Gutsman!

 

Gutsman Stage Overview- This stage is a bit shorter than Bombman’s stage. The bad news? A big part of it’s difficulty comes from the dreaded “collapsing platforms” that have been the bane of many a Megaman player’s existence. Keep a level head and prepare to lose a life or two just in case…

Gutsman Stage Enemies- Metall, Bunbi, Pickelman, Big Eye

Gutsman Stage Walkthrough- As soon as you show up in your usual style of god-like teleportation, you’ll come face to face with the most iconic Megaman baddie of all- the Metall (a.k.a. Mets or Metools). These little bastards hide under their yellow helmets and show their eyes for only a second as they shoot you with a three-shot pattern of plasma. Though not too damaging on it’s own, these things can be a headache if you don’t deal with them. Walk up to the little doofus and poke his eye out with your Blue Bomber BB Gun and avoid the hassle of being shot by two of these things when you make your way up the small set of makeshift stairs. You’ll come across three of these guys, so take ‘em out as soon as you can.

After those guys are done, you’ll be greeted with the same sound people hear when they enter video gaming Hell. A monotonous clicking noise that announces the part of the stage that gives people nightmares for weeks on end- the collapsing platforms. It’s a simple concept at first- ride the moving platform to the next platform. Too bad along the way some of the tracks are missing and the platform will dump you faster than Paris Hilton when she finds out you don’t wear name brand. This coupled with the game’s less than stellar response time in the control department means you’ll find out first hand why some people never make it past this seemingly simple part of the game.

But, fear not! Don’t let the above description scare you just yet. Remember- at least you’ve got infinite continues! Plus, it’s not as hard as people make it out to be. The first platform has no breaks in the track, so no need to worry about falling just yet. Wait for the second platform to come on screen and jump to that one. If you ‘re lucky, the bottom platform will be headed right as you jump on the second one, so get on the bottom platform ASAP. Here’s the tricky part: the marathon jumping. It’s really just a pattern of leaping at this point, with each gap placed an equal distance away from each other. Just make sure you jump straight up and to the right slightly to correct yourself and always be ready for the next jump. Just be sure to give yourself enough room to make the slightly longer leap to solid Earth on the other side of the canyon and give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.

It’s a shame the three Bunbis that wait for you on the other side don’t share your enthusiasm. These guys will instead swoop down to try and knock your head off your shoulders. They’re fairly quick when they make their dives, so either try to land that one shot needed to kill them or run like hell until they’re off the screen and cease to exist. Either way, make your way up the stony staircase and you’ll be given a large health item for your troubles thus far.

Jump down the cliff of no return and keep going right until you’ve met your new pal- Pickelman. Hey, I don’t name these guys, Capcom does. Apparently, the deadly Pickelman doesn’t throw Kosher deli vegetables at you, and instead throws a mean pickaxe in an upwards-then-downwards curve. The best way to deal with this guy is to keep firing while advancing slowly towards him, with the pickaxes missing your head just barely. If all is well, he’ll go boom just as you were about to give him a big Cactus Jack hug (Foley joke alert). You’ll be fighting three more of these guys over a bed of spikes below, so work out a pattern and beat the much-feared Deli Brothers to jump down the pit at the end of the screen.

As you fall oh so gracefully, curve to the left slightly to land on one of three structures in the room you’re in now and take out the incoming Bunbis. Jump to the left most column and walk of the ledge to the screen below, curving to the right to land on the middle column below. Watch out for the spikes in between the middle and leftmost columns and shoot the additional Bunbis. In this room, you’ll see two small health items on the left most column and a large health container on the top of a seemingly unreachable column from where you stand. At this point, you’ll ask me “well, why didn’t I go for the large health tank by dropping towards that one from the above screen?”. Go ahead, ask it. Did you ask me yet? Okay, here’s the answer. More often than not, the game doesn’t let you curve enough to reach that thing, sending you crashing down below sans ANY health. This way, you can at least nab a consolation prize. And besides, with my flawless battle advice thus far, you shouldn’t need that big ol’ health item anyways, right?

Now, after that’s been settled, make sure you’re on the center column again and walk of the ledge. No, not onto the spikes, genius- the OTHER side! As you fall, push “left” as much as you can to hopefully land on the next ledge below. If the game lets you (cause sometimes it doesn’t), you’ll end up on a high platform facing a lower platform that plays home to a glorious 1up! Walk off the side of the ledge, jamming that “left” command as you do and you’ll get your prize. Hopefully you got that thing, so now you can continue downwards and face the next enemy below.

A Big Eye robot will be bounding towards you as soon as you land atop the giant staircase. Instead of fighting the cleverly named enemy, try to run underneath it as it makes one of it’s higher jumps in an attempt to crush you. These things take a lot of time to kill, even with a special weapon, so it’s not really worth it. And if it touches you in the slightest, you won’t be happy. Get past this thing any way you can and get to the entrance to Gutsy’s hallway, where a few Metalls await your beat down. Best not keep them waiting. If you’re low on health or ammo, run back and forth in this little hallway to kill some baddies and pick up some goodies until you feel up to the boss fight at the end of the tunnel.

Boss Fight: Gutsman- Without the aid of the Hyper Bomb, Gutsman can be quite the pain if you’re not ready. He gets around by jumping Riverdance-style both to and away from you. Every time he lands from a jump, the ground shakes and Megaman loses his ballet-quality balance, making it impossible for you to move. The best way to avoid this effect is to jump as soon as Guts is about to land, and hopefully the earthquake will be done by the time you land. Of course, the Earthquake Stomp is only half of the problem, as when Gutsman jumps straight up and lands, a boulder comes down from the ceiling and into his waiting hand, where it will be immediately tossed like a brick. The boulder breaks into four pieces that fly towards you as soon as it is tossed, making it difficult to dodge, especially with all of that shaking going on.

This when the Hyper Bomb shows it’s stuff. Lob a bomb towards Gutsy, getting it near him. Luckily, in the WW version, the bomb’s fuse is a bit shorter and it blows up quicker. The Hyper Bomb does a hell of a lot of damage to the big lug, and he’ll be down for the count in only three hits. While that seems simple, try this fight without the bomb if you want a challenge- you’ll probably be at Death’s door by the end of the fight if you pull out a win.

Weapon Profile: Super Arm- I gotta say, I’m not a huge fan of this weapon. While it’s the perfect weapon against Cutman, this weapon actually requires a background object to work, namely huge square blocks that glow white when you walk up to them with the Super Arm activated. While you can walk around with the blocks and even jump while holding one with a single hand, most of these stages don’t have a whole lot of these blocks laying around. To further detract from this weapon, you can’t use the Mega Buster with this weapon armed, meaning you have to know what you’re doing before hand and not get caught up with a million enemies around you with this thing armed.

So yeah…Another shitty weapon. Sorry Gutsy.
 


Next Stage: Cutman