Guten morgen! Got a new episode up and over here.

https://youtu.be/TBfrwxKDbu0

This week we're taking a look at:

CARDBOARD PLATFORM "CUPIDON" - Oo-KIMLY-oO
Sack's Best Friend - jahmircal
CREATIVE WORLD - rainrainrain
Bounce! - Mazta-x
Hidden Temple Zone 1 - sonic_boom81

i don't know what was happening here, maybe i was just having a very nice day or something, but i came off even happier than usual with most all the levels this time. Enough so that i started to mistrust myself, went through the lot a couple more times, and rerecorded the outro. i think the second version was better, but my feelings about the levels didn't change, which was cool. Give 'em a play, 'cause they're pretty fun.

Behind the curtains stuff: Episode 34 is wrapped and uploaded, so that's off my plate, which is always good. Kitting together things for 35, there shouldn't be any big issues there. i'm still noodling how i want to do Picked-Punk's stuff for LBsP, i'll be getting around to it, but there may be a couple of episodes before i'm there. There might be a series info update in there too; probably will be.

Thanks again, as always, everyone. Hope everything's going well for you, out there.

Woop Woop! Tuesday Takeaway Time!

CARDBOARD PLATFORM "CUPIDON" - Oo-Kimly-oO

This one stayed enjoyable throughout, and, again, i was struck by how well the power-up was utilized throughout the level. You've only got it when necessary, it's integral to level progression, and it has a really nice look to it. i still think the area by the monkeybars could have been more clearly marked as hazardous, but that's a fairly minor quibble (i just hate unnecessary death). The only thing i forgot to mention during the episode was that the cupids looked disturbingly like a certain orange man-baby world leader, and that was a mite-bit unsettling.

Sack's Best Friend - jahmircal

i just loved the mechanic here, like i mentioned in the episode, i can't recall seeing anything like it in other community levels. The way jahmircal's set up the obstacles to require both sets of ability on the fly (and making the switch doable on the fly) is really slick. i'd love to see another level like this one.

CREATIVE WORLD - rainrainrain

i have never really been able to get into handheld gaming, not since the old clamshell GameBoy Advanced, because i could fit that in a suit pocket and do some quick pokemon while waiting on funerals. That does mean i never got to experience LBPVita, which i count as a personal failing; especially now that the Jside servers have been shut down, i'm not really sure how regions work with the Vita. i'm going into all this because there's not much more to say about CREATIVE WORLD, it remains a solidly presented, very inventive, fun-to-wander-through level. There's not really a lot of gameplay, but you do keep moving throughout. The only quibble i had was the one mentioned in the episode, the intro cutscenes to the new zones keep the controller locked just a second or two too long.

Bounce! - Mazta-x

i don't remember if this was something that came up last episode, or next Friday's episode, but this was another level where the creator hadn't published their info to LBP.me, so i really didn't have a lot of info going in. i think the level came off of someone's Recently Played or Hearted Level list; it must have done, it wouldn't be findable any other way, i think. It makes me wonder, though. i understand keeping your profile secret if you're just going to be playing, and don't really want to interact with the community, but if you're publishing levels? That i don't really get. It makes me wonder if there's a "DarkLBP" out there, groups of friends who've not made their profiles public, making levels just for inside that community. Maybe they're getting up to hijynx...or attempting to bring about the end of the world? Does that make you nervous? Honestly...there's not much to say about Bounce! that hasn't been said already.

Hidden Temple Zone 1 - sonic_boom81

i had no idea this was an homage to a Sonic level, despite the creator's name, and the fact it was probably mentioned on the level select page. i had a Genesis way back in the day, but it didn't get a lot of use, particularly once i got my SNES. That being said, going into it fresh really made me appreciate how well the level works as a level. i didn't have the feeling of comparing things to see how well they matched up. i had a lot of fun with this one; i really appreciated how much you get to do in it, and the variety of the different zones. Also how well the boss fight worked vis-a-vis gameplay and fun. Thinking about it now, though, i can see how Eggman-esque that boss's design was. That's cool.

So, that's the that this week. Not much shift in feelings, but (most)everything was a lot of fun the first time, and remained that way. So that's also cool.

Behind the curtain: Not much, really. July 21st's Intro, primary, and secondary recordings are finished up (gods, though, that Intro took so many takes to get even semi-right). Hopefully i can get the outro set-up finished after shopping this morning, and if i'm really lucky, i can get that recorded too. That would leave editing and PiP making for tomorrow, which, conceivably might give us time to put together a quick episode of LBsP, but no promises there.