This is a pretty low 8/10, but I think the level has enough going on to be in A tier. Yeah, the gameplay can be a little odd at times, but I think it makes up for it a little bit in how seamlessly some effects are done. Probably one of the few virus based levels to not be a complete disaster tbh, lol.

If I had one complaint specifically about the gameplay in this level, I think it would probably be the dual ship part. It’s not obnoxious by any means, but the high speed flickering does get a bit blinding at this point in the level. That wouldn’t normally be a huge issue, but the other problem is that the part includes some rapid gravity changes that are hard to account for when the visuals obscure them so much. Everything else though is alright. The gameplay can feel kind of non-existent at times I guess, mostly due to the emphasis on wild transitions, but I don’t think that’s a particularly bad thing. The flow factor, most notably the parts between the pad/orb chains, really makes this level feel exciting. Despite being loosely connected, it has an aura of completeness to it, which is pretty cool.

I think it goes without saying that the visuals are the main draw here. I’m not typically a huge Darwin fan (particularly after Backbeat Revenge), but there’s some gold in his repertoire. This happens to be one of those outliers, since the effects actually look really solid, and actually maintain a fairly consistent theme instead of just throwing random flashy effects together and calling it a day. There’s a very prominent glitch theme in this level, and that’s definitely most obvious at the start. I genuinely love the way the player freezes, and the rest of the screen sort of rushes by. It’s a pretty generic gimmick in concept, but here, the effect feels stronger than it does in several other levels that play with a similar idea. Beyond that point the effects kind of just go into a generic “cool” feel, until the end where the cube bounces along a series of purple pads and gravity orbs. That has a lot to do with the song representation to be fair, but it’s a really smooth visual effect that incorporates the player in a neat way.

Just to wrap it up, I think song representation is really what makes this a low 8 instead of a high 7. It feels closely linked to the level, since pretty much every major visual effect ties to another effect in the music. Funnily enough, I used to not really like Sharks’ music, but over time I’ve kind of come around. A bit unrelated, but I do think this song is like the little bow that ties together the gift of cool visual effects, wrapped into one level.

Still looks incredible to this day and the song representation is amazing, especially for an easy demon. Also super fun as well