Rating Curve

The sole exception to my general disdain for icedcave's aesthetic. If there is a time and place for unashamed vanity and mindlessness, it's in service of the mystique of the game's most unambiguous, alluring, iconic difficulty sequence, a worthy enough idol for such fanatic self-importance.

While it's disappointing that SADOMASOCHISM doesn't live up to its name visually, there certainly is something very intimate about the brutal, overtly adversarial position challenges occupy in relation to the player. I quite like how reminiscent the visuals and song are of classic rage game aesthetics, too. It does add a bit of personality to your mistress.

As for the actual im god? it's fine, comforting to play, visually pleasing. Less is more and all that. Decently therapeutic, but not as good as watching waves roll in. What a deranged community we are for such an inoffensive level to be the subject of such ire.

It's thankfully pretty difficult to actually vandalize levels in GD without mod privileges, so this little artifact of fascist spite is probably the closest the community will ever get to having our own sliced-up Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue canvas. The physical level is of course worthless, but there's an undeniable power in the reactionary paranoia, jealousy, rage within. In this way it becomes a testament to the strength of every creator worth anything and a condemnation of GD's still-rotten creating culture. And they say conservatives don't make good art.

Obviously, the tutorial appeal of RobTop levels wears off over time, but there's certainly something to be said about how effectively Rob's 1.0 levels communicate their progression tonally - Stereo Madness's loud red breakdown being followed up with the game's most spacious ending sequence will be iconic for all time, and 1.0 visuals do have a certain classic sharpness to them that almost feels retrofuturist. Maybe that's just nostalgia talking.

The best (and only real) example of KrmaL's sharp, biting gameplay dragging down an otherwise awesome experience. Such an inhospitable, chaotic landscape gutted by the fact that the climax is actually the most mellow part and feels climactic mostly because it was preceded by some absurdly difficult timing sections with several annoying multi-click timings, and it would suck to die now and have to play all that again. Why is the buildup so, so much harder than the most intense moments? All the visual clutter in the world still rings hollow when the level becomes such a breeze.

Remakes are generally worthless, but re-remakes seem pretty solid so far. SpKale's interpretations of the original level are pretty fresh without betraying its bustling, exploratory atmosphere, and I think it's pretty cute and charming that this level is only marginally less visually obtuse. It does feel much more limited in scope, though.

The awesome, alien visuals in every section go a long way to keep Project MANDELBROT fresh even when the layout slumps a bit in some parts, but I still can't help but feel like there was supposed to be a more coherent sense of progression through the level. I don't know too much about the Mandelbrot set, but I do know that it's been mapped extensively enough that there are catalogued landmarks pretty far in - I'm assuming that subsequent parts are chronological as you zoom in to the set, but while the song swells and contracts, every part feels basically the same in terms of intensity and how peculiar the patterns get; you could probably arrange them in (almost) any order you want and the experience would be basically unchanged.

The inclusion of a gold-plated Clubstep monster wearing a grill makes this the funniest and best "rap/gd culture contrast" parody level in the whole game, which is a more impressive accomplishment than it was a day ago.

I really adore the semi-improvisational nature of the drop and the weight of the whole layout, it's great fun throughout. The super clean future-tech aesthetic does get a bit tiring over time, though. Just one or two more stimulating visual effects near the end would have done a lot.