DISCLAIMER: I have not beaten this level yet. It's currently out of my skill range, though I've done multiple practice runs before writing this review.

When I hear that a level is a love letter to 1.9 or a celebration of 1.9, some things start to come to mind. I usually think of these types of levels as being very upbeat, colorful, fast-paced, sometimes flashy and punchy. They can end up feeling like a soaring euphoria as opposed to a completely honest representation of the time period. I'm not saying any of these levels are bad, I really like them, I'm just pointing this out because this is what comes in my head when I hear that a level is meant to celebrate 1.9.

With that said, Stressed Out is the complete opposite of this. The appreciation for 1.9 is still there, in fact it's more upfront than ever. Almost every section is a remake of a part of a 1.9 level. There are a lot of iconic ones, there's Rainbow Dust, Theory of SkriLLex, Cataclysm, Nine Circles, Bloodbath, the list is so long... but none of it feels right. They're all bent, distorted versions of all these levels it's trying to replicate. They're all stripped of their bright colors and all painted in red and grayscale. The level isn't even all that fast-paced either, it's a lot more self-contained. The level whole has this lingering anxiety and uneasiness, almost like it's... Stressed Out? (I'm so deeply sorry for this pun)

Looking at Stressed Out as just a 1.9 tribute would be a shallow reading of the level. Stressed Out is also a tribute to twenty one pilots, their fourth studio album Blurryface (of which this level uses the album cover's color scheme), as well as their most popular song of which this level uses and is named after. Stressed Out (the song) is about missing the past and wishing to experience their childhood again because of how great it seemed looking back. Stressed Out (the level) represents this really well with its usage of designs from existing 1.9 levels since these levels are a major point of nostalgia for a lot of people, me included. The quieter parts of the chorus, the only times where the level isn't trying to mimic the designs of another level, add to this feeling in the song since they feel like a whole bunch of miscellaneous doodles on a chalkboard a kid would make. The second piece of this two-way tribute has to be when this level released. Stressed Out (the level) released on April 28th, 2025. This is exactly 10 years after the release of its song on April 28th, 2015. That exact date also lands squarely in the time period of update 1.9. The execution of this tribute level, both in the level's quality itself and how many layers there are to this tribute, is absolutely genius and why this level will always stick out so strongly to me as a great 1.9 tribute.

I can't give a strong analysis of the gameplay because it's out of my skill range, but I'll touch up on it since I do have some thoughts. For the most part it seems good, and I had fun with the level during my practice runs, but the style of gameplay was really all-over-the-place, which was sorta to be expected because the design is as well, but so was the balancing. There are a bunch of parts, especially ship corridors, that felt way too easy for an extreme demon, but there were also some wack asymmetrical duals you would suddenly get thrusted into. I got a few of them down in some spots around the level and once I did that they were really satisfying to do, but I bet I would probably get a little sick of dying in these spots a lot around the level since they're easily the hardest parts. Outside of that, I really like this level and what it does! I hope I will be able to beat it someday as I love update 1.9 and it's very clear mephhh does too.