Rating Curve

This maps fills me with childlike wonder, it feels like something I would have envisioned when first getting into mapping, but with masterfully crafted gameplay and decoration. The gameplay is incredibly simple, and plays consistently once learned. The difficulty jumps around, but is fitting to each individual section of the map. The visuals feel like a journey through the sky, tying in perfectly with the map's name, other than the last section, which feels like it belongs in a completely different map. The last section is the only major flaws with this map holding it back from being an 8 visually, it strays from the levels vision while only executing it so-so. This map demonstrates how much one can do with a map while avoiding anything technically impressive and only having a strong foundation on progression and map structure, making it one of my personal favorites.

Might be one of the laziest maps of all time. There is no substance to the gameplay nor the visuals, the entire map is just filler, created to fill time. I wish this map attempted anything to justify its runtime, at every point there is nothing going and nothing to look forward to.

Honestly, this map is one of my favorite works of all time. It is filled with imperfections, and it almost completely ignores its backing track, but most of these things only serve to elevate this map in my eyes. The gameplay almost feels like an afterthought, with almost no meaning given to it other than how to make the visuals somewhat interactive. The visuals themselves are completely incohesive, with each part feeling completely different, with the only common factor across the whole map being its black and white color palette. The overall product leaves you almost confused, grasping at straws to understand what you've just seen. Together, this map feels like a fever dream, like the mapper used it to dump all of their miscellaneous ideas onto canvas. This map feels like something someone would have envisioned as a child before getting deep into rate standards, it is free, unconstrained by typical level structure.

As a long time fan of longer maps, it greatly thrilled me to see something of this length gain traction and notoriety. However, after experiencing the map for myself, I couldn’t help feeling like there was much to be improved upon.

The single most important part of any long map is keeping the player engaged through interesting gameplay. Unfortunately, most of the gameplay is about as bland as most levels on the featured tab. However, the swing section tracing the line was incredibly interesting and was a short glimpse of what could have been. Clearly, the mapper was capable of implementing interesting concepts and usually just chose not to. One more minor but still interesting nitpick of mine is that at some of the dash orbs in the starting parts, there are unindicated S blocks. Generally, in these situations, it would be much preferred to add an obstacle which indicates the end of a hold than surprising the player.

It is also necessary to talk about the visuals of the level. At their core, most part of this map follow the exact same formula. They use black base blocks with bright details of a single color. Each background consists of a dark color with bright glow objects in the background, which are set in motion. This is consistent throughout the whole runtime of the map, and while each individual section is of high quality, when we put them all together it overstays its welcome and begs for variety. The climax of the map is also poorly executed. In the middle of the map, we have what is the best section it has to offer. It at least attempts to break the formula with some sketch designs which are overlayed atop the blocks, with everything going dark. We even get some designs which are not built on a black base. However, later in the map, the attempted climax does not nearly reach the same heights, and instead feels like a cop-out section after building so much length that you’ve run out of steam.

Overall though, this map does a lot right. It follows the track well with its visuals, it is structured in a way where the payoff makes sense, and each section individually looks fine. I just think this level is far too overrated and could have generally been much improved.