Ahh. The stage that introduced me to the disappearing platforms. I can’t tell you how much those things pissed me off as a kid. And that part with the electric beams on the ladder was aggravating too. The pleasant tune that plays throughout the stage only served to make me even more angry. Like the game was mocking me. This was my least favorite level. Even though I kinda liked Elecman’s design. And his weapon is a ton of fun to use.
Replaying the game for this series, I'm astonished Minakuchi Engineering was so incredibly harsh in their level design to make the very first vanishing platforms over a spike pit, rather than solid ground. This requires the player to learn through observation alone, not through experimentation until the player understands the mechanic. Talk about trial by fire! I've always felt it would make sense for each set of robot masters to have a hierarchy command structure, with a single leader at the top. The leader would be the most difficult to take down with only the Rockbuster and have the most difficult stage. For 1, this would be Elecman. 2 would be Woodman, 3 Needleman, 4 Ringman, 5 Crystalman, 6 Centaurman. That's also why I tend to deliberately save these for last in most of my playthroughs.
Ha well, the original GameBoy is capable of 2 bit color - in other words, it can display four colors on screen at once. This allows for a dark color, a highlight, and two shades of gradient. Typically monochrome, but you can make this really any four shades you want.
