I like the cutesy synths at the beginning. The pads at :13 sound a little unpolished, but I like the stringed instrument and 8-bit synth bass that come in shortly thereafter. The texture changes pretty rapidly at 1:00. I think some sort of drum pattern or sweep/crash to help smooth over those transitions would be welcome. When the drums do come in at 1:20, they’re a little too quiet to have a major driving impact on the texture. That said, you clearly have a good sense of harmony and progression. The mix is a tad quiet, and the texture seems pretty devoid of effects like reverb and compression at times, which could be a major area of exploration for you going forward. Reverb in particular could help smooth over some of the rough transitions here and make the cutoff of the string melodies (like at 1:59) sound more natural. Compositionally, though, the piece is already strong and has a good emotional appeal between the nostalgic-sounding string melodies and cutesy synth arpeggios. Keep at it, Anonymous-Banonymous! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
7.25/10

cool mix of natural and chiptuney instruments! the c418 influence comes in very strong but the instrumentation is quite unique. really appreciate that everything's been played in, even though it does get a bit messy sometimes. love the chords too. the release time on the NES triangle bass sound is too long so you get some funky dissonance where the notes overlap. would like there to be some reverb or delay to give the track some space, even if you sequence in the echoes like you would in a tracker for authenticity points - right now it just feels a little dry overall.

important notes on my NGUAC review process: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1476427/18#bbspost26965604_post_text