Water Park Sup

96th: Water Park Sup Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level

I don't know, not much.

Overview Creator(s): Big Fish Composer(s): Shusaku Uchiyama, Akari Kaida (originals) MiniMacro, Famitard (covers) Statistics Scores: 66 70 80 62 Total: 33 / 100 Rank: 96th Elements: 1 Box Items: M-422A Pelicanu Twin Cannon Falling Tower Frost Sled Enemies: M-422A Pelicanu Twin Cannon Gimmicks: Darkman Block Falling Tower Frost Sled Bosses: Mega Mech Shark (tail) Other Information: 67 minutes late

Theme Music Mega Man 8 - Search Man Boss: Mega Man & Bass - Boss Stage Order Location: Tier 2 Previous: Abandoned Mine Next: Sonic Man's Spaceship

Water Park Sup is the 96th place entry in Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level. It is a level that mostly focuses on avoiding M-422As and custom spawners that create Commando Man's shockwave attack. Because the level's two box gimmicks are fundamentally incompatible with each other, the latter serves as the main gimmick for most of the stage. Water Park Sup is also notable for being an exceptionally high quality level despite its placement in Tier 2, with it only scoring as low as it did by being 67 minutes late and suffering a score cap.

Strategy

The level begins with Twin Cannons and a series of floating M-422As, the latter of which can be easily evaded by sliding, before shockwave generators are introduced. One is positioned behind a pair of large Bolts, which require either careful timing, use of the Tengu Blade's dash, or Beat (if the Beat Fetch upgrade has been bought) to safely collect. Immediately afterwards is a Falling Tower with mostly spaced-out Darkman Blocks. A Twin Cannon sits in front of one such block, so be careful not to get crushed via accidentally firing too many shots while fighting it. Near the top of the tower is a shockwave generator besides a ladder, with two blocks right above Mega Man and a single block at ground level. Though it may be tempting to shoot the latter straight away, doing so will result in death; instead, climb the ladder to shoot the two ceiling blocks (or use a weapon like the Flame Mixer) before destroying the lower block.

After leaving the tower, Pelicanus are introduced flying near a set of small pits. This precedes a single room with upside down M-422As, and a purple flower that spawns Pelicanus at a regular rate. With the Mega Buster, destroying the Pelicanus is tricky due to the M-422As acting as shields if Mega Man is too close; however, the Flame Mixer is able to instantly kill Pelicanus without being reflected. At the next checkpoint is a relatively slow Frost Sled ride, which starts off with a set of Twin Cannons before quickly becoming more about avoiding hazards; first M-422As, then shockwaves. Both times, Pelicanu is present to act as an additional threat, so either always have a Charge Shot ready for them, or keep the Flame Mixer on as a shield against them and their fish.

Once the sled ride ends, a boss fight against the Mega Mech Shark ensues. Although only the tail part is fought, the room has a shockwave generator right below the tail, forcing Mega Man to keep moving and jumping. Notably, the shockwaves can and will damage Mega Man even after collecting the Energy Element, although thankfully they cannot kill him before he leaves.

Judge Comments

Judge Comments
ParmaJon  : 66 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 24 / 35 9 / 15 10 / 10 15 / 25 8 / 15 Immediately I can imagine there was frustration because the two gimmicks just can't function at all together. Despite that, this level is still really good. The falling tower segment actually makes you think about what you have to do, it's not just "shoot random crap", it's actual puzzles so I commend you. The sled section is fun, but not groundbreaking. The use of m422a[sic] was also exceptional.
PKWeegee  : 70 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 24 / 35 9 / 15 10 / 10 17 / 25 10 / 15 I would say something about not combining both gimmicks together, but you got sorta unlucky with that. They just don't mesh at all. So segmenting it was your best bet, honestly. But maybe another tower section and another sled section would have been nice, to round it out more, with a difficulty curve. But what is there is not bad; quite the opposite. It's fun and has some nice execution.
M-Jacq  : 80 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 30 / 35 12 / 15 9 / 10 19 / 25 10 / 15 The two gimmicks you rolled are totally incompatible, which raises the question: how do you use the Dark Man tower and the sled together? This level comes up with the correct answer: you don't! Which isn't to say this level doesn't use the tried-and-true "obstacle A, obstacle B, obstacles A and B together" method of ramping up difficulty - the first handful of screens do precisely that with M422A and a Twin Cannon - but it's to this level's credit that it's willing to just have the gimmicks show up once and leave them be, rather than milk them dry. This level is more than a little silly thematically, but I think the goofy "sea fauna on land" premise glues everything together. (It's also charming in its own right.) Because the enemy set is so distinctive, each screen of the level always feels like part of a cohesive whole. It helps that the horizontal pulses that recur throughout the level are malleable enough that they can fit into any environment without looking out-of-place. Now, that being said, I really did not enjoy the boss fight, which adds an extra layer of complication to the first part of the shark tank fight that makes it more annoying rather than more interesting. (Plus, you tank two hits during the victory jingle no matter what you do, which is a little insulting.) Beyond that, though, there's a lot to like in this level.
Freems  : 62 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 20 / 35 10 / 15 8 / 10 16 / 25 8 / 15 It almost felt like I played two different levels here. It was very "Time for the first gimmick, and now time for the other" kinda level. I realize it would be next to impossible to have a Dark Man Tower section while on a sled but it's just so strange that they happen once, the quota is filled and then they're never seen again. Plus you have those little in between sections which are simple but inoffensive. The Dark Man tower did have some nice setups (if not a couple rude moves but I'm willing to look past it) and the little shockwave things would be a cute little unique gimmick... if they weren't so loud. Like it was all fun and games until you had to fight a boss with the constant screeching of these explosions playing until the end of time. They don't even stop going after the boss is defeated so I'm just convinced I'll be hearing them in my sleep. It really doesn't help that the inclusion of the gimmick makes fighting the Shark's butt just a little more tedious than it already is. Outside of that it was mostly a nice, albeit a little too bland, level.

Trivia

• Water Park Sup's 67 minute time penalty came about as a result of Big Fish holding the level back to properly finish it, instead of submitting it on time in an unpolished and broken state.
  • Without time penalties capping its score to 33, Water Park Sup would have had a score of 69.50, which would have put it at 20th place overall.
• After the submission period, confusion over Water Park Sup's time penalty (thanks to the Discord bot being rebooted and somehow changing timezones) resulted in the level being disqualified, then undisqualified, then re-disqualified, and then finally undisqualified again, all within the same day.
• Water Park Sup has the second-highest time penalty in the contest, behind Space Pipes (which deliberately tried to get the highest possible time penalty).