in terms of decoration this level really doesn't do anything crazy, even for the time the structuring and design are fairly simple. and yet, this still manages to be one of the most memorable levels in the game. the song is absolutely the focal point of the level, and everything in the level works to complement that: the gameplay syncs nicely to the song and the flashes of color match the beat and give life to what would otherwise be very bland structures. i'm happy that even with the release of the 2.0 update Migueword decided to keep things simple instead of experimenting too much with 2.0 gimmicks (a mistake many creators made when building levels around this time). one of my absolute favourite levels of this difficulty.

There's a certain kind of level I'd consider untouchable, where any attempt to directly bounce off of it is likely doomed. Contrary to a level like Nine Circles or Windy Landscape, which could be used as templates (of sorts) to hopefully recapture the essence of an original work, some levels aren't really definable in structure. Despite frequent efforts, you can't really recapture the magic of a level like Death Moon, Lonely Travel, or High Life while going about things in the same way. I suppose the existence of Future Funk and Reanimation (for example) might prove the validity of edge cases, but I don't think they really feel the same like two Nine Circles levels might.

All of this is to say that High Life is one of a kind, and if there's a reason it has earned its status as a classic I wouldn't say it has anything to do with length or visual fidelity. Instead, each part of High Life feels indescribably self-confident, like it somehow knew that even the many parts with only one main effect or detail to offer wouldn't be seen as iconic rather than obsolete as time passed. Migueword was far from a new creator by the time High Life came out, but it has that aura of ignoring all concern of what more could be done to fill things out. I love when 1.9 levels make the most of their effects and designs, which usually makes for a much more polished and timeless product, but I've always admired High Life for keeping things simple just because that was the vision. I'm sure that High Life was considered very impressively constructed at the time, but its legacy has proved to be as an inspiration, to not worry about cramming a level full of things as if the action had its own inherent value.

To be clear I'm not the biggest High Life enjoyer or anything, I just think it's a really cool level to think about as it ages

Soundodger players seem to make amazing levels and this is no exception. The level has amazing song representation, and pulls off an insanely smooth transition into a new update, while other creators couldn't do that for the life of them back then. It has a bad rep of having really shitty remakes, but that's probably because there's not much to improve on here anyways.