Without any doubt, one of, if not, THE most iconic and influential gd level of all time, rivaling the likes of Bloodbath and Robtop’s main levels. Back when this first dropped in 1.9, the effect part in the wave was mindblowing, almost completely unheard of at the time. Afaik, there were only two levels in 1.9 released before Nine Circles that have even remotely done this effect at all. There have been countless levels inspired by this one, mainly in the trend of “Nine Circles” levels that this level established, and this level is a popular choice in player progression.

Now it has been over a decade later after this level dropped, and nowadays, its just fine. While its decoration was groundbreaking when it first released, it just doesn’t feel the same, and sort of blends in with most other NC levels that came out afterwards, especially with the ones that came out in 1.9. Still, one can’t forget how meaningful this decoration was back when this level first released.

As for the gameplay, its not exactly bad, but its noticably rough around the edges due to its age. The predrop isn’t exactly horrible to play, but it can feel boring to sit through when the main thing you want with this level is to get to the exhilaration that is the wave part, especially with the ship and ball parts having a few annoying timings. And the ending cube is just one giant chokepoint, so that’s just… fun.

The wave part is undoubtedly the best part of this level in terms of both visuals and gameplay, this is one of the better playing wave parts in Nine Circles hard demons, although the start of the wave is a little bit harder than the rest of it, so it may kill you as soon as you get to the drop which is a bit annoying, but its manageable and far from the worst kind of gameplay I have seen with other Nine Circles levels

Overall, while I don’t exactly see this level as the masterpiece it once was compared to 10 years ago, I’d generally say its still worth playing today, despite some hiccups. And I have nothing but massive respect for Zobros pioneering an entire genre of levels in this game, even if many of which seemed to have failed to replicate the same charm that this level did, though some are still good on their own terms. Easily Zobros’ best level (though that is a LOW bar).