Review of Melody

by
, 2025-06-05, 01:37:13, Level ID: 15768640
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I never envisioned how much I had to say about a 9* level, especially one that doesn't revolutionise standards or is insanely original for its time. Melody is arguably Sweetdude's most (in)famous level due to that Etzer video. I won't dive into that because you can watch Pocke's review on a more comprehensive history of it. I'm here to review this level and my experience with it only.

A very important note to start is that this level is not for star grinders, because you can't sightread a damn thing and expect to beat this level quick. It's a memory-oriented level and in my opinion, deserves a demon rating. In fact, I believe people would be more tolerant of this level if it was rated demon. Nine starred insanes will never escape the stereotype of being harder than easy demons. If you plan to beat this, come with the mindset of beating a memory demon. It's not an easy insane level.

Its memory difficulty mainly comes from a lot of moving objects, with little time to react. There are arrows in the level that help you with which way to go, but they blend it with literally everything else so it's not easily visible when first starting out. With the abuse of move triggers in some parts though, I'm surprised I never died to a bug. That's right, no buggy/janky gameplay! Realising this increased my love for this level tenfold. I personally love memory gameplay and I hate to see my runs disrupted by some avoidable bug, as it messes with my muscle memory and state of mind. Well done honestly.

The balancing itself is quite impressive, with no disgusting chokepoints and no section particularly too difficult. Probably the hardest part is the wave part at the beginning, but it's not that bad. Also every portal got the Niflheim/Artificial Ideology treatment so good luck if you don't know any English. Doesn't subtract points since it's a memory level. If it were rated demon, it would be a mid-high tier easy demon, if not low tier medium.

That said, its theming is unironically so good. It has possibly one of the best song representations I've ever seen in this game, which is about the unfiltered joy of making art, without a care in the world if it's good or not. Perhaps it's more fitting the decoration is "bad", and what I mean by this is that everything is the same brightness, solid object or decoration, background or foreground. Under "Objective Rules of Art 101", this would instantly fail because it's difficult to differentiate one thing from another. And I'm happy it deliberately breaks that rule, otherwise the point of this level is just gone.

I think if you watch a video of this and pause at any frame, you're guaranteed a minimal of 3 colours on the screen, with probably no complement to one another. Just like this, it breaks any rule of colour theory, a commonly stressed rule vital to a level getting featured/rated. In fact, probably the only thing done "right" is the background being pitch black to contrast the heavily bright everything (won't lie, this level will actually suck a lot more if it wasn't). Asides the common interpretation of splashing rainbows like there's no tomorrow, another way I interpret this is being at a nightclub where the lights shine haphazardly, and you let your joy out and dance the night away. The feeling of unrestrained happiness is still the same, and the frequent changing and pulsing of colours give the level a dynamic look mostly unreliant on moving objects.

At the end of it all, I can't help but feel bad for Sweetdude having to endure the negative remarks said for this level, because they're often said by those who see it on a surface level with the rate system in mind, and not for the deeper meaning it holds. Does art always have to be good? Artists who believe in that tend to be miserable, crushed by increasing expectations of themselves and their work. For a nine star level existing to simply showcase the joy of giving birth to art, I'm surprised everything surrounding this level goes as deep as it gets, from negative opinions stemming from an objective validation by RobTop in a heavily subjective rating system, to the very meaning of happiness when you simply don't care and create.

I'll conclude with two lines of the song that sum this level up perfectly.

"So take your brush, don't be afraid to show your talent! Spread your designs and drown the earth in your palette!"

OVERALL10/10
GAMEPLAY10/10
VISUALS10/10
DIFFICULTY-/100
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sorry about this gang