Frozen Lab

34th: Frozen Lab Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level

They're studying new and inventive ways to climb ladders here.

Overview Creator(s): YourFaceisInTheMoney Composer(s): Shusaku Uchiyama, Mari Yamaguchi Statistics Scores: 63 70 67 54 Total: 63.50 / 100 Rank: 34th Elements: 1 Box Items: Bounder Curlinger Ladder Press Gravity Lift Spring Enemies: Bounder Curlinger Hornet Racer Jumbig Ladder Press Twin Shooter S Gimmicks: Bouncy Tile Gravity Lift Spring Bosses: Gravity Man

Theme Music Mega Man 10 - Absolute Chill Boss: Mega Man 5 - Boss Stage Order Location: Tier 8 Previous: Bunker 20XX Next: Flowers and Thorns

Frozen Lab is the 34th place entry in Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level. It is an ice level that makes use of mobility gimmicks, most prominently Gravity Lifts that nullify Mega Man's jump and slowly pull him up into the air. This forces him to grab onto ladders or move under Bouncy Tiles to bring himself back down to lower heights, so that he can move under overhangs. Frozen Lab is also the focus of the Co-Ladder All Damage sidequest, which requires completing the level while only jumping six times or less. Fortunately, the use of Gravity Lifts and bouncy gimmicks makes this a deceptively simple challenge, as most of the level doesn't require jumping at all.

Strategy

The level's box assets are introduced in quick succession in the first few screens, culminating in a Gravity Lift section in a free vertical scrolling area. After hitting a ceiling, Mega Man needs to climb down to a lower altitude using ladders. As described in two signs beforehand, grabbing onto a ladder while being pulled up by gravity requires pressing Up while next to one, and only then can he climb down using the Down button. Other than spikes, the main hazard here are Ladder Presses, which travel up and down ladders faster than the Gravity Lift can pull Mega Man. With no way to kill them, he can only wait for a safe period after they open up, then climb up their ladder to outrun them before they clamp shut around him. A pair of Ladder Presses appear at the top of the section, guarding an E-Tank to the left. The checkpoint lies on the other side of the door, which returns to normal gravity. A set of Bounders and Curlingers attack Mega Man while positioned above Springs, but pose little threat otherwise. A side room to the left contains some bolts, an M-Tank, a boxed-in Hornet Racer, and a PSA sign noting the enemy's endangered status (though admits it can be freely killed if it breaks free, which it will).

Back on the main path, a pair of Twin Shooter Ses guard the door to the second, much longer Gravity Lift challenge; these can be safely taken out using the Flame Mixer or Rain Flush. Instead of needing to be pulled to the top, Mega Man must use ladders and Bouncy Tiles to climb down towards the bottom while fighting against the Gravity Lift. Eventually, reaching the necessary ladders becomes more precise, requiring the right amount of momentum from shooting and bouncing off of the Bouncy Tiles; overshooting or undershooting will likely carry Mega Man into a spike with no means of saving himself. The very end is an open corridor with a spiked ceiling and background tiles that encourage quick shooting to fly through. If Mega Man is on the top half of the screen when going through the screen transition, he can land on an alcove with some bolts and a safe way of bypassing a Jumbig on springs once it gets close enough. The level culminates in a standard battle against Gravity Man.

Co-Ladder All Damage

Although Mega Man can only jump six times before failing the challenge, Frozen Lab only requires a minimum of four jumps to complete. An important thing to remember is that pressing the jump button while on a Spring or climbing a ladder does not count toward the total; only when jumping from solid ground. The total number of jumps performed is also saved at each checkpoint, so an unnecessary or accidental jump can be easily undone without needing to restart the whole level.

The first mandatory jump occurs on the very first screen, which has a one-tile high wall that must be jumped over. On the second screen, summoning the Rush Coil into the spike pits will allow Mega Man to cross the room without jumping by using the bounce to jump out of the pits. Crossing into the third screen while airborne from the last Rush Coil bounce is vital to avoid wasting a jump, as a single solid block otherwise blocks the path to the second unavoidable jump. After this, jumping becomes completely unnecessary, save for two locations: once after the midway checkpoint, to jump over a two-tile wall; and again in the boss corridor to jump on a pair of Springs that stand in the way. Not even Gravity Man requires jumping in his battle, since he and Mega Man never stay on the same height as each other, and the Homing Sniper not only follows him no matter where he is, but it is also his weakness.

Judge Comments

Judge Comments
ParmaJon  : 63 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 22 / 35 9 / 15 9 / 10 15 / 25 8 / 15 Generally, this level is okay. It's got some charm and looks and feels good. The parts with the altered gravity always feel fair. I really like the one where you go super fast at the end and it's close, but not hard. Feels super satisfying. Also, this level feels like it could've just gone on and on, but it didn't, and I'm really happy with the length. It feels like you did what you wanted to do and that's it. Also, some people use the bouncy blocks badly and make the jumps way too precise, which is something you avoided, so good job.
PKWeegee  : 70 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 21 / 35 13 / 15 10 / 10 14 / 25 12 / 15 This level is certainly interesting. I do like the idea with the upwards gravity, and how you have to fight against it with ladders and bouncy platforms. The issue is that it's not that reliable sometimes, especially the bouncy platforms. But overall, it's a solid attempt for a weird and unique idea of combinations.
M-Jacq  : 67 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 20 / 35 15 / 15 7 / 10 15 / 25 10 / 15 So this stage is definitely weird, for lack of a better word ... but is it good? Well, yes. No. Maybe. Uh... Well, the defining trait of this level is that it finds all sorts of ways to mess with your movement. This is most obvious in the weird momentum-based gravity sections, but the altered traction of the ice platforms and the springs messing with your jump height mean that the challenge of this level comes not so much from enemy challenges, but from fighting the game itself to even move in the right direction. This is a risky maneuver for a level designer, as players take for granted the way Mega Man moves, and find alterations to his gravity, movement speed, etc. disorienting at best and infuriating at worst. (And, from a judge's perspective, it makes the level a bit tricky to evaluate.) But once you're willing to go with the flow on that, I think that the difficulty curve on these parts is fine. I even kind of liked the spammy spam gotta-go-fast section at the very end. Now, I'm not entirely sure how to evaluate this level - I mean, it obeys all the restraints from the box but the gravity gimmick looms so large over the level that it somewhat overshadows those, in my opinion. It'd be like if you used these box elements in a Wave Bike level - cool, but maybe playing fast and loose with the rules. Fortunately, the level is fun enough that this is mostly a moot point.
Freems  : 54 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 17 / 35 11 / 15 10 / 10 8 / 25 8 / 15 While you managed to find a creative way to use ladders and springs together with the gravity wells, there's always a sense of unease when the level needs not one, but two different signs explaining how the gimmick works before it actually appears. And while I'm grateful that those signs are there in hindsight, it doesn't stop the gimmick from being incredibly janky. It just... feels so weird to control. And for such a janky gimmick, throwing the amount of instadeath spikes there are in the last few screens was not the way to go. It's far from impossible, but it just doesn't really feel good to play. And unfortunately, the sections without the gravity wells are boring at best. There's just so little going on and it's standard running and gunning. There's nothing wrong with a stranger gimmick, but the level needs to account for the oddities it brings to the table to balance it out. Otherwise it feels less "weird but fun" and more "just a little frustrating".

Trivia

• Hornet Racer was one of the assets initially rolled for Frozen Lab's box, but during the submission period, it was very glitchy and error-prone. As a result, Curlinger was given as a replacement asset, with the Hornet Racer room being included as a nod to what could have been.
• The sign about the Hornet Racer being endangered is unintentionally apropos: the room containing it is the only place in all of MaG48HMML where it can be encountered, with it not even appearing as an NPC.
• Because Bass has access to the Treble Boost, it is trivially easy to complete Frozen Lab with zero jumps in Bass Mode.
• Often, the player's position on a ladder will be offset if they grab onto one after bouncing off a Bouncy Tile, due to how the latter gimmick calculates movement speed.