Rating Curve

corrupto has quite a few things going its way, the most obvious facet being the namesake theme. The level slowly breaks apart and becomes more corrupted as it progresses, shown through broken bits of code and heavy glitching effects towards the end, as well as the long section with the cracked, inverted parts of the background. I like this approach visually, it's executed fairly well and becomes more prominent throughout the level at a pretty consistent rate (namely the repeat of the first section in the second last part, but with the aforementioned effects layered overtop). However, the song doesn't tie into this very well, and the effects used are fairly barebones and don't mesh well with the gameplay, as it remains pretty basic and the structuring hardly changes throughout the level. I wish more effort was put in to go all the way with the corruption and have it leech into every facet of the level, as this would provide a far more complete and immersive experience.

Aside from this, the actual designs and backgrounds present are pretty good. I really like the ship part at about 35% with the shifting rows of squares and the little rainbow tendrils in the background, it feels very alien and broken but every element works nicely together and there's no wasted space. The structuring is a major issue, and prevents most of the parts' designs from standing out and being memorable due to them being limited to mostly just boxes, but it's not a total deal breaker. The colours are generally rainbow-on-black, which I don't mind since it works with the corruption theme, but I wish there was some semblance of a proper, consistent colour scheme as it would help each individual part stand out massively. All things considered, though, this is a solid level and I'd personally give it a Feature rating.

I'm very familiar with YraX as a creator, so it's nice to see her taking steps to expand her usual style and push outside of her comfort zone. HumaNs II has so many neat ideas spread across its runtime, and while not all of them work, the variety in itself is a great thing to see and I'm always glad to see creators experiment. Each part has its own distinct theme, and commits to it more or less fully through the use of full-screen backgrounds (like the volcano, black hole and lava caverns around halfway through) which give the level a good sense of depth that helps to immerse the player in the level's world. I particularly love the last part, as the designs here are simple enough to let the background shine, yet match the disco setting nicely with their rainbow highlights and metallic details such that they still very much hold their own.

Considering all this, my major criticism is likely fairly obvious - there is no overarching connection between the parts. No major shifts in the song necessitating a huge shift in the theme, no real design parallels of any sort to draw between them, and even the gameplay style tends to change pretty drastically depending on the structuring required for the part (most noticeable with the last two parts). I don't particularly like this approach since it makes the level feel more like a collage or a megacollab than a single, cohesive product, where in my opinion the biggest advantage a creator has when making a project solo is fully realising a specific idea or theme they center the level around, in their own style and to their own taste. I'd have liked to see some sort of part-to-part progression, or something in the transitions that would warrant the drastic changes in theme, like a TV switching channels or flipping through the pages of a book. There's a ton of technical editor skill here, but I'd still recommend it for Feature because of the lack of overall cohesion.

StarStruck is a very endearing and quite well executed attempt at the tried-and-true space theming expected for the upcoming Space Gauntlet. I'd like to start with this level's drawbacks. There's a noticeable lack of execution in most of the designs, particularly towards the beginning, but the midsection has similar issues. The beginning has lots of very blurry, highly scaled rocks which look quite muddy and unnatural in contrast to the sharp, angular block designs, which are themselves pretty basic and don't mesh particularly well with the rest of the part due to their shape and the odd lack of parallaxing in the depth layers of this part. Making the shapes of the structures feel more natural here as well as incorporating some more movement into the foreground and background layers would have helped flesh the part out significantly.

The first half of the drop suffers a similar issue minus the parallaxing, where the angular, floating black structures with yellow/blue outlines stick out quite aggressively as nothing else in the part ties in with them thematically. Floating in place with no movement and nothing tangible attaching them to the screen borders makes them feel less like gameplay objects and more like air decoration, which is quite jarring considering the spikes that serve this purpose are simply a series of copy-pasted blue glowy outlines which are either hardly visible or have far too little variation to offer up much visually. With all of that said, I adore the effect work in this level, and much of the overall colour design is genuinely fantastic. Small touches like the yellow/blue fade effect on the outline blocks in the first part and the pulsing screen borders in the first half reminiscent of the aurora borealis feel almost ethereal, and fit in with the space theme really nicely while also looking the part. I especially love the second half of the drop, as the asteroids and bright, flashing rainbow effects make me feel like I'm zooming through an asteroid cloud at high speeds, which is a nice match to the climax of the song. Despite this creator's clear lack of experience, the things they have managed to do with StarStruck give me a lot of hope that they'll make something fantastic in the future, with enough practice. I would recommend this for Star Rate.

This level is ridiculous, eccentric and crazy in a very good way. The song used in HUMAN PILLS is loud, abrasive and chaotic, with highly compressed vocals and instruments that make the whole thing feel highly aggressive, and this is translated to the visuals really nicely through the effects, colour choices and gameplay used. Each part tends to have one very noticeable "centerpiece" effect representing a major element of the song, like the glitching in the first part representing the loud, bitcrushed synth in the song, or the different glitching variant in the spider at 0:55 used on the percussion. The colour filter in the spider at 0:18 is interesting because it completely covers bits of the screen in these highly saturated streaks of rainbow, but the enter/exit effects are done in such a way that it feels quite natural and it actually highlights a lot of the part's structuring since the structures often take on a sort of gritty, glitching outline within the effect. The gameplay contributes to this too throughout the level, as all of the intense parts use some sort of high-CPS wave, spider, cube or UFO gameplay with tons of orbs and portals; it's generally synced quite nicely which helps accentuate the level's song representation, and the copious usage of orbs and portals makes it feel chaotic and constantly shifting in tune with the song's energy.

Despite this, there's a few aspects of this level that I think miss the mark. Regarding the gameplay, I find that there's tons of gamemode changes in spots that don't really make sense - sometimes parts use a single gamemode for the whole part, while others switch between 2 or 3 at random with no indication from the song. More consistency in either direction (more or less gamemode changes) would have helped solidify this level's ideas and made the gameplay movements feel more strongly attached to the song. I also find the theming to be a bit inconsistent, as some parts lean heavily on more "edgy" visuals (namely the eyes, fingers and blood in the second half) while others stick to a more GD-like, bright, rainbowy effect-based approach. There's really no attempt to connect the two main thematic ideas in the level, as they just swap from one to the other at the midway point, so incorporating elements of both styles into the middle parts or having a distinct transition on a major shift in the song would have helped tie the two ideas together.

This is definitely a strange level, and it struggles somewhat to figure out its own visual identity, but the energy and effect work are excellent. Paired with an intense song and fun, fast-paced gameplay, I'd recommend this level for Feature and look forward to more from Tinraz.

Frankly, I have no clue what this level wants to be. LIMIT OBJ is something of a collage level, with a few different songs spread across 5 distinct parts. I like this in concept, but the execution fails because the level's style stays relatively similar while failing to accurately represent any of the songs used. Each part has a similar, glow/design based approach that feels completely disconnected from the intense, distorted songs by FREE.99 that are used; there's little effect work, not much movement, and only one part has some tangible effect work in the form of glitching and colour inversion shaders as well as some movement. In my opinion, this is a huge pitfall and leaves me questioning why they chose these songs to begin with, as this would likely have been a decent showing had they chosen a song that was more relaxed and EDM-adjacent to better match the level's visuals.

The gameplay, while fun, also lacks in this regard. The sync is basic and sometimes absent (a notable example being the third part where the gameplay doesn't really have any connection to the song at all), and the only proper usage of movement sync is one single click in the second part where the song becomes quiet and the player flies through some debris during a brief lull in the energy. It is well balanced and fair to the player, lacking any unusually hard timings or blind sections, so it is fun and would again make for a decent showing in a different level, but it does not work whatsoever with the chosen songs and leads to every major element of this level feeling totally disconnected from each other.

I would really like to see AFKTEAMS focus more on a unified vision amongst their members instead of everyone making their own thing and putting it all together. There's quite a lot of potential here, but I need to see better usage of gameplay and visuals in song representation, better part-to-part cohesion and more interesting stylistic direction to consider anything above a star rate.

Merry Rizzmas is an all around decent showing for Koopazu and co's Christmas megacollab. It's nice to see a level like this that doesn't take itself too seriously, as there's a lot of freedom for each individual part to show a given creator's flair and style in how they end funny elements with ones more traditionally seen in Christmas-themed media. I do appreciate the fact that every part has a strong Christmas aesthetic first and foremost, with nearly all of them sharing things like snowfall, Christmas trees and lights, and other jolly decor as a main visual focal point. This results in an impressive amount of cohesion considering how different the styles are of many of the involved creators; for example, the way Koopazu's bright, rainbow art/design hybrid still manages to mesh well enough with Ducknorriss' following more traditional, simple dark blue/brown designs due to their strong theming.

The gameplay is also solid, well synced and telegraphed while being open enough for plenty of thematic elements to be incorporated unobtrusively, namely the snowflake structures at around 0:14 and the present blocks at 0:40. The level feels good to play and the visuals don't interfere too much while still being nice to look at. However, I feel like this level's main downfall is indeed that there's no depth to the theming beyond Christmas and sigma humour, the latter adding effectively nothing to either main element. Each creator's execution of the theme feels quite different, there isn't really an overarching colour palette, structuring style or specific visual quirk to tie each part together aside from vague Christmas accessories, leaving the level feeling shallow and very much more akin to a joke level. This holds Merry Rizzmas back from a recommendation higher than a feature from me, but overall this is still a decent level.

Remakes of classic levels are generally a contentious topic in the community, with many vastly different ideas and opinions on their validity and execution. Everything I have to say about this level comes from a place of love and respect for Ditched Machine and its community influence over the last 10 years; Ditched Machine X fails pretty badly at doing the original justice. Before I get into why, I wanted to touch on what I do like about this level. There are some spots where Jeyzor made very good use of the structuring in the original level, turning it into something completely new while also recognisable as the original, these two spots being the first and last part. The rotating pillars and the gears do a good job of incorporating 2.1/2.2 elements in a visually interesting manner while still retaining the structuring of the original layout. I especially enjoy the endscreen and I think ending within one of the part's gears is a very nice, thematic touch to end off a high-caliber remake of a classic, influential level.

Unfortunately, this is where my praise ends. I think the choice to keep the exact same gameplay and colour schemes from Ditched Machine is strange. The level is visually completely different from the original, with the only constant being the structuring in all of the parts is, to my knowledge, the exact same, but the actual decoration is far more akin to Jeyzor's modern, effect- and art-heavy late 2.1 levels. This disconnect is really jarring and places the level squarely in a grey area between the two approaches I think work best for remakes: staying faithful to the original and uplifting it in the context of its original limitations, and completely revamping it with all the new tools available to creators now while still keeping the theming and/or flair of the original. The choice to combine both for this remake is a bit baffling and causes the level to end up feeling undercooked and bland in many aspects.

Additionally, much of the decoration in the level does a pretty poor job of replicating or referencing the original despite the same colour schemes. The aforementioned pillars in the first part do look nice, but they do not make sense in the context of a ball memory part focused mostly on tricking the player with the path passing inside many of the structures; this worked in the original when each structure was homogeneous, but the new ones have a clear "surface" that feels meant for the player at the top that does not mesh with this type of memory. The following two parts did quite well with the block design and structuring, but the effects, backgrounds and saws/air deco fall flat. The nature background has no thematic tie-ins to the part and doesn't add much to the level visually, the rainbow scatter effects on some of the objects feel out of place due to the part mostly staying one colour, and the shader effects are not consistent throughout the part, making their sudden appearance all the more jarring. While I do very much like the particles in the ship part at 60, there is next to no block design and the particles that seem to represent Jeyzor's block designs in the original do not follow the structures, leaving the part unpleasantly empty.

I do like Jeyzor's approach to creating, but Ditched Machine X finds itself trying to be two things at once and, in my eyes, failing at both. I wish Jeyzor committed fully to either staying faithful to the original or completely reworking it with new editor tools, as the choice to try and do both leaves neither element of the level working with the other. I would likely recommend it for Feature because I do think it looks good in a vacuum, but I hope this provides some insight into the elements that I think make remakes work.

Zoroa has always been one of my favourites from the crowd of creators whose levels feel more like tech demos, and thus tend to appear frequently in gauntlets and events, which is mostly due to the excellent theming and progression most of his levels have. Backstreet Boy is no exception, with the purple and yellow city theme being forefront in every single part but supported by constantly shifting intensity, effect work and other smaller details to match with the song. I think the theme is a great complement to the bouncy, synth-heavy dance song used, as everything feels alive and gives the vibe of riding through city streets in a car with your head out the window. I really like the silhouette part near the end too, the shift to lower detail and energy goes nicely with the break sections of the song, and with silhouettes being another very common element seen in city-focused media this feels very well thematically integrated.

My main issues with this level all revolve around the gameplay. Circling back to my comment on "tech demo creators", Zoroa makes use of many completely new 2.2 elements here like sideways gameplay, camera zoom/movement and the wall-jumping mechanic in the aforementioned silhouette section. I like this in concept due to the level's placement as an event level necessitating them to be flashy and eye-catching, but ultimately the end up usually feeling awkward and out of place. The sideways spider section doesn't really have any indication prior to starting and no thematic ties to the level, and the camera controls tend to feel quite unnecessary or even downright detrimental. This is mostly apparent in the wall-jump section as the camera locks to the player and makes it quite annoying to read the coming gameplay since everything is constantly moving around.

With some polish, Backstreet Boy has potential to be one of the best in the whole event, but even still it's a very solid showcase of skill from Zoroa. I think almost every aspect of the visuals is done nicely here, and Zoroa did a great job using and representing the song given. I'd love to see better incorporation of new mechanics and editor features going forward, as well as more effect work to highlight certain elements of the song like the drums or vocals. I would recommend this for Epic.

For a creator whose selling point is generally song sync and representation, it's pretty baffling how badly RippLeZ does at that. The gameplay almost feels like it was made to a different song in the midsection, with the clicks, speed changes and gamemode portals just not lining up with any discernible element of the song with any consistency. EndLevel and Failure's structuring styles don't really help the issue either, as they are generally blocky and leave either too much or too little empty space around the gameplay to provide visual "balance" between the block decoration and the rest of the parts. In the first half, this issue is exacerbated by the near total lack of any background or effect work in many of the parts (save for 0:13 - 0:22, which is a really nice change of pace that helps bring some much needed variation to this section).

On a positive note, the ending almost completely solves both major issues I mentioned. The part feels very open, but this time more focus is placed on the spinning, sparkling starry background and the structures feel more like they're floating, which helps tie the part together nicely with a strong space theme alongside the song's climax. However, this spike in quality leaves the whole level feeling inconsistent, almost like a megacollab would with the lack of part-to-part cohesion other than structuring style and colour scheme. EndLevel has very much improved and refined his style since RippLeZ, so it's nice to take a look back and see one of his older works and how he's evolved, but ultimately this level is unrefined and lacking in many critical aspects. The main improvement I would make is varying the structuring across the parts while making the designs and effect work more consistent, and providing some sort of overarching theme to tie everything together. I would recommend this for Star Rate.

As cool as this level's visuals can get, I'm genuinely confused about the decision to make this a Slaughterhouse remake. This level is comprised of many talented design and effect creators, so many of the parts are visually very strong. KOCMOC's theming is strong and forefront, with a very consistent red/purple colour scheme and huge, menacing black holes and other galactic terrors in the backgrounds. This combined with the claustrophobic gameplay and the intense song makes it very intimidating to watch, which is nice due to the level's difficulty and makes it feel more like an imposing challenge to the player. I also think the second half has great effect work; it's not too obtrusive and doesn't obscure the gameplay or other visuals too much, but the spinning, flashing ring of rocks, meteors and the prominent glitching effect near the end make the level feel like it's breaking apart from within, which is a cool touch for its progression.

Unfortunately, all of this is stunted by the gameplay. Slaughterhouse (and remakes of it) have structuring that is incredibly hard to work with for anything of the style cherryteam aimed for here, due to the frequent use of huge triangles and long spike corridors during the waves. There is next to no variance throughout the level, and the structuring is basic to the point that I think it limits every single part's creative output and causes most of the designs to feel cramped and overly detailed to compensate. Many levels of this style use a far more freeform approach to structuring to allow for the creation of far more intricate objects (namely the beginning and midsection of Waterfall), but here it's so limited that each individual part's structures end up looking homogeneous and there's little room for any integration of the gameplay with the theme. It ultimately leads to a big disconnect between the two main elements of the level, and I really think this level would have been great if the creators had the freedom to work with a layout that was not so limiting in this aspect.

Aside from this, there's a general lack of cohesion and consistency in the parts' thematic execution and quality. Some parts make heavy use of art-forward elements (namely 0:34) while others do not, there's completely different effect work from part to part, and both the beginning and the end feel like they are part of a different level entirely. These two main factors really hold back KOCMOC from feeling complete in all elements, so despite the parts generally being solid visually I can't recommend it for anything above a Feature. I hope cherryteam chooses to pursue more projects like Waterfall in the future where the gameplay can be catered to the level's theme, rather than the other way around.