Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
This one was a big nostalgia choice. My original plan with this was to beat it on the 12th, as a celebration for beating Deception Dive that day back in 2019. I forgot about it when the time rolled around though, so unfortunately it's a bit late, but the same month shall suffice.
Now, about the level. I have so much say about it. On paper, it should be very good. It's not difficult to learn and much of it got consistent very quickly. It is extremely consistent in contrast to what Deception Dive was; but honestly some aspects of that affect it negatively for me. Love or hate what Deception Dive's balancing was like, that was the defining thing that made it memorable to me. It was a new experience for me at the time playing a level with balancing that so heavily skews to parts near the end, and though that has its drawbacks, it felt so cool to play something I would get far on so frequently. This level had the potential to play somewhat similarly to that, but it's completely disrupted by how needlessly grindy the first part is, and because of that, anything that happened to me with the rest of the predrop hurt so much more. None of the base gameplay on its own here is bad either. It's just, why does that first part need to be so difficult? Moving to the drop, and again, I think the base gameplay is great. It all got very consistent and there wasn't any intended part of it that felt awful to get used to. But unfortunately, there's a bug at the transition into GrenadeofTacos's part, and a very significant one. I had to find a spot to start holding at in the end of the 58% ship, and even then the transition into the following wave would break around a third of the time. This was one thing that made me not have much fun from 0, and the other was my luck. In probably an hour after playing from 0 the first time, I got 86% and 92%. Then a long while later, I died at 91% in the most infuriating way possible, and then come the next morning, I died to the very last click. It took me less than 10 minutes to beat it after that, but still, my experience was worse than it needed to be. That's not to mention on the sitting I got 91% in, I went to Grenade's part 9 times from 0, and that 91% was my only time past it. So, it's really frustrating to me. If you were to take this level, fix the 59% bug, and nerf the first part to the point of it becoming easy, I would call it at least a 9/10 level without hesitation. It could've easily been so much better than what it ended up being. I also have to point out the decoration in the level, both to nitpick back to this level being consistent in a negative way, and also a genuine problem it causes. The level does look pretty decent and is, of course, a notable step up from Deception Dive, but it's so samey throughout to the point that it lacks the personality that Deception Dive had. I would say Grenade's part is the exception to that, though. I like that part a lot. But alongside the sameyness, there's also the issue of it relying way too much on glow. It doesn't make the parts drowning in it look much better, but more notably the level runs rather poorly because of it. So it's disappointing to me that it wasn't further taken into account.
Lastly, with the amount of stuff I criticized, this description could definitely be glanced at and written off as a negative take of this level, but that's not the case at all. If anything, I still like it a little bit. It's just so frustrating to me how easily the problems I did have with it could be fixed; at the very least the most significant ones. Overall, it's still decent enough that I could recommend giving it a try, but note that there's a lot of potential that the experience could get ruined for you just by playing from 0.
Attempts - 2,608
Worst Fail - 98%
Hardest Parts - Jakii, GrenadeofTacos
Easiest Parts - Poisonous Egg, JustAlf, XZ
Difficulty Tier (Non-Listworthy Spreadsheet) - Extreme
Personal Tier - Insane
FPS Used: 240
Gameplay - 6.5/10
Experience - 3/10
Overall Level Rating - B
Clicks - youtube.com/watch?v=S7tLbfyJw7Y
Discord - dementeddd
Content Credits
Level Song: "Earthquake" by Teminite
Link - newgrounds.com/audio/listen/801275
Menu Song: "Serenity" by Heart Plus Up!
Link - youtube.com/watch?v=qRm4IwboNmM
This one was a big nostalgia choice. My original plan with this was to beat it on the 12th, as a celebration for beating Deception Dive that day back in 2019. I forgot about it when the time rolled around though, so unfortunately it's a bit late, but the same month shall suffice.
Now, about the level. I have so much say about it. On paper, it should be very good. It's not difficult to learn and much of it got consistent very quickly. It is extremely consistent in contrast to what Deception Dive was; but honestly some aspects of that affect it negatively for me. Love or hate what Deception Dive's balancing was like, that was the defining thing that made it memorable to me. It was a new experience for me at the time playing a level with balancing that so heavily skews to parts near the end, and though that has its drawbacks, it felt so cool to play something I would get far on so frequently. This level had the potential to play somewhat similarly to that, but it's completely disrupted by how needlessly grindy the first part is, and because of that, anything that happened to me with the rest of the predrop hurt so much more. None of the base gameplay on its own here is bad either. It's just, why does that first part need to be so difficult? Moving to the drop, and again, I think the base gameplay is great. It all got very consistent and there wasn't any intended part of it that felt awful to get used to. But unfortunately, there's a bug at the transition into GrenadeofTacos's part, and a very significant one. I had to find a spot to start holding at in the end of the 58% ship, and even then the transition into the following wave would break around a third of the time. This was one thing that made me not have much fun from 0, and the other was my luck. In probably an hour after playing from 0 the first time, I got 86% and 92%. Then a long while later, I died at 91% in the most infuriating way possible, and then come the next morning, I died to the very last click. It took me less than 10 minutes to beat it after that, but still, my experience was worse than it needed to be. That's not to mention on the sitting I got 91% in, I went to Grenade's part 9 times from 0, and that 91% was my only time past it. So, it's really frustrating to me. If you were to take this level, fix the 59% bug, and nerf the first part to the point of it becoming easy, I would call it at least a 9/10 level without hesitation. It could've easily been so much better than what it ended up being. I also have to point out the decoration in the level, both to nitpick back to this level being consistent in a negative way, and also a genuine problem it causes. The level does look pretty decent and is, of course, a notable step up from Deception Dive, but it's so samey throughout to the point that it lacks the personality that Deception Dive had. I would say Grenade's part is the exception to that, though. I like that part a lot. But alongside the sameyness, there's also the issue of it relying way too much on glow. It doesn't make the parts drowning in it look much better, but more notably the level runs rather poorly because of it. So it's disappointing to me that it wasn't further taken into account.
Lastly, with the amount of stuff I criticized, this description could definitely be glanced at and written off as a negative take of this level, but that's not the case at all. If anything, I still like it a little bit. It's just so frustrating to me how easily the problems I did have with it could be fixed; at the very least the most significant ones. Overall, it's still decent enough that I could recommend giving it a try, but note that there's a lot of potential that the experience could get ruined for you just by playing from 0.
Attempts - 2,608
Worst Fail - 98%
Hardest Parts - Jakii, GrenadeofTacos
Easiest Parts - Poisonous Egg, JustAlf, XZ
Difficulty Tier (Non-Listworthy Spreadsheet) - Extreme
Personal Tier - Insane
FPS Used: 240
Gameplay - 6.5/10
Experience - 3/10
Overall Level Rating - B
Clicks - youtube.com/watch?v=S7tLbfyJw7Y
Discord - dementeddd
Content Credits
Level Song: "Earthquake" by Teminite
Link - newgrounds.com/audio/listen/801275
Menu Song: "Serenity" by Heart Plus Up!
Link - youtube.com/watch?v=qRm4IwboNmM
