Rating Curve

(Completed in 5/8/25)

As early Nine Circles levels go, I guess this one could've been a lot worse, but I wouldn't want to say I had a great experience with it either. My main problem with this one is that the awkward nature of the gameplay's structuring makes this level grind so much of your attempts, and some of deaths you get just never felt very fair for a level like this.

Easily the most annoying examples are the invisible slope walls at 43%, 65%, and 67%, as those just make the transitions to those percentages so much more annoying to pass. The wave getting freakishly easier after 67% also makes things even more annoying for how much you're trying to pass even the first half of the wave. I also got way too unlucky in general, taking way too much on it than I really should. I didn't want to not like another Nine Circles level and while far from the worst of that category, it really could've been better too.

Total Attempts: 539

(Completed in 5/4/25)

This basically goes like every other Experience D level I've played, but I guess this one was more tolerable to play. Most of the level's difficulty is only at the first 30%, with the memory cube that I somehow sucked at and took too many attempts on just from learning it, and the following ship part, which I'm not the biggest fan of for how kinda hard it was to see where you're going. Every other part is just as free as it looks, including the "bossfight" that doesn't even need that much memorization to pass. Not sure why the indicators for the attacks at 62-67% were backwards but oh well.

Total Attempts: 139

(Completed in 4/27/25)

Not sure what the hell I just played, but whatever it was it certainly wasn't good. The best parts of the level are decent, but nothing spectacular. The main drawback was with the whole section at 43-74% being really jank and all in all not fun. The 43% wave has extended block hixboxes on the slopes for some reason, and the 52% UFO just does not work and was a massive road block for how broken it is. It doesn't get any better not being able to see or read some sections for how dark the level gets with some parts. I don't know anything else to add really. Far from the worst I've played but far from a pleasurable experience.

Total Attempts: 269

People always seemed to complain about a lot of these Space Gauntlet entries that go for this over-the-top high art style, focusing too much on that rather on the gameplay. And as much as there are a lot of those, I do appreciate the work put into most of them and still think they look visually appealing to an extent, making them feel like they’re more playable than they look to be. Galatikus is not one of those levels. I find this one to be way too goofy with its over-the-top visuals and this overly cinematic approach and constant sound effects makes it really jarring to watch overall. It’s as if Michael Bay directed a Geometry Dash level and I don’t mean that in a positive way. Not to mention it wasn’t really that fun to play either.

(Completed in 3/31/25)

This level would've been so...SOOO much fun, if it weren't for two major problems that dragged this one hella down. 1. If I was able to see anything. There are a ton of parts in this level that are genuinely hard to make out of anything. This is especially the case with Djman13's and Hayper's part, as I really had to play those parts blind for how I just can't see anything. 2. is that the level could've been balanced better. Because it CLEARLY is not.

There are thankfully a handful of fun parts that move this away from being the worst (ex. CastriX, Cultrix, Zoroa (minus the spider section), and MakFeed), but other parts are either noticeably harder or play in such an awkward manner (ex. Filaret, Wiktord, and SpaceDust). Those parts are bad enough, but the last part is absolutely terrible. One of the worst endings to any level I've ever played. The transition to it easily bugs out and the part as a whole is just a mess of clicks that half the time never work.

This ultimately led to a super unlucky experience. Died to Space's part four times and the ending SIX times (one at 97% because I was too focused on not buffering the green orb that I forgot there was another jump after that). I spent at least a total of two hours not going anywhere because the level just kept giving me the same bullshit deaths, or death that I didn't even think was possible when I first practiced it. That and not being able to see anything in some parts made the whole experience heinous.

I wanted to enjoy this one at some point of playing it, but I can understand why so many people hated this one when it was the weekly before. Far from the worst level I've played because there are at least SOME fun parts that help it, but an awful experience and parts that are so bad they grind your process to a halt, completely drags this down to a flimsy mess of a level.

Total Attempts: 469

(Completed in 3/27/25)

Oh my god this is such a goofy-ass level. I think I remember being impressed by it when it was first released, but looking back it does not hold up at all with how questionable some of the deco choices are. In addition to that, the gameplay also feels like a mess, but I guess it could've been so much worse than what I heard about it.

Most of the level is really easy and straight-forward, as there are two specific parts that I'm sure was what drove this into Hard Demon rating. The 23% spider is genuinely awful because the indicators don't even work as the laser attacks either happen too late or too early, making the part feel completely broken and RNG-based. The pink pad transition also doesn't work sometimes, as well as the green orb once you turn into a cube. I can at least do the second spider easily, so I really don't know why I can never stay consistent with the first one.

The "swing copter" part was also really obnoxious for how it's designed. It requires a lot of attempts to learn and get consistent with whatever click pattern you need to pass it, and the part itself just wasn't fun at all. Both this and the first spider were what took a great majority of my attempts for how much they just don't click for me. The boss at the end is at least free if you memorize the attacks, though the part does have the tendency to bug out and shielding the attacks was really annoying for how early you have to put that input. As much as I do find how goofy the last boss is, I do find it kinda cool how for the final attack you hold one input and spam the other until you release the latter input, but that's as much as I can compliment it.

Needed to get those rants out because those particular parts were what frustrated me in the end, but at least the rest of the level is tolerable enough. Not sure if I would bother to recommend this but it's not the hardest hard demon out there. Just get use to some of the BS it enfolds with the first spider and swing copter.

Total Attempts: 535

(Completed in 3/23/25)

This level is...weird. I don't mind it being entirely mirrored as it is really easy to learn and plays decently enough, but most of the difficulty it offers is how hard it is to see anything. Wintter can usually make cool works but this one looks pretty far from that, and having all this deco in the foreground blocking most of the gameplay was really annoying and makes it really hard to focus on where you're going. Especially when some of them turn some of the gameplay into blind clicks. It's like this level was specifically designed to make up a skillset on how good your eyes are, and it wasn't done in a very good way.

Also with it being really short, the whole thing felt like it was about to build up to something with this slow yet intense atmosphere, only for it to abruptly end and lack a drop part. I really don't know what to gain from this level after beating it.

Total Attempts: 48

(Completed in 3/22/25)

Hey look, I manage to fluke another travel level. I don't know how this one was possible considering my complaints about it, but I guess my luck works in mysterious ways.

After Deep Travel I was hoping that this one would give me a better experience since this is the second level of its kind and looks like it'd be easy to learn. Despite fluking it from 42%, I think I might've been too harsh on Deep Travel because this was so much less fun than that level. As much as I appreciate Serponge as a creator, I've always had mixed-feelings when it comes to the gameplay of his 2.0 levels. And this one highlights on how BS his 2.0 gameplay could possibly get.

Not only this one feels and is even slower (being entirely half-speed though I guess most travel levels are really), but outside of a few unique parts, when it tries to give you some sort of challenging part, it either feels really inconsistent or awkward. There aren't too many of those parts I'll give it that, but because of the level's length and slow gameplay, dying to those parts felt like a slap in the face.

Examples would include the memory UFO at 24% (which is not too bad once you learn it but the 30% "boss fight" section does suck and doesn't even work properly at times), and the drop part at 37%. That whole drop part especially just never felt like it gets consistent either practicing or playing from 0%. The 54% wave isn't too hard, but it's genuinely hard to see and always felt uncomfortable going through it for that, and the 87% wave is also stupid, particularly with the 90% gap (which I'm so glad I managed to fluke because why did Serponge designed it like that??).

The level only took me over 30 minutes to beat in the end, but it still felt like an eternity experiencing the first half so many times, so unfortunately I can't say my experience with this was any better. Hopefully I won't start to feel more bored whenever I go for any more slow levels in the future.

Total Attempts: 265

(Completed in 3/10/25)

Well this got really annoying really fucking fast. This is the first Easy-Medium demon I had to take a break on after spending an hour on it with no fucking progress, which is quite rare for me to do on any Easy-Medium demon (and that was because I had to leave for a course), and once I did return to beat it, it would then take more than a half hour to finally beat. As much as I want to appreciate this level more for how cool it looks and doing a decent job with this intense atmosphere with a mostly black and white color scheme, I did not enjoy a single ounce of this gameplay outside of maybe the section between 55%-63%.

There are way too many annoying bits in this level with all the subtle timings and chokepoints around the ship sections that all add up to such a frustrating experience. The predrop is so slow and unfun to sit through, especially the 22% robot, and when the level does speed up at the drop, so much of it always felt like they never work with each attempt. The 45% ship was so fucking annoying, especially when the custom orbs that are suppose to open up the spikes at the 50% dash orb don't work, and the ship at 64% is so much harder than it ever needs to be.

Some of the clicks you have to do also don't want to work, like a great example is the 68% click were you have to time your input on the red orb. This click just does not work because sometimes you always keep hitting the yellow orb next to it (which is a running theme within this level), or you still die when you click the red orb too late.

I really want to enjoy this one so badly, but with all the levels I've been playing, this is a contender for being the prime example of "just because a level looks really cool, isn't going to shy away for having such bad gameplay." Sorry Ghotstav, you are a great creator as I did enjoy the last level of yours I've played, but this one I just highly disliked playing unfortunately.

Total Attempts: 383

(Completed in 3/9/25)

Really unsure what to feel about this one. On one hand you can see there's an idea here having very minimal deco while keeping in some simple and cool effects, and the gameplay having innovative use of orbs and portals with some sections. But on the other the level feels like a first draft of that.

There are a couple of cool effects and animations but for the most part I wasn't really impressed by the level's deco, and the gameplay has this kinda annoying use of hitboxes whether they be completely invisible or extremely small like the ones at the 58% ship. Some of these invisible hitboxes have to be disabled by hitting some of the orbs or portals, and it just feels really awkward when the level looks this empty.

Maybe if there was more indication with those parts or if those obstacles were actually visible it would be less, but it's like if the level has to force you into doing its awkward gameplay without giving you much of a warning as to why you are doing it. It's just a really weird level overall.

Total Attempts: 97