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The fact that they chose Stormfly, a person who doesn't even like Death Moon that much, to review the level when it got first place is so fucking funny to me
I think the biggest issue with the entire list as a whole comes down to one, single problem. It's reliance on the game's history as a consistent criteria. I feel like this was REALLY apparent with ICDX because...I haven't met a single person who has played through ICDX and ENJOYED playing it. I feel like there's some sort of issue here regarding how this list was made, not really as a Top 100 BEST Levels or whatever, although it wasn't doing that, a Top 100 Geometry Dash Levels implies that sort of messaging. I understand why they took that route, but it still bothers me to no end.
I'm kinda sad they didn't have any pre 1.9 rep outside of Funnygame and a couple levels solely placed on them being milestones important rather than people actually caring about the level itself. I would have personally would have loved to seen a SH3RIFFO, Kudabe, Vismuth, Rabbitical, tunar, or even zaRIKU level, even if it was just in the honorable mentions list. I can get why they wouldn't list them as most of them aren't remembered by the modern community so they wouldn't have the nostalgia protections that some of the 1.9 and 2.0 levels so the aged bits would more apparent. But I still think a lot of them have solid gameplay that you can only really get from that era and decoration that is honestly good even by todays standards. Considering a lot of picks were based off history to GD it's a shame that a big portion of that history was left out.
not sure how intentional this was but the three reviews that you chose as the "best" ones all fit into different categories krmal's was mainly about his personal experiences with high life, wless's covered the historical impact revolution had, and s3 was almost entirely focused on the inherent quality of the level all 3 reviews managed to do their respective levels justice in different ways. im unhappy with a few of these reviews but i commend the diversity in opinions
okay so two quick things 1. regarding zodiac's significance, it mainly has to do with how it is as a level and the time period it was top 1 during. it was one of the most accessible top 1's for its time, due to its length, gameplay variety, and ironically enough its very poor balancing. it was also the top 1 level during one of the peaks of the community, and helped bolster technical as the best player of that time period, someone who is incredibly beloved. 2. i get people's grievances when we talk about the verification of silent clubstep, and they are right in that it isn't the unnerfed version, but i feel that people fail to realise that the nerfs were almost necessary to this ever having the possibility of being verified. stormfly's old video on it sheds a lot of light on this, but the original silent clubstep is practically impossible, in big part due to the 8 jumps of hell sometimes just becoming impossible due to the game skipping frames. there's also the fact that people STILL thought the nerfed version might be impossible, and there were doubts that even the nerfed version would be verified. i can understand if people were to say that it never should have been nerfed, and again i understand people having issues with how we discuss the verification, i just sometimes feel that it undersells its current verification as an achievement and fails to understand the nerfs in the level and why they were made
i feel like the fact that silent clubstep was nerfed specifically so that it could be beaten legitimately only further diminishes the idea of its verification as "conquering the impossible". paqoe didnt verify a level once thought to be impossible, she verified a level specifically designed for someone to verify it. it's still impressive, but definitely not the same thing.
Reviewing levels can be so hard sometimes man, and I'd like to think that I've gotten better than in my top 10s from years ago. Looking back at my Save As a review, I felt like I tried too hard to argue for why it's a great level. Instead I could've gone into further detail about how PAHC was able to do what he did and go into further depth in general
From what I can gather people place zodiac pretty high because they saw it as the last good top level before the golden, slaughterhouse, and the rest of the "truly bad" top 5s came out. Which is pretty funny because everyone trashed on zodiac for being generic garbage when it came out.
I can't believe they didn't include any of the MaJackO levels there... Not even Future Demoness. Well, me sad, I guess. The Death Moon review is a joke. Seriously. You have a level that was first of its kind to bypass the old object limit (Back then it was possible to be banned and have your level and account deleted for bypassing it. That's why Funnygame uploaded it on his alt.) and become famous. A level, that has wow-ed many of us by it's great flow with the song. There is so much that can be said about it's technical aspect as well as its contribution to the creating's evolution. Death Moon was one of the first experiments that has maybe has not only predicted, but defined even how later levels would also break rules, in order to deliver a gem. Your average Stormfly, I guess.
I really liked the review of revolution and it really helped me understand why I hold the level in such high regard even after all these years. I quit playing geometry dash almost entirely for four years but that level stuck with me. I’d go back and play it in my phone like it was a song stuck in my head I had to listen to. There is no level to this day that captures my imagination like revolution does. It was the moment geometry dash went from a game where I wanted to beat all the main levels to a game I was enraptured by. The level itself is so old that it’s all caught up in my nostalgia as well, reminding me of when times were simpler and I would play gd on my friends iPad. It’s easily my favorite level of all time but I’ve had a hard time articulating why and I think the review by wless does a more than admirable job of putting some of those feelings on paper. I know it’s not a hot take or anything for a pre 1.9 player to love funnygame, but I’ve never connected with levels in the game like I did with his. Other great creators have impressed and wowed me but none have ever etched their way into my brain like funnygame has. I just feel such a pure love for his levels like I’m so happy they exist, I’m so happy he built them. I’m not sure if a level could ever top that feeling ever again and in some ways I feel the creating trend to make everything technically impressive and polished while it does produce great looking results, I’m not sure you can create the feeling revolution gives with technical excellence. For instance Spu7Nix levels are without a doubt impressive and seem like impossible feats, but in many ways they look better on RU-vid than they do in game. My laptop can’t even run them properly, so the magic is gone and I’m reminded that I’m in a game with limitations. While still impressive, I just don’t get the sense of wonder and possibility I do from revolution. I might just be old though. Thanks for sharing the video WHErwin I would’ve missed these gems of reviews if you didn’t curate them.
Also after reading the review on Death moon, damn. There is no magic and passion there. It sounds like a jeweler evaluating how much a ring can be sold for, and not one they care about. I used to be an objectivity enjoyer when I was younger but sometimes factual descriptions fall flat. I mean what is art if not an attempt to convey a feeling where words fail. You gotta get creative and abstract to describe an experience as powerful as beating Death Moon for the first time. Objectivity only serves to make me feel like you couldn’t like up to the grander of the level.
I think stormfly forgot hes not supposed to write an essay for his elementary school teacher but to convey his emotions the feelings of greatness the level makes you fill he probably doesnt even have tbh (cringe lunar demise fan)
Death Moon arguably made one of the most impactful changes to the creator scene: It uses objects far beyond the limit allowed at the time, such a thing made the creator even upload it on an alternative account. I feel like that isn't even remembered often, while Death Moon was probably not the first level to use limit hack objects, it's definitely something that feels almost normalized as of now. Also completely unrelated but I arguably have the best experience on Killbot ever, as my PC crashed exactly when I had decided to give the level a try and was halfway through learning it. The PC still isn't fixed.
I’m just going to assume that my review was ranked #1 and not watch the video. EDIT: Well I watched the video and now this comment just looks conceited. How dare you.
Unironically your review was amazing! It made me think about Black Blizzard a bit deeper, and your interpretation of the level made me like the level a lot more
5:52 oh my god yes finally someone talks about this. it always bothers me when a level is just credited to just the host or the verifier who uploaded it to the servers, like if you can't credit everyone because of a character limit or whatever okay yeah that fair but at least put "& more" it's just 5 characters come on
erm, it's 6 actually, 7 if you count the space between the name and the ampersand in all serisousness this is very true, megacollabs belong to everyone involved in their creation, it's unfair to leave out the bulk of the authors out, even if it's for the sake of brevity
I'd be curious to see what your thoughts are on my bloodbath review, admittedly though I did focus on the history of it largely because the word "greatest" to me implies some level of history involved. For example while I think Bloodbath is the greatest level of all time, my favorite level of all time would have to be castlemania
It was written by Stormfly? Now that explains why the review was so uninspiring and soul-crushing, especially for a level as grandeur and epic as Death Moon.
Stormfly is generally kind of soulless. Oh well, at least he admits that a bland level is worse than a bad level in his extreme demons video I guess. Well Stormfly, ironically, being "objective" with your reviews is bland. I feel like his non-level review videos are much better because he actually gives his opinions.
Thanks for mentioning the Silent Clubstep thing, it always bothered me when people justify its rate with "ooh we overcame this impossible level thingy"
While I’m still under the influence of wisdom tooth removal drugs, I’m gonna offer at least a short paragraph - I think it’s pretty understandable that most reviews are based on personal experience. Since this was entirely based on opinions, it’s inevitable to have the majority of the reviews on this list be based on personal experience. I think Silent Clubstep is an exception just because of the history of the level. But something like Gablor/Rin’s PPF review makes sense to me. For a personal example, I would’ve put Black Blizzard at #1 because, while many levels at the time made me think “how did they do that?” from a completion perspective, BLBL was the first level to ever really make me wonder “how did they _do_ that?” from a creating perspective. And regarding Silent Clubstep; yes, the level was nerfed, but I’m fairly certain that the level would’ve been impossible were it left in its unnerfed state (as well as somehow even less fun LOL) Enjoyed this video a lot, would love to see more review-type videos in the future :D
SINCE I MET YOU SHOULD'VE BEEN NUMBER ONE!! Death Moon is a good top 1 pick tho, I'm just glad High Life is there. The review for Black Blizzard is really good! Very well written stuff!
Death Moon stands uncontested in my mind, and I like your review way better than Stormfly's. Could they really not find someone who's actually passionate to talk about it?
3:10 It’s Only Nerfed Because A 2.0 Physics Change Made It Impossible (Sort Of) Basically The Ball In Which Most Of The Changes Took Place Used To Use A Trick Were Orbs Were Placed On Top Of Each Other So If You Clicked To Early The Wrong Orb Activated But In The 2.0 Update Some Parts On Orbs Were Changed That Made It Impossible (Technically It Is “Possible” But It Doesn’t Work Like What It Was Supposed To And Would Be Stupid To Get All The Orbs In One Run) And Other Parts Were Changed Because Of The 2.1 Physics Problems Making Them Go Against How The Level Was Supposed To Play They Didn’t Just Nerf Silent Clubstep For The Sake Of Saying It Was Verified It Was Changed So That The People Who Spent Thousands Of Attempts And Years Of Determination Didn’t Waste Their Time Because Of Robtop’s Weird Programming Choses
I don't like it when GD creators judge levels based on metrics, when they score levels by ranking every part of the level out of 10. They try to rank the level based on every individual element, like the song choice, gameplay, decoration, background, which ends up leading to a very artificial assessment of the level. I don't care for that. I want to see people gush about a level, or bash it if they hate it. I want to see what makes the level human. In terms of my opinions on the GD News ranking, I feel like they didn't know how to make the difference between "the most important levels" and the "best levels". Levels can be important, but still bad. Likewise, levels can be amazing masterpieces, but not provide any cultural significance to the GD community. In the end, these lists always almost seem like popularity contests, and of course I am not mad because my level was not on the list, of course not haha I am not mad at all :D hahaha my ego is large
I think another big issue with the list is how…agreeable it all is. Yeah, the placements of some levels might be kind of a stretch, but just about every level on the list is what one would expect. There’s no shockers or surprises that would make people curious or drive them crazy. Now, to their credit, this list definitely feels like it’s trying to please as many people as possible, and any unexpected levels could possibly result in harassment of the GD Today team (big no-no), but it makes the whole thing feel predictable and kinda boring.
3:46 I consider it official enough when the creator themself says they consider this verification as an official completion of the version they intended
the issue isnt even whether its official or not, its the whole myth that surrounds the level. people always leave out the fact that the level was nerfed to be made possible, and that hurts the narrative that weve achieved things we once thought impossible
i agree that a lot of the reviews were very underwhelming and surface-level “this level has amazing decoration/gameplay/history.” but the ones you highlighted, especially s3rios’s, were really enjoyable reads and left me seeing the levels in new ways. ultimately it makes me appreciate art more when someone can put words to new ways of thinking and interpreting it.
Nice video! What are your thoughts on castlemania? Im glad its top 10 but i feel it deserves way better than #7. The review was ehh It was okay. I have a lot of passion and love for that level and felt a bit let down by the review
With silent clubstep it's actually practically impossible to do from 0 since the unnerfed version sometimes isn't possible at the 8 jumps also the nerfed version was made by the same guy who made the original, he made the nerfed version as an update to it like 2 or so years before it got verified
"Geometry dash is a high stakes game. And emotional investment runs deep. Frustration, Jubilation, Grief and Accomplishment. Harnessing that aspect of the game and using it to elicit powerful emotional responses is an art form in it's own right. And it's an art form mastered by Death Moon. When you're playing Death moon, You can feel it. You can feel its imposing grandeur as it masterfully builds suspense, Until it drops an epic climax on you. It does this without relying on difficulty too. Its just the very nature of the level to be grand, to be this intricately constructed masterpiece with art so iconic that multiple levels since have tried recreate to it, to no avail. Epic is a word with a lot of baggage nowadays but in the most baseline sense of that word, I can't think of a better way to describe Death Moon. It manages that cycle of build up, tension and release so brilliantly even the ending serves this purpose. An awarding victory lap for almost all tension is release and you're allowed to free fly in celebration" ~WHErwin 2023
i found the list pretty disagreeable, but not in ways i wouldn't've expected from a tally of votes. no clue how they went about the review writing process, but it's clear some people weren't the most enthusiastic about their essays
my review of this is that this review reviewed the reviews reviewingly, the reviews reviewed were not as reviewed as the review i wouldve reviewed would be reviewed.
I feel like gd today should’ve made video about it instead of a twitlonger, because 1 or 2 paragraphs kind of limits of what the reviewer really feels about the level.
to be fair, making it into a video wouldve been an even more massive undertaking. besides, i think the standout reviews show that its not necessarily the format thats at fault here
@@WHErwin yeah but I relooked at some of them and they looked like they had some points they wanted to make or further explore but couldn’t due the limits of what they worked with, Video would’ve been a bit much but I think it would’ve been amazing
I feel like alot of the new gen players effected the list. Like there could have been more levels from the 1.0-2.0 era of the game that could have fit the list well.
What I disslike about these lists is that they mostly contain (extreme) demons. Something like Technoloid would never be on one because it's an auto level.
I was mindmind-blownpecially when Geometry Gash player, Knobbelboy created Bloodlust and RicoLP singlehandedly created Zodiac, new top 1 I guess also another GG player, Gablor was the first person to complete all Plasma Pulse levels, so that's pretty cool too ⮺
