Vacation Ruined

Vacation Ruined is a Make a Good Level X3 contest entry, submitted by tangy. The player is automatically filtered to Mario at the start.

Sturg
"Well well well would you look at this cute, little thing of a level. It definitely felt like a first-timer’s attempt, or at least someone who’s still trying to familiarize themselves with the engine. The conveyor’d plants were a neat idea, but broke pretty easily it seems. And there were plenty of places where it was easy to “softlock.” I put quotes around that since they could honestly be interpreted as death pits, just with water in them. I can’t complain much though. I had fun! Shout-outs to the single spike in this level whose sole purpose is to edge guard Mario back into the water.

Zatsupachi
Falling into water in this level slaps you across the face with either being easy pickings from Volcano Lotuses or certain death(looking at those last jumps.). I do have give credit on the idea of transporting Volcano Lotuses with Airship parts.

Rameau's Nephew
Not unpleasant, but very short and simple. If you just go, you can speed through the entire first half before any of the Volcano Lotuses even vaguely think about firing. The second half avoids this due to its multi-level geographic construction, but feels even shorter, and the falling Lotuses on wooden blocks feel slightly weird. There's not much to actively dislike about this level, but it's over before it has the chance to make much of an active impression.

+ Could be an OK early game level

- ...provided your levels are SMB3 length

Other: When I was a child, I thought that both these enemies and their aquatic SMB3 counterparts were called "Lava Loaders". I did know what a lotus was--a local restaurant had the word in the name--but I somehow never made the connection between the flower and the Mario enemy. They sure were loaded with lava, though.

Author's notes
Location: Island

Adjective: Bothersome

NPC: Airship Pieces

Extra: Volcano Lotus