Who Put All These Robots Here? Let's Play Mega Man: Day in the Limelight 2

Damn how did I miss this till now

SHADOW MANG

This probably doesn't count, but I vote for Hard Man again.

You ever look at a guy who goes really far out of their way to clarify themselves as manly, and think they've taken it just a hair too far?

This probably isn't what Hard Man did, because he was made by Dr. Wily.



For this stage, we play as my favorite Robot Master, Crash Man!



His main weapon is the Crash Bomb, which you can only have one of on the screen at a time, but it hits multiple times over a wide area. As you can see here, if you fire it in the air, it's aimed diagonally downwards.



However, they can also be fired from the ground, straight ahead.



They can also destroy those claw trap things. Is this possible in the original game? I have no idea, but it's really easy here.



Crash Bombs latch onto the surface they're aimed at once fired, so if you miss an enemy and your shot hits a wall, be ready to dodge. For this reason, Crash Man isn't as versatile as most Robot Masters, but he makes up for it with sheer power.



This also works nicely against enemies who spend a lot of their time invincible, since you don't have to be as spot-on with your timing and can just blast them roughly around the time they drop their guard.



As should be no surprise by now, Hard Man's stage is built to accommodate the properties of the Crash Bombs.



Sometimes in more ways than one!



Hm. There's some rocks falling from the ceiling here. Ah well, it's probably nothing to



wait what



Yeah! If you use Crash Bombs in the right places you can cause cave-ins! The blocks that drop can make stairways and damage enemies, though Crash Man himself is unharmed due to his heavy armor. Watch out for falling Mets, though!



If your Metroid senses are sharp, you might notice the wall here being different from the rest. Or you might consider that destructible wall that was there before more suspicious than most. Either way, you are right to be suspicious.



For this is where the shiny for this stage is!



Take note: Crash Man can use ladders. Despite lacking hands. No one, not even Crash Man himself, is quite sure how this works.

These monkey guys are pretty bad at their job. They just jump over you repeatedly, and if you time it right, a single Crash Bomb takes them out.



This, though, is a bit more of a challenge. Since only the top of this enemy is vulnerable, and we aim downwards when in the air, we have trouble hitting him.



So let's just drop the ceiling on him!

I love causing cave-ins SO MUCH



Also: blowing out sections of the floor to make traps.



Basically playing as Crash Man is super fun and his stage is super fun. The bee enemies in the outdoor areas are tricky, though. Especially on Hard Mode, where the queen bees will chase you after dropping the hives.



Actually, these guys can be destroyed in a single shot, but it's much more satisfying to drop the floor out from underneath them.



This guy is currently driving over an extra man. It's tricky to get to if you have no other Robot Masters, but entirely possible.



And we're at the boss door. The stomper guy can be destroyed in like one or two shots if timed properly, actually.



As for Hard Man himself, his pattern is unchanged, but as you may have noted, the room you fight in can cave in. What's more, his Hard Knuckle (as well as his quake-inducing jump) can also cause cave-ins, and being the super-durable Robot Master he is, all that falling rock doesn't bother him one bit.



The changing terrain is at the same time a new difficulty and a new benefit, though not much of either. Hard Man does plenty of damage, but so do you. Really, I just love the feel of this fight, with two highly destructive Robot Masters duking it out with loads of collateral damage.



A+ stage, would play again.



Oh... but I don't have as many screenshots this time. Uh... I guess I got too carried away having fun with the stage?



Oh well. Crash Man is now ready to help out in other stages!



Which... okay yeah the voting is pretty much set for Shadow Man to be next. Still, I MAY AS WELL ASK YOU TO VOTE.

• Spark Man: Wood Man
• Snake Man: Air Man
• Needle Man: Metal Man
• Hard Man: Crash Man
• Top Man: Flash Man
• Gemini Man: Bubble Man
• Magnet Man: Heat Man
• Shadow Man: Quick Man 4 votes!

Spark Man.

I am such a rebel.

Nich, I'm beginning to doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.

Keep it going, Sparky

I'm going for the underdog, Spark Man.

Shadow Man is still The Man.

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of robots? The Shadow Man knows!

Spark man! Save the better for last.

Spark Man Dynamo Man Elec Man Plug Man Spark Mandrill

Crash Man can climb ladders because Dr. Light gave him a velcro attachment.

Do Shadow Man's stage next.

Spark man, because i feel he needs more love

I voted for Shadow Man before it was cool.

I vote Spark Man, not because I'm nonconformist, but because I like comebacks.

Man, I should goad you guys into voting like that more often. That almost did a thing.



So, who can possibly fight a ROBOT NINJA? How about the FASTEST ROBOT EVER?! Oh man, if this was any more awesome, we'd have an EVIL TWIN COLORED IN BLACK AND RED built to be the ULTIMATE ROBOT MASTER.



Okay enough of that. Quick Man, unsurprisingly, is the fastest Robot Master in the game, easily moving twice as fast as most. He also has a jump height comparable to Air Man. However, in non-mobility areas, he's sorely lacking. That right there is about the maximum range his Quick Boomerangs can travel, and they do very little damage, though they automatically fire while you hold down the button.



Additionally, Quick Man has only half the invulnerability time of other Robot Masters. Playing as him is not unlike a Zero game, actually.



This is the new mechanic of this stage, though it sees precious little usage: arrow panels will redirect all projectiles fired at them, be they yours or the enemies.



Anyway, this right here is the checkpoint. This is a problem on Hard Mode.



Just up ahead is the long gauntlet full of darkness generators, grenade dudes, and uneven terrain.



On Hard, the grenades take two Quickerangs to bring down, and the generators shoot at you. It is not a happy place.



Once we get down here, fireballs fly out of the... I guess that's supposed to be lava now? Whatever it is, there are fireballs now. This is not a checkpoint.



The terrain here would make passing the fireballs difficult for most, but easy enough for Quick Man's high mobility.



They also launch out in interesting patterns later on.



This is where the next checkpoint is. I'm not sure why that takes so long in Shadow Man's stage, but so it goes. Anyway, these fireballs pop up relatively close to one another, so you have to sidle between the waves to avoid getting hit.



And then we have... this thing. Those arrow panels will alternate between pointing right and pointing up, and the fireballs will only occasionally stop. Timing this one is tricky, but since you're playing Quick Man, the difficulty is pretty meager.



After this, we come to an area with more darkness generators. However, there are bottomless pits rather than a slew of enemies, so you have to use these arrows to redirect Quick Boomerangs up to hit them.



This is doubly important because Quick Man can't reach them, and would you want to sit perfectly still and wait for them to leave if you were Quick Man? No, you'd rush on ahead and probably fall in a pit.

Like in Gemini Man's stage, you need another Robot Master to get this shiny.



Only Crash Man can do the job, so it's a good thing we've got him on hand!



Further on ahead, we find parachute mans! These guys, like every other enemy that pops up out of nowhere when you're trying to navigate jumps over bottomless pits, are tedious and boring and I hate them. However, while these guys are more durable than most, they don't respawn like every other instance of this enemy.



There are actually two on the last jump, right over Quick Man's head, so rather than trying to blow them up I just run under them.



Well, that was expedient.



So, Shadow Man. One of the harder Robot Masters of Mega Man 3. Will he hold up like Needle Man, or turn into a pushover like Gemini Man?



His pattern is to jump three times, randomly doing short or tall hops, and then perform an attack.



Usually, he alternates between his slide and throwing two Shadow Blades. One straight ahead, and one at the ceiling, which then directs it downwards.



About every fourth run of this pattern, he uses a new move.



It's basically a barrage of Shadow Blades aimed at different parts of the ceiling. This can be a great opportunity to hit him, but if the boomerangs are unfortunately arranged, you may never get the chance.



This fight is really fun, because both Robot Masters are very mobile, but Quick Man only excels at close range, so you need to guess ahead of time what Shadow Man is going to do, and react accordingly.



I think Needle Man is harder, but Shadow Man is no cakewalk, and he's definitely a fun match.



Hooray! YOU'RE NEXT, LECHUCK.



Quick Man's victory pose happened SO FAST that he teleported away before I could screencap it. For real!



Now only one Robot Master from each game remains. I expect boxing match posters, like I do from everything else in life.

• Spark Man: Wood Man ALL THE VOTES.
• Snake Man: Air Man
• Needle Man: Metal Man
• Hard Man: Crash Man
• Top Man: Flash Man
• Gemini Man: Bubble Man
• Magnet Man: Heat Man
• Shadow Man: Quick Man

I like how you still spoil-tag the RM for Spark Man's stage even though there's only one possibility.

ON THE OTHER HAND: Not mapping Wood Man to Hard Man's stage is a real missed opportunity for juvenile humor.

I'll wait until after he plays the level, but I thought the adaptation of Wood Man was one of the more clever parts of the game.

Would Heat Man have been immune to the fireballs if you'd switched to him during that stage, or is he all talk and no action?

I can't imagine Wood Man is going to be all that fast, so this should be interesting.

Its a Lava-Factory. Its ALWAYS been a Lava Factory. What did you THINK Shadow-Mans level was?

Kalir, my friend.

Where do you think lava comes from?

Man, I voted for Spark Man before it became cool.

My question is, will Spark Man's level still mess with Brickroad's sense of logic?

Ninja poison factory.

The last Robot Master! After this, Wily's fortress will magically appear from the shadows! Why? I dunno man.



The opponent: an anthropomorphized spark plug. Anthropomorphized in the 80-90's cartoonish sense, not the modern "take an anime prettyboy and throw on some accessories" way.



The protagonist: a robot made entirely from wood.



So, Wood Man. dtsund would have you believe that he is the strongest Robot Master in the game, with his ability to summon Leaf Shields on demand. As far as shield weapons go, this version of the Leaf Shield is respectable. Most projectiles will be deflected effortlessly, though some projectiles, as well as any enemies that run into it, will take out a leaf in the process.



You can also launch the Leaf Shield, but doing so prevents you from recalling it until all leaves have left the screen.



Since the Leaf Shield can go through walls, and it can do a potential four hits, it's a pretty powerful weapon.



Wood Man's downside is both his large size, like Air Man, and his lower than average jump height. He's unsuitable for regular platforming for this reason.



However, Spark Man's stage is a perfect fit for his abilities, with these spark traps.



Not only does the Leaf Shield stop their shots, you can also jam a leaf into the trap to disable it.



The further on you go, the more plentiful traps become.



And yet Wood Man can stand right in the middle of it and not care at all. However, keeping the shield up means not attacking enemies, and losing leaves increases your odds of getting hit, so you have to be careful not to get overwhelmed.



These things can't be blocked by the Leaf Shield, though the Bubble Lead, curiously enough, can destroy it.



The spikes in Spark Man's stage are electrified. This makes them SUPER DOUBLE INSTANT KILL SPIKES, which has no in-game effect.



We can take the one in front of the Hammer Joe, but we want this one.



Because it leads to the easiest shiny in the game.

Dropping back down and taking the other elevator, we find open electrical conduits in the floor!



We can jam them with the Leaf Shield. Somehow.



There's plug robots that appear here out of those pipes, but if you've got a Leaf Shield active, they're not too bad. Course, you might not, what with the conduits.



The elevators here lead us upwards through the power plant, so now we're on 2F, rather than a basement or something.



Further on, junk blocks! These take four leaves apiece, so just stand next to one and Leaf Shield to take it out.



Honestly, while I didn't like playing through the stage my first time through, it's actually pretty well-designed to showcase Wood Man, and decently fun besides. Much better than Needle Man's stage, for sure.



Oh no, more spikes. Do you know what this means?



ELEVATORS AND SPIKES WORKING TOGETHER TO ORCHESTRATE OUR DEMISE



Actually, Wood Man's shorter jump height is very much in our favor here, and the Leaf Shield blocks anything that might try to mess with us on the way.



And here's the boss door.



Spark Man is honestly a pretty difficult Robot Master too. And unlike the other difficult Robot Masters, he doesn't look impressive and his weapon is complete garbage. So how does he hold up here?



The trick is that those elevators play into his pattern a bit. His main mode of attack is to send sparks in eight directions. Each spark will take out a leaf, but with the spread that wide, they're not an issue.



After every few attacks like that, he'll charge up his signature Spark Shock, which is too high-voltage for Mega Man to even copy right. This attack is difficult to avoid and strong enough to destroy the Leaf Shield outright, so Wood Man needs to be in the right situation to avoid it.



If Spark Man is on an elevator, he'll do three normal attacks before using the Spark Shock. However, if he misses the elevator, he'll charge up after only a single attack.



The lesson here is obvious: stay off of Spark Man's elevators unless you absolutely have to use one.

Once you figure that out, the fight is a slow but assured victory, since Wood Man's excellent defenses can hold off Spark Man's attacks, and he takes long enough between attacks to let you get your Leaf Shield back.



So he's difficult until you get the hang of it. It's a pretty well-designed fight.



Wood Man thumps his chest like a gorilla!



And that's all eight.



Now then, on to Wily Ca-- hang on.



OH NO! A MYSTERIOUS ROBOT APPROACHES! COMMAND?

Unlike in Mega Man 3, the changed stages are the orthogonal ones, rather than the corners. So it looks like a new session of voting begins now!



But first, the boss replay menu. Mega Lime games don't make you refight the Robot Masters from earlier stages, instead delegating that (as well as all other fights) to a separate replay option. Here, I can showcase all the weaknesses in the game if I want to.



I'm only going to show off a handful of them, but I will talk about the others.



Hilariously, since Wood Man isn't made of metal, Magnet Missiles, as well as all other forms of magnetism, do not affect him at all. This, combined with Magnet Man's weakness to the Leaf Shield, makes this fight among the most one-sided in all of Mega Man (at least, outside of Toad Man).



While Needle Man is weak to the Bubble Lead, actually hitting him with the damn thing is easier said than done, since he spends so much time jumping around the stage. Thankfully, Bubble Man has an advantage in that the Bubble Lead can stop the Needle Cannon and send it back towards Needle Man, usually for plenty of damage on a hit.



Top Man is weak to the Crash Bombs, but since he spends so much time of the fight invincible or protected by tops, you might worry that it won't get a chance to hit. Not so: the Crash Bomb's explosion will hit Top Man even as he spins, since you cannot deflect an explosion unless you're from one of THOSE shows. It also tends to destroy all the tops in one go.



Shadow Man is the only other Robot Master, aside from Top Man, who can be affected by the Time Stopper. This isn't the only advantage Flash Man has, though. His regular Flash Buster also does double the damage of most weapons. In fact, most of the proper weapons can get some better usage out of the arena (Heat Man can use his Heat Wave against the usually-stationary Hard Man, for example). The weakness chains, on the whole, are identical to Mega Man 3, except rather than using the weapons from the stage you beat, you use the unlocked Robot Master (so Quick Man is effective against Spark Man).

Okay enough of that. WHAT STAGE DO WE GO TO NEXT?!!?!?

• Spark Man: Wood Man
• Snake Man?: Air Man
• Needle Man: Metal Man
• Hard Man?: Crash Man
• Top Man?: Flash Man
• Gemini Man: Bubble Man
• Magnet Man?: Heat Man
• Shadow Man: Quick Man