This to me is what a Geometry Dash level should be, it doesn’t necessarily inspire wonder and amazement through mind boggling and alien effects, art, and gameplay gimmicks (Not saying those are bad) but it inspires that sense through the progression, theming, and clear joy and personality the creator poured into this masterpiece, hopefully soon to be a level loved and adored by thousands in the community.

I really do wish I could rate this a 10/10 or even 9/10, but I feel as if some of the parts are lackluster in terms of decoration. No parts are bad, but some like the part in the sky, The repetition sections in the star part, and penultimate part with the train in the BG aren’t the best visually, with some out of place or ugly elements, even though my reasonings for my slight distain for each part’s decoration differ.

I wanna mention the gameplay before I go on about the two parts that stuck out immensely and made this level a hopefully soon to be classic to me, It’s pretty much perfect, a really fun mid difficulty extreme demon that feels unique but not confusing, there are like 3 or 4 gameplay segments which feel inconsistent or are straight up unsightreadable, but with how incredible the rest of the gameplay is, it really doesn’t matter too much.

The two glistening gorgeous stars of the show are the first and last parts, not only with the very fun gameplay and extravagant decoration (Which I will dive into shortly) but with how they connect to each other but also the theming and goal of the entire level!

The very first few seconds is a perfect introduction to everything about the level, the dual mode sets up the goal and theme flawlessly, your dual icon dares your main icon to race to the moon for 10 stars, this sets up the goal of getting to the moon and the theme of a magical journey to the moon. The gameplay here also introduces the gimmick of repetition throughout the entire level with the staircase and small spike jumps up towards the main pathway.

(Will write the rest soon)

I really want to touch on the beginning's dual gameplay where the other icon asks to race the player to the moon. This is some of the best thematic setup I've ever seen in a level, and establishes a clear motive and overall trajectory for the level in a way that is both natural (due to the part being dual) and silly. Visually, Dyad is overall quite a silly feeling level, as the decoration style leans heavily into abstraction in most parts. The crunchy, pixelated textures on the "ground" objects in both the earth and moon sections establish a lean away from realism to the player immediately, and plenty of other elements like the shooting stars in the space sections and the giant spinning rainbows in the sky section move or appear in absurd ways that make the player's journey feel more like fantasy, which is nice considering the "race to the moon" theme is quite an unrealistic one outside of a fantasy setting. (edited)

I absolutely love how unafraid Awesomeme360 is to use repetition in this level for song representation (mainly concerning gameplay, but occasionally visuals too). The song uses quite a repetitive drum line and a simple vocal chop that loops and only really changes in time with the level's major visual changes from part to part. The cube gameplay in the beginning section with the groups of three "staircase" blocks serve to represent this repetition, and often they make up 10-15 sections of the level with nothing but that structure repeated when the song calls for it, however orbs and pads are frequently used to create unique gameplay on top of those repeating structures in time with any one-off effects or noteworthy elements of the song. This is not only fantastic for song representation in all regards, but helps keep the player engaged by breaking up the monotony that comes with repeated gameplay.

Lastly, Dyad is great at making the player feel small. Aside from just the overall huge verticality of the level, some set-piece elements in each part are huge and take up multiple screens' worth of space, which helps to reinforce the size of the environment to the player. My favourite example of this is the cloud ring in the UFO section, as it still feels natural and connected with the part because of the general heavy use of clouds in that section, despite the absurdity of a giant ring of clouds appearing in front of the player. Dyad is a fantastic, surprisingly concise and very silly experience, and one with genuine replayability due to the complexity of its world. I would recommend this for Legendary and look forward to more from Awesomeme360.

8.5. i love the random thingies just floating there doing their random thingy stuff

(5.5)