Definitely a very influential level in the game, so influential in fact that Robtop even temporarily stopped rating Nine Circles levels until Bausha Vortex. This level is inspired by a map in Open Hexagon fittingly called Nine Circles, where Zobros took that map and used it to inspire his own in GD. Levels like these are often frowned upon or looked up upon, and it really depends on who you are, but I always liked levels like these, and I am happy this level exists. As for gameplay, it can be a bit weird to play, I beat this back in I believe 2019 or 2018 as a new hardest of the time, and this level annoyed me a lot when I beat it. Nowadays though, I probably wouldn't hate it as much as I did back then. As for visuals, they were unique and creative for their time, using the 1.9 limits of color channels (which was 4) and using them in the way Nine Circles did was a really well executed style.

Nine Circles, the famous Zobros wave focused level that started one of the longest lasting level trend in GD's history.

Likely surprising to some, Nine Circles' decoration concept is actually not original. The concept of the level and decoration was actually inspired by an old Open Hexagon custom stage named "The Dragon Mayhem", which came out shortly before and also used Nine Circles by Rukkus as its song.

Despite this, Nine Circles became a classic in the GD community.

A Classic, genre defining masterpiece. Maybe the most recognizable level the game has. Defined an era, still holding strong today.

(friends' opinion)

"this level is bussin. zobros is defying and defining the rate standards. this level gave me conical depression because zobros is a ber zer ker when it comes to creating a bloodbath of a level. slaughter house. i spy with my little eye an amazing level that makes me wannacry a waterfall, or some may even say a tidal wave, because I dream of being this good at creating. currently i'm at absolute garbage level, with nothing but white space in my mind. thankfully, this level has put me into an eschaton of a thinking space. this level makes me want to heave ho forward into zobros' next creation. yatagarasu. i have a crush on this level, not in a problematic way. if i had to describe this level in medieval terms i would describe it as a castlemania of glorious fortresses standing atop coaster mountains. this level does not decay as it gets older and makes me b happy and peaceful. decoren abendregen"

Very cool gimmicky level for its time but it’s still not the best.

Some people would say that this is the best Nine Circles level. I just can't agree with that. What this IS the best at though, is BEING a Nine Circles level.

Undoubtedly an all-time classic and the first level I’m going to review on this site, Nine Circles is considered by many to be a core level to beat in one’s GD skill progression. I personally believe this is for the worse; while Nine Circles undoubtedly had a lasting impact on the community as a whole, the way it actually played, to me, was incredibly awkward and unsatisfying. While this level is seen by many as one that introduced a new and creative idea to the table, which I absolutely agree with, it unfortunately also suffers from being poorly designed and balanced throughout. The level has many uneven gaps, uncomfortable transitions, and frustrating parts that make little sense; while these types of things are good for developing a specific skillset, there are much better levels out there to play if you simply want to improve your wave skill. This even includes some of the classic wave of different song/color Nine Circles levels which came not long after the original, such as Jawbreaker, which, while much less merit-worthy artistically, is much more fair and overall enjoyable to play.