A Critical Look at Mega Man 2 Stages: Dr. Wily Stage 4
We’re given a few refills before beginning a long vertical climb. However, this section has a catch. We’re introduced to fake floors, the first of which dumps us on a Met if we haven’t killed it yet.
That hole continues upward, blocking off the extra life on the other side. The normal way to get it is to fall through the top and press to the left, but the first gap can also be jumped and items are always an option. If the player hasn’t noticed these yet, the trip to the ladder above will fix that. While Item 2 or pure memorization can get players across, the real solution provides a nice secondary use for an otherwise neglected weapon.
There’s a few more screens like this, followed by an empty hallway serving no purpose but to send the player back down again. The downward section offers a return of the Crash Man lifts in a more interesting form. The first seems long and boring, but a good portion of it can be skipped early.
The next three each provide something new. The first two require avoiding something in the path of the lift, while the third has the lift going in the opposite direction you want it to. Making it across that requires some careful timing, but Item 2 gives players an easy pass.
The last section is another Joe gauntlet, with one catch. There’s one Joe in a spot that removes any hope of dodging his shots, and the only way I found to get past him without damage was an immediate blast of Atomic Fire. Though I’ve already made it clear that I’m not a fan of forced damage, we haven’t had occasion to use that weapon in a while so players will be likely to have it, and it fits the puzzle theme for the stage.
This is the Boobeam Trap, and it is easily the most terrible thing this game has to offer. The idea is pretty neat though. The traps can only be killed with Crash Bombs, and occasionally shoot very fast projectiles at you from each trap at once. Mega Man can only fire 7 bombs from a full meter, there are more than 7 targets in the room, and the shots are nearly impossible to dodge until you’ve killed a few of these, so it’s a puzzle with both limited resources and time.
Though it is possible to hit two targets with one well-placed bomb, the standard solution requires every shot you have, plus a few items and a difficult jump to avoid the non-essential walls. That’s a very cool way to force a player to use items strategically and would have made a great stand-alone challenge in one of the newer games that have such things, but let me list off the problems it has here.
-Unlike the normal bosses, dying here will put you back at the stages midway point, which is right before the lifts, which are not fun to do repeatedly given all the waiting involved.
-Even if you could start at the boss again, you wouldn’t want to because Mega Man does not get his energy refilled after a death.
-The only good spot to regain bomb energy is right at the end of the first lift.
-That spot only has two blocks of space to stand on, and one of those is a ladder, which items will fall through. You’ll have to stand on the very edge of the platform and kill Tellys after they pass over the ladder.
-If the lift passes while you’re doing this and Mega Man is on the ground, it will snag his foot and carry him off.
-Your only other available options are to head backward and kill the Mets, which are in a very awkward position to fight, or grind energy from Joes.
-Even if you did go for the Joes, the one on foot and not in the tunnel is the only sane option, but trying to kill him repeatedly will lure the nearby Sniper Armor over.
It’s a pain in the ass is what I’m saying, and you’re probably better off just killing yourself a few times on the spikes for the game over refill.
So, it’s a nice puzzle stage and I appreciate that the walls aren’t vomit-colored anymore, but a forced-weapon-use boss with no room for error really does not mesh at all well with this game’s energy mechanics.
Tags: A Critical Look at, editorial, Mega Man 2, Mega Man Classic
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Actually, I think you’ve misconstrued some of the elements of the stage. It’s setup so you can beat Boobeam Trap by brute force, if you fail to understand the puzzle. While not fantastic, it offers some spots to recharge the Crash Bomber (hence why you get started before the lifts after death). This is why the walls you destroy stay destroyed after losing a life. As a kid, this was the only way I could beat the boss. I actually think the Official Guide to Mega Man recommends this.
I hate this stage. I kept losing — either to spikes, or the puzzle.
This stage is one of many reasons I can’t buy into the mass opinion of MM2 being the greatest MM game of all. I like the idea of it, but the execution was very poor, in my view. I remember sitting in that Telly room for half an hour trying to get enough weapon refills to drop once…I had to mute the TV, as the stage’s music is so monotonous.
To dodge the bullets of the boss, just keep pressing start button. You’ll dodge all bullets ^^. It should work with everything I think, but I’ve only tried on this boss.
Although using the Tellys to refill the crash bomb is not nearly as dodgy as you described, this stage is absolutely the most tedious of the game. The way I always beat the boss was by using up all my crash bombs to break the walls, dying on purpose, and then refilling the crash meter to finish off the beams. Never thought to use items to navigate the boss room…
Pretty much the Wily Stages in this game, in particular this one stage, are why I just can’t get into saying MM2 is the best MM game.
Being forced to use a certain weapon all the time isn’t my cup of tea, especially when it’s very punishable and the cost being all of your E-Tanks. It’s very tedious and you’ll have to have played the game before to know how to properly manage your weapon energy so you don’t get a game over, which gets harder and harder to do as you get closer to Wily 5 and the boss rush.
It was definately the hardest stage of the game, but it’s not so bad once you know which order to blow the traps up.
Sheesh, I remember this stage. Holy crap was it hard. I remember the crash bombs and how precious they were, and how I would come so close to winning and need only one or two more and had no way to get them. Gaaah!
I love the stage, it trains the reflexes and mind of the player. But the Boss was a No Go. When you have used your Crash Bombs before you are doomed, there was no warning or something. The same schema against the final boss. That sucks big time.
Probably what I consider to be Rockman 2 biggest flaw, that stage Boss. Enter the Boss room without all your Crash Bomb energy and you have already lost, epic game design fail. Die and then you’ll have to go farm for weapon energy, not a funny task in this stage.
Despite all the good thing one can say about this game, this is one of the whole Rockman franchise worst abberation (the “use Item 1 screen” is also bulljive). It’s not fun, it’s not overly difficult, it’s just absolutely unforgiving and totally frustrating. Pity, the stage was good.
The boss at the end of the stage took me weeks to beat. I managed to do this: I used the Levitation Platform to get to the top-most orb without blowing the wall up. I had to use the Crash Bombs to get rid of two other walls. The rest had to be easy.
BTW, Glass Knuckle, I love the articles I’m given every Sunday about the Mega Man 2 stages. When and if you ever start something called “Critical Look at the stages of Mega Man 3, whose stage do you think we can expect to see first?
Enjoy your summer.
Just played through Mega Man 2 again last week, and I’d forgotten how frustratingly difficult this part was. Had to resort to the whole “repeatedly pause the game to dodge attacks” routine. Not fun.