Rating Curve

undoubtedly my favorite solo skitten, so atmospheric, creative, and unique, and it's a 2.0 level! granted i've spent a very long time meticulously messing around with this level in practice + botting it (for some reason) so i know basically every object at this point, but still i don't think any other solo skitten has the pop that this one does. would be a really good gauntlet inclusion

probably one of the funniest joke levels in the game if it even counts. it being put on a frankly below average rated level for the time somehow makes it more iconic

#ratedenouement

i'm intentionally not saying anything about this level. if you see this review, go play this. just trust me, it's like the coolest thing ever and really should be iconic, and remember that it's from 2.1

contrary to its reputation, i think it's best to think of this level as funnygame's 'early update' level, as this came out literally a couple weeks after 1.9. his stuff right before it i definitely like more as a whole and what came out after includes some of the best levels ever made. while even at its best (aside from both of the glow object ship parts, the red laser and the rainbow ones) other funnygame levels after do it better, it's still an incredibly iconic and influential level. 1.9 update is revolution, after all

underrated little taman-y design/effect thing. or well at least it was, until it got added to a gauntlet. thanks rob! devon was really good in this era (hello, chasm) and continued to be rly up until he stopped making levels. a few parts stand out as a little underdecorated for what it was going for today, but at its best still looks great

i will go against the grain that i do earnestly like this. Thing. poem? it's not a level, that kinda goes against clumps' philosophy. likewise my rating is a generic stand in, rating this anything feels weird. i forgot exactly what i wrote about this in my neocities site before i got rid of it but i remember linking it there. non-gd friend came across it, hell of an introduction to the gd underground, if indeed this is what that is

i think coming at this from the point of 'is this right or wrong' is not asking the right questions, and i've never felt that about this. it's more so an extension of my attraction to uncompromising self-confidence, and this certainly is one of the most 'i do not give a fuck what you have to say or think' (at least in being very confrontational and against any kinds of standards) statements we've ever seen. it's also worth noting it feels like a half-formed daydream statement than something in specific, a feeling and a window into someone's mind more than a manifesto of any kind

to address the elephant in this room with its war themes, yes this level came out before the invasion of ukraine and the escalation of the genocide in palestine. is it appropriate to be making these statements at all as the state of israel had been continually oppressing palestinians and their decedents? no, probably not. but not many were talking about it then. it almost illustrates one of the level's points (and in general its absurdly radical nature works well as a jumping off point to earnestly think about such topics, a nucleation point as snowflakes gather around dust particles), we want a narrative, we want heroes and villains, it takes genocide for it to start to take up space in our mind. mundane discrimination is boring, especially when you're not being discriminated against. even in palestine, the story isn't satisfying. there are no heroes, just a people being crushed for meaningless colonialist reasons. the us doesn't give a shit, russia's "meant" to be the opposite of us but they don't give a shit, hamas and other islamic nationalist groups are fighting for the right cause (and definitely aren't creating secret tunnels under hospitals) but their ideological proximity to places like dubai, places i can't visit in fear of being killed for daring to be gay, definitely has me uneasy for the state of the country, no matter if they come out on top or not.

(edit: a well written article that’s helped both elucidate new sides and understand my assumptions of what zionism is)

connecting these themes to geometry dash is the lynchpin of the level and the most obviously absurd part, but i'm glad someone from this community shared their thoughts on the equally absurd feelings of this leisure activity and community existing at the same time as international tragedy. it's something you don't want to think about, something many can't even afford to think about, i'm not really sure i can for long periods of time. it's just hopeless and i can feel it killing me slowly. i can make it stop killing me slowly if i ignore it. these are the kinds of stakes caused by the horrible systems of nationalism, patriotism, and greed. and it's happening at the same time as my stupid cube jumping game. addressing what i feel i can say i disagree with most directly in this level is this and similar statements against moderators as a whole, having known quite a few moderators personally over the years. they're not willingly upholding standards (the idea of levels being rated at all is the root of the evil here, look how other communities like celeste and iwbtg get by without such things), and indeed the advent of moderators has given us rates of a lot more interesting levels that robtop would never have chosen himself, at their worst they're underdeveloped teenagers. (the ethics of "employing" these volunteers in a game which obviously generates capital for robtop and for showcase grifters and $1000 spike weirdos is another topic entirely, counterbalanced by the thought that there probably shouldn't be money floating around to cloud this artistic medium. but that's another topic entirely, i'm not a political scientist, i don't want to look at it, i can't look at it, it's killing me.)

i encourage you to earnestly engage with cold war again, even in its half-baked absurd context. you're not gaining anything from ignoring its themes, and neither is clumps, if you really do disagree with them and would want them to change their mind. i would be interested to read a highly critical response to this level even though i don't totally disagree with it! i admire clumps because they are daring to bring these kinds of discussions to gd at all, most directly successful imo in their magnum "opus" _________'s chameleon nature being constantly updated, at its best in the equally hilarious and thought provoking way that it's inaccessible on irish bank holidays, the really odd but interesting supposition that levels also deserve labor rights. it's definitely not something someone else would ever consider to do, at least

eightos's best level and the perfect foil to the icy depressive wasteland of ballistic wistfully. the designs are just detailed enough to be interesting, the colors are really pretty (especially for an impossible level!), and it's overall just so earnestly joyful and playful. it definitely loses steam after the first couple parts but it's still such an interesting twist on this era of impossible levels. who knew absurd gameplay and jazz fusion would go so well together?