Rating Curve

Ice Carbon Diablo X is a fascinating piece of GD history. Its status as one of the first “official “Top 1s””, its age and its name are things that come to my mind immediately. Its very much achieved a classic status in the community and while a more cynical me would say its mostly for its difficulty i do think that there is more to it than just that. Its very rough and uneven in texture. The way the claustrophobic 64% ball part transitions into the deceptively more open ship, the harshness of the beginning contrasted with the spaced out move towards the drop of the level. Roadkiller has good sense for what makes an intense segment. He often builds up the tension from the very beginning with vibrant bright colors and brutal gameplay and lets it loosen over time to lull the player into a false sense of security, allowing more open space and darkness to seep in between. This structure forms the best parts of ICDX, its first 30% and 64-80%. What makes up the rest of it spectacularly fails at being nearly as impactful (with the slight exception of the ending perhaps). Its biggest flaw is inconsistency. The whole middle section clashes harshly with the rest of the level for seemingly no good reason and past 80% its almost all filler. This is a real shame since it takes a huge toll on the level as a whole, despite its formidable achievements. With old levels this is especially regrettable since the missteps are so simple to correct! Perhaps with more time or better ideas Road couldve made a really solid or great map but sadly its only left a mild feeling of disappointment in me.

Within the now relatively short period of the games existence from 1.0 to 1.4 its absolutely miraculous how GD was so densly populated with phenomenal creators. M2coL is of course most well known for the first officially rated demon in the game, Demon Park, a level so groundbreaking it still stands to me as a symbol of a great Top 1 Demon and while psychic escape doesnt live up to its older brother in recognizability, popularity and influence, it certainly can stand on its own. The structuring and flow are impeccable it really feels like a complete piece. The colors add to the level significantly which you dont often see in older levels. It progresses from the very desaturated colors of the first half to the distinctly more vivid colors in the second half as you get closer to the end, with the final climb being the culminating point here. The update 1.4 is one characterized by a turn to something slightly heavier for Geometry Dash. All the new assets and the song, Clutterfunk, stand out as being more industrial in nature than any other updates. M2col obviously takes advantage of this using the combination of these elements along with awkward, tight, hard to predict gameplay to create a level thats suprisngly intimidating to this day even with the general communitys skill level at a point way higher than where it was 11 years ago. As a last point it should be said that while it is minimalist for todays standards it stands the test of time very well and id consider it much better than most levels even if it were made a week ago. I hope more people decide to delve into the past of Geometry Dash, not only are the levels there often just as interesting, funny or preplexing as in modern times, they can also be just god damn mothafuckin good. Thank you.

Used to be my favorite impossible level and though its fallen from that spot it still has a spot in my heart. A truly admirable effort from eightos and a reminder that extreme difficulty can add to the level instead of taking away from it.

Remakes that destroy the order upheld in the original are often favorites of mine. This one doesnt quite achieve its goal but its chaotic nature saves it from being boring. Doramis rise to fame is certainly fascinating and while hes far from the best korean creator or even the best korean creator from his inner circle, he had his fair share of successes

This level is not at all bad but its not "raw" its very standard uses a very standard block palette and very standard colors and very standard structuring. What does stand out is its minimal presentation and repetetiveness (neither of these are flaws by themselves) however that treatment doesnt amount to much sadly. Its a middle of the road level from a creator i generally regard highly.