Difference between revisions of "Coptar Man"

Enemies on the first screen, invisible walls, spikes that are misplaced to where they appear to be, platforms that you can fall straight through...

Everything seems to be placed randomly with no thoughts to them, the fans aren't placed strategically to provide any legitimate challenge. The terrain is absolutely messy and there are spikes just scattered around for no reason. Enemy selection has no continuity to it, one screen there's a Skelly Joe, the next screen there's a Snakey, and next there're the jumpy guys. Speaking of Snakey, they're all placed right at the bottom of the stage so you can't shoot them without using weapons, making the experience extra atrocious.

Did I mention there are invisible blocks everywhere? The graphics actively misguides you to the point you have to use Wheel Cutter throughout to determine where solid grounds actually are. On top of that, there appears to be some instances where utilities are required to get over tall walls.

Lastly, the "puzzle" to get the Energy Element is completely trial-and-error since you cannot tell where the spikes are. There are also no checkpoints so if you fail that, it's time to redo the whole stage again.

Oh and, the music is not properly looped...

also what are do even a "coptar" even?

To get the positive out of the way, at the *very* end of the level there's a single glimmer of a gimmick, with the magnet enemy being usable to align yourself with the path to the Energy Element.
That's the only positive. The rest of the level is littered with what seems to be signs of a zero-effort submission;
Upside-down fans with blow direction reversed compared to their orientation litter the entire stage, placed without any thought to "stage design".
The design, if you can even call it that, seems to be blocks and enemies placed at complete random.
Compounding this, the stage has a severe problem with fake spikes, fake blocks, invisible blocks, and invisible spikes; I'm fairly sure the auto-tiler wasn't removed for MaGMML3, so...?
There isn't a single checkpoint in the entire level, which makes dying to said invisible spikes extremely frustrating, especially with the forced weapon usage due to the broken collision.
To top it all off, the music doesn't even loop properly.

Coptar Man, Coptar Man
Doing the things a coptar can
What’s a coptar?
It’s not important
Coptar Man
Prop-Tops and snakes, invisible spikes,
These are a few of the things he likes
So does his level make me say “Yikes” ?
Totally, yes
Coptar Man

Cardinal Man, Cardinal Man
He’s the big bro of Coptar Man
But Rbade came first, so Cardinal wins,
Cardinal Man
(accordion solo)

If this were an actual submission I would probably just go with a snarky one liner joke as my judge comment here, but oh well, lets tear into this thing!
This stage…is a mess. Invisible collision and invisible spikes are cluttered everywhere in the stage, to the point where, I don’t even think its feasible to beat it without special weapons. In fact, I don’t even think you CAN beat it, or if you can, I don’t know how you would pass this spike meltdown at the end. Enemies are placed at complete random, and its obvious that no real thought was put into the placement.
Asthetically we have a blank blue background with random tilesets thrown together. It definitely doesn’t look appealing to me.
I don’t think I can give you any points for creativity, as it isn’t really creative when you take random assets and throw them wherever your mouse lands. (Also, you ripped off Snow man and City War >:C)

Amplifying the paranoia is the constant surprise of new enemy types assailing the player when they are least prepared to take them on. A sudden Apache Joe while the player is being launched uncontrollably off the ground by a powerful fan? Genius. Nevermind crafting cohesive challenges or giving the player a chance to understand the nature of each obstacle; tossing handfuls of miscellaneous robots onto each screen is a sure-fire way to create difficulty without expending any effort in the process. Imagine how many more Mega Man games we could have had if Capcom had taken that approach.

I’m glad to finally see a level that recognizes graphics for the scourge they are. All those differently colored pixels everywhere take too much of the focus away from the gameplay. A solid-color background, a few pipe tiles, and a handful of different spikes are really all anyone needs—and honestly, I think you even could’ve gotten away with ditching the pipe tiles.

I wholeheartedly support the music choice. The high-pitched noises of Tornado Man’s theme have captured fans’ attention for years, and the decision to loop the music in an unconventional way is a clever tie-in to the level’s overall theme of never knowing what to expect. Truly, this captures the essence of a “Coptar.”

I was so inspired by your masterful work that I decided to take a page from your book and score your level with numbers that don’t necessarily match up with anything I’ve said here. Hopefully you enjoy that as much as I enjoyed your level.