Rating Curve

Wish the gray 2.0 version wasn't lost because that thing was raw as hell. How do you even lose a megacollab dude. You have AT LEAST 4 members, and that's just what was shown in the previews so there were probably a lot more, all transferring parts from one person to another, like surely at least some of the level still survives somewhere right

Anyway, a few good parts especially near the start and end but still pretty generic, can't really get behind this

tygrysek was right on god i want plutia to torture me

Raw as hell. You can clearly tell this level is not bounded by concepts like "conventional design" or even "shame". Some parts are just poorly made like the cube duals at the start but I think they make it funnier. Pretty fun to learn but connecting runs on this isn't (spam transitions suck and the timings in the buildup cube are deceptively hard) so I ended up dropping this, but again, that kinda makes it funnier.

Of all the "vaporware" levels that took >5 years but did eventually come out, this one is probably the most worth the wait. Brilliantly executed and unique theme capturing the aesthetic of a partially-used basement workshop. I can imagine Alice working on her dolls late at night in one of the brighter rooms, while some of the others are just about unexplored. The use of lighting is definitely the strongest factor for why it works so well, often coming from dim sources or from single directions and varying from part to part as mentioned, but there are other reasons. The 2017 structuring and gameplay feels like a perfect fit, itself being old and simple, and the tilted backgrounds give a sense that you're on a crooked platform like an old shelf or drawer. Really well done.

There's kind of a good way and a bad way to do 2.0 core and you can see both of them in this level, sadly the bad definitely outweighs the good here. Has not aged very well

Varies by part a lot, minuswaves are pretty boring but most gameplay is pretty cool, with a couple being proper standouts (The one with the orb spam and the color restrictions on the orbs specifically is god tier). I want to mention that usually obscuring a background design is a bad thing but in this it really adds to the mysterious, almost incomprehensible feeling this level gives off. You can't really make out all the details, very fuzzy, and I can say the same with a lot of structures in the 2nd part where it's difficult to tell what is and isn't supposed to be a face.

I generally hate the sentiment of "nerf it so it'll be good", "this would be great if it were a [insert difficulty here]", etc. because

1. get good

2. you are preventing yourself from getting good, and

3. this has repeatedly made top play less interesting

But with Formosa, it's different. The invisible gameplay makes movements seem awkward, comes at the cost of sync, and just feels cheap and uncreative, the last point also applying to the frame gate. Also, the fact that player rotation breaks at 20kfps makes some parts feel a lot more boring than they should be. These don't totally ruin the level but they're such glaring issues on something that otherwise could've been great so it's really a shame

I really like the duals with the contrast between one player having pretty typical impossible GP and the other going through complete chaos flying up and down the screen through a constant stream of transitions. Unfortunately this was built with mute evasion as a base so everything else about this level was doomed from the start

amazing sync (derogatory)

This level really does match its song. Its just that the song sounds less like a song and more like noise, and as a result this level feels less like a level and more like noise. I can barely think of anything happening in this level even after watching it repeatedly and in slow motion, it's the GD equivalent of TV static. I have no idea what the judges saw in this that lead them to think it should win the CC, and frankly I'm not even sure what the judges saw at all, I certainly can't see anything.

Genuinely the worst ILL top 1 ever

This level is probably a lot more interesting to people who've played Fez, unfortunately I am not one of those people. Anyway it has some nice designs but it just drags out for too long to keep me invested

Denji watching PieGuy bot the devil on 60hz:

Definitely herozombie's best level. A lot of my praises of The Hell Zone can be applied here too. It has the same sort of "fun adventure through hell" feeling (albeit definitely not as great, I think a lot of that is due to herozombie's more rough and object-dense style), alongside some great art and a lot of little details to love. Really solid all around.