Difference between revisions of "X6Meme"

Full disclosure: Unlike the previous major MaGMML contests, we had measures in place that allowed us to remove levels from the running entirely. If a majority of the judges agreed it broke one of the major rules, it would be cut. Otherwise, all five of us had to *unanimously* agree that it warranted removal-and we're all very different people, so that's genuinely hard to get. That I could *legitimately* beat it 100%-no need for debug cheats-saved it from a majority vote against 'truly unreasonable difficulty', and I've seen enough fledgling creators make abhorrently terrible stuff to figure that X6Meme-despite the name-is a genuine effort, so it couldn't get a unanimous exclusion vote. Thus, it's sitting here, albeit in dead last.

Does that mean the level is truly worth playing? Well... I Didn't think I'd ever say this, but now I'm craving Snake Donuts. Certainly, I would've preferred them to what's here. The level's opening section does it no favours already, with pixel-perfect jumps on ice with Bombombombs, Machine Gun Joes, and Gabyoalls, all of which have little-to-nothing to do with X6. Needless to say, busting out special weapons is a far better choice to make, here. That's followed by a long falling section with the level's graphics deliberately breaking down-which I'll admit, that's at least a cool visual.

But then we get to the big '""""""'highlight'""""""' of this level, the upwards autoscroll. And... gyagh... words do not adequately describe how utterly and thoroughly unreasonable and downright miserable that section actually is. If, by some miracle, you're reading this review before playing this level? Take the judge panel's advice-especially the fact that this was nearly cut from the contest entirely: use the skip, save your sanity. This entire, several-minute-long section was unbelievably awful, and it completely overtakes the rest of the level just by virtue of being that bloody awful.

I just... gyah! I am craving Snake Donuts, legitimately! The original Blaze Heatnix was better than this. And X6 was certainly way more interesting than this-because the rest of the level isn't interesting, or even super worth talking about.

Well, one other thing is worth talking about, the aesthetic in the Energy Element room is awful and doesn't communicate pits very well, which has caused at least one death and subsequent unnecessary rematch. Otherwise, though... ugh. Just, ugh. I wouldn't say this is my least favourite level, as the Mecha Dragon on tiny ice blocks was at least somewhat cool. But... yeesh, what a miserable experience.

I was all set to leave my review as that picture above and call it a day, since this is one of those rare occurrences where I felt a full review wasn't completely necessary. All of this stage's issues are glaringly obvious, to the point where it's very easy to see why this level ended up where it did in the rankings.

That being said, I don't want to be completely unthorough with this review, either. So on that note, here's a list of this level's biggest issues:

- The haphazard tile placement makes the stage itself look like a jumbled mess. There's even a spot where spikes are used as background details, of all things.

- Enemy placement feels more like an afterthought than anything. At least, up until you get to the auto-scroll segment, where they become far more of a nuisance due to the sheer hectic nature of that section.

- There are gaps leading up to the boss that you can't jump across without utilities.

- Mecha Dragon's fight is made much worse due to the limited space you have to avoid his fireballs, along with the floor being entirely spikes.

- Given that the last screen is basically a giant pit, it's very easy to accidentally fall in when you first enter the room. And of course, dying here means re-fighting the Mecha Dragon.

I think that pretty much covers it. There is a potential argument to be made that this stage isn't really a genuine effort, but rather was submitted to the contest as a joke (on account of its name, among other obvious factors with the level design listed above). Even if that was the case, however, I'm firmly in the camp that level design like this shouldn't get a pass simply for being under the "it's a joke" umbrella.

Blaze Heatnix :fire: :bird:

Well there is certainly a clear inspiration from one of X6's most infamous levels.

Annoying and tedious auto-scrolling sections, filled to the brim with equally annoying respawning enemies and instant-death hazards.

Prepare for a bad time if you plan to buster-only this, as some parts during the tower climb essentially lead to dead ends with impossible jumps. A lot of the platforms are very narrow, too, so you bet you're gonna get knocked straight into the non-rising lava of death from one stray bullet.

For a double whammy, let's also introduce puzzles into this--puzzles with no prior introduction on how they work, nonetheless.

Then when you reach the Mecha Dragon boss, it's just a very underwhelming climax. The boss AI remains unchanged; the fireballs from the dragon are fairly simple to dodge, even with limited space; and if you get knocked off the platforms, there are spikes that serve as safety beds, as these aren't MM1 spikes.

The token does not exist.

As a blind judge, determining whether a level is an honest attempt or an exclusion-worthy troll is a matter of interpreting what the level tells me about itself. This level tells me, unquestionably, that it is purposefully terrible for a laugh at the expense of the player.

Why is X6 meme-worthy? Because of its notoriously bad design choices. So what possible best-case scenario would have this ending up as a *good* level? It doesn't help that there's a reference to MaGMML2's Snow Man, a verified troll level.

The repetitious challenges are pure pain:

- Small, icy platforms surrounded by pits that are barely close enough to jump across unassisted, swarmed by speedy Spines and the most notoriously difficult version of Sniper Joe.

- A messy autoscrolling sequence subjecting the player to 3 minutes (the length of an entire NES Mega Man level!) of instant death at the slightest mistake, culminating in an out-of-nowhere puzzle gimmick that's guaranteed to get players killed before they figure out what's going on.

- An incredibly missable token found *after* the interminable autoscrolling sequence. Recall that none of the game's secret-finding upgrades were implemented when these levels were created.

- Following the boss fight, a cruel fake-out where the floor is secretly a bottomless pit, requiring the player to freeze immediately or die and refight the boss.

There's no way anyone playtested this. A buster-only run is absolutely ludicrous, yet special weapons make the horizontal stretches utterly pointless. Problematic construction is patently obvious in the last couple screens.

I argued strongly to have this excluded. Obviously it's still here. Basic functionality, decent aesthetics, some original ideas, and actually thoughtful weapon refills are worth a few points, but I'd just as soon give this a 0.

There was actually a debate amongst the panel whether or not this was a deliberate troll attempt. We'd already Yeeted out a couple of stages that we think crossed the line.

The debate came down to whether or not we thought this was intentionally malicious or just plain incompetent.

I think the latter, for what it's worth. It was a long debate, though. Even if it isn't a troll... it also isn't playable.

But a few choice changes might've made it even remotely playable - namely, some specifical infinite-ammo weapons, one or two more wider platforms to remove most of the pixel-perfect jumps, and removing that MM1 enemy, Flying Shell, who is frankly just absurd in a level like this, resulting in it being a right pain in the tail even long after it's gone off screen.

That, and a 'puzzle' [imagine me making finger quotes when I say this] at the end of the vertical climb that's timed and franky impossible to parse until after several deaths because the switches appear long before the 'puzzle' itself.

It's obvious this level is designed around the weaponset. I don't mind stages doing that. But when stages do that, they need to make that more obvious from the get-go.

Infinite ammo on certain weapons absolutely puts the player into that mindset.

But this stage starts off with lots of impossible jumps, tons of Joes and pit enemies... Yet I found it doesn't really sink in what it expects until the climb and the absurd amount of ammo lying at the start.

The climb is obviously the worst part of the stage, and for reasons I explained earlier.

After that the final corridor and boss is like, what-ever man.

I think if the few things I mentioned had been implemented it might've been playable. I went in afterwards with the debug command that gave infinite ammo, and it was playable, more or less.

So yeah, utterly incompetent. Utterly devoid of fun. Not much more needed to be said. Awful level, really...