Yeah, this level will take a lot longer to finish, simply because I need to find the best strategies, and I hadn't done any tests on it at all before. There are places where Carry will be helpful to jump over enemies, jump onto the backs of enemies to take damage going forwards, jump across the ends of spike pits early, possibly jump up ladders a little faster, or even just avoid switching to something else for a while. But I can't switch to Carry in every possible instance, or I'll run out. I also need it for three obligatory wall jumps, and likely a fourth time after that for the downward section with the split path, either to jump to the upper/right path to avoid the first two enemies, or to possibly get further to the right at the end of the lower/left path to reach the bottom corner more directly--but it may be more likely I'll need it to pass the electric beams in the upper/right path more efficiently. I don't know. But if I jump up to reach the upper/right path, I'll also be forced to use Atomic Fire, which I might try keeping all the way to Dr. Wily, as that's his first form's weakness. So I've got the decisions for when to use Carry, when and how to take damage, and which path to take at the fork right there.
And I should also look at what weapons I'll use when I'm not using Carry. Bubble Lead would seem to be the best all around, as it'll kill Bigeyes and Cutting Wheels in two hits and Changkey Makers and Sniper Joes in three hits, but I don't know if it will work on the birds so well, especially in that ladder-climbing part. For them I could try Fire Storm, which is what I usually do, since the spinning shield will take the birds out as they come at me, possibly without having to shoot on the ladder itself and waste time. Or I could try Time Stopper. For some reason, the Time Stopper in this game shuts off when you scroll the screen vertically. So although it drains fast, I could still use it multiple times to keep all the birds away. Sadly, it doesn't seem possible to freeze the electric beams at a time when they're turned off, so I'll have to decide whether to wait for or get hit by them, too.
Another idea I had was that if I'm going to be using Time Stopper on the ladder section, I could use it in the previous section to avoid the last Super Cutter. The high ones I don't have to worry about, and the Cutting Wheels I'll probably destroy with Bubble Lead if that seems advantageous to switch to, but the low Super Cutters will force me to stop to avoid them as they swing back around. I don't want to freeze them ahead of time, since I can't jump completely over them at the beginning if they don't move, but I was thinking that I could freeze the last one after jumping over it. But that might cause me to run out of Time Stopper before stopping all the birds. There's also the possibility of freezing the cutters with Ice Slasher instead, although it seems like a long shot, but I should probably test.
So you can see I have a lot to toy around with before I can make the finished version of this level. Part of me wants to just pick one way of doing it and not worry about time so much, but I know that wouldn't be fair to the viewers. As always, I'm open to suggestions, even if I doubt their validity for a while.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
