Cosmological Factory

73rd: Cosmological Factory Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level

Really, the spikes are an act of mercy here.

Overview Creator(s): Floating Cloulds Composer(s): Yuko Takehara, Kouji Murata Statistics Scores: 76 57 37 34 Total: 51 / 100 Rank: 73rd Elements: 1 Box Items: Metall EX Nitron Shield Attacker TRL Compactor Hover Enemies: Metall EX Nitron Shield Attacker TRL Gimmicks: Compactor Hover Sub-Bosses: Twin Shooter G Bosses: Mercury Other Information: Skippable

Theme Music Mega Man 6 - Credits Boss: Mega Man V - Boss Stage Order Location: Tier 4 Previous: Gettin' out of Dogecity Next: Fortified Base

Cosmological Factory is the 73rd place entry in Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level. It is a space factory-themed level that extensively uses Hovers, both as turrets and as platforms, with some rooms having him stack Hovers in a tower to reach high places. However, none of them respawn, so frequently Mega Man has only one shot to go through a room, and failure forces him to use either Rush or the Concrete Shot if resetting the screen isn't possible. In some rooms, even this isn't doable, and retrying from the most recent checkpoint is the only option.

Strategy

Starting as it means to go on, the level has a four-tile high wall that needs a Hover at the beginning to jump over. Failure results in a need to either use a utility instead, or reset the room via the Skip Teleporter. The level then places multiple Hovers together as temporary platforms, while also introducing Compactors (the first of which guards an E-Tank). Soon after, a W-Tank is available, but is guarded by a Metall EX on a high route. Though the slide passage next to it is intended to be one-way, clever Concrete Shot usage can get it from the other side. Over on the next screen, three Hovers float above spikes with a ladder on the right. To reach the ladder, Mega Man needs to jump on each Hover so that it lands on top of the previous one, creating a stack tall enough to reach it. The spiked floor means failure equals death without quick Rush Coil usage.

A Twin Shooter G appears as a midboss, with two Hovers acting as turrets. The room has two ladders, so it's easy to both avoid its lasers and attack its weak point. After the checkpoint and a pair of very simple Hovers is a room with three Hovers, a Compactor, and a Shield Attacker TRL. At least one Hover is needed to jump over a spike on the right screen boundary, but it can be difficult to time it so that it doesn't crash into the Compactor while it's descending. Using the Rush Coil or Concrete Shot is overall more reliable. The screen after that has multiple stacks of Hovers next to tall walls with Compactors, which require very careful jumping to climb up. For safety, using the Flame Mixer to block the Hovers' shots is advised, but even this isn't foolproof. If the rightmost Hover stack is completely destroyed, Mega Man can be forced to kill himself on a spike if he runs out of Concrete Shot: the right wall is too tall for the Rush Coil alone to work, and the two Compactors almost never sync up with each other.

Compared to the "staircase room", the rest of the level is remarkably easy. After a screen where Hovers in the walls are used as turrets, there is one more tricky Hover puzzle of note. Wait for the Compactor to start rising upwards, then jump on the first Hover, and quickly jump onto the second before the Compactor drops back down. While it floats over the spikes, another Hover appears in midair. Jump onto this and make it land on the initial Hover, making a stack that boosts Mega Man's height enough so he can jump over a wall at the end. The boss door lies under a few spike floors with multiple Hovers, and beyond it is a battle against Mercury, who has two Hovers in the walls of the arena. Their shots can hit Mega Man while he's jumping, so be careful to notice when they're ready to fire.

Skip Status

The devteam made Cosmological Factory skippable as a player can often softlock themselves by failing a Hover setup, since Hovers do not naturally respawn. In particular, the screen with three Compactors and a staircase of Hovers (pictured above) can easily become impossible to pass without utilities or hitting Retry/suiciding onto a spike.

Judge Comments

Judge Comments
ParmaJon  : 76 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 27 / 35 13 / 15 10 / 10 18 / 25 8 / 15 In an odd way, this level is exactly what I was expecting the contest to look like. You used Hovers in a really awesome way. Having them stack on top of each other is genuinely creating a new gimmick for a level out devkit assets. In that regard, this level should be used as an example. This level, like several other levels, has really solid and awesome challenges while lacking polish. I love the idea of the room that has 3 lines of Hovers and compactors between each set that you have to climb, but you can't reset the room and the timing is kinda tough. Something like that makes the level go from "wow awesome" to "oh God I'm replaying the same several screens to get to the one new challenge". The ability to restart rooms, especially the tough ones, would fix this, as well as more checkpoints. I know a lot of playtesting is a lot to ask for from a contest on a super crazy short deadline, but this level does get annoying sometimes. But I do genuinely love what you did here. Nice job.
PKWeegee  : 57 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 16 / 35 13 / 15 10 / 10 9 / 25 9 / 15 A word to describe this stage would be...annoying. Especially the second half, where a lot of rooms are very prone to squishing you. I really wish the concept of the platform enemies stacking on top of each other was done better, because the idea of that is really intriguing to me.
M-Jacq  : 37 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 8 / 35 5 / 15 9 / 10 8 / 25 7 / 15 Now this level really ground my gears. I think the problem is that Hovers and compactors both run on cycles, but their cycles don't sync up at all; even worse, if you screw up, the penalty is either getting crushed or having to kill yourself because the Hover won't respawn. The correct way to use these obstacles together is to not use them at the same time. The INCORRECT way to use these obstacles together is to have the Hovers double as turrets, and then stack them in massive vertical walls, so that you have to time out THREE cycles rather than two. This level would have benefited from some actual enemy challenges, rather than nonstop crusher aerobics and increasingly convoluted Hover setups. I had to double-check which enemies were in your box. Granted, you got some pretty generic enemy types, but there are definitely Shield Attacker setups that could work in this level alongside Hovers, for instance.
Freems  : 34 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 8 / 35 8 / 15 9 / 10 3 / 25 6 / 15 You might think there are enemies in this level, but you would be mistaken. Forget any of the enemies in this stage because none of them are a threat whatsoever in comparison to some of those Hovers. The first half of the level was alright. Nothing breathtaking but it was alright. The second half however, is an absolute nightmare. Trying to time up the Hovers' shooting pattern with the crushers in certain areas is an absolute pain in the butt, and throw in a good chunk of spikes into the mix and you have a giant chore on your hands. Combine that with the fact that due to the fact that Hovers don't respawn, one mistake can either mean you are forced to break out your trusty dog, or sometimes you just have to kill yourself. But let me tell you, few things are more annoying than waiting to be clear of the crusher only to get shot by the barrage of bullets and fall off one of the stacks of Hovers, pretty much ending any chance of completing the screen. Too many moving parts not lining up just makes it very not fun. There were some ideas of stacking the Hovers, but even that barely managed to show up in the level. And in the end, the most this level could do was give me a fear of Hovers.