Rating Curve

Most popular challenge level in the game! Really helped popularize the idea of challenge levels.

It’s a challenge level, more specifically a tiny length wave challenge, so you know what to expect. It is as challenge as you could challenge yourself with. I will say the decoration is nice for a challenge level though. Can’t think of much other challenge levels with deco as good as this challenge level.

Anyway I’ma take a shot for every time I said challenge in this review.

The first of many Nine Circles levels to come. This is roughly around the same quality as Nine Circles, though I do enjoy it a bit more. This is mainly because of the predrop being shorter and less annoying overall compared to the predrop in Nine Circles. And while the wave part is slightly more inconsistent than Nine Circles’ wave, primairly with its portal placement, it still realistically has about the same consistency. Oh, and the chokeable ending is gone too, so thats definitely a plus in making this the more enjoyable Nine Circles level, and easier as well.

Visually… yea, its pretty much Nine Circles but blue. It obviously isn’t as revoultionary as what inspired this level, though I think it has better decoration than Nine Circles in a few parts, such as the ship.

If you aren’t vibing with completing Nine Circles as one of, if not, your first hard demon, perhaps you can give Jawbreaker a shot due to it being a less chokeable experience overall. Can help you get better with managing portal transitions after all, while still packing lots of wave skill.

Similar to The Nightmare, this level’s iconicity is carried by the fact that it is also one of, if not, the easiest demon in the game. Chances are if you didn’t do The Nightmare as your first demon, you did this one.

The gameplay is very basic, primairly consisting of basic jumps over spikes and blocks, and also a lot of jump pads and orbs because why not. The level peaks in the ball part towards the end, where you follow the arrows to take the correct path, but not much else to say.

The decoration is very messy and has more than aged, though this is probably as good as you could get back in 1.2.

Without any doubt, one of, if not, THE most iconic and influential gd level of all time, rivaling the likes of Bloodbath and Robtop’s main levels. Back when this first dropped in 1.9, the effect part in the wave was mindblowing, almost completely unheard of at the time. Afaik, there were only two levels in 1.9 released before Nine Circles that have even remotely done this effect at all. There have been countless levels inspired by this one, mainly in the trend of “Nine Circles” levels that this level established, and this level is a popular choice in player progression.

Now it has been over a decade later after this level dropped, and nowadays, its just fine. While its decoration was groundbreaking when it first released, it just doesn’t feel the same, and sort of blends in with most other NC levels that came out afterwards, especially with the ones that came out in 1.9. Still, one can’t forget how meaningful this decoration was back when this level first released.

As for the gameplay, its not exactly bad, but its noticably rough around the edges due to its age. The predrop isn’t exactly horrible to play, but it can feel boring to sit through when the main thing you want with this level is to get to the exhilaration that is the wave part, especially with the ship and ball parts having a few annoying timings. And the ending cube is just one giant chokepoint, so that’s just… fun.

The wave part is undoubtedly the best part of this level in terms of both visuals and gameplay, this is one of the better playing wave parts in Nine Circles hard demons, although the start of the wave is a little bit harder than the rest of it, so it may kill you as soon as you get to the drop which is a bit annoying, but its manageable and far from the worst kind of gameplay I have seen with other Nine Circles levels

Overall, while I don’t exactly see this level as the masterpiece it once was compared to 10 years ago, I’d generally say its still worth playing today, despite some hiccups. And I have nothing but massive respect for Zobros pioneering an entire genre of levels in this game, even if many of which seemed to have failed to replicate the same charm that this level did, though some are still good on their own terms. Easily Zobros’ best level (though that is a LOW bar).

I have very conflicting thoughts about this level in general. To start off, this is undoubtedly one of the most unique feeling levels in the whole game. The level’s aesthetics are very reminiscent of simple, liminal spaces that, along with the song, invoke many different feelings such as sadness, joy, and even creepiness. It’s rather difficult to describe, but it certainly is a distinct and charming vibe at that.

However, my main concerns are in regards to the gameplay (how shocking). Because it’s basically all invisible, you have to rely on musical cues in order to make your timings. This can be quite inconsistent at times, especially with the first cube (best strat for this part is to land onto the next platform the instant you hear the “TICK”), but also the ufo and robot parts. There are also many parts that are literally auto, so you just wait until you have to do another non-auto part. imo the level should be either all gp or auto. The hardest part is 69-80, though it becomes consistent once you learn enough of it to the point where you can just buffer spam a majority of it (I did have a 98 death sadly but it didnt take too long to beat afterwards).

Either way, this is the second easiest insane demon in the game for me, just behind puzzle trials.

The finale to the NCS x GD album event, and man is it underwhelming.

The main issue with this level is that it is just very bland and uninteresting, so it isn’t exactly bad, but its also not great either. The first 50% or so is mostly just a generic 2.2 pixel block level, with a lack of detail in some parts. The start of the drop is probably the best part of the level, as I do like the effects of the level slowly getting more and more glitchy. Following that though is a swing through the arcade, and I can’t help but feel like this is just a lesser version of Casino Blitz. Now this isn’t to say this level doesn’t have anything uninteresting about it, I like how this level references the other levels in the NCS x GD album event, and the end screen is really cool as well, but those feel so far and few between.

A similar level of quality is reflected in this level’s gameplay as well. It’s neat how this plays like a traditional Robtop level at first, but as the level goes on, it just degrades more and more into being the generic “follow the indicators” gameplay found in 90% of easy demon nowadays, mainly due to focusing more on visuals. The part at the end where you are going through various arcade machines tries to mix things up, but you are mostly just spamming at that point.

Overall, it’s just an average level with not much interesting about it, that is only really rated mythic due to surrounditn circumstances. It doesn’t deserve its mythic rating, and I don’t think it’s legendary worthy either, should be epic at best.

Arguably the most popular demon in the whole game, but that mainly comes down to its long time reputation as the easiest demon in the game, which also makes it the most popular first demon to complete for many new players.

The level itself isn’t all that interesting, primairly due to the limitations of the older versions of the editor, but I can appreciate how it got an update every now and then in later versions.