Originally posted by cramps-manSo I've played through the level and yes you are correct, the difficulty is wacky and unfair at times. Here are my main concerns.
1. The difficulty. It was fine in the 1st half before the climbing section. After that, it was had a lot of off-screen surprises when climbing. Notably by the yellow baseball boy and the fireball guy.
After that, the icy section with a lot of spikes was kinda cramped. I think you should either heighten the ceiling, decrease the amount of spikes, or remove 1-2 fireball guys. Even with patience there's not a lot of room to move and Kamek there is just icing on the cake.
2. Right after the climbing section is a part where you need to jump on the green baseball boy to get higher. There are 3 red coins there. When passing by though, sometimes the screen won't show that brown platform up there unless they jump or loop up, so some people might miss it if they run past fast. Maybe have a better indication that is there.
3. So that red coin egg thrown by the baseball guy is fine, except he can start throwing it too early for the player to notice it's a red coin egg. Either have the egg start farther away from the baseball guy or just do something else with it.
Also I was not able to find where the 3rd flower is. I have found the one above the 2 flippers and I got the one near the midpoint.
Overall, tone down the unfair parts at the start of the climbing section till the midpoint and that bit should be fine. Having enough room to dodge Kamek is essential to making it not frustrating I think.
EDIT: Oh and also you could add some more safe spots for some breathing room. I noticed not enough in the 1st area with Kamek. It's nice to get a handle on timing where Kamek is and stuff if I wasn't constantly dealing with enemies along the path.
GAH! Completely forgot about safespots. I feel stupid now, especially after how a few weeks ago, I was just discussing the concept of having "breather areas" with no combat with some friends... whoops. I'll make sure to fix that promptly. So, your other complaints...
1: So, for the vertical climb, remove the Slugger? Yeah, I get ya... I was meaning to remove him, but I wanted to push a demo out so I forgot to. Will remove him. Any other changes I should make with that area? Any other parts I should rebalance?
The icicle corridor... Yeah, I'd kinda like to leave it SOMEWHAT cramped, so dodging Kamek can be more dangerous, but I guess right now it's TOO cramped... I'll raise the ceiling, then.
2: Yeah, I could add some coins for the first Green Glove to show you can get up there. Though, the intended solution isn't to JUMP on it, but to throw an egg at it and bouce off that to get up there.
3: Flashing Egg, I don't know why I didn't move it because I had thought about that exact issue and was meaning to move it! Kind of a running "theme" with me, forgetting to do balancing stuff I meant to do...
Third flower is uh...at the start. The first two Sluggers? (The yellow guys) Kill the second and roll the rock towards where he was, it triggers the cloud the flower's in. I figured that rock being there would make it clear, but I guess the fact that it's the brown remembers-its-position rock means people will see it less as a secret-finder and more a keep-this-with-you-to-reach-something-later-in-the-level. I'll have to ask Raiden if he'll move the brown rock to another level, if someone else isn't already using that gimmick. (Would've removed it myself, but I forgot how to do that.)
<Adam> I feel like smwc is a prostitute now, because we put up a porn ad for money