NerfPlayeR135
Just call me Nerf.
Here's my votes, along with some feedback from the notes I took while playing (in plain text form), just like last time. Thanks to everyone who participated!
- Foliage Furnace Zone by Kwiin & Kanna
- Knothole Coast Zone Act 1 by Apollyon
- Fatal Factory Zone by Kuba11
- Hakuryu Dojo by Zaxel
- Pagoda Park by Rogerregorroger
- Galactic Facility Zone by Mondongo
- Dark Marsh by Vixuzen
- Overgrown Heights Zone Act 2 by InferNOr
- Emerald Aether Zone by Krabs
- Gate Garden Zone by Ruberjig
- Square City Zone by Riolucariolu
- Shadow of Aztlan Zone by akirahedgehog
- Azlant Ruin Zone by Gambit
- Aquatic Port Zone by WasifBoomz
- Alabaster Fountain Zone by BronsoKip
NerfPlayeR135's Ranking for OLDC Autumn 2020's Single Player Levels
(01)[Foliage Furnace Zone by Kwiin & Kanna]
-Great level with great aesthetics and quality level design. I will say, however, that some of the textures look odd when in motion, likely because of the 1-pixel checkerboard patterns on them. The giant slope that encourages you to roll and pick up speed for a huge jump was the perfect way to end the level. Since there was a polite request for feedback from Kwiin & Kanna, I will go into a bit more detail and say that there were some linedef misalignments at the beginning of the level that stopped my momentum a couple times.
(02)[Knothole Coast Zone Act 1 by Apollyon]
-Good level design, good art, good music, great easter egg. Solid level overall. Note of warning: Considering one person's response to a particular part of the easter egg was to shoot up the picture as Tails Guy and post a GIF of themselves doing it, I'd suggest investigating any vote submissions that put this map in last place, because they could have been made by trolls or discriminators.
(03)[Fatal Factory Zone by Kuba11]
-Great level design - it's difficult, but checkpoints are frequent, letting you learn from your mistakes. Appearance is good, too. I especially appreciate making the shield monitors gold for co-op players. This level's good enough for me to overlook the lack of capitalization for the word "factory" in-game.
(04)[Hakuryu Dojo by Zaxel]
-Amazing level and art design, with well-done custom enemies and a custom boss to boot! There are some issues, though. The "elemental spirit giving you their shield on defeat" mechanic should not activate if the player already has a shield, and should play the shield's sound when it does activate. Additionally, the custom boss seems rather unfair to fight, seeing how it has little to no visual cues and no audio cues - which is jarring, because the issues with the custom enemies from Zaxel's last OLDC entry were all fixed.
(05)[Pagoda Park by Rogerregorroger]
-[DISCLAIMER: I've seen and enjoyed Roger's animations on YouTube, but I haven't played any of his levels before this one.] Roger's trademark artstyle and humor shine, and the level design is fairly good, but there are some issues with the latter, such as many of the stairs being too big to climb. (I did see someone on the forums teach him how to rectify that, though.)
(06)[Galactic Facility Zone by Mondongo]
-A neat level with nice graphics, good level design, and good usage of its main gimmick. Plus it uses Tengu Man's theme from the Sega Saturn version of Mega Man 8. I didn't factor that into my decision, I just wanted to say the music is awesome.
(07)[Dark Marsh by Vixuzen]
-This level is very well-designed and looks amazing, but the massive amount of enemies makes it feel like a Doom slaughter map. The difficulty is off the charts, and it often feels punishing rather than challenging.
(08)[Overgrown Heights Zone Act 2 by InferNOr]
-Good level design all around, and looks nice too. Magma Falls from the last OLDC has been redeemed in my eyes.
(09)[Emerald Aether Zone by Krabs]
-Solid level design, nice aesthetics, and a nice laugh to be had upon finding out that the level's using the old ERZ3 header to make everything (except you) HUGE. There's no custom music, though.
(10)[Gate Garden Zone by Ruberjig]
-This level looks amazing. The level design is decent, although I'm confused as to whether the purple gems are supposed to give points or not. The feathers I saw at the start of the level didn't seem to do anything either.
(11)[Square City Zone by Riolucariolu]
-A well-designed level with a decent appearance that, nonetheless, suffers from two issues: both checkpoints are connected to each other even though the level is completely linear, and the music doesn't loop properly.
(12)[Shadow of Aztlan Zone by akirahedgehog]
-This level is designed well, but it fares poorly in terms of presentation and polish. Plus, there's a chance for the game to crash upon reaching the town at the start of the level. (I have told akira about the crash and shared a possible cause for it.)
(13)[Azlant Ruin Zone by Gambit]
-This level's visuals are bland and buggy, the level design is very questionable, and the fixed camera at the start is bugged because it uses a deprecated linedef type that directly changes the player's camera settings. I'd put this one at the very bottom for the last part alone if I was petty enough, because it directly affected me.
(14)[Aquatic Port Zone by WasifBoomz]
-Feels more like a bad acid trip than a functional level, what with the overuse of animated textures and some very questionable level design choices. On top of that, one section where two platforms must be lowered has a necessary jump that I'm pretty sure is too high for Sonic.
(15)[Alabaster Fountain Zone by BronsoKip]
-This one's full of nonsensical level design choices, the same bland textures over and over again, and so many texture-related errors that I switched from OpenGL to Software at one point to see if they were renderer-exclusive... and some of them aren't. The console also recorded two warnings and three red-text ERRORS upon loading the map.
(01)[Foliage Furnace Zone by Kwiin & Kanna]
-Great level with great aesthetics and quality level design. I will say, however, that some of the textures look odd when in motion, likely because of the 1-pixel checkerboard patterns on them. The giant slope that encourages you to roll and pick up speed for a huge jump was the perfect way to end the level. Since there was a polite request for feedback from Kwiin & Kanna, I will go into a bit more detail and say that there were some linedef misalignments at the beginning of the level that stopped my momentum a couple times.
(02)[Knothole Coast Zone Act 1 by Apollyon]
-Good level design, good art, good music, great easter egg. Solid level overall. Note of warning: Considering one person's response to a particular part of the easter egg was to shoot up the picture as Tails Guy and post a GIF of themselves doing it, I'd suggest investigating any vote submissions that put this map in last place, because they could have been made by trolls or discriminators.
(03)[Fatal Factory Zone by Kuba11]
-Great level design - it's difficult, but checkpoints are frequent, letting you learn from your mistakes. Appearance is good, too. I especially appreciate making the shield monitors gold for co-op players. This level's good enough for me to overlook the lack of capitalization for the word "factory" in-game.
(04)[Hakuryu Dojo by Zaxel]
-Amazing level and art design, with well-done custom enemies and a custom boss to boot! There are some issues, though. The "elemental spirit giving you their shield on defeat" mechanic should not activate if the player already has a shield, and should play the shield's sound when it does activate. Additionally, the custom boss seems rather unfair to fight, seeing how it has little to no visual cues and no audio cues - which is jarring, because the issues with the custom enemies from Zaxel's last OLDC entry were all fixed.
(05)[Pagoda Park by Rogerregorroger]
-[DISCLAIMER: I've seen and enjoyed Roger's animations on YouTube, but I haven't played any of his levels before this one.] Roger's trademark artstyle and humor shine, and the level design is fairly good, but there are some issues with the latter, such as many of the stairs being too big to climb. (I did see someone on the forums teach him how to rectify that, though.)
(06)[Galactic Facility Zone by Mondongo]
-A neat level with nice graphics, good level design, and good usage of its main gimmick. Plus it uses Tengu Man's theme from the Sega Saturn version of Mega Man 8. I didn't factor that into my decision, I just wanted to say the music is awesome.
(07)[Dark Marsh by Vixuzen]
-This level is very well-designed and looks amazing, but the massive amount of enemies makes it feel like a Doom slaughter map. The difficulty is off the charts, and it often feels punishing rather than challenging.
(08)[Overgrown Heights Zone Act 2 by InferNOr]
-Good level design all around, and looks nice too. Magma Falls from the last OLDC has been redeemed in my eyes.
(09)[Emerald Aether Zone by Krabs]
-Solid level design, nice aesthetics, and a nice laugh to be had upon finding out that the level's using the old ERZ3 header to make everything (except you) HUGE. There's no custom music, though.
(10)[Gate Garden Zone by Ruberjig]
-This level looks amazing. The level design is decent, although I'm confused as to whether the purple gems are supposed to give points or not. The feathers I saw at the start of the level didn't seem to do anything either.
(11)[Square City Zone by Riolucariolu]
-A well-designed level with a decent appearance that, nonetheless, suffers from two issues: both checkpoints are connected to each other even though the level is completely linear, and the music doesn't loop properly.
(12)[Shadow of Aztlan Zone by akirahedgehog]
-This level is designed well, but it fares poorly in terms of presentation and polish. Plus, there's a chance for the game to crash upon reaching the town at the start of the level. (I have told akira about the crash and shared a possible cause for it.)
(13)[Azlant Ruin Zone by Gambit]
-This level's visuals are bland and buggy, the level design is very questionable, and the fixed camera at the start is bugged because it uses a deprecated linedef type that directly changes the player's camera settings. I'd put this one at the very bottom for the last part alone if I was petty enough, because it directly affected me.
(14)[Aquatic Port Zone by WasifBoomz]
-Feels more like a bad acid trip than a functional level, what with the overuse of animated textures and some very questionable level design choices. On top of that, one section where two platforms must be lowered has a necessary jump that I'm pretty sure is too high for Sonic.
(15)[Alabaster Fountain Zone by BronsoKip]
-This one's full of nonsensical level design choices, the same bland textures over and over again, and so many texture-related errors that I switched from OpenGL to Software at one point to see if they were renderer-exclusive... and some of them aren't. The console also recorded two warnings and three red-text ERRORS upon loading the map.