Boss fights will not be included in this one except for Volcove's temple escape, which isn't so much a boss fight after all, haha. (Volcove also has four of the sixteen moments, hehehe.)
Level: Arid, Arid Desert
The gimmick: Clever puzzlework
Description: The aforementioned tomb held a several-tiered puzzle that involved finding out a set of chosen paths to unlock the way out of the tomb. Three rooms like the above with twelve doors and different interlocking paths created the effortless puzzle as well as set the stage for almost every puzzle ahead of it.
Levels: Many within 24murph's series, notably Final Rush
The gimmick: Reoccuring enemy
Description: These technicolor bullet launchers appeared many times in 24's levels, becoming one of the first custom enemy stages without really being known for it. It was also repeated by other designers such as Krazy321, and was one of the first instances of ingenuity in designing.
Level: Ethereal Mansion
The gimmick: Priceless Halloween Tribute
Description: Fourinone showed that having fun in a level could be as simple as some disabled koopas with good senses of humor. This portion of the story had no gameplay but plenty of laughs, taking Mario trick or treating throughout the neighborhood which provided a nice lead in to the stark, challenging Ethereal Mansion.
Level: Temple of the Penguin God
The gimmick: Moving blocks and a temple to escape
Description: Volcove used moving blocks in their original state to provide an exhilarating blast by forcing Mario to escape the Temple of the Penguin God and keep his hat intact, a la Indiana Jones. There isn't much room to breathe so one must stay alert at all times!
Levels: Temple of the Penguin God, Paradox Bridge, Into the Depths
The gimmick: Secret exits
Description: Volcove created a simple yet clever way to get the players to come back for more: secret exits. In his three most iconic levels, Volcove hid red coins or silver stars throughout his levels; hard to get but too much on one's curiosity to avoid. If one were to reach them all, they would unlock ingenious alternate endings that were worth the find.
Level: Epic Mario World Bonus Level 1
The gimmick: Moving block tricks
Description: Venexis, the technical SM63 wizard he is, found a way to exploit moving blocks for every glitch imaginable and mixed it with the most cleverly simple design concept available- nothing but gray blocks everywhere. It was a success.
Level: Dimension Infinity
The gimmick: A whole new slew of tricks, including invisible tiles
Description: In the aptly named Dimension Infinity, Star king opened up a whole new pandora's box of glitches and tricks with his award winning series. Tricks used included color-coded trap blocks, aforementioned invisible tiles to create a walking-on-air illusion and clever, mindbending graphical design.
Level: Classic Mario Revamped
The gimmick: Authentic, quirky narration
Description: While some may disagree (and it in fact did bend some of the 14th LDC's rules), this simple, catchy platformer that was Myst's only level was spiced up by some amusing and heartwarming narration. Sometimes that's all it takes.
Level: Stone Tower Temple
The gimmick: Level transformation
Description: As much as Volcove tries to disassociate himself from it, there's no denying how ingenious his idea was to turn the temple upside down and have the player re-traverse it, as well as how flawless the execution was, to the point that it made it look deceptively easy.
Level: Ghostly Cave
The gimmick: Ghostlights
Description: Taking a cue from Mr_SaxMan, Nwolf takes the disabled transition and makes a new gameplay element out of it called Ghostlights, which 'spawns' platforms and items wherever they meet. This original gameplay element has never been replicated in someone else's level but is still an unforgettable idea.
Level: Destinations
The gimmick: A dizzying dreamworld
Description: The prophetic dreams the level was based off of, MessengerOfDreams created a convincingly trippy nightmare with several stunning elements (words you could walk on, a 360 degree ghost house, a deteriorating staircase) that was further accented by Venexis' frightening block boss in level three. This was one of the earlier instances of intricate storytelling in a level and sometimes more could be said in images than in text.
Level: Dark
The gimmick: Intensive storytelling, original world creating
Description: MoD took a risk by taking his storytelling skills one step further, creating an original world and linking to large chunks of text to tell a story of an amnesiac with a deep compelling to restore light to a dark world that is about to lose everything. While some argued that the level went against the very credo that Mario was built around, his risk paid off with one of the most acclaimed levels of all time.
Level: Into the Depths
The gimmick: Excellent block-related and bullet related challenges.
Description: One of the most incredible levels of all time boasted many praised challenges (including its block boss, the Parasite Queen) but what it also brought was seamless integration of block enemies that were not bosses, such as that bad boy in the picture. Add to that Touhou-inspired bullet firing and you have just a few ingredients of Volcove's most acclaimed masterpiece.
Level: An Act of Antichesm
The gimmick: A completely new concept
Description: Not many people create entirely new words and concepts in their levels, but MP3 Amplifier did in her level 'An Act of Antichesm' which detailed a factory that extracted souls from people. The haunting atmosphere and the breathtaking set pieces only served further to convince players of the idea, and Amp took home the gold medal of the 19th LDC with it.
Level: Inscius Memoriam
The gimmick: A genuine je ne sais quoi in platforming.
Description: BrawlerEX is an underrated wizard in gameplay, creating original platforming, mostly green platforming, with an intelligent, unique style that can't quite be replicated. This was shown well in this portion of Inscius Memoriam, an incomplete yet skillful entrant to the 20th LDC that, if finished, could be Brawler's most acclaimed work to date.
Level: Super Mario Adventure: Mirror Island Level 4: Hanmeus' Castle
The gimmick: Several throwbacks to classic Mario castles
Description: Debateably the best gameplay-related part of the superseries by the two LDC winners, Hanmeus' castle sported some of the best moments of Mario castles, but the two most shining moments were the snake platforming through obstacles and the rotating castle hall, throwbacks to SMW and NSMB that were executed flawlessly and were highly entertaining.
So, here's the poll! http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22GJGGSBCRZ
Good luck to the entrants!
That's pretty cool. :>
