I agree that I Used Key is a great name as it goes with the key chase nature of the level, but unless familair with Faxanadu, which is quite obscure, you'll have no chance of guessing the source.

Using Google to search for "I used key" (in quotes) and NES gives just 15 results, and none for Faxanadu unfortunately.

A search for Haxanadu not only gives results for your videos and topic posts on the first page (as it's obviously a very uncommon word) but crucially gives Faxanadu as a suggestion in the Did you mean: bar.

I think the rule for names is the more obscure the game, the more the names need to pass the Google test. For example "U Rad?" and NES brings up Rad Gravity as the second result, with only Rad Racer above it. "Cheetah Boy" and NES brings up the source on results 5 and 6, and "Cheater Men" and NES brings up none on the first page, but crucially gives you the real game with the Did you mean: bar, so both work.

Regarding changes, I wouldn't alter the lasers on the platform for Megaman, as it will allow you to skip the danger by going under the lasers and using the side platforms to travel up, as well as wrecking the forced scrolling tribute. If the problem is only on the top laser, then i'd only alter/remove that in some way, as the forced scrolling is the heart of the concept.

Also, i'm not a huge fan of adding many bandages, but if you're paying tribute to the Castlevania hidden one, then i'd suggest putting one on Bubble Bobble may work, as Level 99 is home to the super secret warp door, so it'd be good to maybe have the bandage appear in the same place as you reach the end to force a dangerous backtrack maybe? Backtracks are annoying though...

My take on names is that to be in keeping with the main game's convention (and a number of fan ones) is that they need to be a bit dark or obscure or cynical. Arctic Ascent, while nice, is a bit too descriptive and clean and wholesome for the average Super Meat Boy chapter.

[Mt. Meat?]

Hmmm. Still struggling for names... Mallet Ballet may be the best, but as they don't really rhyme when pronounced, it is a little forced.

How about Mt. Meat?, or W17 (the most difficult class of real-life Ice Climbing), or Frostbite for 'frozen meat' you get climging a mountain, or Freezer Burn which is what happens to meat that gets spoiled when left in the freezer for too long?

All a bit crap i'm afraid.

You could maybe call it Mallory or Tenzig in honour of the (possibly) first man to scale Everest but died up there so can't be confirmed, or Tenzig Norgay who accompanied Edmund Hillary on the first proper ascent.

Love the changes, but i'd argue it needs a few more snowballs and a little less snow.  

Reasoning being, NES games were often quite basic in how they represented things, and Ice Climber really didn't have any snow - it was literally as you had it originally - grass, rock, ice!

I think a bit of snow is good, but it shouldn't detract from the Nes-ness by overwhelming the 3 colour design which is iconic.

As for snowballs, I think these are a really good hazard and should just maybe have one more? Ideally it'd be coming from near the top, and would make the climb harder by preventing you from just side-wall jumping to the top on the final stretch which is a little easy at the moment.

Regarding names, I shall have a good one for you within 24 hours!!! 

[Pot Roast Boy]

Btw, I would like to rename Castlevania now that Simon's Quest was a failure. I'd also need a name for Ice Climber level. Ideas, anyone? Oh, and I'm seriously thinking about naming Cheetah Men as Cheetah Boy at the moment.

I think Cheetah Boy is fine as well, as for the other two...

For Castlevania one idea is Pot Roast Boy. Pot Roast is the iconic food powerup from the series that is called Tasty Meat in the Japanese releases.

For Ice Climber, I can't think of many witty ones at the moment, but it shouldn't be hard to find something mountain climbing related.

I like Ice Climber, but i'm not too sure about the lasers as they don't seem to fit thematically and seem a bit of an out of place hazard. I think possibly colouring fireballs white would be a lot better as they'd look like snowballs and would fall down the level like a pachinko machine.

Other than that, I think the rest is good, and love the eagle replacement for BG at the top!

Edmund deserves it. Without him, NONE of you would have a place on the Super Meat Boy leaderboards.

 

Does nobody ever read through the fucking topic? 

It's not him, it's a hacker, likely the TC who has no other posts than this topic looking for attention.

Don't YOU ever read the leaderboard? It's SoulDescen at the top, SoulDescen, as mentioned before, is Edmund. Don't just assume things like that, it makes an ass out of you and me. (Cookie for anyone who sees wut I did thar.)

I'm not a PC player, so I just took my own advice and read the topic where I got the impression it wasn't him, but someone literally called Edward McMillan.

Seeing as Souldescen doesn't even have GoldenGod, then something is obviously fishy if that's the case.

The word is "mandatory" and yes.

Actually you're wrong both times.

Obligatory is fine in that context (should use 'are', not 'is' though) and unless it's been patched since, Golden God unlocks usually with about 6 levels to spare.

I also know people who claim to have Meat Ninja just from getting 307 (now 310) and as glitch levels do not count to that total, that'd imply a no there too.

Edmund deserves it. Without him, NONE of you would have a place on the Super Meat Boy leaderboards.

 

Does nobody ever read through the fucking topic? 

It's not him, it's a hacker, likely the TC who has no other posts than this topic looking for attention.

Are you sure it's him and not a hacking impersonator? Even then, there's actually about 365 levels when you break it down properly by including bosses, warps and minus levels, so maybe it's just a relic of his score before they altered the way levels count and he hasn't got around to resetting it.

Umm what? 250 levels (40 in 6 chapters and 10 in 1 chapter), 7 bosses, 6 glitches, 60 warp levels (4 warps in 5 chapters, 3 levels per).  Grand Total: 323 if you include bosses and glitches.  An additional 13 levels if you include stuff not normally included is not nearly enough to verify your hypothesis.

Editing this in... forgot both versions of the Dr Fetus fight have 2 stages.  Even then an additional 15 levels not counted is NOT 365 by any stretch.

250 levels + 9 bosses (The End bosses are 2-part each) + 6 glitches + 60 warps = 325... BUT...

There was an additional 40 Teh Internet levels on 360 by the time of the PC launch which takes it up to 365 (now another 40, which takes it up to 405) My logic was they could have originally included those levels in the final total for PC while playtesting.

...anyway, this is dodging the obvious that just because the tag says Edmund McMillan, that it actually is him. You'd have to be pretty dense to jump to that conclusion. More than likely it's just a hacker looking for attention, seeing as many people on the 360 have hacked the leaderboards to show 360 levels, so it's probably a similar exploit on the PC.

The fact the TC has only 2 posts to me implies he's the person who posted the fake entry and has come here to troll for attention over it.

Are you sure it's him and not a hacking impersonator? Even then, there's actually about 365 levels when you break it down properly by including bosses, warps and minus levels, so maybe it's just a relic of his score before they altered the way levels count and he hasn't got around to resetting it.

Someone tried doing that a while back. All they got out of it was gibberish.

Really? I found it quite easy, and on sight too.

It says...

SORRY MEAT BOY
BUT BANDAGE GIRL IS IN
ANOTHER WARP ZONE

...basically just a copy/paste of the message you get for completing standard warp zones. The bottom 3 lines are just an upside down version of the top 3.

Yeah, good thoughts. I will be cautious since the current solution took pretty much time to create. I actually recreated the whole trap routine three times from scratch.

I haven't tried to make static clouds yet! I'll try that and I think it's possible, but it will demand some testing with their properties since they move by default.

I can add falling rocks to the boss room but then I need to force the player to finish the level somehow so that there's an illusion that the room really collapses... Otherwise the player can wait in the left corridor until the part with falling rocks ends and see how to whole routine starts all over again = boss is resurrected.

Maybe have the floor past the room made of breakable blocks and have spikes on the walls above BG? That way you have to keep moving or fall off the level and can't endlessly wall jump when you get there?

Again, this may mess with the purity of the level, so proceeding with caution is good, as it isn't broke as is, so doesn't really need fixing. The boss battle is superb at the moment, so all these are purely thematic suggestions, and if they end up compromising the gameplay, then they shouldn't be implimented.

Another idea would be to maybe make a Bat or something in the background tiles of the boss room if that's not too cheesy to make it look like you're actually fighting something? May look crap though doing that though... I understand the issue with the clouds as it'd be bad design to have the intrude into the boss room and obscure your view. Is there no way to make them static?

I think the final boss challenge is good as it is, and wouldn't complicate it too much with a key chase. Maybe something as simple as replace the left laser with a locked door and have a key drop after the last hazard. I think you could simulate a room collapse by doing something like you did with Cheetah Men and have random blocks repeatedly fall past the room a second after the key has been collected?

Again, the level is completely fine as is, so these may in fact wreck what is actually quite brilliant as is, so i'd definitely proceed with caution when changing it and just keep the level the same as now if any of these suggestions end up cluttering or overcomplicating it.

I actually love the shadows too as they mimic perfectly how they were done on the NES! Another very minor thing is your crescent moon is actually the opposite way around how they are conventionally represented.  

Loving Castlevania! Also think the changes to Bubble Bobble and Bionic Commando make them fine to lock now.

For Castlevania, my only suggestions would be maybe put a lot of moving clouds in front of the moon and in the background to make it a bit moore moody if they're in the tileset, and (if not too complex) once the hazards have ended have a token switch appear you need to hit to escape and have the room behind you 'collapse' in some way after you defeat the 'boss' in true NES style.

At the moment it looks more like you just wait it out and sneak away rather than do anything in particular to 'kill' the boss, and is a bit anti-climatic to what is otherwise a brilliant set-piece.

Other than that, absolutely brilliant concept. Really, really, really like it.

Also, if you ever included a bandage on this level, I think there's two great hidden places you could put one, paying homage to Castlevania 4 (1:15) or Symphony of the Night (1:20).