Rating Curve

Overpass isn't the most noteworthy level ever made or anything but I still do appreciate what it does offer. The middle parts are definitely my favorite, with a great set of colors that sells a stormy environment even without rain and lightning. The final space-ish part leads me to think that Overpass features a progression of rising into the clouds, but I honestly don't see it very well and it's a fine enough section to close everything out anyway. Ninkaz is often strong in gameplay and Overpass is a good showcase of that, as a nice and chill experience that lets the player take in the landscapes and vibes. Again not a spectacular level or anything but I enjoyed it

Aquafina is very clearly a remake of Fiji, though I don't think it shines under that lens very well. Kips does make efforts to bring more color and detail into the level, which I'd normally appreciate, but I think the darker colors and economic presentation of Fiji are too important to excuse Aquafina for neglecting them. Still, I think Aquafina is a fun time for the most part, with some very pretty backgrounds and Kips's consistently upbeat design style. It definitely hasn't held up the best, with a few bugs and performative Japanese word art assets, but I'm personally all for a level being an obvious product of its time if it's cute about it. I do think the glitch effects in the second half are very out of place, even if they attempt to reflect the vocal chopping in the song, but other than that Aquafina is a perfectly fine level even today, if you don't spend too much thought comparing it to Fiji that is.

This isn't a huge part of my opinion toward this level but I do not like The Living Tombstone at all and it has never improved something that isn't fnaf

Apart from that I like the whole aesthetic this level has going on with the neon line structuring. Honestly whenever I see levels like this it's either usually in service to a more complex theme or only has those kinds of designs for a short part, so seeing it more fleshed out is very nice. Unfortunately, Rick Morty doesn't show much in the way of progression or even a shift in approach throughout its runtime, really only doing the bare minimum like speeding up for the chorus. Still, I like the way Belzonik worked in some fluid animations to go with the aforementioned design style, and it's a good example of what I mean by animations in GD being "good" in the first place. They're not over the top, and they're not threatening to push the level out of its own medium, like a lot of effect levels increasingly have been promoting. It's very laid back and I think that's more than enough for this level.

Surprisingly I had never actually seen or played this level until today! I certainly understand the massive collective draw to Luella just like with any of Deffie's other levels. Luella in particular has some great color work with a ton of bright green highlights, as well as a very fun, groovy, and laid-back atmosphere that meshes with the song better than any other creator could do it. I'm not even sure what it is that pushes me away from this level, since any particular aspect of it is done very well. If anything I'd say it's probably the in-game lyrics, but even those aren't obtrusive or anything less than "kind of cute." I suppose I just enjoy levels without lyrics the best, like with Zoroa's Inspirative series or even Well Rested to stay with the same creator. I suppose Kero Kero Bonito's work on the song speaks well enough for itself that any sort of lyrical representation in that level didn't need to be as literal. Luella also stays pretty tonally constant over its runtime, much more than a lot of my favorite XLs, so that could be a part of my lack of draw to it, but I still wouldn't say it's done poorly. Luella is just a very solid 7 all around, I suppose.

This is farther down in the queue but an update has made this level relevant recently so I'll hop on the bandwagon! The first thing I really considered about the level was the name, especially since it was just a line of text in a spreadsheet to me until yesterday. I do have very uncontroversial opinions about self-deprecating level names, including the related Bli levels Absolute Garbage and Trash Level, but once I thought about it more and got around to playing it, Objectively Garbage is definitely worthy of the title. Both Bli levels have a similar double meaning, simultaneously a description of the theme and a funny jab at poor level criticism, but Ydo takes both far further, being unapologetically raw in detail and structuring, and of course with a masterfully tongue-in-cheek spin on what poor level criticism looks like nowadays. Both are so bizarre in their execution that it makes it really hard to dismiss out of hand, which I can appreciate.

I hate spending such a large part of a review talking about unrelated things but I unfortunately don't have a ton to say about the level itself. While I certainly don't mind levels being messy, I think this one in particular should have leaned harder into parts like the ship, which use the array of blocks and slopes as a landscape and theme with more coherent foreground elements to develop it. The crusher part was really fun to figure out and I think they mesh really well with the more chaotic elements of the part. However, as Objectively Garbage develops it both becomes even messier and strays further away from its central ethos. The robot, for instance, feels less like a junkyard and more like having a ton of overlapping slopes and slabs was the entire point, which considering my praise of the balance this level strikes given the title is a bit of a letdown. I enjoyed playing through it - I don't think I would enjoy beating it but it was fun to figure out - but it's another thing that devolves along the runtime. For its strengths early on, though, Objectively Garbage is a very welcome play on both words and an abrasively unpolished style.

I love it when artists are as nerdy about things as I am and the song definitely fits the bill for time signatures lolll very fun listen

Story 2 (the level) obviously complements the meter very closely, but I think what it nails harder is the progression. The increasing distress conveyed through the color changes and particle work is commendably subtle and is just as patient as the song is, which makes a part that would probably be boring otherwise more than worth it. I'm not a huge fan of the neopixel overlay effect - I think it gets in the way of an otherwise phenomenally stark and well made part - but it's not a deal breaker. I've probably set this review up to transition into the wave part being bad, but it's honestly good for most of the same reasons. However, I do feel like the restraintive progression the cube part showed is definitely lost here, as the instrumentation and lyrics of the song are still building in tension and it's just not capitalized on at all. Good progression doesn't immediately jump to its high point, and the level and song are definitely mismatched there. I do think the gameplay in this part is probably more fitting than in the cube, but I don't think any of this level's gameplay is very fun to deeply analyze by virtue of essentially totaling 3 seconds of runtime. I don't have many big problems with how the ending is structured either - I think it's actually an interesting callback - but the overlay is even more obnoxious here and for this part in particular it probably should have just been removed for the drama. Still a great level with an even better song, not to mention the phenomenal particle work right at the end, but Clipping definitely wins this one.

My opening point is that Solar Wind by Jumper is an incredible song and works well in literally every level it's ever been used in. Sol Invictus (or Invincible Sun from Roman, this doesn't matter at all but it's cute) very clearly does not cohere to modern conventions, strangely drawing influence from many updates prior to 2.2. Many of these were probably never considered in the creation process, but it was fun to think about for myself anyway. The designs themselves are mostly one or two block palettes, like many old (~1.9ish) levels did before compound block design was really required to not look silly in a high quality project. Similarly, the structuring is noticeably old fashioned and strangely seems to go back even further than the 1.9 era, calling back levels like B L A Z E and pretty much anything that was popular in 1.8. The gameplay is inexplicably very 2.1 coded, almost seeming hesitant to be more complicated, but the clearest parallel I can pull to older styles are the faded structures in the background, very reminiscent of some early forms of custom backgrounds and a desire to fill space as it was a growing convention. These structures are probably my favorite part of the level, especially with the way they're all a little rotated and often move to balance out much of the foreground being annoyingly static. The color work is also pretty good; I'd wish for either the whole level to be orange or change throughout the level and not just towards the end, but the compromise is fine enough. If I had to sum up my issues with this level it just feels boring, and not just because of some lackluster designs. Despite the song picking up speed, the second half doesn't play all that differently from the slower parts, and the duals actually slow it down further which feels entirely wrong to me. I do enjoy early 2.1 gameplay a good chunk of the time, but I also made the comparison to say that it's really not that exciting most of the time, including in Sol Invictus. The colors and designs also don't do much in terms of progression, I'm fine with a visually consistent level but having a more colorful and flashy drop could have picked up some of the slack the gameplay left. Overall, though, Sol Invictus is a perfectly fine and fun level that I hope Metronismo's happy with.

I guess to get it out of the way this level is weird? Understatement of the year but it doesn't go without saying that Lilith is incredibly out of pocket. I honestly don't think I would be as attracted toward this level had it not been for the context it was introduced to me in. Long story short, I wrote a big thread about soullessness and empathy towards creators when playing/watching levels, and the creator ended up sharing with me a level she was really proud of, and I could absolutely see the vision and enjoyment behind it! I think we should all -myself included - make a larger effort to think about that when talking about levels, I'm always surprised at how much more fun it makes playing every level.

This optimism was unfortunately faltered since playing it, since I was constantly warned by the creator that it would be super laggy or the gameplay would be incomprehensible and terrible (she even made and uploaded an auto version at some point??) when it was honestly pretty fun. I can't really get a lot out of a level if I go in expecting to hate it. I really liked the rainbow mess of the visuals and the text structuring when watching it for the first time, and the gameplay is simple enough that it pretty much just takes one practice run to understand. Be more proud of your levels guys I promise they're probably pretty cool I think!!!