Part 9: Drill Man

Normal:

• Baldurdash
  
• YouTube

Buster:

• Baldurdash
  
• YouTube

Stage Comments:

Yawn. Drill Man's level is as bland as its background. The combination Mets/ladybugs is certainly evil, but it's workable if you take your time. After a short stretch of that, an unthreatening big jumper blocks the round until more of the same comes. A few rooms with spikes that won't ever kill you later (thank God for that at least), the very annoying cannons that can only be damaged for like half a second impede progress. An easy E-Tank later, the roaders show that they only ever get placed on stairs - compare this setup to the one in Ring Man's level, it's exactly the same. Then the stage finally develops a gimmick, with the switched that activate the ground (don't think about it too much), coupled with very annoying stone droppers. Did I mention that I hate this kind of stop and go gameplay? Fortunately, we've got enough tools to break the fuck out of that part. And that...was that.


Boss Strategy:

Even in a game where Dust Man exists, Drill Man still manages to be even more annoying. His first move is always to dive underground, and whenever he does that, he stays there sooo looong. The time could easily have been cut by three fourths, it still would be surpremely unthreatening, but at least less tedious.
However, when he finally decides to stay above ground, the battle speed changes from Zero to Hyperdrive. He can jump around frantically, dodging his Drill Bombs that can explode in midflight which also block your shots is no mean feat, especially considering he shoots them out quite fast and also moves himself. If the fight consisted only of that, he would be the hardest fight, but also quite fun to figure out - seeing as he is another example of piss-poor boss design, though, I didn't bother. Definitely watch the Buster video for getting an idea of how a competent fight can go.


Enemies:

Boulder: _{It's a stone.
The chutes in the last part of the level will dispense those when Mega gets near. If you hang back, you can destroy them as they fall; very much recommended, because letting them hit the ground will create insane lag as they split into smaller parts. Each of those can hit Mega, but also be destroyed for farming purposes. Easiest way to deal with them: Skull Barrier, which I will always call Skull Shield, I think.}

Battonton: _{Nothing to be said that hasn't been said yet, I think. Except Rain Flush woo!}

Helipon: _{After flying around quite erratically for a bit, those guys will drop down and start to shoot slowly. They're gone in one shot. Kind of worthless.}

Jumbig: _{Mhm, he's there alright.}

Metall EX (walk): _{Pretty standard Mets. Even the enemies are boring as hell here.}

Neo Roader: _{Been there, done that. Still a pain if you don't kill them from a distance, still weak to Rain Flush because damn, is that weapon broken.}

Pakatto 24: _{Those are severely annoying. The room they're in is actually cleverly arranged with their positions set up so that hitting them isn't too easy without getting hit yourself. It gave me lots of ire back in the day because the timing to actually kill them is rather tricky, I still don't like them much, even if I've gotten better. At least they're gone in one hit.}

Taketento: _{Still the most dangerous enemy by a wide margin.}

Music:

Drill Man _{- It's okay. To me, perfectly fitting the stage. Read: Nothing special and forgettable.}