A Critical Look at Mega Man Stages: Bomb Man

Following Elec Man, we proceed to Bomb Man’s Stage (and its music).

Right away, a Blaster jumps into our face. Then a bunch more. Combined with the staggered terrain, this is already among the best couple screens we’ve seen so far. The exploding thing is a Bombombomb (henceforth referred to as a bomb because nuts to that), which would have been more fun if each encounter wasn’t exactly the same.

The next section offers an upper path leading to life capsules, with Screwdrivers (Screws. They’re clearly screws) waiting below. The upper path is actually a trap, as it’s much easier to go down and kill the enemies, and the health can be picked up from the other side. Not sure if that was intentional, but it’s amusing at least. The Mambus (fires a series of bullets at different angles when open, can’t be harmed when closed) in the next shot can be killed by shooting through the wall, which is important to know throughout the series. They’re being really generous with that health now.

Our first Sniper Joe jumps in (if you’re somehow not familiar with these, their shield blocks your shots, but they have to move it when they want to shoot), followed by a mix of Mambus and Killer Bombs (explodes when shot). Unfortunately, this section is also identical throughout.

Next up is a variety of platforms with Gabyoalls, three small platforms with Killer Bombs chasing you across, and a Kamadoma, which fires in all directions as we cross some spikes. The first two are interesting without being too difficult, and the last at least gives us the chance to see what Kamadoma does before we try to cross.

Kamadomas continue to appear until this section, where we have an optional fight with a Joe for an extra life. His shield won’t protect him while he’s jumping, so we’re free to stand there and fire until he dies. Another Joe guards the boss door, and inside is a vertical drop/climb filled with Adhering Suzys.

This one was pretty impressive after what we’ve seen. It has a great variety in both enemies and terrain, marred only by a couple instances where you’ll be jumping across four of the same platform. There’s bullets flying all over the place, and each Joe is fought under different circumstances. It could have placed that large energy refill later in the stage instead of the next screen after the little ones though.

The floor sprites are just boring white pipes, but those things in the background look cool. I also like the music here.

LanceHeart