Difference between revisions of "Breaking Ground"

Revision as of 07:38, 6 September 2018

1st : Breaking Ground Make a Good 24 Hour Mega Man Level

I know this elevator's supposed to be faster, but I think I'll stick to using the stairs.

Overview Creator(s): NaOH Artist(s): Konami Capcom Capcom/Minakuchi Engineering/Inti Creates Composer(s): Kackebango Statistics Scores: 92 86 76 Total: 85 / 100 Rank: 1st Elements: 1 Enemies: Flea Returning Sniper Joe Space Metall Spring Head Gimmicks: Auto Scroller Chill Man Block Super Arm Block Wanaan Bosses: Quick Man

Theme Music Oil Man (original track) Stage Order Previous: Flooded Temple

Overview

Breaking Ground is the first place level in the Make a Good 24 Hour Mega Man Level contest. It was made with a box featuring Space Metalls and Spring Heads as enemies, as well as Chill Man Blocks and Wanaans as gimmicks. The level utilizes several Space Metall spawners, vertical Auto Scrollers with "elevators" that follow the screen, and two variants of Spring Head.

Strategy

The level begins with three Chill Man Blocks that must be broken to progress. To the right is a hidden Super Arm Block that blocks a hidden room. In the room, destroying the Fleas and getting rid of the Super Arm Blocks while being careful not to destroy all of the Chill Man blocks rewards Mega Man with an M-Tank. Going down in the first room leads to an area with some Chill Man Blocks and blue Spring Heads blocking the path. To the right is a room where blue Spring Heads are placed above two rows of Chill Man Blocks; breaking the blocks at the right time can place the Spring Heads on a different elevation or even behind some of the remaining blocks, allowing Mega Man to proceed with minimal trouble. The following room is a quick ladder climb followed by a short drop, with a Space Metall spawner complicating the process. Three of the blocks supposedly making the ladder climb necessary are actually Super Arm blocks, which can make the room easier to pass. After going right and climbing up a ladder in a room with another Space Metall spawner, Mega Man finds a room with both a blue Spring Head and a gray one. Gray Spring Heads do not function the same as their blue equivalents in this level; they do not move at all unless Mega Man is on the same X-axis as them. Going up past another Space Metall spawner room is the first instance of Wanaans in the level, where they must be used as platforms to reach the top of the room (itself guarded by a blue Spring Head).

Above this room is another where a jump on a Chill Man Block will reward Mega Man with an E-Tank. Heading left, Mega Man must face jumps across Wanaans at the same time as a Space Metall spawner. Past this room is an area where a Returning Sniper Joe blocks the path on flooring made entirely of Chill Man Blocks, requiring Mega Man to either get past it with careful jumps or simply ride over it with Rush Jet; the rightmost part of the area also has a Super Arm Block on the top. Following a room with a blue Spring Head spawner placed above Wanaans is the first vertical "elevator" Auto Scroller, where Mega Man must stay on his toes to avoid getting attacked by the Wanaans beneath him, or by the Space Metalls above him. Once the screen stops scrolling, Mega Man can head two rooms to the left and one room down, where he must carefully time a drop from a shattered Chill Man block to outrun a quartet of gray Spring Heads.

The room after this contains a Chill Man block on each side, six Wanaans (leaving only some of the rightmost end of the room's bottom safe), three Super Arm Blocks, and a blue Spring Head atop the Chill Man Block on the right. This puzzle can be approached several ways. The first method requires heading to the left of the room, destroying the right Chill Man Block from there, heading back to the right end while avoiding the Wanaans and blue Spring Head, then destroying the left Chill Man Block. The second method starts much like the first method, except once Mega Man reaches the right, he simply tosses away the Super Arm Blocks and passes through the tunnel they leave behind. The third method is possibly the quickest; it involves going straight to the left, going below the Chill Man block, then breaking it using either Water Wave or Chill Spike.

Past the Chill Man block puzzle is another "elevator" Auto Scroller. This elevator takes less time to reach its destination than the previous one, but it's now a solid surface with four blue Spring Heads. The Spring Heads will usually fall off the elevator if frozen by Chill Spike; it is unknown why this happens, but it's helpful nonetheless. To the left of the elevator is a room with a large weapon energy refill, a large health refill, and a 1-Up. The 1-Up is seemingly stuck behind a series of pillars, but Super Arm can be used to open a path. Rush Coil also works for reaching the 1-Up, but the area with the 1-Up itself is small enough that Super Arm is still required to get out. Past this is a pair of brief stretches combining blue Spring Heads with Chill Man Blocks and Wanaans; the first involves a formation that Mega Man can break through without causing a Spring Head to drop from the single Chill Man Block it's perched on (followed by a simple group of blue Spring Heads on flat ground), and the second involves Spring Heads on Chill Man Blocks that obstruct the main path, forcing Mega Man to break the blocks and let the blue Spring Heads loose while also watching out for Wanaans.

After this is the boss corridor; unlike most corridors, which are empty single-screen areas or sometimes triple-screen areas with one enemy on each screen, this corridor is a short gauntlet of Space Metall Spawners combined with Wanaans. Past this dangerous corridor is a battle against Quick Man on top of rows upon rows of Chill Man Blocks. The fragile flooring makes the battle particularly difficult, even when the rows of blocks go down incredibly far. On top of that, should the two robots make it all the way to the bottom of the arena, they will be greeted with a floor littered with Wanaans. If Mega Man manages to best Quick Man, he will be rewarded with an Energy Element.

Judge Comments

Judge Comments
ParmaJon  : 92 / 100
Honestly, I really love this level. First of all, this might be my favorite use of the chillman blocks I've seen. Especially paired with the sniper joe, that was great. I also loved how there were some enemies with some slightly different behavior (the grey springhead and the space mettool spawners) were introduced and kept to be consistent throughout the whole level. I feel like every challenge had an intended solution that felt really nice to pull off, although if you don't get it exactly right it was kinda punishing. While I appreciated using Quickman and trying to make it more an interesting fun, it just turned out to be too hard. I still can't beat him buster only and needed to use special weapons to beat him. Also you can clip into the ceiling during the quickman fight somehow, not exactly sure how that happened. Overall, really enjoyable experience.
MiniMacro  : 86 / 100
This level started out really good! All the introductions were solid, and the ice blocks and Gabyoalls were used very well. However, after the first elevator room, the level started falling apart in my opinion. It became a waiting game with some few screens of strategic jumping involved. The second elevator segment was good with the strategic jumping. Then, after the few screens of more Gaboyalls and Wanaans, the boss corridor came. This is my biggest problem with the level. Don t put enemies in the boss corridor, especially ones like the Space Met spawner in the floor, that are tricky and annoying. Especially not when the level is ended by a Quick Man fight on ice. The boss fight was a bit irritating to fight because there s no solid ground to aim at Quick Man. The vertical scrolling caused Quick Man to despawn at one point, too. Overall, I think this level starts out very strong, and ends not so strongly. The graphics and music were good, though.
CreshMan  : 76 / 100
You , sir, get my applause for making use of the super arm blocks. *clap* *clap* clap* I really appreciate the use of the different weapons in this level. In particular, the level really felt like it was built around the super arm and time slow weapons, which really made it a joy to play through. The spawners on the space mets were a little fast for what they should be, considering how fast the space mets are, making it easy to get swarmed. However, these mechanics are used in an interesting way in the elevator screen, which makes a nice and memorable challenge with the wanyaans. The tiles are nice looking, but there are a couple parts of the stage where they can be confusing, hiding the wanyaans on the first elevator, and looking like solid tiles at the end of both elevators when they are not. I feel like these screens could have been more enclosed instead, which would make telling where to exit easier. I was not a fan of the boss fight at all. If I've learned anything from MM2, its that quick man doesn't work with erratic terrain, especially here, where he quickly buries the player. No way I would have beaten this without using his weakness to cheese.

Trivia

• Breaking Ground is currently one of only four levels in the MaGMML series with a vertical Auto Scroller section, the others being Launch Man and Shuttle Man, Hardcore Parkour and Up n' Duck.