Remakes of classic levels are generally a contentious topic in the community, with many vastly different ideas and opinions on their validity and execution. Everything I have to say about this level comes from a place of love and respect for Ditched Machine and its community influence over the last 10 years; Ditched Machine X fails pretty badly at doing the original justice. Before I get into why, I wanted to touch on what I do like about this level. There are some spots where Jeyzor made very good use of the structuring in the original level, turning it into something completely new while also recognisable as the original, these two spots being the first and last part. The rotating pillars and the gears do a good job of incorporating 2.1/2.2 elements in a visually interesting manner while still retaining the structuring of the original layout. I especially enjoy the endscreen and I think ending within one of the part's gears is a very nice, thematic touch to end off a high-caliber remake of a classic, influential level.

Unfortunately, this is where my praise ends. I think the choice to keep the exact same gameplay and colour schemes from Ditched Machine is strange. The level is visually completely different from the original, with the only constant being the structuring in all of the parts is, to my knowledge, the exact same, but the actual decoration is far more akin to Jeyzor's modern, effect- and art-heavy late 2.1 levels. This disconnect is really jarring and places the level squarely in a grey area between the two approaches I think work best for remakes: staying faithful to the original and uplifting it in the context of its original limitations, and completely revamping it with all the new tools available to creators now while still keeping the theming and/or flair of the original. The choice to combine both for this remake is a bit baffling and causes the level to end up feeling undercooked and bland in many aspects.

Additionally, much of the decoration in the level does a pretty poor job of replicating or referencing the original despite the same colour schemes. The aforementioned pillars in the first part do look nice, but they do not make sense in the context of a ball memory part focused mostly on tricking the player with the path passing inside many of the structures; this worked in the original when each structure was homogeneous, but the new ones have a clear "surface" that feels meant for the player at the top that does not mesh with this type of memory. The following two parts did quite well with the block design and structuring, but the effects, backgrounds and saws/air deco fall flat. The nature background has no thematic tie-ins to the part and doesn't add much to the level visually, the rainbow scatter effects on some of the objects feel out of place due to the part mostly staying one colour, and the shader effects are not consistent throughout the part, making their sudden appearance all the more jarring. While I do very much like the particles in the ship part at 60, there is next to no block design and the particles that seem to represent Jeyzor's block designs in the original do not follow the structures, leaving the part unpleasantly empty.

I do like Jeyzor's approach to creating, but Ditched Machine X finds itself trying to be two things at once and, in my eyes, failing at both. I wish Jeyzor committed fully to either staying faithful to the original or completely reworking it with new editor tools, as the choice to try and do both leaves neither element of the level working with the other. I would likely recommend it for Feature because I do think it looks good in a vacuum, but I hope this provides some insight into the elements that I think make remakes work.