The level begins with a sign noting that the bridge to the titular factory is out of commission due to a recent meteor shower. The screen does not scroll past where the bridge would lead to, forcing Mega Man to go underwater in order to progress. This leads to a horizontal section filled with pits, Metall Swims, and spikes. Going up at the end of the section leads into the factory, with the gate to enter the factory being behind Mega Man, and unable to open. The next few screens shift from a flat area with Wall Blasters and Neo Metalls, to Fire Tellies interacting with Conveyors, to a series of Acid Drops, both on the ceiling and on the floor, falling upwards. This section ends with a fight against a Giant Metall Cannon; defeating it will open up a hole in the floor. The hole leads to another underwater section with Metall Swims and Metall Cannons. This section ends with a ladder going up to a teleporter, leading to the "QUINT Training unit". This is a series of rooms connected by teleporters, using gimmicks established earlier in the level. The first teleporter room contains more Conveyers and Fire Tellies. The second room uses Acid Drops and Metall Dances. The third room combines the gimmicks of the previous two rooms together and ends with a sign containing a threatening message from Quint next to the teleporter. Entering the teleporter will appear to place Mega Man back at the starting area, now with the bridge repaired. Entering the boss gate at the end of the bridge leads to a fight against Quint's Met Machine, which has two phases.
| Judge Comments
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 Mick Galbani : 22 / 100
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| Design
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Fun
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Creativity
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Aesthetics
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Functionality
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| 11 / 35
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2 / 25
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1 / 15
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5 / 15
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3 / 10
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Oy... not a whole lot of stuff to talk about here, really. The enemy set is standard fare: a few different Mets, Wall Blasters, and Fire Tellies. The Fire Tellies are somewhat effective on conveyor belts, but otherwise the enemies here largely exist to be shot at, nothing else. The gimmicks aren't a whole lot better: The water platforming is nothing we haven't seen before, and outside of the Fire Telly combination the conveyor belts are similarly standard. The purple acid pools that turn red are a little odd, and they're probably the most interesting aspect of the level with their timing challenges.
Unfortunately, the most *noteworthy* aspect of the level would be the broken checkpoints-at least, when I was playing it. The checkpoint unlocked at the Giant Met Cannon is for the room below it, allowing you to skip the boss entirely with retries. More importantly, the checkpoint for the Quint Training Area is completely busted, taking you out of bounds and forcing you to restart the entire level. Stumbling on that was NOT a pleasant experience. These have been fixed for the main game, but it really hurt the functionality score with me. Playtest your checkpoints, folks!
There's also a custom boss here. Unfortunately, the Met Machine is basically just the longest, most needlessly tight Metall Potton fight ever, but also it flies when it's almost dead. I'm glad there's something here, but it isn't terribly interesting.
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 Shinryu : 26 / 100
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| Design
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Fun
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Creativity
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Aesthetics
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Functionality
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| 6 / 35
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3 / 25
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3 / 15
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4 / 15
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10 / 10
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There's...not much to discuss with this level, sadly. The aesthetics, room layouts and enemy placement are all pretty basic, with those last two especially being a problem (since it means you can breeze through most of this stage without even thinking). The segments involving the conveyor belts, acid droplets and Fire Tellies are a step in the right direction, though. I would still consider them a bit on the easy side, but at the very least, those sections were a bit more engaging than the rest of the level.
That aside, the only really notable thing here is the boss. While I think the concept of a met-producing machine is pretty sound, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. You can trivialize the first phase by standing in one spot while jumping and spamming the Laser Trident, while the second phase is basically a much slower moving Wily Capsule that only spawns Metools. All of this makes for an unfortunately easy and rather underwhelming end boss.
Overall, while there's sound ideas here with both the conveyor segments and the boss, they (along with the rest of the stage's design) could have done with a lot more refinement.
|
 Pachy : 59 / 100
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| Design
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Fun
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Creativity
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Aesthetics
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Functionality
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| 16 / 35
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15 / 25
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10 / 15
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8 / 15
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10 / 10
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SolosPachyReview
Now this is a charming little stage! Definitely has the feeling of being someone's first stage, but there are surprisingly some good design principles in place. Like introducing each gimmick and obstacle in isolation at first, then later on trying to mix and match them.
I like the cute little throwback at the end of going back to the first screen. The boss caught me by surprise, too. I was fully expecting a standard Quint fight, but the creator went the extra mile to try to create a new boss, which I appreciate.
Obviously, though, the stage has some rough edges, such as spikes stacking on top of each other, and various screens being too spacious with not much enemy density to fill them up.
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 Flashman85 : 32 / 100
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| Design
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Fun
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Creativity
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Aesthetics
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Functionality
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| 10 / 35
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9 / 25
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4 / 15
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5 / 15
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4 / 10
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Stop right there. I'm suspending your level design license.
No power-ups? A pile of touch checkpoints instead of one normal checkpoint? Inconsistently labeled bottomless pits? Blank backgrounds and messy/repetitive tile work? Teleporters (which deposit you in midair) connecting sections that easily could've been tied together organically? I know this isn't a professional level design contest, but these elements make the level feel especially slapdash and amateurish.
The text leaves me with so many questions. Was "Quint's Met Factory" really too much effort to write? If the bridge was taken out by a meteor shower, where's all the debris? What is the QUINT Training unit, and what is it doing in this alleged factory? You mean the teleporter on the *left*?
The fact that Laser Trident and Rush Jet obliterate any sense of difficulty is a sign that the challenges and architecture aren't nearly complex or varied enough. I see the start of some good ideas--conveyor + Fire Telly, two directions of acid drops (which need a color consistency check), the inconvenience of maneuvering around a broken bridge--but nothing is ever developed into anything novel or satisfying. I get no sense of purpose in the challenges, other than to fill time between the bridge gag and the boss.
I love what the boss could've been. But crippling weapon vulnerabilities, a dull middle form, a lack of visual polish (eg, Quint not mashing the controls like Wily and Cossack do), limitless enemy spawning, no protection from enemies while the final form powers up, almost inaudible final music, and the possibility of the final form *drifting out of the arena forever* wreck the whole thing. At least there's a Yashichi--so, I guess that's *one* power-up.
Reasonable length, adequate checkpoint frequency, and appropriate music show some potential. If you promise me you'll plan, polish, and playtest harder next time, I'll let you have your license back.
|
 ACESpark : 37 / 100
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| Design
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Fun
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Creativity
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Aesthetics
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Functionality
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| 12 / 35
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9 / 25
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5 / 15
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4 / 15
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7 / 10
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The boss is kind of cute, even if the challenge is backwards, since you reduce its attacking options as you whittle it down. It's first phase is incredibly basic, I think you could afford to give it different attacks as it lost parts. Overall it just needed to do...well, more things. Even the second phase amounts to not much more than what the first phase offered.
I will say, Fire Tellies and Conveyors do end up providing the more interesting element to the stage. It's unfortunately the only combination of assets in the level, and everything else just... kind of stands in the way, being a non-threat.
Graphically the stage is hideous - this is the sort of tiling that is used for placeholder stage layouts, rather than tiling the level to resemble an actual location. I fully recommend taking the time to see how main series stages are tiled. The most notable thing is the bricks - bricks should be staggered rather than just stacked on top of each other.
But the big issue, really, is that the stage is just dull. And predictable. And repetitive. Screens seem to be repeated ad nauseam, or at least any changes are so minor as to be hard to notice and they end up playing the same.
And unfortunately, the boss can wander off screen in the second phase - and his respawn flags and ranges have been configured incorrectly, therefore he can despawn, resulting in a softlock, as there is no longer a boss to defeat!
This is clearly a first effort I think, but the reason it ends up being an unfun stage is fairly benign at least, which hey, is better than the alternatives. Look at level maps (you can find them online, and with enemies and assets on the maps) from Mega Man 3 onwards, and pay attention to how the stages are put together and compare your stage.
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Mick Galbani 
Shinryu 
Pachy 
Flashman85 
ACESpark 