Rating Curve

Rather mediocre all around, as the first half of the level is a very easy predrop, except for the UFO part, which is mildly inconsistent. This just makes this level more tedious to try and beat, especially given that this level still falls under the fabled Nine Circles balancing curse of making the start of the wave the hardest part, so you’ll likely play nothing but the pre-drop a majority of the time.

This level is also pretty lacking visually. I kinda do like the grid background in the second cube, but asides from that, there is a lack of air deco in many parts. What doesn’t help is that this uses the very much overdone Nine Circles effect, and without any unique twists either.

Some of the wave gameplay is fine, and can be somewhat enjoyable I guess, but nothing I would particularly call amazing either. So yea, wouldn’t really play this. Less reason now too, given that its demoted to hard demon.

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.

For a while now, this has remained as one of my favorite easy demons in the game. It is such a high quality level all around.

The block design is absolutely amazing, definitely some of Ferdefunky’s best works, combined with the really awesome effects that he made as well. And there’s plenty of variety as well, which means the level won’t feel samey, a common complaint for a lot of Ferde levels prior to this one. All of the block designs and effects are top notch, and they even allow for great song representation/progression. Its obvious how much care he put into this level when you look at the block design and backgrounds.

Despite being a GDDL tier 1 demon, this level probably has some of the best gameplay out of any level in that tier. It gets so many things right, as it compliments the song well most of the time, while also still managing to stay very sightreadable despite how flashy it is. I don’t think I have a single issue with the gameplay at all! My favorite part has to be the second drop, it just feels so fun to blast through, and it makes for a great ending to this level.

Definitely one of the biggest glow up stories in the history of GD, with Ferde going from the bad Traction, to the decent Shuriken, to the masterpiece that is Starpunk :)

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.

I absolutely adore this level, easily my favorite one of the Space Gauntlet contest winners.

The best part of this level for me is undoubtedly its artstyle; there are so many synonyms I could use to describe it, but my biggest ones would have to be intruging, atmospheric, and just… beautiful. I would kill to see more levels done in an artstyle like this. And there is also such a high attention to detail in many parts (yes, I’m including the statue with a penis LMAO), all of which help further compliment the level’s atmosphere. The artstyle feels like a unique mix between Hollow Knight’s artstyle and old Renaissance era paintings, and I am ALL for it. My favorite part has got to be the cube part at 72%, it reminds me a lot of Tree Top Town from Donkey Kong Country. Or… is it actually at 72%?

Ah, that’s right! Another crazy detail that caught me off guard was that the level actually kept on going past 100% in the progress bar about halfway through the level! Initially, I thought it was another typical 2.2 bug with the progress bar, but there was so much gameplay following this occurrnce, that I slowly learned this choice was indeed intentional. The level isn’t called “Out of Place” for nothing after all! It’s actually really cool to see this bug being used in the level’s favor, as it really makes it feel more alive and atmospheric. I could gush on about how much I love the decoration in this level, but I think you get the point.

I also think the gameplay really compliments this level! Now, I have seen a few complain about it, as they think its too boring and goes on for too long, but I have to disagree. The gameplay being so open and easy actually work’s in this level’s favor, as you can take in even more of this level’s beautiful visuals, and immerse yourself even further. And I think the length is hardly an issue too, the gameplay is easy enough to a point that you will almost certainly fluke it.

Really the only thing I will criticize in the gameplay is the Swing part at the first drop. I’ll admit the timings in it can be a little jank, but at least it isn’t at the end of the level.

In conclusion, this level is a masterpiece, and easily one of my favs from this year. Shame how its only placed at 7th in the contest, when it shouldve been top 3 minimum.

God, I had such a miserable time beating this a few years ago, this level really isn’t good at all.

Okay, maybe my hate is a little exaggerated, as most of the gameplay isn’t actually that bad (tho not particuarly amazing either), but what really drags it down are those damn chokepoints.

Firstly is Daddepro’s part, which i initally thought was the hardest part of the level, as those ship gaps are annoyingly tight, especially that one right before the 3x wave transition, which killed me more times than I’d like to admit. Thankfully, I got consistent enough towards the end of my completion to the point where I was able to pass this on most attempts, but it still was a hinderanxe to my experience during a majority of my experience.

…and then there’s Gboy’s part. More specificially, the transition into Gboy’s part. This is my pick for the hardest part of the level, because said transition is LUCK BASED, as it depends on how you transition out of the dual ball into the ship portal so you can set yourself up to get through the beginning of this part! What kind of nonsense is that?! This killed me FAR too many times, actually bullshit seeing half of this level’s difficulty coming from something so artificial! How did the creators even approve of this?

And if you thought it would end there, it doesn’t. Despite me thankfully only dying to it twice, the last part of the level (viprin’s ship part) is insanely chokeable. I really struggled to get consistent on it with start positions, and I couldn’t consistently get runs to 100 thanks to this part. Like, REALLY. It’s a miracle I only had as few fails as 2 on that part when playing from 0! Not helping matters is that the layout of this part is a direct copy of Sumsar’s UFO part, which is incredibly lazy. Really wasn’t designed for a 3x ship at all.

Some other notable chokepoints that aren’t as major but I feel are worth mentioning due to hampering my experience aee XCY7’s ball clicks between 27-30, Evasium’s dual ball clicks between 62-65, and Viprin’s cube part at 86.

Visually-wise… it’s fine, there isn’t really anything interesting about it. Just feels like most of the creatoers decorated the parts in their usual creating styles without adding anything noteworthy to them.

Yea, this level sucks a lot imo. Again, maybe I’m hating on it too much, as if you have enough skill (with say, your hardest being a beginner extreme), you’ll probably think its not that awful and rather just an okay level instead. I revisited this level a bit after beating Acu out of curiosity, and it definitely helped a bit. But the thing is, I did this level as a NEW HARDEST, and that influenced my experience with it, as this caused the chokepoints to become the bane of my existence. I cannot recommend this at all if you are attempting to beat this as your hardest demon, which is sadly not uncommon to see given this level’s popularity. Though even without those chokepoints, the gameplay is incredibly mid, and not something I can bother to recommend to anyone really, no matter their skill level.

A masterpiece to have come out straight from the 1.9 era, I can’t think of any other level (asides from Bloodbath) to be a more fitting finale to 1.9, which makes sense considering how “Rainbow Road” (a series of tracks that cap off every Mario Kart game) themed this level is.

The decoration was absolutely mindblowing when it first released, with the insane attention to detail in many parts and thoughtful use of progression, and unlike other 1.9 levels that seemed to have suffered the issue of age, this level still holds up remarkably well to this day. It’s really saying something when it not only competes with many 1.9 gdps levels released nowadays, but even surpasses them.

While there are definitely still a few great 1.9 gdps levels to have come out in recent years, I feel the issue for a lot of them with me is that they end up looking too generic, or just focus more on including as much objects as possible so it serves more to show on what you can do with 1.9, rather than being actual levels. However, ROTD seems to get that perfect balance between high quality decoration that will impress, while also still feeling like you’re actually playing GD with its gameplay. Speaking of which…

Yea, the gameplay is solid here! While it isn’t anything remarkable, as it mostly consists of wide open spaces and simple cube/ball gameplay (no doubt due to the confines of being a 7* level), I still think it works enough to let you freely immersive yourself and take in the glory of this beautiful and joyful level’s visuals, especially given that its music is the Rainbow Road from MK7, another level that delivers similar vibes of being mostly a simple level gameplay-wise, yet compliments the mystical and happy vibes of its aesthetics and progression so well. Awesome how ROTD mirrored that track’s concept without feeling derivative of it in the slightest!

If you have not experienced this level at all, I highly suggest you do so, its just such a joy to revisit every now and then, giving me a mix of nostalgic and glorious 1.9 vibes, while still appreciating how much of a technical darling it was back then.

Am I really going to defile this grave for creator points…?

Of course I am!

Absolutely impeccable and unique atmosphere in this level, it’s crazy how ominous and uncanny the creator managed to make this level feel with such minimalistic details. The visuals complement the song perfectly. I never thought I would play a gd level that would make me feel legitimately creeped out without needing anything like jumpscares, and I have to give the creator massive props for that.

Now, I understand that this is definitely more of level to be watched than played, which is why this doesn’t even seem to have a gameplay score on this site yet. But the thing is, my overall score criteria is largely determined by how good the gameplay is, visuals only really influence a small part of my score. So with that said, this level’s gameplay straight up sucks!

While the gameplay does compliment the atmosphere of this level very well (which is pretty much where the 2 points in my gameplay rating entirely come from), it isn’t enjoyable to play at all. Not only is way too repetitive and slow paced to be engaging, it’s very unbalanced, as, in the second half, there are a lot of jumps that are nearly impossible to telegraph, due to the slope usage and the unpredictable nature of the song flickering the blocks, possibly making you do some other unnecessary jumps. This basically just becomes memory on when you have to jump, and it certainly wasn’t the good kind of memory.

What also baffles me is just how unoptimized the second half of this level is, it seems like it shouldn’t be laggy at all due to how minimal the decoration is, yet I was constantly getting lag spikes, and during a lot of the jumps too, which only added to my frustration. And of course, with the second half being so hard, it just makes the first half so boring and tedious to sit through each time. Lastly, this level is misrated as crap, its more of a higher end easy demon honestly.

Y’know, that I’m thinking about it, this level does feel like a creepy version of Still Life; minimalistic deco xl length with only mini cube gameplay for the entire level that is repetitive and boring, and has some annoying chokepoint halfway through the level. At least I do like this level a bit more than Still Life, mainly thanks to a strong and intriguing atmosphere, whereas Still Life looked more like any other level that attempted a theme like this.

But yea, this is definitely one of the most “watch, not play” levels in the game. The more you play it, the further its atmosphere quickly wears off, turning it into a slog to beat, so I obviously would not recommend trying that. Weird how y’all seem to have this mentality with the gauntlet contest winners and give those levels low scores mainly because of how badly/laggy they play, and this level has awful gameplay/optimization too yet everyone seems to be afraid of giving it a low score while highly praising it. Idk, seems like a double standard to me but I digress.

My first ever insane demon completed :D

Another banger from quite possibly the greatest creator of all time, Puzzle Trials absolutely blew me away when I first saw it when it first dropped. And despite being released almost 9 years ago, it still holds up incredibly well.

This level has so much charm with its many unique gameplay gimmicks/sections, such as with the. minesweeper face vibing to the music in the beginning, and I really adore the whole computer vibe this level has. The BSOD during the ending bossfight is probably my favorite detail, makes it really feel like you’re confronting the computer virus.

And despite the level primarily having gimmicky gameplay, its still well polished, and gets so consistent when you practice each part enough. SO consistent, that I really don’t think its insane demon at all, more like a mid hard demon. I know a few people who beat this before beating any hard demons!

Really the only part I could probably nitpick is the “triple mode” part, since it is a bit harder than the rest of the level, so it can be a bit frustrating at times, but even that part is manageable enough when you play it a lot. Every other part is great to play through, and you can get past them after 1 attempt nearly every time with enough consistency.

I highly recommend beating this if you haven’t already, its one of many classics by Funnygame that will continue standing the test of time.