Maze of Death

9th: Maze of Death Make a Good Mega Man Level

My head hurts just looking at this.

Overview Creator(s): Flashman85 Statistics Scores: 93 89 78 30 29 Total: 63.8 / 100 Rank: 9th Elements: 1 Enemies: Anko Beak Big Fish Big Snakey Bikky Cannon Joe Curlinger Dada Flea Gabyoall Giree Kerog Needle Press New Shotman Peng Petit Croaker Petit Snakey Pole Power Muscler Returning Sniper Joe Rolling Drill Sea Mine Shrink Sniper Joe Sumatran Super Ball Cannon Taban Telly Up'n'Down Wanaan Other Information: Duvi's Favourite

Theme Music Mega Man 9 "Maze of Death" (Endless Attack) Stage Order Location: Tier 3 Previous: Hard to See Land Next: Under Construction

"Quick warning - the level to the right of me is very, very long."

―Flash Man, NPC near Maze of Death

Overview

Maze of Death is the 9th place entry in Make a Good Mega Man Level. The player must navigate several branches of a large maze in order to destroy a series of barriers blocking the exit. Despite a screen count that is only slightly above average (34 screens, some of which are skippable), Maze of Death is widely considered to be the longest submission in the contest due to the amount of backtracking required to destroy every barrier. Maze of Death is also noteworthy for its high level of difficulty (hence the three extra lives next to the level's entrance in the Tier 3 hub), puzzle-oriented challenges, use of player-created shortcuts in lieu of checkpoints, and divisiveness among judges and players alike as a "love it or hate it" level.

Development

Inspired by the movie Cube, Maze of Death was originally intended to be a large, square-shaped grid of interconnected single-screen rooms featuring a wide variety of challenges, with two Energy Elements hidden at different points in the maze. However, it became difficult to maintain a sense of fairness and challenge when the player could enter every room from multiple angles. Additionally, the nature of the maze meant that players could stumble on the exit after just a few screens, resulting in a potentially anticlimactic experience. Roughly halfway though development, the barrier gimmick was introduced to add an element of structure to the level design.

The level was restructured to feature a small "cube" (the nine-screen starting area that had already been designed), a connecting hallway, and a large "cube" where players had to destroy a series of barriers from different angles to reach the exit. When it became apparent that the level no longer resembled a maze, additional paths and shortcuts were added. Checkpoints were deliberately omitted, with the rationale that an ever-growing network of shortcuts would be more useful and satisfying to discover than random respawn points that could somehow backfire in such a nonlinear level.

Maze of Death was constructed specifically with experienced Mega Man players in mind, under the false assumption that players would be able to sample the submitted levels without necessarily needing to beat any of them to reach the end of the game.

Strategy

Don't die.

A map of the level, with secret passages shaded gray. You're welcome.