Rating Curve

There really isn't much to be said that hasn't already been said about Death Moon. With this in mind, I'll give a little figure here; while I believe that quantitative statistics in no way actually determine the quality of a level, I am going to leave this here as a testament to the sheer impact this level has had on the game as a whole.

Being a member of the GDToday team, a year ago we did an "article" ranking the top 100 greatest levels of all time, having surveyed around 400 players from throughout the game's history for the occasion. Each person was asked to pick 25 levels in no particular order, and then rank their top 10 of those in order as an optional bonus.

Out of every level voted, Death Moon was #1, with 102 total votes.

The #2 ranked level, LIMBO, had 72.

To say it won by a landslide would be an understatement.

Absolute cinema.

Genuinely a perfect level in my eyes. Having originally started playing not long before this released, WOOGI was one of the first creators who really popped out to me in the game as a whole, so one could easily call me nostalgia-blinded here. However, I truly must say that I genuinely have never seen anything wrong with it. It's got a great song, awesome sync, a distinctive style to it which no other level has quite managed to capture since, not to mention that it stays 100% consistent throughout whilst not feeling overly repetitive at all, thanks to its gradual but meaningful progression. The best part about it, though, is that it's every bit as enjoyable to beat as it is to watch.

Despite it being 10 years old at this point, I truly believe everything in Windy Landscape is just spot-on; one really could not ask for more out of a level at the time.

Undoubtedly an all-time classic and the first level I’m going to review on this site, Nine Circles is considered by many to be a core level to beat in one’s GD skill progression. I personally believe this is for the worse; while Nine Circles undoubtedly had a lasting impact on the community as a whole, the way it actually played, to me, was incredibly awkward and unsatisfying. While this level is seen by many as one that introduced a new and creative idea to the table, which I absolutely agree with, it unfortunately also suffers from being poorly designed and balanced throughout. The level has many uneven gaps, uncomfortable transitions, and frustrating parts that make little sense; while these types of things are good for developing a specific skillset, there are much better levels out there to play if you simply want to improve your wave skill. This even includes some of the classic wave of different song/color Nine Circles levels which came not long after the original, such as Jawbreaker, which, while much less merit-worthy artistically, is much more fair and overall enjoyable to play.