Difference between revisions of "Citadel Basement"

Revision as of 19:12, 28 October 2017

4th: Citadel Basement Make a Good Mega Man Level It's not uncommon for this stage to be... anxiety inducing... for people. Overview Creator(s): Entity1037 Composer(s): Capcom (original) RushJet1 (remix) Statistics Scores: 86 75 91 66 57 Total: 75 / 100 Rank: 4th Elements: 1 Enemies: Ring Ring Beak Theme Music "Cossack Stage 4" from the "Mega Man 4 Remade" Album Stage Order Location: Tier 5 Previous: Research Facility Next: NEON GRAVITY

"Hi"

―Entity1037, Secret message hidden in a secret room near the beginning of the level.

Overview

Citadel Basement is the 4th place entry in Make a Good Mega Man Level. It was one of the last entries submitted to the contest. However, unlike City War, it was not started so close to the entry period deadline, and does not suffer from the same problems it had (however, a few problems due to rushing do exist). The stage revolves around the green platforms from Guts Man's stage, requiring you to ride it in pseudo-auto-scrolling sections, and to use them to platform downwards in vertically scrolling sections. The stage almost completely focuses on the platforms, trying to do as much with the gimmick as possible. It also only uses devkit assets, without any custom programming or graphics. It's very difficult, with bottomless pits and spikes everywhere, and it requiring you to jump over spikes as you ride the Guts Man platforms. However, despite the difficulty and lack of custom assets, it still managed to get into the highest tier, and because of that it is often used as an example for how custom assets aren't required to make a good stage.

Strategy

Preferably come prepared with max lives (you can easily get to max by collecting some from the beginning of The Quickening). E-Tanks aren't very useful, as almost all deaths will be from instant death obstacles.

In the pseudo-auto-scrolling sections, you need to jump over and avoid spikes, shoot enemies that are in the way, and platform over terrain that forces you to jump off your Guts Man platform and then catch up to it before it leaves you. It helps when jumping over spikes on the Guts Man platforms to move to the back of the platform before jumping over it, so that when you get to the other side of the spike there's more platform to land on. It's possible to jump too far and overshoot the platform when jumping spikes, and fall into a pit. Using Rush Jet can help greatly, letting you ignore a lot of challenges. However, there is one challenge in the first pseudo-auto-scrolling section that can't be bypassed with Rush Jet, with the only way to get past it being to wait for your Guts Man platform to get into the right spot to land on it. This makes this section impossible to clear if you lose the platform. Also, at the beginning of the second pseudo-auto-scrolling section, the Guts Man platforms spawn from the ceiling, and then drop onto the rail. This gives a tight window of time to jump on the platform, and that combined with the fact that the jump is a decently big one makes this one of the hardest jumps in the game. It's recommended that you use Rush Jet to get on the platform.

If you lose the Guts Man platform, then you're out of luck.

This jump may not look so bad in this screenshot, but remember the platform is moving AWAY from him. I meant it when I said it's one of the hardest jumps in the game.

In the vertical descent sections, you need to inch your way downward from platform to platform, and "look before you leap", as it were. You are always able to see what's ahead and where you should go next, so it's a matter of being careful. Unfortunately there's not really a way to make these sections easier. The level geometry makes Rush Jet and Rush Coil useless in most places. The only thing that helps is using Metal Blade on some of the enemies, however a lot of enemies are easily defeated with the Mega Buster anyway. There's also the fact that the first vertical section doesn't have a checkpoint at the start of it, meaning you have to wait through the first pseudo-auto-scroll section all over again if you die to it. This isn't helped by the other fact that the first vertical section is the hardest of the two vertical sections, with the one later in the stage being more relaxed with its challenges (a difficulty curve issue that's due to that part of the level and everything after it being rushed the night before the entry period deadline). Plus, the final challenge right before the first checkpoint room is pretty demanding.

Slow and Steady

This final challenge before the first checkpoint is also impossible to make easier with weapons.

Okay, what DOESN'T this stage do with these platforms?!

Secret Room

The stage has a secret room near the beginning of the stage. When you first get on the Guts Man platform, wait until the platform is out from under the low ceiling, and then jump on Rush Jet and go all the way to the left of the screen. You will screen transition into a secret area, with a W-Tank, an extra life, and the word "Hi" spelled out in tiles. Use Rush Jet to go to the platforms with the collectibles. It's impossible to get out of the room and back into the normal part of the level without dying though, so getting the extra life is kind of mandatory if you come here. Another secret "Hi" room also appears in Entity1037's Make a Good Mega Man Level 2 entry stage, The Stage Nobody Asked For.

Hi

Scrapped Content

There was a custom boss planned for the level called "Rail Hunter". It would have been fought while on a bunch of rail platforms that would occasionally switch tracks to change heights. It was scrapped due to time. The final parts of the stage were barely finished in time as it was. The boss would have had 3 different kinds of attacks, coming from 3 different cannon parts. The main body would be invincible, requiring you to hit and destroy the cannons to hurt it.

Idea sketch of the scrapped boss, drawn by Entity1037.

The boss was also planned to be in Make a Good Mega Man Level 2, first as an alternate boss in The Stage Nobody Asked For, then as a room in Null and Void, and THEN as a statue boss, but each time it ended up being scrapped due to other things taking priority, and running out of time.

Make a Good Mega Man Level 2

A recreation of the first vertical segment of the level is included in Make a Good Mega Man Level 2 as a room in the Pit of Pits