As someone who loves wave gamemode, I'm glad this is the level that made the whole 'Nine Circles' level trend a thing. Another thing that I love about this level that not many people know about, is that it was inspired by another games level - Open Hexagon user level which also used same song and had similar colors. Overall as a whole level, I think it's a good introduction to hard demons, being definitely one of the most popular choice for people's first one, and I think it's fair, since it's a gauntlet of most of the gamemodes (putting in major focus on the wave though). This level can definitely train your straight fly and sightreading skills. The visuals themselves aren't anything crazy, but they do their job well with how simple it is to actually make them.

Definitely a timeless classic that will shape generations of players for years to come, and I think it's a good thing that this is one of the levels that will do it.

absolute classic. the original, and one of the most influential levels the game has and will ever see. and for good reason as well! i mean, i wasnt around back them but i'd imagine seeing that iconic wave effect for the first time would have me shitting bricks too

obviously people have remade this level a billion times, to the point where its become its own style, but i think where many of these remakes get it wrong is how lopsided the balancing is towards the wave. of course the wave is the hardest part in nine circles, but truth be told, only about 40% of nine circles is made up of wave. the first 40% of nine circles is made up of a rather difficult predrop (or, i guess really just the ship) that you can get mindblocked on super easily, and the last 20% is an incredibly tense cube that you can EASILYYY choke at. point is, the original nine circles has far more dynamics to it than any of its countless remakes to me, and thats what really seperates it from the rest all these years later.

"easy" - zobros

This was Geometry Dash's canon event

In retrospect, I think a lot of the GD community at large kinda recognizes that even though Zobros' levels were super influential, they weren't really that good?? Even if visually novel at first, a lot of them kinda just do the same thing for the whole level or maybe two things if you're lucky, and even more of them just aren't fun to attempt to play in any capacity.

The former statement somewhat rings true for Zobros' inaugural level. (Atlas v2 doesn't count, SHUT UP.) Nine Circles mostly lacks air deco and there are really only two and a half distinct parts. But on the flipside, I could make the argument that that's what gave Nine Circles so much staying power - there are very few bells and/or whistles to distract from the sweet, succulent meat of the level - the simple, yet effective, tastefully colored block designs, and of course, the headliner of the level, the unarguably iconic flashing diamond effect.

Nine Circles is also somewhat of a black sheep in Zobros' catalog. This is for one simple reason - it doesn't suck total monkey nuts to play. In fact, it's very good. The entire level is enjoyable and consistent with no egregious chokepoints. The long, extended wave part was somewhat of an oddity for its time - quicker gamemode switches were becoming more and more present in contemporary gameplay as custom songs became available to use and more gamemodes were added - no one was making wave parts that long before Zobros. Of course, this would change rather quickly as the level spawned slews of imitators, some approaching the same level of recognizability - in spite of that, nothing can really beat the original. At least in my opinion.

Good for wave practice. Some of the gameplay can get repetitive, boring, and annoying. The decoration is good for its time and still looks good. Overall more fun to watch than to play.

Even if you (wrongly) disregard the complete lack of originality on display in future "Nine Circles levels", this is still the only one worth paying any mind to. No one else has replicated such weight and aggression in its structuring, the style just became so much bro-ier and ground-down afterwards. Still a classic on the merits of its own oppressive, sweltering vision.

The OG itself