Short-Tempered Circuit

31st: Short-Tempered Circuit Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level

Taking the phrase "don't blow a fuse" to a literal level.

Overview Creator(s): Spin Attaxx Composer(s): Kouji Murata, Yasuaki Fujita Statistics Scores: 52 67 70 68 Total: 64.25 / 100 Rank: 31st Elements: 1 Box Items: Pipi Returning Monking Sea Mine Plantman Platform Quick Lighting Enemies: Hothead Pipi Returning Monking Sea Mine Gimmicks: Plantman Platform Quick Lighting Sub-Bosses: Changkey Dragon Bosses: Spark Man

Theme Music Mega Man V - Saturn Boss: Mega Man 3 - Boss Stage Order Location: Tier 8 Previous: Combustible Quagmire Next: Slipping Through Time

Short-Tempered Circuit is the 31st place entry in Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level. It is a level focused primarily on Quick Lighting with Sea Mines (reskinned as floating lightbulbs) providing illumination. Jumping over bottomless pits with Plantman Platforms is another central challenge, typically asking that onscreen lightbulbs aren't prematurely set off.

Strategy

The stage opens with an introduction to Quick Lighting and the two kinds of lightbulbs in the stage; the reskinned Sea Mines, which float in the air and randomly explode after Mega Man gets close enough to them, and lightbulbs that endlessly drop from chutes in the ceiling and explode on contact with the floor. The first corridor has Pipis flying through, while the second focuses on avoiding floating lightbulbs. Beyond a Returning Monking is a set of pits with Plantman Platforms overhead, while lightbulbs provide light. If Mega Man finds himself in the dark from destroying too many lightbulbs, the Flame Mixer can be used to light up the area and see the path ahead. After a brief challenge where lightbulbs are triggered while avoiding an overhead Hothead, a Changkey Dragon appears as a miniboss.

The room beyond has falling lightbulbs and another Returning Monking guarding the way forward, which consists of more Plantman Platforms next to falling lightbulbs. The final section is a long platforming section with light sources like lightbulbs and a Hothead attacking Mega Man, though at the start is a ladder leading to an E-Tank guarded by a Returning Monking and a lightbulb chute. Towards the end of the section, Pipis start flying in at fairly high rates, making the Rain Flush and Homing Sniper useful weapons. The threat of being plunged into darkness also means the Flame Mixer remains useful as an emergency torch and shield against rogue Copipis. The level is capped off with a battle against Spark Man.

Judge Comments

Judge Comments
ParmaJon  : 52 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 17 / 35 7 / 15 10 / 10 8 / 25 10 / 15 While you nailed the aesthetics, the rest of the stage is kinda annoying. So much falling off of platforms to your inevitable death. You have to make tight jumps with mines that don't like to cooperate, never-ending spawning Pipis, and things falling from the sky. It just wasn't fun to play in the end. The Quick Man lighting also didn't really add much to the challenge. Thankfully, it's short and to the point. The Plant Man platforms are okay other than the previously mentioned "too much happening at once". Also, you can make the mines non-random, which would've helped the tight spots so much. Instead of just jumping and hoping they go off, using the consistent ones would have made this so much better, and the cool things you tried could have actually been fun in the end. I don't like writing these negative reviews, but I guess I was just a bit short tempered when I played this.
PKWeegee  : 67 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 18 / 35 11 / 15 10 / 10 16 / 25 12 / 15 Nice take on the darkness gimmick, but I did feel that the lightbulbs were in the way too often, and I found myself falling to my doom, trying to trigger them, more times than I'd have liked. But hey, overall, it was fun, and not too frustrating that it made me dislike it. You did well.
M-Jacq  : 70 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 23 / 35 15 / 15 9 / 10 9 / 25 14 / 15 This level would be really good, were it not soaked in Pipi. ...I could have worded that better. But otherwise, I actually really like this level: it takes Quick Lighting (infamously a terrible gimmick) and finds a clever way, through reskinning of enemies and stage gimmicks, to create a totally unique take on darkness gimmicks. I actually thought this was some obscure gimmick from, like, Bright Man's stage in the Game Boy games that I haven't played, until I checked the box and figured out the tomfoolery going on here. But yeah, those Pipis in the final segment really killed me. They're not insurmountable if you're smart, but they're very aggressive in their respawn rates. Thankfully, this stage had the good sense to have some generous checkpointing to minimize player frustration; still, I wasn't a fan. Anyway, this level is soooo close to being really good, but instead it's just regular good. Good gimmick use, good enemy setups with the Monkings, fun boss, stupid Pipis.
Freems  : 68 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 21 / 35 12 / 15 9 / 10 16 / 25 10 / 15 So good news, length was healthy and the idea of turning the Dive Man Mines into lightbulbs to keep the Quick Man Lighting on was a pretty creative idea. However, while there were a few sections that made a good use of playing keep away while still progressing the level, other times they just kinda felt slapped onto a room to be easily ignored or just run straight past as there's more sources of light easily available in the same room. That said, the level is mostly all well and good (even if there are a few weird low black ceilings that blend in with the background) but the very last stretch is a clear cut case of going too far. No one wants precise platforming while dodging lightbulbs and TWO sets of Pipis at once. It doesn't even last for very long but when you have two Pipis, a giant pit, and mines everywhere, that very last stretch just becomes almost intolerable. The bright side (ha) is that it doesn't last very long, but it still does leave things off on more of a sour note. Just a case of too many cooks in the kitchen, and by cooks, I mean baby birds. Though it is important to keep in mind that the rest of the level was still a solid good time.

Trivia

• Much of Short-Tempered Circuit's tiling was left until the level's structure was done, and was rushed to completion before the allotted 48 hours ran out. It shows in quite few places, most prominently the untiled black ceilings (which were intended to animate like the floors and walls) and the lack of creation code tweaks to Sea Mines and Pipi spawners.
• Spin Attaxx originally submitted a different level, Platform Lab, but due to time constraints, much of the level's tiling was left unfinished by the time of submission. Personal dissatisfaction led to Short-Tempered Circuit being created as a second attempt.
• Spark Man's ability to affect Quick Lighting in his boss fight was originally only supposed to extend to the projectiles he creates. However, to calculate his jumps, an invisible enemy bullet is created and then destroyed. As the Quick Lighting in the stage was coded to be lit up by enemy bullets (which is what the falling lightbulbs are reskins of), Spark Man therefore affects the lights every time he jumps.