Rating Curve

Death Moon is a brilliant level that I keep finding myself coming back to long after I first completed it. Few levels from this era manage to represent their song this well, and this level gives off a vibe I’ve rarely seen before or since its release. The structuring is great, every section feels unique despite the limited color palette, and the effects are simple yet effective. The sync is also on point; when I was first learning the level, when I realized the dual cube was not memory but synced to the music, my mind was blown, as it seems like hardly anyone else recognizes this. I have to dock a gameplay point for the inverted slopes in the mini wave (though that’s not entirely his fault; there were no hitbox tools back then) and the awkward, somewhat unsynced clicks in the first ball, but this level still gets so much right. Death Moon will always hold a special place in my heart as a near-perfect send-off for 1.9.

Being the oldest surviving level on the servers and seemingly having never been changed, it’s not surprising there isn’t much to see here. It uses zero grid blocks, decorations, or triggers, and the background and ground colors are the defaults, giving it a very generic look. However, while not exactly a strength, I find one memorable thing about this level: the structuring is simple and bizarre, featuring strings of pads and spikes surrounded by blocks. Some of the jumps sync, and it’s over 15 seconds long, but this is certainly a product of its time.

ReTraY is one of the few beloved map pack levels, and it was awesome back in the day, but I’ve grown less fond of it over time.

First, the updates. ReTraY was updated in 2.0 and 2.1, the latter being the longest-lasting and most well-known. But the second coin is boring (you get rewarded for doing nothing), Potbor makes no sense being here, and the black click counter always stood out as ugly to me, among other changes I’m not a fan of. This is a common issue among map pack levels, but at least most of the gameplay was left alone.

My second issue with ReTraY is that it recreates several block designs and effects from Gigabyte. This feels unnecessary, given that ReTraY has several great original designs; I would have liked to see a heavier reliance on those.

Lastly, I’m not a fan of the last part being auto. The way it was done is a bit clever for 1.9, but the energy of the part wears off on repeat playthroughs.

I find ReTraY somewhat of a missed opportunity, and I prefer Dima’s other work, but it’s still a fine level.