Rating Curve

I havent seen a level like this in a long time, it has that late 1.9- early 2.0 edgy vibe that lots of levels used to have back then and it was one of my favourite styles. Those rough, black silhouette art levels where everything looked static and simple, but in this case is more detailed and feels like youre interacting with the structures more. The shadow fountain and the tower you go through are by far my favourite things in this level. Id rly like to see more of these :)

This is such a special level to me. I used to be one of those people that loooooved danzmen's work and i still do to this day. Even tho people said he was overrated at the time and i can see why, i still think there are no other levels that give the same vibe as his, until maybe recently with adrenaline rush and ggez. But this level is a complete different story. This is a collab hosted by him with people that are rly close to his style (maybe with some exceptions), yet not exactly the same, and they had the chance to show that through their parts, everyone building whatever they felt like, choosing to keep their specific styles. This makes the level kinda random but i feel like it works so well, since its such a "consistent randomness". I also love the song and how it starts and ends pretty chill but the part in between is chaotic and fast paced and in a way kinda bad, which is also reflected by the inconsistent gameplay and even tho im pretty sure it wasnt intentional, it still matches it perfectly. For the time the level tried so many unique movements and effects that i just admire every time i look at it again, like how the names flash all over the screen in the transition and then the tantrum letters fall while the gp already started, the lines background in spoofy's part, the orb movements and slow gp in yendis' part and so on, i like every part in this level. And as scary as it is, i love the tense feeling of the ending being a rly hard mini wave. The sad thing abt this level for me is that it was around danz's departure from gd so i also kinda see this level as a farewell from him, his part feeling lowkey unfinished shows a bit of lost interest for the game, while also not being the verifier, which from what i remember this started as an extreme he wanted to verify. And even tho he hosted Down Unda after a while, it was for the world gauntlet, and since he's an iconic australian creator, it felt a bit like it was "supposed to host it" but maybe thats just me. This level just makes me feel at home and the moment i saw the building progress of it i knew i wanted it to be my first extreme.. and it was!

This review feels more like it is abt danzmen than the level itself but i feel like this level tells a bigger story than the random first appearence.

Ive come to the conclusion that this is my favourite level of all time. While there are some rly close contenders for me, i think ill choose this one over anything else just bcuz of how well it preserves the 2.0 vibe of that era, which is the time i started to see gd as more than just a cool mobile game even tho i started playing in 1.7. The thing is... i never heard of it until 2.1 (back in 2.0 i didnt rly try demons cuz they were too hard for me) and its crazy how accurate it reminds me of 2.0 unlike lots of other levels from that period. Now to the level itself. The progression is immaculate, the song representation is perfect, the name matches so well, anything this level does is so on point and it doesnt need much detail or variation throughout the desings. The whole level feels like a montage of all the places you see in your long and "lonely travel", from factories, to deadlocked monster villages, to places above clouds and even though the gameplay might seem a bit annoying at first i feel like it works in the context of this level, since it feels like an actually scary journey to go through. It also concludes with a feel of accomplishment at the end where everything turns colorful telling you that you reached your destination after a long struggle. i love the little habits of that time that this level uses, like the password at the end being revealed only when you (used to) beat the level in normal mode, or the whole black silhouette block designs. For me this level encapsulates what 2.0 is all about and i think this is one of the only levels that feels like an actual movie.

I think this shouldve been at least star rated for its time even tho it wasnt the best, but during that time rob didnt use the star only rate that often. Now idk if it wouldve been rated anyway, the level starts pretty well, has some cool effects that i thought of, like the sun turning black and opening the next section and the whole gloss following the light thing, but the end is pretty rushed, the designs are kinda boring, and waay too inspired by kips. This level helped me a lot in understanding lots of things abt the editor so it still has a rly soft spot for me, being the first level that i actually finished, most of my other stuff being only 5%. Anyway, didnt release anything since, but stay tuned for my upcoming level that ive been working on for a while now :)