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Old-School Level Design Contest 2021 Official Fan Judging Thread!

OLDC

Since OLDC2 doesn't have its own subforum, I wanted to give an outlet for those wanting to share their thoughts on all the entries. It also allows the judges to participate in the Discussion thread without possibly getting spoiled on any of the levels. You may also see contributions from a certain contest host....

#wario{O_O}

UPDATE: Here all the entries, obfuscated so all the entrants are anonymous.
since we have a fanjudging thread how about you send out the compilation of all the patches when it's done? It'd be nice not to have to download them all one by one
Thank you for reminding me, I will add that to the OP once I have that compiled. (To be safe I will post the obfuscated compilation.)
Let's see how far I'll get. I'll rate on a scale of 0-10.

01:

Cloud level with some interesting use of boo rings. I really like how some of the setups make you able to go fast through the boo ring, for example the one with the note blocks near the end. That's a lot more fun than waiting around. However, there are also obstacles that make you wait for the boo ring without anything to do. The turn block bridge near the beginning was invisible due to sprite limits and got me plenty confused. The bonus challenge with the eeries seemed not properly tested - there's a big unintentional cutoff at the end, a misplaced pipe exit and getting through the boo ring at the end while jumping on the eeries is unnecessarily precise.
5/10

02:

I enjoyed this quite a bit! Pretty janky level, but it makes a good use of super koopas and let's you dodge them in varies different ways. I like the little trolls throughout the level too, although some of them felt pointless (like the one that's just an obviously unavoidable pit with coin trails leading into it). The level feels like it wants the player go fast, which made some setups obsolete, like the one with the lotus flower on top of the screen.
7/10

03:

This level is decent to play but not really memorable. The various ideas it introduces get used more than once but never combined, which makes it feel a bit repetetive. I liked the addition of Yoshi though and how it is used as a powerup instead of a required part of the level design. I felt like the level tried to be based on exploration considering the amount of secret things, but was too linear to make that work really well.
4/10

04:

A very organic level. It feels like being outside and inside real ships, which is quite impressive considering the limitations. The design itself is very simple but works decently, although most of the more interesting obstacles are used for yoshi coins - I wish more of that was integrated into the level itself. The boo boss felt quite uninspired and too easy, because if you look into the direction of the little boo there is absolutely no danger.
6/10

05:

This was fun! I liked the clever usage of item memory, and the reference to the original Bowser's castle. The line-guided platform room felt a bit static because the only hazards were spikes and lava, but that might be intentional. I really like the climbing net room, as the combination of nets and mega spikes lead to some satisfying obstacles. Overall the level feels a bit long for having no checkpoint as far as I can tell, but I was lucky to get through it on my first try.
8/10

06:

The level feels chaotic and sort of abstract, in a good way. I like the idea of going inside the building without actually changing sublevel. I also like the troll with the stairway, however I don't like that the same blocks are sometimes solid and sometimes not in the intro. The design itself feels quite unfocused, introducing new elements constantly even at the end of the level. The obstacles themselves don't seem that well thought-out.
4/10

07:

I always like ideas of changing the environment and design of a level and making the player go through it multiple times, if it's executed well. This one is quite nice visually, especially considering the limitations. However, the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. The first iteration is very empty and has little to no obstacles, a lot of ground with just a couple of enemies. The P-Switch run back through is uneventful too, because it's possible to just run at the bottom of the level, avoiding any enemies. The last iteration is a bit more interesting, but the water makes it mostly trivial too.
4/10

08:

This level had some good things going. I like the general vibe of a linear precise castle level, however I think it was pushed too far here with some unpredictable or overly precise setups. For example, I didn't know I needed to bring the shell since the koopa was just walking around there as a potential obstacle, so I destroyed it and then had to suicide. Some jumps felt overly precise, like the one using flames over the mega spike, and some areas really cramped, especially near the beginning.
6/10

09:

This was neat, especially for a first level! I enjoyed the variations of obstacles where you jump on rexes between munchers, even though they seemed similar they were different enough each time and fun to execute. The only one that didn't work well is the one with the carrot platform at the top and rex at the bottom, because depending on how you time the jump on the carrot platform, it can become impossible (and it's not really predictable, before jumping on the platform). Towards the end it feels like you ran out of ideas and there were some filler obstacles, not really evolving from what was there before.
6/10

10:

I loved this. The level is extremely cramped and forces you to play in a very specific way, but it's used for good, as it doesn't make you do any precise jumps or other actions. Dodging enemies in a very confined environment made for interesting obstacles. I liked the various ways to dodge sprites while keeping the throw block alive in the second half. Great job!
9/10

11:

Amazing level! The gimmick is innovative, and used for varied, interesting setups. The level is mostly made of mini action puzzles but doesn't fall into the trap of being too complicated. It still has a flow to it which I appreciate a lot. I haven't solved the moon puzzle at the end yet, but might come back to it later.
10/10
I did my judging and playthrough here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLofKy2DkjrsVm-OJGlQAyEUC2WwWMjSdq

Though I did gave up on reviews on last two parts for my own sanity's sake.

There were two submissions with broken patches and no MWL files either so there literally was no way to play them, no idea if they fixed them before deadline tho'.
judges ban 1-up checkpoints challenge

17 –
Lightning Festival


48 –
Yoshi’s Island 1


46 –
Flickering Forest


76 –
Popsicle Glacier


110 –
Lit Dungeon


84 –
Cave With No Fish


61 –
The Dank Pit


63 –
Coasting Redwoods


50 –
Koopa’s Battleships


10 –
Trial and Terror


35 –
Fuzzy Drink


16 –
IDK – Yo


102 –
Radical Rope Ride


109 –
Moss Hill


40 –
Shameless Sky


26 –
Blue-Grey Valley


114 –
Sky Platforms Zone


70 –
Castle of WTF?!


60 –
Cloud Nine


01 –
Cloudspooks


18 –
Jolly Bouncers


103 –
mini-castle of spin


ask me if i give a f*ck...
So once again I give a try to comment contest entries. This time I try to score them. I also put information if I needed savestates or if I didn't die. I downloaded entries on my own, so order is from last submission to first. Also I wrote my thoughts during playthrough and then I summarized level, so my comments may be very chaotic.

1. wet socks

Very difficult underwater level. You must hold key all the time. Throwing them into note blocks to kill fishes is creative. Layer 2 is the killer, because holding item pushes you to the side and it's very easy to get hit. Especially the last challenge with falling spikes and rip van fish. I died 30 times on just this. There is tough start with torpedo teds shot at you. I also couldn't figure out how to swim faster upward. I tried throwing up key, but usually Mario will just drop it. So these parts I tanked. To be honest it was too precise for me and I didn't like it.

Design: 15/40
Creativity: 10/20

2. LIVING SPONGES

I clipped through corner of lava wjile big Mario by just falling on it and landed in below challenge room. Because of that jumping Bowser statue didn't spawn. Really unique vertical. First is vertical fall down with sponge and different obstacles. Second is climb with water green springie things. And then there is 2 P-switches run. I liked it a lot.

No savestates

Design: 35/40
Creativity: 15/20

3. mini - castle of spin

I died on 3rd spiny in castle even though I spin jumped on him. There is invisible mushroom above entrance to the castle? First section is cluttered with spinies and hopping flames. It's very easy to get double sprite glitch and get killed. At the very beginning of castle is annoying spike right in your way, so you must remember to jump over it. Level is short, but I would like to have checkpoint, because some setups are hard. Also choice at the end tricked me into thinking that there are 2 exits. Left path is easy, while right path is very difficult. But I like the usage of bonus game to get secret 1-ups and feathers.

No savestates, except for right path jump to door in 2nd playthrough

Design: 10/40
Creativity: 10/20

4. BOWSER'S CANYON

After 2nd spin jump on chain and ball I was greeted by invisible bullet bill. Ice cave: why fished while in water they bounce around like they aren't in water? Oh, so I need blue P-switch from ice cave. Speaking about that, what's with triangle run to nothing at the end of ice cave? I can kill chain and ball with star? I had no idea about that.

What a weird unfocused level. Though the whole level I thought main gimmick will be spin jumping on chain and ball, but this gimmick appears once, then vanish, then reappear, vanish, appear, etc. So that's weird. Also in 1st part is problem with sprites becoming invisible. Though the whole level I prefered fire flower than feather, because spin jumping on chain and ball with hover ability is very tricky. Secret exit felt unnecessary. At least I didn't need to reenter ice cave for P-switch thanks to that.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 16/40
Creativity: 5/20

5. YOSHI'S ISLAND 1

I misread outside section after castle. I thought there is ground under block, but there was bottomless pit. Level is really unfocused. There is jumping on koopas walking on munchers, cloud, moving platform, but everything is super short. Then there are these awkward jumps from one block to another. Well, they are awkward when you are big, but without feather.

No savestates

Design: 3/40
Creativity: 3/20

6. KAPPOW!!!

Really awkward jump on bullet bills. Why there is 1 tile gap under 2nd message box? After resetting in fast autoscroll I'm softlocked without P-switch near star, so the only way is to clip into pipe and die.or if you are small wait for time out.

Another unfocused level. At first are shots from diagonal pipe. Then there is awkward jump on bullet bill. After that is weird puzzle with witch I had hard time and at this point I started to savestate. Almost timed out. Then you need to go left while there is bullet generator. Afterwards is another short star run. Lastly is fast autoscroll, which change into maze. At first you can jump on ropes, but after few screens ropes become solid. You have no idea where to go, so you get to reset pipe, which leads to softlock. And don't miss key at the beginning or else you will be forced to reset or better say die.

Design: 5/40
Creativity: 4/20

7. Rex Ridge

I'm starting new file with pressed yellow switch? Is that really vanilla? Because I didn't press any switch. Rather short rex level. I died once on 1st math platform. I thought that I need to bounce on rex below and failed to jump on platform. But you can just jump on small pipe above and jump from one pipe to another. Level was fun, but it ended a bit too quickly.

No savestates

Design: 12/40
Creativity: 5/20

8. LINE DRIVE

Again yellow switch blocks activated without me activating them. I guess they are really vanilla. Fun platforming level with one annoyance - baseball Charlie. He's annoying, there is a lot of his balls flying around that it forced me to slow down and kill them. This slow down the pace.

No savestates

Design: 24/40
Creativity: 9/20

9. Way Coolbular

I managed to clip through moving pipe while having P-balloon and then got killed by glitched graphic right after another moving pipe. And in next run there was no glitched graphic, so I could finish this level. Level has 2 gimmicks: floating island and waiting for it and P-balloon. And weirdly enough I had the most of fun with P-balloon section in 2nd half.

1st half forced player to wait for floating island every time you start this section, so I started to use fast forward at the very beginning of level. I have no idea what's the inteded way to deal with bullet bill. You just bounce on note block and randomly it will shoot, so for me it was matter of luck. Later is spin jumping on fuzzies on line above munchers. But you can't go fast, because you need to wait for floating island.

These are my biggest problems with this level. 1st half very precise and difficult and 2nd half fair and fun. By the way, just before fuzzies I used savestate.

Design: 26/40
Creativity: 16/20

10. Slippy Slopes

Really creative slide jump level. I had fun with it. Getting mushroom was weirdly hard. Also I had no idea how to get through last rock, so I just tanked it. Really wish that there was more racing in this level like this race with yellow moving ground to get to powerups.

No savestates

Design: 32/40
Creativity: 19/20

11. Shadowland

Bronze blocks aren't solid even though they look like solid. Good thing I'm learning that at the start. But there are the same looking blocks on ground and they are solid. That's confusing. I fell through stairs. Is that intended? Yeah, looks like it was intended.

This level is random. It felt like presentation of every castle enemy. Some sprites may vanish in 2nd half of the level. Secret exit was a bit more interesting, though I had problem to find where P-switch trail is leading me.

No savestates

Design: 10/40
Creativity: 3/20

12. Volcania Hills

Small platforming level. 1st half only small annoyance is rugby Charlie, but there is only couple of them. Jumps aren't very difficult. 2nd half is more interesting - it's vertical climb and for me highlight of this level. Too bad it just end so quickly.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 22/40
Creativity: 6/20

13. Tower of Triangles

It was really fun to play level with triangles. Really creative use of wall running. Minigame with protecting shell was a bit too easy. Also ending was a bit confusing, but maybe I entered this last part from below and I forgot about that. Because I was really sure that I need to go down. Really fun level.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 39/40
Creativity: 19/20

14. MANSION SLIDE

It's a sliding gimmick again, but this time you don't want too much. It's creative way to destroy rocks, but sadly also very repetitive. Would be good to have more creative setups.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 25/40
Creativity: 15/20

15. STAR WORLD 5

Scale platform with it's ability to jump to higher platforms. In 1st half it has really basic use, but level is also easy. 2nd half has really tough start. There is no powerup and you need to raise scale platform and from it jump to higher ledge with 2 yellow koopas that loves to walk in your way. That's why I go back for red shell. Then is hammer bro and 2 more yellow koopas. Afterwards is difficult jump on scale platforms and finally I get mushroom. But after getting it are few easy jumps and level just ends.

No savestates

Design: 9/40
Creativity: 5/20
Originally posted by Galaer
I'm starting new file with pressed yellow switch? Is that really vanilla? Because I didn't press any switch.

If you insert the switch blocks through direct map16 they always act as if the respective switch is pressed, even if it isn't.
Order from last submission to first.

16. Blockchain Fortress

Racing with eating block level. 1st half is about making bridge for eating block and is creative. Though you must be observant in thwomps area. 1st mushroom is tricky to get. If you miss it you need to go to rightmost side and scroll screen right. Also I had huge problem with getting through turn blocks while big Mario while eating block was chasing me. 2nd half is much easier - it's just escape and the only problem I had is picking all blue blocks as big Mario fast enough. 2nd half is also shorter and less creative than 1st half.

No savestates

Design: 25/40
Creativity: 13/20

17. WENDY'S WATER TOWER

Level with floating water. 1st half is just easy platforming. 2nd half vertical climb with water moving left and right. This is more interesting, but still easy and idea isn't expanded very far. There is part with 3 water squares and I think intended path is to jump from one water to another above spikes. But you can just just from below directly to 3rd water. Level ends with vanilla Wendy.

No savestates

Design: 11/40
Creativity: 3/20

18. Some Strange Place

That's really weird level. Normal exit is about spin jumping on torpedo teds. You can by the way farm feathers thanks to pipe leading to info box. 2nd half is more interesting - it's about falling and respawning thwimps and this section I liked a lot. Lastly is autoscroll to boss. It's not very hard, but due to lots of sprites on screen, Lemmy and his henchmen may not spawn for couple of rounds. What I had fun in 1st half was hitting with shell 1st torpedo ted, which would fly backward and kill urchin. I would say it would be interesting to make the whole level around this.

2nd half is shorter cave with falling thwimps and then you just getting shot to key and keyhole. I would say that I liked the most section with falling thwimps. It was well indicated where they fall. The rest of this level is kinda there.

No savestates

Design: 27/40
Creativity: 13/20

19. Aquatic Rift

Level with water enemies. Oh, there is fast moving vertical urchin. 1st half has some easy platforming. The hardest was crossing water while being chased by porcupuffer. 2nd half is more interesting - it's a vertical climb with torpedo teds, porcupuffers and urchins. While most of this section is still basic, some setups with timing torpedo teds were interesting. Also the most creative fast urchins were barely used.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 13/40
Creativity: 7/20

20. Rehab

I managed to press switch and quickly grab P-switch which allowed me to swim faster for second more before P-switch vanished. I clipped into cement block thanks to running on note blocks glitch during pushing shell to koopa challenge. I thought I can cheese this part by growing big, destroying turn blocks and getting hurt by koopa, but no, there is invisible block pushing me to pit.

Interesting idea with avoiding mushrooms, but execution has a lot of flaws. First you can despawn some moving mushrooms. Getting midpoint is weird, because you need to have mushroom, but you must be small Mario to go through small door. So to get midpoint you must get 2 mushrooms, die and then go to midpoint while having mushroom in reserve box. That's weird.

Then there is underwater section with really tough setups to avoid mushrooms. The problem is that you can get softlock quite easily. For example very first P-switch run. If you fail it, you are stuck in this section and you must wait for time out. There is couple other places like that. Here I also learned that I can still clip through floor while swimming as big Mario. This allowed me swimming under level, but still i was forced to die. For this part I used savestates.

3rd section has some more interesting avoidance of mushrooms, but I part where you must push shell right to koopa is annoying and you can easily clip into cement blocks, which makes this challenge double hard. I want to like this level more, but there are some serious problems with this level.

Design: 10/40
Creativity: 16/20

21. Bouba - Keykey Effect

I have no idea how to avoid 1st hammer bro's hammers while on math platform. OK, looks like the solution is to rush. Underwater - this solid blocks are barely visible on this background. So the level is all about not spawning banzai bill by holding key. There are 3 sections with keys. 1st section requires couple of jumps and is the least interesting. 2nd section is Layer 2 water. Here my only complaint is dropping from platform into lower water when tide starts to rise. It's scary, because if you go too early you will drop into bottomless pit and die. 3rd section is the highlight. It's a vertical climb and platforming is fun. Section where fuzzies are going around radish was the best. But if the main focus was on these 3 sections, is there really any need for short gimmick with keys and despawning banzai bills?

No savestates

Design: 16/40
Creativity: 9/20

22. Cloud Nine

Why is background scrolling up and down. It makes me sick. So many sprites that kicking koopa didn't spawn. I swear that it's impossible to get through baseball chucks in P-balloon form as big Mario. I died a lot on this part and it's difficult to grab another balloon. Next section is cloud, but you can fly safely at the top all the time. Interesting thing is that when you are at the top of screen, fireballs doesn't show up.

Normal exit has no problematic level with some angel blocks and hammer bro's platforms. There is also enemies on parachutes generator, but it's easy to avoid. 2nd section is very difficult P-balloon section. Rugby chuck near 2nd P-balloon killed me so many times that I brought mushroom to tank his rugby. Then I keep getting hurt by him, because next section with baseball chucks is impossible to be beaten as big Mario. Even then I died a lot just on this challenge. Last section is very easy cloud level. You can cheese it by flying on top of screen.

Secret exit is all about grabbing all dragon coins, which is very difficult to do, because of P-balloon section. Luckily I did on my first try after I decided to go for them. And i really didn't want to go for them. Final section is just flying on Yoshi through empty sky. To be honest I would prefer only 1 exit.

No savestates

Design: 9/40
Creativity: 2/20

23. Coasting Redwoods

In 2nd half I wanted to kill hammer bro, but instead his platform clipped me into wall, so I died. This is vertical climbing level. You need to dodge enemies. The most problems I had with disco shells. But 1st half is all right. 2nd half though is huge difficulty spike. It's still vertical climb, but gimmick is to get mushroom to tank munchers or enemies. At first it's fun, but then is really difficult spin jumping on spiny with low ceiling and you need to send mushroom up by hitting note block. And that's very hard. But that's not over. 2nd half of 2nd half is puzzle with Yoshi and blue shell. You had no idea that blue shell was important? Then die. And at the very end is race. And this level has only 1 checkpoint. There really should be 1up checkpoint for Yoshi's puzzle. By the way I used savestates just before spiny and lots of savestates for puzzle in 2nd half. Still I died a lot.

Design: 15/40
Creativity: 14/20

24. Underworld

I think this level wanted to be atmospheric. It's really easy. There are easy jumps, ice physics, koopas and that's all. I could beat it without deaths, but I decided to check a pipe, but there was no land near it, so I fell to my doom.

No savestates

Design: 6/40
Creativity: 2/20

25. SHIPWRECK SHORE

In 1st half is Layer 2 tide and fishes. Quite easy. 2nd half is also Layer 2, but this time is moving land. Still very easy. There are enemies in bubbles and if there is too many sprites, it may produce slowdown.

No savestates

Design: 10/40
Creativity: 3/20

26. BOWSER'S OLD CASTLE

This is 4 challenges castle. There is no midpoint, there is no mushroom until final room. I would say that moving platform room was the best. Moving lava room is all right, but you need to wait a lot for lava to lower. also you are waiting at the top of screen, so it's easy to miss dry bone. Moving bridge room is the worst, because you need to dodge podoboos and they aren't indicated, so I died a lot and also they are the reason why I put savestate after beating this room. 4th challenge is mega spikes room. Room is quite fun, but without powerup 1 hit is death. After this room I also put another savestate.

Also level will not tell you that, but you need to collect 4 dragon coins. And I missed 3 of them, so I needed to return to beaten rooms and beat them again. Final section is darkness for no reason, couple of easy jumps over lava and the only powerup in this level. And then level ends. But if you collect final dragon coin and die, you can't beat this level, because dragon coins don't respawn, so vine will not appear. The only solution is to reset the game.

Design: 14/40
Creativity: 6/20

27. Endgame Entourage

Pipe at the end of 1st 1F0 section is too high, so I couldn't see it and got killed by returning up thwomp. Level is about jumping on enemies stuck on 1F0. I had a lot of problem with spin jumping on grinders and later is part where you need to spin jump above bottomless pit. Normal exit has problem with some stuff being too high like mentioned before pipe or spikes dropping on 1F0 (only their tip is visible at the top of screen, which result is unfair hit or even death. Secret exit is more interesting, but I had huge problem with falling on moving rock while avoiding 1st podoboo at the top. It was very difficult. After podoboo ride gimmick gets interesting. I liked that there is a lot of checkpoints, even moon has been incorporated into checkpoint.

No savestates

Design: 32/40
Creativity: 13/20

28. New Londo Ruins

Gimmick behind this level is really annoying. Most of the ground are blue blocks above bottomless pit. Start has no powerup. To get itr you must first beat tight section with grinder and 2 podoboos. In 2nd half there is disco shell section. If you destroy it you can use it's path to avoid podoboos. After this short section there is no more blue blocks and only easy jumps and level suddenly ends.

Secret exit is really hard to get, because you need to worry to not kill disco shell with blue blocks and keyhole is hidden in random pit. Overall, level is really annoying to play.

No savestates

Design: 14/40
Creativity: 11/20

29. The Call of the Mt.

These sliding koopas bouncing on light slope are funny. Some easy jumps, but I liked a design of grassland. Cave was also fun, but I think one of skulls from raft didn't spawn for me. 2nd half rafdt section is the most interesting, though at the beginning there is slowdown. Ocerall, I liked this level.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 25/40
Creativity: 10/20

30. Uberzequist-Ao!!!

Note block teleportation level. Some sprites may not spawn. And then there is invisible Yoshi glich and jump to midpoint and pit. I like respawn area. 2nd half has warps and looks like it's a vertical climb. Rock become invisible suddenly. Climbing section ends way too quickly. And then is autoscroll section with all gimmicks. Just noticed - path to vertical climb is blocked after getting 1up checkpoint.

That was fun level. Note block teleportation was neat, but also tricky. I easily got hit by fuzzies, because of it. Warps were fun. I wish that vertical section would be expanded, because it was the most fun. Invisible Yoshi glitch was really underdeveloped and didn't add too much to this level.

No savestates

Design: 36/40
Creativity: 18/20
I don't know if I'm the best judge, but here it is:

12 - Bossless fortress: I like the setup, the way you first go trough a grassy area to enter the castle and after it you exit to go across another one is nice. It's a little bit short tho. It also suffers from not having a set gimmick and instead oscilating bewtween a lot of different obstacles (never a good idea). The dificulty is good and some of the challenges can feel creative. Overall, not terrible, just needs some polish. [Side note: that 1-up at the beggining was waaay too easy to get, they're supposed to be more hidden ya know?].

34 - Greedy athletic: Pain incarnated as a SMW level (okay it wasn't that bad, really). The gimmick of needing a certain amount of coins to complete the level is interesting, but the level is just too hard for it's own good (and remember, as a result of the hole coin mechanic there's no midway points!). Sidescrollers are alredy hard by themselves, so I really feel like if you just didn't made it one (or just made a good difficulty curve that embraces this aspect of the level) it could have been more fun to play. But still, a somewhat creative level nontheless.

86 - French twost: Oh boy! another hard one, greeeeeat... To start off, the time limit is far too strict (I would say 200 could have been a better choice). I think you wanted to make sort of a speedrun level, but this one just wasn't built well with that concept in mind, especially since it uses the baseball chucks. Speedrun levels (in my opinion) should never have "luck based" sprites like these ones. At least, if you put the TL aside, the level is fun to play I guess, but other than that it doesn't really bring anything new to the table, apart from positioning the chucks in really awkard spots. [Side note: if you make a level with a strict time limit like this one, please, ask someone else to test it for you. I'm sure you can fix a lot of errors that way].

111 - Mocha tower: This level felt like a nice walk in the park, and it's actually sidescroller! (a surprise for me, since in the original SMW I hated almost all of them). Great level design, a nice easy difficulty, good hidden 1-ups and, while nothing groundbreaking, I apreciate the use of the bowser balls in the second half. Maybe it's a little bit lacking in having a special gimmick of some sort, but it was just so pleasant to play that I'll excuse it. A level that wouldn't feel out of place in the second world of SMW (which is what I think this hole contest is all about). [Side note: I loved the use of the fireworks for the background].

125 - Some strange place: My main problem with this level is that it's both difficult and long at the same time, which don't mix really well. It also features sprites with the wrong GFX (please, don't do that again, it just looks ugly), sprites feeling out of place (the fish especially) and the mushroom/flowers powerups were also invisible. But I apreciate the hole layer 3 color thingy (It just makes the scenario look much nicer, cool idea). I liked the hole falling thwimp thing in the second half of the level (cool little gimmick and nice indicators) and the spin jump with the big bullets, too. The prelude before the fight with Lemmy (I think that's his name?) was also nice. Another big problem is that sometimes there was just too much happening at once, the sprites need to be more distanced. In general: a weirdly thrown toguether level that thanks to some fine gimmicks and it's frenetic nature, is still fun to play (if you use savestates, that's it).

You were expecting an actually original and creative signature but it was me, Dio!.
Order from last submission to first.

31. IGGY KOOPA'S CASTLE

Pretty easy, but fun castle level. There was only one uncomfortable jump between spikes in 2nd half that I tanked. Level ends with vanilla Iggy.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 21/40
Creativity: 2/20

32. Flickering Forest

Platforming level with a lot of enemies. There is always a lot going on, so it's hard to not get hurt. 2nd half has gimmick of turn blocks above bottomless pit. This is to prevent spin jumping while being big Mario. Small Mario can spin jump on them, but since there is really lots of enemies, it's easy to die. There is part with square formation of turn blocks with 2 fuzzies and you must climb it. But when trying to spin jump on fuzzy to get up, sometimes fuzzy from above can go down and you score a hit. In my successful run I noticed that you can spin jump on fuzzy on the right side of this formation. This made it easier. Last part with turn blocks and lots of fuzzies I don't understand. I shouldn't spin jump as big Mario there, but lots of fuzzies suggest that it would be actually better to spin jump. Overall, there is way too much going on on screen for my tastes.

No savestates

Design: 27/40
Creativity: 10/20

33. CLOUDSPOOKS

It took me some time to notice that I can go through cloud. I thought it was solid. Dragon coin challenge looks impossible. You need to spin jump on 5 flying up and down eeries. It's very easy to get hit by one of them. And the first obstable is boo ring, which is always random and definitely you will get hit. To get to mushroom in 2nd half you must avoid fishing boo and eeries. Luckily it's not that hard. Level tries to do something with boo rings, but it only leads to being hit. I could beat this level without deaths if only I could avoid pipe at the midpoint, which is death.

No savestates

Design: 12/40
Creativity: 6/20

34. YOSHI'S ISLAND 1

Short level about spin jumping on spinies and occasionally hopping flames. It's tricky and there were some parts I tanked. Luckily there is enough number of powerups. There are some scary spin jumping on spiny with low ceiling. I didn't like those too much. Luckily I had some training in one other entry, so I managed to beat it. Really interesting level.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 30/40
Creativity: 12/20

35. SPINY SKYWAY

After getting secret exit I reentered level and got fire flower. The problem is that gimmick is pin jumping on spinies above munchers and it's very easy to burn them. It would be better if only mushroom would be available for player. To not burn any spiny I took hit. And then suddenly you give me Yoshi, which doesn't allow you to return to previous gimmick. Once on Yoshi I spit shell into kicked shell and it went through it.

Level tries to incorporate 2 opposite gimmicks and it didn't work too great. It uses them in very basic way. It's also easy, but fun. I mean, I went for 5 dragon coins and collected them. So even if it's not great level, it's still fun to play.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 21/40
Creativity: 4/20

36. CAVE WITH NO FISH

Mostly underwater level with gimmick of holding key. There are chain and balls and thwomps as enemies. It's fun to dodge them and there is always a leeway. Because of that I decided to go for dragon coins and I succeeded. Unfortunately 2nd half is much weaker. It's Layer 2 water, but most of the time you will spend on dry land, so gimmick with holding key underwater barely appears. This section is also much easier than previous. In 1st half you still needed to be careful, in 2nd half not too much.

No savestates

Design:24/40
Creativity: 11/20

37. BLUEBERRY FORTRESS

Level about spin jumping on enemies. Getting 1st mushroom is tricky. 1st half isn't very difficult. 2nd half abandons gimmick. It's short mega spikes section with volcano lotus and not indicated podoboos. Interesting part is timing mega spikes together and go between them in short window of time. Lastly is Reznor with bullet bill generator and embarassingly I died on it. Secret exit has some clever spin jumps and even uses skeleton fish in interesting way.

No savestates

Design: 22/40
Creativity: 12/20

38. Trial and Terror.

I failed to destroy last turn block at the end of level, autoscroll stopped and I'm softlocked and need to wait for time out. And Mario tremble while being stuck in this 1 tile gap. Last puzzle confused me for a minute, before I remembered that I can destroy turn blocks with key. Very interesting autoscroll level. It's very tightly designed and it's creative too. Possible softlock at the end of level is really unfortunate.

No savestates

Design: 27/40
Creativity: 14/20

39. CLASSIC ROMP

2nd half, coins guided me to bottomless pit. My easy experience has been destroyed. Other than that level is easy, but fun. There are some banzai bills, chucks and koopas. I liked that sliding koopa can be stopped on slope by shell and immediately kick it.

No savestates

Design: 20/40
Creativity: 2/20

40. SUPERKOOPA BRIGADE

This level is annoying. First I need to time bullet bill while jumping on 2 note blocks. Then is jump on 3 super koopas. Then pokey spin jump while being shot by volcano lotuses. And if you stop in next part you will get shot by baseball Charlie in 2 tiles high tunnel. Why whenever I jump from very end of springie thing I just barely don't go over munchers and from slightly left I easily jump over munchers? 2nd half. 1st jump from springie thing on hammer bro's platform is weird. But what kills me the most is super koopas jumps. to get over munchers I need to bounce out of 2nd koopa at full momentum and to jump on him I must jump not too high and not too low. That's very difficult. I beat this part and went to pit with coin. I jumped and died. My crime was that I had no idea that I needed to scroll screen right.

So my mistake with 1st super koopa jump was to jump on super koopa too early. If you wait on hammer bro, then the whole jump on them is easier. I thought message will tell "YOU ARE DEAD". I luckily avoided last super koopas.

Interesting use of hammer bro's platform and super koopas. Unfortunately it's too precise for my tastes. It doesn't help that you have no powerup in the whole level and what you need to do isn't indicated, so a lot of obstacles is like gotcha traps. And there are times where you need to scroll screen and again it's not indicated at all.

No savestates, but I was really tempted to use one or two for super koopas jumps in 2nd half.

Design: 25/40
Creativity: 18/20

41. cavemania

By wacking turn blocks with cape I clipped into ground below, so I could go under turn blocks and go to moon. Normal exit are 4 sections with completely different gimmicks. There is cave section, underwater section, raft section and moving platforms section. All sections are easy with exception of occasionally appearing rugby Chuck, who isn't needed in this easy level. Level is that easy that I got all dragon coins and moon easily. Secret exit is separate section with some 2 moving platforms and couple of easy jumps. It doesn't really add anything interesting to this level.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 11/40
Creativity: 1/20

42. 2ODA LAKE

I thought that Mario swims faster when I hold X, but looks like I was wrong. This level murdered me a lot. Both halves are about to swimming underwater in tight space with lots of enemies to dodge, but you have short window of time to dodge stuff. You need to use all kinds of swimming without items and that's creative, but also very difficult. 2nd half is about dodging ghosts. And here is the problem - there are 2 boo rings and in every run they are in different position, so most of the time you will be forced to squeeze between ghosts and that's very hard. It was that annoying that I savestated after going through 1st boo ring. Then is 2nd boo ring and I had luck to squeeze between ghosts. Lastly fishing boo is used and he's not bad obstacle.

Overall, creative level. I liked use of ghosts to block path. But boo rings with autoscroll in level without powerups are too much.

Design: 23/40
Creativity: 18/20

43. VALLEY OF BOWSER 4

Platforming level around jumps over lava. There is digging chuck, some bullet bills and piranha plants. But level is easy. Actually later I decided to replay it just to try to do pacifist run and it was more interesting than playing normally. Still it was easy.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 22/40
Creativity: 1/20

44. le fardeau du flux

What a weird level. There is tide with autoscroll, which later goes up and down. How to dodge 4 fishes pillar? What's with these floating platforms at the end that suddenly falls down? Really creative level with tide and autoscroller. I had luck few times, but it was fun level.

No savestates

Design: 36/40
Creativity: 19/20

45. CREME CAVERN

Darkness level and there is slowdown. There are podoboo, volcano lotuses and ninjis. Level becomes tricky near the end, but if you get fire flower, then last part will become easy. Also what's with the slowdown? Is it produced by light switch? No, maybe it's darkness, because I remember other level with darkness and it also had slowdown.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 19/40
Creativity: 2/20

46. A Spin Over Hazards

Really fun level about spin jumping on enemies. Got hit only ones and got both 1ups. I was surprised that 1st round of jumping on dry bones didn't have any enemy that should be spin jumped instead of normal jumping. It was fun level, though I would prefer it to go further with gimmick.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 26/40
Creativity: 6/20

47. To the Dark Cave

Yup, darkness produce slowdown. Getting moon was so easy. And now there is no slowdown. At the end of level there is bone and pipe. I went there as big Mario and softlocked myself. There is only slope there, which prevents me from ducking, so I need to wait for time out. If not for this it would be deathless run.

It's interestingly designed vertical cave with all this interesting places on the side. 1st mushroom is weirdly hard to get - it's protected by rugby. 2nd half of cave has no powerups. There is mushroom just before goal post for some reason. But level is fun to play.

No savestates

Design: 12/40
Creativity: 5/20
Second batch of my very judgamental thoughts (warning: everyone will cry):

24 - Cave o' Movements: Nice use of the layer 2 movement for the most part, altough the water bits were really awkard due to the SMW swimming controls. The floating water in the air also looked kinda bad (but I don't really care so, eh). A fine level really, nothing mind-blowing but still fun. Another one that feels straight from SMW (minus the floating water). [Side note: the second fuzzy goes off the cement platform because it touches layer 2].

58 - To the Dark Cave: An easy level that's too boring because it lacks sprites/obstacles and an unique gimmick. The use of the dancing ball makes it more annoying to travel than challenging. I also think that the time limit isn't long enough (or maybe I just suck at playing faster levels). At least the atmosphere is cool, the way you integrate bones and little pools of water, mainly. Aside from that, there's an useless net at the beggining, and you need to fill in this bottom row of tiles.




65 - Classic Romp: First things first, what am I looking at here?



This is a really uninteresting level. I wouldn't consider it that bad if it was just the first level of a hack, but this is a contest in which you submit a single level, and as such, they must feel original when playing. To ramp it up: bland obstacles, coin overload (seriously, what's the point of this?)



..., dumb parts like a pipe that leads to a room with a single coin block, others with bad level design like this.



There were some parts that I liked a bit, like the one where if you go underwater in a "bridge area", you get to a pipe that leads to a yoshi coin (see, that's some interesting world 1 level design). For the most part, it's too bland. [Side note: I'm pretty sure you broke one of the rules by changing the on/off priority of bushes, but right now I don't have Lunar Magic in my computer to prove it, so maybe I'm wrong]. [Side note 2: Sorry if my criticism felt too harsh]. [Side note 3: Hi, a little edit here, the map16 actually has a row of tiles of bushes with the priority set to --, so I was wrong about the hole breaking the rules thing (clearly an exceptional judge right here)].

77 - Fish's lair: A little bit too hard, maybe adding a midway point could help that, but the gimmick and level design are great. I love the idea of spinjumping on fish (even if it doesn't make any sense for them to swim in air). Overall, needs more fsh. [Side note: that 3-up moon challenge was sweet!].

83 - Chainsaw Coppice: A hard level that isn't held back by any unnecessary mechanics or time limits. But I think that some parts needed more space to make certain techniques, these sections felt really awkard because of it. I'm also not too sure about how well the rope GFX mixes with the forest background (especially those big white things that I don't know how they're called). Another level that even without a special gimmick, still manages to be fun and feel like it belongs in the original SMW (A secret exit in World 6 maybe?). [Side note: the way you made that smiling face in level C5 message was smart, extra points for creativity]. [Side note 2: this section could be cheesed with a long spin jump].




89 - New Winrar Archive: Kinda of a lacking level. The way it uses the banzai bills just isn't that creative really (except for like the last 2, those were cool). It needs more things to keep me hooked, and more interesting obstacles mixed with a faster pace. In addition, the level could have looked nicer (why not use the cave GFX instead of putting a roof of cement blocks?) I also didn't see the point of the part were you gave me a mushroom and then shoot an unavoidable banzai bill at me (perhaps I'm just dumb). I still had fun with it tho. [Side note: the tornado shell part can be easily cheesed if you stand in the edge of the platform before it].

91 - Creme Cavern: Another easy level that's good in the start but never develops it's main set of obstacles as it goes on. Still, I liked the inclusion of the dancing ball and, while the curve of difficulty may be non-existant, the overall challenges were good. Fine level, just develop a better difficulty curve for the next time.
48. Forestress

Really need idea of spin jumping on enemies and do platforming on moving rocks. I liked that. Secret exit is much easier, but fun. I liked vertical section. But there is one problem - boss. In order to defeat big boo you must bounce on bullet bills while holding blue blocks. The problem is that often blue block will destroy bullet bill and you fall to your doom. I died a lot here. Eventually I beat big boo by jumping on bullet bill, quickly throwing block upward, bouncing on bullet bill and catching block midair. Really awkward, but luckily it's a short fight.

No savestates

Design: 23/40
Creativity: 12/20

49. slopey buttey capey

What a start? You get feather and die in a pit in just one second from starting the level. I liked a use of bouncing chucks on steep slope. Also am I supposed to scroll screen right to get past piranha plants? Because I don't see any other way. Oh, 2nd half has safe start for a change. I thought it will be another quick fall into pit, so I was holding B. When i tried to use triangle to slide to destroy grinder, turn blocks clipped me into wood and I died. After touching goal post Mario decided to lightly fly upward even though I put my hands off keyboard.

Level is creative, but some parts are really precise and it's easy to get hit. Start of level is really unfair. Ropes in 2nd half don't look solid, so at first I didn't notice them as part of design. Using cape's hover to slide further is creative, but very precise and I had a lot of problems with it. Both halves are really short though.

No savestates

Design: 27/40
Creativity: 14/20

50. A Clockwork Moon

Level about rotating platforms. It's really easy. 2nd half is getting a bit more tricky. Level is that easy that I kept rushing and because of that I died a lot. Once i died because of invisible block at thew midpoint. Getting back through 1st half was interesting. Secret exit room though is hard. I didn't expect this kind of difficulty from this level. It doesn't help there is no reset door there, so if you destroy blue blocks without getting key, you must die.

No savestates

Design: 12/40
Creativity: 3/20

51. POPSICLE GLACIER

Wow, bonus room for first dragon coin is easy to die. Sweet ice level, pretty easy, occasionally it has some trickier obstacles. Underwater part though is too easy. Also I died twice in bonus rooms, because it's easy to accidentally fall into bottomless pit.

No savestates

Design: 17/40
Creativity: 2/40

52. JOLLY BOUNCERS

Oh, darkness level, so there is slowdown. Pretty interesting level. There is plenty bonuses. I even found moon, but mostly because I got confused where to go. There is a bit of chucks destroying turn blocks and ninji jumping on higher platforms. But dark cave is easy. Then is sky level with moving platform and it confused me, because I thought that platform will bounce high up and get stuck on line with fuzzy. When I replayed this level for 2nd goal post I noticed that it returns on lower line. Before I thought that platform didn't spawn, so I was jumping on pipe to respawn platform (at least that's what I thought happens. So this part may confuse player.

No savestates

Design: 24/40
Creativity: 12/20

53. Iggy's Dizzy Home

Level about spin jumping on thwomps and thwimps. Some of these jumps are weird, because they force you to wait until thwomp will start raising. But this section is short. After midpoint is just vanilla Iggy, which is a letdown. I was expecting more of this gimmick. Like it is right now, it doesn't need midpoint.

No savestates

Design: 16/40
Creativity: 10/20

54. YOSHI'S ISLAND 1

Dino rhino on slopes and looks like I can slide kill them. I had a lot of problem with getting through part with dino rhino stuck jumping on turn blocks. I had no idea that I can kill small dino rhino by hitting block below them. I thought they are immune like their bigger brothers. Tricky level, lots of enemies, but it's not overwhelming. But there is one thing I don't understand - why there is no powerups?

No savestates

Design: 18/40
Creativity: 9/20

55. Sky Battalion

Slow autoscroll with some bullet bills and koopas. Did 1st thwimp really commited suicide? There is lots of powerups and level is easy until fireball statues appears and suddenly there is spam of enemies. Big boo battle is also spammy: there are boos, eerie generator and these diagonal boos and they can really easily overwhelm player despite having 2 feathers on arena. I managed to get all 5 dragon coins. Overall it starts easy and boring and somewhere in half it changes into overwhelming spam of enemies.

No savestates

Design: 5/40
Creativity: 1/20

56. Bossless fortress

Enemy quickly clipping upward because mega spike fell on it was funny. Level has many different ideas, but none of them is very interesting. 1st part is some jumping chucks and moving platforms. Then there are lava lotuses, ninjis and net. At the end are rugby chuck and their rugby is RNG, so it's never fun dealing with them. 2nd half has moving rope and saws and level just ends. Secret exit has giant hammer gimmick, which is annoying, because player must be far right to dodge it and on the right side are enemies showing up, so it's easy to score unfair hit. And there is another rugby chuck. There is also a lot of waiting involved. Last section has slow mega spikes and chucks including rugby chuck. Overall, level is mostly easy, but some parts are unfair.

No savestates

Design: 10/40
Creativity: 3/20

57. Triangle or Devil

Stopped shell and it fell inside kicking koopa and he immediately kicked it. Creative level with triangles, so there is a lot of wall running. There are some cheap hits from shells thrown by kicking koopas though. There is part with vine protected by bullet bills, which is also random. Also in 2nd half there are these wall run jumps, which may be easily screwed, so you are forced to return on previous platform and jump on triangle again. It interrupts the pace of this level.

No savestates

Design: 35/40
Creativity: 18/20

58. Supersubmerged Keep

Underwater level with rough start. You pretty much spawn right above spike and die. To avoid that you must know that it's underwater level and you need to swim up and right. There is tough spot with bullet bills shooters and later gotcha torped teds out of nowhere. 2nd half is vertical climb and is quite interesting. Near the end though there are some gotcha falling spikes. Looks like that starting pipe can be entered and it leads to much easier section with moving platforms, which also skips annoying starting part of level. And there is secret exit in random pipe, not really challenging to get.

Level is tight swimming underwater combined with fun vertical climb. Unfortunately it has some gotcha traps, which are unfair. At least powerups appear often.

No savestates

Design: 26/40
Creativity: 13/20

59. FINAL CASTLE BASIC

1st room is just net, you can go behind it and easily beat level. 2nd room is death around you - that's the start. 2 thwomps falling on you and 2 dry bones are walking to you from both sides. That's not very fair. After that challenge becomes easier, but obstacles are repetitive. 3rd room is surprise thwomp out of nowhere. Oh, 3rd room takes me forward while other rooms not? That's weird decision.

4th room has 2 dry bones walking at you at the start. Looks like it's mega spikes room. Lots of podoboo, lots of thrown bones and lots of fireballs from generator and of course mega spikes. And beating this challenge take me back to the very beginning of level? Why? 5th rooms is underwater level with falling spikes, dry fishes and dry bones. There is so many enemies that I get slowdown, but at least this section is easy. And beating it take me to 2nd hub instead of 1st hub. 6th room is fair - it's about dodging jumping statues and dry bones. Then there is dark room and slowdown. And boss is vanilla Bowser! And princess Peach gives me 1st powerup in this level without any checkpoint! And then credits start.

From this level I learned that author loves when there is a lot going on. There is a lot of spam of enemies. There are bullet bill generators and fireball generator. Sometimes start of the room is unfair. Only one room make you progress. Room #4 returns you to the start of the level. There is no powerups and no checkpoint. There is vanilla Bowser and battle with him while easy is long. There are also credits. It's like you wanted to annoy player on purpose. And yes, it annoyed me. Difficulty is inconsistent. 6th room is fair, 1st and 5th rooms are easy and rest has some unfair start. 4th room with mega spikes is the hardest. Dark room is easy, but slowdown can mess your reaction time.

No savestates

Design: 6/40
Creativity: 2/40

60. salute to tomato

My first thought after seeing title was "Is this salute to tomato jonson?". Falling thwomps at the beginning. 1 tile swimming between lava. People have ideas. All the time I had thought that maybe I should stay close to eating block. And sadly I was right. Not gonna lie I savescummed this level and also twice slowed down the speed of emulator. Still i died a lot. Very precise and deadly level. And Mario swims most of the time with his head covered by lava.

Design: 1/40
Creativity: 4/20

61. Dizzy Aerial Stunts

Interesting level with moving platforms and ropes on lines. Not very difficult. Also it repeats some of setups like with kicking koopa and saw. Some ropes or platforms I found unnecessary too. It's easy to jump over them to next platform. Also level uses ON/OFF switch, but only once.

No savestates

Design: 16/40
Creativity: 6/20

62. 12PTLAYERGM

Invisible blocks above keys on conveyor belts. In 1st half I mostly ignore this gimmick by grabbing 2nd key and jumping on invisible block above me. Precise, but not that hard. I did this kind of jump few times. At midpoint I got Yoshi thanks to that. Wait, midpoint doesn't work. So I'm gonna put savestate at the midpoint. It should be fair. Oh, wait, looks like 2nd half is super short, so I will restart the whole level. So P-switch in 2nd half is for not grabbing keys and to save you from dying after grabbing goal sphere. Clever. Short level with interesting, but undeveloped gimmick that player can break by jumping on invisible blocks. Not working midpoint may confuse players.

No savestates

Design: 13/40
Creativity: 11/20

63. Musical Sci - Fi

Note block teleportation glitch again. And it's really well designed. But if you jump on note blocks while they are too high, you will not get teleported or clip into wall and die. Combination of this glitch with Layer 2 in 2nd half was really good. I didn't like gotcha grinder at the end though. And final boss is vanilla Reznor.

No savestates

Design: 35/40
Creativity: 18/20

64. LIGHTNING FESTIVAL

I got killed by invisible block and this is even more embarassing, because it was indicated, but I just thought it was decoration. Some tricky setups with lightning and koopas. I liked this protection from lightning made by invisible block. But I think this gimmick could be expanded a bit more.

No savestates

Design: 20/40
Creativity: 7/20

65. Sky platforms zone

Some tricky platforming on moving platforms with saws and kicking koopas. Quite fun little challenge, but idea could get expanded. As for now it's OK level.

No savestates

Design: 16/40
Creativity: 1/20
66. ?

Yup, that's the title of this level. Level with angel blocks. You ride them and avoid thwomps and grinders. 2nd half is less creative. 3rd section is a bit more interesting, because of autoscroll, but compared to 1st half this is easy. There is some clever climb on angel blocks at the end. So I would say that my favorite part is 1st half. 2nd half has very little interesting ideas plus 2nd section almost forgets about gimmick.

No savestates

Design: 25/40
Creativity: 10/20

67. Shameless Sky

Interesting cloud level. Going left is very rare. Also I never saw going through walls gimmick being so easy to do. I never seen this gimmick before. There is clipping through floor, which may be inconsistent. There are 2 puzzles with big moles and using them to go through walls. But I think main focus is on flying through walls gimmick. So shouldn't level start with this gimmick and then maybe expand it with getting powerup to get through walls gimmick that I saw in one of side levels? Still it was fun to play.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 25/40
Creativity: 20/20

68. Why Be Right?

At first I beat this level normally. There is a lot of enemies. Secret exit is a bit more interesting. So level is automatic. Just hold YB and right. I thought that secret exit is also automatic. Since it's going left I tried holding YB and left and at first it worked, but then it failed and I died in pit. Also got all dragon coins.

No savestates

Design: 20/40
Creativity: 12/20

69. Big Boo's Shipyard

Really basic ship level with boos. Tide section tries to make things interesting. But still I had easy time and even collected all dragon coins. Final fight with bog boo is also very easy, though aesthetic looks nice.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 15/40
Creativity: 2/20

70. McYoshi's

I hate tossing baby Yoshi upward when I lose sight of him, because screen doesn't scroll that high. Also baby Yoshi can get stuck on clouds, so more resets. There are saws everywhere and you are on moving platform. And to get midpoint you need to be big or still have red shell in Yoshi's mouth. Maybe it's clever puzzle, but I didn't have to much fun. At least it's short, but perspective of hunting dragon coins for secret exit will be annoying. I mean 1st dragon coin is possible, but afterwards you must reset this room, because you will miss baby Yoshi.

2nd half has very confusing hint about fast eating. Eventually I figured out that I need to send yellow koopa down, jump on him and quickly eat him. And I can score points 4 times at max. It's impossible to score points 5 times, so it's impossible for me to grow Yoshi. I absolutely can't beat the 1st puzzle in 2nd half. It's impossible. Don't you think it's way too precise for normal players? Or did you suddenly decided to make kaizo level?

All right, I found your video in Rules and Submissions thread. The proper way is something I wouldn't thought about. Not gonna lie, I savescummed through these super precise feeding Yoshi puzzles. Then there is message that kills me, so my strategy is to jump out of Yoshi when new level is loading, so message will show up when Mario is above rope. Then there is avoid feeding baby Yoshi section and it's the most fun so far. I threw baby Yoshi to eat 2 spinies and 3rd clipped upward somehow.

Finally I beat this level. It uses all checkpoint. Though getting all dragon coins is very difficult. 1st part with throwing baby Yoshi upward was annoying. Growing Yoshi with only 3 sprites was bullshit and could be easily put into kaizo puzzle level. It's way to precise and I needed to watch author's video for 1st puzzle. I also savescummed this part. Final sections about avoiding feeding Yoshi are the most fun. Though message is really unnecessary and I had problem to jump out of Yoshi because of that. Also secret exit is just there at the very end of level and feels very unnecessary. Overall, didn't like this level. Also I suspect that 1st feeding Yoshi puzzle in 2nd half can be broken by preserving shell and baby Yoshi eating only coin, then despawning koopa, scrolling screen right to respawn him and repeating all this until you grow Yoshi.

Design: 7/40
Creativity: 8/20

71. PENCIL SHARPENING

Really interesting platforming level with wooden sticks and grinders. But just like boos sometimes wooden sticks may wrong timing. It happened to me once when first 2 sticks didn't move together, but one after another. It was impossible for me to progress. Other than that it's really solid and fun platforming level.

No savestates

Design: 32/40
Creativity: 17/20

72. BLUE - GREY VALLEY

Pretty basic level with bullet bills shooters and sliding koopas who bounce funny on rising slopes. There are some carrot and math platforms, but they aren't really well developed. There were some blind jumps, but I didn't die, so that's fine. There is also secret exit and while it has some activity with direction coin trail and kicking koopas, it's nothing great. But it's all right level. Also got all dragon coins.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 20/40
Creativity: 5/20

73. Rock Fest

That's hard to get 1st powerup. And getting to pipe from grey platform is also hard. For dragon coin in pipe you must be small. Otherwise you will not be fast enough to jump out of grey platform. Almost missed the midpoint. Level is really tricky with all these grey platforms, jumping on bullet bills and digging chucks. It's vertical climb, so to respawn grey platforms you must drop to lower floor. Level feels at times mean. You have bullet bill shooter on your face. Getting 1st mushroom with grey platform under you together with bottomless pit or getting to 1st pipe. Luckily I didn't die even once.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 22/40
Creativity: 7/20

74. MONTY MOLE MOUNTAIN

There is pipe leading to cave and it looks like cave from original SMW. Wow, small mole managed to push red koopa out of his platform. OK level with moles and some blind jumps. It's pretty short too. No idea what was the point of P-switch from cave.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 8/40
Creativity: 1/20

75. FRESH AIR FORTRESS

Oh, climbable net used as a window. Interesting. Oh, there are ledges below windows. I almost got hit by jumping koopa, because I didn't notice that. Pretty easy level with grey platforms, koopas, chain and balls and later with thwomps. Level gets more interesting in 2nd half, but there is always a lot of leeway. Big boo with boo ring is also easy. Just go to the middle and throw blocks at him. Level is easy, but fun.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 20/40
Creativity: 5/20

76. HOT COCOA HILLS

I really liked this level. tight platforming on math and carrot platforms and bullet bill shooters. It actually reminds me one other level I played, but this one is tighter. Surprisingly I didn't die even once. also I only skipped last dragon coin, because it was located in scary location.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 30/40
Creativity: 10/20

77. Chainsaw Coppice

Spin jumping on saw with low ceiling is hard. Spin jumping on saw on short line is also very tricky. 2nd half went well. I missed moon only because I jumped to goal post before noticing it. Tricky level about moving platforms and spin jumping on saws. This saws on short lines were the hardest though. But it was still fun level. Though 2nd half gives only 1 mushroom while 1st half was more generous.

No savestates

Design: 29/40
Creativity: 6/20

78. Is This 105?

Yup, that's the title. And just like title say this is indeed 105 edit. Still it was rather fun level to play.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 12/40
Creativity: 1/20

79. Lit Dungeon

Creative level with bronze platform. The only part I didn't like was kamek shooting gallery combined with waiting for eating block to eat all bronze blocks. I got all dragon coins, though not in the same run. Also there was only one obstacle that killed me.. Getting shell from jumping green koopa in tight space was weirdly difficult and because of that I died couple of times. It was interesting to see filter lava utilized in big boo fight and also inability of seeing him made interesting, but still quite easy challenge.

No savestates

Design: 26/40
Creativity: 15/20

80. IDK - Yo

I managed to save myself from fall into lava by bouncing on falling into lava rugby and then on kicked shell. I went too fast after leaving 1st eating block and it activated 2nd eating block, so I was forced to die. I died a lot in this level. Rugby chucks, volcano lotuses, podoboos and kicking koopas all in strategic positions. And in 2nd half there are even rugbies on eating block and also invisible blocks. Level is very deadly and mean. I died few hundreds of time before I decided to savestate at 2nd mushroom in 2nd half. Rugbies are really random and also rugby chucks are kicking them in random moment. Sometimes they will wait with kick, some other time they will kick rugby immediately. It's not consistent. There is some creativity with rugbies and chuck on eating block. You don't know the name for this level. Try DEATH SENTENCE, because that's exactly what it is.

Design: 17/40
Creativity: 12/20

81. MOSS HILL

Interesting use of angel blocks to block player. Lots of tight platforming on rope with saws. Secret exit surprised me, because it forced me to restart the level. And also I was forced to survive as big Mario. That was tricky. Luckily I was safe from land saws by ducking. Also what's with the saw in cloud section? 2nd half is vertical climb. Also i found it that last part before keyhole can be cheesed by scrolling screen right and despawning saw on line. Angel blocks get forgotten in 2nd half and it's tight vertical climb with ropes, saws and bullet bills. Especially jump from note block to platform was scary. But it was fun level and I got all dragon coins.

No savestates

Design: 29/40
Creativity: 15/20
82. SPIRIT WOODS

What? Blue door was actually reset door? P-switch run was easy. There isn't too much time in this level. I almost timed out. Almost, because I was killed by eerie just when 1 second left on timer. And you respawn swimming upwards towards boo ring. 2nd half is just slow swimming with boos without any powerups. Level is quite easy, but there are parts that feels mean spirited. Time limit is too short too. Also I like the aesthetics.

No savestates

Design: 10/40
Creativity: 9/20

83. mario go spinny

Interesting platforming with rotating platforms. Unfortunately level is short. I liked the idea, but I would like to expand it.

No savestates

Design: 20/40
Creativity: 7/20

84. Slip 'N' Scare

Ice physics caught me by surprise. I was surprised by invisible wall above goal sphere. Pretty easy level, some platforming may be tricky, but only because of ice physics. Boo rings are easy to dodge and just slow the gameplay when you need to wait for them. Secret exit is confusing like hell. I needed to check Lunar Magic to figure out the path through the same looking sections. And at the very beginning of big boos fight, if you start holding X to run, you will grab blue block and die. Also you need to have yellow switch pressed, but there is no indication, because pipe is below screen, so it's not visible. Oh, you are invisible in this fight and there is eerie generator.

So normal exit is easy peasy with ice physics and boos. And secret exit is annoying maze without any tell that it's a maze. Boo fight has interesting idea of indicating Mario's position by grabbing blue blocks, but you start in unfair place on single blue block above pit. To be honest this level would be better without secret exit.

No savestates

Design: 4/40
Creativity: 4/20

85. Intangible Assets

Level with disco shell not hurting Mario, but hurting enemies? I never seen that before. And it can't kill yellow koopas, so it keeps jumping around it. That's funny. Invisible parts of pokey. That's a really cool level and I liked mini puzzles. Though I skipped moon challenge, because it looks super complicated. It was fun to play.

No savestates

Design: 32/40
Creativity: 20/20

86. Fish's Lair

Autoscroll level with moving bones and fishes. Wow, I got dragon coin, but points for it appeared far to the left. And looks like rip van fish can go through this slowly scrolling bones. Really slow level, I used fast forward in couple of places. I liked moon challenge, but rest of level could have midpoint and at least 1 mushroom.

No savestates

Design: 19/40
Creativity: 13/20

87. Simply Mansion

Simply Mansion has rather short time limit. I found jump cement block boo hard, because he's badly positioned. Afterwards is blind jump on boo. Level is short and easy, but some parts need more attention. Everything is used in rather basic way. I got all dragon coins.

No savestates

Design: 5/40
Creativity: 1/20

88. Radical Rope Ride

It was fun platforming with ropes and saws and occasionally koopa jumping. That was fun level. And path is well indicated. Though last part with rope and 2 saws on short line was very tricky.

No savestates

Design: 25/40
Creativity: 9/20

89. GREEDY ATHLETIC

Getting blue block without destroying it at the start is hard. This is very hard level. I needed to savestate at every mushroom to have chance to finish this level. There is a lot of choices, so you need to strategize what path to choose to get 30 coins. It was too precise exercise for me though, so i didn't have too much fun.

Design: 10/40
Creativity: 7/20

90. Leap Claps

Interesting level with escorting clapping chuck to wall to destroy. I think that 2nd room is unnecessary, because it is too similar to the 1st room. There is a lot of leeway. Also underwater behavior of chuck was interesting. 2nd half could be longer too.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 20/40
Creativity: 13/20

91. OP. 10 NO. 12

What a mysterious name. I got stuck in mushroom niche. Wait, I don't want powerup. 1st half has some really tricky spin jumps. Especially this one on grinder with low ceiling and thwomp. Blue blocks destroyed me and I needed to savestate before it. After beating this challenge rest of 1st half is surprisingly easy.

2nd half feels like it uses kaizo level philosophy. Everything is necessary. So I need to throw shell on spikes and jump on it. That's hard. Then there are fast mega spikes, but this part is all right. And level ends with 5 dragon coins and message box. So 2nd half is solid, while 1st half is very hard, especially this part with blue blocks.

Design: 24/40
Creativity: 10/20

92. Alto Adige

Really fun level with saws. 1st half uses blocks with vine, 2nd half is autoscroll. It was really fun and creative level. And there was good amount of powerups.

No savestates

Design: 35/40
Creativity: 13/20

93. FUZZY DRINK

Floating on lava platforms plus fuzzies. 1st half is quite easy. 2nd half adds tide and I had problem with 2 floating together platforms near the end. It was hard for me to understand that I should wait. Last section is creative usage of giant hammer together with moving island and of course fuzzies. It was fun to play level.

No savestates

Design: 26/40
Creativity: 11/20

94. MOLE IS DESERTS

Really easy level. The only problem may come from volcano lotuses, because moles can be easily avoided by just running past them before they jump out of ground. There is just getting springboard activity and couple of easy jumps and level ends. Well, at least I didn't die even once.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 5/40
Creativity: 1/20

95. Shifting Cavern

Moving yellow ground level. A bit tricky near the end. At the end of skull raft ride are ropes with midpoints sticks on the sides and it confused me thinking that these are solid, but they were non solid.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 14/40
Creativity: 6/20

96. The Myth of Icarus

Vertical spin flying puzzle. Pretty original. But I would prefer longer timer, reset of time or 0 at the timer, because it's easy to time out. 2nd half is much harder horizontal spin jumping on enemies. It's really difficult to spin jump on fireball with cape or later precise spin jumping grinders above munchers and lava. I needed to put savestate at the podoboo. That's also the point where gimmick change from spin jumping into normal jumping with hovering. Also there are reset doors, but they would not be present and nothing would change, because it's very easy to die.

Design: 23/40
Creativity: 16/20

97. ONI MOUNTAIN

Tricky level with steep slopes, sumo brothers and chucks. It would be fun and I would go for all dragon coins, but it has some flaws. there is slope under 2nd sumo bro under 3rd dragon coin. This 2 tiles long slope is solid only on the left side. Right side is non solid and player will fall through it. Player can easily go through steep slope on the right from 4th dragon coin and die.

No savestates

Design: 15/40
Creativity: 10/20

98. mycologic masochism

Why background is going up and down? That's disturbing. 1st half is survival zone. Avoid every enemy, it's fun, but tricky. 2nd half is about getting hurt and is very creative. Especially scrolling screen, so lightning will go through bridge and thwimp transition upward. My only complaint is in big boo room you can die. At the bottom should be reset pipe instead. 3rd section tricked me into thinking that after getting hurt I want to stay big. Some puzzles were easy like this puzzle with sparky. I had problem with statue and quick vines. Also for some reason the first time I came to this room statue couldn't shoot any fireball. I have no idea why. Luckily reset helped.

That was very creative and fun level with perfect length. Only flaw is this big boo section, but level is a lot of fun.

No savestates

Design: 39/40
Creativity: 20/20

99. <Title is some kind of face with hands>

Yup, title is some kind of picture. I have no idea how else to describe it. Dino rhino on ship. Lots of them, piranha plants and enemies from blocks. It's fun to play, but nothing really original. Still I had fun with this level.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 20/40
Creativity: 5/20

100. NOT SECRET AREA

Lots of super koopas, chucks, koopas and volcano lotuses. Not very challenging, but gives you opportunity to grab feather from super koopas. Though I have no idea why it starts in switch palace.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 10/40
Creativity: 1/20

101. french twost

Very deadly level with baseball Charlies. I needed couple of savestates, because baseball chucks and venus lotuses are placed in very mean spots. Also I was tired of hearing timer siren at the start of level. Baseball chucks are really random and can easily kill player. And time limit is very short and there is no midpoint. I didn't like this level.

Design: 5/40
Creativity: 10/20
102. RANCID CONDUIT

Really tough level about precise spin jumping on thwomps and grinders. Also going left is rare. 2nd half is even harder, because you need to explore every path to hit blocks spawning keys. There is creative usage of thwomps stuck in ground below, so they are rising up and can go through ceiling. That was tough, but creative level.

No savestates

Design: 30/40
Creativity: 15/20

103. SECRET GHOST HOUSE

Ghost house with some boos, there is also using keys and P-switches to get to door. Rather easy level and surprisingly very linear. Boos aren't tricky to dodge, but there is no powerups and no midpoint in this level, so you must be careful to not make some stupid mistake.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 10/40
Creativity: 3/20

104. CAVE O' MOVEMENT

This reminds me my question in Discussion thread about aesthetics in this contest and about floating cutoff water. This level uses that. In 1st half water and also yellow ground flies up and down. There is only one scary jump out of side of water to another water under low ceiling. 2nd half is land and later water going left and right. There are some digging chucks, but level gives you feather, so it's pretty easy platforming.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 8/40
Creativity: 2/20

105. Ebb and Flow

After hitting 1st switch in 2nd half I quickly swam left and barely made it, but somehow I was pushed by current to the bottom. It's mostly underwater level with switch that moves ground up and down. 2nd half is a race, but if you get fire flower you can kill your enemies and easily win the race. Still transitioning from no water into water at full speed was fun.

No savestates

Design: 16/40
Creativity: 5/20

106. Don't be Afraid

Fun platforming with math platforms, banzai bills and piranha plants. There is no powerup at the beginning of level, so getting 1st dragon coin is scary. 2nd and 3rd dragon coins require some tricky hops on bullet bills. Luckily level is short, so it's not that bad. Secret exit has some reset pipes, no idea why, because there is lava, so usually failure will be death. Again it's short. I wish level would be longer, because I had fun.

No savestates

Design: 20/40
Creativity: 6/20

107. CASTLE OF WTF?!

In 1st room I spawned Yoshi from block, then killed glitchy Reznor and somehow I got clipped on Yoshi and into spike abd died. That was weird. So I killed Reznor and did the trick with holding X while on Yoshi and red block vanished. Level ended with message that says that this exit wasn't the one that author expects player to get. Also maybe I watched too many kaizo hard levels, because I associate glitchy Reznor as part of kaizo hard level design. Well, let's see what's the real exit is about.

OK, so I used savestates, because destroying turn block with Yoshi and quickly running through this gap while invicibilty frames is hard. Also info box must be on screen when you perform this trick. Onto the next puzzle. For this puzzle I really needed to watch author's video, because it's unfair. This time it doesn't use glitch with Yoshi. I have no idea how it works, but it works. It's just have 5 silver P-switches on screen and kill Reznor. How should I figure it out? Also I think your video has different message in info box and I think it's more helpful than in current version of level. Still I would say I would need both messages to work for solution.

1st puzzle in 2nd half was again too hard for me to figure out, but in 2nd puzzle there is Yoshi return, so I finally beat this puzzle on my own. I have no idea what happened in 3rd room, but somehow info box despawned on it's own and I got 1up checkpoint. In the end I suspect that for P-switches rooms you must press all blue P-switches that were lying on ground, spawn as many silver P-switches and kill Reznor to beat these sections. Clear instruction would be really helpful.

I managed to jump on right noteblock and clipped into floor below me when Reznor platform returned, then I got clipped left where I died in mud. Last puzzle was pretty clever with avoiding pressing X or Y while riding Yoshi. This puzzle room I managed to beat without savestates.

So in the end it wasn't kaizo hard level. Rooms with Yoshi were fun. Well, maybe except 1st puzzle of secret exit. This one with getting baby Yoshi through turn block. Rooms with lots of P-switches I don't really get it how it works and it's nowhere explained. For me it's just random use lots of P-switches and something will happen. But the thing is that you must press only certain P-switches and probably in some order and I don't understand a logic behind that. These rooms actually feels like player needs to have technical knowledge how it operates to succeed. And I think it's a bit too much for your usual vanilla contest player. It doesn't help that level is deadly and you can easily get normal exit again, which will force player to replay the whole level again.

Design: 10/40
Creativity: 20/20

108. #6 WENDY'S DOOM

Fast elevator up. Because there is no powerups and there is short time to react, level is quite deadly and requires memorization. 2nd half is vertical descend and something is pushing Mario left. And to my surprise there is powerup and later current of Mario going left ends for some reason and at the end it returns. What's going on?

1st half of level is difficult, because you have no powerups and you have short time to make correct decision. Luckily it's not too long. 2nd half on the other hand gives player 3 powerups and also is much easier than 1st half. There is one fall on grinder that I don't like. Fight with Wendy is also easy. So difficulty is really inconsistent. Despite having a lot of deaths I enjoyed the most 1st half of level.

No savestates

Design: 24/40
Creativity: 10/20

109. Roy's Castle

I hate beginning of this level. You must spin jump on podobbo to get on moving platform, so thwomp will fall in lava. Then you just do awkward jump on sparky and not too high and not too low spin jump on hot head. This killed me a lot of time. Later parts are also tricky. I have no idea how to get 1st powerup. Platform moves too fast. Also coin indicates invisible mushroom. I thought it indicates thwimps, so I was avoiding it. Only found out about extra mushroom in my successful run. Very precise spin jump level and very deadly.

After midpoint is Roy on ice and with enemies on parachutes generator. It actually killed me when I tried to land last hit. And respawn at the midpoint is also deadly, because you have 1 second to spin jump on grinders. The trick is to kill Roy fast, so you will avoid dealing with spam.

No savestates

Design: 12/40
Creativity: 15/20

110. YOSHI'S ISLAND 1

Non offensive level. There are some grey platforms, some enemies, midpoint and goal post. This level could appear in original SMW as World 1 level. But in contest with so many entries, this level feels bland.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 10/40
Creativity: 1/20

Edit: I checked this entry again, because I remembered that after loading empty file I couldn't move left. But after loading file with cleared exit, playing it and loading empty file, game allowed me to go left to entry. So that's weird. Even weirder is that after redownloading bps from Rules and Submissions thread, entry had only empty files. So I have no idea what's going on.

111. Slippery Skies

Platforming with ice. Accidentally I found moon. After midpoint I did bounce from springie thing into bottomless pit. I think platform didn't spawn. Yup, it didn't. There is one banzai bill, which will hit you immediately after you land on math platform. Other than that and not spawning platform, this was fine level.

No savestates

Design: 15/40
Creativity: 4/20

112. Koopa's Battleships

Level is split between 2 gimmicks. 1st half is about avoiding bullet bills and bob-ombs, while 2nd half is underwater section with fishes and torpedo teds. It's actually easy level. Since I wanted to know where green pipe with dragon coin leads I redo it level and got all dragon coins.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 20/40
Creativity: 5/20

113. All the way up

1st half feels a bit like all the ways to get stuck on skull raft and fall to your doom. Most of the time I died because of that. 2nd half is something completely different. First is easy platforming up with some enemies. And in last room are saws, rotating platforms, fuzzies, moving platforms, scale platforms and extending turn blocks.

Overall, level is fun, but a bit chaotic. It's like level has no idea what gimmick to choose, so it switches constantly to new gimmick. Especially last section feels chaotic.

No savestates

Design: 19/40
Creativity: 7/20

114. Chucks Grass

It's surprising how long chuck can jump on one side while you are on the other side. After falling to turn block, chuck went right and jumped on higher ledge. Since I can't die this means this is softlock. Level is all about gotcha traps with chucks and kicking koopas. Popular gimmick here is put chuck behind turn block and behind him put baseball chuck. The strategy I used to go past 1st half was scrolling screen right, so mean shells will get kicked earlier.

2nd half is grabbing blue blocks to destroy turn block or enemy. 2nd obstacle - baseball chuck behind 3 blue block in 1 tile tunnel is really deadly for me. This time scrolling screen left is essential. Later is scrolling screen left, so that you can do springboard jump without hitting shell. Luckily after these first 4 obstacles level becomes easier, so I managed to beat it.

Really mean level with annoying placement of enemies. 2nd half especially feels awkward with baseball chuck behind blue blocks. And there is this one possible place to score softlock. Overall I didn't like this level too much.

No savestates

Design: 10/40
Creativity: 12/20

115. MOCHA TOWER

Falling kicking koopa out of nowhere scared me. Weirdly looking level. 1st half is autoscroll with fog and falling kicking koppas. Their fall is indicated by springboard sound. 2nd half is easy vertical climb with vines and occasional hammer bro's platforms. Then is room with weirdly vanishing and reappearing tiles. There are also iron balls and then level ends. What a weird level.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 15/40
Creativity: 10/20

116. BOWSERS BIGGEST FAN

I finally noticed that there is powerup block at the beginning. Usually I waited for statues to go down, that it had enough time to disappear from screen. And also rising block may make mushroom to go left instead of right. Level is about tricky movements of fireball Bowser's stuatues on scroll going up and down. It has a lot of creativity, but it's also very tricky. Some obstacles may appear out of nowhere as gotcha traps, but it's really not that bad. Final boss is Lemmy with fireball Bowser's statues and moving spikes. It's really tricky. I also scored the most embarassing death by touching spike after killing Lemmy.

No savestates

Design: 25/40
Creativity: 13/20

117. SPINJUMP CAVE

Level is about spin jumping on enemies. But there are also sections for normal jump. There is skull raft with no indicated podoboos and I almost got killed there. There is also spin jumping on turn blocks, but below are bones, so you can land on them and stop spin jumping. So it feels that author wanted to use spin jumping on enemies gimmick, but didn't know how. So level feels a bit weird with it's main gimmick in 1st half, abandoned almost completely or breakable in 2nd half.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 8/40
Creativity: 4/20
118. MATCHA MANSION

Level with eating block. Walking on bronze blocks that are eaten will activate next eating block, so you must be fast. There is one tricky part like that at the end of 1st half. Moon challenge is interesting. There are some eating blocks made from 2 bronze blocks. They are the most tricky. I tanked last obstacle to get moon. There are only 2 things that are weaker: vanilla Reznor and time limit at 0, so every time you die you will see time out message. And it's not like it's a puzzle level, so you could put 300-400 seconds time limit.

No savestates

Design: 26/40
Creativity: 10/20

119. NINJI HIGHLANDS

There are ninjis, but main highlight is every other obstacle in level. There are hammer bros and volcano lotuses and also lots of slopes above bottomless pit. Ninjis are never any problem. So this level would be called Hammer Bros Highlands or Volcano Lotuses Highlands.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 15/40
Creativity: 3/20

120. Dino Mountain

It's funny to see small dino rhino can't get through 2 tiles gap. This level has a lot of gimmicks: dino rhino is small tunnels, extending turn blocks, springie things teleportation and angel blocks. While dino rhino is used the most and rest just occasionally, it feels like level could go further with gimmick around dino rhino.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 24/40
Creativity: 10/20

121. NIGHTLY HOPPING

Tricky platforming level with rotating platforms. There are some tricky part with koopa jumping to rotating platform. Especially if you go for dragon coins, which I did and collected them all. But level is fun to play.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 26/40
Creativity: 10/20

122. THE DANK PIT

I can't jump gimmick. Running under ninjis is tricky. Getting mushroom push Mario left and ducking stops him. It's just like I'm in invisible 1 tile tunnel. Timing ninji with extending turn block is tricky. In 2nd half big Mario gets pushed left and suddenly he stops getting pushed, so I can go right. And when I'm ducking, Mario gets pushed left. It's really weird.

Really confusing level. I had huge problem with entering doors while getting pushed left. Also rules are never explained, so it took me long time to figure out how to act. It's very creative level, but I didn't like it too much.

No savestates

Design: 20/40
Creativity: 20/20

123. Mar de Morros

Weird level with super koopas and volcano lotuses. Lots of bronze blocks everywhere. It's fun level. I only have no idea how to get past pillar of 3 super koopas near the end. Also I got all dragon coins.

No savestates, no deaths

Design: 20/40
Creativity: 6/20

124. Winning Level

Very tough cape level. No idea how to beat extending turn blocks part of normal exit. So I went and beat secret exit. It was actually quite fun, though deadly. OK, so I slowed down my emulator twice and managed to fly to the midpoint, but I can't get it, because it's too high. I'm aware that's it's possible to slow down fly, make it fly higher and change direction, but I have no idea how to do that. This level expects from me too much.

So my score is based on secret exit and 1st half of normal exit. Secret exit is highlight of this level. While start is hard, the rest of flying against invisible blocks lower and lower is really interesting idea. Normal exit though is weird. Very short windows of time for reaction, random obstacles and expecting too much from player. like these extending turn blocks. It's very difficult to not land on them. Midpoint is absolutely necessary to progress level, but it's way too high.

Design: 4/40
Creativity: 5/20

Edit: I went into Lunar Magic to check what this level offers in 2nd half. Seriously? You put bullet bill generator during cape fly? Really?

Edit 2: Since I got information of how control cape flying I decided to revisit this level. I slowed down emulator again and after many savestates I found a way to get midpoint. It was by flying into porcupuffer and spin jump on him, which is tricky, because you can easily kill him. And you must be quick or else porcupuffer will descend too much and you will miss midpoint. I know it's not the intended way to touch midpoint, but intended way is too hard for me.

2nd half is easier. So first in LM is bullet bill generator, but I didn't notice any bullet bill in level. There is mega spikes smasher and only the last mega spike is the problem. To beat it I spam Y to change direction every time until path was clear, then prey for flying in correct direction. Occasionally when spamming Y, Mario can sometimes fly upwards.

Overall I liked secret exit, but didn't like normal exit. Partially it's because cape flying is rare gimmick in standard hacks, so I'm really bad at it and this level expects you to know how to control cape flying. This gimmick appears more often in kaizo hacks. There was discussion if this level is kaizo, but to be honest I don't think so. There are some parts where you have a lot of leeway, also obstacles are random. As for scoring, I don't think it needs to be changed. It still reflects my experience with this level.

125. New WinRAR archive

This level is about banzai bills and bullet bills out of nowhere. Some jumps are really tricky, so most likely you will get hit. There are banzai bills in 4 tiles high tunnels and in order to get past them you must do awkward duck jump on them. So in few area it's easy to get hit. Luckily there is many powerups.

No savestates

Design: 15/40
Creativity: 5/20
Originally posted by Galaer
I'm aware that's it's possible to slow down fly, make it fly higher and change direction, but I have no idea how to do that.


I'm definitely not the most knowledgeable when it comes to cape mechanics, so I'm not the best person to try and explain this. However, I'll give it a shot.

To slow down with the cape (when flying to the right), you need to hold left and press B. Each time you press B, Mario will slow down a little. (You will likely need to hit B a number of times.) If you are flying to the left, do the same except hold right on the D-Pad instead of left. This entry requires some speeding up and slowing down.

For flying higher, you want to try to dive pump (press left on the D-Pad when flying right) as early as you can. I think you can dive pump just as Mario starts to go down when in normal flight.

As for turning around while flying, you need to press A. Since this is vanilla SMW, you will not always turn around when you press A. (I think you have a 50/50 shot with each time you press A.) However, when I played the level, I did not need to turn around, not even for the midpoint.

I hope I was able to help (but I probably didn't).
Originally posted by Minish Yoshi
As for turning around while flying, you need to press A. Since this is vanilla SMW, you will not always turn around when you press A. (I think you have a 50/50 shot with each time you press A.)

Actually, it's not A. It's the run button (Y or X) you're not already using. Assuming you're flying while primarily holding Y, you need to tap X to spin around, but yeah, the direction you'll end up facing after you finish spinning depends on the particular frame, and may as well just be a random 50/50 chance.
Thanks for info, I replayed this level and managed to beat it. Though I didn't get midpoint the intended way. I edited my initial post to add new information.

Also I wonder what happened with other fan judges. I hope my long posts didn't scare them.

OLDC