Board 8 > Mega Man

(+) Yeah! (+)

Paratroopa1 posted...

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.

I do think the four-boss rush in Wilys Castle is a bit much
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Paratroopa1 posted...

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.

Yeah, I think it only has this reputation because of it's relation to the rest of the NES Mega Man series, which is a very easy series. Plus a lot of people think of the Yellow Devil fight as being some particularly tough battle that many of them had to cheat at to beat it, though I've never really understood why everyone says that battle was hard.

But for sure in comparison to many other NES games, it's not really tough.

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Definitely some trial and error involved in some parts of Mega Man 1 and I'd put Yellow Devil in that category - he does a lot of damage and there's no E-tanks so the margin of error is really small.

I started with Mega Man 1. But then only up to 3 was out at the time anyway

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Paratroopa1 posted...

Definitely some trial and error involved in some parts of Mega Man 1 and I'd put Yellow Devil in that category - he does a lot of damage and there's no E-tanks so the margin of error is really small.

Yeah and its not like you can just trial and error infinitely without having to play through the whole stage again
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Wily stage 1 itself is also just a fair bit of a pain in the ass

elec beam pause strats checking in

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Jakyl25 posted...

Yeah and its not like you can just trial and error infinitely without having to play through the whole stage again

And unlike the rest of the series, there's no passwords. You have to start from the beginning every time so you have to get through the 6 Robot Masters before you can even try Yellow Devil.

For me the bigger issue is that the game is just kinda broken in a few places. Like the helicopter platform enemies that appear in Ice Man and Wily 1 just straight up do not work correctly, and you can get patterns where you just can never jump to the next platform, or you'll sometimes fall through them and it's not always clear why. You can use the Magnet Beam to bypass them but that's the same level of "you have to cheat to get past it" as people say about Yellow Devil.

Also Mega Man's movement isn't as tight in 1 as it is in 2-6, like it takes a little longer for him to start and stop moving in 1 compared to the others. If you're used to the later games and you try 1 for the first time, you'll end up accidentally walking into hazards occasionally because of this.

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Yellow Devil is actually kinda easy though, because there's just one pattern right? I mean not easy easy because of how long you have to keep up dodging the pattern with small opportunities for damage, but it's still mostly an endurance test for your movement.

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Paratroopa1 posted...

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.

I agree with this. It's more like the entire Mega Man series is rough in difficulty and MM2 is an easier start than MM1.

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MrGreenonion posted...

For me the bigger issue is that the game is just kinda broken in a few places. Like the helicopter platform enemies that appear in Ice Man and Wily 1 just straight up do not work correctly, and you can get patterns where you just can never jump to the next platform, or you'll sometimes fall through them and it's not always clear why.

Boy relevant timing on this comment as I begin to talk about Ice Mans stage which I attempted third as I continued my clockwise progression through the robot masters.

https://youtu.be/9udoAsemTsk
The first part of this stage, 0:00-0:58 in the video, isnt bad whatsoever. It was a bit of a surprise the first time I tried to avoid a flying penguin by taking a few steps back and got smacked by another on the respawn, but this first section is predictable and can be consistently cleared with ease after learning the enemy patterns. Then, we get to 0:58.

Im not kidding when I say I spent an hour trying to clear this stage the first night I played MM1, and didnt succeed. I breezed through Cut Man, had minimal difficulty with Gut Mans stage, and promptly hit a bit of a wall that night. Ice Mans stage is simply on a different level of difficulty from those first two, and it delivered a nice sized piece of humble pie to me and my somewhat rusty platforming skills.

If you fail anywhere between 0:58 and 1:42 in the video, you respawn at 0:58. Thats the checkpoint. And I kid you not, I had to climb those damn disappearing blocks at LEAST 30 times before I even made it to Ice Man for the first time. It got rather irritating. But I never even thought about using rewind, saving, none of that. I was going to take my lumps and git gud. I had no clue at the time theres a power which allows you to essentially neuter the challenge of that difficult platforming segment from 1:30 to 1:42.

I died many times.

Many times.

A new paragraph was needed there just to emphasize that I died a lot. I tried for an hour and then finally, I made it to Ice Man. And he is definitely harder than Cut Man and Guts Man. I died pretty quickly, and unless it was just my imagination, he was a bit of a tank compared to the first two bosses as well. My regular attacks were not doing much. The second time I made it to Ice Man that night, I tried the weapons I had acquired from the first two robot masters I bested. I didnt know how the hell Guts Mans weapon worked, and Cut Mans wasnt doing any better than the buster gun. Again, I died.

It was time to call it a night. But beating two stages was not a bad start since I had never played a Mega Man game before. Still, I consider platformers my best type of game and I was feeling a bit underwhelmed with myself after struggling with Ice Mans stage.

It was too much of a damn pain getting to Ice Man. With rewinding and mid-level saving not an option for me, I wasnt interested in getting to Ice Man again only to die. No no no. I was going to acquire the weapon that Ice Man was weakest to and the next time I made it to him, I was going to blast the ever loving hell out of him. I was never going to endure that bullshit on the glitchy platforms again. Tomorrow night, I was going to beat Ice Mans ass!!!

I just needed to beat Fire Man first. Fire melts ice, Ive learned it from real life and Pokmon. It would be sweet to melt Ice Mans ass with the fire weapon, because Ice Man was surely susceptible to fire. Muahaha!!

Ron Howard as narrator: He wasnt.

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https://youtu.be/vY8gz-Ijw1k

Last night I decided to give Bomb Mans stage a try first. Its actually not too hard Id say its the second easiest stage in the game. Most noteworthy bits: Ive taken to calling those enemies not bullet bills insert ginormous wink. I still dont know their proper names and I kind of dont want to know. And those Sniper Joes are no joke, but the rest of the level is easy enough that they can basically be dodged/ignored with minimal consequence.

I really dug the music for this stage, and the last vertical stretch with Octopus Batteries was a cool take on the boss corridor. I really thought Cut Mans weapon would work best, as in cutting a bomb wire to defuse it or something. This was the first indication of something that became obvious to me later: Im terrible at predicting which power a robot master will be weak to. Fortunately, Bomb Man wasnt hard and I avoided his manic jumping long enough to make quick work of him on the first try I started with full health (second overall).

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Yeah, the second half of ice Man stage is just... ugh.

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https://youtu.be/9ORzWxY0EnM

After clearing Bomb Mans stage and with a bit of confidence restored, I moved on to Fire Mans stage so I could get the weapon needed to give Ice Man a cathartic beatdown (lol).

I probably died on it about 15 times. Some of the precision needed to avoid the obstacles is rather unforgiving, like the obstacles at 1:37. Perhaps the most unwelcome enemies are those little fire guys that shoot up then rain down on you. Overall, I dont have a lot to say about this stage, other than I enjoyed it and the music. Once I got to Fire Man, I died a couple times. It took a couple attempts just to get the timing right. Eventually I made it to him and, with full health, got him to about 50% health remaining. So from there I just traded hits with until he was good and dead. Yes! Now I could finally beat Ice Man!

It was around this time it occurred to me that I hadnt yet used a single weapon to my advantage during the entire playthrough, and I was really not doing myself any favors by just using the buster all the time. But hey, at least its a darn cool weapon.

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Ice Mans stage, part II

Well folks, what can I tell you? I died a lot of times simply getting to Ice Man, but far less than I had the previous night. I was climbing those blocks at lightning speed, and probably couldve done so in my sleep. When I first made it to Ice Man, I had one life left. Go my new fire power!!!

WTF? His health bar is barely going down??? I died, and I just had to laugh. I had only ONE robot master left other than Ice Man, and by my amazing powers of deduction, I realized that Elec Mans power was what Id wanted all along.

Soon after that I had a run where I was gifted two extra lives from enemies along the way to Ice Man. I died once on my way to see him but essentially had multiple chances to beat the crap out of that turd. It was the time of destiny - I needed to beat Ice Man!

I died to Ice Man the first time, but I got close to beating him. I realized that my encounter with Fire Man didnt give me the weapon advantage, but it had taught me a good lesson in dodging enemy attacks. So I gave Ice Man another try and, finally, at last, I killed him and his weapon appeared!!!!!!

Then I died. Before I could grab it. Note to self: you can still die from the final attack/projectile an enemy launches. Well, crap.

I had one more life left, but I wasnt afraid of losing. I had the timing down by now. I took two hits on my way to destroying the retched Ice Man and bidding adieu to his dumb, frustrating stage.

And thats the last thing I did when I played Mega Man. It was a happy note to end on, and I hope to possibly beat MM1 the next time I play.

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wallmasterz posted...

I really thought Cut Mans weapon would work best, as in cutting a bomb wire to defuse it or something.

Funny you should mention that. In the PSP remake (Powered Up) they had to shuffle the weaknesses around a bit and that game's Bomb Man is weak to the Rolling Cutter.
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Relevant to one of the worst parts of Mega Man 1:
https://twitter.com/Sora_Sakurai/status/1339404955216560128

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Yeah. Iceman's stage is the hardest by far of 6 robot masters.

There is an item in Elecman's stage that help a lot your visit at Iceman's stage.

MM1 has some slippery movement that trash some otherwise solid level design. Thankfully they fix that up in future games, which are all basically better in every way. 2-11 are all worth playing, with only 4 and 7 being a bit iffy for their own unique problems. I'm also not a fan of 3 simply due to how long it is and how some of the later areas go about their design and pacing, but I'm in the minority there. The X games are mostly not very good to terrible, with the exceptions of 1 and 4 which are probably the best games in the entire MM franchise. Again, I'm in the minority in thinking games like 2 and 3 are kinda bad, but I think most people agree 5-8 are all pretty bad. 8 has some defenders but they are weird.

Hope you enjoy the series on the whole! Classic Mega Man is a magnificent series and some of the most simplistic yet entertaining platforming in the medium. I personally believe the peaks are 5 and 9, with 5 being the point where I feel the mechanics were fleshed out to their best for the time period, and 9 shaving a few mechanics back to provide a much tighter experience with some of the best level design in a 2D platform.

Also people shit on MM8 but it's actually secretly a masterpiece.

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Haven't played 11, but...

4>8>9>2>6>5>1>7>3>10

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So last night I began with the stage of the final robot master left for me to beat... Elec Man.

https://youtu.be/QAFO_f4Kcoo

It starts off with some slightly tricky platforming. It got easier once I paid attention to the timing of the two top-most enemies. Its pretty standard platforming until you get to the screen at 0:40 in the video.

I really took some lumps figuring out the best approach to get past those green guys. This levels vertical orientation, while I found it enjoyable in a way for the varied level design compared to other stages, can make for some frustrating moments - none more so than falling back to nearly the start of the entire level! The best way I found to get past those enemies is to quickly climb up and clear all the enemies on just one side of the ladder by hitting them at their lowest point ASAP.

These disappearing blocks were less frustrating than the ones from Ice Mans stage. It helped that I only had to deal with them a few times!

I actually dont have much else to say about this stage. Its not too unpleasant, but its somewhat repetitive and feels lengthy if you have to go through it two or three times (three for me). I always took the path on the right when it diverged, and the first couple times I took too much damage/lost too many lives on my way to Elec Man. The third time was the charm as I made it to Elec Man with an extra life and when I died, I made it up the boss chamber without taking a hit and I used Cut Mans weapon to let the beat down commence.

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Having attempted Dr. Wilys stage and made it to Yellow Devil, I have to say I think Ill take advantage of the Legacy Collections challenge beat Yellow Devil to practice the fight and get it down. Ill simply go crazy fighting through the level 10 times just to get the pattern down. Its a pretty annoying stage.

I dont watch videos of stages before I clear the stage, and I dont watch boss fights either, so Id like to learn the pattern in a hands on way without taking so long to do it.

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wallmasterz posted...

Having attempted Dr. Wilys stage and made it to Yellow Devil, I have to say I think Ill take advantage of the Legacy Collections challenge beat Yellow Devil to practice the fight and get it down. Ill simply go crazy fighting through the level 10 times just to get the pattern down. Its a pretty annoying stage.

I dont watch videos of stages before I clear the stage, and I dont watch boss fights either, so Id like to learn the pattern in a hands on way without taking so long to do it.

That's a fair way to get some practice in.
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Lolo_Guru posted...

That's a fair way to get some practice in.

Yeah, its not normally my first choice but I cant help but take the opportunity. My wife and I are expecting a baby in less than a month, and I want to finish enjoying these 19 games before the kids first birthday

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If you're playing one of the versions that allows it ("cheating" ahead)

Abuse the hell out of the weapon pause glitch. NES had it as Select, so whatever analogue uses the "pause without bringing up weapon menu" button. Spam pause when a piercing weapon like Rolling Cutter or Elec Beam is out, and it will slowly damage Yellow Devil with one shot. Usually not enough to kill him, but them's the breaks.

Also:

Get used to Yellow Devil's patterns, because he makes reappearances extremely frequently. Most directly, the next time he appears is Mega Man 3, although MM2's block boss is similarish?

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I have zero judgment for those who play how they want to and have fun (unless its something like online play, trying to pass TAS off in non-TAS speedrunning etc.) but Im not going to cheat or abuse a glitch, I want to beat it fair and square.

Last night I made good progress practicing Yellow Devil. By the end, I had made it through a dozen or so of his movements not consecutively, overall without taking a hit. Now, the final hit he fires off is probably the most likely thing to hit me. I didnt beat him but Ill probably continue practicing until I feel that I can consistently win the fight, because I dont feel like doing the stage a bunch of times.

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I have a soft spot in my heart for the original Mega Man

I have had tons of NES games back in the day, mostly thanks to those "100 games in 1" carts.
The thing is, most of those games were trash. Most games were also "Vertically scrolling shooters" types of games like 1942, TwinBee etc which I didn't really like

I also had games I enjoyed more - I played Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Mickey Mousecapade, Road Fighter, Circus Charlie and many other NES classics

But the thing is, nothing quite caught my interest as Mega Man 1. It was a top tier game for me back then, together with Super Mario Bros and Little Samson (underrated gem)
I never played the other games in the series until years later when I got a PC, a working Internet and access to emulation. I actually didn't remember the name of the game, it was only because I tried GBA emulation and played Battle Network is when I thought "hey, isn't this similar to the game I played years ago?" and played the entire series

It was also when I realized that Mega Man X, a game I also enjoyed plenty before because it used to be on a lot of CDs that had demo games on it, was also part of the Mega Man series

Nowadays I pretty much played 95% of the series. Still need to play Command Mission, Network Transmission and some other small scale games like Mega Man and Bass 2 (wonderswan lmao)

I hope you enjoy the series as I did


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Vertical stages don't really get used a whole lot after the first game. Most have vertical segments but I can't think of any immediate levels where it's a focus.

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Nanis23 posted...

Little Samson (underrated gem)

Also created by Akira Kitamura, creator of Mega Man!

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tazzyboyishere posted...

Vertical stages don't really get used a whole lot after the first game. Most have vertical segments but I can't think of any immediate levels where it's a focus.

Only one I can think of is also extremely short, in Mega Man 5

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So I started this morning on Wily 1, and now Im on Wily 4. Ive gotten as far as the Guts Man rematch the last time I tried. I have to say, Im still having trouble with Fire Man and my only winning strategy so far is to just stand still and blast him, losing a huge chunk of health in the progress. Im sure Ill be running this boss gauntlet many times while I learn the final boss fight....

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Protip.

Fireman shoots when you do

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Nanis23 posted...

Little Samson (underrated gem)

I wouldn't call a game that goes for over a thousand dollars loose "underrated" but maybe I have a bad case of Collector Brain

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MrGreenonion posted...

I wouldn't call a game that goes for over a thousand dollars loose "underrated" but maybe I have a bad case of Collector Brain

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Action-52-Nintendo-Entertainment-System-1991-NES-Tested-Works-Authentic-RARE/324409571961

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I must say I find it interesting how you play a game that is meant for one sitting, across multiple days

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Yeah, its certainly not my preference. I recently moved and, as mentioned, have a newborn on the way. I also have a 4 year old and have had other obligations in addition to work, so its slowed me down quite a lot. Not even my weekends are always free to binge a game, unfortunately.

Also, has anyone had their significant other unplug their console (unaware that it was on/not saved) when they were at Wily 4? Ah, its just me then.

I did finish Mega Man 1, and Ill post more thoughts on the Dr. Wily stages later! I also started Mega Man 2 this morning.

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I made it to Wily in MM8, decided to take a break since I had to do some yard work anyway and I turned it off assuming that it saved your place in the final fortress like the playstation MMX games.

Whoops.

I still haven't gone back to try to finish it yet.

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Yeah I think you have to start all the wily stages over in MM8 if you quit during any of them.

lol

This topic has got me wanting to play through some MM games.

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https://youtu.be/_CuDRuHSDr4

So I have to say, Wily 1 is a lot less annoying than I initially thought it was. After clearing the level on my own I learned the strategies of using the Ice weapon on the Big Eye enemies and using the Fire weapon to handle awkward climbing/vertical situations, like at 1:10.

The enemies at 1:35 are easily the most annoying part of this game in my opinion, and the glitchy bit in Ice Mans stage was the only true frustrating part of the experience. They were a little easier to handle here without penguin enemies flying through to muck things up. Not to mention I had the Magnet Beam at my disposal this time!

Yellow Devil was actually a fun fight, and I enjoyed learning it. I didnt use the pause strategy at any point during Mega Man 1, but I did use Elec Mans power, and it sounds utterly unpleasant to tackle Yellow Devil without it. Its not a short fight even with exploiting Yellow Devils weakness. Using the challenge in Legacy Collection to practice this fight was extremely helpful, and once I beat the fight once there, I returned to Wily 1 and made quick work of it.

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https://youtu.be/XR0xd3xXSSE

Wily 2 is the second easiest part of the set of final stages in my opinion, behind Wily 3. The only rough part is getting past the Mega Man clone enemy. Despite me saying this, I took a bad hit from one of the flying green turds in the opening section and fell to my death more than once >_> I have a bad habit of getting too impatient at times, which played out here.

I realized how easy the Cut Man rematch can be if you just hug the right wall and jump at the last possible minute every time he attacks. I was able to beat him without ever really getting hit much.

I used Cut Mans weapon on Elec Man and, again, never had much trouble. The gauntlet is Wily 4 is much less forgiving! Its worth noting there are no checkpoints in Wily 2 until the 1:44 mark in the video which I learned the hard way once when I died just before that point! After that its a long and winding stretch down to the Mega Man clone. Using fire power on the octopus batteries generally made for smooth sailing.

I actually had a few game overs on the Mega Man clone. It can be a tough battle, but my experience in the Cut Man rematch helped a lot. The winning strategy is just to stick to a wall, only jump when you have to, and hope the enemy keeps away and doesnt deliver a crushing blow by jumping on you.

https://youtu.be/sR04EA21e5k

Wily 3 is so short and painless, it was a nice reprieve after taking the time to learn the first two stages. It took me a few tries to beat the boss and I always just half assed my way through, tanking hits if needed because I could. Sorry guys. Normally the drops from enemies in the long hallway before the boss would mostly restore my health anyway.

The first time I got to the boss, I used the blocks and realized too late I shouldve waited. I then had half a health bar, no blocks left to use and a boss starting to move really fast. Whoops. I learned my lesson on that and on my 3rd or 4th attempt, I cleared Wily 3.

So this was yesterday morning. I was stuck on Wily 4 for some time, and since I didnt save at all except for the stage select screen, I hadnt even thought about saving at the start of Wily 4. Unfortunately, I had to start back at Wily 1 due to my PS4 being unplugged. But it was a pretty quick thing getting back to Wily 4 because I could handle everything quite well.

Wily 4... for those of you who have played, you know that it ends with fighting five (FIVE!) bosses with no opportunities for healing in between. Let me tell you, I struggled for a good hour and a half to clear Wily 4. I died a couple times to the green enemies at the very start. When I died even once before getting to the boss rush, I just suicided on the spikes at the beginning to get my full set of lives back. Its all pretty smooth sailing, though, until 2:43.

One of the platforms from Guts Mans stage is back, and its a surprisingly tricky little bit of platforming - more so than it probably appears to someone who hasnt played it. I nailed the jump to the ladder every time at first, but I actually started regressing somehow as I progressed while fighting through the boss gauntlet and learning the Dr. Wily fight. On my winning run of Wily 4 I used the magnet beam to handle it, because I was tired of missing the jump back to the platform. But most of the time I (for some reason) stubbornly jumped without using the magnet beam.

I found this stretch of fights tough, mostly due to Fire Man, who I never stopped sucking at fighting. Ice Man is actually super easy with Elec Mans power, and I got quite a lot better at Bomb Man and Guts Man by the end too. Fire Man is the only robot master fight I never really managed to win decisively. I mustve died about 10 times getting through this gauntlet. Not the easiest for a first time Mega Man player who is a bit rusty when it comes to 8-bit gaming!

As for Dr. Wily, I used Fire Mans weapon during the first phase. Its actually more effective than the weapons used in the video. As for the second phase, its not hard at all once you know to stick directly under the ship. I learned how to win this fight the hard way though, by fighting through the whole stage to get to Dr. Wily about 5 times. Heh.

And with that, Mega Man 1 was beaten! I dont even remember the last time I beat a video game but it had been far too long. Overall impressions of MM1: its a very good game that any fans of 8-bit platformers should check out. Im really glad I started at the beginning, and I found it to be a worthwhile experience. My biggest complaint would be the frustrating/bordering on unfair platforming in Ice Mans stage, but thats really my only gripe. While Im guessing this one will seem a bit archaic after Ive played the other entries, it was a very enjoyable and worthwhile use of time, and I view it as a perfectly good introduction to the series.

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Jakyl25 posted...

I do think the four-boss rush in Wilys Castle is a bit much

I cant totally disagree with this. I think its an appropriately tough set of fights for the final stage in the game, but maybe there couldve been an item to refill your health before the fight with Dr. Wily.

I want to thank everyone who has contributed a comment or opinion so far. Its been very enjoyable for me, and I hope it continues!

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Nice job with MM1! Really liking these write-ups too!

Ready to see how you enjoy MM2! What all do you know about MM2 prior to playing it?

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I know absolutely nothing about Mega Man 2 prior to starting it, other than its reputation as a beloved NES game and one of the best classic Mega Man games/NES platformers.

I did one of the challenges in the Legacy Collection after beating MM1. Its the MM1 Remix, or something to that effect. I got a gold on that as well, making two golds on challenges for me now (I also got it on Yellow Devil). I may continue playing the challenges as I go, and there are 54 total, IIRC. I cant unlock any more MM1 challenges without beating challenges for the later games, so I decided to pump the breaks on that for now.

Current impression of MM2 - who the heck is Quick Man, and why is the deadliest threat in his lair a collection of protruding pirouette cookies

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One game down, 18 from the 30th anniversary bundle to go. Time to keep moving!

Mega Man 2

After enjoying the intro (we get an actual story during the game intro this time), I was prompted to choose between normal and difficult. Yeah, Im going to go ahead and choose normal thanks. I have a feeling itll be difficult enough!

Just as with my decision to move clockwise through the robot masters in MM1, Ive decided to do the same to start MM2 unless I hit a wall or something. I picked Air Man to kick things off.

https://youtu.be/CmNld1_bAfY

This robot masters appearance vaguely reminds me of Poliwrath. Anyway. I chose it blindly, but once I got started this stage seemed like a good first pick. Like Cut Mans in MM1, it featured some easy enemies. The platforming was a bit of a step up, with some jumps making it tricky to avoid getting hit and knocked to my death. I did get a couple game overs while learning this stage, but its not too rough. The trickiest part was the big pink enemies you see starting at 0:20, particularly their horns. The stage as a whole honestly flew by, and I was surprised when I reached the stages robot master.

It doesnt take long to learn the Air Man fight, which I beat on my first try. Some of his patterns are definitely tough to avoid, but hes far less spastic than some of the jumpy/projectile happy MM1 bosses, so he came as a bit of a reprieve.

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wallmasterz posted...

Just as with my decision to move clockwise through the robot masters in MM1, Ive decided to do the same to start MM2 unless I hit a wall or something.

Awww come on! Trying to figure out what weapon might work on another boss is part of the fun! And if your guess is wrong, then it's no different than doing pure random.

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TomNook posted...

Awww come on! Trying to figure out what weapon might work on another boss is part of the fun! And if your guess is wrong, then it's no different than doing pure random.

Alright, alright, youre right. There was definitely a point during MM1 when I thought to myself, why the heck am I not using my weapons more often?? They make life much simpler!

So Ive already cleared 3 stages. The second I finished was...

https://youtu.be/8s_00b0stJU

The stage begins with me saying ah, an extra life Im clearly ill-equipped to get at this point. (?)

So yeah, theres not much to say about this stage other than mentioning the force beams (assuming thats their proper name). They are quite easy to avoid here during this first part. In the room beginning around 0:52, I spent a bit too long running before I tried jumping to progress, but its otherwise an uneventful room. Its only claim to fame is oh, this is the room I have to go through every time I fail that tricky part ahead

note: Shout out to those sunglasses-wearing flames for being the first recurring enemy I noticed

The bit from 1:12-1:42, in which you have to descend through the force beams, is easily the trickiest part of the level. I failed it about a dozen times, and it wasnt for a lack of memorization. It just takes a bit of leaning/falling into your next movement to shave enough time off to survive. For some reason this reminded me of the difficult Clinger Winger segment in Battletoads, although this is not nearly so difficult by comparison.

Youd think you mightve made it to Quick Man by the time you clear this segment, but nope. Instead you have to deal with a couple of annoying enemies. A certain someone gave enemies from the first game mechs. Not cool, Dr. Wily. Anyway, once you get past this final room, its Quick Man time.

Quick Man is a total spaz. I strongly doubted my magical gusts of wind from Air Man would accomplish much, so I just let him have it with the buster cannon. Fortunately, I used my E-tank before the fight, and it allowed me to knock Quick Man out on my first try. His spastic movements coupled with his projectiles make him a bit of a scary robot master to fight, and I had zero desire to drag that one out.

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The third robot master down was Wood Man.

https://youtu.be/3X2PhSn4j3w

This stage might actually be my favorite so far. I really dug the aesthetic, and theres something interesting about robotic rabbits attacking you with... *checks notes* homing carrots

The first part is super easy. The second part with the fire-breathing dogs took me a minute to learn so I could navigate it without losing half my health. Timing the jumps is a bit tricky when they do their longest fire breathing, and the placement of the third enemy in the group makes him quite tricky to dispatch.

The first time you run into the rabbit enemies in this level, theyre easy. The next time, theyre a bit more dangerous as you navigate diagonal corridors. Up next, the combo of bird and monkey enemies are more annoying than dangerous. Its best to proceed with caution because the last checkpoint is before that stretch of the level, and its a decent bit of progress to lose. The last threat before the boss is a group of chicken (I think?) enemies, which made me chuckle. Sorry, youre nowhere near as cool as the nightmare-fuel rabbits with homing carrots you share a level with.

Wood Man himself isnt too tricky. There are projectiles coming straight at you every so often, and then coming down from above you too. But the ones coming downward are pretty easy to avoid, its the swirl of leaves Wood Man shoots horizontally which pose the biggest threat. I was able to beat Wood Man on my first try with full health (I made it to him with more than one life and only a partial health bar).

And with that, boom. Were all caught up to where I am and 3/8 robot masters have been taken out. Oddly, in this game, you cant play the stages youve beaten again once theyre complete, and Wilys stage is visible from the start, but you cant select it. Im left wondering how long this games Wily stages are...

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You should actually read the difficulty modes of MM2 as "easy" and "normal" - difficult mode is equivalent to the other MM games whereas normal basically makes enemies take double damage.

Paratroopa1 posted...

You should actually read the difficulty modes of MM2 as "easy" and "normal" - difficult mode is equivalent to the other MM games whereas normal basically makes enemies take double damage.

Interesting. Maybe I should consider starting over and choosing the more difficult setting, then. I would say the only tough part so far was navigating Quick Mans stage. Any other thoughts on this?

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wallmasterz posted...

Interesting. Maybe I should consider starting over and choosing the more difficult setting, then. I would say the only tough part so far was navigating Quick Mans stage. Any other thoughts on this?

The game is pretty easy either way. I always do Difficult, because Normal feels unnecessarily easy. I don't think you will run into much trouble, especially after having already done MM1.

And there is one particular boss that I think will be amusing to hear your write-up when you play on Difficult, and we'll miss out on this fun if you play on Normal ;).

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