Board 8 > Mega Man

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ive never played a Mega Man game(!) but have always been interested, Im thinking of getting the first Legacy Collection on PS4

Good move? Im a big fan of platformers and dont mind challenging games.

Also, any interest in a playthrough topic? No worries if not, just want to gauge interest! Provided I like the series Id also be interested in any input on what order to play the other series (X, Zero, etc.) and if I should play all the original series first or go chronological across the whole of Mega Man

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They're good, challenging platformers. The one thing you might want to note is that 1 is not quite so good and leans toward unfair difficulty elements. So even though that's where you might think to start, the second one is generally considered a lot better.

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I would love a playthrough topic. I remember one of the first Board 8 topics that really invested me was Karma Hunter's Mega Man Anniversary Collection topics back in 2005.

The Legacy Collections on Steam are a great start, since it includes the new games too. Definitely recommend starting with MM2. It's the true start in a lot of ways.

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Amazing series. I prefer the X series personally, but the original is still so good. Agree on starting with MM2.

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A playthrough topic would be very cool. Mega Man 2 is the best way to start, but 1 is bearable if you use the rewind feature, even if it takes away most of the difficulty.

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I recommend starting with Mega Man X before working on the originals. The controls are better (start with the chill penguin stage and get the extra dash to make it super obvious) and the graphics are more pleasant. mega man 1 feels kind of unfair and annoying to control

The stories are hardly related (techincally i think they're semi related with a large time gap) so you're good from that front

I'm only familiar with the NES/SNES titles so I'll cede to others in terms of everything else

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My rule for Megaman games with rewind is that I'm only allowed to use the rewind right before a boss fight. Playing through the same level 20 times to die to the boss in 5 seconds is never going to hold my interest in 2020.

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I think Original -> X series is the way to go. Controls are tighter in X but the sheer amount of stuff to collect in X makes it less friendly than Original.

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1 has a better challenge than most of the originals. Its level design isn't as good, and I'd say to play it a little later when you've decided you like the series and want more.

2 is one of the easiest ones, in large part to one of the items being completely busted. Even with 2 difficulties, the hardest setting is very easy. This is a good one to start as it has the most basic elements, so you get to see the later games add more mechanics.

3 has some of the best level design and a decent difficulty. It adds sliding. It's for sure one of the best. Also would be a good place to start.

4 has great design, adds the charge shot, and is pretty easy. Good place to start.

5 is a little dull, has terrible music, and few fun weapons. Don't start with this one.

6 has some nice level designs and isn't very difficult. It adds a few more mechanics, and has a flying suit that makes things really easy. Not a bad one to start with, but I'd say pick another one.

7 has some limited choices which isn't a great representation, though still a fun game, probably one of the weaker in the series. Don't start here.

Rockman & Forte/Mega Man & Bass plays like 7, but is basically an improvement in every regard. Cool level design and bosses. It's also probably the hardest of the original series. Don't start here.

8 is trash. Don't start here. Don't even play it.

9 is the best Mega Man game. It goes back to the basic style of Mega Man 2. It has amazing level design and the most well rounded set of Robot Master weapons so you'll have fun actually using every single weapon, unlike many games where you have 0-2 that you actually use regularly. Not super easy, but not too hard either. Would be a good place to start.

10 is about the same high quality of 9, though only slightly less good. Nothing would be wrong with starting here, though no reason to do it before 9.

11 has the most new mechanics of any of the MM games and a higher difficulty than most of the series. It's probably the worst representation of the original series, but still a great game. I'd say not to start here.

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Ive got a $20 credit and Im seriously close to buying the Mega Man 30th Anniversary Bundle! It would be $20.19 out of pocket for 19 games

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wallmasterz posted...

Ive got a $20 credit and Im seriously close to buying the Mega Man 30th Anniversary Bundle! It would be $20.19 out of pocket for 19 games

I did this

Now Im going to ignore the six separate recommendations not to start with Mega Man 1, and start with Mega Man 1 because I at least want to give it a try

Playthrough topic starts now!

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The correct choice is Mega Man Battle Network

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I would start with either Mega Man 1 if you want to start at the beginning or Mega Man 2 if you want to start with the one that really made the series what it is today. Either way is fine.

wallmasterz posted...

Ive got a $20 credit and Im seriously close to buying the Mega Man 30th Anniversary Bundle! It would be $20.19 out of pocket for 19 games

This was a smart move

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Mega man 2 still holds up.

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I imagine most people started with MM2 anyway, so I recommend to start there. Be sure to try MM1 at some point, but it's the worst and least developed.

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MM2-MMX4 is all money

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Megaman 1 is where to start imho.

I love starting with Bomb Man
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Good call starting with 1 imo

Mega Man 1 is better than Mega Man 2

You should just skip 2 and go straight to 3

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Each Mega Man game can take like 3-4 hours (or less if you are good. Less than an hour if you are very good)
So asking "where to start" isn't really important. It's not like asking if I should play Witcher 1 and 2 before playing 3.

Anyway, release order. But starting with 2 can work too. 3 might be too hard

NFUN posted...

The correct choice is Mega Man Battle Network

The one thing me and NFUN always agree on

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Nanis23 posted...

Each Mega Man game can take like 3-4 hours (or less if you are good. Less than an hour if you are very good)
So asking "where to start" isn't really important. It's not like asking if I should play Witcher 1 and 2 before playing 3.

Anyway, release order. But starting with 2 can work too. 3 might be too hard

The one thing me and NFUN always agree on

MM1 is way more annoying than all the others. Sure you could start anywhere, but I wouldnt start with 1

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Last night I played my first Mega Man game ever Mega Man 1. Ive had two opportunities to play and Im really enjoying it. Ill go into more detail tomorrow, but did want to bump this and let everyone know this is officially a playthrough topic!

After downloading all the games in the 30th anniversary collection, I took a bit of time to enjoy the production art in the museum. I also looked into the settings, which I kept at default. For CPU speed, Mega Man Legacy Collection offers two options: original and turbo. It seems that turbo just minimizes slowdown, so I went with that. Im hoping to go for as close to an original NES experience as possible, which means absolutely no resetting for me in any of these games. Its just how I prefer to play.

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wallmasterz posted...

Im hoping to go for as close to an original NES experience as possible, which means absolutely no resetting for me in any of these games. Its just how I prefer to play.

Yes! Very happy to hear this! It can take some self-discipline to do that when you know it's something so easily accessible to cheat at, but it's way more satisfying to play it through the way it was intended IMO.

And glad you are liking Mega Man 1! You should really love the series then.

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NES ones are better than the X series. I can see arguments for like 3 different starting points for a newcomer.

MM1 - Beginning
MM2 - Much more polished and better than 1
MM5 - 6 is probably the easiest of the first 1-6, but 5 is a solid title even if the mega buster is controversial.

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Discuss: whats your go-to order for clearing Mega Man 1? Now is a good time to talk about it. Also please dont give recommendations for the best order of tackling other games levels because I might want to figure that out on my own

First of all, Ive got to say Im really enjoying the games visuals and soundtrack. Its been a while since I played an 8-bit game and while I dont have scans of the original NES game as a frame of reference, Mega Man 1 is looking quite good in the Legacy Collection.

As stated before, no rewinding for me. I will only save at the level select screen, which doesnt really bother me since younger me would just leave the NES on overnight if needed. Also, I didnt look up anything before I started. Not which levels are the easiest, robot master weaknesses, etc. and so on a whim I started with Cut Man.

https://youtu.be/lQBQjE1UVo0 (this is just an example and not my run obviously)

Difficulty wise, Cut Mans stage seemed to be a solid first choice. It took me about 15 minutes and I died twice but didnt get a single game over. The experience was mostly filled with thoughts like what the heck does this drop do and should I be doing anything other than simply clearing the level which, on the latter, I determined the answer to be no. Yet somehow, I still felt the need to kill nearly every single Octopus Battery.

I found a PDF of the original instruction booklet and educated myself on the drops I didnt understand, which were those which give points after the level ends, and those which recharge abilities. No wonder I was unclear on what they did since I hadnt cleared the stage yet, and I had no abilities to recharge.

It was a quick but clumsy run through what I imagined had to be one of the easier stages in the game, given all Ive heard about MM1s difficulty. I definitely tanked a few hits at times, and I wanted no part of that Big Eye enemy near the end of the stage.

After besting Cut Man, and with no knowledge of what makes an optimal run, I decided to just move through the remaining stages in a clockwise manner for the time being. That meant Guts Man was up next.

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Bomb>Guts>Cut>Elec>Ice>Fire
This is the "correct" order

Although Fire Man is a pain even with Ice Man weapon

I found a PDF of the original instruction booklet and educated myself on the drops I didnt understand, which were those which give points after the level ends, and those which recharge abilities. No wonder I was unclear on what they did since I hadnt cleared the stage yet, and I had no abilities to recharge.

Don't worry about it. This is the only game to have a score system (The one in Zero is totally different)

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That's cool you're trying out the series and wanting to play it on your own. That's the magic of it all.

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Nanis23 posted...

Bomb>Guts>Cut>Elec>Ice>Fire

OMG I agree with Nanis on something
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I always like taking out Cut Man first. He's a fairly easy boss with a fairly easy stage.

The weirdest thing about MM1 is the score system. That thing is completely gone in all other Mega Man games.

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SSBM_Guy posted...

I always like taking out Cut Man first. He's a fairly easy boss with a fairly easy stage.

The weirdest thing about MM1 is the score system. That thing is completely gone in all other Mega Man games.

Its just a vestigial relic from arcade games. Mega Man 1 was one of the first (maybe THE first?) games Capcom ever developed that wasnt an arcade game or an arcade port
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Yeah, I always do Cut Man first. Fire Man is definitely the toughest even when you exploit the weakness.

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I love Bomb Man's stage (aka song), so I often do it first, but I have to admit rolling cutter from Cut Man is way more useful in the average stage compared to hyper bomb, so sometimes I'll do cut before bomb.
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General tips for classic series:

• Don't neglect your subweapon usage. Refills are plentiful.
• If a stage is giving you grief, even if its THE IDEAL ORDER you looked up, do it when you finish a different stage.

Everyone has a preference for boss order, usually weakness order.
Spoilerino my personal ones:

1- Bomb Guts Cut Elec Ice Fire
2- Air Flash Metal Bubble Heat Wood Crash Quick
3- Magnet Hard Top Shadow Spark Snake Gemini Needle
4- Toad Bright Pharoah Ring Dust Skull Dive Drill
5- Napalm Stone Charge Wave Star Gravity Gyro Crystal
6- Flame Blizzard Plant Tomahawk Yamato Knight Centaur Wind
7- Burst Cloud Junk Freeze Slash Spring Shade Turbo
8- Grenade Frost Tengu Clown Aqua Sword Search Astro
9- Galaxy Jewel Hornet Splash Concrete Magma Tornado Plug
10- Pump Solar Chill Nitro Commando Blade Strike Sheep
11- Meh, didn't finish it yet, but I went Tundra Bounce Fuse because these levels suuuuuck


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Jakyl25 posted...

Its just a vestigial relic from arcade games. Mega Man 1 was one of the first (maybe THE first?) games Capcom ever developed that wasnt an arcade game or an arcade port

yes, it was the first original console game Capcom made. Though some of the arcade ports before it were substantially different from the arcade versions.

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Still covering my first night playing the game - next came Guts Mans stage.

https://youtu.be/3CqzZ9KXtVE

This stage starts out tricky but gets progressively easy as you go. I earned my first few game overs getting the timing down on the those platforms at the start. Once you get past that, its pretty smooth sailing. The second toughest part is next getting past the picket men. On my winning run I was able to take a couple hits here and even avoid killing one of them. Lastly, I learned the hard way that spikes = instant death, because I lost a life to the last spike by hugging the right wall as I fell. But once you know the fixed placements, theyre very easy to avoid.

On this stage, I learned that boss corridors are a thing. Guts Man may be the easiest boss in the game, as I found him to be even easier than Cut Man. Hed be a lot tougher if you took damage from his shockwaves, but simply getting stunned didnt do much. I was near full health and had him to about one-third health left, so I just blasted away at the rest of his health bar and called it a day.

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Jakyl25 posted...

Its just a vestigial relic from arcade games. Mega Man 1 was one of the first (maybe THE first?) games Capcom ever developed that wasnt an arcade game or an arcade port

I can't think of an action platformer (non-adventure) older than Mega Man 2 that doesn't have a score system. There's probably something I'm not thinking of but I swear MM2 might be the first of its kind to officially eschew scores

Doki Doki Panic?
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Ah yeah, I guess that is older

God now youve got me thinking

Alex Kidd never had a score mechanic I dont think
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Surely youd classify Simons Quest more as adventure

Same with Goonies 2
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Yeah, I specified non-adventure because of Metroid mostly.

I should rewatch Chrontendo, Dr Sparkle might actually make note of this
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I usually start with Guts Man, then continue with weaknesses. Never Elec Man first, I have too tough of a time doing that with only the buster.

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Also if you do Elec Man first it means you gotta do it again
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I did Guts first when I ran this for Big 20 because I think having Magnet Beam for Bomb is a touch faster, not sure though

Jakyl25 posted...

Surely youd classify Simons Quest more as adventure

Same with Goonies 2

action platformer just like CV1 lol

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Guts Man does have a fairly simple pattern; as long as his randomness doesn't box you in the corner it's not a difficult boss to buster-duel.

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I'm glad you actually started with the first one. As far as NES games go it's actually pretty well balanced and fair. Compared to later entries it can be a pain but try to actually beat other popular games like Ninja Gaiden without save states and you'll really feel the burn of unfair.

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Mega Man 1's difficulty is a little overrated. It has some rough spots but it's still pretty forgiving as far as NES games go.