Part 5: Needle Man

Stage Comments:
Short but sweet. This is one of those stages that are completely designed around wearing you down with damage taken, not relying on "whoops you missed that jump now you're dead" traps, which is always something I respect; everyone can put a pit with a flying enemy over it in a stage and call it a day, but placing enemies over non-deadly terrain so they are most inconvenient to you takes actual effort.
Also, it looks really nice. A lot of little details were put in, showing care and again, effort. Just look at the buildings in the background right at the start. The decoration of the room with the two Hammer Joes.
For the stage itself, nothing much to comment on except that yes, lots of enemies everywhere. Apart from the Needle Harrys, the Mets are your biggest foe as always; having good timing helps a lot, also Top Spin, it's always Top Spin.
The middle section with the needles shouldn't be any trouble, just remember, turning around while sliding is no problem, nor is staying in-slide indefinitely; momentum is a concept for suckers.
The room where I use Top Spin to kill the Needler in close confines is actually really hard; I didn't know that the Spin one-shots him, even with it the timing is really tight in order to not get hit, and usually, once he's down there, there's not getting him out without taking massive damage; a really well-timed Laser might work.
I used to take this stage first, meaning that I had to get the E-Tank; leaving him alive then isn't really an option because the needles get in the way, so...eh. Glad that Top Spin is amazing.
Apart from that, bustering it isn't too hard except for the boss; if you're following weakness chains, you'll actually have to take on Needle, Snake or Gemini with the normal gun. I'll explain later why. This one nets you Rush Jet, which is...really fucking nice to have.

Boss Strategy:
Second-hardest in the game, I'd say. His pattern is really erratic; jumps at you or in the air, has no set attack to use afterwards (he might hit you with the melee needle or not; he might send out his volley of four...or fall down without shooting them)...this is all about your reflexes, and would definitely be tougher than Shadow Man, as the latter is actually less random; if not for one thing: Needle Man gives you far more time to react. It's still probably less than a second, but more than enough for my reflexes, meaning that I don't have to plan out every reaction on every action beforehand.
Even so, it's a hard fight and sometimes down to luck. If he just stays in a corner and stupidly jabs you again and again despite being just out of reach, he's retardedly easy. If he decides to hang out in the middle of the room and shoot out his needle volley over and over, you're fucked. It's hardest to dodge that way; jumping is out of the question, sliding is a crapshoot and he might just drop down on you. If he's not in the center, jumping smartly works perfectly well, though.
Can't give much tactic; you'll have to practice a bit, but it's doable, far more so than a certain Ninja. In my experience, at least.

Enemies:

Bouncer: _{Yep, even when out in the open no problem at all. With more health...maybe. It's immune to Gemini Laser, else I'd have used it.}

Cannon: _{Inventive name. Open to shoot, then close again. The window for hitting them is quite generous, fall easily, kill them quickly or lure the shot out (it's targeted) for no problems.}

Hammer Joe: _{We see now that special weapons really make the job easier. For no problems at all with them, hang on the top of the ladder and shoot the buster, or kill them from below with Shadow Blades.}

Neo Metall: _{We met them already in Top Man's stage. Here, they're a bit more threatening due to the terrain and sheer numbers, but as shown, the terrain can also work in our favor. In case of doubt, let them shoot and focus on dodging the bullets first, then the Met itself, then run.}

Needle Harry: _{Well, if Snipers can be called Joes...
Dangerous and annoying! Two needle volleys in all directions, then they roll into an invincible ball and charge you. Jump over, turn around, have shots blocked by needles, curse. Or use Gemini Laser. Your choice. Other special weapons work wonders, too; especially Shadow Blades from below on the first ones. But I try to not use them too often, they're mostly the default solution if you have trouble, I'm looking into more creative ones.}

Needle Press: _{Remember me bitching about timing obstacles in the last stage of Mega Man 2? If have no problem with those guys. Why? Slide. Still need to time it, but...I dunno, not having to walk slowly under falling doom is just far more satisfying. Makes me feel like I'm actually dodging stuff, and not just counting the seconds.}

Yambow: _{Same old, same old.}

Music:

Needle Man _{- I'll just leave here what I posted in the PYF NES/8-bit song thread:
"[Needle Man] doesn't sound THAT good on the NES, sadly, but when you dissect it it's crazy how much is going on. The intro with the kicking rad bassline, then segues into a surpreme action part with two completely different melody tracks that weave into each other seamlessly. I know this because I've got the sheet music on piano, left hand does one melody, right hand the other, it's insanely hard to play but satisfying as all hell to pull off and sounds sublime.
Got the longest loop of all MM3 songs for a reason."}