Crystal Caves HD level review: "Just One Crystal" by Stupe
Channel: timixretroplays
Date: 2022-08-23

Click "show more" to see the level review. There's no point even timestamping this one.

I'm trying something a bit different with this series: This is my first playthrough of this level, followed by enough attempts to finish with perfect health at least once. It's not a flawless playthrough, but that's the point - you can practically see my brain grinding to a halt as I'm confronted with puzzle after puzzle. Hopefully it's of interest not just to the original author, but also anyone looking for insight into how another player goes about learning a new level.

Review: Oh. So that's why this level had 30 downloads and only two votes.

This is "Just One Crystal" by Stupe and it's clearly not intended to be a serious level of any kind. Aside from the fruit placement being super cruel - and yes, all 3 fruit pickups are in this one - it's devilishly difficult to land on the edge of a block that has a green mushroom on it. The mushroom's hitbox is larger than that of other hazards - spikes, for example. After giving up, I recreated this in the level editor using green spikes, and found that version to be relatively possible.

Look, if you manage to 100% this one, record it and @ me on twitter about it - I'd love to see it actually happen.

To be more serious about it - I actually kind of like the idea of this sort of "trial" level, but to make it more of an approachable challenge, you could separate some challenges from others and make it increasingly difficult to get a full score (rather than just having fewer, larger difficulty bumps). I found it an amusing test for a new controller I'm getting used to, but not much more.

Say hi on Twitter if you've made a level and would like to see it reviewed: https://twitter.com/timixretroplays

Come chat about Crystal Caves HD and Secret Agent HD on the Emberheart Games discord: https://discord.gg/pCdc9Wh5kv