Single player, by 
Alas! I was going to give this the rating it deserved, but then I saw the beautiful entreaty of “I am a female” and my heart was lost. Now I must give this a 10 so that she will go out with me! Because that’s what females do on J2O!
..er. Sorry. Please don’t incite sexism. I’m sexist enough already, and I’m sure other people don’t need the provocation either.
GRAPHIC QUALITY: This is one of those levels which tries to completely sail through the eyecandy category on the strength of a nice looking tileset. Sadly, you have to actually be able to use the tileset, and that factor is not readily apparent. There is very little deviation in the walls or background (layer 8 isn’t textured – this tileset supports textured mode, right? Mirrow, have you been making bad tilesets again?), and there’s not much else to speak of. No ground – the whole thing takes place in what I assume is supposed to be a castle. No background eyecandy. Essentially no layer 4 eyecandy except for Disguise’s head. Disguise is a great guy, but his head is not proper eyecandy for a level.
Pros: No glaring tile bugs.
Cons: Nothing beyond the basics, too much Disguise, a few layer 3 problems.
Rating: 3.7
LEVEL DESIGN: “Run to the right” is a good description of the design fo this level. It is not as bad as that Diamondus race level where you never have to press any keys besides run and right, but it’s pretty bad. I timed myself and beat the entire level (including the boss – been a while since I saw someone make Bilsy difficult… come on, people!) in less than thirty seconds, and I count too fast. This would automatically get a low mark, but it’s somewhat saved by the fact that the main time spent playing this level is spent finding the secrets. Admittedly the secrets are mostly layer 3 hidden holes in the floor, but there are still secrets, which is kind of interesting. I didn’t have nearly enough coins, for example, though I’m not positive there are actually so many coins in the level.
Pros: The secrets are a nice touch – keep that in mind for your next levels and they should become quite enjoyable.
Cons: Still too much of a straight line. Add some curves, corners, whatever strikes your fancy. Fun tricks like moving platforms. Spikes (the one place where there were spikes was cool, I’ll grant).
Rating: 5.0
GAMEPLAY/FUN FACTOR/REPLAY VALUE: It occurs to me a great deal of “Level Design” was actually spent describing the gameplay. Oh well. As I sort of said, the gameplay of this level in itself is not very enjoyable, it’s the many detours that make up the prime interest value. Obviously this is not done so well as it is in levels such as Tomb Rabbit – Central Cave, but that’s a very high standard in the first place. Sadly, despite the secrets, this level doesn’t really become a level you’d have any particular desire to play more than once, unless you’re an insane overrating J2O reviewer (naming NO names).
Pros: Did I mention the secrets? Yes, I did. Oops.
Cons: Just not very interesting.
Rating: 5.0
ORIGINALITY: I liked the part with the spikes. It’s not quite original, but it does look fairly professional (aside from the graphics, but that’s another story). Besides that, this level is pretty much dullsville. The only bit that interested me was the float ups – a few more spikes and a little more room and that could become somewhat interesting.
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A
Rating: 3.5
EVENT PLACEMENT: There are way too many goodies. Coins, shields, ammo – you name it. There’s a secret at the start of the level containing some ammo which never shows up again in the level and you have no reason to use. There aren’t enough enemies to deserve the ammo, but I suppose that’s a good thing. Too many enemies can be a crippling point for a level. I saw no real event bugs – no destruct scenery on un-animated tiles or stuff like that.
Pros: Decent enemy placement.
Cons: Way too many goodies. Advice: study other levels, particularly the Formerly a Prince episode and anything by Chandie. Avoid anything by Blade or Willie in this regard.
Rating: 3.7
OVERALL (not an average): This is not a bad level, but it is below average. There appears to have been some sort of story to this level, in combination with another level(s?) that was not included in the .zip. Huh. Warn us next time.
Pros: Eyecandy’s not BAD, nor is most anything else.
Cons: Somewhat dull, over too soon.
Rating: 4.2
On a side note, I completely forgot you were a female while reviewing this. ANGST!
