Cornerstone to Dominate

21st: Cornerstone to Dominate Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level

Worms need platforms too.

Overview Creator(s): Llama Hombre Composer(s): NecroPhageonIII Statistics Scores: 74 65 50 87 Total: 69 / 100 Rank: 21st Elements: 1 Box Items: Diarn Giant Springer Imorm Angle Platform Crash Lift Enemies: Diarn Giant Springer Imorm Tatebo Gimmicks: Angle Platform Crash Lift Sub-Bosses: Kabatoncue Bosses: Metal Man

Theme Music Neon Starlight Stage Order Location: Tier 9 Previous: Darkwing City Next: Through the Crabacombs

Cornerstone to Dominate is the 21st place entry in Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level. It consists of a dark metallic area filled with moving and shifting platforms, often with Imorms upon them. Halfway through the level, it shifts into using Skull Man's tileset while retaining the same platforming themes. Cornerstone to Dominate is also the subject of the Minimal Destruction sidequest, in which the level must be beaten without destroying more than five enemies.

Strategy

It is important to be cautious when platforming in this level, as Imorms are often placed so that they will fall directly onto Mega Man in mid-jump. In most cases, this is not so much a threat as a surprise that slows the player down, but in conjunction with more aggressive enemies like Diarns, this can easily lead to damage. Both Diarns and Tatebos are scattered around the stage as armored enemies with very little health, making them extremely vulnerable to weapons like the Rain Flush. When attempting to do the stage buster only, it's worthwhile to know that that both enemies can be destroyed as they lower their shields but before they fire.

A few rooms into the level is a drop from a room with an Imorm on an Angle Platform into a room with two Diarns and a Tatebo. If the player slides into a hole on the left side of the room, they can find a bonus room containing an E-Tank. Another E-Tank can be received by holding left while dropping after the first Kabatoncue fight, or by simply using Rush Coil in the same room.

For Minimal Destruction, both the two Kabatoncues and Metal Man must be killed to finish the stage, so the player may only destroy two other enemies. The Spark Shock is a useful tool for this challenge as it will freeze enemies in place while dealing no damage. The challenge of this sidequest can be greatly reduced by using the Absorption Armor and/or Blast Wind upgrades, which make it easier and less costly to simply ignore all minor enemies, and bringing a few E-Tanks to restore the damage this strategy inflicts.

Judge Comments

Judge Comments
ParmaJon  : 74 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 27 / 35 09 / 15 10 / 10 18 / 25 10 / 15 This level looks and sounds really good. It's also super fun. The challenges you present are really fun and engaging with a healthy difficulty curve. Using the large spring enemies with the platforms feels really good, especially since both aren't used like this in their original games. Also, as someone who doesn't like most minibosses, I enjoyed this one. Good job.
PKWeegee  : 65 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 17 / 35 10 / 15 10 / 10 18 / 25 10 / 15 I liked this one. Even if it was a tad short, what was there is definitely nicely designed. I guess you could say it's cute. I would have liked to see more combining of the two gimmicks, though. Oh, and fighting Metal Man on the platforms was fun.
M-Jacq  : 50 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 21 / 35 05 / 15 08 / 10 09 / 25 07 / 15 Halfwayish through the level, there's this set of Crash Lift rails shaped like an upside-down L. The platform doesn't need to be shaped like that. Indeed, that little vertical crook just extends the wait time before you can try the segment again. The stage has a lot of little moments like this where the Crash Lifts are placed in a way that adds a lot of downtime to the level, so while it's well-made, there's enough drag that the level isn't all that fun. I think you should have tried a lot harder to counteract this than you did. The Metal Man fight is also just... weird. Easy to cheese, but with a lot of downtime while you wait for Metal Man to slowly die as he jogs in place.
Freems  : 87 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 32 / 35 10 / 15 10 / 10 22 / 25 13 / 15 A level doesn't always have to awe and amaze to just be a good time. This was another one of those levels that just kinda casually delights the whole time and I feel like I'm sitting down and playing some Mega Man. The angle platforms didn't terribly go crazy but I always like seeing the Crash Platforms being used on smaller rail sections. It sure beats waiting a whole cycle and a platform just moving a little bit is able to add a little spice to a normal section. I especially liked how it was used with the hippo miniboss. The first time the platforms are on small rails giving you a lot of time to jump and shoot but you gotta switch often. The second time it's a longer rail meaning there's a bit more wait time, but to balance out it gives you more time to shoot the miniboss at the top of its arc. It's also the right way to plug gimmicks in the boss room. Not something completely pointless but not something that just makes the boss unfun. The platforms add just a little spice to Metal Man's jumping which is fun. Doesn't really break any new grounds, but I liked it!