Rating Curve

Maybe my favorite top 1, though I'm not too sure about that yet. It is a damn good level that has aged BEAUTIFULLY. I'm sometimes shocked that it was made so early in 2.1, considering other levels from that time (namely Fiji by Nasgubb) have aged worse in comparison.

not sure how to describe this but it gives neato burrito vibes. doesn't feel good to play cuz every death sends you back WAY far, but playing back a recording feels so calming.

In my last review, we talked about a level where you could tell exactly what you were looking at, but had no idea what it meant. This level is the opposite. You know what the meaning is—the level is made as a joke, while also being a creative outlet for the creator—but you have no idea what you're looking at. We start in Chinatown. This may seem out of place, until you consider the level uses a popular song by a Chinese hip-hop artist. The creator, Flaaroni, is a popular GD YouTuber that's also Chinese. And I'm Chinese too, so I feel I have a unique connection to this level. What's interesting is the buildings appear to be run-down. This likely shows he's aware of how poorly-maintained actual cities are. This is supported by the fact that urban environments appear in all of Flaaroni's levels. (On a side note, you can see he reused the "soot-covered" effect from his 2nd level, "Protocol Seven," as well as the wooden posts from his 3rd level, "Freaks".) Anyway, you pass buildings such as a Chop Suey place, a Kung Fu place, a Boba place, a KBBQ place, and a Dim Sum place. There's also a park and a Dragon Gate. Even the block design continues the theme, as the gameplay is made of wooden posts, red lanterns are used as decoration, and the ground spikes are reminiscent of metal picket fences. And there's a reason why a giant turd explodes. It's because the lyrics of the song say, "I’m gon let this SHIT BLAM if you not vam." Next, a pink cat cube sitting on a Monobloc chair (yes, that's its name) gets locked up, and a message appears reading "OBJECTIVE: RESCUE". This is a reference to the official music video. Despite how ridiculous this is, the goal is now clear: you must rescue the cat cube. Now we reach the part that caused a lot of drama on Twitter. What is this supposed to be? For some people it looks like the "3D pipes screensaver," for others it reminds them of Rainbow Road. Personally, it looks like the Mineplex "Christmas Chaos" snake parkour (RIP 💀). The complaint a lot of people seem to have can be summed up as "I like the level, just not the song." Now, regardless of your opinion on hip-hop, I'm going to come to Flaaroni's defense and say THE SONG IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE LEVEL. For one, by the time Flaaroni built this part, I don't think he could control whether he used this song or not. He says in his video description, "I discovered the song about 9 months ago... then things just spiraled out of control from there." He made the level for 9 months with THIS SONG IN MIND. Secondly, this song holds special significance to him. Flaaroni says in the description that this song "was [his] gateway drug into hip hop". Third, and most importantly, the song builds up things later in the level. Admittedly, the rainbow part could exist without the song—but the rest of the level wouldn't make sense without it. Next, we enter a mansion. We're saving the cat cube! On the walls, there are paintings of what appear to be lizard people. There's Kevin, there's Gary, and then… there's Richard. Japanese characters saying "menacing" start rising. Who's Richard, you may ask? Well… Lyrics guide a clown emoji onto a lizard person's face, as a Smash intro introduces him as RICHARD! The bossfight continues to be supported by the lyrics. The song saying "lizard" confirms you're fighting a lizard. When the song says "dinner," Richard extends his head! You slay Richard, and the level ends with you going down a road outside city limits. Transmission towers stretch off into the distance, as the ground spikes from the beginning of the level reappear—although now they eerily have what appear to be lizard skulls on them? Flaaroni only started his creating comeback a year and a half ago, and this is only his 4th level. His levels are dark and gritty, and when you go in with that mindset, that makes them okay. He's already started work on his next and 5th level, so I recommend supporting Flaaroni as a creator, as it's interesting to see what this anime-obsessed nerd makes next. He’s creating things we've never seen in this game before.

Congrats to ryli on getting their first solo feature! As for the level itself, it's a pretty self-explanatory sensory experience. The player is suspended above beds of flowers, while the ground crumbles and rises upwards. Also, one thing I didn't realize the first time I saw this level: the player drops DOWN into the cage from ABOVE the screen. It's the same effect that's used later in the level to make the player fall into a blue portal off-screen! Anyways, the level's meaning is not immediately obvious, so you actually have to find ryli's original video on it for her words: “As of writing this, on the evening of May 12, 2023, I've officially finished high school… This level is my attempt to visualize my journey.” So, they're glad to be done with compulsory education, and this represents her emotions regarding it.

[this review was published on May 25, 2023, prior to the level getting rated.]

You may not know it, but you are looking at history. Here, Subperfect is going to get his first rated level. I've closely followed the development process of this level the whole way through, and I'm proud to say this is the best possible version of the level! It's named after the Xtrullor song of the same name, and the level is similarly-themed in a harsh way. Despite that, it has a lot of heart and passion put into it. Within only 4 days of this releasing, the level has already had at least 20 victors—including SupaCLUCK and MiniWheatDuo—many of which have praised the level and would recommend it. But why is that? Well, the answer lies in the creator: Subperfect is a gameplay creator first, and a decorator second. This level contains many visuals and designs he tried out for the very first time, but he's been perfecting the art of building gameplay for many years now. As a result, "HATE EVERYTHING" is a very fun level to play, and is visually engaging. It's a high-CPS demon, but if you're skilled enough for the challenge, then I would recommend playing this right now.

This level is nostalgic (and it's not just the song). The only thing making this level seem "amateurish" is that it's not themed after Minecraft per se, but after the 1.9 level "Minecraft" which has over 7 million downloads. (One key example of this is you still jump over "rocks" made of three spikes.) Besides that, this level has its own guidelines it holds itself to. The people exploring this world were, of course, never Minecraft players, but rather GD cubes. But th331 takes that a step further and says EVERYTHING is a cube: from the zombies and skeletons in the Overworld, to the blazes and ghasts in the Nether, and the endermen in the End. The level also seeks to introduce all the latest additions to Minecraft in the nine years after 2014, when 1.9 came out. The Nether has you exploring a warped forest biome (which was introduced in the Nether Update), while the End has chorus fruits and end islands. Also, can we talk about all the little touches in this level? When the words "Sary Play Minecraft" appear on screen, you slightly move down a pixel, then down again, then up a pixel, all in sync with the song. And the text doesn't slowly fade out, it incrementally weakens in opacity, like it's having a hard time deciding whether to leave. And when the biome changes from mesa to taiga, to jungle, all without changing the structuring, but signifying that you've adventured far enough that you're reaching different biomes- and the spruce leaves in the snowy taiga biome are see-through, because that's how Minecraft works, you can see trunks through the leaves- and when you enter the End, and the stars all start spinning around you slowly, all jittery because that's how rotation works in Geometry Dash, it's all *chefs kiss*. But at the end of the day, we have to ask the ultimate question: Why Sary? Because you didn't need to know Sary was a top-1-stargrinder-discovered-hacker to enjoy this level, you could still appreciate his funny icon. Well, I think Sary is here for two reasons. One is practical. He adventures slightly ahead of you, jumping up ledges and over rocks, so you know to do the same. After all, entities have been guiding you through 2.0 levels since the dawn of time. The other is spiritual. Because a companion you don't know much about but is always smiling, never leaving your side, can make all the difference in this scary world. Minecraft is a game you experience with someone you trust.