Difference between revisions of "User:Yoshiatom/AUWAW"

Underwater adventures, in many ways an old constant--and this one... it's not great. The water section is largely just... there. It's got some good moments: Like the Swim Balls actually doing things, the first token, and the water currents before the first midboss. However, the endless Pengs in the water current can get a bit annoying, and the first gas vents are hard to see when M-422A is drawing your attention. Most prominently, there's not a lot of checkpoints, which makes the second token more frustrating than it's worth.

Ironically, the level doesn't come into its own until it stops trying to be an underwater adventure. The marine base is a better time. Piledans and Birees handle quite well, and Machine Gun Joe is fair encouragement for weapon use. The Sheep Conveyors are also great at keeping the player's interest, and the electrocuted water works really well with Irucan and chase sequences. Unfortunately, Waltriot is either useless or aggravating, there's no middle ground. And that chase sequence? That's when the level peaks. While there's an interesting concept behind the room of Sheep Conveyors that obstruct your movement, the gameplay itself is kind of boring. And the final section? Good grief, the number of Irucans were just plain irritating. Not actually that deadly, just royally annoying.

The bosses are as much of a mixed bag as the level is. Kamegoro Maker is an effective midboss, and it makes a good optional challenge for goodies-though just an M-Tank seems a little small for a dual Kamegoro. The DOS Mega Man was a very unexpected ending, if not a tad jarring. But while he might be unfitting, he offers a fun variety in his fight. The problem is the Hybrid Octopus midboss. Constant swarm of enemies? Eh, the minions are manageable. Camons hitting your head while you're trying to climb platforms? That... can be irking. First instance of Sheep Conveyors in the entire stage? That's... not entirely fair to the player. The platforms last for barely any time at all? That's the point I break out the Thunder Beam and tear this thing a new one. That thing was infuriating, and sticks out like a sore thumb in an otherwise fine set of bosses.

I can't say I was all that thrilled by this stage. There's some solid ideas, a few decently designed platforming challenges, and an interesting end boss, but by the end? Not much of this level really stuck out to me.

I think the biggest issue here is the stage's length. It goes on for a bit longer than it really should, with several segments that either feel like filler, or don't amount to much beyond throwing a couple of enemies your way. The only parts in the first half that really stood out to me were the water current segments, although I think that's mainly because they briefly caught me by surprise the first time around (until I realized they were indicated by the background tiles).

There was also the Octobulb Generator, which...to be fully honest here, I'm not a fan of either of the mini-bosses that fully make up this thing. The combination of them wasn't quite as bad as it could have been, but I didn't exactly enjoy the fight either. You have to run on the conveyor a bit longer than the standard Octobulb fight (if you want the platforms to even stay up for long enough so that you can get in some decent hits). The constantly respawning enemies make this process more tedious than it should be, since if they hit you, you've more or less already lost your chance to deal damage to the mini-boss.

The second half of this stage is a lot better by comparison, mostly thanks to there being more interesting gimmick usage. The Sheep Man conveyors in particular get some good usage in a few rooms. The one that has you dodging the Machine Gun Joe's bullets while trying to activate the lifts was rather fun, along with the hallway that repurposed the conveyors to be more like platforming obstacles. The electrified water sections would have been just as fine, but they often ended up being more annoying than not thanks to the Irucans (their respawn rate honestly feels a bit too fast). Essentially, the second half is somewhat of a mixed bag of good and not so good segments. Thankfully, the boss sticks out as one of the better moments. He's probably the best thing about the stage, even if he takes a bit of time to learn as he quickly changes phases and attack patterns.

Overall, it's a stage that's really rough around the edges, but I could also see it turning out great with some polishing.

An Entry Review? Wow!

You hoped you would win? I have bad news then...

YOU DIDN'T WIN.

This entry definitely feels like it took heavy inspiration from official games with its level design.

But it just somehow seems even more frustrating to play.

The enemy density is rather high throughout, with most of them being airborne and tricky to get by. Not to mention the sheer amount of instant-death spikes because it's a water stage, and all water stages are required to have as many spikes as possible, clearly.

Many of the enemies can infinitely spawn, too, which makes several sections much more frustrating than they should be due to the overall chaotic nature. And of course have to include the Octo-Battery miniboss with the respawning enemies on top, joy!

The worst offender would be the fact there are not enough checkpoints to compensate for the high difficulty. The only mercy the stage could've offered from this big ol' gauntlet of pain.

The only part I like about the stage is the usage of Sheep Man conveyors. That was a clever setup in the room with the Machine Gun Joes.

The other redeeming part of the entry is the fight with Mega Man DOS, definitely a funny twist on the whole copy robot deal. Mega Man DOS himself is also actually a fairly reasonable fight itself, compared to the stage, whew. Definitely a welcoming climax change.

Pardon me, but I believe you're looking for the Make Two Good Mega Man Levels Contest, which is down the hall. Splitting a level into radically different halves can work if there's a strong narrative, aesthetic, or gameplay connection--here we have a few recurring enemies and a level title that really only applies to the first half (unless "Wow!" is what we're calling the second half).

The first half is a fun romp; catchy music and funny secrets make a great first impression. Challenges gradually increase in novelty and difficulty--Kamegoro Maker, water spouts, and rushing water are especially clever here. Graphics are a curious mix of colors and textures, with a few problems that could impact gameplay clarity (eg, multiple spike styles, no visual cues for rushing water, background pillars that look like foreground). Octobulb, like many challenges in this level, borders on enemy spam and seems overly difficult for a no-damage buster-only run.

The second half feels more professional, with fully cohesive graphics and a commitment to developing two main gimmicks (Sheep conveyors and do-not-adventure-in-me water) in multiple creative ways. High points include the introduction of electrified water, the rising water area, the room of Birees, and the conveyors that power nothing and merely slow you down. The final stretch could've had a safer start (don't jump off that ladder!) and slightly slower rising/falling, plus it's over too quickly. Thematically nonsensical as he may be, I love the boss (and thank you for skipping the intro on a retry).

Across both halves, power-ups are needed more *between* checkpoints than *at* checkpoints. There's death/softlock potential accessing the first secret, and minor missing water collision around the M-Tank later. Flashing lights could use some restraint.

Either half would've been a fine entry; together, they compete against each other for the level's true focus and theme.

One notable story involves Loyana later. He rather, struggled with part of the stage, and to be honest, this is an incredibly difficult level. Most of it is fair with challenging mechanics, but has a couple of incredible spikes in difficulty (both figuratively and literally!). This difficulty is compounded by a total lack of checkpoints.

The stage is aesthetically pleasing, and some of the challenges were really cool. I liked the use of Kamegoro Maker integrated into the level rather than as a boss - darn cool idea. The water rising tower was pretty fun, and as a whole the tokens were pretty good challenges (although the first one is a little hard to spot).

Beyond the difficulty, there are also several design issues. The water current direction has no indication; and there are a lot of enemies with weird movement patterns on screen at once, making it difficult to avoid them or the instant death spikes around. There is a lot going on in the level, and it could have really done with cutting a few of the enemy types and removing the conveyor gimmick entirely. I don't think it added anything to the level, other than frustration.

This leads nicely onto the mid-boss, Trying to avoid swearing, but you have taken what is already one of the hardest and most unintuitive mid-bosses in Mega Man 10 and ramped it up to fuc-- er... hecking insane levels.

This is the first time the player has encountered the Sheep Man conveyor in the stage. Those who have not seen this before will have no idea what to do in this room.\n\nCase in point: I got to see this first hand - Loyana hadn't played Mega Man 10, so... cue utter confusion. This was a real roadblock for him and I ended up having to show him the original fight. Oof.

Even to Mega Man veterans, it just looks like a normal conveyor meant to hamper movement, not an integral part of the boss fight.

The new inverted layout does not work with the spawn locations of the Little Pachipachis. In the original, the conveyor belts were on the sides, so the enemies did not spawn on top of you. In order to get off the belts, the player must jump off the conveyor belt, right into the natural path of the spawns. The block layout itself traps the player in if jumping was mis-timed, the blocks are not around for very long, and the random positioning of the Camon enemies means they can drop on your head even if you do everything else right, continuing to rub salt into the wound.\n\nTo summarise, this mid\dboss is appalling even when you know how the conveyors work.

Let's just say it took double digits minutes in attempts using the buster before giving up and using Thunder Beam, which bypasses the entire boss fight.

I am not quite sure what DOS Mega Man is doing here, and he has a few (smaller) issues himself. Mostly the Blade Launcher and Force Field phases. I'm not sure how dodgeable these are in close quarters, and Force Field in particular comes out with no warning. The rest of the weapons were decent enough.