Rating Curve

I know Rhomboveil was meant to bring back a classic style but it really feels like it does more than that, something between the backgrounds and the song choice really sell the feeling that it could have existed a while ago but couldn't now. And despite that, Rhomboveil feels super clean and up to date, with a few parts even incorporating 2.2 triggers front and center. Saturated rainbow with black is also a legitimately perfect color scheme and I don't think anyone has ever messed it up. Overall probably Zhenaxel's best, it's just so effortlessly good in a way that I hope more people come to acknowledge as well.

This was such a cool fucking hardest I've never had this much fun with the game since me and my irl were doing a study session that turned into me beating a new hardest

By far the most fun I've had with a platformer I love when levels have little side quests

This song is really special to me and the level does a pretty good job matching the vibe, overall for a level with no movement its sweet i like it

This level has grown on me a bit but like basically every part has a major gameplay flaw and the second half especially is just really not fun

I like these kinds of levels a lot, they can get a bit tiring if that's all you ever see anywhere but every once in a while a level like 953 can be really really cool. The song rep is one point for most of the level, I would actually say at many points the level goes harder than the song which is jarring but excusable. I really like the repetition of the wave double clicks at the start, and how they set up the end to be as surprising and jarring as the song is. Honestly the only point where i would say the quality dips is right as the level reaches its (supposed) climax, where I think everything just becomes blurry and hard to appreciate. It slows down after this but it takes an uncomfortably long time for the visuals to even get close to where the song is. After that, though, the screen zooms out to reveal some really cool and chaotic-looking line/block structures. No notes on this part, definitely the highlight of the level and what made it worth rewatching. Honestly a lot of things in levels like these can become a little too abstract to appreciate and discuss but 953 is just at the saturation point.

I really really really wanted to like this one more since I think the level opens very strongly. Ambient songs are super underrated in GD and the first part almost nailed it, stunted by the glitch effect and weird black structures. I think the whole level would work a lot better if it stayed like this, but it unfortunately doesn't. Honestly I think the visuals and song on their own are both super interesting but they just clash together in this level; the effects are way too sporadic and intense throughout and the percussion is basically unacknowledged which is a shame.

ps. To have this kind of outlook on experimental levels while also hating stuff that actually goes somewhere with its runtime is inexcusably lame. I harbor little critical restraint to somehow who treats "quirky" levels like they're somehow ruining the game, when they often contain more substance than anything else you'll find.

I have no real justification for this one, usually I'm ambivalent on glowflow levels but the idea of an insect swarm made this one stand out. Having an overwhelming amount of small things on screen is a super underrated way of building intensity and it works pretty well with the song and gameplay. The gameplay isn't anything to write home about, it's a good bit easier than similar levels which helps it a bit but otherwise it's very middle of the road. What really sold this level for me is the song choice though; imagining all the annoying dubstep sounds in the song as insect noises is just so inexplicably funny to me that I've always remembered this level really well. It's not the best this song has ever been represented with (Hellgate Menace) but it's certainly the most unique song rep I've seen in a level like this. I'd give it a 7.5 if I could but oh well I'll round up

I should get out of the way that I absolutely want this level rated. I'm not sure how many sends this level has but it's somewhere above 30 and it's absolutely overdue at this point. Personally though, it's not totally my cup of tea. It's not exactly that I'm not a fan of the song, more so that I think there's a lot of missed potential. I love the Mr. Puzzle character throughout the level, but I think the TTS dialogue is a very underrated part of the song and pretty much goes without acknowledgement. The song also shouldn't have been cut, I think having the first half meander for longer before the mood shift happens would have fit better. Also why leave him out of the ending??? The last part is actually a good chunk of the reason why I didn't like the level as much as I could have, it's just not really satisfying and I feel like it's teed up to be much better than it is. That's pretty much it for the criticisms though, Object Permanence is pretty creative and the mood shift is executed really well. The lineart is super pretty too, it's very distinctly doodle-y and I think it's really cute. I'm sure literally everyone on the mod team has seen this level at some point but whatever you guys can do to get this rated would be awesome!!

I've had trouble putting into words why I like Nubivagant so much since it came out almost a year ago. I guess it's worth noting that Kiinoe and I are IRL friends and I've directly witnessed her entire creative evolution of the last three years. I'm not sure if I would like her levels as much if that weren't the case, especially some of her older stuff, but Nubivagant in particular is obviously beautiful in a way that I hope is apparent to anyone who does as much as watch a video of it a single time. The concept of a "slow burn level" is often nebulously thrown around among more indie GD critics, but this is one of two levels I would argue exemplify the term so well any further discussion of such levels would stand in their shadow. The other is Death by Zeptrus/Alexxhey, a level that actually reaches the same heights as Nubivagant at times, but falls a bit short in my opinion. This is the part I had trouble vocalizing all this time: Nubivagant is RAW AS FUCK.

There's a Twitter account I'm pretty sure everyone is familiar with at this point dedicated to posting raw GD levels. There's two main issues that caused me to finally unfollow and mute it not too long ago: the posts are limited to rated levels, and the admins equate bizarre old levels to being raw just as much as newer shit that just uses the lightning object a lot. Like many words (soulless, polished, energetic, etc) "raw" has gone largely without definition because no one can agree on what it means. Personally, taking "raw" as a desirable quality, I would take it to describe a level that takes no restraint in its execution. This might not even always result in a better product, I would argue that if often doesn't, but it's never anything less than admirable.

Nubivagant bleeds rawness; most of the effects are made from rapidly scintillating particle objects, even when they look far messier than something like gradient triggers or discrete backgrounds would to accomplish similar effects. By that token, even with a shorter runtime and arguably worse song than Death, Nubivagant offers a far more explosive and earned climax than I feel any other level manages to. I thought the gameplay was just okay personally, maybe even being the thing that kept this from being higher in my favorite levels, but the awkward balancing towards the ship part only elevates the stress for me. In general I would say Kiinoe is one of very few creators who managed to really harness 2.2 in a way that felt natural; going from 2.1's animated objects to particles and shaders just felt right in a way that made me wish a similar evolution took place with my favorite 2.1 creators on the same turn. Creators like her are very few nowadays, and I wholeheartedly encourage anyone who likes this kind of level to give it a shot!!