06-Aug-2016, 3:26 PM
Woohoo, another pack down! This one seemed to have a large number of good candidates. with a huge number of 4s and several 5s given out. In fact, 23 of the 50 levels--nearly half--got a 4 or 5 from me.
Some that stood out to me:
#4 Buried--I didn't quite understand what was going on until I found the hint and realized what exactly had gotten buried! A nice throwback level that requires you to use some logic plus recall the layout of the referenced level to figure out which blocks to push. This level might not be a hit with everyone, but personally I thought it was ingenious and creative.
#8 Key Insight--I solved this one a while ago so I don't remember all of the details, but do recall it taking a fair amount of thinking and feeling quite good after it's done. It's creatively laid out and not too big. It's always nice when a "greed" level (don't take too many of a specific item) makes the "greed" portion into a puzzle itself rather than the main idea being "you were playing a greed level all along and you didn't realize it, ha ha" or "the forbidden items are just glorified walls to navigate around".
#22 Dwarven Keep--Ignore Chipster's "ordinary" comment. I thought this stood out for several reasons. One, its room layout is highly irregular, which as the title suggests evokes the image of an old, maybe decrepit, dungeon or keep as opposed to a modern structure with symmetrical shapes. Two, it does an unusually good job of letting you choose different paths to follow without cooking the level if you do the wrong one first. There are several things that have to be done in sequence, but you visit things out of order, you don't cook the level, you just have to come back later to pick up everything. Oh yeah, there is some required backtracking, but it's not tedious. And the "treasure room" was a nice touch. It's not overly tight but you do have to clear it at least somewhat efficiently. And the part where you have to move the two blocks out of the way to get the green key was a creative touch, as was the small blocks/recessed wall puzzle near the vertical teleport.
#37 Dave's Warehouse--This was a nice sokoban that manages to hit the sweet spot between trivial and frustrating. There are a few puzzle elements, like figuring out the correct method for extracting blocks and which buttons should be covered before which. The blue walls (and permanently irretrievable blocks) were a nice aesthetic touch that happily did not add guesswork to the level.
#48 Zephyr Heights--The name reminds me of a Spyro level and the high quantity of collectibles, simple puzzles, exploration, and gliding from one area to the next make me think of classic Spyro even more. And classic Spyro games were good, so as you might imagine I liked this level. The alcoves where you can push a block to reveal some hidden collectibles were a sweet touch!
Honorable mentions:
#41 Block Race--This did some nice things with blocks--the Teeth puzzle was fun and the sardines puzzle was nice if nothing special. Taking a block back through each room after you solved that room was a nice little touch. The end "race" was a bit unnecessary I think, as it didn't fit with the theme of the level, you wouldn't know where the exit is when you started it, and you wouldn't know where the green key was unless you were paying careful attention earlier in the level. I think the level would be even better if it dropped the "Race".
#46 Minigame--The rules of the game (in regards to what the red buttons do) isn't explained, and I think that's fine since it's intuitive and easy to figure out with some experimentation. And then once I learned the rules, lining everything up was fun, too.
Other thoughts:
In #26 Diamond, I solved it using 3 keys and had only 2 moves to spare when it came to getting ahead of the fireball. Is that optimal? If so, that's a pretty hefty demand in the optimizing department that must be met just to solve the level at all! Especially so when you consider the many different key counts and door combinations a player might try before finding the correct route.
Some that stood out to me:
#4 Buried--I didn't quite understand what was going on until I found the hint and realized what exactly had gotten buried! A nice throwback level that requires you to use some logic plus recall the layout of the referenced level to figure out which blocks to push. This level might not be a hit with everyone, but personally I thought it was ingenious and creative.
#8 Key Insight--I solved this one a while ago so I don't remember all of the details, but do recall it taking a fair amount of thinking and feeling quite good after it's done. It's creatively laid out and not too big. It's always nice when a "greed" level (don't take too many of a specific item) makes the "greed" portion into a puzzle itself rather than the main idea being "you were playing a greed level all along and you didn't realize it, ha ha" or "the forbidden items are just glorified walls to navigate around".
#22 Dwarven Keep--Ignore Chipster's "ordinary" comment. I thought this stood out for several reasons. One, its room layout is highly irregular, which as the title suggests evokes the image of an old, maybe decrepit, dungeon or keep as opposed to a modern structure with symmetrical shapes. Two, it does an unusually good job of letting you choose different paths to follow without cooking the level if you do the wrong one first. There are several things that have to be done in sequence, but you visit things out of order, you don't cook the level, you just have to come back later to pick up everything. Oh yeah, there is some required backtracking, but it's not tedious. And the "treasure room" was a nice touch. It's not overly tight but you do have to clear it at least somewhat efficiently. And the part where you have to move the two blocks out of the way to get the green key was a creative touch, as was the small blocks/recessed wall puzzle near the vertical teleport.
#37 Dave's Warehouse--This was a nice sokoban that manages to hit the sweet spot between trivial and frustrating. There are a few puzzle elements, like figuring out the correct method for extracting blocks and which buttons should be covered before which. The blue walls (and permanently irretrievable blocks) were a nice aesthetic touch that happily did not add guesswork to the level.
#48 Zephyr Heights--The name reminds me of a Spyro level and the high quantity of collectibles, simple puzzles, exploration, and gliding from one area to the next make me think of classic Spyro even more. And classic Spyro games were good, so as you might imagine I liked this level. The alcoves where you can push a block to reveal some hidden collectibles were a sweet touch!
Honorable mentions:
#41 Block Race--This did some nice things with blocks--the Teeth puzzle was fun and the sardines puzzle was nice if nothing special. Taking a block back through each room after you solved that room was a nice little touch. The end "race" was a bit unnecessary I think, as it didn't fit with the theme of the level, you wouldn't know where the exit is when you started it, and you wouldn't know where the green key was unless you were paying careful attention earlier in the level. I think the level would be even better if it dropped the "Race".
#46 Minigame--The rules of the game (in regards to what the red buttons do) isn't explained, and I think that's fine since it's intuitive and easy to figure out with some experimentation. And then once I learned the rules, lining everything up was fun, too.
Other thoughts:
In #26 Diamond, I solved it using 3 keys and had only 2 moves to spare when it came to getting ahead of the fireball. Is that optimal? If so, that's a pretty hefty demand in the optimizing department that must be met just to solve the level at all! Especially so when you consider the many different key counts and door combinations a player might try before finding the correct route.