“Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Row gots a level for uhhuhuhhhs.”
You’re the first with Christmas levels, and I’m happy the levels from Santa are arriving now =) I hate the old levels cause I’ve played them to much =P.
Review for: “Noel’s Passage”
Eyecandy…<>
You can see that Row did his best for this level, cause the lvl gots lots of eyecandy stuff. There are christmas trees, caves, snow on the front layer, and he even put a Santa Clause on the background. With pressents and his reindeers, of course.
TO BAD: At every tree, you’ll have to look at the ground. You’ll see a big bug! Shadows are wrong.
Gameplay…<>
I like the big level. It’s very big and contains many secret passages and warps. Found the carrots allready? MJAM!
TO BAD: WHEEEEEEE! There is no Coin Warp! BOOHOOHOO!
Placement…<>
Every battle lvl needs ammo, P-ups and carrots, and this one contains it. Row also put food and drinks in the lvl, and he have chosen the places very good. And it’s good Row, that you didnt put RF-up or SEEKER-up in this level. I hate those ups =P Only love them when I have them =D
TO BAD: There is nothing bad or to bad, just okay.
I think those things I told you would tell everybody enough to download this! Isn’t that a pressent of Santa? =)
Download Recommendation
Rating a 7.7
Carrotpie
When first playing this level I noticed almost immediately the trees =P. Alot of them are tiled incorrect on their “bottoms”. This takes away from the feel of the level because there are indeed many trees used.
The eye candy is ok, I might say there are alot of trees but thats generally how it works in forests and such. The cave tiling and backgrounds are both very nice and add to the feel of the level. The snow effect isn’t very good, if you move the snow follows you around, and I think it would have been better to use the snow event in this level or just not have any snow falling.
Generally the level is fairly easy to navigate. There are a few spots that are stup and hard to see where to go though. The vines add to the gameplay and are well placed.
Ammo placement is fairly good in this level with a good amount of ammo fairly distributed throughout the level. The one powerup that I could access was a well placed secret area. I might have liked to see the fire power up accessible though.. maybe it is and I suck.. but whatever apart from the blaster this is a 5 hit to kill level, which could make it slow at times, considering the rather… extreme amount of carrots. Hmm just found the electro ammo haha… well that helps… so maybe this is sort of balanced. All I can say is it would have been nice to have been able to see a hint of a secret area rather then looking in jcs.
Overall this is a fairly good level but it has few to many shortcomings for me to give it above an 8. Anyone looking for a christmas fix though would probably enjoy this level.
7.2/10
7
CHRISTMAS EVE TOMORROW!! YAYAYAYAYAYY! :-DDDDDDDDDDDDDD
CAPS LOCK DAY TODAY! WEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!
(I’M GOING TO KEEP THIS REVIEW SHORT…JUST IGNORE THE CAPS!!!!!!!!)
SORRY I’M LATE WITH THIS, BTW!!!
REVIEW OF NOEL’S PASSAGE:
THE GAMEPLAY IS QUITE GOOD IN MOST OF THE AREAS AND THERE IS A LOT OF SPACE TO JUMP AROUND AND COPTER IN. SPRINGS ARE WELL-PLACED, THERE ARE ALMOST NO JAZZ-UNFRIENDLY AREAS AND THE PLATFORMS ARE ALWAYS WITHIN EASY REACH. THE FLOW IS ALSO GOOD, BUT SOME AREAS ARE A BIT REPETITIVE AND DUE TO BAD MASKING OF THE TILESET, IT CAN BE DIFFICULT TO JUMP AND RUN CONTINUISLY IN SOME AREAS (MAINLY THE UPPER-RIGHT CAVE WHERE YOU HAVE TO JUMP FROM ONE PLATFORM TO THE OTHER UNTIL YOU REACH THE TOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
EYECANDY IS ALSO PRETTY NEAT!!!!!!!! :-) THERE IS SNOW, MOUNTAINS, A LOT OF TREES AND COOL-LOOKING BACKROUND CAVE-STUFF…THINGS…AND OF COURSE SANTA ON HIS REINDEER SLEIGH FLYING ACROSS THE SKY!!! THE LVL USES THE TILESET TO GOOD EFFECT AND ALTHOUGH THERE IS NOTHING ORIGINAL ABOUT THE EYECANDY, NOEL’S PASSAGE IS A PLEASURE TO THE EYE.
WEAPONS PLACEMENT IS ABOUT AS GOOD AS THE GAMEPLAY BECAUSE THE AMMO AND CARROTS FOLLOW THE GENERAL LAYOUT OF THE LVL. AMMO IS NOT VERY SPARSE BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO CONSERVE IT, WHICH WILL LEAD TO A MORE “THINKING”-APPROACH TO BATTLE RATHER THAN THE CONVENTIONAL MASSIVE SEEKER STRIKES FOUND IN MOST OTHER BATTLE LVLS. YAY FOR CAPS!!!!!!!!!
TO SUM UP… NOEL’S PASSAGE IS A SMALL, WELL-DESIGNED LVL WITH GOOD EYECANDY, OK AMMO PLACEMENT AND GOOD GAMEPLAY. IT’S DEFINITELY FUN TO PLAY IN THIS LVL BUT THERE REALLY ISN’T ANYTHING NEW OR ORIGINAL ABOUT IT (SOME SECRETS EXIST, HOWEVER). A 7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOORAY FOR CAPS LOCK DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just as a side note, this isn’t the first Christmas level. Black Ninja released Y-Mas before I did. In fact, Black Ninja, in a way, inspired me to make this level. FireSword said that Y-Mas would be the only Christmas battle. I wanted to prove him wrong and possibly outdo an experienced level maker while I was at it. Maybe I should have put all that in the manual. :P
I’m sorry about the shadows, but I had to place them like that, for anything else would have looked worse. I try to make the levels looks as pleasing to the eye as possible, by trying to offer semi-realism. So if something doesn’t look right with the tileset, Blame Cliffy B. :P
Battle, by 
