Gravity Man resides in a unique stage that doesn't offer anything too terribly challenging in terms of hazards, and he's not an especially challenging foe if you manage to reach his lair, which makes him another great starting point if you're looking to jump into things from scratch.
As you start forward from the entrance, you'll see a robot that looks like a large eyeball. You can take it out with a charged shot and keep going. Pay attention, though, to the flashing arrows on the wall. They let you know which way the gravity will pull you as they pass. If arrows point to the ground, you can expect regular action. If the ones pointing upwards are lit, though, you can expect to be dragged to the ceiling.
Continue onward and take out another eyeball enemy and a dispenser that drops balls down a vertical shaft. Then drop down the shaft yourself and head back to the left. Here, you'll see a new enemy. As it heads toward you, it sometimes extends its height, but you can shoot it from a distance and ruin its day. There are spikes here, as well, but as you reach them, gravity will send you up to the ceiling, so you don't even have to jump. Those same forces of gravity will also pull a lower enemy up to your level, so shoot it as you advance.
When you reach the far side of the set of arrows, they'll send you down to the corridor's lower level. Advance toward the right, clearing out more enemies with charged shots. Let the next set of arrows carry you to the ceiling, and clear out more enemies as you continue your progression. As you near the end of the ceiling here, jump out toward the ladder and press Up on the d-pad to climb toward the bottom edge of the screen. From the top of that ladder, you can then jump out and left to collect the 1up when the area is free of the enemy you'll need to kill.
Now let gravity carry you up and to the next screen, where you can make your way up to the higher ceiling before heading back right. Remember that your controls are inverted here too, which comes into play if you want to slide past the spiked chain balls that are anchored along the central ledge here. Advance cautiously to the right, staying out of their range.
Passing through the gap at the end of the chamber will take you to a new room with more of the spike-tipped enemies, but you can shoot them and continue toward the right along the upper level. Near the far right side of this room, you'll have to jump from the ceiling to trigger some arrows that pull you down into the next gap, to the room below you.
Here, fall along a wide shaft and hold mostly to the right, so that you don't land on a bed of spikes. Blast an enemy and then continue advancing in that direction. Green turrets emerge from the ledges, so be ready for them with charge shots. Past a few of them, you'll find another opening through which you can drop.
Now you'll need to head to the right, past more of the sneaky green turrets. As the ceiling grows higher, though, you'll face a more serious threat: an agile pink robot that likes to leap toward you when he spots you. Slide under him, then turn and fire. You want to avoid heading back left too far, as that will simply allow another pink robot to appear, perhaps even while you're dealing with the first one.
Past that robot (and another green turret that's easy to miss in all the excitement), you'll find a long corridor with more of the arrows. These are positioned in line with a big pit. You need to jump forward quickly, so that you're carried past the first arrow track and in line with the second. That way, you'll be pulled to the ceiling instead of into the pit.
Continue toward the right, and the next set of such tracks plays host to the letter
M, which you of course want. You can jump out past the first arrows, which send you to your doom, and snag the letter as you fall toward the ledge to your lower right. Then keep going as you kill a few remaining enemies in the area (they're nothing you haven't seen already).
At the end of that chamber, climb a ladder into the next room and make your way along the ceiling, blasting floating pod enemies and jumping left to clear some spikes. Then let gravity carry you through the opening, but hold to the right to avoid ramming into spikes in the next room. Then descend along the ceiling toward the right and you'll reach the gate that leads to the stage's boss encounter.
Gravity Man
If you brought along Star Man's special attack, you can use it against Gravity Man, which can certainly be effective, but your arm cannon is another great way to go.
As Gravity Man fights you, he'll change the gravitational pull in the room. You will start on the ceiling while he is on the floor, and the first thing he'll do is switch vertical positioning with you. If you have a charged shot ready, you can release it as you start to fall and it will peg your foe right in the face.
From there, Gravity Man is likely to approach along the ceiling, then switch fields again as he nears the room's halfway point. You can hit him with another charged shot if you're ready for that, and then you should move forward while he starts forward beneath you.
The rest of the fight will go in much the same way. You just need to make sure that you're not directly above or below Gravity Man as he switches the pull in the room, or you'll take a lot of damage. Otherwise, though, the fight is a piece of cake. He fires the occasional shot too, from his own arm cannon, but those should mostly miss you even when you're not working to avoid them. All in all, it's a fun little duel.
Password: A -3 (red), B-1 (red), C-3 (blue), D-6 (blue), F-1 (blue), F-6 (red)
NEXT: Gyro Man
