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HideofBeast

Ring Man

Nov 6th, 2011
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  1. We start with a good introduction to the disparities described in the overview to this hack. Immediately we're shown one of the intelligent ways the designer has retooled flawed concepts to serve acceptable ends. Instant-death lasers aren't far from most minds familiar with this franchise, and they aren't held as particularly fond memories either. What this hacker has done is turn them into an ordinary obstacle by having them cause damage instead of death. He's also paid very careful attention to his layout to ensure this is a game of strict reaction and attention and not of necessary memorization. If you'll notice, any prelaid action necessary to dodge a laser is given visual cue by way of small energy pellets, and the rest is simply presented as performable by nature of the terrain. Is it hard? Absolutely. Is it fair? Very. It's also exhilarating. But, unfortunately, and this will exhaust itself by the time I'm done with this hack, the inexplicable decision to all-but-eliminate your invincibility period practically invalidates the thought put into this section by way of two or three hits compounding to kill you just by virtue of repeat damage. It's incredibly unfortunate, and this will be self-evident in several otherwise praiseworthy areas without need of written mention. It really is a constantly hanging shadow over this game's design.
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  3. We dive into our first miniboss immediately after the lasers, and boy, is this hack full of them. I can't immediately think of a stage without at least one. This theme of originally cumbersome aspects to original Mega Man games repurposed to be active and interesting is going to become commonplace. Ordinarily a bore and complete non-issue, the simple addition of one attack and the ability of movement turns a threat-free waiting game into a dance of proper placement. It's a simple tweak, and a simple obstacle, but it works and that's what matters.
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  5. The second section isn't worth many words, not because it's bad, but because it's mostly unchanged from the gimmick's implementation in the original Ring Man stage. The most devious alteration is changing both directions of platform to the same sprite, but again, considered layout stops anything from requiring clairvoyance. Immediately after we see the first few of many, many enemies incorporated from titles other than 4. These guys are, as is often the case, laid out precisely enough to require consideration and reflex without overstepping into too halted a pace or too congested a situation. He typically saves the notion of congestion for single-room enemy gauntlets that serve as miniature thought puzzles as much as reflex-tasks, which is equally satisfying and creates a proper contrast. I'll point out instances of this as far as opinion is concerned less as the hack progresses because it accounts for the bulk of its enemy layout. The exceptions to the rule are more noticeable.
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  7. Immediately after is a cute nod to the Kirby franchise that's the antithesis of deep or tough, but it doesn't last long enough to outstay its charm. That's another commonplace occurrence in the hack, where the sheer personality or intricacy of a gimmick, cameo or visual will bolster its somewhat unimportant implementation, but I don't consider these fluff because they're supplemented plenty by weightier segments of platforming or action. It's nice flavor. None of the above can be applied to the following 'miniboss', an unwelcome ode to every high-health diversion in the franchise, and there are plenty to choose from. Large enemies and minibosses should have enough health to service their interest and challenge and no more. If you're going to boost that health to a ridiculous degree, you'd better give your creation the dynamism to back it up, which this guy lacks in spades. It's an unnecessary kill worth one off-screen E-tank, but I show off his ludicrous health bar here to accentuate what a bore he'll be when he's actively in our way. Do note the flash you see midway through the bullet barrage. That's a critical hit and can happen with any weapon or the charged buster, and it does three times the normal damage. It's rare but another example of the myriad small touches that make an appreciable whole.
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  9. After another devilish but workable extension of the platforms earlier (and might I elaborate that this is the kind of simple consideration that so many game developers seem completely oblivious to: you introduce a player into a concept to let them familiarize themselves with how it works, and THEN you get devious with it, not the other way around), we drop into the second and more demanding laser section. I love this part of the level because it's not a measure of keen eyes like the first, but of keen reflexes. It's a race. There's one absolutely cruel exception to this with a solitary spike halfway through you need to consider your slide over, but you're given ample time to notice it. The one ugly side to the affair is when you see me jump off-screen over a laser, because that portion of it is in fact unbeatable. You cannot get there first. The solution to avoid it is unintuitive and kind of stupid. I also love it aesthetically, as I do the whole level, but that's something I'll keep fairly quiet on because to speak bluntly, I love almost everything in this hack aesthetically. The idea of rebounding lasers is just cool. I don't show it off because stopping in the right place on a dime is really damn hard and this is already a tricky stage, but if you wait out the last room, the laser forms a complete criss-cross that looks awesome.
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  11. Ring Man himself is an absolute beast and a very fun fight. For the most part in this hack, PureSabe has done the exact opposite of the actual Mega Man 4 designers by creating very hectic, very involved experiences that can't be trivialized by pattern-locking, but more importantly, have thoughtful damage outputs that don't end your fight before you have a fair chance to learn what's happening. Most boss attacks, and contact damage, are reasonable in this hack. That's not to say those small hits won't add up, though, because Ring Man absolutely litters his room with projectiles. This fight reminds me appreciably of Blind from A Link to the Past in that you need to unfocus your eyes just to track all the things being thrown around you, and the tendency for a player to make things harder than they need to be by panicking. You're very prone to take more action than is necessary to dodge what's coming your way just by nature of the fight being overwhelming.
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  13. Most bosses in this hack also follow the example of later games in the franchise by having a desperation mode, but it extends beyond that by having most of them on a rising battle kind of system, with attacks becoming gradually busier or more involved as health diminishes. When enraged you'll see the biggest changes, but things grow harder on your way to that point. In Ring Man's case, he throws one and then two rebounding rings ala Wendy from Super Mario Bros 3. These alternate between shallow and sharp angled bounces as they rebound, and in the meantime, you're facing one of two randomly chosen attacks from Ring Man. Either he'll pause mid-jump to eject four rings and haul them back in, or throw three equally spaced ones near the ground, then call them back when he lands. The key to this fight becoming manageable, and you'll notice this very quickly, is Ring Man's body does no damage to you. It's a catalyst to the projectiles and nothing more. With this in mind, you can focus solely on the barrage which keeps it from being unreasonable.
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  15. When he enrages, you want the fight to end as quickly as possible because things become almost unreadably busy. To his credit, the hacker realizes this and makes Ring Man quite weak to the buster. At this point in the fight he adds an Iggy-style bouncing ring to the two rebounding ones and starts racing to and fro, launching rings straight ahead that will pull you into him if they grab you. Eventually he doubles up like a circus clown and rolls your way on two rings while juggling two more. The window to dodge this is so specific, not in timing but execution, that combined with the three uniquely moving projectiles already in play it's far easier to just kill him when he pulls the move out instead of the firing upon him to interrupt his juggling and the well-placed jump over his lower rings that would ordinarily see you to safety. Overall, a very fun, very solidly thought-out battle, and certainly not the only one.
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