27. Maze Woods Story 2: Defeat the giant spear man

Riding the moving turtles, introduced in this level, is refreshingly rare in this game, being used only twice mo’; & tho it is an autoscroll mechanic, a’least this level was laid out in a way that minimizes standing around doing nothing. Nor is it used too much or too li’l, hitting that sweet spot o’ 2 iterations, the 1st a simple tutorial where you just need to jump up a few short platforms & dodge slow-moving Pirate Gooms & a 2nd with mo’ complex layouts where you have to quickly plow thru cracked blocks & dodge much mo’ dangerous fire foxes.

Howe’er, while I get how cool it is to have to time entering a door while on the turtle, it’s lame that you have to redo the 1st half o’ the 1st turtle section when you do so, as leaving the door dunks you right into the currents that push you back to the start, especially since all that door holds is a bunch o’ coins and is the same general o’erused puzzle o’ jumping on an enemy while holding an enemy so you can jump off that enemy while on the 2nd storey to reach the 3rd storey — which is especially uninteresting, since it comes so soon after a very similar puzzle room but with 1 Pirate Goom replaced by a stove. They could’ve avoided this by having a tiny turtle section o’ currentless water where the only need for the turtle is to enter the door, allowing you to just swim onward after leaving.

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