Version 5
1A
5:Big Mario Discrimination (BMD for short). Yes, you can swim under the fish on the bottom, but relying on tactics like that throughout the level feels kind of stale to me, personally. The zigzaggy construction doesn't leave you with much room, either. I would consider replacing the bottom fish with a vertical one or some other enemy type, and for the middle corridor, instead of having an enemy, perhaps you could place spikes on the far left wall so players must jump up before the ball pushes them too far (assuming the camera is cooperative). Alternately, you could raise the water level to give yourself a bit more room to place enemies without creating BMD situations.
Also, I don't think the price for getting a hidden 1up should be to do the whole section all over again. Why don't you bevel the upper platform on screen 4, for instance, and allow players to bounce up, then remove one of those thin blue walkways so they can drop down and continue?
6/7: This ball setup feels pretty shoddy compared to the ones on screen 4-5, since there's pretty much nothing to hinder you unless you're careless enough to fall on the spikes.
9: Not only does the fact that this is the only dolphin in the level strike me as odd, but isn't it rather unintuitive to have a jumping chuck there? I mean, it might jump away harmlessly before you even reach it. I was expecting a clappin' chuck.
A: Might just be me, but this feels a little early for a green star block. You have to get almost every coin prior to that, unless I missed a multicoin block somewhere.
11: This rock bounce is kind of a tight squeeze for Big Mario, but I guess it's not a huge deal.
13: Another place where I feel the dominant strategy will be to simply swim close to the bottom of the screen. Might just be a personal thing, but I don't think there's anything challenging or novel about swimming low. I mean, the setup back on screen 4 was kind of clever to make you draw the rip van fish away, and this pales in comparison.
15: I'd argue this ball setup is also BMD- there's hardly enough room as Small Mario, unless you know that you can squeeze between the lower half of the ball and the wall...
16: I feel like you have to know beforehand that rip van fish will arc over you when you stand still in order to make it through this setup unscathed. I guess you have an avenue of escape on the left side, though.
19: I assume you'll need a cape to get up here?
1A: Is this setup fair? Players might hesitate upon seeing the ball launcher, but by that point the turn block bridge will have contracted, cutting off any avenue of escape besides a tricky crouch jump (which I'd argue is BMD as well).
1D-1F: These ball setups seem a bit...anticlimactic. I can understand you want to keep 1E clear because of the 1up, but the koopa on 1D hardly poses a threat at this point.
70
Personally, I thought this whole section was unfair. The wave takes up half the screen, and merely brushing against it kills you instantly. There's no room to anticipate what's coming up next, so players have to practically memorize what's ahead to pass. You don't even have a midpoint before this section, so if you die (and you will) you'll be sent back quite a distance. There's also no powerups before you start, so there's no room for error at all.
I think the wave should take up less of the screen, or the screen should scroll a bit slower, or the wave should push you or hurt you instead of outright killing you the moment you touch it...you should do something to give players more of a chance and not make them rely as much on trial and error.
Oh, and for the message box: "his" -> "its"
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