Orbital Station

54th: Orbital Station Make a Good Mega Man Level 2

I know this is a big emergency, but can we please lower the volume on the alarms?

Overview Creator(s): RadzPrower Composer(s): Hiroshige Tonomura Takashi Tateishi Statistics Scores: 22 29 26 37 11 Total: 25.0 / 50 Rank: 54th Elements: 1 Collectables: Enemies: Camon Crazy Cannon Crystal Joe Graviton Imorm Metall Metall Mommy Screw Bomber Scworm Sniper Joe Space Metall Spine Telly Gimmicks: Auto Scroller Daidine Destroyable Block (Mega Buster, Slash Claw) Drop Platform Gravity Flip Spike Ball Wind Sub-Bosses: Kabatoncue Bosses: Boss Whopper Other Information: Skippable Unlockable weapons (Wire Adaptor)

Theme Music DuckTales - The Moon Boss Whopper: Mega Man 2 - Boss Stage Order Location: Tier 4 Previous: Jungle Base Next: Shovel Knight

"WARNING:
This level is known for softlocking the player. If this happens to you, press 2 to suicide."

―Info Box at the beginning of the level, providing a worrisome first impression.

Orbital Station is the 54th place level in Make a Good Mega Man Level 2. It is a stage taking place on a space station, with several sudden Gravity Flips.

Strategy

After going right and climbing up a ladder guarded by a Crazy Cannon, Mega Man finds himself in a room with a Metall on the right, and a Blade Block and two Slash Blocks on the left. Destroying the Blade and Slash Blocks reveals the first Noble Nickel. Climbing up into a room with Eddie and walking to the right leads Mega Man to a room where he can choose between two sets of platforms to jump across: a series of stationary Daidines on the bottom, or a series of Drop Platforms on the top accompanied by Tellies. Taking the top path leads to an item that unlocks Wire Adaptor. Halfway through the room following this, a loud alarm blares as a warning that the hatches are opening, and Mega Man gets sucked towards the open hatches. Using a utility to go over the block straight above the hatch lets Mega Man reach the other side and collect the second Noble Nickel.

After dropping through the hatch, Mega Man loses control of his movement until he lands. If Mega Man jumps right under the platform on the left, he will flip upside down, and find himself on a secret route. The first room of this route is a long room with sudden gravity flips accompanied by spikes. If Mega Man keeps his gravity reversed, he can grab the third Noble Nickel. After this room is an elevator, which slowly leads Mega Man to a lower area while dropping spikes that he must avoid. At the end of the elevator is a route leading to the final Noble Nickel, located much later in the level.

Going to the right and dropping down (while also avoiding a Metall Mommy), Mega Man must fight a Kabatoncue while also watching out for four Space Metalls. After defeating the Kabatoncue and dropping through another room with Eddie, Mega Man goes through a small stretch of horizontal area with an Imorm, a Graviton, and a Crystal Joe. At the end of the room is a series of sudden Gravity Flips, which are also present in the following room. Mega Man then falls past one room (the same room holding the final Noble Nickel) and lands in a room with a swerving path below spike dropping machines, which can be avoided using utilities. At the end of the room is a boss gate, leading to the main boss, Boss Whopper.

Skip Status

This level was deemed skippable by the judges due to being extremely buggy and unpredictable, even being prone to softlocks.

Judge Comments

Judge Comments
snoruntpyro  : 22 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality Skip Teleporter? 5 / 15 3 / 10 7 / 15 4 / 5 3 / 5 No This has to be one of the most baffling levels I've ever played. Why are there just random unmarked fields where you lose control and get slammed into spikes? Why are there random unmarked platforms that flip gravity? Why are there completely useless 'antigrav' sections that have no gameplay whatsoever? Why are there warning signs? What is happening? Basically my experience playing the level. I had to look in the editor to find like half the nickels here because there's literally an alternate path that you get to by just KNOWING one of the ceilings is randomly gonna flip your gravity and take you to a completely different path. Then there's an alternate path on the alternate path that you access by doing the very intuitive thing of walking off a ledge into spikes but suddenly antigrav activates and it carries you through a hole in the spikes???? And besides the frustrating unmarked and unintroduced gravity stuff there's really not much TO it. The boss fight with Whopper is incredibly annoying because the Whopper is really high up and it makes it hard to hit. Wire is disabled for some reason and you have to collect it except it doesn't benefit you in any way shape or form. It's just a completely bizarre level that almost seems more focused on actually putting and making the custom assets be there instead of actually making a good level out of them. I will give points for the elevator, though, that was pretty neat. Too bad it's literally impossible to find unless you want to test every possible situation you can die in.
JupiHornet  : 29 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality 5 / 15 5 / 10 12 / 15 4 / 5 3 / 5 I ran right, fought some enemies, went though some random wind, fought a hippo, went down, went left, went through gravity with seemingly no reason to exist, went right, fought some more enemies, saw some nice custom assets, fought a boss that's really just a miniboss, and then the level ended...what just happened?
Enjl  : 26 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality Skip Teleporter? 5 / 15 5 / 10 9 / 15 3 / 5 4 / 5 No This level has certain difficulties in introducing its concepts to the player. The ideas it has all come and go as they please, without proper introductions or indication as to when they're active. The elephant in the room here is the moonjump mechanic which, while also awkward to control, isn't consistently active between areas, not even based on the environment. When I met with it the first time I considered it a glitch due to the suction mechanic in the previous room also altering player movement. The level's spike dropping mechanic is also not properly introduced until the end of the level, while one of the Nobel Nickels requires it. Said Nickel, too, is hidden in a very, very, very obscure place, that I couldn't find after several playthroughs and jumping into random pits. If the level was restructured to better make use of the spike dropping and if it had an indication as to when the moon jump is active, plus a safe zone to introduce it, it would've been much better and way less confusing.
Garirry  : 37 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality 10 / 15 8 / 10 11 / 15 4 / 5 4 / 5 Fairly solid. Not perfect though, some sections still feel kinda rough. Thankfully it's no big deal. It was very fun. Aside from a few annoying deaths and such, it was a good level. A little boring at times though. I liked the ideas here. Nothing too extraordinary here but I think it's still decently done. Looks decent. But could be a bit better. I've noticed some major bugs, but thankfully the level is very playable. This is a very good level. The design isn't perfect, I can see that some sections feel either unnecessary or buggy, however, the stage layout is very interesting and I found the main gimmick pretty awesome (although it is glitchy). I do think the level lacks polish in areas, but otherwise, it's really fun.
ACESpark  : 11 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality Skip Teleporter? 1 / 15 1 / 10 7 / 15 2 / 5 0 / 5 Yes Ugh. Why...would you put in such a complex gimmick...and barely test it!? This level caused me so many soft locks with Mega Man - stuck in mid-air like a lemon. I just...this is almost unplayayble. Its not even hard to do this! Simple exploration by the player will get them stuck! Don't get me wrong, cool concept... horrid execution. So, even if your primary gimmick wasnt functionally busted, it usually doesn't even make sense when it does work. There's invisible gravity switches, random moments where the player just can't control Mega Man... none of this with any graphical indication of where and why this is occurring at all. Yeah, no. This is horrendous. By the way, your boss doesn't even want to face in my general direction. Quality. Please - learn to test your levels!