Keith, that comparison is really spot on. I couldn't have said it any better, myself.
Somenetguy: Well, the goal behind this level isn't to confuse the player. I really think this level is just as valid as any other, with the caveat that it requires grasping the distinction between depth of a combo (those numbers that show up when a chain clears) and the total number of chains in a combo. Deeper combos typically give more points than shallower combos (refer to
http://www.arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Tidalis_-_Scoring_Calculations if you'd like more info on that), so the skill of making shallow many-chain combos can be useful in situations where you want to clear a lot of blocks quickly without accumulating many points (as well as in many other objective combinations that aren't present in the adventure mode, to my recollection). Setting up those shallow combos and making sure they don't go deeper can be rather challenging. You have to find or set up blocks so that the first chain can spawn two more chains, and you need to make sure that neither of those chains lead to more chains. There is a wide range of skills (searching for chains, setting combos up, looking ahead, and preventing combos from getting too deep) required for completing this stage.
So, I think there's a lot gained in learning how to complete this level. The skills required here are necessary (though not necessarily in this same combination) all throughout the adventure mode. There are things we can do (perhaps adding in another basic tutorial, or having text in the level itself) to make the objective more clear, which I think is a better solution than just scrapping the level, given the merits it has. We don't want to confuse players; that feedback is definitely noted and appreciated.
