Is it controversial to say Death Moon doesn't look like a 1.9 level? I thought surely yes, but as I replayed the level for this review, I remembered exactly why this level is so fondly remembered.

Images do not do this level justice, so consider watching Nexus's high quality replay of this level, as that is also where these screenshots are taken from.

In addition to the fantastic art and effects, Death Moon has something interesting on display: evidence of how it was made. And by that, I mean it is not afraid to look like a Geometry Dash level.

Take Death Moon's first ship part. It looks great, but you can still tell how it was made.

You can see the saws are made by surrounding the default black saw introduced in Clutterfunk with chains. Then throw a red gear in the center and you've done it. You could recreate this design if you wanted to because you can see exactly which objects FunnyGame used to make the level. But despite that, the part still looks great!

Many modern levels look amazing, but it is nigh impossible to tell how they're made.

You could argue this is just a product of the limitations of 1.9. And perhaps that's true, but 1.9 has certainly had art levels where it is harder to tell how it was made. Even Death Moon has some parts like that. Take this crow, for example.

You probably have a rough idea of how it was made and what blocks could be used. But it would be hard for a new creator to recreate it without analyzing it in the editor first.

Where I'm going with this is that I think it is incredible how FunnyGame managed to make a level not only look good, but look simple. He makes building levels like this look easy, which is incredible.

This part, for example, is deceptively simple. Yet I miss that. Modern levels would fill a part like this with more bloat than it needs.

This is also another reason why I love other 1.9 levels. For example, the famous wave part in Zobros's original Nine Circles looks amazing, yet it is easy to see how it was made. In order words, I think that's what makes Nine Circles so great. And is probably also what led to it becoming the phenomena we know today.

To put it simply: I think Death Moon's simplicity is what makes it great. It's not hiding how it was made or hiding the fact that it is a Geometry Dash level. And I love it for that, especially in the modern day where it feels like many top levels are trying to hide the fact that they're in Geometry Dash.

But despite Death Moon's simplicity, it doesn't look like a 1.9 level. But it also doesn't suffer from the flaws of 2.0 levels (you know what I'm talking about). This level doesn't look like anything else and simply stands strong on its own.

Regardless, Death Moon is still certainly a product of its time. In particular, the hitboxes in some parts are infamous.

This has always been a well known quirk, but it's funny to see how bad the hitboxes really are using modern tools.

Aside from this, Death Moon is still remembered for its excellent gameplay. Which is interesting, since it feels like bad hitboxes like this is more than enough to ruin a level in the modern day. So the fact that people can put up with these issues and praise Death Moon for it's gameplay is a testament for just how good this level is.

Finally, there's one more thing I would like to go over, and that's the fact that this was never uploaded to FunnyGame's account. Instead, FunnyGame uploaded this under his alias known as Caustic.

This is probably because Death Moon exceeded the 20,000 object limit for the time and FunnyGame feared getting his main account banned. In fact, Death Moon even exceeded the 30,000 object limit of 2.0.

Fortunately, instead of banning Caustic or deleting Death Moon, RobTop featured it. Which is especially interesting when you realize that Caustic was not known at all prior to Death Moon.

I couldn't tell you if FunnyGame promoted this level on his main account or if Death Moon was just so good it managed to attract RobTop's attention despite not being by a well regarded creator. But 1.9 was also a time period infamous for amazing levels going unrated due to not being by popular creators, as this was before the moderator system we know today was fleshed out.

I want to believe Death Moon was just so good of a level that it attracted all its attention all on its own, but I couldn't tell you if that's what actually happened.

Either way, the fact that a level this memorable was uploaded under an alternate name shows that FunnyGame never cared about fame. He just cared about making art. And he certainly did with this level.

I could go on and talk about how some parts don't hold up as well as others. And talk about even more gameplay quirks and nitpicks. But all of that has already been covered to death in other reviews. So instead, I'll end this review here, giving this level a 10/10 despite its flaws because I can't think of many other levels that deserve it.

I was going to talk about Death Moon's fantastic ending, but WHErwin already does in his video, so you should watch that instead!

If for whatever reason you haven't beat Death Moon yet, go give it a shot! It is a relatively easy demon, so you should be able to beat it if you give it a go.