How High Are You? (OLDC 2023)

(Should i even say that i'm alive by this point? lol)
This is my entry for Super Mario World Central's OLDC (Old-School Level Design Contest) of 2023. This contest restricts our toolset to only what is available in the original game. No custom resources can be used, and most Lunar Magic features that change game resources (palette editting, Map16, ExAnimation, GFX Bypass) are forbidden.
Download Link: bin.smwcentral...
The level is themed after a specific glitch from Super Mario World: whenever Spike Tops go below the visible screen, they are erased from the level. This mechanic is then abused in different ways to either help or impede player progress.
The level also uses some indicators, which are explained in the "Message Box Door" (Mostly because of the technicalities of screen scroll which are heavily abused here)
Despite aesthetics not being judged in OLDC, i did put some effort into making the level aesthetically pleasing. (Although cutoff Blarggs make an appearance lol)
The video also showcases the title screen, intro and life farm level (We all know it's because of the jokes in them xD). And the gameplay has some silly moments to simulate Mario reacting to the level as he progresses.

[@tohouvocaloidfan001]

Hey, it’s Rissa! Looks like another fantastic level! Between the jokes and the clever use of the glitch I don’t know what my favorite part is. Admittedly I didn’t know the glitch was a thing until now, I’ll be honest here lol. As always, I look forward to more content!

[@ecs.98]

Hey! Thank you so much! I'm glad to know you liked the level! And the jokes haha I'm pretty proud of how this level turned out! Especially with a certain someone helping with testing 😉 I'm really glad to be back in action with Rom hacking (or at least publicly hehe), and this level was a great way to come back!

[@Emerald_Shell]

It's a really well designed level, albeit a bit long.

[@ecs.98]

Thank you! I did make use of a lot of horizontal space, mostly because the Spike Top setups required some room to be built in a non trivial manner (each of them take up 2 to 3 screens) I ended up using 0E screens on each half, which was a little concerning for me, but i tried to make the level not too setup dense, to account for the length. This is one of those cases where i tried making the level fun and varied enough that it justifies its length, we'll see how well that is received.