Rating Curve

Rupture by Jekko will forever have its legacy chained to that one rage video, which at the time of writing, is almost a decade old at this point. As hilarious as it was to indulge in TheColdCrafter's crashouts, I feel it's a shame that's what many purely associate it with, because this level has a lot more to offer than making someone lose his mind.

In the description, it's stated it was themed after the level Toxic Sewers by Superopi. While that level primarily alternated between green and orange, Rupture decides to focus more on its orange scheme. I can't help but draw familiarity to an earlier 1.9 level because of that, which is Radioactive by Viprin and Hinds. Comparing Rupture to Radioactive oddly feels more fitting, not only because of their orange-black appearances, but also their designs focused on bricks, kind of like a factory or building that went up in flames. Despite Toxic Sewers being its inspiration, Rupture stands out to do its own thing, because it focuses on the orange segments and builds on it, instead of mostly copying and calling it a day.

Difficulty wise, it's no surprise this level is quite hard, and it's brutally honest with it. Aside from its beginning, Rupture has no deceiving parts at all. Everything is as "difficult" as you would imagine. Despite it being heavily ship-focused, it's very diverse in its other segments, with spammy UFO and wave parts, memory cube parts, timings scattered everywhere, speed changes, and a nerve wrecking ending. In under a minute long, it all seems a bit excessive and overwhelming for its length, but its rapid-fire nature gives the adrenaline rush I rarely experience in fast-paced levels. More on that later.

One severely under-appreciated note about this level is how it paces its difficulty out. After passing the first ship part, which is quite tight, you then go through a moderately easy memory section, before being slammed with a spammy UFO part. This sequence of segments helps make it varied in its gameplay flow, but more importantly gives the player a break from skill-based parts. By inserting a memory part in between, the player gets a chance to "cool down" before the really high CPS UFO part, instead of destroying the player's fingers and focus all the way through. The sequence of parts intertwine to spread its difficulty very consistently, and it doesn't feel annoying to play in long sessions because the REASON for the difficulty throughout is NOT the same. This sequence of 'skill-based' part > 'memory' > 'skill-based' part continues until the end of the level, and its aforementioned variety of gameplay choices make it really fun to practice, for me at least.

This is where I'll stop singing praises, because actually playing from start to finish tests patience beyond limits. You must be mentally prepared to die to something stupid, no matter how undeserved. Case in point, the transition from the mini wave to cube at 19%, and the wave to ball transition at 52%. Also, the double tap to the yellow jump pad at 9% was by far the most infuriating part because despite my best attempts to correct it, I kept dying more than I should. After practicing the entire level part by part multiple times, getting successful runs and closing in my way to finish it only to hit the roadblock that is this awkward pile of garbage 7 out of 10 times feels discouraging. This could be said for many other parts in this level, but the 9% tap was the worst part for me, solely because my attempts to correct it and be consistent occasionally worked, unlike others where I could minimally find some strategy to minimise my deaths.

After completing this as my third insane demon, I still feel this is one of the best demons I've played based on how fun and awesome it is to play, the song perfectly complements the atmosphere and adds on to a satisfying rush of thrill provided by the fast-paced sections of the level, yet never feels overdone due to its breaks and length. Also, it doesn't only rely on 3x speed to provide this rush, instead additionally utilising slower speed at times such as the 1x speed wave halfway, or the dual mini ship going at 2x speed. The rush now comes from nerve control, once again adding on to the variety and balance this level provides.

However, some parts, particularly the ones I mentioned earlier, has unfortunately left me with an overall sour impression of it all. I don't feel the satisfaction I get from practicing when really playing from 0, almost thanks to dying at the 9% part itself. I can understand why some people don't like Rupture, because in some cases their enjoyment is nullified, which sucks because everything else is so fun.

If you're looking for a new insane demon, I'll still recommend Rupture. It's a relatively short demon, and if you can look past its flaws, you may find yourself thoroughly enjoying the experience. Just a tip - take breaks because this level is quite intensive. If you're tired or you're losing consistency, take a break and come back later. We've already seen what happened the last time a guy tried to brute force his way into completion.