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Rapidly becoming one of the best levels of all time, CastleMania, does what so many of us in the community could only dream of when we first started playing, it raises the bar for so many other creators and levels, breaking every mold imaginable, both in terms of idea, concept and especially in execution, when we´re talking about design, game play and even from a technical standpoint, this creation has it all, checking all the boxes and more of what a great level can become so much more.
The level begins with you going through a forest with a bunch of trees surrounding you, with a dark and purple tinted night sky in the background, with even more trees to fill in the blanks, quickly becoming a mist filled graveyard with a really nice rain effect to top it off. This doesn't last long though as we see ourselves enter a giant castle (the door opening to let you in is a really nice touch in my opinion) this entire section is as great as you'd expect, the colors are fantastic, combined with the subtle yet powerful lighting effects that give it a very accurate atmosphere to what you'd imagine a castle/chapel to look like. And although it starts off with a relatively calming presence, after a bit everything gets more intense, there's more movement in the blocks, there's a more sinister tint to the effects and backgrounds, nice for buildup.
We exit the castle for a brief moment, to see that the light rain that we saw earlier has now become a full on storm, which is a nice detail, making it feel like you're playing this in real-time, the sky along with it's effects change hues a couple of times, even becoming a very strong red, adding to the "evil" vibe of this place. We then re enter the castle, and after a couple of seconds are thrown into a bossfight, the first one being the reaper, I love just about everything about this, the art for the boss, his attacks and the effects that go along with them, there are also some lighting effects that add to the intensity of the fight, which I like to see, the fight lasts for about 30 seconds, taking you outside again with the storm at it's limit. Incredible stuff, and that's just one of the routes you can take.
The next route starts out the same as the previous, but instead of taking the bridge to enter the castle, you take a leap of faith under it and fall into a precipice, taking us to the Deep Path. Immediately after we fall, we find ourselves inside a sewer system, I really like this part simply because of the bloom effect that combines perfectly with the cyan hue that's present in this section. Almost becoming a neon color, the boxes floating around being used as platforms is a really nice touch as well, and the subtle art in the background too, lending a sense of depth. After that, we arrive at a totally different section of the sewer, with purple being the predominant color, what I like most about this is the colors that the spikes have, an almost rgb effect that is extremely nice to look at. The level opens up and we get to the first part of the boss fight, a giant skull creature with even more skulls surrounding it as a sort of shield. The design is really cool and it's animations are as smooth as butter, with the rest of the level taking a simpler tone, as to emphasize the boss itself. We escape through a long red tunnel, and arrive at a green, almost "toxic" section, and here we can see a glimpse of one of the best parts of this level, the vertical traversal makes the level feel enormous, truly making it look and feel like a metroidvania. Along withe the small details, such as the cobwebs scattered around the blocks and pretty much taking up 40% of the screen at one point which adds a lot to the overall atmosphere. After this we get to the final boss-fight of this route, but it's not the skeleton we encountered earlier, it's a giant rotating eyeball that shoots lasers, the backgrounds for this boss are practically empty, shifting your attention completely on the boss and dodging it's attacks, the design for the boss and it's attacks look great to me and is a perfect way to top it off.
In order to get the final coin in this video, the Library Path, you must go into the castle, same as the first route, but this time, you have to touch a hidden pad that can be seen at 4:11, taking you through a secret passageway, you go through some dark and dirty ducts or tunnels and when you exit you appear to find yourself in a green house, completely taken over by plants and greenery. After a while you enter a giant library, with ghosts of several different colors flying around, being illuminated only by candles that cover the ground, found bundled together with books and webs. The level then takes a darker turn, taking you to a much spookier section, having a bloody red tint in the form of a vignette, with several haunted paintings seen in the background, which serves as a path to the very short final boss fight, a book that also shoots lasers. Being simpler but just as great