Volcanic Facility

65th: Volcanic Facility Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level

I can accept the magma pits and acid, but I draw the line at blocking off elevators! Wait until OSHA gets wind of this!

Overview Creator(s): Dekujuice Composer(s): Ryo Takeshita, Takashi Tateishi (originals) Dekujuice (cover) Statistics Scores: 59 63 39 57 Total: 54.50 / 100 Rank: 65th Elements: 1 Box Items: Bomb Flier Turbo Roader Yudon Building Platform Sideway Elevator Enemies: Bomb Flier Turbo Roader Yudon Gimmicks: Acid Drop Auto Scroller Building Platform Sideway Elevator Bosses: Heat Man

Theme Music Ys Origin - Samsara and Paramnesia Boss: Mega Man 2 - Boss Stage Order Location: Tier 5 Previous: Enkers Revengeance Next: Exoplanet Everest

Volcanic Facility is the 65th place entry in Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level. It is a volcano-themed level that uses Magma Man's tileset, yet barely features actual magma. Instead, a common gimmick are Building Platforms that assemble in pieces from the bottom of the screen, while Yudons often stand in Mega Man's path and attack from a distance with their missiles. Three Sideway Elevators also appear, though one of these is used to cross over a large pit of magma instead of lifting him upwards. Another common enemy are Bomb Fliers, whose wavy movement can cause trouble for Mega Man in the aforementioned elevator areas.

Volcanic Facility is also the location of the Infiltration sidequest, in which Mega Man must find and destroy eight bombs planted across the level before they detonate. He has a total of four minutes to do so, and the countdown ticks down even when respawning from a death. Failure to destroy every bomb before time runs out triggers a massive level-wide explosion that instantly kills Mega Man and sends him back to the start of the level, resetting both the timer and any already destroyed bombs.

Strategy

A handful of box assets are quickly introduced before the first elevator ride, including a Yudon. As it likes to shield itself (with little way to go past the enemy without destroying it), use of the Salt Water or Tengu Blade to bypass its shielding is highly recommended, particularly during Infiltration where time is of the essence. The elevator ride itself is incredibly treacherous, filled not just with death spikes and Bomb Fliers, but also Building Platforms that will easily crush Mega Man either while assembling or when fully assembled. Fortunately, most of the spikes and platform pieces can be avoided by keeping the elevator towards the centre-left and making minimal movements. The Rain Flush can also be used to stop onscreen Bomb Fliers from moving in sine waves, though this can be a double-edged sword as it likely won't kill them in one shot. At the top of the shaft is a checkpoint with Eddie. Turbo Roaders are encountered on the next few screens, and if not killed quickly they will charge straight towards Mega Man.

Following this is another Sideway Elevator, though this one doesn't rise upwards. Instead, Mega Man must guide it towards the right, over a large pool of lethal lava and past a few platforms that block off the elevator's buttons. Halfway through, Acid Drops begin dripping from green chutes onto the elevator. The Flame Mixer can be used to obviate the need to dodge the drops, although Bomb Fliers that run into it will promptly rocket straight ahead. Not long after the end of the ride is another checkpoint, preceding a final vertical elevator section. Like the first one, it features spikes and Building Platforms that can easily crush Mega Man; however, there are significantly less enemies, making it easier to avoid taking damage or dying. The left side of the screen is mostly (though not completely) devoid of hazards, making it an ideal place to keep the elevator. Upon reaching the top is the end of the level, which ends in a battle against Heat Man. Hidden to the left of the boss door, however, is a single screen containing a Yashichi against a sunset.

Bomb Locations

Many of the bombs are positioned in places inaccessible to the Mega Buster, so using Special Weapons to destroy them is highly encouraged and sometimes necessary.

1. In the alcove next to the first Sideway Elevator section, embedded in the wall.
2. Inside a green girder on the right during the first Sideway Elevator ride. This girder also holds a Yudon, making it tricker to destroy in time without Special Weapons.
3. Shortly after the first elevator, in a low alcove containing a Turbo Roader.
4. During the horizontal Sideway Elevator crossing, to the right of some pickups on a ledge.
5. At the very end of the horizontal elevator crossing, beneath the platform leading to the boss door.
6. In the ceiling of the second checkpoint, right before the final Sideway Elevator area.
7. During the final elevator ride, inside a spike on the left-hand side. It is in a trio of spikes in a diagonal line.
8. At the end of the level, to the left of the Dr. W logo outside the boss door.

Judge Comments

Judge Comments
ParmaJon  : 59 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 22 / 35 8 / 15 10 / 10 11 / 25 8 / 15 The whole difficulty curve of this level was weird. It felt like the vertical section with the platform was way harder than anything else in the level. Also, not a very good introduction to gimmicks. The whole thing was really overwhelming my first few times through it. However, the horizontal section was wonderful and exactly how I hoped the level would be when I saw the assets. So, kind of a mixed bag. The enemy sequences in between were usually fine, but again occasionally a little overwhelming. The boss fight is a neat idea, but frankly just annoying at the end of the day. Decent level, but a layer of editing and polish would have gone a long way and probably would have made this a significantly better level.
PKWeegee  : 63 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 19 / 35 10 / 15 10 / 10 14 / 25 10 / 15 The upwards elevator sections were weird, because of the building blocks. More visual cues on where exactly they would form would have helped. I saw glimpses of that in the last one, but that's it. As for the sideways ride, I really liked that. It was especially cool how you had to conserve momentum to get the button past some platforms.
M-Jacq  : 39 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 10 / 35 10 / 15 3 / 10 11 / 25 5 / 15 This level's Heat Man is a nice summation of the level before it: cute, a little overeager, and prone to clipping through walls. A lot. Seriously - the only time you're at any risk of dying in this level is from clipping through a block during one of the elevator segments. The Yudons don't pose much of a threat, the Turbo Roaders pose even less of a threat, and the platforming bits of this level are mostly just... there. This is especially clear during the horizontal elevator segment, which I thought was cool at first glance but then quickly realized was... just going right through an empty-ish corridor, more or less. I wish the vertical elevator sections were a little less busy, and the rest of the level a little more busy. Oh, and this level has one of the worst checkpoint placements in any of the entries - spawning right above a Yudon. Oof.
Freems  : 57 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 19 / 35 9 / 15 7 / 10 14 / 25 8 / 15 The combination of both the elevator and the Dust Man blocks at the same time is certainly a unique one, yet at the same time it either felt incredibly janky with sometimes getting crushed, or at other points like nothing was happening at all. The first elevator section also felt like it had way too much going on at once, especially for the first section in the level, and unfortunately, the sections in between the elevators more or less felt like filler. I did like the second elevator section well enough though. It was a neat spin on the normal elevator take, and while the slide part felt just a little janky, it felt a lot more natural than the actual ascending parts. Though the lava not exactly being real was a little odd, it's not a big deal. I wish we got more of those horizontal elevator sections in the level. I'm also not sure why Heat Man's arena was made uneven because he just kinda freaks out. A unique idea, but when the boss starts trying to clip through the walls, some losses might need to be cut.

Trivia

• The Infiltration sidequest is one large homage to the "Protect Factory" mission from the original Mega Man Zero, down to the bombs using the same design.
• While the somewhat inconsistent collision detection Heat Man demonstrates in his fight was fixed for Make a Good Mega Man Level 3, it was preserved in MaG48HMML for the sake of keeping his behaviour consistent with the original submission.
• In earlier versions of MaG48HMML, the Rain Flush could destroy bombs even if they weren't currently scrolled onto the screen.
• As of v1.1 of MaG48HMML, an oversight causes the bombs to remain in Volcanic Facility even after completing the Infiltration sidequest. There is no countdown, however, and destroying all eight again yields no result.