Forgotten Fortress

59th : Forgotten Fortress Make a Good Mega Man Level 2

That skip teleporter is here for a reason...

Overview Creator(s): BBLIR Artist(s): BBLIR Composer(s): Deathro Statistics Scores: 14 35 14 36 19 Total: 23.6 / 50 Rank: 59th Elements: 1 Collectables: Enemies: Baby Metall (separately from Metall Mommy) Big Eye Bolton and Nutton Bomb Thrown Crazy Cannon Curlinger Drillun Fatool Flying Shell Jumbig Mega Met Metall Metall Dance Metall Mommy Neo Metall New Shield Attacker New Shotman Petit Devil (green, yellow) Picket Man Returning Sniper Joe Ring Ring Sniper Armor Spine Telly Telly XL Up'n'Down Gimmicks: Acid Drop Auto Scroller Block Train Bouncy Tile Building Platform Concrete Platform Conveyor (MM2) Cossack Platform Count Bomb Crash Lift Destroyable Block (Jewel Satellite) Drop Platform Falling Platform (MM5) Guts Lift Gravity Flip Gravity Change Key Barrier Lever Plantman Platform Pole Egg Quick Laser (drain) Reflect Block Sheep Block Sparkman Platform Yoku Block Bosses: Gangly Crash Man Other Information: Skippable SnoruntPyro's least favorite

Theme Music Mega Man: Infamous Intent - Fort Famous Stage 4 Stage Order Location: Tier 3 Previous: Candy Panic Next: Alien Temple

"There is one absolutely massive flaw in this level in that it has literally no idea what it's doing."

―SnoruntPyro, summing it up perfectly.

Forgotten Fortress is the 59th place level in Make a Good Mega Man Level 2. It is the second largest submitted level in the Game, clocking in at 114 screens, 4 screens shorter than Escape Sequence (all paths included). It contains a secret room to get the Beck costume.

Strategy

Click here for the map, here for a playthrough and here for the post-100% map. The stage has a total of five paths. First off, the Purple Path, which is accesed by going one screen right and going down in the first path split, more specifically, in the room with the two MM1 Mets and Dust platforms. This path does not split up further and does not connect to the other paths until the very end (the room below the Wily statues). There lies a Noble Nickel at the end of this path. Then the Blue Path, which is accesed by going right in the first path split, above the two Mets and Dust platforms.

Choose here.

This path splits up into the Primary and Secondary Blue Path. The split is right after the pit with Up 'n Downs and Dust platforms. The player can go down, to the Primary Blue path or right, to the Secondary Blue path. The Primary Blue path can also be accesed through the Purple Path, if you slide right instead of jumping down. The Secondary Blue Path contains a Noble Nickel (can also be accesed via the Orange Path, more on that later) and the Primary Blue Path contains a hidden Yashichi.

Hm...

The third possible path is the Orange Path. This path also splits into a primary and secondary path. It is accesed by going left where going right would take you to the Blue Path. The path splits after the Up 'n Downs and M tank. Going right takes you to the Primary Orange Path and going down to the Secondary Orange Path. The Secondary Orange Path ends with a hidden Yashichi and a chance to get the Noble Nickel at the end of the Secondary Blue Path. The Blue and Orange paths connect and take you to a Force Beam section, where the Gangly Crash Man fight and The Lab can be found. Both contain Noble Nickels, where the Lab Nickel is hidden under a Jewel Sattelite Block. The stage ends with a set of Wily statues, the giant one in the center holding a ?-Tank in each hand. The one to the right contains Mega Met, the "boss" of the level, and the one to the left contains the level's Energy Element.

Let's take this to the start...

If you ignore it, you can go right to get a key and go left to a teleporter that takes you to the beginning of the stage, where going left takes you to the teleporter that takes you to the teleporter room. This room has teleporters that take you to the paths. This allows for a run where one can get all the items in one run.

Go left and you go to infinity.

If you're a speedrunner, you're in luck too. There is a shortcut. The Lab has a teleporter that, like sliding left in the room with the Crash platform + 2.0 gravity combo, takes you to the Dev room, containing all but one NPCs. The last NPC is a Wily Statue at the end.

I wonder what will happen if I slide left...

A speedrunner can go to the devroom, teleport to the Lab and finish the level from that. The 'Gangly Crash Man' fight is the same fight as regular ol' Crash Man, just with a bigger hitbox and a 2-screen wide room. It should also be noted that the Primary Blue Path has an exelent grinding spot for Bolts.

BOLT YOU SHOP!

Skip Status

This level was deemed skippable by the judges, due to the level's absurd length, amount of alternate paths and secrets.

Judge Comments

Judge Comments
snoruntpyro  : 14 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality Skip Teleporter? 3 / 15 1 / 10 5 / 15 3 / 5 2 / 5 Yes Oh wow. Um. Wow. This is pretty awful. There is one absolutely massive flaw in this level in that it has literally no idea what it's doing. Virtually every gimmick in the engine appears at some point (or at least it feels like it), and the level is so insanely unfocused that I don't even know what to think of it besides 'it's really messy'. None of the gimmicks are ever focused on or used well, and they constantly just fly in and out of existence. Nonsensical design is everywhere, like an excruciatingly long autoscroll with a black background and almost no enemies (but plenty of Knight Man bouncers), a random section where there's a block train that seems to want to crush you but you can blow past it before it gets close to you, and asinine amounts of split paths. The latter is what utterly kills the level for me. Everything sprawl everywhere in every direction you can think of and it makes it completely impossible to have a sense of where you are at all, and this is amplified by the utter lack of focus. It took me over an hour to slog through the entire thing and get the energy element and all four noble nickels, and it was an incredibly unpleasent and absolutely boring experience. And on top of that there's a bajillion weird secrets too, like some room with a ton of NPCs and a bonus fight with a strangely drawn Crash Man with actually a kind of creative arena but not really. This level is just a giant mess and I did not enjoy it in the slightest.
JupiHornet  : 35 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality 10 / 15 7 / 10 14 / 15 3 / 5 1 / 5 I really enjoyed the nice platforming challenges this level provided. There were so many different gimmicks used in this stage, and they were all used so well! The best part for me was the Force Beam section, because there were clear outlines showing where the force beams were. THIS is how you make a challenging level without having it be exceedingly difficult. My main issue was that the level lagged. A lot. It wasn't game-breaking, but it did make some parts the stage pretty annoying. Also, the Crash Man fight...what even was that?
Enjl  : 14 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality Skip Teleporter? 6 / 15 0 / 10 6 / 15 1 / 5 1 / 5 Yes I tried my best to like this level, but unfortunately, the heavy lag I had when playing through it made this pretty much impossible. Couple that with the maze-like structure of the level and playing it felt more like a chore than a fun experience. Which is a shame. This level has ideas that it proposes and it has a lot to offer. Maybe even to the point where it becomes too much. The confusing layout of the level made me lose all sense of direction and even after several playthroughs I wasn't able to build a cognitive map of the level. When I got to the ending room the first time I picked up the key and completely missed the exit. Heading back to the door I thought the level only just now got started, and while somewhat scared I was also excited to look through the level in order to find Crash Man, who I assumed would hold the Energy Element. Sadly, Crash Man's room is a mess and getting to him didn't feel very rewarding. I eventually found the energy element on my third visit to the end room. On a more general note, the level doesn't do a very good job at ramping up its difficulty or maintaining any kind of consistency. This level has everything, but doesn't really play around with anything, which is a shame.
Garirry  : 36 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality 10 / 15 6 / 10 11 / 15 5 / 5 4 / 5 Not excellent. The problem isn't really the level design itself, it's that the multiple paths concept was executed pretty badly and getting the Noble Nickels is really annoying The stage itself is fun. But it gets annoying when you play it over and over again in order to find all the paths and get the NN. I liked the concepts here. Nothing too interesting but it's good. Great. Works well, but has a few deadly bugs. This is a complicated one to review. Generally, it's good; the level design is mostly solid and it's pretty fun to play through the first time. However, this level splits into so many paths it becomes hard to even replay the stage without feeling annoyed at repeating the same section again. This is especially a problem if you're trying to get the Noble Nickels, which are scattered around the whole level, so getting them is a pain. Otherwise, it's a good stage. Ideas are interesting and the level's graphics and music are good.
ACESpark  : 19 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality Skip Teleporter? 8 / 15 0 / 10 4 / 15 3 / 5 4 / 5 Yes There comes a point... where you need to stop. This was a slog. I had so little fun playing this stage I wanted to quit part way through. So, I'm going to get the positive out of the way first: Your original assets are well drawn (although the colour scheme is absolutely garish), and your opening area was great! Good conveyance, good design, really well thought out. And then I got to the second area. And the third. And the fourth and then... Why. I know there is a lot in the dev kit but you didn't need to use... Every. Single. Sodding. Gimmick. Later on in the stage, you seemed to stop thinking and did the bare minimum required to implement a segment. In all fairness, there is nothing wrong with any of these rooms aside from how easy they are (this is actually to your stage's benefit believe me.), and a lot of these areas, introduce themselves well. Pick a gimmick, pick a second gimmick, maybe a third, and stick to them. Start doing clever stuff with them and maybe this would work. Everything in the dev kit though? Blerugh. You have the makings of a good designer - just scale back next time! This, wasn't fun. Finally: Poor Crash Man. I'm not sure what good making him so gangly was, but it didn't help matters.

Older Versions

Version 1 (december 19th devkit): The stage used to be even longer, at 87 screens. The screencount is smaller, but the shortest route is much longer, the paths don't split up further, there are fewer checkpoints and the devroom is nonexistent, exept for two NPCs (Bass and Proto Man) at the end of the secret ˝Purple Path˝ (wasn't actually purple). Bass sighs and Proto Man says the following: I'm suprised you found this part of the level. Here's a message from the stage's creator: Moo. Other changes include an orange Background for the Blue Path and a cut Snowboarding section and a smaller ammount of enemies and gimmicks.

Version 2 (dec. 22th devkit): The stage is closer to the final version, with the Purple Path not being a secret anymore, and, along with the Blue Path, having a purple background. It contains a Rush Jet section, after only one Block Train. The path doesn't actually connect to the main path, it goes around and ends you up above the right-most screen of the Wily statues. Also adds the Lab and features the dev room and fake Wily statue NPC. Also, this is the version where it's called by it's name and not just 'BBLIR'.

Version 3 (dec. 29 devkit): Appears to only be smaller changes.

Version 4 (january 3rd devkit): This version dumps the Rush Jet section and instead replaces it with the autoscrolling. Also, this is the update that adds the path splits inside the paths.

Version 5 (jan. 8th devkit): This version starts the beginning of the compression to reduce the screen count.

Version 6 (jan. 9th devkit): The final version. Adds Crash Man, the Teleporters, graphical additions and general touch ups. Also adds custom enemies, the Noble Nickels and lenghtens the paths.

Improved Version

The level's creator, BBLIR, has created an overhaul of the level, in response to the judge comments. Get it here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/vybrq51419ju1jl/ForgottenFortressNew.rar (was made before any updated engine was released, it is based on the most recent version of the devkit as of november 11th 2017).

If you can't/don't want to play it, here is some footage.

Trivia

• There is an unaccesible room near the beginning containing a Proto Man NPC.

(P.S., he says HOW DID YOU GET HERE!?!?!?!?!?)

• The Flashman statue in the dev room is there because of Flashman85's playtesting of the level.
• Mr. Bleh originates from an unfinished RM7 FC character swap.
• The Zap Met originates from the cancelled Mega Man X: Y.
• The teleporter idea was suggested by Flashman85
• The Energy Element is inside the ? Tanks because of a devkit bug of the element flying into oblivion at the speed of Sanik.