(Originally written July 21, 2024)

LIMEADE is a level I'm surprised I don't like more, because there's a lot of elements that I really love, but there are some parts of the level that, ironically, sour the experience for me. "Sweet and sour" is actually a very appropriate way to describe the level, funnily enough. I'll start by describing the sour half.

As I saw a little bit of AudieoVisual's WIP streams for this level, I was a little disappointed to see the use of the pixellate shader for the background of the first ball part. It's very reminiscent of how iTMG uses a pixellation effect for backgrounds in their videos, so much so that honestly could be a point of inspiration. But where it works for iTMG and where it doesn't for AudieoVisual is the context. iTMG makes videos about Minecraft, so the pixellation integrates the motion graphics in a really cool way. This isn't a review of an iTMG video though, so I'll say that it doesn't fit in LIMEADE at all, even as a contrast. LIMEADE is poppy, smooth, and fluid, and to me, the pixel shader breaks up that flow.

There are a handful of details I dislike, like how the Blast Processing blocks (for lack of a better term) used towards the middle of the level have an abrupt cutoff that looks intentional, but my biggest gripe is the gameplay and difficulty progression. The first part, the upward ship, is a really cool opening, but after playing it for the tenth time, it gets a little stale in terms of gameplay. It wouldn't be out of place in a 2-4 star level, and this is an 8 star level. This is something I've noticed in another of AudieoVisual's levels, CUT DEEP, where the first wave is impossible to die to, so while it looks cool, it gets very boring for a demon level.

This wouldn't be as much of a problem if the dual towards the end of the level wasn't such a big difficulty spike. I understand the choice to use a mirror portal for this part, because I think the level definitely could have benefited from a direction change--making the first ship part go up was a great decision that made the level stand out, but the mirror portal ain't it, man. I think it, or a camera rotation to make the part go up or down, would have been more effective if the part wasn't quite so hard. Despite the click indicators, the readability is a little tough, and I encountered a few bugs where I shouldn't have died, which was somewhat frustrating. This dual is definitely what brings the level up to an 8 star, and I think nerfing it to bring the level down to something like a 6 star would've improved the experience.

Onto the sweet part of the review! AudieoVisual's foray into art levels has been great to watch, I love the various art components and how they've been integrated into the level. The citrus fruits, obviously, are used heavily and are used as obstacles for a few parts, which I thought was really cute, and I really like the martini glass that you drop into and float out of; it really enhances the flavor of the level, in more ways than one.

Another detail I like, though less flavorful in one aspect, is the very tasteful yet impactful use of particles. I love the rotating stars that splash onto the screen in the first part, and the floating background particles in the background of the first ball are such a perfect emulation of a bubbling drink--it almost makes my mouth water.

Since this is AudieoVisual we're talking about, there's a lot of kinetic text, and I think this is always a really nice detail to include, but it's executed very well here--in particular the squash and stretch on "zesty", it is absolutely delectable. Besides that, not much else to say here; great as usual.

I could go on describing every individual component of the level, but I don't want to write that much, so I'll zoom out to a bigger picture perspective. If I were to describe LIMEADE in one word, it would be "juicy". While I'm not the biggest fan of the song, the level synergizes with it extremely well; it's so poppy, colorful, and saturated. I feel like I'm a kid in the early 90's on a hot and humid summer day cooling off with an intensely sweet can of lemonade--the vibes are excellently communicated.

The single piece of media this level reminded me of the most was a poem from the character Selmers in Night in the Woods, and I'll conclude with that:

Sometimes I like fruit snacks

Out by

The train tracks

A juice box

And headphones

I enter

The juice zone.