Rating Curve

I need to stop using this terrible website!

Seeing the words "and Minesap" after seeing this for the first time in my YT recommended was a ratatouille reading note gif moment

My previous review was a stub more than an actual review, and this level's review page coming up in conversation on a server I'm in made me think more deeply about why exactly this level isn't funny - and after comparing it to more effective joke levels, I think I've figured out why I dislike this so much.

Disconnected Descent isn't as much as a joke level as it is a level with jokes haphazardly stapled onto it. It doesn't have an interesting/high concept or a storyline to follow like in a cw2003 level. It doesn't play with the level format in an interesting way like Bransilver's joke levels. In this level, things ostensibly intended to be jokes just occasionally happen with no rhyme or reason and don't feel like meaningful additions to the level - strip them away and you're left with a mediocre remake of Digital Descent that looks markedly worse than the original for the most part. Comedy isn't just a torrent of random, vaguely silly bullshit - at least not good comedy. Good comedy has a hook, it has comedic timing, it has concepts. There's certainly more that goes into it than just "hey, look, it's a red hell level now, isn't that funny?!" The closest thing this level has to a hook is that it's a remake, but making fun of remakes is a dead horse that's been thoroughly beaten since fucking Generic Wave came out in 2018. Find some new material.

This is what happens when you let robtop pick levels for ONE gauntlet

This level is like a bag of gummy candies from your local convenience store. Peach ring watermelon slice type shit

Really makes the most of what few objects it's comprised of. Deemphasizing the decoration allows the basic but nevertheless pleasant gameplay to accent the song in a really delightful way. Bouncy, is the best way I could put it, which is impressive given the level is completely static.

Straight face emoji

obnoxious nostalgia bait that isn't interesting, doesn't elaborate upon the grand majority of its styles beyond absolute surface level (when it even sticks to its concept) and of course has to be drenched in 700 layers of unfunny irony and metairony because i guess creators are just terrified of sincerity now. not good

Look, I don't hate people making silly levels for fun. In fact, collaborator Tabu's made some similar stuff around the same time that I thought was pretty cute. In the end, however, my rating comes down to what this level makes me feel, and I can't derive much from this. Feels much less like controlled chaos and more like gobbledygook, especially when Quazery comes in. I do have to give some props for attempting some motion sync with the song, but I think it only really serves to make the rest of the level ring all the more hollow. Both have made far more satisfying "casual" levels.

this level uses a fatrat song you are not allowed to call music objectively bad

this level isnt great even disregarding my deep, DEEP bias, it's very washed out, any attempt at building an atmosphere is dashed by the asinine song, and the theming is extremely, extremely surface level. everything aside from the backgrounds feels like a complete afterthought and even they lack in a lot of parts and fenniko just completely fucking rips off im god in the drop for no reason?? like just about yoinks it wholesale. whats up with that

p.s. another level with a fatrat song and an ncs gauntlet entry? we sure you're not the one whose ears are fucked?

OMG its so KAWAII >~< theres FLOWERS... there's even BREAKCORE... 助けて！人質に取られてる~ SSOH

blah blah blah radioactive waste this level is bad and ugly and tasteless and the gameplay probably sucks too