Nefarious - Part 15 - Walk Like a Droid
8The cat's out of the bag now--Princess Mayapple, of all people, was a major contributor to the mad science going on at Adept Co. resulting in the creation of Farrah. The diaries do suggest Mayapple feels bad about what had happened in the meantime, yet she wanted to keep going to get that perfect princess she aimed for in the first place, no matter what. Other characters call her out that she's probably hung around with Crow forso long that some of his villainy had rubbed off on her, but she wants to atone, and to that end, we go to Dr. Cackle's Lab. The whole time, Crow carries Mayapple over his shoulder. I'm guessing that power armor allows him to do so without a problem, and to do so comfortably enough to Mayapple that she's not going to get any back pain or other sort of discomfort no matter howlong Crow takes.
Dr. Cackle's Lab is a short stage but a slow-moving one, and it consists of three parts with pretty different platforming approaches. The first is a large amount of electrified ground, which kills Crow immediately, but Taddlebots, the police drones, can travel within it unharmed. You thus have to use them as platforms, without destroying them. The majority of my failures were here. (And if you remember the out-of-reach record in the Part 1 video, this is how you get to it.)
The second part features Walkdroid, and it follows the classic platforming trope in which you ride a slow-moving platform across either a bottomless pit or very dangerous terrain below. Not much to say about this one, but the nature of this game makes it not quite as boring as it would seem because of the dialogue between Crow, Mayapple, and Walkdroid.
And the last part has spike balls that, for some reason, drift left and right in unison. I take it this is part of Dr. Cackle's security system, and while an interesting stage gimmick and one I rarely see in 2-D platforming, the speed at which they move make it hard to get by without knowing their layout in advance.
And then Crow gets trapped in a cage. How he gets out, you'll have to see for yourself, but the dialogue continues to keep things moving along, attention-wise, and they indicate that no, the game hasn't glitched and got you stuck.
There is no boss in this stage, or at least an ordinary one. Dr. Cackle WAS ready to fight Crow in his machine, but by the time Crow gets there, it's already been destroyed in a fit of rage from Mayapple, and she's ready to kill Dr. Cackle by dropping him into a pit of toxic substance. (Take note of Mayapple's prowess in physical strength--this is foreshadowing for something even later.) Here is the next step in reaching the good ending: Crow has to decide whether to tell Mayapple to spare Cackle or let him die, and to get that good ending, Crow has to do the unvillainous thing and tell her to spare him.
(Now, I'm not sure how intentional it was, but Dr. Cackle looks remarkably like a Beanbean citizen from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and Gashi-Gashi draws him like one too. Beanbean-related places, people, and concepts have synonyms for laughing, anaming motif Dr. Cackle fits into. That's what I wanted to say, is all.)
Next up, we return to the Doom Howitzer for another go-round, but this time, things will be different in light of the events shown in the last video and this one.