Ends 12/22/2010 12:00 AM

author=The Real Brickroad
Great Palace X: FUCKING AWESOME. This level could only have been made by a man what spent his childhood being whipped bloody by Zelda 2 dungeons.

Oh god don't remind me :(

All the problems with this level stem from SMBX being a very poor emulator of Zelda 2 dungeons. You can't really build a decent replica of one when you only get one checkpoint and three HPs. If too many people cry foul on this level's difficulty, I would just chop it in half and submit it as two separate, smaller Zelda temples.

There's some give and takes here. Zelda 2 has lives so dying and restarting in the same area wasn't that bad of a setback and you could take a lot more hits but at the same time the enemies are motherfucking bastards. Firehawks are much worse than reskinned one-hit Hammer Bros in GPX and the Dreadhawks oh god the Dreadhawks... I did try to give a ton of power ups to make up for Mario/Link's lack of life but it's really easy to get hit a few times and some routes have plain fewer power ups than others. (Left->Left->Right->Down is one, the player skips two nearby power ups but the other sections will have a power up in the player's way)

Splitting the level has merit. I could focus each level better on different Zelda 2 mechanics/enemies. Maybe have some fun with Link's fairy power which I barely did in GPX and only in one room (to get another power up). I certainly played around with different obstacles but most only appeared in one section and never really developed and splitting the levels could mean having more fun with things like the spawning exp-thieves or so.

I do like the multiple paths with GPX though, and if I do split the level I won't remake the branches because of how much longer it took to make the level (GPX uses 20 out of the 21 sections). For now I'll wait and see because making it was back breaking.

It really, really needs a boss. If you keep it all one big giant level, I would push the checkpoint a little further in and add a few more powerups to the early section. (The most dangerous enemies seem immune to fireballs anyway.) With the checkpoint at about the 75% mark, and a boss to cap off the experience, this level would be aces.

I was torn on adding a boss. I wasn't sure who to make a boss. I also wanted the Branching paths and the checkpoint to come before the branch but after the fake star so players wouldn't have to go through the start+'tutorial' sections+fake star altar whenever they died on the paths and then they could try another route. I ultimately rolled with going through the branches and the gauntlets of enemies and obstacles was a boss-equivalent challenge but without the cool music and epic showdown.

I could try some voodoo and see what I get. I think somebody mentioned multiple checkpoints don't work but if they do I could place a checkpoint after the branches converge and add more level to the end which would include a boss fight. I only have one section left and a handful of background tiles so I might have to put some sections together in one, maybe cut some, or see how well that "switch to a new level" trick works. And still figure out who the boss should be.


As for fireballs, I was trying to separate the fire and ice flowers into two more distinct tiers. The fireflower's good for the common fodder everywhere, the ice flower can also seal the spawning enemies (a frozen enemy in there will stop the NPC generator) and stop the firehawks, and Hammer Bros/Shadow Link can kill the fire hawks and the Ironknuckles. I'm not sure how well it worked, Firehawks usually appear above the player while fireballs are horizontal/downward. I wanted the Ironknuckles to be the tough powerhouses (sped-up, giant sized bully) so they got the double immunity but were used sparingly.

It also saves me the trouble from ripping all those dungeon graphics for the Link level I'm working on for TT. So thanks for that, too!

Haha glad to help. If you want different color schemes I used VGMaps.com to rip the graphics as they've got 1:1 map rips. I probably didn't place the background tiles in the best of places as some like to conflict with others. See: Dreadhawk statues. I have two: One with a background and one without because I couldn't get the background-less one to play nice with the background.

Also the red dripping enemies don't appear right if you're going to yoink them. You can kill the drip and you'll see the enemy I replaced die. Oops!

Post a few of them, get feedback, and improve them. Once they're in top shape, look over your previous level and use what you learned to improve them, post, get feedback, improve further. There's no prize for making the most levels, stick with trying to make the best levels.

author=The Real Brickroad
Hammer Bros. Fortress v3: Much improved. Still incredibly tough, though.



Puzzles and Plains: If you're going to make every single spin block in a level give a coin, just make them ?-blocks instead. Don't screw with the player's expectations like that.

The level was fun until I got to the switch section, which just involves lots of backtracking. It's also quite difficult, filled with thin platforms, parakoopas and bullet bills.

There needs to be something in the bottom-left area of the bonus room, even if it's just a dragon coin or a 1up. The level's natural flow leads the player there, and his only reward is a lava pit.

The final pipe's exit is facing the wrong direction.

Thanks for the commmentary Brick. However I cannot delete the switch section, I guess I will just take out some of the Koopa's.

Sorry about the blank post. :(

Craze 2: Nice, unassuming cave level. The buzzy generators might need some tweaking; it doesn't look like they're coming out of the pipe towards the end.



Dudes3: Good job not playtesting your level!



Fish Bone Basin: Fun! But a little long. I thought you balanced the fish bones, jelectros and crab cannons pretty well.



Kruk's Castle: Could be made into a decent castle level, but we all know you won't bother.

Up N Down: The level becomes unwinnable if you spin-jump on the yellow blocks.

Also, it's possible to skip the entire second half of the stage by using a koopa shell to jump up to the star. This may or may not have been your intention.

Hey. I just uploaded V2 of both my levels.

Puzzles and Plains:
I only made minor changes to this. Replaced the moon with a 1-up, added a yoshi coin to the bottom right area of the secret room, and (thank god) took away some of the koopas.

Clown in the Clouds:
When I made this lvl it was WAY to easy. I added some more bullets and some obstacles to add a bit of challenge. If I over-did it just tell me.

author=GreatRedSpirit

author=Craze
EDIT: Is there any way to make blobs have a shorter hit box? I feel like a not-crouching fireball shouldn't hit.

You can set the blobs to have a shorter hitbox with Custom NPCs and Height=(somethingsmaller) and gfxheight =(original size). In the original Zelda 2 Link definitely couldn't hit a blob while standing. (another reason why the Downstab was so amazing)

I'm not using them; I'm trying to use only SMW graphics when possible. I was suggesting it for you!

Brick: I'll take a look at the generators.

2 original levels.
- Green Goomba Hill
http://rpgmaker.net/users/ShortStar/locker/shortstar1.zip
- Happy Hopping Plants
http://rpgmaker.net/users/ShortStar/locker/shortstar2.zip

15+ remixed levels from Super RMN Bros.
http://rpgmaker.net/users/ShortStar/locker/superRMNBrosRemix.zip