Part 11: Doc Needle

Stage Comments:
The beginning is fairly uneventful. Except that it's night now and I dig the looks, can't stress that enough. With the niceness of a health refill after the needles and tame stretch before the first boss, you should go into it with full health...which you'll need.

Air Man:
Not to say that he's unbeatable now, but suddenly, he developed teeth. Dodging his tornadoes is annoying to impossible still, which has always sucked and always will, but after he changes sides you'll be in for a big surprise when you try the little trick everyone now knows about...you can no longer stand safely behind Doc Robot. With heavy-duty firing from your end and luck, this isn't that big of a problem, but the important part here is indeed "luck". It sucks major ass when your attempt at this definitely not easy stage gets ruined because Air Man decides to be randomly unavoidable again; hate it. His tornadoes make both his weaknesses pretty eh, they're simply more damaging than the buster would be, Magnet Missile's turning is pretty pointless. You couldn't hit him with it while he's jumping anyway.

Weaknesses: Spark Shock + Magnet Missile

Now the fuckery starts. I'll stress it again, I love the concept for the flying part. Parasyus and Yambos are perfectly suited to combine into airial hazards to impede you greatly without being complete dicks about it, and the full ridiculousness of Rush Jet's freedom of movement gets mitigated here because you'll just have to use it, no questions asked. Combining a damage challenge because of all the enemies with a speed one because of the weapon energy, all the while being completely fair in both regards - this is a change in gameplay I can totally get behind, breaking up the usual running and gunning for something completely different while just using the normal assets of the game.
Compare it to Tengu Man's stage in MM8, which I'll maybe get to faaaar later, there it's taken a bit far; I still don't mind it, but an honest-to-goodness rail shooter section that's just that and not an extended Rush part is still strange. Here, no problems. Too bad we don't see more of that, instead there's fucking Jetbike races later and everyone hates THAT shit.

Devil's in the details, though, and I think I show off the problem well enough. If you die, well, that's tough luck, because the weapon energy doesn't respawn. It baffles me how Mega Man fucking one could do something so essential right and both sequels managed to fuck it up. The first game was well aware that its engine didn't stop powerups from respawning even when the screen scrolled, so it used that to mitigate its one forced item usage section in Wily 1 and put two pellets right below the screen where you had to do it. I get that it is a "fix" of the engine to have E-Tanks and extra lifes be one usage only, but Christ, for Buebeam Trap and this one here weapon energy should really have gotten a pass.

The rest of the stage doesn't carry that big of a danger of dying, but when Air Man goes apeshit on you, it's going to be much tougher all of a sudden. If you don't feel too confident, best use the trick while flying and leave some weapon energy behind; this makes it harder, though, which isn't ideal either but one way or the other, you'll have to deal with it.
And then comes Crashy baby whom I never liked.

Crash Man:
Bah, what a worthless fight in the original, either you killed him in milliseconds with his weakness, pattern-locked him like I did or died. This time, he has two weaknesses, but both aren't ideal. Hard Knuckle is a joke, because the only way to reliably hit him with it, aka the normal MM2 method of hitting him, firing at the peak of the jump, won't work now because Doc Robot is so fat. Goading him into it works, obviously, I show it, but it's far too specific for my tastes. At least he dies quickly enough. Top Spin is a complete afterthought as a weakness, it really is damn bad against bosses, and even takes 7 hits instead of the 4 it does Heat Man in with. Very strange switch here.

Weaknesses: Hard Knuckle + Top Spin

On the Top Spin glitch, I don't know if I'll get to talk about it in a video, so I'll just explain it here. It seems that for every frame you keep contact with an enemy that doesn't die from a Top Spin hit, the weapon's energy will drain. This is very bad against bosses, because you've got a reason to use it (weakness), they won't die and are fairly big sprites, meaning that during a crucial fight you might just be completely out of energy which fucking sucks.
I think it's also a big reason for why the weapon is so criminally underappreciated in the first place: The second you try it out against something that doesn't die, you might just lose any other chance to try it because WHOOPS IT'S EMPTY NOW. And Top Spin lives from you knowing on which enemy it works like a charm and which ones laugh in your face...too sad, too sad.

New Enemies:

Hey, there's two for this stage only! Enough to warrant normal bios.

Metall DX (propeller): _{The normal ones from the original stage got outfitted with propeller hats! This is a cool design that still takes into account their trademark triple shots, and they're somewhat tough to deal with but fun to fight. The obvious weapon, as shown, doesn't even work all that well. Best is just spamming Needle Cannon and taking them out before they take off, really.}

Giant Metall: _{Them being hidden in the floor of the original stage is really damn cool. The fight is not. Dodging all attacks is pathetically easy, I just get hit (and killed) because I'm a hasty dumbass, slowdown strikes and the turning does suck. Only hitting them on the cross (why there anyway) is annoying, fortunately they don't have that much health, but the second one overstays its welcome severely. Good to farm on, though, if you're so inclined...for whatever reason.}