this level is so magical

in circles is a level that was ALL over my timeline at some point, and for good reason - it should definitely get rated, even featured in my opinion. it’s a little themed about “climbing Mt. Circles” according to Somie’s tweet, and i can definitely see that in the first part. it’s like if you mashed the commatose and the sunset sandstorm mini cubes. it works well and looks pretty good, especially on that switch from white to orange. the following crystal cave looks good, although a tiny bit disconnected from the rest of the level.

right after that the level forgets about the ascension and it goes more for a vibe of “you reached the summit but it’s not over yet”. the wave and honestly everything else after that looks fun, looks good and has some pretty cool visuals albeit a little bit too shiny, especially the duals, but i can see why it’s like that. the general block design is done well enough and the saxophone hitting the high note paired with the wave dash orb is super satisfying. i do wish that the ending wasn’t just falling down a few platforms and then disintegrating. said effect looks pretty but i’d say there could’ve been something better to put there instead of that.

i can’t speak for the gameplay since i haven’t played it at all, but i’ll be sure to update this when i do a few practice runs. in hindsight a few transitions look rough but i’d say it’s nice to look at.

overall, in circles is a level that left me satisfied and frankly deserves all of the twitter hype it’s been getting. rate this!!

edit: i’ve now beaten this level, and god is the gameplay terrible

This level has ideas and a vision, I just think they weren’t executed nicely.

The gameplay is easily the weakest aspect of this level sadly. It really doesn’t look bad at all and at first glance, it might even look fun. The issue is that it has so many flaws that it becomes very annoying to play. Second-half heavy, many chokepoints, super inconsistent and awkward to play, blind clicks and more. It genuinely had potential but sadly there’s a lot to improve before it reaches that potential.

The decoration is fine, but also inconsistent in quality. The second half looks way better than the first but still doesn’t look that great and the first half’s deco doesn’t look convincing. I don’t really like the structures or the effects used there especially in the build-up, which I think looks quite empty. So yeah, good ideas but definitely could be improved.

The strongest asset this level has is definitely the song representation I would say. Starting the level with the mountain part with that part if the song was a nice idea and the drop does feel climactic and some clicks there do match the energy of the song which is always good to see. There’s still some stuff that bugs me but I think Somie did a good job in that aspect.

Overall, this level has many flaws that keeps it way from being a good good level in my opinion. However, the issues it has can definitely be improved and I think it’s still a step in the right direction for Somie.

Almost good level.

this is i think the only level that properly did that one part of In Circles justice where the saxophone hits that high note. much appreciated