First up, you'll notice the title is different. There is a reason for this. These next few stages are obviously not designed for buster only playing. Therefore, I've altered the rules slightly. 1. For the stage, only Beat can be used and only in in areas with endlessly spawning enemies. 2. For the boss, only one weapon of my choosing can be used. It can also be used for only one phase of a boss too, not for the whole encounter. I hope you guys understand why I am doing this. Regrettably, it just simply wasn't going to happen the way I wanted it to. With that said, this stage is tough. Extremely tough. It ranks up there with Circuit Man and Flare Man, and comes dangerously close to Photon Man. Without Beat, it easily becomes the most challenging stage in the game. The beginning of the stage is one of the more dangerous sections all because of the fish. They work exactly like the tomatoes from before, but these are even worse since you have to deal with them while not being able to stay on the move at all times. Our friend Sniper Joe is eager to not let their inclusion be in vain, therefore many attempts can be lost to Sniper Joes teaming up with the fish to kill you. The serpent that follows is also a threat, but he'd be much worse if it wasn't for his glaring blind spots (a good design choice amongst this mess). His orbs can be difficult to avoid, but practice means you'll become an expert at anticipating them. After that, the only threatening parts of the stage are the areas with the fish. Under the new rules, Beat is allowed here so that makes this somewhat more tolerable. You still need to watch out for the volley of shots heading you way, which means speed is key. Another reason the fish are an ungoldy nightmare. The last area of the stage is arguably the most difficult. You have to contend with pit enemies, fish and bomb-dropping jellyfish robots. This is where Beat's AI is especially annoying, since he tends to favour the infinitely spawning enemies over the jellyfish. I can hardly blame him though; I'd be completely disorientated if there was so much flying around the screen. With that, the stage is finished and we move to the bigger trouble. The first phase of the Fish Man fight is... a strange one for me. It's an okay fight. It's not terrible, but it's miles ahead of everything else in this stage. Anyway, learning how to react to every possible scenario this guy can put you in is essential. Once you learn how to avoid every single attack, this fight becomes easier. However, his shots do move based on where you are, which means any deviation in your own movements creates some unpredictability. It's quite insignificant, but it can still be enough to throw you off. Aside from that, there's his bombing run. Try to slide under the platform at the last second so you don't get blown up at the other end. You can blame the glitchy hitboxes for that. The second phase is abhorrent, and it's all down to one attack. Mostly everything Fish Man does is tolerable. His bombing run is easy to avoid, his fish couples are incredibly annoying, but can be learned. No, it's his FUBAR Fish attack that he'll occasionally execute that brought nearly all my attempts crashing down. I have done endless experiments. I've spent more time practising that attack than I have most other boss fights in this game. There's just no reliable way I can see of doing avoiding it. I've done it before, but it simply cannot be replicated. Therefore, it seems you're intended by the developer to use Virus Outbreak to counter it. Doing so makes this fight... bearable. This fight is like a giant cake; it takes ages to get through and I feel sick afterwards. Number of practice runs - 10. Total number of attempts - 59, since I started under these rules anyway. Before that it was at least 100.

• published: 06 Nov 2014
• views: 3779