Here comes the feedback for Ganon's Tower, Playtime is Over! and all of the Jetix's uploaded levels.
Ganon's Tower - PuffleKirby21
The level isn't too difficult to clear if you know how to deal with the simple challenges in there, yet somehow the clear rate is around 10% last time I checked, which makes the level appears on Expert 100 Mario Challenge, as opposed to Normal. Maybe part of it has to do with the forced boss fight sections, but those aren't really a bad thing. Maybe it also has to do with a few issues I encountered. Which are...
- The Podoboos in the main hall can easily catch unsuspecting players by surprise, and there's no indication where they actually are until they see them. Some visual clues on where they might be (e.g. course blocks indicating where in the X axis are) would help the player memorizing these obstacles.
- The Thwomp corridor has one Thwomp that's a bit too close, which forces the player to bait it to fall and then start running to deal with the rest of them. When I came across to another staircase of the same room, the camera didn't show there were more Thwomps before I crossed the staircase as fast as I possibly can and therefore got hit by the first one of the second batch. Perhaps removing the first Thwomp on both batches would help alleviating the problem. Otherwise, this section is pretty simple.
I do have to admit that the visuals are very fitting the mood the stage is going after.
Playtime is Over! - adrino
The stage plays more like of a tight action and puzzle platformer, but not overwhelmingly difficult for me to figure out on what to do in every portion of the stage.
The stage does assume the player knows a lot about how the assets in Super Mario Maker engine works in order to progress, which might explains the very low clear rate. Not a bad design choice, but it's definitely a turnoff for those who don't quite have the puzzle-solving mindset and patience, which constitutes a lot of the players.
The most interesting section of the stage but also the most difficult is the cave room. Here, we got to free the Koopa Clown Car with Magikoopa's magic beam, but having him to aim at the proper angle involves quite a fair bit of trials and errors that might take a good chunk of time. We then had to bop the once-freed Koopa sitting on the flying vehicle and have the Thwomp riding on it, which again requires trials and errors to get the timing right. Then, lead the Thwomp just below the top of the green ceiling platform and spin jump on it.
Oh! And don't forget the spring, or the player might lock out of the win just because they didn't see the impassable ledge beforehand. Thankfully, the checkpoint alleviates part of frustration, but not completely.
I did failed a lot on the part with the Bill Blasters wall-jumping, because I thought ground pounding on the top of one of them would be easier than simply wall-jumping with a consistent rhythm (which prevents them shooting any Bullet Bill), but the NSMBU physics is a bit too finicky to pull that off with ease for some reason.
The rest of the stage is easier as the next few puzzles let me do so at my own leisure, and finally proceeded to complete it.
Overall, the stage is worth playing for the cave puzzle alone. I had a blast figuring out what to do.
Every Jetix's level
Yes, I played every level you uploaded so far. I get that you're excited trying many of the unique assets that Super Mario Maker has to offer. The game's user-friendly interface and the endless possibilities certainly has you enticed in the world of many user-created levels. However, I didn't really enjoyed playing them. The overall experience on every single level of yours ultimately felt shallow for a few reasons:
- Reliance on enemy spam as challenge: Not only you have a tendency of spamming enemies, but you also used large variety of enemies, which made certain sections more of a "luck-based" affair and render your level unrecognizable among the crowd. Your very first uploaded level ever suffers heavily from this problem, therefore making it more of a luck-based affair than promoting some gaming skills. Thanks goodness it's also very short and I could beat it with a Lakitu's Cloud to cheese the entire level. The enemy spam is toned down in the subsequent levels, but they still pose problems. If you don't know how that's a very bad level design, the very first Mary. O's official course has you covered and I dare you to love it. Spoiler alert: you'll either quit or lose many lives even before you clear the stage.
- Reliance on poor use of Damage Boosting as challenge: Damage Boosting involves taking a hit in order to get through obstacles. There were some instances on your levels where this tactic becomes the most efficient way, if not the only way to get through the toughest sections. The stretch between the angry Wiggler and the final door in Fire Flower Castle, along with the Boo Buddies section of Yoshi's Airship rely on this trick, but they don't really promote actual skills and feels like a wasted opportunity.
- General lack of effort for level design: At the risk of sounding like I was being too harsh on you, I didn't feel that your levels were actually finely crafted. The aesthetics often felt average if not subpar in some cases, certain sections are being too tight for no reason whatsoever, Cape Mario being able to fly over the entire subarea of Yoshi's Airship. And there are more cases of rushed level designs that managed to make me cringe. With these problems in mind, I believe you didn't took very long to create a level, but getting most of them to upload might have taken more time than you initially thought and possibly died a few times during the upload process.
I'll give you some advice of my wisdom. Since you have a tendency to throw too many ideas on one level, therefore easily getting lost in the translation. There's not one idea that seemed to stand out among the crowd. I suggest you try to pick an idea or two, and limit yourself to a few course elements you'll actually ever need to achieve that purpose. That will help you to make your levels seem more focused and possibly fun if you manage to place these course elements in a strategic way. Remember, the fun factor is the most important, while difficulty should come in second.
Also, take care of polishing your levels once you've set everything else in stone. The more care you poured, the better your level will be perceived when players get to play. It can be fine-tuning the sections to make them more fun for anyone who would stumble on your levels, it can be making the level more aesthetically pleasing to our eyes.
Did you considered having your siblings, parents and friends on testing your levels before you upload them? You'll be surprised on how many design oversights you might spot when they get to play your levels and you also have an added bonus of receiving feedback among your peers. Do take their advice in consideration when optimizing your levels and you'll end up with a more enjoyable level.
I also saw that you played my levels, which I really appreciate. Yet, none of my levels received any star from you, therefore making me concerned about your preference. While it's understandable that some of my earlier levels aren't exactly up to my current standards, I swear that I actually spent a fair amount of effort on fine-tuning my levels to ensure they're fun and rightly challenging to a wide variety of players. So, I went to your starred levels and played some of them. A couple of which ended up being star-worthy because I feel like they're actually fun to play and don't feel like to be a waste of time based on my preferences.
Keep in mind that if you star well over 100 levels, the older ones will be removed from that list, but you can star them again. You could also write down the ID of your favorite levels somewhere or even download them to your heart's content. It's best not the use the star system as your "favorite", but more like of a "Like" button. No need to be stingy with the stars, since no level can be perfect for every type of players involved, but there's bound to have some good time, especially when you're looking at the right places.
Whew, I wrote quite a lot here. I hope my feedback is useful enough to enhance your Super Mario Maker experience even further!
I finally got around and played the levels that AkatsukiYoshi and JasonBurrows posted tonight, but I'll be providing feedback later this week. I've got other things to do, too!
Hey thanks! ^_^ Did you by chance play the version with or without checkpoints? I deleted the one without checkpoints, but its clear rate was higher than the one with checkpoints before I deleted it. :|