Rating Curve

GBS does a great job representing its song through both its gameplay and effects. This is a mostly wave-based level, and the gameplay is nothing revolutionary or unique, but it does do a great job of syncing with the song through both movement and clicks, my favourite example being the spam sections during the quick, fast paced synth breaks during the drop.

As we've come to expect from creators like Jenkins, this level's visuals are mainly centered around clean designs, intricate structuring and flashy effects. It's quite reminiscent of Neutra, and most of my praise and criticism for the drop section is the same - I love the designs and the structuring, and the flashing is great for providing energy and song representation, but ultimately it ends up feeling a bit flat and shallow. There's not much variation throughout this part, and because it's so bright everything begins to blend together quite quickly, making repeated watches monotonous. I'd highly recommend toning down the flashes and focus on providing energy to the part in other ways; movement, quick transitions, different decoration in different structures, and new colours would all be better for this purpose in my opinion.

However, the first and last parts take a completely different visual approach, with the first having really unique masking and other tech-inspired effects that act as a supporting piece to the structuring and block decoration rather than just a flashy overlay, and the last part being dark with quick pulses to the music and a gritty, flickering atmosphere. I think both of these parts provide some very much-needed variation to the level, and both do a great job of matching up with the song in a similar way that Jenkins' part does due to the colour scheme and block designs sharing many similarities. My only real nitpick is that the structuring in the ending is very boring and limits the block designs quite heavily. I would have loved to see usage of more intricate shapes the way Jenkins did in order to spice up the designs and fill more of the part's negative space.

I like GBS quite a lot, and its flaws are relatively easy to overlook as none of them are particularly egregious. I would love to see creators looking to make these types of levels focus on finding more unique methods to add energy and foreground effects than just making them flashy. I would personally recommend this for Epic.

I really, truly miss the 2.0 level aesthetic. Twister did an excellent job of replicating the design styles of many levels from the time faithfully - the structuring is similar, the details are a mix between 1.9 and 2.0, the effect work is simple but clean and concise, and there's entry movements on nearly every structure characteristic of so many levels from the time period - but he also uplifts and expands on the style with a lot of elements that only became prevalent in 2.1 and onwards. The first drop part is the clearest example of this, with the tech line details, wavy spike killgrounds and the side to side flashes not being prevalent prior to 2.1, however they do still very much fit the aesthetic and thus I think they add to the level rather than detract.

My main issue with Sheol Death is, oddly enough, the gameplay. Most of Twister's levels are very fun, and I think if Sheol Death were easier it would be the same, but the balancing on this level is really quite frustrating. There are tons of choke points (particularly the wave-heavy sections and the first dual section) that feel significantly harder than the rest of the level and make both learning it and playing from 0 quite stressful. Levels on the Insane/Extreme Demon border can be very fun (see Overdose by Arb, one of my favourites), but balancing is pretty paramount to making them enjoyable especially with this 2.0-esque high-CPS style of gameplay.

Despite this, the level is easy enough that the gameplay isn't a huge issue for me. I really do enjoy this level, and it's a great, faithful callback to the era of 2.0 while also very much showing its hand with the amount of progress the community has made in 2.1. I would recommend this for Epic, and I think it's a must try for anyone who wants to beat something in the upper Insane Demon difficulty range.

Cage Girl, surprisingly, reminds me really strongly of Skywalker14's atmospheric experiment levels, in the sense that it takes one specific image or environment and iterates on it repeatedly for the length of a whole level. Cage Girl does this with the album cover of Census Designated, from which its song is taken, and I think this is a great choice. This song feels like a tone/mood setter for the rest of the album, and works really well with the massive, empty field with a lone foreboding house in the background due to the distant, reverb-soaked guitars and crooning vocals giving a sense of loneliness and anxiety. The slight variations throughout like colour pulsing, beams of light and the section inside the building are all nice atmospheric touches and all tie strongly in with specific elements of the song (such as certain guitar notes with the pulses or the rising noise near the end with the bright particles and glow). I appreciate the fact that Cage Girl doesn't hold back from just adding and adding onto one concept throughout its length, as the song does the same thing.

With that said, the lyrics being tangible assets within the level really break the immersion for me. They don't feel connected to any other element, and I would have loved to see elements from within the level used to represent Jane Remover's vocals rather than just the lyrics themselves being placed haphazardly. For a level so strongly focused on one specific element - the worldbuilding and progression - this sticks out like a sore thumb and would be better either removed or made into an option at the beginning of the level. Additionally, I think some of the shader effects are a bit overboard and serve to artificially make the level feel "dreamy", particularly the blur in the second half. However, Cage Girl still does very well at what it sets out to do and I would send it for Epic.

Silent Mind is a highly complex, technically impressive level. The description states that it's a reimagining of Five Nights at Candy's 3, a pretty famous Five Nights at Freddy's fangame by Emil Macko, and this aspect is done well. The fact that BrothersFTW made both a full-fledged pseudo-3D platformer section and a fleshed out horror section in one level is very impressive and shows the sheer potential of 2.2's editor. However, I can't look past this level directly ripping off most of Five Nights at Candy 3's gameplay elements, visual assets and even part of its storyline. If you watch this level, then watch a playthrough of the real game, you will see that almost everything is either the same or very similar. I do not think this is a good approach to remaking a game, and I would really appreciate seeing BrothersFTW put their talent with game design to use on an original project in the future.

I unfortunately have not played the game Inside is based on, Sayonara Wild Hearts, but this level has some of the best design balance and structuring in any extreme demon. Every part has one or more specific structuring ideas that are kept throughout the part (namely the web of sawblades around 0:15 and the robot at 1:18), which makes every part feel memorable and gives each of them a defining characteristic. All of the designs highlight and expand upon this structuring, like the angular, jagged highlights used in some of the structures around 0:54 and the circular pulsing structures at 1:45. This both provides good balance between the base and highlight colours used in every part's designs, while also just being generally visually pleasing because everything appears to "fit" together nicely within and outside of the blocks.

I do wish there was a stronger sense of progression, as aside from the backgrounds consistently having a similar sense of depth throughout the drop parts, not much ties them together. I'd have loved to see more tangible elements within the level like the structuring or designs be used to tie together elements of the song that only appear in either the intense or calm parts, or possibly more colour/pulse work to achieve the same goal. Additionally, while the gameplay is generally quite fun and well-balanced, some parts have very awkward timings created by the unconventional structuring that become choke points, especially the really tight robot click in the first part. These aren't deal-breakers, but I'd like to see Hypno improve and expand upon the style he chose for this level going forward, as what's here has potential to really be something special. I'd personally recommend this for Epic because of this.

Future Station is a futuristic ice/tech themed design level with some excellent theming and designs. The structuring is pretty simple throughout, mostly being rectangular with a few sloped corners, but I don't mind this as it allows the blocks to be made up of mostly straight lines with harsh corners, making for strong metallic theming when combined with the silver and blue colours with dark highlights. This is also one of few levels I've seen use these more complex high-tech default backgrounds introduced along with 2.2 well, as they add another layer of depth to the part and provide some extra variation in colour while keeping similar designs. The level is very cohesive throughout, and there's some nice progression introduced with the hanging vines and orange tubes later on that helps to keep things interesting.

What holds this level back for me is the lack of contrast. The actual non-default background assets are almost the same colour and style as the block designs, which creates some chaos where the two elements blend together and muddy up many of the earlier parts. This could be solved by either blurring the backgrounds slightly, darkening them, or taking a different approach with more negative space to help differentiate the cluttered, high-density block designs more. I also felt the gameplay was very basic and did not allow for much creative freedom, as most parts just have a big empty section in the middle where most of the gameplay takes place bordered by almost solid walls of metallic blocks.

Overall, Future Station is a very "cool" (get it) level with excellent theming and designs, but ultimately it's held back by a lack of contrast that contributes to poor readability and balancing throughout the level as well as mediocre gameplay. I would recommend this for Feature and look forward to seeing Icewither's future works.

Rivers of Nazareth immediately stands out for its strong Arabic cultural theming and central camera position, both of which are quite unique for GD levels as of current. The choice to make the camera centered is an interesting one, as it inevitably makes it more difficult for the player to react to the level's gameplay (made more prevalent since this is an Extreme Demon), and this does contribute negatively to the gameplay, but I'll touch on this later. In terms of the visuals, I really like AudieoVisual's choice to add the TV static shader to the glow, it gives it a wavy, gritty appearance similar to heat waves reflecting off a hot surface, which is perfect for the level's theming, although I wish a chromatic glitch or similar shader was used to further accentuate this effect. I also think the frequent inclusion of Arabic symbols like the Nazar amulet in the dual and the death screen are nice touches that help add to the overall theming, and show a lot of attention to detail to include elements of Arabic culture into the level.

However, the gameplay is really where this level falters. It's not balanced very well, with 9-40 being significantly more difficult than the rest of the level and the final ship being inconsistent due to off-sync orb timings and some awkward gaps. Making a level this difficult use frequent click-sync is usually a gamble because it's really impossible to ensure the level syncs on every platform for every click, and unfortunately it is the case with Rivers of Nazareth that the sync is not consistent. Additionally, the aforementioned center aligned camera decreases readability and gives the player less time to react to the level's gameplay, making it even more difficult despite the aligning of the death effect with the center of the level being a nice touch. I also wish the level was less bright, because the blending glow combined with the bright white backgrounds tends to wash out a lot of the detail when playing the level and makes most of the parts look a bit muddy.

I'm generally a big fan of AudieoVisual's high-energy, effect-based style that he has been developing over the last couple years, and visually this level delivers on most fronts. More tasteful usage of dimmer colours in the background would have done miles towards sharpening the level's designs and giving the level as a whole more visual definition, and more playtesting and balancing work is very much needed to improve the level's playing experience. I would like to see AudieoVisual work on these in the future, because aside from this Rivers of Nazareth is a fantastic level and one I'd recommend for Epic.

Orchid Sprite is an exemplary project in showing how to stick to and expand upon a base concept through the length of a level. The blooming flowers at the beginning are used and referenced throughout the level, and the theming is consistent and forefront with every single part having its focus placed on either a flower effect, or elements of flowers and insects in the block designs and backgrounds. The bright pink and gold hues used accentuate this as the details usually have colouring that stands out from the base tone of the part (namely, the dual at 1:21 where the flowers have a very distinct colour scheme not used elsewhere in the part), which keeps the overall contrast between foreground and background effects high and highlights each part's unique setpiece. Additionally, many parts of the level use the rule of threes to guide the eye, where detail is focused towards sections that separate the level into thirds either horizontally or vertically, creating a natural path for the viewer's attention to follow. My favourite example of this is the large flowers in the part at 0:20, as they're unobtrusive but serve well to guide the eye and fill some of the larger sections of negative space.

The gameplay is also clean and exceedingly well put together, with a lot of emphasis placed on movement sync. Most parts have a specific movement tied to a major element of the song, like the dash orbs near the beginning and the toggle orbs in the last dual, which is a nice way to help connect all of the level's elements together and better represent the intricate synths of the song. With that said, I wish this was taken to a higher level, for example matching the icon's height or the brightness of certain details to the pitch or volume of the song, as this is an element I feel is oddly missing considering how much care is placed on the aforementioned elements. I also wish the level had more clear-cut visual progression, because as it is the parts feel like they could appear in any order and not change the overall tone or impact of the level significantly due to them sharing very similar colour schemes, levels of energy and detail. However, Orchid Sprite is still a fantastic level and my personal favourite from ImMaxX1. I would recommend this for Legendary and am highly excited for their future projects.

I'm really fond of the old arcade spaceship shoot-em-up games like Space Invaders, and Phalcron largely delivers on a similar concept. The gameplay is faithful, with the player being able to move around a 2-D space in a bullet hell environment fending off waves of enemies. It makes for an engaging and generally fun gameplay loop that requires the player to work pretty hard to survive, but the issue is it just goes on for 30 minutes straight with next to no notable changes aside from a few mini-bosses. It ultimately becomes really monotonous, which is unfortunate because the base gameplay does work well and I'd really have no issues with it if it were shorter or included some elements of variation like upgrade systems, diverse enemy types or unique environmental hazards to break up the main gameplay loop.

The decoration is pretty solid overall, with all of the background environments being clean and simple enough to keep a good level of contrast with the gameplay. I particularly like the snowy and lava areas, as they stand out from everything else and have solid effect work with elements like the snow falling and floating embers. It is very reminiscent of a more modern version of an old arcade game in a lot of aspects, but not something I'd typically expect from a spaceship shooter as you'd normally expect it to take place in space, so the two being combined into one level feels a bit odd to me. Most of the actual spaceship designs also look oddly muddy due to the glow usage rather than shiny or metallic, which could be remedied with less "smudged" looking glow.

It's nice seeing someone as talented in the editor as GDvesuvius take a crack at reimagining an old arcade-styled game, and Phalcron is overall good and has a very good base concept that it iterates on. However, the length, lack of variation and odd choice of backgrounds mean I would recommend it for Feature.

It's been quite a long time since I've seen a level so successfully delve into absurdity in the same way creators like ValentInsanity and BobRatchet did years back. One of the key features that defines these types of levels in my eyes is that everything feels alive; so many of the elements are in constant motion or transition that it makes the player feel like just one part of the environment. The second and third parts highlight this really well, with the bouncing pillars with faces, oscillating ground blocks and the flying drone-like creatures all adding to the feeling that the level is buzzing with life and activity. Every part is completely different, but this base concept as well as some elements of the designs (mainly the use of metallic colours, area triggers for shine and boxy, grid-like designs) are kept consistent throughout, which gives the level a really nice sense of cohesion and helps create this expansive world that the player can get invested into.

A big part of this level I have not yet touched on is the pixellation effect. The shader is quite subtle but in effect for the entire level, and I think this works in the level's favour quite well by making it feel like either a low-quality recording reminiscent of YouTube videos many years back, or like it's a title for an older console being played on an outdated screen. For me, this invokes a strong feeling of nostalgia when combined with the similarity to the aforementioned creators from late 2.0 and early 2.1, but even disregarding this it creates a sensation of being a product of a bygone era that I almost never see in levels and one that gives Degenerate a really unique selling point that makes it quite memorable. I only wish that more care was put into most of the level's backgrounds, as said older creators used many elements of their levels' designs and characters in the backgrounds themselves to add more depth to each individual part, which I love since it helps sell the levels' worldbuilding even more to the player.

I really can't recommend giving Degenerate a watch or play enough, especially to those who are familiar with the era of creators I mentioned above. It's one of the most captivating levels I've seen in quite a while, and I do really have to commend Jorbettt for managing to do something that I've seen so few do in the last few years in evoking that sense of nostalgia and life within its world. I'd recommend this level for Legendary and I'm truly excited to see what else this creator makes going forward. Well done.