Junior Member · he/they · Estonia
A lot of Geometry Dash objects carry the unfortunate burden of historical context. Due to the lack of established names, it can be hard for me to bring up examples with text alone, but I think you know what I mean: the 1.0 objects, the 1.6 objects, the 1.8 objects, the 1.9 objects, the pixel blocks, etc. Really, the fact that I'm even referring to them based on the update they released in shows just how steeped they are in the styles of their respective updates. A scant few objects, such as the flat-colored blocks of 1.7, are free of this curse thanks to their sheer versatility, but in general, a lot of objects come with an implicit message that the creator, whether they intended to or not, is using them to signify a certain aesthetic, exemplified most clearly by the widespread labelling of any level using the 1.0 blocks as "1.0-styled", blatantly ignoring any other facets of the level, even those which would reveal the classification as blatantly wrong. All of this is why 9lives felt like such a breath of fresh air to me.
As I list out what makes this level so great, I'd like to argue a bit against the reviews which characterize this level as "nostalgic". To me, 9lives is precisely the opposite: the nostalgia of old objects is subverted as they become parts of larger patterns, contributing their superficial appearance and nothing else. Blocks from all updates share space equally as a showcase of everything Geometry Dash has to offer, without any additional historicizing. Here, 1.3 metal blocks are wallpapers, pixel blocks are ripped from their respective tilesets to become individual paintings, 1.0 blocks are used for their darkening quality alone, and the aforementioned flat-colored blocks of 1.7 are utilized as they are in many other levels—to create "new" assets—except their opacity is turned down. This normally creates an undesired effect, but here, it instead reveals their true nature, which many others would rather seek to hide. All of this makes 9lives, in my opinion, a highly futuristic work, akin to that of seefourset's city. It couldn't have been made in any update other than 2.2, where it stands out among the litany of creators vainly attempting to look back and reclaim a lost past (a cohort that, admittedly, also includes me) as a delightfully subversive work.
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sorry about this gang