[Helping Hand #36] "Tidal Wave" by OniLinkGD // Review 

Welcome to the new series on my channel, in which I will look at and review some overlooked or unrated levels, with the goal of helping the creators in getting them rated in the end.
I hope you can enjoy the series and maybe I am able to shine some light on those levels that I think deserve more attention.
If you have any feedback or want to request a level to me to look at, you can do that in the comments, on Twitter, in my GD messages or in my Discord DMs. They are always open for everyone. You will find the review of the level below.
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/ @onilink
-------❰ Review ❱-------
I thought about branching out a bit for this one, so I decided to take on a challenge and go for an Extreme Demon for once. The level was fairly enjoyable to play and I think holds up fine in terms of decoration, so I decided to beat and upload it.
The level is clearly water themed in decoration, clearly noticable in the colors and assets used. The decoration style is more core based, which is not a common style to build in anymore and I will say that another style would have fit better with this theme probably. Everything feels really cluttered and unpolished sadly. I also think the colors used don't work particularly well together. The beach part at 1:17 is really bright and it does distract a bit from the structures, which again, are very cluttered in my opinion. In contrast to that I think the last part has great color usage, the golden color used here works nicely and looks really cool. Sadly that is really the only part I like visually, the rest feels super underdeveloped and just really rough in my opinion.
Gameplay wise the level also wasn't the best to play for me. It took me quite a while to beat and I encountered a lot of chokepoints throughout my completion. Especially all the wave parts are way too difficult and should be adjusted to fit the rest of the gameplay better in my opinion. The level in general felt very buffed, something that could have been avoided with different difficulty standards. I can see it being interesting having an Extreme Demon on your account, but I think enjoyment should be prioritized when making a level of this difficulty.
Overall I think the level is fine. The theme is represented nicely, but the designs overall are underdeveloped and cluttered, so it feels very, very rough and could use a lot more work in my opinion. The gameplay is also unbalanced and not too well thought out, judging from my completion. With all this said I would probably not send this if I was mod, I don't think it quite holds up to the modern standards sadly. I hope the creator can fix some flaws I pointed out though, because I think the level does have a ton of unused potential. Maybe with some things fixed the level could receive a rating in the future, but I don't think it could be rated in its current state. Well done!
-------❰ Level Info ❱-------
Name: Tidal Wave
ID: 86407629
Creator: OniLinkGD
Difficulty: Extreme Demon 10*
Song: "Tidal Wave(Shiawase VIP rmx)" by RunoNG
Link: www.newgrounds...
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-------❰ Tags ❱-------
#geometrydash
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