Difference between revisions of "Midnight Man"

The music feels like it'd fit more for a Wily Stage, or something more dynamic and action-packed. Although the visual and the settings are overall not bad, it's just a bit heavy on the blue side, it would definitely benefit from having more diverse palette choices. Another problem arises that the spikes are also the same color as everything else, making it blend in, which you don't want for a deadly hazard like that.

The stage itself seems a bit lackluster as there are minimal platforming challenges, and the enemies don't really pose a threat in most rooms, there is only one room in the entire level that is moderately challenging. I do like that the enemy choices were kept consistent throughout, however.

The room holding the gem is rather cleverly hidden, but the Hot Dog can be tricky to kill without using weapons. You're also very likely to get hit by the Crazy Cannon on your way back, which can be annoying since it can knock you right back into the secret room.

The lack of boss at the end makes the whole level feel even shorter and unfinished. Having a boss, even a default devkit one, would've made the level less lackluster, at the very least.

Overall, it's a rather weak entry. Not terrible, it's functional, but there could've been much more done to it. Adding some sort of platforming gimmick would really help keep the level from feeling too empty.

Other minor flaws crop up in what would be "polish" - the diamond path has an enemy that I'm not sure you can actually avoid without using special weapons on the exit, collision errors that allow you to get out of bounds, and a boss corridor that doesn't have a boss associated with it. Overall it's rather decent.

I’m guessing you didn’t put Roaders and Brain Breaks in the same stage as a dig at academia, though. In which case, why have two enemies here that fulfill the exact same role? I also don’t know why you have Battons in an open-air environment so they can hit you and then fly up into the stratosphere, or why there’s a miniboss which you can safely snipe from the left end of the screen. Most of the enemies here feel like they were picked at random. The level’s architecture, on the other hand, is wonderful. You hop from rooftop to rooftop, scale the side of a building, enter that building through the roof, and descend through the inside of the building until you reach the exit. There’s a real contrast between the wide-open outdoors segments and the cramped corridors of the building interior. If the enemy placement here was as deliberate as the platforming, you’d have a pretty good level. As is, though, it’s just OK.

After a miniboss fight with a hotdog on the roof, you drop down and finally get a chance to evaluate the situation of a room in peace (sort of, since the bat will fly at you eventually). After that follow 2 more rooms that give you a chance to see what you have to deal with. Lastly, a nicely introduced Big Eye. The design is pretty decent in places, but in others, it feels kinda disorganized. Creativity wasn’t really a high point here, as it is just rooms of basic enemy challenges. While the graphics fit the midnight theme, they aren’t anything groundbreaking. In general, I can say that I had moderate fun in this stage. It’s not something I would want to come back to, but its nothing offensive.

The background of the first half of the stage suggests that it is nighttime, and there are bats. This is a good start. In general, the graphics are pretty good; there’s some nice detail in the foregrounds, and the damage-ridden background for the indoors portion (despite being a bit too close in color to the foreground) suggests there might be an interesting story behind this level—especially on the last screen; I want to know what that cool-looking capsule thing is. Unfortunately, the challenges do nothing to bring that story to life.

I applaud that the enemy roster is a reasonable size and that the enemies aren’t placed all willy-nilly. I like the one screen where the dense starfield in the background makes it harder to see the Haehay’s bullets (I hope that was intentional), and I like that the Battons blend into the background for a similar sneakiness (which I also hope was intentional). But that’s about all that stands out as particularly positive about the challenges.

There’s no sense of theme to the enemies, and their placement is often less than ideal—the first Beak you meet should not be on top of the first ladder you find, nor should you hide Beaks behind the health bar. The Shotman guarding the entrance to the secret room (which is satisfyingly well hidden) is all well and good until you realize you’ll practically walk right into him on the way back out. Many enemies can be avoided or dispatched with no risk to the player whatsoever, like the useless Hot Dog near the halfway point. And I’m not sure it’s even possible to avoid damage while fighting the secret Hot Dog with the buster; that is a looooooong string of fireballs. The lack of gimmicks is a letdown, too. The level needs something to make it stand out, and the enemy challenges aren’t novel or complex enough to compensate.

The music is fine; I found it a bit abrasive at first and I’ve already forgotten what it actually sounds like, but it fills the noise void well enough. I didn’t find any technical issues; there was one screen transition at the top of a ladder that could’ve been a little smoother, but that’s a minor thing. Otherwise, there’s not much to say. This level needs a stronger theme and an actual MIDNIGHT MAN to live up to its name.