I feel obligated to write a review for the level that more or less changed the way I see the game. I don't think I would still be playing Geometry Dash at all if this level didn't draw me back in when I had more or less moved on and inspired me to begin creating again after seeing what the this medium is capable of at its very peak. I don't think there is a single aspect of this level that is anything short of stellar, so lets go through what makes Black Blizzard such an endlessly captivating level in more detail:

Lets start with the obvious, extreme demons are a fantastic way to get people to pay more attention to your level and the details within it, as they force repeated plays and close attention to all the nuances of whats presented to you. In my opinion, there are no levels before this one with gameplay nuanced enough to reward experimentation of different strategies of how to clear them. Every part of this level felt like a different obstacle that needed to be overcome, and it was up to you to come up with the strategy that felt best for you. Players more skilled than me might have had a different experience but because this level was by far the hardest thing I had ever tried to beat at the time, the challenge of figuring out which strategies worked best for each obstacle was equally challenging and rewarding as the experience of actually pulling them off in runs. When I was playing it in 2018 many of my friends on twitch were going through it with my and sharing strategies between each other and talking about how we do each part was some of the most fun Ive had playing this game. Shoutouts in particular to LeslieDB, UsingFiddle, and We4therman, as well as everyone else who was a part of that community at the time. Back to the level, there's a great sense of just "here's this obstacle, go figure it out" in the gameplay which reminds me a lot of playing soundodger levels at their best.

Another major plus this level had over other contemporary extreme demons was, unintentional or not, the best sense of progression and payoff of any level ever up to that point. To put it mildly, the first cube in this level is absolutely brutal. The single hardest click in the entire level is at 2% and easily chews through thousands of attempts on its own. The impact that this has on the way the level FEELS cannot be overstated. Playing the level from 0 feels like a true challenge, one where a number of times it felt like I wouldn't be able to overcome it. Every attempt past the first cube felt special, and every attempt into the dual felt exhilarating. By forcing you through the majority of the challenge at the start, the level makes it so that every attempt that gets far feels more impactful. This effect is multiplied by both the intensity of the song, decoration, and gameplay.

Lets talk about the visuals now, its no secret that this level stands out. The block designs in the first cube are iconic, the targets on the orbs in the 2nd part are iconic, and of course the giant tornado in the drop is probably the single most standout part of this level. If you were around when this level dropped you were probably as mind-blown by that part alone as I was. With under 30k objects, this level is also a masterclass in doing exactly as much decoration as each part calls for. This level is not afraid to have a bunch of empty space in the first part where nothing is happening in the song or to only decorate exactly as much of the drop as is needed for a 3x speed dual that keeps the focus on the gameplay and not the blocks unlike most other levels. At no point does it feel like any of my attention is being drawn out of the experience, every visual detail serves to bring the vision to life

I also probably don't need to tell you how iconic of a song Creo - Dimension is but its worth mentioning regardless. There's a reason people were so desperate to find out what the name of the song was back in the day.

I feel like when people talk about levels, they tend to fall into the trap of talking about aspects of level individually. One person might say they love the way it looks and another the way it plays. Its also just much easier to talk about something one piece at a time, but this level, to me, is concrete proof that the real magic is in the way these elements interact. Yes, the song is stellar, the gameplay is stellar, and the visuals are stellar but none of these elements alone are enough to make a "perfect" level. What really draws me in is how tight the connection between each element is. I found while even writing this review it was really difficult for me to talk about each part of the level without mentioning another. The brilliant progression is not only because of the difficulty curve but also because of the build in the music and the way the visuals get more dense and chaotic as tensions ramp up. The final part of the level is extremely stressful not only because its the last part in an extreme demon but also because the tension coming out of the insane dual is still extremely high and the gameplay is designed to play on how nervous you are by forcing you through tight wave-spams that require adjustments for variation. The dark theme is impossible to talk about without the brilliant way that the song evokes a feeling of coldness. Every part of the gameplay plays great attention to the way that moving your icon feels in tandem with the music, instead of just syncing clicks to the song. The list goes on. Every single part of this level plays into another. Its all so tightly designed that pulling one part out would cause the rest to collapse like a suspension bridge during a typhoon. Black Blizzard is in equal parts a compelling playing experience as it is a force of nature, and its raw power can be felt by its presence.

Before wrapping up this review Id also like to touch briefly on how much of an inspiration this level is for me. The parts of the level I wanted to encapsulate and iterate on in Sunset Sandstorm Ive already talked about in detail and should be pretty obvious, but that's not the only time this level inspired me. The final part was also a big source of inspiration for me when I designed my part in limbo, my original vision for that was combining the high intensity of the wave-spam at the end of an extreme demon of Black Blizzard with the outlandish key challenge of A Bizarre Phantasm. The way this level approaches gameplay as a series of obstacles synced to music instead of a concrete click pattern you need to follow was also always at the forefront of my mind when designing Glide and Moving Forward, as well as careful attention to when and how you use detail and how that makes a part feel. Black Blizzard is an endless goodie bag of good ideas in design, and a pillar that defines what extreme demons can be in Geometry Dash.