“Most superlatives (words we use to express the highest degree of something) end with the suffix ‘-est’—a grammatical trait rather fittingly shared by the tallest mountain on the planet. Mount Everest is possibly the world’s most famous landform.” -Aaron Lemos, 2021
Level: “Everist” by @slidyyyyc (Hard Demon 0 ★)
Well! This level was hard. But you probably can’t tell from watching it—the deco gets in the way. Thanks to slidy again for recommending his level to me!
(description under the cut)
There’s so much to cover about this level. Where do I even begin? First, the theme. Yes, this is a joke level. There’s rainbows everywhere, and “the everist” is in the background at nearly all times. slidy calls this “his masterpiece.” And you know what, I have to say I agree. It’s a full one-minute of visuals that bring a tear to your eye.
The gameplay looks like it should be the same quality as the deco, but actually it’s not. It’s actually harder. There’s 3 choke points in the level (where the difficulty spikes dramatically): the ship part at 18%, the straight-fly at 47%, and the mini-wave at 49%. Those parts are harder than they look.
The blue pads at 10% are stacked, so you hit more than it looks like you should. At 17%, just behind the robot in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scenario, you can see the infamous “e?” as showcased in KrmaL’s level “Low Death.” (Red e? “Ready”.)
There’s a red circle and arrow pointing at “Everist” at all times. Also, the gameplay enters 4x speed a full one second late to the drop, which I think just adds to the experience by orders of magnitude. At 34%, the level suddenly has actual deco—before going back to rainbows three seconds later.
Final words: this level truly makes you feel what it’s like to