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WindPlus has some pretty unique designs for the later part of 1.9 it was made in, which is nice to see from a creator I've never heard of. FASER makes quite consistent use of separate designs for the structure corners and inner connecting "pillars", which gives the designs nice visual anchor points on the corners and helps provide an intuitive reason for their blocky shape. I like the usage of blending glow and slanted detail blocks to give the designs a shiny, metallic look as well, particularly in the wave about midway through where the larger structures allow this element to shine in the forefront of the designs. While the overall cohesion is very nice, there's very little tangible theming throughout the level aside from structuring style, which definitely does hurt the level's uniqueness as the levels from around 1.9 that tend to experiment with world building and progressive theming are usually the ones that stick out the most to me. The colour usage is also quite mediocre as there's no pattern to which colours are used where, and the pulsing is very basic and unchanging throughout the level. I love seeing unknown 1.9 levels from unknown creators, and WindPlus does have a lot of things going for it, but misses out on some crucial elements that tend to impress me most when seen in these older levels. As such, I'd recommend it for Star Rate.
Looking back on 2.0, jakerz95's style might be one of the funniest things to come out of the entire update. Most aspects of Sysmique Locked are so ridiculously over-the-top and messy, but hell it's a damn memorable level because of it. This level's structuring and designs are incredibly unique; especially so for 2.0, but even 8 or 9 years down the line I've rarely seen anyone successfully replicate the cluttered, colourful mess of blending glow and odd angles that makes up most of jakerz's structuring. This extends to the backgrounds, being reminiscent of some highly detailed tech creators from 2.1 like Xender Game, but with a lot more glow and a lot less polish. I do very much find this charming, and generally fairly good looking, but it is undeniably extremely messy in a way that muddies most of the actual detail of the level, causing much of it to be missed on the player as everything sort of coalesces into vague blobs of blue and purple. Sysmique Locked's boss is similar, but even more noticeable since it's present for the entire level. The layering in particular is pretty awkward, as sometimes structuring from the level clips through the boss, breaking its "foreground" appearance somewhat. There's also next to no contrast between the boss and the rest of the level, so it doesn't really stand out and feels more like a nuisance than an imposing threat of any kind. However, the design is honestly pretty sick for the time, with a lot of black glow and bright highlights used to give it a shiny, metallic feel that I think compliments its sharp, angular, dragonlike design pretty nicely. The attacks themselves are also decent for 2.0 standards, being telegraphed fairly well and varying between lasers, projectiles and melee attacks enough to keep things interesting.
While Sysmique Locked is a nice callback to 2.0 and has a few strong elements in its designs and colour usage, it's incredibly messy and not the most pleasant to look at. I'm perfectly fine with the Featured rating it has received, and I'm quite glad levels like this are still paid attention to in the modern era, as they're both funny and highly intriguing.
Paper Rings is a very polished product in the realm of more traditional design levels. I'm a big fan of the incorporation of rainbow elements to help the gameplay stand out, particularly towards the midsection (namely the wave where the sliding platforms are coloured). It helps provide some much needed contrast between the player-interactible gameplay portions and the rest of the deco. The same can be said for the rings around the orbs towards the beginning, and the block highlights towards the end. The designs themselves are fairly standard, somewhat reminiscent of creators like Namtar and Destriv, but the great usage of colour and the clean pulse and effect work done to highlight the song's percussion helps uplift the level quite nicely. The gameplay is also synced and balanced well, and for the difficulty of around easy-medium demon it feels very fun and forgiving towards the player while still having enough timings and learny sections to provide a nice challenge. With that said, due to this level's style and lack of any real noteworthy element that isn't something outside of the tried-and-true traditional design style, this level does end up falling into a place where it blends together quite a bit with the rest of the levels in its style, and even some of Gusearth's own levels. This is a testament to Paper Rings being quite solid in all aspects, but I would like to see Gusearth experiment more with design styles, structuring and effects going forward, placing more emphasis on elements other than the designs. I'd personally recommend this for Feature.
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sorry about this gang