Rating Curve

Don’t have as much to say about P NP as I expected but everything is done really well for the contest. With how Flash’s music is everything has to be just weird enough to have that rough and amorphous vibe while also remaining polished and P NP nails it. Some things in the level are pretty blind but after a practice run it’s totally fine, and the coins are all pretty good in their own way. 7ak epic rate 2025

I don't often appreciate Echonox as a pioneer of early effect levels as much as I should but in retrospect it's INSANE that stuff like this was being made in 2.0. Obviously the shading on the cubes looks great but I think the essence of experimentation is what makes Echonox levels so consistently great. Love them or hate them, everything they put out is so obviously the product of a flash of insight, in this case likely consisting of making a few 3D assets and just running with it. I really love the tone the beginning sets, especially since a song like Lets Bounce by Shtriga is already a little bit out there for Echonox, but it doesn't hold at all throughout the (very very long!) first ship part, even if the effect it showcases is cool. Vertex is definitely a landmark effect level and is still fun to play through, though definitely not Echonox's best like some of their 2.1 levels.

Had I not seen this level in the GD awards I would have assumed it was much older, since it feels like this is the kind of thing that was starting to fall out of style at the tail end of 2.1. Either way, B Spr9s0 has a very quirky and fun presentation with a few welcome variations within itself. My personal favorite part is the first wave, which seems to be a relatively unanimous take given the thumbnails made for the level, but each part has its own shtick going on that keeps the style fresh and definitely earns its place in the Strange Gauntlet. I also like the secret cutscene that was later added by clicking the fake orb in the ball part; it's not really conducive to anything else but it was fun to stumble on regardless. Other than that, the gameplay is serviceable and usually pretty fun for a 7 star, though the ship parts at the start and end play a little weirdly and I'm wondering if they follow the player at all. Solid level in any case

There's always been a lot of discussion regarding New Wicked Hue as a pioneer of chill modern levels so I'll pretty much leave that as it is, but something that I find underrated is the song choice. Apart from it just being a really fun song that surprisingly works really well for GD, it's lead me down a line of thinking that compels me to argue that a lot of this level's appeal comes from its sense of maturity. Apart from just being visually ahead of its time, New Wicked Hue has a strangely perfect vision of what the more laid-back and stylized levels look like now. Jayuff always manages to seem effortless in their pioneering, and with how relatively bare New Wicked Hue is I'm sure they'd be interesting in what creators like Quazery and Split72 are up to now. Despite being really colorful and upbeat, New Wicked Hue is admirably restrained and it fits the song incredibly. Most of the reason this doesn't get a higher score from me is how blindingly bright all the glow gets later on, but I'd still say that New Wicked Hue more than deserves its reputation.

There is something very tonally haphazard about Decompiled that I'm weirdly drawn to, like a once-groundbreaking Atari game made before people really developed conventions and skill of actual game design. If you've ever played "Pitfall!" surely you know what I'm talking about. That's not to say Decompiled is remotely bad by any convention, but it has that musk of a creator seeing what each button on the dashboard was like even many experienced creators many were doing in early 2.2. All of this is to say that Leal captured this essence despite being a very established creator and the level only coming out last October. Glory to experimental levels!

The general vibe of this level along with the combination of clean and pixelated art is a very weird but welcome one, and the gameplay is similarly strange, swapping between some weird pseudo-minigame sections and relatively normal ones on a whim. I would be lying if I said it was particular fun, but in its one way I guess it works very well? I still have no idea what to think about this level but it was good I think

Presta deserves way better than to only be remembered by Congregation because they're way too good at block design and literally everything they make is awesome. Vogue in particular starts out a little bit too far in the standard neodesign direction but it picks up in variety and quality a lot around the 30% mark. Also, along with Deffie, Presta is provably a titan of everything people are calling neodesign nowadays anyway so if anything Vogue deserves to be a little indulgent in it. Not Presta's most mindblowing level or anything, but the designs are all super clean and even when Vogue drops the ball a bit it's certainly not drastically. Come back Presta please

Incredible that no one's reviewed this yet lol

Foremost, the backgrounds in this level are really special! Since this is AudieoVisual's second rated level I think it's accurate to prescribe them as experimental, which is really fun since all the rotating lines and shapes feel like something that anyone with a vision like Audieo's would love to just mess around with. I even did something in my own first level, Sketchbook, and it was even the first thing I ever made for it. I see AudieoVisual's early progression as a creator very similarly to Wulzy's, and if you know my thoughts on his levels it's clear where the score comes from for Mind Game. The style that would later get developed into more popular levels also started to shine through in this level, much more so than the prior MyByCy. Other than some phenomenal backgrounds I don't have too much to say on this one, it's a really chill and readable level that anyone could really get invested in.

Really sweet level concept that I'm not sure I've really seen before! As a developing creator myself it's actually very fun to see people's own journeys up from the kinds of levels they'll probably be embarrassed of later, and to me at least it's much more interesting than creators who just happen to hit it on their first try. My old levels absolutely sucked, and even my first completely finished level wasn't anywhere near great. It's really great to see that the creator(s?) of this level found their footing quickly though, since pretty much anything from day 4 onward was very solid and certainly enjoyable on its own merits.

I was also asked by the requester to guess what update this level was made in. I didn't quite know what to expect from this question since this seems like a very 2.1 coded idea, right? I didn't know people were looking back as fondly on their older catalogs when this level was made, which turns out to be a LOT older than I expected. Creator Growth Story has a SEVEN digit ID, putting it solidly in middle of 1.9, around the age of Sequence by Woogi. Admittedly I should have been tipped off by the creator being Minus, a very talented ~1.7-2.0 creator and one of the collaborators on Colorful Overnight, but it seems like the material this level draws from is probably not all theirs, crediting a few other old creators in the description. Admittedly knowing that this level isn't a solo is a bit of a letdown, but it's still incredibly cute with a nice montage-y song to match, and although I think any future iteration on this concept wouldn't be that interesting at least we have this.

Menace has evidently become the golden child of the demonlist in the past year, and I think Manny deserves every bit of it. I've been missing that elusive quirky effect creator who drops something insane every few months, and for 2.2 that creator seems to be MannyHeffley, in the mainstream at least. Although I wouldn't say Menace quite hits the same as his other levels since Out of Chaos, it has a ton to offer as a unique, difficult, and masterfully executed effect level.

Manny has set himself apart in the effect scene in too many ways to count, let alone while being a great songwriter, but the most influential to his levels is probably his approach to gameplay, especially where gimmicks are concerned. I can think of very few top demon list levels in the past with gameplay as ass-to-the-wall insane as the spiral part or whatever is going on in the last dual. I think that's definitely for the best though, difficulty has gotten really bland lately but I think the goofy gameplay meta is making a comeback. Whenever a level like Menace or Andromeda comes out with gameplay equal parts varied and ridiculous looking and places near the top of the list, I get a little bit more optimistic about what hard levels might look like moving forward. Menace in particular also knows when to pull on the brakes with its gimmicky gameplay, with a relatively simple opening and an absolutely chilling swing section halfway through. With that said, Menace is also gorgeous looking, with effects just as out there as whatever the icon's doing at the moment. Manny's work on the song is also a notable highlight; although it's not totally my thing and it gets a bit dramatic to really take seriously, it adds just enough of the MannyHeffley essence to really enhance the viewing experience.

My main gripe with Menace, and honestly the reason it's not a 10, is with the poem, and more heavily Manny's own rhetoric behind it. There's a video on Manny's channel, "The Meaning Behind Menace," that provides a meandering explanative background behind the narrative and some of the imagery in the level. The video is definitely worth a watch; in my opinion learning more about the intent behind a piece of art is always worthwhile if the creator is willing to share it, and discovering that the final gradient moves randomly and that the subject matter of the poem regards issues Manny himself grapples with was very interesting. With that said, I felt that the fragmented presentation of the full poem and the multiple instances of contradiction even in the excerpts shown were interesting, even cruelly deliberate. I also felt that the ambiguity behind the writing and imagery applied a lot of character and edge to the whole experience, since I think a healthy dose of following the general flow of the intent behind a piece can be more thought provoking. It's something I do in my levels and essays, and it's also why Civilization by Kero Kero Bonito is my favorite album. Upon realizing that each strong imagery element and theme in the poem had a rigid narrative purpose was disappointing to say the least, and ironically made it all come across as much more vapid. I put off wording why this was until this morning when I saw Devourer de Dieux by Hota1991 on my timeline, immediately realizing that to pull off something as deep and grand as Menace, or any CW2003 level for that matter, you have to be a little bit opaque and full of shit. Somehow it works every time.

I hate closing reviews with negative statements, so I'll reiterate that I've been a huge fan of this level since the day it was showcased! It's a phenomenal level and step in the right direction for top extremes, I just think Menace would have been more fittingly executed if Manny's vision for the level wasn't one of direct narrative and instead confidently towards the energy his effect and songwriting work can convey on their own.

I mentioned in my EBLTD review that Generation23 was my favorite ElectricNJ level. This is no longer the case, especially after having beaten that level and enjoyed it a ton, but Generation23 is still phenomenal considering it's one of Electric's first rated levels. It's no secret that I'm often drawn to levels with tons of bright and saturated colors, but they can get tired if not varied a lot. Thankfully, no two parts in Generation23 look the same, all with some great rainbow designs and admirably appropriate energy for the part of the already diverse song. Kosu songs always demand that extra touch of chaos, and with Eternal especially a majority of levels are too concerned with polish to meet it. Generation23 admittedly starts better than it finishes (despite me liking the second half of the song more) but with how consistently busy the decoration is it doesn't feel long enough to fall victim to a lack of cohesion. This, of course, also ignores that the contrast between parts is a good chunk of the appeal.

Unfortunately, upon playing it again I wasn't as impressed as I remember being when I first played it well over a year ago. I do normally like learny levels, but instead via the fast pacing or any sort of memory aspect a big reason why Generation23 was so hard to get through a practice run of just comes down to some weird choices. Some things could be artifacts of 2.2 physics changes, and certainly some frustration I had was the result of being on mobile when I replayed it, but I think it's relatively clear that some spots of the level are just awkward. I do plan to beat it for my 23rd insane demon though, which shouldn't be too long from now, so if I end up loving it I'll update the review. Even so, I think the way the gameplay flows (or doesn't, sometimes) is instrumental to its visual appeal, selling the chaos of the two drop parts. Still super pretty all this time later, and a fantastic level to introduce me to the creator!