Rating Curve

Never got the hype. I think the first cube is brilliant - it's probably the most involved part of the level gameplay-wise, and the slow rainbow pulses perfectly fit the song, wonderfully creating the feeling that there's something larger bubbling under the surface. To harken back to something I've reviewed in the past, it kind of reminds me of "Acropolis" - the part seems set up to make the player question and reconsider what their boundaries for traditional cube gameplay really are. You're forced to navigate through the part using spaces that are so small that you probably wouldn't give them a second thought in any other level, usually treading on the margins between a spike and the side of its respective block to survive. Unlike "Acropolis" however, it never feels particularly surgical or wound-up, and the whole thing flows in a way that feels genuinely natural and satisfying. It's undoubtedly my favourite part of the level, and definitely the best thing KrmaL could have chosen to lead with.

The following ship part sees KrmaL stepping things up visually - I love the way he fades between different stripe animations in the background to create a sense of movement with the song, and it does a very good job at feeling "bigger" than the preceding cube part in a sense. The gameplay in this part, on the other hand, is woefully underdeveloped and clunky. The vast majority of it is built of these extremely long (albeit nerfed) straight fly passages, which are unbelievably awkward and frustrating to fly through. The following dual continues this trend of repetitive gameplay in a way that's even less satisfying, this time revolving around wave and UFO spam, which feels as though it should be relegated to some challenge you'd find in the recent section rather than a fully developed demon level. I subscribe to the interpretation that the point of these parts is to lull the player into a sort of trance before the drop, but in all the time I've spent practicing this level, it's not once had this effect on me - the gameplay is simply too wound up and tense to feel natural. The drop itself is a big improvement. The decoration here is stunning, and it's probably the best example of the animated overlays KrmaL was experimenting with around this time (although "Rearmed" comes pretty close for me). I'm still not a fan of the gameplay though - it's a bit better than the parts that preceded it due to him finally abandoning the repetition, but it's pretty awkward to play for the most part. The cube and robot parts in particular have these really jarring breaks where you're sort of just waiting for your icon to fall into the next part of the level. It's not helped by the flimsy block design either, which combined with how visually noisy the rest of the part is, make it really difficult for you to even see where you're going most of the time (here's an amateur rendering of what this feels like). It's not great, but I do think the visuals make up for it, to the level's credit. There's also a few timings, mainly during the wave parts, that I do actually like.

Thus concludes my thoughts on this level - I'd still be remiss to call it a failure, mainly because of how well it progresses from start to finish. As is the case with most KrmaL levels, I have a lot of admiration for the experimentation and creativity that went into it, but unlike the other stuff he was making around this time, "Lit Fuse" is mostly let down by the gameplay for me. I definitely wouldn't class this as one of my favourite KrmaL levels for anything other than the visuals.