Bust through Bowser’s headquarters, full of enemies and obstructions.
Concept and theme:
I wanted to make a difficult (but not kaizo) platformer course themed after SMB1’s castle levels. This one was really fun to create because I wanted to make it a really big level but keep it linear and only one floor. Designing it this way makes everything visible and allows each progressing challenge to have an obvious solution. The only difficult part is the execution.
Continuing with the Bowser theme series, this course is meant to feel like Mario has infiltrated the enemy base, and all of Bowser’s minions are trying to stop Mario from going deeper. After reaching 6 floors down, Mario gets to kill Bowser and destroy the base.
Thoughts:
This is one of those levels where I don’t believe seeing the solution ruins the experience because the challenge itself is getting through the whole level. To me, it is a well-balanced mix of fun and difficulty, and I myself still enjoy playing the course from time to time.