Evolution by Philzer
GameplayAt the basic level, it's alright. No unexpected jumps or moving obstacles and all the transitions flow smoothly. Difficulty is quite stable too with only a minor spike following the second drop and there aren't any bugs that I know of.
That being said, what the gameplay pull use more of is variety in the portals used. Only four of the forms are ever used throughout the level (Cube, Ship, Ball, and UFO) and there aren't any wave of robot segments. While it's not mandatory, it helps to make the level more varied and interesting if you switch between all the forms available, especially to split up long one-form segments like the one at 64-82%.
Another feature that's lacking are the speed portals. Like the other form portals, they can help to mix up the gameplay and make things slow or nerve-wracking. They are also excellent for music sync. Keeping the entire level at a single speed, especially in 2.0, makes things a bit boring since there's no change in speed regardless of how fast the music is going. Adding 2x or 3x speed portals for the drop can help to make them a lot more fun and faster to play, and adding slow speed portals for the breaks in the song can also give the player a satisfying "break" first before the faster, harder parts.
Overall, while the gameplay isn't bad, the lack of the newer gameplay portals (and mechanics) makes it feel very outdated and bland.
DecorationFirst, the positives. The block design, while very simplistic, is done well enough and looks smooth. The air decorations are also quite organized (although there's a notable problem with them, which I'll mention later). Nothing is too cluttered or messy, although the oversized monsters could use some scaling down.
Now onto the negatives. There are three big issues I have with the level's design, the first being the huge emptiness in some parts. There are lots of times in the level where the background and foreground decoration is very empty with not a lot of objects in them. For example, in the parts before the first drop in the music, there a lots of places with no background decoration aside from the pink spike decorations and the occasional fire. First off, most parts could have sawblades added to them in empty places which the icon wouldn't go to, like at the top near the left block structure at 86%. Secondly, add some decoration to the jump orbs and floor/ceiling thorns to add a little bit more deco to the level. Also, you know the castle wall background decoration used like at 45%? You could use more of blocks like that in almost all the parts to help fill the background without making things too messy. Finally, check out the air decorations in their respective tabs to see which ones fit and add them in your level. Adding some more pulsing objects and cloud decoration would greatly help fill up the level.
Aside from the emptiness, there's also the colors. Most which aren't Light BG look too saturated and don't blend well at all. The solution to this is simple: Tick "use blending" for the color channels used for the background decoration. It makes them more transparent and blend better with the background. The colors may be a bit weird after doing so though, so adjust them accordingly to make them look good.
Finally, the design to the level is very inconsistent. It's difficult to tell what theme you were going for and they don't flow smoothly from one to another. Try to stick to one or two themes for the level to avoid making the design inconsistent and all over the place, such as just the futuristic and cave themes rather than the Fire and castle designs.
Music SyncThe music sync in the level starts out alright with the cube/ball parts, transitions, and BG flashes syncing reasonably well. The torches even flash at the same time as the notes on the first few parts. Starting around 66%, though, the BG and object outline color changes aren't as synced and some of the transitions (72%, 90%, 95%) are a bit off. As mentioned above, speed changers should also be used to make the gameplay Sync more to the music.
Design wise, the cave theme at the start fits the piano segment and the design does get more upbeat with the drop, but the Fire theme doesn't really fit the music. Maybe making the designs Cave for the piano parts and Futuristic for the drop and upbeat parts would make it fit the song more.
OverallAll 3 aspects need improvement but the level definitely shows some potential.
Decent.