Ok, I gave this one a try.
I like the atmosphere, but as I went through the stage there were a number of small issues that, as they added up, started to detract from the experience.
For example, I know those spikes were insta-death in Yoshi's Island, but it feels like overkill in SMW, especially in the dropping ceiling section. I'd say merely hurting Mario is enough.
Also, I found myself wondering if you were using the arrows too much. It's fine to make them the focus of the level, but I feel like you hardly use any other enemies, and by the time I reached the third section, I was beginning to tire of them.
In the first area, I don't know if monty moles are the best enemies to use, as they frequently get stuck in lower areas that you can then jump over with ease. The two on screen 2 are also kind of odd in that they spawn off-screen a bit as they hop up, making them a little hard to see at first.
On a side note, instead of laying the bricks out half-piece by half-piece, you should make a two-square-tile piece in Map16 so you can cut down on tile usage. As it stands, your level's going to take up a lot of space in the ROM.
Oh, and the arrows push Mario back even when he's recovering from a hit, which I thought was a little odd, but see what others think, too.
In the second area, the general darkness combined with the color similarity in the FG/BG makes some blocks hard to see...or at least, I think so.
Finally, this might just be me, but I thought the fact that the arrows actually knock Mario back was a little weird in practice.
Some more specific comments:
B4
0: This would serve as a nice introduction to the arrows if Mario had not already encountered them in the previous section...I'm not sure why you put this here, specifically.
2: Nitpicky, but are these 'M' blocks strictly necessary? They look awfully out of place to me in this level.
3: The coins kind of suggest that you should do a full-speed jump to clear this gap, but if I understand correctly, the height you gain from such a jump is randomized and isn't always 6 tiles high. I guess if players know to spin-bounce on the bowling ball (which, by the way, looks weird when it doesn't rotate) it should be ok, but this jump gave me pause.
3/4: I know Kojeco's level uses crumbling bridge tiles, but that's pretty far away from this one, and I think you should reintroduce them in a safer manner, so as to refresh players' memory before continuing. Otherwise, I have a feeling players will be (unfairly) caught off-guard.
4: The arrow shooters sometimes seem to cancel each other out, which makes their rate of fire kind of erratic. Not a good thing when you're demanding precision. Also, the p-quarter affects the late vine block, which I personally thought was kind of annoying.
5: I feel like there should be a bit more vertical space between the two shooters here- that way, players could jump on the lower tier without getting hit by the upper arrow.
6: See 2.
7: Maybe I'm just tired of seeing p-things, but reliance on them here seems kind of underwhelming. Up until here the level has a nice sense of environmental danger, and then these global tiles crash the party, if you take my meaning.
B-C: Might just be me, but I didn't like this too much, either. Too much precision to squeeze into that space after the triangles, and then you have to wait a full p-quarter cycle just so the koopa doesn't fall off prematurely or get killed by the shell. On top of that, this kind of setup doesn't sit well with me to begin with because it's exactly the kind of thing you see in run-of-the-mill switch palace "puzzle" levels. Also, see 2.
B5
Overall: What I find weird about this section is that, even though there's a message box explaining the situation, the danger isn't visually immediate, and if you dilly-dally until the ceiling spikes actually show up, by that point it could be too late. Overall this area seems to demand a lot of precision, even trial-and-error, and I felt like I was rushing and stumbling through the whole time. I kind of expected to see more on/off blocks so I could reverse the ceiling's movement, but no dice.
Also, you can't see the swoopers. This was fine back in one of the Bowser's Valley levels from the original game because you didn't have an irreversible insta-death ceiling bearing down on you the whole time, but here it makes things seem unfair. In addition, some of the arrow setups, especially on screen 4, make me just want to tank through out of urgency instead of thinking about how to make it through unscathed.
Oh, and maybe it's just me, but the color of the chains seems a little bright compared to everything else.
B6
Is that clear block supposed to be the normal exit? I kind of expected it to be in a different sublevel altogether, and for the newly-activated blocks to bar access to the switch area the second time around. That's probably just me, though.
Youtube (Main) | Youtube (Alt) | Bandcamp | DeviantART
I like the atmosphere, but as I went through the stage there were a number of small issues that, as they added up, started to detract from the experience.
For example, I know those spikes were insta-death in Yoshi's Island, but it feels like overkill in SMW, especially in the dropping ceiling section. I'd say merely hurting Mario is enough.
Also, I found myself wondering if you were using the arrows too much. It's fine to make them the focus of the level, but I feel like you hardly use any other enemies, and by the time I reached the third section, I was beginning to tire of them.
In the first area, I don't know if monty moles are the best enemies to use, as they frequently get stuck in lower areas that you can then jump over with ease. The two on screen 2 are also kind of odd in that they spawn off-screen a bit as they hop up, making them a little hard to see at first.
On a side note, instead of laying the bricks out half-piece by half-piece, you should make a two-square-tile piece in Map16 so you can cut down on tile usage. As it stands, your level's going to take up a lot of space in the ROM.
Oh, and the arrows push Mario back even when he's recovering from a hit, which I thought was a little odd, but see what others think, too.
In the second area, the general darkness combined with the color similarity in the FG/BG makes some blocks hard to see...or at least, I think so.
Finally, this might just be me, but I thought the fact that the arrows actually knock Mario back was a little weird in practice.
Some more specific comments:
B4
0: This would serve as a nice introduction to the arrows if Mario had not already encountered them in the previous section...I'm not sure why you put this here, specifically.
2: Nitpicky, but are these 'M' blocks strictly necessary? They look awfully out of place to me in this level.
3: The coins kind of suggest that you should do a full-speed jump to clear this gap, but if I understand correctly, the height you gain from such a jump is randomized and isn't always 6 tiles high. I guess if players know to spin-bounce on the bowling ball (which, by the way, looks weird when it doesn't rotate) it should be ok, but this jump gave me pause.
3/4: I know Kojeco's level uses crumbling bridge tiles, but that's pretty far away from this one, and I think you should reintroduce them in a safer manner, so as to refresh players' memory before continuing. Otherwise, I have a feeling players will be (unfairly) caught off-guard.
4: The arrow shooters sometimes seem to cancel each other out, which makes their rate of fire kind of erratic. Not a good thing when you're demanding precision. Also, the p-quarter affects the late vine block, which I personally thought was kind of annoying.
5: I feel like there should be a bit more vertical space between the two shooters here- that way, players could jump on the lower tier without getting hit by the upper arrow.
6: See 2.
7: Maybe I'm just tired of seeing p-things, but reliance on them here seems kind of underwhelming. Up until here the level has a nice sense of environmental danger, and then these global tiles crash the party, if you take my meaning.
B-C: Might just be me, but I didn't like this too much, either. Too much precision to squeeze into that space after the triangles, and then you have to wait a full p-quarter cycle just so the koopa doesn't fall off prematurely or get killed by the shell. On top of that, this kind of setup doesn't sit well with me to begin with because it's exactly the kind of thing you see in run-of-the-mill switch palace "puzzle" levels. Also, see 2.
B5
Overall: What I find weird about this section is that, even though there's a message box explaining the situation, the danger isn't visually immediate, and if you dilly-dally until the ceiling spikes actually show up, by that point it could be too late. Overall this area seems to demand a lot of precision, even trial-and-error, and I felt like I was rushing and stumbling through the whole time. I kind of expected to see more on/off blocks so I could reverse the ceiling's movement, but no dice.
Also, you can't see the swoopers. This was fine back in one of the Bowser's Valley levels from the original game because you didn't have an irreversible insta-death ceiling bearing down on you the whole time, but here it makes things seem unfair. In addition, some of the arrow setups, especially on screen 4, make me just want to tank through out of urgency instead of thinking about how to make it through unscathed.
Oh, and maybe it's just me, but the color of the chains seems a little bright compared to everything else.
B6
Is that clear block supposed to be the normal exit? I kind of expected it to be in a different sublevel altogether, and for the newly-activated blocks to bar access to the switch area the second time around. That's probably just me, though.
Youtube (Main) | Youtube (Alt) | Bandcamp | DeviantART