CITYFADE by MaxxoRMeN

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KiwiPenguin

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Published on May 6, 2024 9:05:42 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuK9-uecHnY

Duration: 5:57

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24

an awesome new legendary level that I playtested by my buddy maxxormen! let’s go through every part and wrap up my thoughts at the end!

0-10 the beginning cube
Gameplay: Super easy and BORING! Every death was painful because it meant I had to play it again.
Decoration: Cool. maxxormen sent me the first preview of the level with this part and asked me if it reminded me of spongebob. I said yes of course. Not much else to say.

10-20 the next cube
Gameplay: Easy and fine. Not very exciting but I think that’s just because the song isn’t that exciting yet.
Decoration: So spongebobcore. The effects are sweet and I love the made up quarter circle lyrics that appear a lot.

20-36 the cube in the city
Gameplay: Easy and fun! It has a few places with annoying death potential but it’s awesome.
Decoration: Super good. The background and effects are great and I love the busy city vibe and the little guys. I am the little guy at 25.2%.

36-57 the vertical mini cube
Gameplay: Extremely good. It’s almost perfectly click-synced so you can really feel the rhythm in the song and it’s so satisfying to pull off. The problems are that it ramps up in difficulty so much here and that it has so many weird places you can die to.
Decoration: FIRE. maxxormen made this part way better than everything I imagined. Not only is climbing up the building such a vibe, but the windows, the trees, the advertisements, the fans, the structures, the background, the spotlights, the colours, and the effects all work together to make such a beautiful part and definitely one of my favourites in any level ever. Insanely good work here.

57-62 the ship
Gameplay: Fine but kinda awkward. I may or may not have died to the green orb part twice.
Decoration: Sweet. I’m a big fan of the colour usage here and the structures. I wish it was a lot more intense here with what I would call the drop of the song though.

62-78 the randomized cube
Gameplay: Awesome. This part is super satisfying to pull off for something randomized but it actually takes some learning since the only thing that changes are the orbs. I also find it extremely impressive how it still syncs with the music with the way it's randomized. Unfortunately there are some paths that are definitely harder than others so you can kinda get unlucky, but overall it’s not that hard if your reaction time and judgment is better than mine (I died here like 15 times).
Decoration: Super sick. The way it progresses with more intense effects is exactly what I was looking for before I saw what maxxormen had made and it just looks so good with the movements and colour changing. Unfortunately though, this is where the level starts to lag.

78-83 the ufo
Gameplay: Bad. Free fly ufo with almost no platforms to rest on is always kinda awkward and this is no exception. There’s also a coin here that requires you to take some skips, some of which are harder than the intended route and some easier which just makes it kinda messy. I think the structure rotation is a cool gimmick though.
Decoration: Very nice. I think the zoom out really fits the fading/echoing trumpet(?), the circles are really cool, and I really like the green vine-like things tying structures together. Also a laggy part unfortunately.

83-100 the end cube with ships
Gameplay: It’s pretty good. Wish the very end of it wasn’t as hard though (I think maxxormen buffed the very last upwards fly while I wasn’t looking).
Decoration: Very good. The stars falling and destroying buildings is hype, the hanging stars are cool, and the background effects are great. Laggy again sadly.

Even though most of the individual parts of this level are great, I didn’t find the level fun to play overall because its balancing is a big issue. The first 36% is so easy compared to the rest of the level and the boring beginning really hurts, which is bad to have in a level with over 5 minutes of gameplay.

Everything else, however, is peak. Cityfade is in my top 5 favourite songs of all time (shoutout to Nicolas Jaar my favourite artist) and even though there are some things I would’ve done differently with it, I think maxxormen captured it SO well with this level. I put it at #4 on my favourite levels list!

Thanks for watching!!!!!

Difficulty - Insane Demon (should be extreme in my professional opinion)
Attempts - 594 + maybe 500 lost from a crash + 3000 playtesting attempts maybe idk (very long attempts)
Song - Cityfade by Against All Logic (a.k.a. Nicolas Jaar)
Menu loop - Heartbeat, Heartbreak (from Persona 4)

sorry for the horrible click audio! probably should’ve closed my window!
also my laptop mic randomly fixed itself a few months ago so at least it’s better than my neurostasis click audio