Volcanic Furnace

I'll beam you out after I finish my soap opera.

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48th: Volcanic Furnace Make a Good Mega Man Level 2

It's getting hot in here...

Overview Creator(s): Game Trooper Composer(s): ASAGEN Statistics Scores: 30 28 28 25 24 Total: 27 / 50 Rank: 48th Elements: 1 Collectables: Enemies: B Bitter Big Eye Big Telly Bomb Flier Caricarry Cyber Gabyoall Foojeen Giree Hologran Hothead Killer Bullet Nobita Picket Man Piriparee Rembakun Screw Bomber Sonic Bill Spine Subeil Tackle Fire Tondeall Gimmicks: Fire Block Fire Pillar Foot Holder Guts Lift

Theme Music Rokko Chan - Volcano Man Theme Stage Order Location: Tier 5 Previous: Maze of Significantly Less Death Next: Elec Dam

"I can't call this bad, but it's not really good."

―ACESpark, excerpt from judge comment.

Volcanic Furnace is the 48th place entry in Make a Good Mega Man Level 2, created by GameTrooper. Its core features included a mix of Fire Blocks and Fire Pillars in the first half of the stage, while using Guts Lifts mostly throughout the second half. One of its major issues happened to be a poor mix-matching of tile sets from various games in the series, with most of it's positives being mostly solid gameplay and mostly good level design.

Strategy

The level is rather straight-forward in terms of design, as most of its Noble Nickels can be acquired with mostly no effort. The only exception being the third, having a Hologran hiding pits and a few other enemies to slow progress.

Judge Comments
snoruntpyro  : 30 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality Skip Teleporter? 9 / 15 6 / 10 6 / 15 4 / 5 5 / 5 No Good level overall. The level really picks up in the second half, I think, once Guts lifts come in - the first half isn't necessarily BAD, it's just less focused than the second and there's some enemies there that are used like literally once (the Subeils, Nobitas, etc). Once the Guts Lifts come in, though, I feel like the level plays a lot better, especially because it combines the lifts with stuff like fire pillars and killer bullets. I'm not sure if I like the killer bullet stretch tho, because it feels like the bullets can screw you over too often. Most of the level still plays really well, though. There's not much beyond that, really. It just plays well, it sticks to a few gimmicks, it's just plain good.
JupiHornet  : 28 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality 7 / 15 7 / 10 10 / 15 2 / 5 2 / 5 This level wasn't bad design-wise, but it was a mess aesthetically. There are features from like 6 different tilesets, which is fine if you do it right, but in this level it was clashy and didn't look good. The first half of the level was really fun, but the second half was a bit extreme with the Guts Lift + Fire Bar section.
Enjl  : 28 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality Skip Teleporter? 8 / 15 5 / 10 8 / 15 3 / 5 4 / 5 No I always find it rather sad when one particular section of a level overshadows everything else that goes on in the level. In this case, it's the guts lifts that are introduced halfway through since it's very easy to die there. The level as a whole is pretty nice and has a good flow to it. It, sadly, introduces elements it later forgets about, but is still fair and enjoyable. The guts lift sections, while not bad, can be very difficult to traverse because the platforms don't always line up well. In the first section it can be especially difficult to make one's way across these platforms because of the missiles constantly getting in the way. Aside from that, fun stage! I also got out of bounds once :3
Garirry  : 25 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality 7 / 15 6 / 10 4 / 15 4 / 5 4 / 5 It's okay. It's nothing particularly bad or frustrating, but some sections are either unnecessary, and the guts lift is often poorly placed. Eh. It was okay I guess. Hmm. I think it's alright, but nothing interesting here honestly. Could be better. Has a few bugs. There's... not a lot to talk about here. I don't think this is a bad level, but it's certainly nothing awesome. The level design is flawed, with quite a bit of bugs present, not to mention the sections with multiple instances of Lifts, which are desynced. Other than that... there's just nothing. It's an okay stage but there's just nothing interesting here.
ACESpark  : 24 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality Skip Teleporter? 8 / 15 6 / 10 6 / 15 1 / 5 3 / 5 No I can't call this bad... but it's not good. It's perfectly playable for the most part but you do drop the ball significantly in several spots and that seriously impacted your score. The least of your issues is the art - this stage is beyond ugly. Misused tiles, wonky animation, and tiles that are completely at odds at each other. Some segments even look unfinished!! There were some good ideas here and there - you're combinations of firebar types were neat, as were two of the latter Noble Nickels, but your Guts Platform segment was seriously awkward at times, mostly thanks to desync, and really stupidly difficult for its own good elsewhere. Why would you combine sinewave enemies, that explode, respawn, alongside tiny platforms AND jumping to other tiny platforms? I mean, yikes. I suspect you played this level once or twice, convinced it was possible to do it, and then didn't bother seeing what other players of other skill levels thought. If you do not do that segment exactly right, you are waiting ages on a platform with high risk of death. That being said, the last Gutsman Platform segment did what any good Mega Man stage should do, and combine gimmicks with other gimmicks, so, that is good, and that one feels a lot closer to real proper difficulty than the nutball Killer Bullet segment. It's a shame you just have badly implemented elements all over the place, as if these worked better, and.. probably as intended, you'd have the makings of a fun, if pretty average stage. (What was the point of that Big Eye ""mini boss"" that you can just skip?!) Oh.. and.. I fell out of bounds once when playing as a result of a misplaced screen scroller. Whoops. Thankfully I fell into another level segment, but still.. awkward. Oh. Your use of a boss corridor without a climax... please don't.

Development

A more through documentation of Game Trooper's thoughts on the design process can be found here.

Notes

• This is the only MaGMML2 entry level to use Foot Holders unaltered. The only other entry to use Foot Holders in any sense is The Stage Nobody Asked For.
• There is often confusion over the sign's message around the halfway point in the stage. It states "Company Reminder: Magma Refinery- Right Welding Center- Left (Currently Closed)". This was intended to be a hint to the third Noble Nickel.
• Originally, the level was intended to end with a minecart ride akin to the climax of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, with an original minecart gimmick using the Frost Sled as a basis, and minecart-riding Sniper Joes as enemies. Time constraints meant these weren't implemented, despite graphics being made, and the long stretches of Guts Lifts took its place.

Sprites for a minecart gimmick and Sniper Joe, both of which were cut.