Although I do not care much for names, I’d much rather call this by its file name “Apple Land” I like that name much better. Now on to the review!
For some reason this level’s tileset goes so well with the use of apples, almost to the extent of the lemons with Ceramicus in BR’s Lemon Nightmare; the level has an atmosphere, one that I like, others should as well. To accentuate the theme, the background has a dark red fade. One of the downfalls of the theme is the music choice, although it’s not particularly bad, it does not fit with the theme well in my opinion, there could definitely have been a better choice.
The tileset usage is what you’d expect to be made from this set along with a few other decorations that use tricks from other levels; certain color tiles used with transparency to change the color of tiles for example. So really nothing too original.
The level has a solid symmetrical design, allowing three direct paths to each base which makes defense almost pointless as it’s likely for the capturer to grab the carrot at the top middle unless the defender is extremely skilled. Especially considering there are plently of slopes: there is a bouncer powerup (included in warp for 10 coins) and easily obtainable bouncer ammo near some slopes; killing is not at all difficult for the attackers, or the defenders in some cases.
Camping is an aspect of this level, and needs to be implemented to a huge extent if one is to win. The top middle has the only full nrg with the coin warp (all coins have a 31 regen and are placed sparsely around the level). The bouncer power is the main powerup to be used, it will be used a lot, it’s the main weapon that can be hogged by one team and could decide who wins the match. Close matches aren’t likely in this level. Although there is an RF powerup included, Chasing isn’t easy here, the top area may be good for the use of RFs though. The RF powerup is located underwater which pretty much makes it useless to attack people there with it. The bottom area will be the least touched place.
I like the level mainly for it’s theme. As for the gameplay. Most players will not like such a sparse placement of coins, and the ridiculous regen time on them. Players will resort to playing with the RF powerup most of the time, resulting in many 3hks. If you like levels with a nice theme and like to be evil by hogging things from other players, then this is the level for you.
-fs