STORY: There IS no story. Apparently the level was originally made for some episode, but nothing ever came of that, and it is left to wander around pointlessly, as players of this level may end up doing.
Pros: A story for this level might just have the feel of being there so there’d be a story.
Cons: There is no story. However, I am still willing to forgive this for a single level.
Rating: N/A
TILESET/TILESET USE: This is the first thing that will strike you about this level. It uses Alienator’s (I think) boring, colorless block tileset “Space Station”, which is all blue and has a few random Bryce objects with nothing better to do then sit in the tileset. The tileset is used fairly well, six layers at speed 1/1 (..which is way too much, and is kind of cheating.. “all eight layers” indeed), one layer used on the huge planet, which isn’t all that helpful, and one layer for the rather annoying looking background. Still, while I can not say I approve of a lot of this, the fact remains that the level IS nice to look at, and manages to have a lot of 1/1 speed eyecandy.
Pros: It is nice to look at.
Cons: Layers 7 and 8, some kind of wasted layers.
Rating: 8.0
WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: There are a few weapons here and there, but who cares? Other then Bubba, there’s really very little in this level to worry about that your gun will have any effect on. And for Bubba, the blaster is probably more effective then anything you can pick up along the way. Still, the author did place the weapons fairly well, I suppose, such as toaster ammo at the boss, after getting a toaster powerup. The items are also placed well.
Pros: Everything’s placed well.
Cons: Few.
Rating: 7.7
ORIGINALITY: I’m not sure if this level is original or not. The tileset use (other then layers 7, 1 and 2) is great, but I’m not sure if the rest of the level is. We’ve all PLAYED places where you run back and forth looking for what opened up when you hit the trigger crate, only longer and more entertaining.
Pros: The tileset use is original.
Cons: I don’t know if this is original or not..
Rating: N/A
DIFFICULTY: The hardest part about this level is seeing through the three foreground layers, and figuring out what is solid. There are a few enemies, but you go back and forth enough, they might be better off generating. As it is, after you’ve gone through the enemies in the main area once, it starts feeling dead. The place where you climb on spikes has the potential to be difficult, but it’s short and you can avoid the spikes. I’ll admit the boss is kind of difficult, but that’s mainly because of the lighting, which makes it so you can’t even see that the floor will fall out from under you.
Pros: Some parts are kind of difficult.
Cons: It’s short. And not paticularly dangerous.
Rating: 6.7
REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: This is probably the area the author spent the Least amount of time on – giving it an enjoyable gameplay. It starts out fairly well, with a multiple path area, but then quickly you’re in a big room where you search for three trigger crates (in order). There are sucker tubes where you wouldn’t expect them, no sucker tubes where you Would, spikes where they are hard to see, and the foreground getting in the way of gameplay. I don’t know about you, but I did not enjoy playing in this level.
Pros: You may want to play it again to just look at it.. I don’t know.
Cons: Not paticularly enjoyable, too confusing.
Rating: 6.2
OVERALL (not an average): This is a… level. The author appears to have spent quite some time on “small details”, but it would be nice if he had paid more attention to the larger picture.
Pros: Yes, it is nice to look at, though to be honest I would have preferred less foreground and a moving background. And parts of the level are entertaining.
Cons: Sadly, I am unable to really recommend this level. Maybe if the author had spent less time on the graphics I might, but not in this state.
Rating: 7.0[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]