Hey, awesome, I always really loved the Heretic/Hexen series, and was always a bit sad that they're not remembered better. Heretic 2 was one of the most underrated games ever, I feel, so I'm going to say the Andoria Hub from that game.
Other favourite levels: Life of the Party (the rooftop level) from Thief 2; the Mountanous Area from Landstalker; The 3rd level in Guwange (an arcade shooter), mainly for the Cat-spider boss; probably a lot more that I can't think of right now...
Lars Crypt - Alundra
Deep forest - Tomba! 2
Demon Mountain - Tenchu 2
Balamb Garden - Final Fantasy VIII
Mosaic Lines - Oddworld Abe's odyssee
Tanked Up trouble - Donkey Kong country
Hydrocity - Sonic 3
World 3 - SMB3
NES
-SMB. 3-1 & 6-3
-SMB2. 1-3
-SMB3. World#5 lvl4
-TeTRIS. Lvl 9 & up
SNES[/b]
-Super Metroid. Maridia (The whole game actually) :P
-MMX3. Blizzard Buffalo lvl
-DKC. Stop & go Station (Without Shortcut) :P
-FFIII. Floating Island
PS1 & PS2
-FFX-2. VIA INFINITO ( To fight The mighty Trema A.K.A. "Gramps" who has 999 999 hp )
For now thats all i can think of .. Gotta go :)
I suppose it doesn't really fit as a "level", but I always really liked the dark side in Terranigma. Great music (though the light side also had a great theme), but I really liked the graphical effect thing they used to try and give the effect of being underground.
Also, in Seiken Densetsu 3, the Mana Holyland. Either you're fighting armies of Rabites or those Sub Zero thingies, it's always fun (well, in the latter point it's more annoying I guess).
SMS:
Wonderboy 3; the Dragon's Trap: Beach area
Wonderboy 3; the Dragon's Trap: Desert Area
NES:
Super Mario Bros 2: World 4
Super Mario Bros 3: World 2
Super Mario Bros 3: World 4
Super Mario Bros 3: World 5
Genesis:
Ecco 2: The Tides of Time: Tubes of Medusa
Sonic: Green Hill Zone
Sonic 2: Chemical Plant Zone
Sonic 2: Hill Top Zone
Sonic 3: Hydrocity Zone
Sonic 3: Carnival Night Zone
Sonic 3: Launch Base Zone
Sonic & Knuckles: Mushroom Hill Zone
Sonic & Knuckles: Sky Sanctuary Zone
Sonic & Knuckles: Death Egg Zone
Streets of Rage 2: Jungle
Streets of Rage 2: Factory
Saturn:
Bug!: Burrbs
Nights; Into Dreams: Splash Garden
Nights; Into Dreams: Mystic Forest
Nights; Into Dreams: Soft Museum
Nights; Into Dreams: Twin Seeds
Panzer Dragoon II Zwei: Episode IV
Panzer Dragoon II Zwei: Episode VI
Sonic 3D Blast: Special Stages
Dreamcast:
Sonic Adventure: Twinkle Park
Sonic Adventure: Speed Highway
Sonic Adventure: Red Mountain
Sonic Adventure: Lost World
Sonic Adventure 2: Green Forest
Sonic Adventure 2: White Jungle
Sonic Adventure 2: Final Rush
Gamecube:
Metroid Prime: Chozo Ruins
Metroid Prime: Phendrana Drifts
Zelda Twilight Princess: Arbiter Grounds
Zelda Twilight Princess: Temple of Time
DS:
Kirby's Canvas Curse: Bloo Hills
Kirby's Canvas Curse: Drawcia
Sonic Rush: Leaf Storm
Sonic Rush: Night Carnival
Sonic Rush Adventure: Plant Kingdom
Sonic Rush Adventure: Haunted Ship
Sonic Rush Adventure: Blizzard Peaks
Sonic Rush Adventure: Pirate's Island
PC (indie):
Cave Story: Grass Town
Cave Story: Labyrinth
Cave Story: Outer Wall
Aquaria: Energy Temple
Aquaria: Kelp Forest
Aquaria: The Veil
Can you tell I'm indecisive?
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
That fourside area in Earthbound always freaks me out, the weirdest level I ever played. As for my favorite level, even though I like the DK Islands on Donkey Kong 64, I tend to be fascinated by the jungle levels in Yoshi's Island more. Its fun to play because of the mud sliding and the monkeys. :)
I'm working on a small game design project and would like more ideas to steal inspiration, so I'm bumping this thread. Hopefully some newer members will chime in.
I neglected to mention before one of my favorite retro level design patterns: the open-sided elevator. You see this in brawlers like TMNT and SoR- a scene that is just an elevator, with enemies crashing through the windows, or dropping from the sky (and subsequently being thrown to the pavement below.)
The backgrounds might change gradually as the elevator moves up the side of a building, which is an example of gradual change within a level, which I've always liked. Things tend to be either static or binary without any sense of transition, and this pattern subverts that. Another example: the Bay Area level from Final Fight- the back-most layer is a very long mural, beginning with a city skyline at night, and panning toward the bay (or somesuch) at sunrise as the player advances to the right.
Final Fight's Bay Area is still one of my favorite levels.
Hmm, tricky.
Cave Story -- Outer Wall combines great music with finally letting the player go outside for the first time in the game. Some really fantastic atmosphere there.
Aquaria -- Kelp Forest is the best example of an environment that really feels alive that I've ever seen. And the music's great too (pity it's only a minute and a half long).
Metroid Prime -- Magmoor Caverns is the best implementation of a lava/fire-themed level I know of. The music's a bit heavy-handed, but the atmosphere's great and some of my favorite puzzles take place here.
Metroid Prime -- Phazon Mines, in contrast, is the best gauntlet run. You have to traverse almost the entire mines before you get to the first save point, and by the end Samus is critically low on energy and missiles. One of the things I like most about the Metroid series is the sense of being entirely alone on a hostile planet, having gone in too far to turn back, but with no idea of where the next point of safety may lie. (One of the things that killed Prime 3 for me was the fact that your ship was never more than a half-dozen rooms away)
Einhaender -- Stage 4, my favorite scrolling shooter level. The game massively picks up the pace in this level, while still being a lot of fun to play (as opposed to the vicious bullet hell segments in stage 5). Einhaender in general is a great game, but what makes stage 4 even better is the sheer mayhem your ship gets to wreak. Gotta love a game in which every target can be systematically dismantled.
Devil May Cry -- Mission 4. More 4's! This mission introduces you to the Shadow enemies, which I love fighting, as well as the boss Nelo Angelo, who I also love fighting. It's pretty brutally long (there's a couple of other fights, including a surprise return by Phantom, the boss whose butt you just kicked in the prior mission) but all of the combat segments are fun, so what's not to like?
Metal Slug 2 -- Final Mission. Great music, great gameplay, way more epic than MS1's final mission, but not so faceripping long as MS3's. And the Independence Day nod is hilarious.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
My favorite level design is something I realized playing Ninja Gaiden. In Ninja Gaiden, the game is very hard and unforgiving. However, there's a moment in the story in which Ryu Hayabusa swears revenge and goes rampage against the evildoer that kidnaps the girl/makes him fight against his father. At that point, the game follows for a moment a very simple design pattern that allows the player to easily kill any enemy that comes near him, while on the background plays a catchy tune that puts you on the mood of kicking the butts of the monsters the ninja way!
There are few things more satisfying that allowing me to be a killing machine for a moment, right after a very dramatic scene, and that's why Ninja Gaiden rocks.
Metroid Prime 2 Echoes: Dark Aether, especially the dark basement of the temple in Torvus Bog. So deep, dark, gloomy, and hostile, it really gave me the impression that it was somewhere that Samus was absolutely never meant to be, yet she was forced to explore it. Sent chills down my spine all the way, especially during boss battles.
Donkey Kong Country 2: the bramble levels. Mostly due to the good music, but they were difficult and creative levels.
Super Paper Mario: Level 8. Had the best music in the whole game, and the hardest puzzles and situations, and a great color scheme: it was all black, with only white borders and weird decorations here and there. Very moody, and a great final level.
This is such a tough, open-ended question, I can only remember those which I've only recently been to.
Joined: 3/11/2004
Posts: 1058
Location: Reykjavík, Ísland
Man, this thread is old. Anyway, I guess I can now say Portal. The entire game. Also Half-Life 2, the part between when you finally get your crowbar and when you have to use the boat (or whatever).
Hmm. I'm trying to remember things others haven't mentioned. Act 2 from Diablo 2 (the best act). For some reason, I'm really fond of the early Terran levels from Starcraft (not Brood War). They're so... innocent, and remind me of an earlier time.
Since someone mentioned Super Paper Mario, I have to nominate it as having the worst unexpected level design in an otherwise well-designed game. It's the world that's all clouds, clouds, clouds, clouds, clouds, CLOUDS AND CLOUDS. And NOTHING ELSE. I think it's world 7. Blech.
Stages:
Stage 5 from Battle Garegga. Not only is the music excellent and the atmosphere immersive (you ascend into the dark thunderclouds to battle the main enemy fleet), but it has my favorite boss in all of the shoot-em-up genre: Black Heart. The only thing I wish the level had was an expanded boss rush (like the cloud stage remake in Battle Bakraid).
The Great Glacier from FF VII. I know a lot of people hate this place, but I absolutely love the atmosphere and music, which work in tandem to produce the "alone in a snow field" feeling.
Noteworthy boss mentions:
Strength from House of the Dead 2. This whole boss fight is incredible. You've got a huge chainsaw-wielding psycho chasing after you in a labyrinth, and he only takes damage from headshots so you have to be a really good shot. You feel the tension as he jumps from a ledge to slice you or disappears and suddenly bashes through a wall to your right, catching you off-guard.
Mr. Julius from Violent Storm - Freaking hilarious and awesome, this guy defines narcissism. You can't get more badass than attacking someone by flexing and posing.
Sonic Adventure 2: Metal Harbor. Good music, and good keep-moving potential, keep me coming back to play this one.
Sonic Adventure 2: City Escape. Same reasoning.
I hated SA2's final rush- the odd ways the rail-switch controls worked frustrated me.
Sonic Advance 2's Egg Utopia 2- High speed and great flow, particularly on the special ring route.
Most of Vexx (GC). Particularly Tempest Peak Manor, a giant mansion with a bit where you must turn on a game machine and beat a le'el of breakout to achie'e an objecti'e- when the control stick is as large as you are. Environment feels immersive, and you aren't constrained to do goals in any particular order, barring two powerup suits(in the game) and unlocking le'els. Oh, and the difficulty curve is actually good.
Story levels of F-Zero GX, particularly the race against Deathborn and Night of Big Blue. Former because it's difficult but possible to beat him (without abusing the rubber-banding), and the course is also against you...and the latter because it's a quite-fun death race with practically no turns to deal with as you kill through the ranks of the Chain Gang, with music that suits.
Escape the Reactor story mode from same, simply because you need to get things so close to perfect on the hardest (and this is reasonable, if quite difficult) that you feel accomplishment for pulling it off.
Celestial Valley of Kirby Air Ride. Music, and a fair assortment of risk/rewards.
Donkey Kong (GB), Worlds 8 and 9 particularly.
JXQ wrote:
NES Mega Man 2 - Wily 1
Megaman 2 is full of good le'els (well, I don't like Wily 2 that much, but it's the only one really) but this takes the cake, and not just for the awesome-among-awesome music.
For once, Megaman's warping ability does not actually seem to be causing narrative problems- he actually beams in completely outside the defense perimeter, in rocky waste, if not outside the defended airspace. From there you proceed, under air fire, past a wall to the fenced area where ground traps ha'e been laid, past another wall to the base of the structure itself, and then you climb through some actually fairly reasonable defenses that you need items to pass, to the dark interior...
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
I don't know what sort of video game project you're working on, but it seems that the levels people resonate most with are those which are particularly musically atmospheric and aesthetically beautiful rather than those which are particularly action packed or difficult. Since I last posted here few new levels have made it into my list from games that I have been TASing over the last year, and they are largely consistent with the test of ambience above.
Genesis Streets of Rage Levels 3 (Beach) and 7 (Elevator)
Genesis Lion King Level 7 (Simba's Return)
PSX Crash Bandicoot (Upstream, Up the Creek)
Genesis Sonic 3 & Knuckles Hydrocity 2, Marble Gardens, Ice Caps, Mushroom Hills, Lava Reef 1 and I can't think of a level that truly captures beauty, atmosphere and ambience as well as Lava Reef 2 does. It may be worth looking at when you design your levels.
Genesis Sonic 3 & Knuckles Hydrocity 2, Marble Gardens, Ice Caps, Mushroom Hills, Lava Reef 1 and I can't think of a level that truly captures beauty, atmosphere and ambience as well as Lava Reef 2 does. It may be worth looking at when you design your levels.
Considering that the thing I'm planning is set deep underground, checking out "lava reef" is probably a really good idea. :D
By the way, I've heard people saying that Majora's Mask is better than Ocarina of Time. I haven't played much of the former, but I know you've TASed it- are there any notable areas you could mention?
Majora's Mask is mostly notable for the story improvements over OoT. I found the dungeons to be largely forgettable (as I did for OoT, mind you). I guess the best of the bunch are probably Snowhead Mountain and the pirate fortress. The last of the four dungeons (can't remember its name off the top of my head) has some good rooms, but it's inconsistent.
For underground settings, I definitely recommend Lava Reef zone. Also worth checking out are Cave Story, Super Metroid's Lower Norfair / Ridley's Lair, and the initial "overworld" in Terranigma.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
If it was a cave/underground setting you were looking for there aren't any places in Majora's Mask that you could directly look at for level design, however MM is very notable for its atmosphere (dark, haunting, unpredictable, which is where I believe it improves most on OoT) and that is something that I think could translate well into your project. Good places to look for examples of the haunting atmosphere would be Stone Tower Temple, Ikana Canyon (especially the graves) and pretty much anywhere after 6pm (especially on the third day, especially after midnight).
The main problem with Majora's Mask is that it's too short compared to OoT. Had it been twice the length, then there would be little doubt as to it's superiority. Cutscene wise MM is a lot better, but I feel OoT is a better game when it comes to a single playthrough, mainly because Hyrule is better designed when it comes to freedom and exploration. MM is much more about side quests and character development. Over the course of the 3 days you can see how different characters become affected.
EDIT: The Spider House in Great Bay is good for atmosphere, mainly because you hear a lot of noises without being able to pin point it right away.
