I don't think I've ever played a Sicari level before, so this seems like a good opportunity to try a few. I played through all five levels, alternating between Sicari and K-16 and switching characters at the halfway point of the last level.
Thoughts about each level:
Oil Spill: Okay, the autoscroll in the fire chase sections is
way too fast. It's almost impossible to react to what's coming in time if you don't already know, and it's tricky even if you do, especially around screen 05 of the second one. Eventually, I just decided to ignore the enemies and run through them if I had to. (I seem to damage-tank strangely often in this hack, actually...)
Into the Trash: Are the fire-spitting things supposed to be immune to projectiles? They weren't blue and metallic, but K-16's shots didn't seem to affect them.
Mystic Grotto: The bouncing Chucks are very difficult to react to when you're on the timed platforms, and the powerups go behind the background. Also, for some reason, the music in this level kind of sounds like a cross between Kirby and Copy Kitty, maybe with a pinch of MegaMari.
Around the Clock: This level definitely needed another checkpoint, and there were a couple of what I thought were unfair hits, such as from the double statue on screen 03. Powerups go behind the background here, too. Nice use of Lunar Magic 3 level sizes, though. This was probably my favorite level of the bunch, though I feel like I should have played it as Sicari because her spin jump probably would have been significantly more useful than K-16's plasma shots.
Change of Space: Some obnoxiously strict jumps here. This one also desperately needed more checkpoints.
Overall, I
think I liked what I saw, but it does feel like there are an awful lot of cheap hits that can't easily be reacted to in time (I realize that you can take 5 hits before dying, but still), there is often a lack of room to dodge enemies, some levels seem like they have too many precise movements required in sequence, and some of them really would benefit from having more than one checkpoint. The last level was particularly bad about this; it was not only long, but the level design was just tricky jump after tricky jump. I'd be curious to see what the rest of the hack is like, but it definitely could stand to give the player more room for error.
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I'm working on a hack! Check it out
here. Progress: 64/95 levels.