Rob's Mega Man Thoughts

Over recent times, I've bought for the PS2 both the Mega Man Anniversary Collection (1-6 NES, 7 SNES, 8 PS1) and Mega Man X Collection (1-3 SNES, 4-6 PS1), as well as the PS2 RPG Mega Man X Command Mission.

Here, in part inspired by Zipp telling me to, since he did these really in-depth stage-by-stage reviews of at least a number of the original series' games, I'm offering my general input on these games. As a note, with the Anniversary collection, I'm using Navi mode for the lulz and also increased lives per game from 3 to 5, in an attempt to make up for any diminishment of skills over the decade since I last played any of these games.

AS OF NOW:
Mega Man: A big part of why this game must be considered tougher than the average MM game is because there are no passwords. You have to play the game in one sitting. With Anniversary mode, you autosave after every stage and I have to say that for the most part, when you play under the same rules as other games, this one actually seems somewhat easier than the norm. I've done Bomb Man, Guts Man, Cut Man and Elec Man and the only area that gave me trouble was the platforming bit with the moving lifts early in Guts Man's stage.

Well, until last night, when I started Ice Man's stage. Up to the checkpoint is easy. Then you have to do a fairly simple disappearing block room followed by a tricky disappearing block room, followed by the first of the game's two infamous "randomly moving lifts that also shoot at you". And if you die, you go back to the first of those disappearing block rooms, likely sapped of all desire to go on. And, if you're like me, you're short on Magnet Beam charges, too.

The problem with this game is just that the sparse background decoration makes the levels kind of blend together where the differences are things like, "yeah, Guts Man has a rocky look" or "Elec Man has all those electric shock beams you have to dodge", as opposed to anything significant. Makes it kind of boring at times. No large, pretty mini-bosses. Boring looking stages. Cool, but not great.

Mega Man 2 - Looking online, it's kind of funny. You'd think with these games that there would be, for the most part, an agreed-upon best order. But if you look up guides, virtually each one espouses some sort of different order where I've seen Air Man, Bubble Man, Flash Man and Metal Man all considered perfectly good guys to start with. After failing at Flash and Metal, I did Bubble, which sets up a problem. Mainly that without Item 2 (which you get from Air), you have to deal with a huge disappearing block area in Heat (the dude weak to Bubble). So I did Air last night, which means I'm likely close to breaking through this one. With one exception. Quick Man's stage, which will likely take me about 500 lives.

Mega Man 3 - Kind of like 2 in that I've seen Magnet Man, Top Man and Spark Man all listed as good first choices. The difference being that I've failed once at all three. To me, so far, I'm thinking the big reason is that the platforming is tougher here than in previous games on average. Magnet has disappearing blocks over pits, Top has rising and falling top platforms where you have to learn the pattern (and the first cat mini-boss is a real bitch), Spark has those platforms which rise quickly towards spikes so you have to move quick. All of them took a few lives to get through, although in future attempts, it shouldn't be as bad.

Mega Man 4 - I've done Toad Man's stage, as starting here, I think the best order started getting more unanimous (as in, I don't know if everyone espouses the same thing, but it's possible to pick 2-4 faqs and see them all start with the same guy). Generally easy stage except for the second snail, due to the whole "water will drag you off the ledge" part. At least until you get the hang of it. Like the second cat in 3's Top Man stage, I noticed that after a couple tries, I got really good at beating it without taking much damage.

Haven't done anything of note in 5 or 6 and have just done the intro stages in 7 and 8. As well as the intro stage in X1, but I probably won't mess with that disc until I've gotten my fill of the classic series.

My strategy in mega man 2 is to always start with metal man, his metal blades almost break the game because they are so powerful. I know you have issues with that, but my cardinal rule is to leave quick man and heat man to the very last, that disappearing block bit in Heat man's stage require's item-2 and quick man's stage is just a nightmare at the best of times.

The part of the game that annoys me most is the boss of either the 2nd or 3rd wily stage. It requires the crash bombs, but you can't hold enough ammo to wipe out all of the enemies AND the shields protecting them that only the crash bombs can destroy. you pretty much have to lose a life.

I don't know that I've ever done anything but start with Flash Man, since he's so easy to beat with just the arm cannon. Bubble Man goes down without putting up much of a fight, as well. I usually save Heat Man and Quick Man for last, because their weapons aren't all that useful. Metal Man I'll tackle third or fourth, usually. I do agree that his blades are wicked cool, though!

I believe I started with Metal Man, which made Mega Man 2 a lot more manageable, because Metal Blades. Also, I don't know why you wouldn't go get those blades first. They are maybe the most fun weapon in the whole series. Spend as much time with them as you can.

it says quite a bit about the metal blades when you fight metal man again with them he is taken out in one hit.

RE: Metal Man -- I did make an early go at it, but that was a fail. Think I made it to him on my last life, which gave me no real time to learn/re-remember how he fights, so I died pretty quickly. One of those things about playing these games -- if you're not used to them, you will struggle with their variety of intensive platforming challenges, whether it be the conveyor belts, disappearing blocks, slippery floor levels, underwater/in space weird gravity and so on. And my go at MM's stage was among the first things I did.

You also can have trouble with these games no matter what, depending on what sort of vibe you're in that day. Yesterday, I was all hung over and in pure couch potato mode. This lead to all sorts of troubles, such as me playing MM 2-8 and only actually completing one stage in MM 3.

In short: MM2 - now that I have Item 2, I went back to Heat Man's stage...and found myself to be utterly inept at stuff I'd cleared fairly easily the last time I played it. My five lives didn't even quite get me to the Item 2 area. Blah.

MM3 - did Spark Man's stage. A fun, easy one in the grand scheme of things. If you're reasonably aggressive and avoid collision damage from running into him, Spark Man is simplicity itself.

MM4 - My go at Bright Man's stage was pretty weak. Crap, I barely remember anything beyond the first room.

MM5 - Stone Man's stage is easy. I don't know that Stone Man himself is that difficult, but I just couldn't get timing down to hit him during those points when he actually in vulnerable, leading to me getting stupid and him jumping into me a lot of time.

MM6 - Dive Man's in this game, right? I think I worked on his stage, but apparently that didn't go too well. I don't really remember anything about that stage.

MM7 - Worked on Burst Man's stage. Struggled. I beat the mini-boss, but died shortly afterward during the forced upward ascent through water.

MM8 - Made it to Grenade Man in his stage, but was pretty weakened and on my last life. For the lulz, I tried Clown Man's stage. WTF? Most annoying level ever in a Mega Man game? All kinds of distracting clutter and after the mini-boss, you have to deal with way too much crap with trick floors.

From two nights ago, I beat three stages.

MM2:

Crash Man -- possibly the easiest level in Mega Man history. Little else to say here, other than making through an entire level and boss on one life just doesn't happen to me much and it did here.

Metal Man -- where I reminded myself how much I hate conveyor belts. Yet you must stomach them to get the series' most hilariously overpowered robot weapon. Having Item-2 helps a bit as far as clearing this one, as you can avoid the level's toughest jump and the following monsters which are of the "indestructible to base weapon" variety (those ones that turn into springs when they hit you).

MM3:

Magnet Man: Not a particularly tough stage. Has disappearing blocks, but they're pretty easy here even if two sets are over a bottomless pit. The magnet theme is cool, with a lot of things that will drag you into them.

The easiest level in Mega Man history is Flash Man's stage, from the same game. I had never played a Mega Man game before and I was an inexperienced gamer at the time, but I beat that stage on my first attempt without continuing. And even recently, I pulled a one-life attempt on it, while playing on my large television that messes with a person's timing like you wouldn't believe. Crash Man's stage, on the other hand... is quite the challenge (not to mention Crash Man himself, unless you have Air Man's weapon available).

Funny enough, I had troubles with Flash Man's stage when I tried to open the game with it (mainly the last long corridor where you have the big walkers to try to dodge), but cruised through Crash Man without any problem (I did have Air Man's weapon, which help against CM).

To me, the tricky part of the stage in theory are the rooms where you have to stay on a lift while infinite enemies come onto the screen. Thing is, because the enemies are easy to kill, you can grind for health in these rooms and there are no instant-death drops in any of them, so it's more a matter of patience. And it's a short level too.

At the very least, it's FAR easier than the more ordeal-y ones like Heat Man and Quick Man.

i find with those large walker enemies is to use something like air man's weapon or the leaf shield...possibly the only time i ever use it because it will take out the frame in one hit. With the orange riders just spam whatever weapon you want when they are vulnerable.

THREE MORE LEVELS DONE! Sadly, I've played many more than 3...

MM2:

Flash Man: I can kind of see where Zipp is coming from with his reviewing hypothesis that 2 is overrated. If for no other reason than with the Crash and Flash duo, this game has a couple of the easiest levels to find in any MM games. Both of them are simple and dull. Blah.

Wood Man: A lot better...in a way. The level itself is fun and challenging. Wood Man is tough, but in a more "finish him off before he finishes you" sprint, as opposed to a natural more strategic sort of tough. This is one of those levels where having the Metal Blade is great. Both in taking out the tougher enemies quickly (the fire-spewing dogs and carrot-shooting rabbits who tend to be in places where the multi-directional fire of the MB is great).

MM 3:

Hard Man: This is one of those levels that's not overly tough, but designed in a way where it gets really tough if you don't make it to the checkpoint on your first life. Odds are that you'll be needing the big health pick-up at the end of the first screen after dealing with all the wasps. And the one after dealing with the jumping apes in the second screen, too. So if you die, you'll then have to go through all this area with no non-drop health goodies. And that can be brutal, especially when you find yourself grinding for health against the first ape on the multi-ape screen. But it's over now!