Make a Good Mega Man Level 3 Blind Run - Pt 14B - Ishmael Plains Factory Talk

[@AttractorsAltAccount]

Here is the first example of time penalties being wild. Call Me Ishmael, as stated in another comment, would’ve been in tier FIVE if it werent due to the time penalty. This is not the last time penalty, and all of them will basically be 50% better levels than those around them.

[@alexanderkosten7611]

In a way, all the time penalties really help the pacing of the compilation game if playing it in order - having a few average-to-good levels mixed in with all the platform hell and general sloppy design of the bottom tiers makes them quite a bit more bearable!

[@joew1237]

Dang, Five? I was expecting top tier 3.

[@runningoncylinders3829]

It’s an inoffensive level with an identity but nothing that shouts top 20 had it been timelier. It’s pretty brutal to have a penalty, especially if it would have impeded a top tier stage, but it’s part of the contest to get there in what they gave em.

[@Gamesmarts194]

To be fair, the time penalty is more of a contest quirk; it’s not like the level is any worse for being in a lower tier (nor a good level any better with bonuses), even if I do agree that these penalties (especially since they’re percent-based) are a bit unnecessarily harsh. Also like Alexanderkoten said- I do think it breaks up the pace in a good way: It’s nice to have a level or two with a semblance of quality among a bunch of levels that are more questionably designed.

[@BigKlingy]

Dang. I knew I liked that level for its charming, consistent gimmick and thought it shouldn't have placed so low, but I didn't expect its "true" placement to be THAT high!

[@riguor9876]

Call Me Ishmael has the distinction of being the very last level submitted to the contest, the late period was closed only seconds after it was submitted. For those wondering, we've actually already seen the first level submitted to the contest too; that was Not Delivering On Promises back in tier 1.

[@MantaRaydiated]

Do you know how quickly Promises was submitted, am curious.

[@riguor9876]

@@MantaRaydiated Day one of the submissions period, about 2 1/2 hours after they officially opened.

[@tb3411]

Not Delivering on Promises is pretty much "FIRST!" in Mega Man level design form.

[@AnthemHero]

Before I start talking about the stages, I really love your friend's choice of death sound for the goose. The death sound of The Incredible Coneman is a treasure. (To those that don't understand, look up Net Yaroze, The Incredible Coneman or Caddicarus. I'm sure you'll find something.) Call Me Ishmael: I have nothing to say about the stage itself. Instead, I have a tune to jaunt... *blows whistle* We're Whaler Robots Woo~! We're Stuck Inside Tier 2! Oh what a shame his stage is not a pain At least we got a mermaid too. Grassy Plains: This stage is... Very flat... and very green... I don't see the grass. All I see are Crash Man platforms I'd rather avoid, a random gravity flipper and broken Crash platforms and... Oh right this stage has two halves to it! And the ground half is just as mediocre as the green half save for the reverse gravity section, the fight with Knuckle, and the rapids that push you to the left so fast that you'd rather use Rush jet. Thankfully it's only one room. Also that bee enemy is annoying. And I have no answers. Just fire more penguins. QuintsMetFactory: ThisDoesNotDoAnythingToShowItselfToBeaFactoryMadeOfMetsWhatsoeverAsideFromTheFourMetEnemiesUsedInTheStageTheConveyorBeltsFromMetalMan'sStageAndTheBossFightWithQuintAtTheEnd. AlsoThisPersonApparentlyDoesNotKnowHisLeftFromHisRights. FinallyQuint'sMetMachineDidNotNeedAScondPhaseButThat'sMyOpinion. So finally there's three more stages done. I forget how many left to go. But I think the worst of Tier 2 was behind us two videos ago.

[@ciregoku]

I absolutely love Pachy's reviews she's so adorable

[@PowerSimplified1871]

*He Pachy's man

[@redblueandgray]

@@PowerSimplified1871 Pachy accepts any pronouns

[@PowerSimplified1871]

@@redblueandgray Oh! I didn't know that. Thanks!

[@PoochiPachy]

:D

[@josh.jones34]

​@@PoochiPachythe level with a met pun is probably my favorite in the game !!

[@bigrockerending7711]

-Call Me Ishmael: To be honest, this level is only my favorite Tier 2 level because the whale gimmick is charming, even if its use is fairly basic. Besides, none of the other levels in Tier 2 really stand out too much, in my opinion, at least not for the right reasons. -Grassy Plains: I don't know how to feel about this level. The first half, while janky in execution, does have some pretty neat concepts going on, and if it was polished and fleshed out a bit more, it probably would've made for a really neat stage. But instead, it just... randomly turns into a completely different level and becomes... pretty boring, honestly, even with Miner Man at the end. -QuintsMetFactory: Most of the level is pretty basic and not that memorable. Really, the one notable part is the fight with Quint's machine at the end, and while it's somewhat neat, it's also a pretty basic, albeit jank fight.

[@anueutsuho7425]

It SEEMS like it was actually Starsoul's second stage, since one of the levels excluded by request of their creators was called QuintsMoonBase, and I don't know who made which excluded level, but the same CamelCase makes it seem likely they made that one.

[@MarsJenkar]

I can confirm that QuintsMoonBase was indeed done by Starsoul. I have access to the submission file, which shows the names of all levels submitted, as well as the names of the submitters.

[@sonicdragon813]

I’m guessing the reason why Splash Woman is the boss in Call Me Ishmael is because she uses a trident just like what Ishmael uses against Moby Dick. I assume that is the case because I never read Moby Dick.

[@phibbykaden]

Nah, Moby Dick was always more Captain Ahab's obsession.

[@kyuubinaruto17]

According to a comment from part 1, it fits because the Starbucks logo is a mermaid, and Starbuck is the name of a character from Moby Dick. Kinda shocking, but in looking up the logo for myself I found out their earliest logo had visible boobs with "nipples." Really it's just two filled in circles, but still that was their logo for 16 years before they had her hair covering them.

[@MusicoftheDamned]

Yeah, these levels were largely inoffensive, though of them I only liked the first one with the time penalty. The second was...messy even before the random cave bit that came out of nowhere, and the third has a weird dearth of Mets despite its stage name alongside its other issues. No, the boss being a janky Met dispenser does not change that last criticism. I hate to sound like the Dr. Bees of Mets--though that _does_ give me an idea...--here, but more Mets would *definitely* have improved the stage at least a bit, making it feel like an actual factory of them instead of a weird pseudo-castle right down to Quint being pseudo-Wily. It says a lot that pretty much all of the judges give their praise to the not-Met enemies, which just feels...wrong.

[@kyuubinaruto17]

Yeah, they really needed to throw in Dennis for the Met Factory. For those that don't remember MAGMML 2, Dennis was a Met in a high ranking stage holding a key that basically become every type of Met in sequence every time he "died."

[@rudeboyspodcast]

That goose outfit made these levels seem like more fun, honestly. We're still not into the "good" levels yet, but it felt "good" watching you play them and having a good time :)

[@Nekosage]

Getting on with more judge reviews! 17:00 - An adorable expression on Pachy's avatar.

[@ashketchup7354]

I'm guessing Flashman85 took a passage from Moby Dick and substituted some words. If he's read the novel, I wonder what he thinks of the 4-page hat description lol

[@MarsJenkar]

I just checked, and as I suspected, he riffed on the second sentence of the story. Here's the first two sentences for reference: "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago-never mind how long precisely-having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world."

[@MarsJenkar]

I find it amusing that, despite me having never read Moby-Dick myself, I somehow recognized that Flashman85 was riffing on the intro to the story at the beginning of his judge entry. Regarding the book--I've heard it said that one could read only every other chapter of Moby-Dick without missing any of the story, as it was essentially a story interwoven with treatises on how whaling was done at the time.

[@runningoncylinders3829]

Had to look up treatises. My horrible mind shuddered upon mistaking it for treatsies. Oh my, whaling must be fun question mark.

[@RSK.Rainbolt-Syanic-Kerodii.]

The first stage had fairly interesting usage of the using the whale enemies as platforms, but I never really found any real pronounced difficulty around them, & both the obstacles & enemies don't really add to it either. Also some bizarre anomalies with the lack of water physics where it should have been was definitely an iffy stand-out... The second stage had some unique re-imaginings of the Guts Man platform gimmick (even if some were somewhat unclear in what they do,), but the second part felt pretty underwhelming in comparison. At least the Hornet Man miniboss usage here didn't come across as janky compared to many of the previous stages that use them. The third stage is a bit awkward in its gimmicks, but besides that, this one was yet another case of just being... kinda there. On a more positive side however, that Quint Met Dispenser looked quite nice, but the flashing against the black background can definitely give the wrong impression to those sensitive to flashing lights. (fortunately, I don't have that problem myself.)

[@runningoncylinders3829]

Four pages describing a hat? Must be some hat. The article of clothing commonly worn atop one’s head complete with a brim and curved upper section reminded the seamen that they too could wear hats if they so chose to wear them. And then another thousand words about the hat.

[@letsplaytodayusa]

Call Me Ishmael: Besides being absolutely murdered by the time penalty, this was really just a small, silly yet fun level. By far the best level in this tier, extremely inoffensive. In fact, its biggest issue was probably the fact that it was too inoffensive and didn't turn up the difficulty past Cuphead Tutorial levels. This is a far smaller crime than...honestly a bunch of tier 5 and 6 levels, much less this one. Grassy Plains: I don't know how I feel about a level leaving the second half completely out of its title. That being said...there's a lot of parts to this that made me just dislike it. Sometimes the gimmicks are introduced safely! Sometimes they're very not. Sometimes the jumps past the edge of the screen can kill you, sometimes the path suddenly disappears for seemingly no reason. The bouncy things needed a different sprite when they were just platforms, as is they look too much like bouncy things when they're supposed to not be bouncy. And then the latter half of the level just has a stupid room with the water current and the enemies that could easily kill you...which sends you right into an easy but boring upside down key/puzzle room that was fine going through once but quickly becomes tedious if you have to go through it twice or even more. It also doesn't look particularly good. Neither does the (apparently supposed to be a mole) boss. Quint's Met Factory: It's way, way too basic, and has the double shot of being a Met Factory Level in a contest with tons of levels and thus there will be tons of other met and factory levels. By far the most interesting thing about the level is the boss, which isn't good. It's just 3 minibosses stacked on top of each other. The second phase is basically a wily capsule in terms of how often it does not want to get hit, but the Yashichi drop at the start is actually quite appreciated. For that I give the level some props.

[@LordBloodySoul]

The Quint boss was fun, though xD

[@hunam1464]

That part with the hat in Moby Dick is essentially the part that Brother Maynard prays about the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. “And the people did feast upon the lambs, and sloths, and carp, and anchovies, and orangutans, and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats..” Skip a bit, brother.

[@SwordHMX]

Half of the book is sleep-inducing parts about whaling. We skipped all of that in 10th grade English and ended up reading about 45% of the novel, only half of which hascthe rich litetary elements the entire novel is praised for.

[@vineheart01]

Call me Ishmael: It exists, its clean (minus a few water collision issues) but rather simple and offers no challenge. I was expecting the Mobi conveyors to have you jump between them to dodge spikes or have a shootout on them. Grassy Plains: Some well done platform conveyors but thats about it. Otherwise its kinda meh, very flat and some of the gimicks are a bit broken looking? (bounce conveyors) QuintsMetFactory: Met Factory. Win. Basically all 3 of these stages were very similar to each other. Rather simple, inoffensive design thats a bit too simple. But, its much easier to tweak to add than to tweak to remove to a stage.

[@QuirkyNerd]

After all the Tier 2 levels, especially right after a skippable level, Call Me Ishmael felt like a real breather here. Moby platform was a fun silly idea, if bit on the easy side. Personally I feel the difficulty was backwards with the spike floors appearing in second whale rides while being absent in the first one, but it didn't matter in the end with the mild difficulty. Rest of the stage was just there, but I like the combination of Chill Ice blocks and Au-Au. Carelessly shooting shots with excessive amount of jumps made me fall in my first iirc, so I think I used a charge shot for the shorter work for this section. Though the level ended shortly after that, shameful. It could've shown more potential with the gimmicks and enemies. Grassy Plains is a weird level. First half matches the title but felt a bit rough at times, and the gimmicks could've used safer and clearer introductions. And then second half just turns the entire thing into the cave??? Much like the judges, I was confused at my first play too. Could've really focused on one theme. I don't have much memory regarding QuintsMetFactory. It used Mets and some acid drops on the floor, and that is all the memorable things to me. Oh, and the boss was there too. It isn't a devkit boss, which is a good thing, but the said boss gotten a bit tedious after the second phase. Overall level design was pretty dull already, and sadly things didn't end on a high note for me.

[@RalphThePyro]

RELEASE THE UNTITLED!!!!

[@rodger2275]

So the judges did not like the level QuintsMetfactory. The last Metall maker can wander off the screen causing a soft lock. I'm guessing this was fixed for the level contest game. The level really wanted you to defeat the boss. The last Metall maker drops a Yashichi. Cool N creative boss 4 the Mega Man Level contest.

[@SapphireSword-pd1ix]

Now for my opinions on these stages. Call Me Ishmael. My only biggest disappointment is how underutilized the whales were. I wished there were more creative platforming challenges to them as you could easily go through them without the need to jump onto the whale behind. I was on the lead whale each time because of the lack of solid enemies or even any spikes to be in the way. Which is sad because it was a cute idea. It just needed some more creativity to it. Grassy Plains. If it wasn't for Temple of Light and Dark and Wily's Redemption in this tier I would have easily called this one the worst. Mostly because of the tricky platforming that was just uncomfortable to play. Also the fact that you go from grassy plains into a cave threw me off. Also I lot my patience in the cave section as well as I kept on dying a lot at the currents and the section with the cruel enemy placements, and if you die in any of those sections you'd have to do the key hunting ALL OVER AGAIN! Basically I didn't like this stage one bit. Oh, and the boss. I'm not going to give points for creativity there. QuintsMetFactory. Another one of those stages I disliked just because of the overly hectic nature of that "Training Area". I died so many times to it due to how there were hardly any safe jumps in it. And we're rewarded at the end with an easy boss fight. Seriously. I guess I shouldn't complain after the overly difficult "Training Area", but the fact that all I had to do was just stay in place and jump and shot at them doesn't give much challenge to the boss. Overall too hard of a stage and too easy of a boss. In this video Grassy Plains is easily the winner for the worst while Call Me Ishmael was the best.

[@BIGgamez78]

Do you have any videos on gameplay for any of the Metroid games from the GBA? I really enjoyed your videos on the Castlevania GBA games… just rewatched the Circle Of the Moon videos and really enjoyed them. I was hoping you had some videos for mMetroid Zero Missions or Metroid Fusion but couldn’t find any you have done.

[@RoahmMythril]

I haven't done either of the GBA Metroids on the channel, just the original NES game and Metroid 2 for Game Boy. I'll probably at least do Super and Fusion in the future. Zero Mission, that one I'm not sure on, I admittedly prefer the original NES Metroid to Zero Mission.

[@BIGgamez78]

@@RoahmMythril Thanks for responding! I’ll check out your other videos indeed. Your commentary is always a delight in the videos I’ve seen so far!

[@Sickness24]

Grassy plains is a **censored** level for me, at least in the first half. i could deal with the gravity part in the second part but after 3 or 4 deaths i skipped about 60% of it with magnet beam (most of it in the green first half, and then a little bit in the rapids)

[@lvcsslacker]

honk!