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.