I truly was wishing that I did not have to give this a 1, and happily, my prayers were answered. While this level does show a complete lack of any quality whatsoever, it does have a few – emphasis on “few” – places in which some JCS skill is demonstrated, which is at least worth a few points onto the upside. Not that I am praising this level in any way. The truth is, it is much below average and barely misses the lowly distinction of getting a rating in the range of 1.0 to 1.7. Now, on to the review.
EYECANDY/TILESET USE: What can I say in defense of this level? Not all that much. Pretty much the only thing that this level has going for it is that it could have been much worse. The level by itself is not a looker – far from it, in fact – but it is not what it does do, but what it does not do, which saves it from the ultimate disgrace. A few things that this level does not do include: misuse tiles absolutely horridly; use tiles that do not in any way, shape or form fit the area in which they are located; ignore eyecandy completely and totally (which it almost does, but not quite); and, most important of all – it has a background. Now for the guilty parts. This level not only uses Mez01 (boo, hiss), it uses it badly. There is no innovation here. The only thing that I noted which was even close to showing effort was a few loops in the tubing eyecandy. However, just not making horrible mistakes is not enough to distinguish a level. You have to be creative with eyecandy. Unfortunately, not only is this level uncreative with it, the level is so minimalist, Philip Glass would be proud. And, no, that is not a good thing.
Pros: This level does not look absolutely horrible. In some places, there are small bits of creativity attempting to peek through a very, very small hole.
Cons: Very little in the way of eyecandy.
Rating: 2.2
WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: Unlike some previous levels that I have seen lately, this level actually has a few weapons. I am unable to tell whether this is a good or bad thing, in this case. However, this level is so poor, it would probably be a bad thing either way. There are a lot of RF-related things, including powerups and several 15-ammo crates. There is also a seeker powerup. What really bothers me, however, is the amount of carrots in this level. There are, in one place, six carrots all together. One is left to wonder exactly why there are so many carrots. It makes battles profoundly uninteresting. Not that this hurts this level all that much. Anyone to play this level long enough to become annoyed by this is either a reviewer or someone who really, really, really needs to find something else to do.
Pros: To quote the infamous BOB_ALLEN, how about a nice bag of no?
Cons: After that, there is an enjoyable sack of yes with your name on it.
Rating: 1.7
ORIGINALITY: I have been through this a lot lately, it seems. I have yet to see a Mez01 level which is in fact all that original. This is certainally not one of them. What you have here, for the six hundreth time, is a poor Mez01 level with absolutely not a ray of creativity in it. It is not even that there are a few things which are fairly uncommon but have been done before. There is nothing – nada, zip – that is different from any other darned Mez01 level out there. The only things you probably will not see in many other levels? The worthless trigger zone that rids of a perfectly fine walkway which was, needless to say, simply going about its business and supporting up a few choice springs and, probably a tad more common, the giant wall of pointlessness only scalable via copter (which is, thankfully, there, respawning quite functionally) that barely suffices to somewhat make an attempt at interrupting what is still a long, monotonous run that spans the length of half the level.
Pros: The wall-by-coptor thing at least is not found in many levels. Not that it is a good idea. However, it is still something that is not entirely aggrevating while still being uncommon, so it deserves note.
Cons: Everything else.
Rating: 1.2
GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: If the Dopefish had to chose one level to live in, this would be it. And I am not calling this level dopey. As most devout platformer fans know, the Dopefish (second dumbest creature in the universe) has a mind which understands only swim, swim, hungry, hungry, and, of course, sleep, sleep (or some ordering of those three.) This level has enough of all three. It is a standard Mez01 level (for hopefully the LAST TIME) with springs on the side that allow for some odd transportation method. Inbetween on the bottom is a lot of water (swim, swim). On the top, there are a few strawberries (hungry, hungry) and a long runningway which is only interrupted by a wall which needs to be coptered over. The bottom part is equally as long and annoying, but at least there is the water to keep things interesting…somewhat interesting, that is. Gameplay in this level is nothing much at all. One just runs around shooting the other players with the absurd amount of ammo and healing frequently with the absurd number of carrots. This level is, in every way, boring, which brings us to the third Dopefish favorite – sleep, sleep.
Pros: The level runs.
Cons: The player also runs. For a really, really long time, if they play the level, and as fast in the opposite direction from this level if they know what is good for them.
Rating: 1.7
REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: Who here enjoys a monotonous, boring, plain, pointless, dull, and uninteresting level with absolutely nothing to offer other than hapless gameplay which is equally interesting to its lame and conformitive eyecandy, and which has horrible weapon placement, equally bad (if not worse) carrot placement, and is, above all, made in Mez01? If you do, you will love this level. If not, you will hate this level. Or maybe you will love it, but for a different reason.
Pros: Yes.
Cons: No.
Rating: 1.0
OVERALL (not an average): There are very few things which I would not enjoy more than this level. It is poor in every aspect, from gameplay to eyecandy and back, and shows no creative function. I would seriously recommend spending much more time on your levels, concentrating on one thing at a time, and reducing the number of annoyingly long platforms in the level. Until then, you will get more low scores. Please try harder next time.
Pros: It sometimes works.
Cons: It sometimes works.
Rating: 1.7 (Yes, I changed my mind.)
GAMEPLAY: F
Flow: F
Layout: D -
Creativity: F
Bugs: F
EYECANDY: F
Tileset use: F
Eyecandy look: D -
Creativity: F
Bugs: F
PLACEMENT: F
Weapons: D -
Carrots: F
Enemies: N/A
THE FINAL GRADE: F
THE FINAL RATING: 1.7
Pros: It sometimes works.
Cons: It sometimes works.
- Trafton
Battle, by 
