Rating Curve

I've spent the better part of the past few days trying to come up with a way to describe my love for this level, but it all comes back down to its "vibe". Gateway, for lack of a better phrase, feels like magic; it provides a sense of pure joy that I get from only a select few levels. It's minimalist decoration and structuring gives the level a very playful feel, one enhanced by a lot of the smaller touches within each of the parts: the flowers adorning the structures in the tree section, the fireworks in the city section, etc. It's all in service to working with its song, never having too much or too little detail. The introduction part exemplifies this perfectly, adding on complexity to the decoration as the song adds to its MIDI piano melody layer by layer. It's truly a one in a million kind of level, made all the more impressive due to it being a debut solo (thankfully WireMuncher has continued to only produce fantastic work since this level's release).