Rating Curve

Not sure how much of a hot take this is, but I actually think Spacelocked II is a better level than its predecessor. Nearly every aspect here is more polished than the latter.

The gameplay is not as awkward, and while its even more learny in exchange, this level still gets highly consistent, and I found it fairly enjoyable to learn as well, even despite the decoration being a bit overwhelming in parts like the dual. Speaking of that dual, while I died a lot there while practicing it, I managed to actually fluke past it from 53%, not dying to it a single time from 0! I think that just goes to show how consistent this level can get when you put in the time, its really satisfying to pull it all off. It does occasionally have an annoying timing (such as that cube jump at 15%), but my general consistency with the level more than made up for those.

The decoration is also of high quality! This is probably once of the last true Lazer/Manix styled levels of this era to be released, and man do I miss it a lot. Spacelocked II seems to nail this style better than most other levels. Its detailed, vibrant, colorful, full of energy, and the boss has a cooler, more expressive design. The boss even seems to have a better variety of attacks, addressing my nitpick from the first level. And despite being released back in 2017, I really don’t find it dated at all!

This is a great level to playthrough if you want to play something learny (and not flow based) that rewards with high consistency and has high quality decoration of an old, nostalgic style. Asides from the level ending with a lacking robot part once again to pad out the length, Spacelocked II is quite the spectacle.

La-la-la-lava ch-ch-ch-chicken Steve's Lava Chicken, yeah, it's tasty as hell Ooh, mamacita, now you're ringin' the bell Crispy and juicy, now you're havin' a snack Ooh, super spicy, it's a lava attack

A classic from the 2.0 era, one of the first levels to popularize the idea of flow levels.

The gameplay here is really fun for the most part, I feel TriAxis managed to get good spacing between most transitions, as it allows each part to breathe more and without having to worry about having a portal every half a second, which is what a lot of flow levels have done in recent years. And each part plays and flows well, asides from a few transitions (srsly, that mini wave into ship at 95% is kinda dumb).

The decoration here is also solid. While I don’t have much strong feelings about it, it definitely has its own charm, and fits with the type of gameplay this level goes for. Likely my favorite part visually is the dual part. Not sure exactly what it is, but I just like the rainbow pattern in contrast with the black background.

I would recommend playing this if you haven’t already, very fun when beating, and still holds up well today. One of the better aged 2.0 levels for sure.

Let’s get this out of the way first.

Yes, the song is corny. Like, UNBELIVABLY corny. And that’s why I like it so much. First time listening to it, I was cringing so hard the whole way through, that I honestly couldn’t help but find this endearing at the same time. I could not bring myself to hate it, especially with how much fun everyone involved had making this song. It was one heck of a listening experience that I surely won’t forget anytime soon, really could not think of a better idea to make for an April Fools song.

Now as for the level itself, yea I guess its good. I like how the level has all these funny GD references (INCLUDING DROPPY CHAN MY BELOVED) that help further enhance the unhinged nature of this song, though outside of that, it just kinda looks like your generic comic city styled level. Not exactly bad, but nothing to write home about either. Still, there is a lot of really nice and funny artwork/references scattered throughout to keep me engaged.

The gameplay is also in a similar boat here, as it is decent, but not much more than that. Basically plays like how a bunch of other 8 star levels would. But I will say I am surprised by the lack of jump indicators (if you wanna count that as a win for modern non-demons ig? lol).

So yea, this is a level that mostly depends on the song for its experience, and I, uh, certainly had an experience with it there 😂. Mythic rating is rather pushy tho, only really is mythic due to surrounding circumstances.