The Dampening

62nd: The Dampening Make a Good Mega Man Level 2

So many gimmicks, so little time.

Overview Creator(s): Liquafool Composer(s): Takashi Tateishi Statistics Scores: 28 17 19 25 25 Total: 22.8 / 50 Rank: 62nd Elements: 1 Collectables: 5 Enemies: Mechakkero Pole Shield Attacker Giree Crazy Cannon Mantan Sea Mine Hirarian 427 M-422A Lantern Fish Shrink Claw Foojeen Squidon Gyotot Croaker Swallown Pelicanu

Theme Music Mega Man 2 - Bubble Man Stage Order Location: Tier 3 Previous: Combust Man Next: Taco Man

"The level just kinda jumps all over the place with its ideas. There's Pole eggs, there's like 3 dark rooms total, there's wave bubbles, there's galaxy man portals (??????), it's allll over the place."

―SnoruntPyro, excerpt from judge comment.

Overview

The Dampening is the 62nd place entry in Make a Good Mega Man Level 2. The stage takes place almost entirely underwater, and includes a myriad of gimmicks in small doses, including Poles, Sea Mines, Bubble Man platforms, Knight Man springs, Galaxy Man teleporters, and Plant Man platforms. The stage also includes a darkness gimmick, where right after certain rooms are loaded, the entire screen will be shrouded in black except for a small circle around Mega Man.

Strategy

The level begins with a few rooms centering around Poles and Sea Mines, one of which creates a puzzle out of Poles by requiring Mega Man to go to the sides of a narrow passageway and shoot them to make room so he can progress. The room after this puzzle contains the first Noble Nickel, which is located directly over a bed of spikes, requiring Mega Man to collect it on Sakugarne if he doesn't want to die.

Going down, Mega Man is presented with an optional room on the right with a key. Holding onto this key without dying is required to get the stage's fourth Noble Nickel, which is located in the same room, but is blocked off by a wall, and must be entered through another room much later in the level.

The main path continues with another set of Poles, now used in conjunction with Sea Mines and Girees, where an area on the right can be cleared out to collect a large Weapon Energy capsule and an M-Tank.

After a room with some Hirarian 427s and an M-422A, Mega Man falls down a hole with some Sea Mines on the side, and some Bubble Man platforms breaking his fall. At the bottom of this fall is a Lantern Fish that spits out mint-colored Shrinks. This room introduces the darkness gimmick, with a small circle of light coming from the Lantern Fish's weak point as well as from Mega Man. The following room puts this darkness gimmick in a more challenging environment by adding Girees, spikes, and tricky jumps into the mix. With either a leap of faith or close observation of the room before it goes dark, Mega Man can locate a 1-Up, as well as the second Noble Nickel.

After climbing out of this room, Mega Man is presented with the stage's final Pole puzzle, where he must avoid shooting certain Poles so he can traverse a spike bed without using Sakugarne. Following this is three rooms focusing around Wave Man bubbles. The first room is simply a means for Mega Man to get on a bubble, the second room includes two Sea Mines and a Shrink as obstacles, and a third room includes both a Shrink and a Claw. This room also houses the third Noble Nickle in a small hole on the right side that must be slid into using the slide key, as the ladder right next to the hole makes using a combination of the down and jump keys impossible for sliding. The room also has a unique Destroyable Block on the left side that can only be destroyed with a charged Mega Buster shot, which leads to the aforementioned room with the fourth Noble Nickel, which can now be accessed if Mega Man has the key from earlier in the stage.

The next room in the stage introduces Knight Man springs and Galaxy Man teleporters, which are simultaneously used in a short puzzle. The stage follows this up with a room that uses the same teleporters in a puzzle alongside Bubble Man platforms, requiring Mega Man to find the correct teleporter to get to the next room. The final Noble Nickel is also in this room, in a narrow passageway of spikes with a teleporter at the bottom. Continuing along the main path, Mega Man will find himself above water for the first time in the stage since the first screen, now having to traverse a combination of Bubble Man platforms and Plant Man platforms while avoiding various enemies, mainly Swallowns. At the end of this room is a boss gate, which leads Mega Man to a room that brings back the earlier darkness gimmick, and provides two E-Tanks inside another block that can only be destroyed by a charge shot.

The stage ends with a puzzle of sorts; still shrouded in darkness, multiple fake Energy Elements can be found scattered throughout a maze-like room with Knight Man springs, with one real Element mixed in. Collect the Element at the upper middle of the room to clear the stage.

Judge Comments
snoruntpyro  : 28 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality Skip Teleporter? 8 / 15 5 / 10 6 / 15 4 / 5 5 / 5 No Some of the ideas presented here are neat - I like the like, singular Pole egg puzzle (?) in the level, and the darkness rooms are kinda neat (the noble nickel in one of them was devious but fair, hehehe), but there's just...not much done with anything, really. The level just kinda jumps all over the place with its ideas. There's Pole eggs, there's like 3 dark rooms total, there's wave bubbles, there's galaxy man portals (??????), it's allll over the place. Lots of good IDEAS, but not really great execution. The level needed to pick two or three and focus on them rather than just throwing a bunch of stuff around. As a result the level just feels like a jumble. It still plays okay, though, and some of the setups I like. Some of the Noble Nickels are pretty garbage tho, namely the one where you have to like drag a key around for half the level and not die. Also cool boss
JupiHornet  : 17 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality 6 / 15 4 / 10 3 / 15 1 / 5 3 / 5 This level has some really sloppy design and it's way too cramped. Enemies felt like they were randomly placed around the level. The darkness gimmick was nice, but it felt out of place. I don't really know what else to say other than the fact that this level was...weird :L
Enjl  : 19 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality Skip Teleporter? 5 / 15 2 / 10 4 / 15 3 / 5 5 / 5 No This level feels sorta random. I like its general idea of sinking deep into the ocean, dodging spikes (and then coming back out for some reason? Did Mega Man forget where to go?), but I think the execution on this is sorta "anything-to-get-the-player-there" rather than "okay-let's-do-something-consistent". There are a lot of elements in this level that don't get to see a 2nd use and I wish they did, because reusing them in later segments and mixing them with what's been introduced since would've made those more interesting. Instead, this level feels like an experiment. It has a nice aesthetic and I like how it gets dark for a few screens, but the gameplay is something I find a bit underwhelming.
Garirry  : 25 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality 5 / 15 6 / 10 5 / 15 4 / 5 5 / 5 I don't know. It's bad. It's not horrible but most stuff is placed at random, certain NNs are placed poorly, etc. It was alright. It got annoying at some places though. Nothing interesting though. I don't know. There's not a lot going on here. I liked some ideas though. It's alright. But for FUCKING HELL WHY IS THE MUSIC SO COMPRESSED. Works just fine. There are a lot of flaws here. Problems such as random enemy and obstacle placement exist in this level, making many sections cheap. Not to mention how some Noble Nickels require either high precision, prior knowledge of the stage, or death, as they could be impossible to get without dying. This stage is also fairly frustrating, primarly because of those reasons, and nothing here is particularly interesting. Other than that, only one other thing to mention: Was there really not any music of better quality available? Because it sounds absolutely AWFUL.
ACESpark  : 25 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality Skip Teleporter? 8 / 15 6 / 10 8 / 15 0 / 5 3 / 5 No This is practically unfinished in spots. (I should not be seeing bare grey tiles from the Game Maker editor!) And the music choice was really dull. With that out of the way, Let's get down to the real issues with the stage: This is seriously unfocused. It's like a kid with ADD. OOH Poles, wait, no, Galaxy Man teleporters! Wait NO, Wave Man bubbles! This doesn't particularly give any of the gimmicks a time to shine, their use is just sort of middling. There is one seriously cool segment of your stage - the darkness area. And the fact it doesn't spawn in when you enter a screen is great, allowing you to see your surroundings before partially blinding you, so at least you have a rough idea where to look for the goodies. Unfortunately, it's only used on 3 screens. One of those is a mini-boss that doesn't take advantage of fact! Shame, I wish the level was built around this concept! The seeming random nature of everything really lets the stage down overall. I am glad there is some sort of climax to the stage - but it... probably should've involved an actual challenge, since it's impossible to fail it. As it stands, it is just a timewaster.