Seems like nobody has anything to say about the terrible Japanese stage I played earlier. Alrighty then! Time to criticize that stage.
When you start the stage, there's no question block in sight. The first thing you do is make your way to the next room. Then, hidden Thwomps start dropping and you begin running, so you'll be able to clear the gap while jumping. Unfortunately, turns out you hit an invisible block and falls down to your immediate doom. Disgusted by this obnoxious trap placement, you immediately call it quit and never touch the stage again. Or hit Download and analyze the stage, like I did!
This is what the beginning of the stage looks like. There are four invisible blocks, one of which contains a Propeller Mushroom, then a Fire Flower, a Mushroom, and a Star. I highly suggest you take the Star before you enter in the second room. Why? Because...
...invisible blocks are littered in a way that you couldn't normally get past without the increased jump length while being invincible and performing mid-air spins, and there are hidden Thwomps thrown to the mix as well. This is probably how the creator of the stage cleared to upload this one, as he commented in this stage to tell us to look for hidden items in this first room. With that knowledge of the stage, it becomes easier to bypass these sections. Even in the following room:
Assuming you're still invincible, the best (and perhaps the only) way to deal with this mess is to ram into the foes riding on Koopa Clown Car, preferably Chain Chomp, Magikoopa and Bowser Jr. In case you're about to run out invincibility, there's another star tucked in an invisible block in this room, and one of the Bill Blasters shoots out a Fire Flower along with enemies. Though, don't forget riding on a Koopa Clown Car before getting to the next section, as...
...you can't clear this part without the vehicle. There's not a clear indication that you should bring it with you. I even tried to wall-jump off the left ledge and I couldn't seem to cross the gap. If you hit the spikes with the vehicle, it can somehow bounce off to the tiny empty square without hitting any invisible block whatsoever, even the lone one containing Magikoopa. This trap is pretty much easy to get through it. What a missed opportunity, but it doesn't really matter much anyway since nobody would like this stage. What's even more hilarious is...
...how the creator poorly implemented the sound effects in the stage. Here, falling down a lava result the heaven sound triggering, reaching the tiny room makes a cat launches its paws at Mario at a rapid fire rate, and a Boss Music that only lasts for like 3 seconds.
And finally, the anticlimactic boss section of the stage is an absolute joke, especially with all of the cannons shooting Super Mushrooms at you. You can totally effortlessly hit the axe to clear the stage. Sure, the ending won't be bright for Mario, but at this point, you want to get away from the awful level. The alternate route is there if you just want a better ending, but what comes next is ultimately pointless to talk about, so it doesn't really matter where you hit the axe.
The main problem with the troll stage is that it isn't worth trying to play this one. It favors too much on memorizing what to do in the stage itself and confuses potential players, as opposed to using true skills and/or decently fast reaction time to overcome the challenge. The concepts introduced here don't seem to expand that much beyond "use this for said short section". It just seems to be a mishmash of ideas that never materialized to fruition. Therefore, the experience is ultimately unrewarding as a result. And most of the same creator's stages aren't better either, which I assume are falling for the same obnoxious level design issues I encountered with the level I currently review. Last time I checked, the only stage that garnered at least one star is the one that isn't a troll stage at all. He seems to be too fond of automatic and terrible stages.
