I have missed this level when it first came out, and played the 1.5 version. It was a lot of fun! Backtracking got a little tedious towards the end, but I still enjoyed everything. Haven't seen that many Knytt references in a while. I loved the idea of the desert maze, too. It was a bit shocking to me that someone else found the earth tileset+grass tileset combination useful, since I thought I was the only one, in
Corridors (
http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=2832) and in
Nightmare World (
http://nifflas.lpchip.nl/index.php?topic=5623.0). I just found the combination to be very beautiful, but didn't think anyone else would do so. Have you seen those levels, or did you come up with the idea yourself?
Bugs: I somehow fell into a void when falling to Pinewood Heights, but that may have been due to me moving around rather frantically. I also noticed a solid block in the tower in that area, which can be hit from below, resulting in a wallswim - granted, it's not that easy, but still very much possible.
A few bits of level design criticism:
almost every bit of danger was a huge surprise to me, and resulted in an unpleasant, totally unexpected death. E.g. the little critter that comes out of the earth in the caves, or the spikes in the right part of Pinewood Heights. In a relatively relaxed level such as this one, dangerous areas should feel a bit more dangerous - maybe the music can hint at some challenge, or a few more lethal critters can be added in safer places, so that the player could realize they should be careful in an area. Those spikes could've been added to some part in the beginning of Pinewood Heights, closer to the last savepoint, in order to make the player understand they're dangerous - without sacfiricing a lot of progress.
It would be great to see another level from you. This one felt really good to play!