Mold Digger

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Mold Digger
Make a Good Level X3
Contest Entry
MaGLX3 121st.png
Author:CosmicCrown
Rank:121 / 152
Score:49.67 / 120
  • Sturg: 56 / 120
  • Zatsupachi: 50 / 120
  • Rameau's Nephew: 43 / 120
Stars:1
Exits:1
Star Coins:None
Difficulty:2 / 5
Length:2 / 5
Characters:Wario, Toad
Terms used: 
  • Location: Grassland
  • Adjective: Exclusive
  • NPC: Poison Mushroom
  • Bonus: Mine
Music used: 
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Fleet Glide Galaxy
  • Super Mario Galaxy - Gusty Garden Galaxy
  • Super Metroid - Brinstar (Underground Depths)
  • Donkey Kong Country 3 - Nuts and Bolts
Tier: 3 - Golden Riverpark
Previous: 122nd - Subtitle
Next: 120th - Bowser's Ultimate Armada
Video

Mold Digger is a Make a Good Level X3 contest entry, submitted by CosmicCrown. The player is automatically filtered to Wario at the start, and later switches to Toad (and back to Wario again).

Overview

Score table

Judge Design Creativity Aesthetics Gimmick Total
Sturg 19 / 50 10 / 30 9 / 20 18 / 20 56 / 120
Zatsupachi 20 / 50 10 / 30 10 / 20 10 / 20 50 / 120
Rameau's Nephew 12 / 50 13 / 30 8 / 20 10 / 20 43 / 120
Overall 17 / 50 11 / 30 9 / 20 12.67 / 20 49.67 / 120

Judge comments

Sturg

Good title good title!!! I thought this was pretty okay for your 2nd level. It was generally pretty basic in terms of platforming, up until the end with that poison shroom hallway where I think the level starts to glimmer. Just some good ol', fun platforming, with honestly a better than average usage of the fuzzies. The ending was just fun for me! There isn't too much else to say about this here, since it does lack in terms of length and depth. I honestly would be down seeing more complex setups using 1F0, the poison mushrooms, and Wario. I think there's just some creativity tucked away behind that list of items. I will say that the audio differences between tracks could've been adjusted better, and visually it's as basic as the level itself. Thanks for making though!

Zatsupachi

That level came and went without what seemed like coherent thought-- at least the way I see it. I'm p-sure there is an interesting story going on here with the Toads turning into Poison Mushrooms but that just about does it and it just ends after the conveyor belt segment.

Rameau's Nephew

A bit first- (or rather, second-)levelly, but it has some ambitions and tries a few things, some of which work. I think this level definitely could have benefitted from a tighter focus; the grassland section doesn't really add much at all, nor does the brief switch to Toad (I understand the latter was to set up the cutscene, but you could have just had Wario eavesdropping from another tunnel). Things do pick up in the cave, though, with a slightly eerie atmosphere and some more interesting setups. The factory part has some annoying jumps at the start, but the final gauntlet is kinda neat, as is the plot twist. Unfortunately, the ending proper is kind of sudden, weird, and doesn't really resolve much of anything. Oh, what could have been!

You definitely make poison mushrooms the star of the show here, and while they certainly could have been pushed a little further, they're still actually used pretty well here. Their increasing preponderance (in conjunction with Fuzzies, whose effect is mostly atmospheric, though that's OK) also succeeds in feeling genuinely creepy. As a result, the shocking plot twist actually ends up feeling like a pretty cool payoff.

To sum, while there's a bit of extraneous stuff (Mechakoopas, pretty much all of the outdoor section) that could serve to be trimmed, and the central gimmick is just begging to be further built upon, there are definitely seeds (or rather spores) of some good stuff here.

+ Pretty solid use of Poison Mushrooms
+ Central plot thread kind of neat
- Could still develop its central gimmick further
- Generally needs a tighter focus in terms of both gameplay and story

Other: It would appear that instead of mining gold ore to make coins as elsewhere, this facility mines coins to melt in to gold ore.

Author's notes

Location: grassland, mine (though 'lone planet' was initially considered)
Adjective: exclusive
NPC: poison mushroom

Preferred character: Wario (this should be set by lua already)