Coopersuper's video: Mastermind - by Hinds Insane Demon Review

Been a while since I've seen a Hinds level, and I was so excited that I just knew I had to write a review on this. His last solo level released was Cyber Chaos, all the way back in 2016, so this brought back some great nostalgia when I saw this level for the first time. Mastermind is heavily player-color based, which is a neat aspect not worked upon too much as of recently. I've seen many completions of this level already, and the way he incorporates player-colors are on another level. Colors are probably the most important aspect of a level for me, and Hinds definitely did not disappoint. The decoration takes on a really neat re-render of Hinds' previous works, with more of a 2.1 touch. Most of the level appears gray-scaled but I really like how vibrant colors are pulsing on these grayscale objects in the way they are to make the level as appealing as it is. Some backgrounds seem empty and could use some work, but other backgrounds make up for it in my opinion. As seen at 0:55, a pinwheel is used for a background which died out in pretty early 2.1 due to it being a lazy way to decorate your levels. Not that it affects the level too much though, as Hinds levels are generally focusing on foreground anyways. The following background at 1:02 is really neat and pops out more than other parts of the level. It's simple but really does its job well. There are so many smaller effects used in the level that are really interesting, but too many for me to delve into right now. I personally think this is the best Hinds level to date decoration wise. As for the gameplay, the level suffices. In the beginning of the recording you can hear me talking about how Hinds gameplay manages to always piss people off because it's extremely skill based. Although this level tries to pursue more of a memory style gameplay, it still ends up being very heavily skill based. Many timings feel awkward and difficult to pull off. A good example would be the release at 67%. This release is much harder than the rest of the level and just makes the level as a whole more unbalanced. The UFO at 9% was also somewhat tricky to get down and decently harder than the rest of the level. Overall I didn't absolutely hate the gameplay. I actually found it quite fun and challenging, despite being somewhat annoying. I believe the level deserves the epic rating it got just after I beat it. Good job Hinds!