Z-I-v Summer Contest 2014 [CLOSED]

Didn't play doubles this week, sorry. Singles reviews only.

Animals / Martin Garrix
The stops on the *tick tock tick tock tick tock* part were a bit more annoying than fun IMO, but that's me being nitpicky. The 12th jacks, on the other hand, I just didn't like at all. Jumps got to be a bit much too in one section.

Be Alive (Raaban Inc. Mix) / Stian K
That speedup was unnecessarily cruel! Other than that, I really liked this one and I loved how you handled the slowdown.

BLOODY STREAM / Coda
The couple of spins in this chart were kinda weird, but other than that this was a very solid chart, as I've come to expect from you.

Broken moon beats / Jerico
Expert: This could have benefitted from more jumps, especially in the first half. Chart was just okay overall.

Challenge: Better than Expert. I'm not crazy about 125 BPM 32nd bursts but I guess it's not too bad here.

Death is the Road to Awe / Clint Mansell
All that buildup to the climax of the song… and it turns into an absolute letdown. A long section of just triplets with a jump on every quarter note? It got old very fast. Sure, that's what the song was playing, so it's technically accurate, but it was boring to play. A song can be absolutely amazing can listen to, but that doesn't mean it translates well into a simfile.

Don't Don't Go Away (disko warp main mix) / Foxxie
Argh, double-stepping! This actually could have been a really nice chart had there been less unnecessary double-stepping (and if you removed of a couple of seemingly random jumps in the first half of the song). I'll admit, after DotA from the previous round I wasn't expecting much. While this file still has problems, it's a big improvement.

dreamin' feat.Ryu / Mayumi Morinaga(moimoi)
Expert: There's really not much to say about this chart. It was decent.

Challenge: See above. Expert was slightly better though.

FLOWER / DJ Yoshitaka
Barely anything made sense in this chart. Lots of misrhythms, lots of weird and sometimes uncomfortable patterns… This was really bad. I'll just stick to the official steps.

Freezeezy Peak / Grant Kirkhope
Most of this chart was nice, but m32 to m37 was really gross. I get what the jumps are going to, but it feels kinda shoved in there for the sake of layering in extra sounds. Having to quickly go from up to down with one foot while doing a hold with your other foot is really annoying too.

GEORGE / Charisma.com
The first break in this chart was completely pointless. The second break was long enough to meet this week's requirements, so why have the first break anyways? Other than that, it was generally a pretty standard file; nothing really stood out.

Gumustdo / HyperDuck Soundworks
Expert: I can't say this was as good as Breathless's Expert chart but this was still really good. I also love how much this chart embraces this week's theme with multiple breaks throughout.

Challenge: WOW. This was good. Like, really good.

Hideaway / Kiesza
Jumps to accent the various "oohs" and "aahs" would have been nice, but as is it's decent. It just takes a really long time to get to the good parts!

It's Not Right But It's Okay (Thunderpuss Remix) / Whitney Houston
This is an 8? Feels a bit hard for an 8. Not that it matters, this was very fun and near perfect. Loved it!

Knell / Project B-
If I have anything to nitpick about with this chart, it's the gallops. They kinda make the chart rougher than it should be (yeah, it's a boss song, but the gallops took away some of the fun factor for me). It's still a very good chart though.

No More Sorrow / Linkin Park
Expert: A couple of the breaks really shouldn't have been breaks at all. I get that you want to really embrace this week's theme but it just doesn't work everywhere. The biggest culprit of this about halfway through the song during that heavy breakdown. At such an intense point in the song, I really don't want to be standing there holding down a pair of holds. That's just boring. And considering that you already met the minimum requirements for this week's theme at the beginning of the song, it's pretty pointless too. What's even stranger is that there are notes during these four measures in literately every other difficulty. Why leave it out here? It happens again near the end of the song. I reach the climax, and I spend another two measures doing nothing. It's irritating.

Other than those two major problems, this wasn't bad at all.

Challenge: The 12ths at the 94 second mark have a weird start to them. There's no clear indicator that you should start crossed over, so I started with my left foot and had to double-step to avoid spinning. Needless to say, it was awkward.

On the subject of crossovers, immediately after that there were 12th note runs that were stepped as crossovers (and one candle run) when those same sounds were stepped as trills in the beginning. Personally I would have just stepped them as trills again to stay consistent.

I did actually like this chart a lot other than those two things I mentioned. Sorry for the sheer length of this review compared to everyone else.

Odin / Noizenecio
I really just didn't find this one all that fun. It does do a very good job of embracing this week's theme, I'll give it that.

Problem / Ariana Grande
The afrowalks seem like an odd choice considering how… not intense that particular part of the song is. I mean, I love some good crossovers, but it seemed so weird having afrowalks at a time like that. I still enjoyed the chart, and for me to enjoy a chart for a song that I can't stand takes skill.

Proposed, Flower, Wolf Part 2 / ReX
I'm confused. I can understand not wanting to step the piano ending, it probably wouldn't be all that fun. So… why not just cut it off? I mean, I hit the last step. I'm done with the chart. Now may I please go to the results screen so I can see how well/poorly I did? I really do enjoy the chart otherwise, but the way the end is handled just annoys me. If I want to hear the ending, I'll listen to the song on its own rather than play the file.

In the end though, it really is more of an annoyance than anything. In the future I'd advise prolonging the chart for the sake of a few extra seconds of music. Otherwise, good job.

Sakura Mirage / Ryu☆
Fantastic. 'Nuff said. I actually didn't think the ending needed to be redone but this version works too.

SPICY PIECE (Ryu Remix) / Ryu
Not really one of your better charts IMO, but still fun to play. It... just is. Song choice really helped here.

SPOONYRIDE.MOD / Dasyati
This was a bit bland and uninteresting for me, to be honest... Except the ending, I actually thought that was pretty hilarious.

Strange song choice, by the way.

Straight From The Underground (Joey Riot Powerbounce Remix) / DJ Kurt
The double-stepping issue seems to be reduced in this chart compared to your previous entry, but it still comes up a lot. Jumps usage seemed to be a little random at times and even a couple of holds didn't make any sense.

Stupid Hoe / Nicki Minaj
Just when I thought Nicki Minaj couldn't get any more irritating.

The steps are okay, I guess, except for the unnecessary 400 BPM sections and the incredibly anti-climactic ending. The music at the end suggests much harder steps, and instead there's only a handful of holds spread out miles apart from each other."
Wiggle feat. Snoop Dogg / Jason Derulo Arrows&Beats Eurgh, random speedups… Okay, I get what sound you're following at each of the short speedups, but they're really just not fun at all. They come completely unexpected and they're needlessly difficult to time. In a chart that's otherwise pretty easy, it seems really wrong to include them.

Y&Co. is dead or alive / Y&Co.
Expert: The end of the speedup is pretty impossible to time correctly. Decent chart otherwise.

Challenge: The end of the speedup is still pretty much impossible to time correctly. During the speedup can be a pain too. Again, decent chart otherwise.