and have that level focus on the bullies.

The aesthetics are great, and the music fits reasonably well. If you just moved that bully introduction text to a different level so that this level can be entirely focused on the blaster power-up, and it'd be perfect.
New version! Not much is changed, however.

Link

Changes:
*The yellow Toad who tells you about the Bully enemy has been moved and his text has been changed.
*Midway point moved to right before the water part in the third room.

Crystal Islands: On one hand, I can appreciate the extent you went to to make the level's aesthetics. I can only take a guess at how much time it must have taken to work with that tileset. I also appreciate the layout of the level itself, it feels very Mario-like and very authentic. All except for one bit. The gimmicky chainsaw elevator. I understand the concept behind it, but taking damage causes Mario and the platform to freeze while the chainsaw to keep on moving and messes up the chainsaw's pattern, resulting in you taking damage from the giant fireballs overhead because of the slight timing error caused there. And even if it worked perfectly, I have to say that it just wasn't that fun. It didn't add anything whatsoever to the level, and just felt like a last minute gimmicky add-on. I think skipping the chainsaw segment and warping the player to the spot where the chainsaw part warps to would be better.
Originally posted by Din
Crystal Islands: On one hand, I can appreciate the extent you went to to make the level's aesthetics. I can only take a guess at how much time it must have taken to work with that tileset. I also appreciate the layout of the level itself, it feels very Mario-like and very authentic. All except for one bit. The gimmicky chainsaw elevator. I understand the concept behind it, but taking damage causes Mario and the platform to freeze while the chainsaw to keep on moving and messes up the chainsaw's pattern, resulting in you taking damage from the giant fireballs overhead because of the slight timing error caused there. And even if it worked perfectly, I have to say that it just wasn't that fun. It didn't add anything whatsoever to the level, and just felt like a last minute gimmicky add-on. I think skipping the chainsaw segment and warping the player to the spot where the chainsaw part warps to would be better.

From what you described, it appears you played the oldest version. The newest version in the post before yours has a completely overhauled elevator without giant fireballs.

I think you're right, I tested the version uploaded in the main thread. Sorry about that, I'll be sure to give the newest version a try.
Wow, this looks great!, think i should try it out! #smw{:TUP:}
Accepted!

Early Game

I think this is the first level I played out of this entire collab, and coming back to it, it works just fine. Nice work with the bullet blaster!

The music also didn't work for me in game, but it did with VLC Player. If we have problems later we can replace it.
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