Rating Curve

i’m not usually the biggest fan of split levels due to the EXTREMELY minimalist design in both gameplay and deco. this is definitely the exception as its fun to play and look at despite having that minimalist aspect. the little details elevate it above her other stuff for sure. didnt feel bored across those 5 minutes at all

pretty sketchy balancing (50-65 and the last ship) but the gameplay is otherwise very enjoyable to play with good music sync. also a level using the 2nd drop of the song that isn’t the tartarus sequel pretending not to be a tartarus sequel. decoration reminds me of danza massacrante (also by edooox, go figure).

out of the 3 robtop demons this probably has my favourite song (clubstep is a close 2nd). the gameplay is very well-designed and the decoration is good too.

but the thing is, toe2 doesn’t have anything to set it apart from the custom levels released during 1.9. clubstep had the iconic monster structures that made frequent appearances, and deadlocked had the intense moving object gameplay (see: 80% ship). toe2 isn’t a bad level but it’s (imo) the weakest robtop demon

very fun gameplay throughout and the sync is pretty good too. the decoration is also pretty visually appealing considering the 1.9/2.0 limitations. roadkiller/roadbose isn’t washed yippee

While I don’t hate the 2.0 version of Death Moon the 1.9 version will always be the one I think of and the one I prefer. The coloured portals really weren’t necessary and I prefer the ending to just have the text rather than a big old demon face. But it’s Death Moon so I can’t give this lower than an 8

Probably my second favourite 1.7 level, the gameplay is incredibly fun and never feels boring. Very good progression and a good introduction to fast gameplay.

extra long review.

mlg memes are in retrospective just the hawk tuah skibidi rizz of the early 2010s. but little child me didn’t really care that it was brainrot, because it was funny. i reckon gen alpha will be like that in the next 5-10 years with their shit too. so i’ll be biased because of nostalgia. keep that in mind. Anyways...

Exposition:

Golden Hope, for those who don’t know, is a megacollab uploaded by Magpipe for April Fools’ 2024. It’s somewhat of a parody of the level “Golden Hope” by Terron. I say “somewhat” because although the predrop has very Nine Circles-inspired gameplay, the drop is definitely NOT a Circles level (minus a brief part). The Magpipe collab uses the same song (Holdin’ On by MONSTA) as the original level as well. One part is also an MLG-ified version of the famous demon -sirius- by Funnygame. With the song, it is obviously not on Newgrounds, which is the most likely reason this was only Epic instead of Legendary. However, the replacement song (Xtrullor’s NC remix) syncs very well, albeit not perfectly, with Golden Hope. The level also has optional downloadable sound effects, which can be disabled using a trigger near the level’s beginning. Onto the level itself I suppose.

Gameplay (overview)

IDFK who made which part except for ElMatoSWAG’s part.

The first part is a simple cube with a few orb clicks. This is one of the easiest parts.

After the cube is a very NC-inspired ship section with a few timings. Remember to hold before you go into the ship or you’ll hit an obstacle. Recovering from the last black orb may send you too low or too high. The buildup is incredibly easy and aside from the click INTO the drop it’s free.

The drop itself can be divided into 4 “sections”. See below!

The first “section” of the drop begins with a quick UFO spam section with some teleport portals. It quickly transitions into a ball spam with more controlled clicks. The ship afterwards is the trickiest bit of this “section” as you have to alternate between holding and clicking. A brief UFO spam section caps this part off. This lasts roughly from 25-45%.

The second “section” begins roughly with the spider at 45%. You have to do VERY controlled spam before the level sends you into rapid gamemode changes (robot, ufo, ship, wave). This section lasts from about 45-60%.

The third section begins with the “Wow!”guy (RIP) popping up on screen. There is a dual with very easy timings, which then goes into a swing part with good indicators. The last part is a cube with controlled spam. This goes from 60-75% (roughly)

The fourth and final section is by FAR the hardest part of Golden Hope: the -sirius- parody. The boss has very similar attacks to the boss in -sirius-. An example would be the triangles being replaced by Doritos. The background design is also very similar. Golden Hope’s boss section definitely requires practice (Personally I did 75-100 3-4 times) because of the rapid attacks combined with flashy visuals. The level ends with a short cube section.

As you can tell Golden Hope is SUPER fucking spam carried. However, it’s one of the easiest tier 8 demons on GDDL. I legitimately think this is easier than -sirius- (tier 7) due to its shorter length and MUCH easier bossfight. I reckon the base gameplay is T6 worthy.

The visuals are obviously inspired by the MLG memes of old and definitely give Golden Hope much of its identity. Surprisingly all the art/assets are hand-drawn (though I’ve seen accusations of image to GD) based off the reference images, though they are NOT exact. Said visuals also play a huge role in this level’s difficulty, especially later on. During the boss fight, MLG memes are all over the screen and make it harder to focus than usual. I will admit the visuals are very clean and well-made especially for joke level standards.

cool easter eggs:

Skipping both orbs just after the spider makes a message “F**K THE ORBS XD” appear until the UFO section.

There is a 40%-ish (I don’t actually know) chance that Trump will appear in the bossfight instead of Gabe Newell. A coin is rewarded upon clearing the bossfight.

I’m sorry and not sorry for such a long review.

this is a pretty faithful successor/remake of dorabae-basic12 in both a good and a bad way. the gameplay definitely is an improvement, with the use of 2.0 features being somewhat toned down. the harder base gameplay gives a sense of real difficulty rather than the moving object overuse that db12 suffered from. i think the decoration is actually pretty decent at what it wants to do, and feels (again) like db12 but improved.

i also think it is EXTREMELY funny that Rob rated this in 2025

this level feels very wacky in a way i can’t properly describe. the structuring in the first part is quite claustrophobic and the gameplay works with this quite well. 30-70 is entirely slow wave gameplay through some tight corridors. nothing inoffensive and there is some variety of design in visuals and gameplay. the end has some fast-moving blocks (think the ship in deadlocked toned down a little) and ends off with a yellow ship part. one of my favourite devin levels for how easy and accessible it is to newer players (despite the beginning being very intimidating)