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Cossack 2

Nov 6th, 2011
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  1. This is a solid stage and a nice breather from the last. Please don't take my obsessive minimal use tendencies seriously, you absolutely should use the Wire for every inch of this level if you picked it up in advance. If not, you've got to contend wit a bit of a... well, I won't call it a maze, but a non-linear room. Before that, though, we storm the fort. Let it be known that the less time spent on screen with those transplants from Mega Man I's Cut Man stage, the better. Following this is a rather unintuitive chamber with a couple of possible paths. I opt for the one concerning disappearing blocks because it just seems to fit better. The hacker has helpfully placed Eddie to roughly guide you in the right direction. The one I take is rather bizarrely the harder of the two considering it's also the least intuitive. One might not immediately assume you can stand on the windowsills, and there's no tangible reward for taking this secondary path either. The block puzzles along this route have pretty bastardly timing and are clever enough in an infuriating way. Because they're short but sweet the only punishment is an extended therapy session with the spine, so I can appreciate it for what it is and move on. Believe me, as simple as those looked, the proper timing is not as self-evident as you'd think. Following a cruel pincer of missiles, a spine and randomly firing bugs, we intersect with the primary path and continue on to the juicy bits.
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  3. Maneuvering by this assortment of hopping enemies is just a matter of recognizing who can jump what distance. In particular watch the mice, who don't go far enough to leave to their own devices. The rest are ineffectual if you call their bluff. As you can see after the fall, like the Balloon in Cossack 1 it's actually mandatory to collect the Wire in this game. Picking them up early is just a matter of fun for the main stages, though there's a hidden reason secondary copies exist that's beyond the scope of this challenge. Without further digression, I present the best item in this or just about any Mega Man title.
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  5. The Wire has been completely overhauled from its useless original function to turn Mega Man into Bionic Commando. This new wire is completely cost-free, can be aimed in any direction you please, has great reach and when clasped to a wall or ceiling (or even floor) will pull and lock Mega Man to that position. From here it's a simple drop and considered relaunch to send Mega Man to and from the terrain like only Ladd can best, and it's damn fun, too. You're given some threat-free screens to familiarize yourself with the details, and you'd better get familiar, because one of the next screens is downright twisted.
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  7. The first one is passingly cruel until you realize the Wire (because it's so awesome) is also a semi-potent weapon and can more than manage those two wall-mounted cannons before you seek to climb out of the room. But it's way sleeker to time a Wire right between the shots. The next room doesn't afford any illusions: it's exactly as hard as it looks. Trying to time this maneuver such that you pass between the electric spines safely and aim your Wire well enough to catch the wall before you plummet too far and avoid either floating mine concerns way too much to keep track of. This is a much harder, much stricter window than you might assume, and though aiming the Wire is intuitive and controls well, timing isn't your only obstacle here when you're trying to pinpoint that aiming in the midst of all the other components you're eyeballing. There are other ways to go about this room: none of them are the remotest bit easier. It's devilish in the best of ways because you have as much time as possible to prepare and assess, but it's still likely to send you screaming into a pit through no fault but your own. After this is just an excuse for a Wire playground and it's as entertaining as you'd think.
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  9. After this and another unnecessary tank is a bit of an obnoxious section that employs something I like in a way that's just not fun. This is a gauntlet comprised entirely of mets, and I'm always in keen support of simple enemies put to extensive effect. Unfortunately, none of this serves as any kind of damage-relevant threat by virtue of the layout, and is instead one giant glorified joe. All you're doing here is playing the waiting game, and aggravatingly, the 'new' met he's introduced is simply a permanent shield to make killing the ones that hide behind them even more annoying. Again, with a modicum of caution which you'll be forced into anyway by nature of not knowing which met is which before you close in, you're not really in significant danger of taking hits to justify something this involved. Instead it's just trying to navigate an extended roadblock as quickly as you can manage. It looks smooth here, but that's because I'm already aware of what's what.
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  11. That caps off a short but very sweet stage, which ends on a hell of a high note, because this is the most ambitious, and probably my favorite, boss in the game. I still stand to argue that Skull Man is a funner fight and Toad Man more intense, but you don't need to top either of those lists when your battle's this cool. This repurposed room boss from Mega Man 4 is channeling Serges from X2 in the best of ways here, and he's got one involved pattern. Cycling through four distinct phases, this boss's core will switch at random between three positions and will summon, depending on his color, three distinct enemies to pit against Mega Man while you ride the constantly moving platforms. Between each round, he'll send his sections across the screen in a set configuration like the Yellow Devil, and you need to keep a close eye on the tells so you know which is coming when and can adjust yourself along your precarious terrain accordingly. The shifting terrain keeps the challenge from being static. Similarly, dodging shots from enemies perfectly advantaged by the layout of this fight can be a bigger hassle than you'd expect. Best of all, the punishment for falling onto the spikes is just moderate damage and a bounce back up.
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  13. The first fourth of his health is tricky enough on its own merits, concerning three wall-mounted Mega Man 1 shooters who are if nothing else thankfully locked into shooting at fixed positions and lacking endurance. It's managing their firing, their destruction, hitting the weakpoint and navigating your platforms properly that combine to turn this battle into such a tricky affair. The second phase involves a deadlier variation on the shooter, this one native to Mega Man 4, that can put up quite a bit of resistance and, after a lengthy pause, fires a rapid tempo of shots directly at Mega Man. The slow-moving gait of these bullets only serves to make things nastier considering the terrain you're working with, especially given three of them firing at once.
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  15. The third and final traditional phase is oddly easier to dodge than the first two, but it's also cool as hell, because this time the orb summons unique enemies that fire fucking Quick Lasers at you. Now, thankfully, these aren't instant kill, but they're pretty fast and are liable to cause a heart attack the first time you see that graphic. Because of the static, straight firing, though, these are less worrisome to navigate than the armada of bullets from the second phase.
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  17. Once you bring him to his final fourth, PureSabe stops pretending entirely and goes yeah, this is pretty much Serges. Not that I'm complaining. This phase is a complete send-up of Serges' second form from X2, right down to the projectile behaviors. The orb's switching between ports is also much more defensive and he will do it actively rather than between rounds, so your best bet is to take advantage of the charged buster's wide hitbox to try clearing two ports at once. Shortly in, the battle is over and we're done with a very satisfying experience.
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