Rating Curve

I said this many, many times, and I'll say it again: I've always considered Serponge to be the best creator this game has ever seen, at least from 2.0 and onwards. His approach to design, effects and especially structuring are extremely iconic but still somewhat conventional, so it's no surprise that he's held in good regard by everybody. That's why I thought this level would be very well recieved... But that didn't seem to be the case when it came out.

Coaster Mountain is one of the first platformer levels (concretely, it's the first Legendary rated level ever) and came out pretty recently after 2.2 dropped. I remember Serponge teasing this level and releasing it not long after. I tried to beat it back then, but I found it hard and frustrating at first glance so I didn't complete it until now.

I think that's what led so many people to dislike it the same way. The level progressively gets harder the longer it goes on, and additionally the gameplay is pretty gimmicky and plays with slopes and force blocks in ways we hadn't seen until then (understandably though, it had not even been a week since the update). I don't think this is a bad thing though, and making its difficulty consistent all across would probably make it much less memorable.

Coaster Mountain starts off with a simple climbing up section. It's a good introduction to the level, as it doesn't play with crazy gimmicks yet and simply wants you to climb up and explore the setting. I love the reference to the penguins from MasterGame and it's so cool to see them appear in a new Serponge level. The monologues aren't too important; they're simply telling you to take one direction or explain what's new to the stage in later moments, but they're a good addition.

We could break down the level in 3 stages, each composed by a "predrop" and a "drop". I'm not really sure what to call them. The "predrops" would be the little sections before the slope based parts, which are obviously the main focus of the level. These little sections are great, since the drops are essentially non-stop and you have to complete them straight, without pause, so they allow you to chill a little between them. Each predrop introduces a new gimmick which is limited to that section and doesn't show up anywhere else in the level. We talked about the first one, which is a simple introduction. The second predrop uses ice blocks, and I like that the penguin is advising you to not stop while walking through them, since from that hint you can figure out what to do without the need of any indicators or signs. The third of these sections utilizes wind, which pushes you slightly to the right. I found some of the jumps to be slightly frustracting and inconsistent, but since the level is getting harder as it goes on, it's understandable.

The slope gameplay is very clearly the main focus of the level, and these sections happen after each predrop. The way I see them is this: the first one simply teaches you how the slope gameplay works, without introducing any strange gameplay other than orbs and direction changes; the second one introduces dash orbs, pads, and even some force blocks. If you have played this level a few times, you can probably get through these first 2 sections (and predrops) in about 3 minutes without any deaths. However, the third one is the hardest. It doesn't introduce anything new, but rather takes everything that appeared in the first two drops and makes much harder gameplay out of it. The first two drops simply wanted you to get used to the gameplay, the third puts to test all that you've learnt. This part has a lot of direction changes, which makes it arguably much harder than anything else in the level up to that point, but that's exactly the intention. After you get past it, all that's left is a cutscene and it feels so satisfying to beat the level.

Aesthetically, I love it as well. The decoration isn't too complex but achieves exactly what the level wants to be: rocks covered in snow, some trees as foreground and background as well as the mountain far away that you can see during the whole level make you very immersed in the level while allowing you to focus on the gameplay and getting past it. The structures for the slope parts are very well designed, and I love how they're falling down in the last part to add an effect of intensity. The snow is a great usage of particle objects and I like how there's several layers to it. Finally, I really like the final cutscene of going down the zipline after you get through the final drop.

I love Coaster Mountain, and though it was recieved very negatively at first, I'm 100% sure it's going to age well and be regarded as one of the best early platformers in the next few years. It's definitely the first of its kind, and dare I even say the only one of its kind.

QuazeryIceCube is one of the most interesting creators in the scene right now, and one that understands the basics of the game very well, in the sense that he knows exactly when to use certain objects and when not to. He has cited Dorabae as his main inspiration, which doesn't surprise me: his style feels like a modern Dorabae who has learnt and perfected the new triggers and features that she hadn't experience in her creating career. Enough of an introduction, let's dive into the level.

Hollow starts off with an open robot section with very basic structuring: a bunch of 1x1 blocks scattered across the screen, with seemingly no pattern. This, however, makes for some really interesting memory gameplay that becomes more complex as the level progresses. The song keeps adding instrumentation slowly, and so does the level: first it's scrolling purple blocks that serve as a long platform, then it starts adding pulsing mini blocks, blue for random pulses and orange for the beat ones. Naturally, going through this part requires some learning, and I like that it has more than one path you can take: the whole idea of the gameplay is just "avoid the blocks", and you have to figure out whether it's best for you to go up or down.

The decoration in this part is pretty minimal and monochrome, but it has some hue changes, pulses and area tint triggers to spice it up. The background is just a simple checkboard, but it's hardly visible outside the blocks, while you can see the lines clearly inside of them, creating a pretty good illusion.

We move on to a ship part that doesn't change up much decoration wise. The colors turn blue and pink, as opposed to the main green in the first part, but it keeps the whole aesthetic that it was built earlier. This part introduces a new gameplay mechanic: toggling blocks. In sync to the song, the blue blocks disappear and are replaced by the pink ones, which have a completely different structure, and it loops itself that way. I find this part to be the blandest of the whole level, because it doesn't really live up to the whole potential of the song: there are some neat drums that could've been used for some pulsing, and there is also the instrumentation from the first part that doesn't play any role here. Despite this, it still builds up to the next section well, which introduces gameplay to the vocals.

I absolutely adore how they're used here: the ta-da-da-da bits are synced to the short robot jump sections, which remove the blue/pink aesthetic for a bit. I really like the small details in this, like the portals slightly floating around and the white stripes that light up as you go near them. My favorite thing, however, is the representation of the "It is hollow" vocals. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but I love the resemblance between the word "hollow" and the big walls you have to get through, because you need to find a "hollow" block to pass them.

The drop and final part comes out of nowhere, and it's definitely the highlight of the level. There are blocks and portals of every color scattered across this section, just as if the level had exploded and made that whole mess. This part is iconic mainly for its gameplay: there are so many ways to get through it and two people will not take the same route for it. I love open world parts, and this one is no exception.

The part is spiced up using quick pulses and a very neat background. It's made of rotating stars that follow each other's movement slowly, which is very reminscent of Wulzy's "Come Back To Earth". It definitely must've served as an inspiration. I like the squiggly rows of yellow parts too, they look neat. The level ends with two vertical bars closing up, giving the sense that you escapes just in time and through the right place.

Overall, a very neat level by Quaze and unfortunately still unrated in game. I absolutely adore his style and I think he deserves to hold the label of this generation's Dorabae.

Quadrid has a very "continuous" style, and by that I mean that you could say any level by him has 1, 3, or any number of parts, because they all flow into each other extremely well and are revolved around the same idea. The main concept of this level is pretty clear: the backgrounds are very colorful and trippy, basically using every color on the hue slider, while most of the foreground is dark and minimal.

While Quadrid's style can be described as minimalistic, he shows a very advanced knowledge of the editor. You can see this in the level's effects. Most of them are made using shaders applied to specific layers, while others are made traditionally without them, like the star background in the ball part. Quadrid alternates using shaders for the backgrounds (to make effects like the very first one), structures (parallax) or even both.

One thing I really like about Quadrid's style is the structuring. It's very barebones, usually composed of simple 1x1 blocks and spikes, but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. He knows how to keep things simple enough to capture the essence of the game, and the limitations make for some very interesting gameplay. The decoration is also very minimal: on top of these blocks there are only single details like pulsing stars or small objects, or even nothing at all, while still feeling complete.

While short, this is probably one of his most ambitious levels and one that showcases his technical ability in full display.

I've followed Insidee's creations for... a very long time now. He's the perfect creator who has the technical skill to build and execute any kind of style well, but still knows when to keep it low in favor of a concept and storytelling.

Lovers Sadness is really recent, but despite that it has become one of my favorite extreme demons of all time, and maybe one of my favorite levels period. I love when levels tell a story without relying on the use of text, but still are universally understandable and can hit you right in the heart. The story behind this can be followed through the use of duals: it's about two lovers, playing around, enjoying their time together, slowly becoming more distant until one of them is gone forever.

I adore the symbolism behind it: the landscapea representing different times and seasons (portrayed through really well made effects), the dual waves slowly becoming more separate... After one of them is gone the level becomes styled similarly to Can't Let Go, because that's what's happening to the other lover: Can't Let Go.

Despite the unconventional and some will argue "low effort" visuals, I'm so glad this is getting the praise it deserves.