Citadel Basement

4th : Citadel Basement Make a Good Mega Man Level (Remastered)

It's not uncommon for this stage to be... anxiety inducing... for people.

Overview Creator(s): Entity1037 Composer(s): Capcom (original) RushJet1 (remix) Statistics Scores: 86 75 91 66 57 Total: 75 / 100 Rank: 4th Elements: 1 Enemies: Ring Ring Beak Gimmicks: Guts Lift

Theme Music Cossack Stage 4 (Mega Man 4 Remade) Stage Order Location: Tier 5 Previous: Research Facility Next: NEON GRAVITY

"Hi"

―Entity1037, Secret message hidden in a secret room near the beginning of the level.

Citadel Basement is the 4th place entry in Make a Good Mega Man Level. It is themed after the Dr. Cossack fortress stages from Mega Man 4, specifically using tiles from Cossack Stages 3 and 4. The stage revolves around Guts Lifts, requiring Mega Man to ride them in pseudo-auto-scrolling sections, and to use them to platform downwards in vertically scrolling sections. The stage almost completely focuses on the platforms, trying to do as much with the gimmick as possible. It also only uses devkit assets, without any custom programming or graphics. It's considered very difficult, with bottomless pits and spikes everywhere. However, despite the difficulty and lack of custom assets, it still managed to get into the highest tier, and because of that it is often used as an example for how custom assets aren't required to make a high-placing stage.

Strategy

Preferably come prepared with max lives (unless one is playing Make a Good Mega Man Level Remastered with the lives option off, wherein death is of little consequence). E-Tanks aren't very useful, as almost all deaths will be from instant death obstacles.

In the pseudo-auto-scrolling sections, Mega Man needs to jump over and avoid spikes, shoot enemies that are in the way, and platform over terrain that forces him to jump off his Guts Lift and then catch up to it before it leaves. It helps when jumping over spikes on the Guts Lifts to move to the back of the platform before jumping over it, so that when he gets to the other side of the spike there's more platform to land on. It's possible to jump too far and overshoot the platform when jumping spikes, and fall into a pit. Using the Rush Jet can help greatly, letting one ignore a lot of challenges. However, there is one challenge in the first pseudo-auto-scrolling section at the end that can't be bypassed with Rush Jet, with the only way to get past it being to wait for the Guts Lift to get into the right spot to land on it. This makes this section impossible to clear if Mega Man loses the platform. Also, at the beginning of the second pseudo-auto-scrolling section, the Guts Lifts spawn from the ceiling, and then drop onto the rail. This gives a tight window of time to jump on the platform, and that combined with the fact that the jump is a decently big one makes this one of the hardest jumps in the game.

A: If you lose the Guts Man platform, then you're out of luck.

B: This jump may not look so bad in this screenshot, but remember the platform is moving AWAY from him. I meant it when I said it's one of the hardest jumps in the game.

In the vertical descent sections, Mega Man needs to inch his way downward from platform to platform, and "look before you leap", as it were. The player is always able to see what's ahead and where they should go next, so it's a matter of being careful. Unfortunately there's not really a way to make these sections easier; the level geometry makes Rush useless in most places. The only thing that helps is using Metal Blade on some of the enemies, but most of them are easily defeated with the Mega Buster anyway. There's also the fact that the first vertical section doesn't have a checkpoint at the start of it, meaning Mega Man has to wait through the first pseudo-auto-scroll section all over again if he dies to it. This isn't helped by the other fact that the first vertical section is the hardest of the two vertical sections, with the one later in the stage being more relaxed with its challenges (a difficulty curve issue that's due to that part of the level and everything after it being rushed the night before the entry period deadline). Plus, the final challenge right before the first checkpoint room is pretty demanding.

C: Slow and steady...

D: This final challenge before the first checkpoint is also impossible to make easier with weapons.

E: Okay, what DOESN'T this stage do with these platforms?!

Judge Comments
snoruntpyro  : 86 / 100
Personal Fun Factor Other Fun Factor Uniqueness Creativity Graphics Music 25 / 25 23 / 25 9 / 15 15 / 15 7 / 10 7 / 10 Amazing! The stage keeps its focus with just using the Guts lifts and a few types of enemies. But wow does the stage make amazing use of the Guts lifts! I really liked the race towards the end of the level, and the vertical sections were really cool too! Great job on this one!
Cheez8  : 75 / 100
Personal Fun Factor Other Fun Factor Uniqueness Creativity Graphics Music 22 / 25 17 / 25 7 / 15 12 / 15 7 / 10 10 / 10 A little punishing, but you judged the length and midpoint placements well! The Guts Man platforms let you ask some things of the player that I personally haven't seen before, too. A very straightforward challenge, but a well-crafted one that really got me feeling pumped up when I pulled it off.
Duvi0  : 91 / 100
Personal Fun Factor Other Fun Factor Uniqueness Creativity Graphics Music 23 / 25 23 / 25 12 / 15 15 / 15 8 / 10 10 / 10 Is it just me or does the gutsman platform ridiculously phallic?
Mick Galbani / Blackmore Darkwing  : 66 / 100
Personal Fun Factor Other Fun Factor Uniqueness Creativity Graphics Music 16 / 25 14 / 25 9 / 15 10 / 15 8 / 10 9 / 10 Huh, this was actually a pretty fun level overall. I ended up needing to use Rush Jet in my successful run, but I'm honestly okay with that. You put the Guts Man lift things to rather good use here, and just overall I quite like this. I have two major complaints here. One is that this level basically comes from a more MMU-train of thought where you basically can't make any mistakes in order to make it through, which is...disappointing, to say the least, never been a fan of that school of thought. The other complaint is that the final third of the stage is far easier than anything before it, which gives this place some mild issues with its difficulty curve.
MrKyurem  : 57 / 100
Personal Fun Factor Other Fun Factor Uniqueness Creativity Graphics Music 17 / 25 14 / 25 9 / 15 7 / 15 5 / 10 5 / 10 Slightly too brutal for my liking - although, the design behind said torturous difficulty was actually fairly well done. I think some of the challenges could definitely have been done without so many spikes, and that first section where you have to walk off the Guts Man platform didn’t need to saturn-thingies-that-i-don’t-know-the-name-of, as this is where you’re introducing them to this concept. I will also give you that this is the first time I have been scared by an E tank since Minus Infinity.

Secret Room

Hi

The stage has a secret room near the beginning. When you first get on the Guts Lift, wait until the lift is out from under the low ceiling, and then jump on Rush Jet and go all the way to the left of the screen. You will screen transition into a secret area, with a W-Tank, an extra life, and the word "Hi" spelled out in tiles. Use Rush Jet to go to the platforms with the collectibles. It's impossible to get out of the room and back into the normal part of the level without dying though, so getting the extra life is kind of [mandatory¹/pointless in the scenario where you had the lives system turned off in the options^1R] if you come here.

Scrapped Content

Idea sketch of the scrapped boss, Rail Hunter, drawn by Entity1037.

During development, a custom boss called "Rail Hunter" was planned for the level. It would have been fought while on a number of rail platforms that would occasionally switch tracks to change heights. The boss would have had three different kinds of attacks, coming from three different cannon parts. The main body would be invincible, requiring Mega Man to hit and destroy the cannons to hurt it. Rail Hunter was ultimately scrapped due to time constraints, with the level itself barely being finished before the deadline.

Rail Hunter was also planned numerous times to be in Make a Good Mega Man Level 2; first as an alternate boss in The Stage Nobody Asked For (also by Entity), then as a room in Null and Void, and THEN as a statue boss in Tier 10, but each time it ended up being scrapped due to other things taking priority, and running out of time.

Trivia

• Citadel Basement was one of the last entries submitted to the first Make a Good Mega Man Level contest. However, unlike City War, it was not started so close to the entry period deadline, and does not suffer from the same problems it had (however, a few problems due to rushing do exist).
• A recreation of the first vertical segment of the level is included in Make a Good Mega Man Level 2 as a room in the Pit of Pits, aptly named "Citadel Basement Shenanigans".