Alpha-Omega

61st: Alpha-Omega Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level

Alpha, Omega, Gamma, Upsilon... where's the love for Pi in these games?

Overview Creator(s): Samario Composer(s): CAPCOM, Takashi Tateishi (originals) Mathew Valente (cover) Statistics Scores: 64 47 36 77 Total: 56 / 100 Rank: 61st Elements: 1 Box Items: Batton Biree Spark Teck Fire Pillar Quick Laser Enemies: Batton Biree Spark Teck Gimmicks: Fire Pillar Key Barrier Quick Laser (drain) Reflect Block Room Low Gravity Yoku Block Bosses: Quick Man

Theme Music Mega Man 10 - Deep in Space Boss: Mega Man 2 - Boss Stage Order Location: Tier 5 Previous: Well-Oiled Machine Next: Copper Cave

Alpha-Omega is the 61st place entry in Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level. It is a Quick Laser-centric level that heavily features airborne enemies, including Biree Sparks and Tecks that patrol ceilings. Outside of a few areas that have lower gravity than normal, however, the level otherwise lacks much in the way of memorability, beyond some hidden rooms containing stoic yet motivational signs. Even the Quick Lasers are mostly harmless, as the variant used drains Mega Man's health instead of killing him outright.

Strategy

To the left of the starting screen, an easy E-Tank can be obtained in a hidden room. The opening sections are incredibly simplistic introductions to the level's box items, including a walled-off set of rotating Quick Lasers. Traditional horizontal lasers appear shortly after a Biree Spark room, but are frequently blocked off by Yoku Blocks positioned in their path. After the checkpoint, which includes a hidden screen to the left with an E-Tank and a sign, Mega Man comes upon a Key Barrier. The key lies behind a set of nine Quick Lasers firing at a ladder (with Yoku Block patterns blocking off three at a time), followed by a set of Fire Pillars with Tecks shooting from alcoves above. To avoid waiting for the pillars to drop, the Tengu Blade can be used to harmlessly dash through the pillars, while the Rain Flush will extinguish them outright. The projectiles dropped by the Biree Sparks behind the Key Barrier are easily neutralized by the Flame Mixer, even when travelling along the ground.

The remainder of the level, though bereft of checkpoints, is very simple, with the most difficult hazard usually being overhead Biree Sparks and the ground sparks they dispense. As they are often out of reach, the Homing Sniper or Beat can be used to kill them from the ground before they drop their sparks. The Fire Pillars, again, can be dashed through with the Tengu Blade, and most of the Quick Lasers are slow and easy to avoid. The penultimate screen, however, features another set of rotating lasers, only with an open gap for them to bleed through, with only a set of Yoku Blocks to block them off. The blocks cycle between appearing on either side of the gap, then the centre, so damage can be avoided by taking it slow. However, as the lasers do not kill on contact, tanking the minor drain is quicker. At the end of the level is a battle against Quick Man.

Judge Comments

Judge Comments
ParmaJon  : 64 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 25 / 35 8 / 15 10 / 10 15 / 25 6 / 15 I really liked that the music made me feel contemplative, like when I walk into a room I should think about what I'm doing. Good choice. I'm not gonna say mixing Yoku blocks and Quick lasers is something entirely new, but I applaud that you brought in another element to make it more interesting since I don't think your two gimmicks work super well together. The level is on the shorter side so it doesn't feel fully developed, but it's still fun. Two nitpicks that affect your aesthetic score are that the blocks the fire columns come out of blend in too much, and the base Yoku blocks look out of place. The key challenge was fun; even if it was hard to do perfectly, it was forgiving enough that it's okay. Fun, solid level overall.
PKWeegee  : 47 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 11 / 35 6 / 15 10 / 10 10 / 25 10 / 15 It's boring; I can't really say much else. The one room with the key was alright, but even then, that's all there is to remember, really. Besides the numerous "secret" rooms, that is.
M-Jacq  : 36 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 10 / 35 7 / 15 5 / 10 5 / 25 9 / 15 Y'know, I suspect that most of the people playing this game have slightly better computers than me. But I still cannot forgive a level that lags down to as low as FIFTEEN FRAMES PER SECOND, just so you could get some spinny laser things that add nothing to the level other than stress for my poor graphics processor. In a perverse way, the lag caused by these lasers is actually kind of helpful during the Quick Man fight at the end - but I still really don't enjoy when the frame rate tanks like it does here. Other than that "feel" issue, the enemies here feel mostly negligible, and while the lasers are used in some interesting ways beyond "think fast!" dread... I sort of prefer the "think fast!" dread kind of level to slowly crawling up/down ladders. In general, the main source of damage for the player in this level is going to be splash damage from getting your toe stuck in a Force Beam for half a second, which is unfortunate. Oh, there are fire pillars here too I guess? Yeah. The lag really kills this one for me.
Freems  : 77 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 25 / 35 12 / 15 10 / 10 19 / 25 12 / 15 I enjoyed the different take on Quick beams here. There's only so many race against the clock Quick beam challenges you can do before you feel like you've seen it all. Introducing Yoku blocks to the mix just gave it a much needed different dynamic. Though there are a handful of normal Quick beam interactions, I almost wish there were more uses with the Yoku blocks. I wonder if they could have interacted with the fire pillars at all... if not, that's more of an engine thing than a level design thing, so it's no biggie. Some of the enemies felt a little bit there just to be there, and with the spinny Quick beam thing introduced at the start, I was almost expecting more from it than just the challenge at the end. Though I guess it speaks a lot if you have me wanting more from a level that uses Quick beams. So good on you for that.

Notes

• Initially, Alpha-Omega's boss was two Quick Men with halved invulnerability frames, instead of the single unmodified Quick Man in the final game.
• M-Jacq's cited slowdown issues with Alpha-Omega can be pinned on the rotating Quick Lasers, which use the more computationally intensive Precise Quick Laser variant.
• The Fire Pillars in the Key Barrier room will often despawn when climbing back up the "laser ladder", making it a viable (if inefficient) way of avoiding them.