Growing up in the community, I've long-considered JonathanGD to be among my favorite creators in the game. And for years I'd always look at his hardest creation: Butiti III, in awe and wonder. Gotta say, I'm a sucker for his rainbow style, and I think he does it best in this level. Butiti III truly feels so lively, which is a hard feat to achieve for not just a Geometry Dash level, but a former list demon! I was really glad I got the opportunity to have beaten this level, but I'd be lying if I said it was perfect. Naturally as a JonathanGD level, it was certainly second-half heavy. And as a guy that generally sucks at XL levels, I found the experience of consistently getting to the dual at 55% a minute-and-a-half into the level, often times in back-to-back attempts, to be very monotonous and draining. I also had a glaring issue with the transition from the end of the dual wave into the dual ball at 68%, as well as the insanely tight click at 72% with the robot and the dual, to be pretty big choke-points. But with those really being my only major complaints in a three-minute long level, I think that goes to show how well-made as a whole Butiti III is. Like I said, not really a big XL guy, so 8/10 is as much as I can give (also with consideration to how I took much longer with the level than I should've), but Butiti III is a level that I'd actually recommend to higher-level players if they're trying to improve nerve control!

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO boy, what a level. Just completed this today after multiple weeks of playing, and there is so much to say about this. Personally, this is the best Jonathan level I've played, though that's not really saying much. It continues the unique style that BuTiTi II used, once again incorporating text as objects and spikes which gives it a certain unique charm. Also like its predecessor, no single part has the same deco, yet the style switching still maintains a general coherency in spite of the variety. This makes each part a genuine visual treat that only really gets bogged down by the visuals being distracting and very in-your-face with the flashing rainbow parts past 55%. Overall, I think the deco is very well-crafted and it feels like a lot of effort was put into making every single part unique.

So learning this level is incredibly tough to start, but after doing so, it becomes surprisingly consistent and enjoyable, especially 0-40, which is debatably the most fun part of the level. 40-55 can be a bit of an annoying chokepoint, specifically the tight ship with the moving saws and the very very tight ufo gameplay. As soon as the duals start, the level goes from 0 to 60 with the difficulty, though not as bad as I expected. The balancing might be a little odd, but it's honestly a lot better once you actually play the level. Anyways, I really, really love the duals. They grew on me in every single way; the only thing that I didn't like was a very specific click during the dual cube that felt waaaaaaaay too tight and specific for the level. But otherwise, the cube is great, the ship is simple, the wave is VERY VERY DIFFICULT but got surprisingly consistent?? idk maybe it was just me but around 1/3 of my attempts to the wave passed it on average which is way better than I expected, the ball is high cps and tight yet very fun, the robot/miniball is very satisfying and simple, and the same goes with the ship/miniufo. The ending takes a complete 180 and takes it rather slow, which does NOT help with the amount of nerves you'd likely have by that point. The cube has some weird timings but gets consistent, the wave is very easy but can kill from nerves, and the ball is probably the 2nd hardest part of the level besides the dual wave. Those black orb timings are INSANE, idk what Jonathan was thinking but good GOD those timings absolutely destroyed some runs. Thankfully, the swing copter is consistent and of course you HAVE to have the trademark JonathanGD triple spike. So, I think this level's gameplay is bordering on peak. It's weird, unconventional, but somehow does so much right and has some of the most satisfying duals I've ever played in any level. Overall, it's fire and I enjoyed my time with it a lot.

You do know you’re setting yourself up by posing a fairly forgettable rainbow level as part of a series that’s meant to have some goofy characteristic underlying it all, right?

Jonathan's best work in my opinion.

It's no secret to friends that I'm not a fan of the 4-6+ minute style of levels. Some of the main examples of this style being Jonathan's more popular levels (Dark Odyssey, Butiti II, Biru, etc.). It's not that I think these kinds of levels can't be great, in fact most of them are pretty amazing, I just feel that at times a lot of these levels can feel dragged on for longer than they need to just for length and don't really do anything remarkable further along in the level to keep me interested in what's up ahead. This is less of an attention span issue (especially because I do usually end up watching the full thing) but rather an issue of not keeping the rest of the level very memorable for the sake of a longer length.

In my opinion, an example of a good XXL (as some may refer to them) is Dark Odyssey (which I will review fairly soon). The level always feels like it's trying something new each section and I actually enjoyed watching it the full way through despite my general avoidance for levels of that length.

All this to say, when Jonathan showed off previews of Butiti III, I was already hooked. The level is around 2:30 long and it feels like it accomplishes exactly what it sets out to and keeps me interested through the entire length. Whether that be through fast paced and exhilerating gameplay, or through the intense and glitchy effects strewn throughout the level to compliment the song, it all feels very intentional. Playing the level is no different. I have the level in a couple runs and the gameplay is nothing short of phenomenal. It is consistently so exciting and satisfying to play each time I play it.

While I find it unlikely, I really hope Jonathan does more of these slightly shorter, but more action packed levels as they only need to sacrifice a maximum of a minute in length for so much more memorability.