Tower

86th: Tower Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level

Hey, magnet guy, think you can give me a lift to the top?

Overview Creator(s): TheGreatMetaphor Composer(s): Shusaku Uchiyama, Akari Kaida (originals) Famitard (cover) Statistics Scores: 59 43 26 37 Total: 41.25 / 100 Rank: 86th Elements: 1 Box Items: Biribaree Blader Mag Fly Super Cutter Revenge Tyhorn Platform Enemies: Biribaree Blader Mag Fly Gimmicks: Super Cutter Revenge Tyhorn Platform Bosses: Komuso Man

Theme Music Mega Man 8 - Wily Stage 1 Boss: Mega Man & Bass - Boss Stage Order Location: Tier 3 Previous: Obligatory Enemy Spam Level Next: Hopping High Above Danger

Tower is the 86th place entry in Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level. A stage as basic as its name, it is largely a linear set of screens with enemies, and little in the way of gimmicks or platforming. Perhaps the most interesting thing about it is its involvement in the Mutual Attraction sidequest: After speaking to Crazy Daisy, a Mag Fly in the level will start carrying her lost lower half, and needs to be destroyed to retrieve it for her.

Strategy

The most common enemy in this level are Biribarees, who often shield themselves from attack. The Tengu Blade's slash can damage them through their electricity field, but unleashing a Charge Shot once they attack is best at long range. Bladers, meanwhile, are much more aggressive foes, and are best dealt with from a distance with Beat or the Homing Sniper, or with the Flame Mixer up close. After the first checkpoint (and a visit from Eddie), actual platforming challenges appear with spikes and descending Tyhorn Platforms. One screen has Mega Man jumping over a floor of spikes on a pair of platforms, while the section below is a long vertical scrolling tower with spikes and multiple platform spawners. While it is safer to slowly ride a platform down to the bottom, it is easy to drop down and still miss hitting a spike.

After a short corridor with another Blader, there is a giant room with free scrolling and multiple ladders. A few Super Cutter Revenges are positioned to try and knock Mega Man down to the bottom, but they can be avoided by using the Rush Coil to reach a high ladder visible from the entrance to the section. If the Mutual Attraction sidequest is active, a Mag Fly near the top of the room will be carrying Crazy Daisy's upside down legs, and is easily killed using long-range and/or homing weapons. At the very top is a ladder leading to the boss door, guarded by a single Biribaree. A fight with Komuso Man in a room with spikes follows; try not to kill him while he is over a spike, or else the Energy Element will drop onto said spike.

Judge Comments

Judge Comments
ParmaJon  : 59 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 20 / 35 9 / 15 9 / 10 13 / 25 8 / 15 The whole first half of the level is alright; you get the basic introduction to everything and that's good, though just placing combinations of two assets in an empty room isn't getting you brownie points. The second half of the level where you start to actually do things with the tops is pretty fun. The downward top section isn't a boring elevator section like it could've been, but it's still rather easy. Either I would've made them death spikes, as just damage boosting through the whole section is extremely easy and negates the challenge, or working enemies that shoot you into it to add an extra challenge could've added a lot. The last section was also good but way too easy to parmesan cheese. The going back and forth is fun, but the magnets let you just skip half the challenges. They're not even rewarding or difficult skips, I originally thought that was the intended method. This level isn't bad but it just leaves more to be desired.
PKWeegee  : 43 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 12 / 35 5 / 15 10 / 10 9 / 25 7 / 15 Boring. A collection of bland rooms with a bland tileset, and everything ends before anything interesting has a chance to happen.
M-Jacq  : 26 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 6 / 35 3 / 15 9 / 10 5 / 25 3 / 15 Some of the level design here is so minimalist - nay, spartan - that it almost loops over into brilliant. A blank room with a single Blader in it? Very chic. Way better than a room with a dozen Bladers in it, am I right? But that emptiness gets boring fast, especially because the level never really figures out how to use the cutters or Mag Flies in any interesting setups. And also because there's no theming - the level's called "Tower" but it doesn't resemble a tower, or anything at all, really. This is one of the many reasons why eight-way scrolling doesn't work in a Mega Man context: the run-and-gun aspects of the average MM level are predicated on the stage geography being as obvious as possible. "Go right." "Go up this ladder (and not down this pit)." It's why "leaps of faith" are bad design - figuring out which way to go in this genre should not be a matter of guesswork. At least fighting Komuso Man is fun!
Freems  : 37 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 13 / 35 4 / 15 10 / 10 6 / 25 4 / 15 Sometimes a level's worst sin is that it's just kind of boring. Just some big empty spaces with mostly enemies that are right in your path. The gimmicks decide to show up every once and a while, but by the time they do they only give a half hearted dance before they vanish for a little bit more. The thing with long vertical rooms that you're meant to descend is that it's very easy just to skip past all of it if the room isn't designed carefully. And the big open room near the end was just strange to navigate, to the point where I'm still not sure if I did it in the intended method. I guess there was climbing a few ladders while avoiding the cutters, but besides that there wasn't much going on. I guess the level name does hold true, it is a tower... just not much more than that.