Warehouse of Conveyors

4th: Warehouse of Conveyors Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level

Warehouse of Treadmills is probably a more accurate name.

Overview Creator(s): The Stove Guy Artist(s): The Stove Guy Composer(s): SEGA, Kouji Murata (originals) 8BitDanooct1 (cover) Statistics Scores: 69 78 96 89 Total: 83 / 100 Rank: 4th Elements: 1 Box Items: Dachone Handoo Okosutobon Junk Block Sheep Conveyor Enemies: Blocky Dachone Handoo Okosutobon Sola 0 Gimmicks: Junk Block Sheep Conveyor Sheep Platform Bosses: Ballade

Theme Music Sonic & Knuckles - Death Egg Zone Act 1 Boss: Mega Man IV - Ballade Stage Order Location: Tier 11 Previous: Planet Xanlordus Next: Deep Within the Jungle

Warehouse of Conveyors is the 4th place entry in Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level. It is an industrial-themed level that makes extensive use of Sheep Conveyors, both as a means of powering Sheep Platforms, and as an obstacle themselves. Frequently, the level places indestructible Junk Blocks on these conveyors, expecting Mega Man to move the conveyor and therefore the blocks.

Strategy

At the start of the level is a Sola 0 and a Junk Block; destroying the latter uncovers a small Bolt hiding underneath. What follows is a section that winds back in on itself, filled with Junk Blocks, Handoos, and Okosutobons. The latter is completely indestructible, and as they float in narrow corridors, it's advised not to trigger them, or to keep away if one is triggered. After a wall that requires powering on a Sheep Platform to climb over, a puzzle with conveyors, platforms, and Sola 0s appears. The leftmost conveyor powers a Sheep Platform at the opposite end of the room (which stands by a large wall), requiring Mega Man to reach it before the power runs out. To kill the Sola 0s in the way quickly, the Flame Mixer can oneshot them and block their lasers, and the Tengu Blade can damage them while they are charging. Alternatively, utilities like the Rush Coil can be used to scale the wall without the Sheep Platform.

Just before the next checkpoint are two Junk Blocks on a conveyor; by running backwards, Mega Man can send them to the left and bypass a pair of Sola 0s; however, running forwards risks the blocks crushing him by accident. At the checkpoint is a Sheep Platform that is powered on by default; by running on a conveyor, power is drained, and it will drop the power-ups resting atop it. Two screens up is a Dachone with extra HP in front of two Okosutobons; be careful not to hit the latter by accident while fighting it. Another Dachone appears on a conveyor later on, but running backwards on it can carry the enemy into a spike pit for a quick kill. The next checkpoint has a minor puzzle, with a powered Sheep Platform blocking a drop downwards. The left conveyor is meant to slow Mega Man down; the right one depowers the platform.

Down below, a more complicated puzzle awaits, in which Junk Blocks need to be placed to reach a one tile high gap in a wall. After killing the Blocky, use the top-left conveyor to carry the Junk Block to the Sheep Platform, then use the top-right conveyor to turn that platform off. Do not drop the top-right conveyor's Junk Block onto the spikes, and take care not to be crushed by it accidentally. Next, carry the first Junk Block over to a spike pit on the left, then use the bottom-left conveyor to activate a Sheep Platform below the gap. Before the power runs out, go back to the top-right conveyor, drop the Junk Block onto the platform, then slide through before the platform's power runs out. A quicker (if tricky) solution to this puzzle is to drop the top-right Junk Block onto the spikes below the gap, then use the Concrete Shot to make a temporary platform from which to slide into the gap.

The rest of the stage, by comparison, mostly consists of simple enemy challenges, like avoiding Blockies and falling Handoos. However, there are a set of four Junk Blocks on a conveyor that are considerably more durable than others in the stage (bearing 64 HP as opposed to 3). Though intended to be shifted together and positioned inbetween two ladders, weapons like the Flame Mixer (or a good button-mashing finger) can also break the Junk Blocks after a while. Down below are two rooms with infinitely spawning Okosutobons that fly across horizontal spaces; as usual, avoid coming close to them and wait for them to fly past. Use the conveyor in the next Dachone fight to keep it away, and Mega Man will come to a room with two powered Sheep Platforms and another one tile gap. To move forwards, he needs to first power the platforms down, then time a jump downwards so that he falls past the higher one, but lands on the lower one as it turns back on so he can slide through the gap. Alternatively, the Concrete Shot can be used to reach the lower platform from below (the Rush Coil will bounce Mega Man too high).

A pair of Handoos and a Blocky guard the door to the boss, Ballade. His arena has a large Sheep Conveyor on the ground and six Sheep Platforms in the air. Fighting on the conveyor isn't recommended as it hampers Mega Man's mobility, but by using it to turn the Sheep Platforms on, he can be fought on slightly more stable ground. The platforms can also keep Ballade and his mines off the conveyor, preventing either one from being accidentally brought closer to Mega Man while using it.

Judge Comments

Judge Comments
ParmaJon  : 69 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 23 / 35 11 / 15 10 / 10 16 / 25 9 / 15 This level is super super creative with the conveyor belts, and factoring in the junk blocks on the conveyors makes it a lot of fun. The puzzles you designed were easily the highlight of the level. However, I found the floating bomb enemies to be really obnoxious most of the time. They're really awesome near the end where they are shot from generators, but for so much of the level where you are in a cramped space and can't deal with them, they are genuinely frustrating, especially when paired with an armored enemy like the plant. While being far from a bad level, those moments made the level a lot less fun.
PKWeegee  : 78 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 24 / 35 12 / 15 10 / 10 18 / 25 14 / 15 I really enjoyed the puzzle approach this level had. A few things that I really liked were how the power management for the Sheep platforms was reversed sometimes, and the rooms where you had to move junk blocks around correctly. Another thing I had fun with was fighting the big walkers on the conveyors (and dropping one of them into spikes; that felt good). A few sections were annoying, like having to drop between two platforms just as they were activating, to stand in the middle of them, but those were minor sections that didn't break the flow too much.
M-Jacq  : 96 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 34 / 35 15 / 15 9 / 10 24 / 25 14 / 15 Now THIS is a damn good level - so good that if boxbot didn't tell us otherwise I'd think you took way more than 48 hours on it. The puzzles are tricky but not perplexingly so, and they require just enough dexterity and speed on the player's end that they're not just an intellectual exercise. The heretofore annoying Splash Woman mine enemies (which are called Okosutobon, but who's keeping track?) are used here in an extremely clever and enjoyable way, even before the room where they're lobbed at you like projectiles! You literally thought outside your box to add Sola 0 and Blocky to your palette of enemies, and I'm glad you did - every one of those enemies was placed perfectly, and they added just the right amount of challenge to the level. And of course, the tiling and animation are gorgeous too. There are some very, very minor nitpicks I could name, like how the zany boss arena feels a little contrived even as it adds a new layer of strategy to the Ballade fight, or how I wish it was clearer which junk blocks can be destroyed and which can't, and how if you respawn on one screen a W-Tank falls out of its nook while you're spawning, but... wait, crap, I named all the nitpicks in one tiny little paragraph and I still have like a dozen nice things to say about this level. It's just a goldmine of good ideas, with every element placed more-or-less perfectly. From a purely objective standpoint, it's probably the best-designed level in the contest; from my vantage point there's a couple levels I'd rank above it because I find them more charming. But I defy anyone to leave this out of their top five.
Freems  : 89 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 30 / 35 14 / 15 10 / 10 20 / 25 15 / 15 There was a lot I liked about this level. I feel like it's pretty safe to say that you managed to use these box assets to some of their fullest potential. I really liked how you were able to create puzzles using these conveyors and the blocks, and it never really felt too hard. There were a handful of spots where I wish there was an easier way to tell which conveyor changed which platforms, but outside of that I really enjoyed the puzzle aspect of the level and it never started to feel stale. But in contrast, the stretches that were just enemies felt pretty tacked on and didn't really add much of anything to the level, it feels. There was also the short stretch where the mines were being fired out which was a cool idea... but it kinda just showed up near the end of the level for two screens and left just like that. Honestly, with a few cuts here and there I think this level could have been the perfect length. And while I want to compliment you on having most of the enemies interact well with the gimmick or with their surroundings, the Handoos were the only one that just kinda felt placed down to be there. However, despite this I want to say it sure is one of the nicest looking levels in the contest, I really did enjoy it when the level stopped and focused on using its gimmicks in creative ways, and it's probably one of the only levels in this contest that managed to throw the gimmick in the boss room without either being pointless or just making the boss fight a million times worse.

Notes

• The statue outside Warehouse of Conveyors's entrance in Tier 11 depicts a set of Ballade Missiles; however, the gimmick is completely absent from the level itself.
• Dachones in this level have 14 HP instead of their usual 5.