Well Oiled Machine

62nd: Well Oiled Machine Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level

Well oiled, but considering the crumbling ground, not well built.

Overview Creator(s): Cz Volt Composer(s): Kazuki Muraoka, Satoshi Kadokura Statistics Scores: 51 74 61 36 Total: 55.50 / 100 Rank: 62nd Elements: 1 Box Items: Flea Hammerfall Imorm Falling Platform Oil Enemies: Flea Hammerfall Imorm Gimmicks: Falling Platform (MM5) Oil Sub-Bosses: Squidon Bosses: Oil Man

Theme Music (1): Metal Gear (NES) - Outer Heaven (2): Metal Gear (NES) - Alert Boss: Famicom Jump II: Saikyō no Shichinin - Boss Stage Order Location: Tier 5 Previous: Running Down a Drain Next: Alpha-Omega

Well Oiled Machine is the 62nd place entry in Make a Good 48 Hour Mega Man Level. It is a short semi-aquatic level that liberally uses Oil, often over the surface of water tiles. It also features multiple sections devoted to Falling Platforms hanging over large pits, each of which changes the level's music to a more frantic one to convey a sense of danger.

Strategy

A series of pipes at the start act as top-solids, while Hammerfalls try to attack from above. Taking the right-hand ladder and staying inside the top tube allows Mega Man to obtain an E-Tank, although an Imorm will attempt to ambush him. The first "danger" area appears immediately afterwards, and has Falling Platforms over a large pit. Because of the unstable ground, Mega Man should ignore the Hammerfalls and slide across the platforms as fast as possible; fortunately, his slide is fast enough to outrun the enemies. The first checkpoint introduces oil and contains Fleas that hide themselves within it. Using the Flame Mixer will ignite the oil and ensure a swift death, so constant shooting with the Mega Buster is a safer strategy. This holds true for the Falling Platform area directly below, which not only has Fleas on the platforms, but also has oil over the water's edge. Fortunately, there are a few large pipes that act as solid ground. The Rain Flush and Homing Sniper can clear away Hammerfalls in a pinch; alternatively, the Spark Shock can freeze them in place.

Eddie appears at the next checkpoint for a potential refill, and a battle against a Squidon occurs. It falls through its platform and onto the ground as soon as the battle starts, though, so destroying it is very easy (especially with the Salt Water). The third and final Falling Platform gauntlet lies right behind it, and it has a few tricks to it; in addition to a slide gap that requires platforms to use, a Hammerfall right afterwards hides inside an overhead pipe to ambush Mega Man. The rest of the area is, however, rather easy to manage. The level ends with an underwater battle against Oil Man. However, the water in the arena has a layer of oil on top of it, making it more difficult to use the Flame Mixer (his weakness) against him, as igniting the oil will give Mega Man less room to jump over Oil Man's attacks.

Judge Comments

Judge Comments
ParmaJon  : 51 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 18 / 35 6 / 15 10 / 10 11 / 25 6 / 15 I don't know how else to put this, but a lot of the spacing in this level is very strange to me. There are several parts where enemies feel way too far apart and the rooms feel sort of empty or the jumps are just too precise, mostly with the Hammerfalls. Usually when the Hammerfalls are mixed with the falling platforms, it just feels frustrating because you just get yeeted into a pit since they take too many hits and you have no time to prepare for or deal with them so it feels sorta unfair. There are also several moments where you get thrown into pits suddenly that just feel surprising. Also, it feels weird that you started with the Wave Man pipes being top solid like they were gonna be a major part of the level and then you just never really touched it again. It just makes the whole level feel odd. The last stretch with the oil on the water being a pain is cool but for a while in the level the oil just feels like it's there with no real purpose. It's a good attempt, but the final product is underwhelming.
PKWeegee  : 74 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 24 / 35 13 / 15 9 / 10 18 / 25 10 / 15 Having parts of the pipes be only topsolid is a neat idea, and I wish more would have been done with that aspect, because most of the level is just platforming with the Gyro Man platforms. Those parts aren't bad, but I would have liked to see more variety. I loved the detail with the oil on top of the water, really cool (though you can really screw yourself with Flame Mixer). One annoying thing is how the music always switches back and forth. But that's a minor gripe.
M-Jacq  : 61 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 14 / 35 14 / 15 10 / 10 12 / 25 11 / 15 I want to like this level a lot more than I actually do. The alternation between "slow" and "fast" sections, as cued by the music, is a really fun concept that makes the level feel like it's always going in some new direction; I found the "world" of the level really interesting even if on reflection it makes very little sense. But on replay, the flaws become a lot more evident. The "fast" sections have the bulk of the problems. If you're going to have falling platforms over pits, you can't have those challenges be cerebral, because you don't have time to plot your route. These sections are a little too reliant on precision platforming - e.g., timing your jump after the Hammerfall gets out of the way but before the Gyro block is gone. Over-generous checkpointing papers over these flaws, but I think I'd rather the level have longer, easier sections that kept the platform aerobics but got rid of the headier aspects. This level's a little light on enemy challenges, which is to be expected given the box you were given, but even then I take issue with the use of Imorms here exclusively for cheap gotcha moments. Ceiling-bound Imorms have nice synergy with MM6 oil that this level didn't really exploit to the extent I would've expected.
Freems  : 36 / 100
Design Creativity Function Fun Aesthetic 10 / 35 5 / 15 10 / 10 6 / 25 5 / 15 I don't think I would go as far to call this level bad, as much as I would bland. It tried to do something somewhat unique with the Wave Man pipes, but outside of that, it really didn't feel like much other than long stretches of falling platforms with Hammerfalls here and there. There was oil in the level but it added next to nothing, other than preventing you from using Flame Mixer if you're using special weapons. It's constantly there in the second half of the level but it's just kind of... there. I think a few of the enemy placements are a bit rude given you're forced to go fast (mostly in the second falling blocks section) but it was never enraging, just mildly annoying. I guess I would say this level is much like the usage of oil, it's there but it didn't really do much of anything, good or bad.

Notes

• Dust Man appears as an NPC (cycling through all his animation frames) in a secret area directly to the left of the starting screen, which has nothing else of note.
• Oil floats above water due to its lower density, hence why Well Oiled Machine always has it over the surface of water and never within it. Science!
• The sign at the start of the first "danger" area is impossible to reach without hacking. If read, it says, "shoutouts to FlashMan85.".