Lavender by wickland2

First of all, I'd like to apologize for such a late review.

Level: Lavender
Creator: wickland2
ID: 29550957
Song: Cherry Blossoms - LoveKavi by LoveKavi www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/381421
Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NoqIkgxB0A


Gameplay:
Okay, so overall the gameplay in this level isn't too great. At the beginning, there is just two spike jumps and a red orb, not much variety. The red orb's position is weird as well. There's not much of an issue with passing the orb itself, as it is meant to be very easy, but it feels unusual to jump off the ground onto the red orb, and if you hit it wrong you can just narrowly crash, nothing too terrible, but it is an unusual spot to say the least, I would make it so this section has a mix of platforms and orbs, and in a way so it is comfortable to play. The four orbs at 15% are in a bad positon as sometimes you can skip one or two, and overall how it can be passed can be varied quite a bit, and sometimes it can mess people up if they time something a bit off, not too much of an issue for a level of this difficulty, but still present. The ship section is pretty boring, all you have to do is go up, down, and then some minor straight fly. It is actually possible to skip the black orb as well, so I suggest modifying it so you have to take it or you will die. The dash orb right after this section is confusing, as the player turns inviible right as they land on it, which can trip people up, and people might let go right before the portal, causing them to fall up. I suggest making something to kill you above the path of the player and making the player visible. The wave section is not that bad, although, it could have some variety, not just the stnadard flying through slopes. The UFO is so short I can barely judge it. The ball section is actualy pretty good. Nice, slow gameplay, and cool use of portals. Not the best, but it's pretty good for a normal level. I'd really like it to be longer, however, so you could add more variety. The dual section is nice, but it caught me off guard at first. A longer, slower dual would be better.

Overall: The gameplay is unfortunately not too great, but there were some nice points. 3.5/20, Most points reduced for what I stated above, but I'm leaving you with 3.5 because you had some nice elements, but they weren't quite up to par with today's standard gameplay. I would've loved for this level to be longer as well.


Design:
Design is, unfortunately, the weakest point of this level here. The whole level is purple, which is not good. You should really add a variety of colors when making a level, and keep switching out the main color of the level to keep it fresh and interesting. There was almost no air deco in the second half of the level, you need to make sure to add that. Also, the air deco you did add was just the standard pulsing objects and clouds. Add some new stuff to it, maybe create your own deco, and try not to use player colors for it, especially with this monochromatic style, as soe colors can clash. Ther were no custom backgrounds in this level, which it could've really used, and there isn't really much good block design. All the design you have are just the standard textures with maybe another standard texture on top, which is never good. Add some design to it, some style. You could perhaps have just a black base and take some small deco and fill in the space, with all them interlocking, anything to make it look detailed. In the wave section at 40%, you had no block design whatsoever, which will really affect your score. It just looks unfinished, you got to mae sure every part of the level has something, whether or not it looks good. Also, at the end I noticed that the blocks didn't match at the top, which is a huge quality issue.

Overall: I think I said all I needed to say, but don't feel bad about it, everyone start somewhere. 2/20, left you with two as you attempted design, and had some air deco.


Sync:
Sync in this level is really decent. At the beginning, you had the orbs and pads sync, which is good, I like how you paid attention to it, but after that, I really saw only the orbs ever sync to the music, not even the portals and sections really synced, which is a major element to the quality of the level. The ball section did sync slightly, though. I like how you had design sync as well, but it was really just background flashes and pulsing objects, so it;s not too great.

Overall: Not much else to say. 3.5/10, -4 for poor gameplay and portal sync, -2.5 for lacking design sync and other issues, such as slightly off sync.


Originality: 0.9x
There's not much to work with here for originality, but the gameplay is quite unoriginal, like the ball section, which I've seen that gameplay tyle many times before. Also, I've seen the design overused in many, many levels, just none of them rated.


Conclusion: 3.24/20 (16.2%) Needs Improvement
Everything I needed to say I already said, but I'd like to see you make linger levels, as that could definitely help you improve in all categories.



Moving to Needs Improvement.