I disagree with aj.
The level is more workable than your other one, but it still needs a lot of touching up. You have once again INSISTED on using those stupid ON/OFF backtracking puzzles to artificially lengthen your level. Why? No, seriously, why do designers do this? Did I miss the ON/OFF conference that declared backtracking is actually
fun (especially when the design and sprite placement is only considered cleverly for the forward direction).
Secondly, the length. The level, as it stands, is long enough. You're going to overkill it if you continue designing from here. It took me about 4 minutes to get to the end. I also didn't see any SMWC coins, which is .. well, not good.
Specifics:
Minor, but you might want to make the font there a little more readable.
This would be a pretty ideal place for the first SMWC coin.
The sprite gets stuck on the slope.
Miscolored feet on the Goomba.
...and so it begins. Although it's not that bad here compared to later parts of the level, this is still
incredibly unnecessary and forces you to backtrack. It's just .. not cool, and I'll pretty much refuse to accept the level into the base ROM with this in it. I do not want ON/OFF backtracking to become the new "item babysitting" that scarred the first game.
Unnecessary second midpoint.
Don't overkill this level with length.
Blind drop here, which leads me to my next point - you really need to add some coins into this level.
Yet again with the ON/OFF backtracking, and it's even nastier this time. Why don't you make this path have a SMWC coin or something, and then have a springboard leading to the upper area?
An example of a spot where you only considered forward progression and not backwards, as this is a
nasty jump to make. Of course, if you fix the screenshot above this one, this will no longer be an issue.
Bland.
-No screenshot, but the background is actually incredibly unfitting, having seen it in action. Something more crystalline (to match the FG) would work very well.
The level is workable, but you need to be willing to fix up parts of it and make it flow better. Having all of these ON/OFF switches for no reason is dumb, and it makes your overall design more messy than it needs to be.
On a side note, have you considered actually doing something more worthwhile with the floating gems? It's very easy to code a 32x32 sprite that shoots a + of fireballs followed by an X of fireballs (in fact, I actually have some code for that if you wanted it). Not only would that enable you to remove all instances of the Venus Fire Trap from your level, but it would also make your level stand out as having a more focused gimmick.
I hope you'll take these suggestions to heart, as I'm sure they'll help this level improve.