Rating Curve

i'm a casual icedcave fan, a little bit because icedcave isn't really a creator many people really like the ideas of but i do, and this is my favorite icedcave thing. it's really just everything turned up to 11, the silly nonsense as the last of the diamond blade trilogy but more well thought out, the incredibly fun to watch and terrifying gameplay, alternating between straight forward consistency/timing tests and ridiculous bullshit, the silly edgy bullshit which really stands out with this particular song choice, and just the sense in general that he's having a really fun time in the editor. i really like icedcave because he embodies something deep about gd culture, about extremely hard levels that cut the nuance and are mostly about Looking (and being) Really Hard, about the inherent simplistic hedonism of daring to make a level that hard, about nostalgia and internet culture. it's not especially deep (though this level in particular has a good handful of really creative sections and song representation) but their levels still manage to feel very authentic to me, which is a surprisingly thin line to walk

loco is a very good example of the importance of a concept and pacing when making levels. both deja vu and between worlds are among my favorites despite belonging to one of my least favorite gd styles, and both use custom made edits of their songs made by their producers, though in different ways. deja vu is probably just barely the better level, being one of those absolutely brilliant simple concepts no one can ever do again with how simple it is, but between worlds at least Feels more technical and insane, so many things in this level are just “how the fuck did you make it look that way??” the animations, the fake shaders synced so well, especially that oil slick thing in the last part, like what the fuck? how? and the way loco gives these things the space they need to really soak in, along with the concepts, make them go from a creator i probably wouldn’t even remember the name of to a very distinct voice, one of only a couple that really showed off the true capabilities of the 2.1 editor in its final couple months. given how 2.2 is going, i don’t have hope their next level is going to be anywhere near this good, but i will be glad if they have another couple brilliant ideas to share