Learning about the lore behind the level from Audieo's stream was also really interesting. The further we're progressing in the level, the more we're approaching the Hell-star, but the more we approach it, the more we see hallucinations (represented in the colors yellow, pink and orange), and the more we see them, we're just dead. And then we end up like the Echo Delta, the first three that approached the Hell-star, with the Echo of our icon just left in the deep void of space.

Alright well, this level is not known for the lore. Talking about the level itself, it's pretty easy to spot which part is made by who. The beginning made by deffie, the industrial factory like part made by speg, and the buildup to the drop to the near end made by Audieo. The parts themselves add up to the progression of the level, and they blend well together even if they stand out from one another. I can also definitely tell Serponge needed to step up his game after some of the levels he uploaded, especially after Noel Electra. Even then, the stuff he's been pulling off recently, either by himself or with others, have been pretty good, and this just adds to that.

Anyway, this being a level with an insane lineup is crazy to have. Really wish this made Top 10 and not 18th, but oh well.

at times incoherent but the sum of its parts is still amazing and i have insane amounts of respect for any level that uses an original song composed for it

despite my absolute disappointment of having no space horror at all in any of the space gauntlet entries I think this is the closest I'll get to cope with the fact, and it's a damn good one

love the aesthetics here, from simply roaming a planet and having this outer wilds-esque feeling of wanderlust to literal mechanical hell calling back to the alien franchise (specifically the sevastopol station from alien isolation, minus the aliens and the biological mess they make) before throwing you into wormhole after wormhole then spitting you out into the void, it's one hell of a trip, and I wish it was longer despite it already being 3 minutes

space doesn't have to be all future tech jargon and laser lightshows, and with how the level plays with megalophobia both at the second part and the very end and the only remotely tech thing being the occasional UI flash, this gave the dose of space horror I genuinely wanted from this contest

gameplay's great, parts I remembered the most are the second part into the mechanical complex and the spider part (for very different reasons, may include complaints about a slightly botched buildup), but that aside I loved it overall, especially audieo's part (still amazed at how seamless it felt despite the gravity spam)

(bit unrelated from this point on, this is the part where I blow up about horror and people sticking the game's pg rating up people's asses whenever they try anything like this, absolutely up to you if you wanna read what's below)

why are we not trying anymore after peaceful by small and red room by devin2003? Collab level by mindcap??

I get horror's hard to make, but we have people doing it before already, and it's like people are intentionally avoiding it and it's a trend I've been noticing since the community got careful after peaceful's release (which I get, it's straight up trypophobia in a kids game dressed up as a mascot-y level)

I also get all the examples I listed are more or less body horror, but not everything horror has to be that, this is perfect for a non-body horror example, even something like save as by PAHC potentially being psychological horror

PLEASE please please just try horror, it's such an underappreciated and underdeveloped genre and element in the creating scene, and we don't need people on moral high horses yelling about the kids grouping the genre into one giant disgusting thing when it simply isn't

By far the most experimental popular entry for the contest, I already talked about it extensively in audieovisual's discord server actually so I'll just kind of summarize what I said there. The first two parts which i assume are mainly made by serponge and deffie are absolutely gorgeous, deffie made some amazing and very intricate block design and unlike other times i think serponge's realistic style is really well executed and beautiful. The third part is where the level changes stylistically and gets much more intense in sync to the song (amazing one btw). I used to not like that fact but I think it makes the level more unique and have better song rep now. The next part is whatever, not Bad but doesnt rlly add anything. Many people don't like Audieo's first part and while it is kind of standard on it's own think it really fits the moment in the song and the level and looks pretty nice anyways. The next part of course is absolutely amazing and does the intensity of the song so well. Again I like how different this is from the first parts stylistically. The cube dual is a little worse but not bad at all and has a pretty cool backgrounds effect, i don't care much for the ending cutscene or the very least ship but again I don't mind them really. Overall absolutely amazing entry, I would put it in My top 5 mainly coz of the amazing song and the song representation alongside the uniqueness even if it's not the most consistent level

Audieo's part isn't even that bad lol? (7.5-8)

This level has a very strong progression. Going from the ground of a planet, flying through the empty atomosphere, to encountering black hole. The song suits this level really well, too. The drop is my favorite part, the chaos happening inside the black hole is chaotic. I also like the black hole pre-drop gameplay having awkward gravity, representing the tough gravity of black hole. A couple things to mention, yellow orbs in the part before wave drop is very unnecessary as you are already playing as a cube, cuve has the same jump mechanic, so why adding yellow orb? And lastly, I personally do not like spider with tall teleporting gameplay in general, I prefer to have normal spider gameplay with 10 blocks limit rather than having a big zoom out camera and having it swings up and down.