Shadowman16 said:

Yup, MM was released on the Game Gear but its basically a mix of mainly Mega Man 5, with bits of 4 and 2 chucked in for fun:

Really happy I managed to get my copy (shown above). Its a tough game to track down complete. Its a pity that the squashed screen size and blurry GG screen makes it less fun to play compared to the NES games. Plus the bosses move at turbo speed, you can only shoot two shots at once (as opposed to 3) and Napalm Man now deals splash damage with his rockets (making him much harder compared to his appearance in MM5).

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Totally blows my mind. I never knew this existed :0

Good luck to your retrospective, OP. Really looking forward to it.

Sorta related but I finally had a chance to try out Jasco Games' Mega Man Board Game for the first time the other day. As someone who's tinkered with ideas for a MM board game, it's amazing how well it works. It really feels like a labor of love. A bit on the slow and time consuming side. Plus with only Mega Man and the first six robot masters playable, there's just not much to it right now.

Choppasmith said:

Totally blows my mind. I never knew this existed :0

Good luck to your retrospective, OP. Really looking forward to it.

Sorta related but I finally had a chance to try out Jasco Games' Mega Man Board Game for the first time the other day. As someone who's tinkered with ideas for a MM board game, it's amazing how well it works. It really feels like a labor of love. A bit on the slow and time consuming side. Plus with only Mega Man and the first six robot masters playable, there's just not much to it right now.

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Thank you ! Very excited to go though this entire series of amazing games myself .

Going to cover Mega Man X and Mega Man Legends 2 this week, so hope you look forward to that .

My plan for next week is this though:
-Mega Man 2: Monday
-Ratchet Dreadlock (Ratchet Retrospective): Tuesday
-Mega Man X2: Wednesday
-Mega Man 3: Thursday
-Mega Man X3 & Ratchet & Clank Future Tools of Destruction (Ratchet Retrospective): Friday
-Mega Man 4: Saturday

Looking forward to more of this! I just played through Mega Man Xtreme on 3DS and it was a great introduction to the X series.

Confession: I couldn't tell you which Mega Man robot masters are from which game between 3-5. I've only played them a handful of times and it's usually been in succession (Anniversary Collection for example).

Likewise, I have no memory of which Battle Network game is which after 2. Or which Zero game is which.

I just have a bad memory for Mega Man games. I love them, but they run together.

That said, I can tell you all the nooks and crannies of X, MM 2, 6 and The Legend games. Those are the only titles I owned growing up, where as the others I either rented, borrowed, or played later on.

Rapscallion said:

Confession: I couldn't tell you which Mega Man robot masters are from which game between 3-5. I've only played them a handful of times and it's usually been in succession (Anniversary Collection for example).

Likewise, I have no memory of which Battle Network game is which after 2. Or which Zero game is which.

I just have a bad memory for Mega Man games. I love them, but they run together.

That said, I can tell you all the nooks and crannies of X, MM 2, 6 and The Legend games. Those are the only titles I owned growing up, where as the others I either rented, borrowed, or played later on.

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Thank you for the offer ! Going to be covering MMX tomorrow, so if I have any questions about the game, I will PM you .

MM2 is coming next week and Legends 2 I plan on covering this Friday/Saturday (Legends 2 is a massive game and I want to get through at least 60-70% of it before making the retrospective on it).

Getting ready to make the Mega Man X thread and I can't wait to post it tomorrow!

But I will be at college for quite a long while tomorrow, so the threads for both Mega Man X and Ratchet 3/Up Your Arsenal (if you are following my Ratchet Retrospective) might be up late at night.

Hope you all understand !

Love playing MMX; one of my favorite Mega Man games, so can't wait to gush about how awesome the game is with you all tomorrow .

This game is huge and is one of the greatest games ever made, so of course it would be part of this Mega Man Retrospective!

The Mega Man X series pushed the Mega Man IP into the future in a big way in 1993/1994 and is a game many site as one of the strongest games in the entire Mega Man series. So, what makes this game so good?

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We have to cover development history first and this went into development after sales of the NES Mega Man games started going down after Mega Man 3. They were doing well enough, but not nearly as well compared to MM2 and MM3. So, they told the core Mega Man team within Capcom to get to work on getting a new Mega Man ready for the Super Nintendo.

So as cited from the MMX Wikipedia page:

"Lead artist Keiji Inafune (credited as a planner as Inemuryar) recounted that the development of Mega Man X required a lot of brainstorming for its storyline and content where the team's goal was to branch out from original Mega Man games while still maintaining their fundamentals. In the original Mega Man series, Inafune typically designed the protagonist while his protégé Hayato Kaji handled the supporting characters. However, their roles were reversed for Mega Man X. Kaji (credited as Rippa H.K) illustrated the protagonist X, but had a difficult time with the initial design. He was presented with much more freedom than he was accustomed with the SNES's larger palette of colors when compared to the NES. Inafune and Kaji worked simultaneously on the various designs for X with different pieces of armor attached. The idea for the armor parts came about because the game was planned during a time when role-playing video games were becoming extremely popular. Inafune felt that Mega Man had always represented a classic action game formula in which the hero earns his defeated enemies' abilities; the armor parts were added to supplement this concept."

So, what does all of this mean? Well it means that Inafnue had a much larger role in terms of character design for MMX and it lead to Zero being created. Zero was supposed to be MMX, but due to his design being so different (and likely Capcom wanting Mega Man's image to be consistent across the sub-series), pushed for Kaji's MMX design over Inafune's Zero design.



That is very interesting, considering future X games like X4, X6 and X7 when they are really Zero games in disguise, but will get to those when the time comes.

The team that made this game was much larger than MM1, which makes sense considering this beign a new take on the Mega Man IP!
Producer: Tokuro Fujiwara
Designers: Yoshinori Takenaka, Keiji Inafune, Sho Tsuge, Masayoshi Kurokawa
Programmers: Keiji Kubori, Kouichiro Nakamura
Artists: Keiji Inafune, Hayato Kaji, Kazunori Tazaki, Tatsuya Yoshikawa
Writer: Keiji Inafune, Sho Tsuge
Composers: Setsuo Yamamoto, Makoto Tomozawa, Yuki Iwai, Yuko Takehara, Toshihiko Horiyama

Either way, they made a whole new world and setting with MMX, taking place a very long time after the events in the Classic series. Will go over the story details in a bit but the general goal was to make things darker and more mature with the X series. They accomplished this with the MMX series well on the SNES series of games but when we get to the PS1/PS2 titles, it will be interesting to talk about that element there.

So, the game finally came out December 1993 in Japan with NA/EU getting the game a month later in January 1994. It was a critical and sales success, with Capcom comissioning a sequel game to follow MMX and the Classic series still continuing with MM7 a year latter. The Mega Man X Series was born, with more Sub-Series to follow as time went on.

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The story is set in the far future past the time of Mega Man Classic, with the world being composed of humans and robots living in peace. Dr. Cain finds a robot while exploring and using its core design, creates a new type of robot, the Reploids. These robots are living beings, with emotions and have free will. This is unlike the robots and robot masters in Mega Man Classic, where they have to listen to human commands despite showing personality and emotions.



The robot Dr. Cain uses to make the Reploids? Mega Man X of course! Dr. Light makes Mega Man X in old age and makes him to change the world of robotics. He hopes for a world of peace and feels Mega Man X will accomplish this dream. In the original game, we do not see X interact with Dr. Light at all, but in the PSP remake, this is touched upon. Will cover that when we get to Mega Man Maverick Hunter X.

So, what happened to ruin this peace? A virus; the Maverick Virus. The virus causes robots to go wild and have a warped perspective of the world around them, so like the robot masters before them, they attack humans and cause havoc. Sigma, a former commander of the Maverick Hunters gets infected himself after being affected from the Virus by a robot named Zero a very long time ago.



Zero is a partner robot to Mega Man X, using his Z-Saber and his Z-Buster to fight robots. But he isn't a Reploid like others though, but he was made by the evil doctor himself, Dr. Wily. Its heavily implied that he caused the Classic Series to end, but not much is known about the series connections between Classic and X. Zero lost his memory and is a good guy though, so he works with X to take out troubled robots.



So, him and Zero work together to stop a now evil Sigma and take out the Eight Robot Mast....I mean Mavericks on the lose.

Strong set up for future games and the story does go in interesting directions.

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What makes MMX so great, is its gameplay. It is different from the Classic series on many levels thanks to two major abilities; wall jumping/sliding & dashing. These two abilities completely change how level design works with Mega Man and they are so much fun to use.



You can collect heart tanks (which increase you health bar), sub-tanks (which store health energy, think E-Tanks from the Classic series) and armor pieces. Dr. Light has these all over the map and they give you different abilities. The Leg Piece allows you to dash, the Arm Piece allows you to charge special attacks, the Plate Piece gives you more defense and the Head Piece allows you to avoid objects hitting you from above.



Later games make the armor system a bigger deal, with the PS1 X games giving you more armor options.

X can still use powers taken from defeated Mavericks, jump and shoot (with MM3's charge shot also being a move you have from the start) but his dashing ability makes things more 'faster' paced. You can use the dash to get longer jumps, slide up ramps faster and most importantly, dodge foes better. This makes boss fights very fun, but will get to that in a bit.



What makes the game so rewarding though, is that it teaches you how to do everything, but with no messages on the screen. Not the biggest fan of Egoraptor, but his Mega Man X video is a really good example to look at if you want a complete break down why Mega Man X is such a good sequel series to MM Classic.

I recommend you map the Dash to R on the controller though; makes using it far more useful then double tapping dash with the D-Pad or pressing one of the face buttons.

The wall jump is very useful, as it allows you to slide down walls and jump higher & higher if you time you jumps well. This also allows for more vertical level design for te game, which leads to some really large levels for X to fight through.

Stage design itself is really rock solid, as you have a lot of great gimmicks to play with. Flame Mamoth's stage for example has lava at points you have to dodge, Storm Eagle's stage is very focused on tight platforming due to it being in the air, Sting Chameleon's stage has TWO secret secrets to hunt for & introduces the ride armors (suits X can jump into). They are really fun to play through and depending on the order you beat bosses, they change other levels. Defeat Storm Eagle first? Then when you visit Spark Mandrill, you have to deal with his level having power surges that make the light flicker due to power going out from Eagle's ship crashing on his power plant.



Makes replaying the game a joy, as things can change depending on your actions.

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The boss's are a blast to fight through, as they each have unique set-ups. Flame Mammoth for example is a robot that you fight on a convator, with his fire breath having a long range of attack. If you use the Boomerang weapon, you can get his trunk off, making his fire breath have shorter range.

I think one of the best examples of boss fights in the game are the two encounters you have with Vile, a Boba-Fet like character what is against X & Zero. You CAN'T beat him, at all. Every shot you have does no damage, but then, Zero shows up and pushes him off.



But when you face him again, the same thing happens, with you losing to him despite having more health, lots of weapons and as the player, more experience with the game. Then after a fatal blow to a helper, X gets pissed and more or less says "You're done now". Your shots count and you CAN damage Vile now. It is story through gameplay and I love that when games pull it off well.



Sonic did this great with Sonic 3&K, so its great to see the Blue Bomber pull that off well though the strong boss fights.

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Presentation for this game is outstanding, as they have more detailed sprite work, the levels have a lot going on, and the frame rate is lock solid.



The music though, has to be one of my favorites in the Mega Man series. Such a great set of tunes and I can still hum the intro stage to this day.

Intro Stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YROV9Gj7e2g&list=PLB571ACABC3369010&index=1&nohtml5=False
Chill Penguin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uCOIxhjHK4&index=2&list=PLB571ACABC3369010
Spark Mandrill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO1y0gGiO5k&index=3&list=PLB571ACABC3369010
Boomer Kuwanger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo8iCMEzyh0&index=6&list=PLB571ACABC3369010&nohtml5=False
Storm Eagle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngfn5kuymnU&list=PLB571ACABC3369010&index=8&nohtml5=False
Sting Chameleon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0VrczdZvbw&list=PLB571ACABC3369010&index=7&nohtml5=False
Sigma Stage 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRCu3qCUuuE&index=10&list=PLB571ACABC3369010&nohtml5=False
Ending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enH03s3gPk0&list=PLB571ACABC3369010&index=15&nohtml5=False

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Overall, Mega Man X is a fantastic game and one of the series best titles. While it might be too easy compared to later X games and other Classic Mega Man games, it is still one hell of a ride and great way to re-introduce the series to SNES owners of the time period.

The series has a long legacy, with a sequel coming not long after. We will talk about that soon enough though.

Hope you all enjoyed my look at Mega Man X!

Up next is Legends 2 this Friday and after that, we return to the Classic (MM2 & 3) and X (MMX2 & 3) series next week .

Hello everyone.

Happy you guys have been enjoying my Mega Man coverage and I hope you look forward to the Legends 2 thread, which will be up by Sunday the latest (long game, so need more time to play more of it).

But plans have changed for how frequent I make MM threads. I made the MM1 thread on Monday and the MMX thread Wednesday, so will have those be days I make Classic Series (Mon.) and X Series (Wed.) threads.

That way they always pop up on time and I have enough time to make them. Friday is for Ratchet & Clank's Retrospective, which is when the Ratchet 3 thread will go up today. Detailed how that will go down in the Ratchet Retrospective thread (linked too in the OP).

How the Classic and X series are going to work is that every Mon/Wed will have a game in either series covered. When I get to sixth game in each series, going to change-up how I cover the games a bit, as Mega Man and Bass has a strong connection to MMX6, mainly with how both are the worst games in each respective series. Otherwise, it will go in series order.

Hope this works out well and once the entire Classic and X series is covered, will move on to the Zero and Battle Network series, with BN thread appearing on Monday and Zero threads appearing on Wednesday.

Hello everyone, just giving you a heads how on how things are going with the Retrospective.

The Legends 2 Retrospective will be up tonight, as I have enough stuff to work with for the thread & I got most of the way through the game, so I can fairly comment on it. Love the game so far and while the water temple can go die in a fire, the game as a whole is still a great Zelda-like adventure.

Started a new playthrough of Mega Man 2 for the thread on Monday and got through two robot masters (already beat Metal Man a day or so back). The Metal Blade might as well be your mega buster with how powerful and useful it is for both bosses and general foes. Quick Man is the robot master I'm after next and man, the stage is horrible with how fast the lazers come flying at you X(.

Will start a playthrough of MMX2 tomorrow night, and I'm looking forward to that one . Haven't played it in quite a long time.

So, that is the progress so far with the next three MM threads . I might decide to cover Battle Network on Sunday next week but going to think about that first; they ARE RPG games and those take a while to get through.

Have a great weekend everyone and lets keep on rocking!

Mega Man GAF, is the Legacy Collection on PS4 worth it? I heard it was low tier compared to other MM collections.

RX-78-2 said:

Mega Man GAF, is the Legacy Collection on PS4 worth it? I heard it was low tier compared to other MM collections.

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I heard mixed things about the quality of the ports/emulation (don't own a PS4, so never got the collection). But I think looking on YouTube for impressions/reviews on the PS4 version is a good idea.

It has a cool boss-rush mode and the game also has the soundtracks of the games included as well (part of the games soundtest option I think). Do some research and see if it sounds good enough for you .

This retrospective, part of the Mega Man Retrospective, took a lot longer to make then I anticipated. Between trying to get through a lot of the game and ensuring I experienced a majority of the game, I feel bad I made you all wait a good extra week then I originally promised. This is a little preface, as I will ensure this does not happen again with future Retrospectives.

Now that is out of the way, Legends 2! Following the success of Legends 1 and a spin-off game Misadventures of Tron Bonne, the studio behind Mega Man Legends returns with another 3D adventure for the Blue Bomber.

This is a great sequel that fixes a lot of the little issues many had with Legends 1. A proper lock-on feature, better controls/camera system, dungeons having unique visual designs and gimmicks and a story hoping across a wide selection of locations. Legends 2 feels like a world adventure and does this make it the better game than Legends 1?



The game has some history and here is what I found on Wikipedia regarding this:

"The demo, titled Rockman Dash 2 - Episode 1: Roll's Critical Moment (ロックマンＤＡＳＨ２ エピソード１ ロールちゃん危機一髪！ Rokkuman DASH 2 Episōdo 1 Rōruchan Kiki Ippatsu?), features an independent story in which Tron has kidnapped Roll and Mega Man sets to rescue her. It was only included in the Japanese version of the game and the PlayStation Portable port of the game. The game was released for the PlayStation in April 2000 in Japan, as a regular release and another one under the label of "PlayStation the Best". It was later released in October 2000 in North America and in August 2001 in Europe] Unchanged Japanese ports of the game were also released for the PC in July 2001. In September 2005, Capcom ported the game to the PlayStation Portable but it was only published in Japan.[43] Like the preceding game, the music was composed by Makoto Tomozawa with the ending theme used in the Japanese version being Hara Fumina's "Naite Ii Yo" (泣いていいよ?, lit. "It's All Right to Cry"). In October 2009, Capcom released Capcom Special Selection Rockman Dash 2 (CAPCOM SPECIAL SELECTION ロックマンDASH2?), which is composed of a soundtrack including 17 tracks from the game and an artbook. The artbook also shows characters which were not featured in the game with all of them sharing the name of Mega Man like Mega Man Volnutt and Mega Man Juno."

So the game got a great intro demo for Japanese players and NA/EU gamers got a lengthy demo covering some early sections of the final game. When the game released in 2000, it got high scores and everyone loved it, but sales wise, it didn't like the world on fire. This lead to the Legends series hibernating for quite a while, with PSP ports of Legends 1 & 2 coming out in Japan (with the PSP version of Legends 2 fixing something I will be touching on when I get to the gameplay).

The entire Legends series would later release on North American PlayStation Network, with Legends 2 being the latest release early this month. Made an entire Topic for it on NeoGaf after all .



The story of the game is that Rock Volnut (Mega Man's official name in this sub-series), Roll and Data relaxing on the Flutter, while Barrel (Rock and Roll's father) is on a giant flying craft with an old partner. Both discuss plans on exploring a place called 'The Forbidden Island' with the Bonnes & Glide sneaking in on the ship as reporters.



The craft gets sucked into the Island, pushing Rock, Roll and Data to visit the island themselves, but they first land on as snow covered island to try and make a machine to penetrate the harsh climate of the Forbidden Island. The story gets more crazy when Rock finally lands on the Forbidden Island and accidentally frees two beings called Accents. After all of this happens, Rock is tasked to find three keys that will allow the Mother Lode to be unlocked.



If that sounds like a fun adventure, its because it IS one! The writing is as great as past Legends titles and the core story for the characters is quite strong. Morality comes into play to a points, with Rock's actions while not affecting the core story, effecting little things in interesting ways.

Overall, I really liked this story and the strong characters of Legends 1 come back in full force here.



The core gameplay is a major face-lift from the original Legends. Core design is the same, with Rock finding various weapon parts that Roll converts into tools he can use to explore new locations and every main area has a hub to explore. But the gameplay is where a lot changed. The lock-on work like Zelda, with it allowing you to move around when attacking instead of being locked in place. In addition, the game supports full analog control allowing you to look around and have greater control on Rock's movement.



Really enjoy the combat now, as thanks to these improved controls, fire fights are streamlined and feel quite rewarding. If anything, I would not be surprised if Insomniac took Legends 2 to heart when designing the combat system for Ratchet & Clank 2, as the controls mirror how Ratchet works when you hold down the strafing button.



But, what about the dungeons? If the gameplay takes notes from 3D Zelda, so should they? Well, they DO and it leads to some interesting results. The core design of each dungeon is different, with them having unique themes, gimmicks and core design elements. The Forest Dungeon for example focuses on Rock climbing up to a higher floor and repeatedly taking on another Digger.



......Then we get to the water dungeon. I hate this. I hate this. I HATE this place. You want to know why? Because it takes forever to get anywhere. This place is the reason this retrospective too so long to write, because I spent five hours backtracking to get the drill arm, grinding zenny and getting lost for a good three hours trying to find the second water key. The design is fine, with a lot of floors to explore and its nice it has a lot of hidden goodies to find if you explore but when you are underwater, Rock moves like a tank and is really slow. And when the game asks you to do some platforming? Good luck with that.



I'm making it sound like its the worst thing in the world, but it really isn't. If you take your time and come prepared, it should only take 2 hours at most to get through everything here. But it is a major flaw to Legends 2. Thankfully, the JP PSP remake of Legends 2 fixed this by making Rock faster when underwater, so it takes less time to get through the place.

The other dungeons are a lot better and the final one in particular is a lot of fun. Overall, outside of one sour dungeon, the rest are a lot of fun.



The game also introduces a lot of 'prologue' portions before you complete dungeons, with you either helping a town, saving some brothers sister from a pirate, and defending a flying base from being destroyed. It makes this world quite huge and makes the game feel longer, and that is always a good thing if done well.





The presentation here is a big step up from Legends 1, and that game looked great on the PlayStation 1. Here, the character models are more detailed, the music is more catchy and the dungeons have striking designs. Not to mention the cut-scenes got a big step up too, with better animation, more movement and them feeling 'grander'.



The music is something I want to highlight too, as I really like a lot of the tracks in the game.

Calinca Tundra - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2Lw...A19208DDBE0C8F
Calinca Tundra Reverbots - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhux...A19208DDBE0C8F
Abandoned mine (Calinca Island) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU2h...A19208DDBE0C8F
Abandoned mine (Calinca Island) Boss Fight - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7-D...E0C8F&index=11
The Flutter - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSI7...BE0C8F&index=2
Fire in the Flutter - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_8u...A19208DDBE0C8F
Train Battle 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uler...A19208DDBE0C8F
Saul Kial Ruins - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-bhaEs_tCY&index=13&list=PLFuN7I79hDh0AIcuMO8efpMh8iKRZTzeA
Tiesel's Blitzkrieg - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAhilrZ0tUY&index=15&list=PLFuN7I79hDh0AIcuMO8efpMh8iKRZTzeA
Reaverbot Boss - Wolfon - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsf0gEyahBA&list=PLFuN7I79hDh0AIcuMO8efpMh8iKRZTzeA&index=16
Glyde's Base - Area 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH9R9VPw5F4&index=18&list=PLFuN7I79hDh0AIcuMO8efpMh8iKRZTzeA



Just want to cover one final thing before concluding; controls and difficulty settings.

Control:
Special Controls - PlayStation 3/PlayStation TV/Vita TV
Analog Stick - Walking/Running
Right Stick - Strafe Left/Right
X - Jump (Left/Right + X = Dodge Roll)
[] - Shoot
Triangle - Special Weapon
O - Interact/Pick Up
R2 - Lock-On

Special Controls - PlayStation Vita
Rear Touch Pad (Top Right) - Lock-On
Right Stick - Strafe Left/Right
X - Jump (Left/Right + X = Dodge Roll)
[] - Shoot
/\ - Special Weapon
O - Interact/Pick Up

Special Controls - PlayStation Portable
L & R - Strafe Left & Right
D-Pad - Moving around
Analog Stick (Different Directions) Lock-On
X - Jump (Left/Right + X = Dodge Roll)
[] - Shoot
/\ - Special Weapon
O - Interact/Pick Up

Difficulty: You can complete a diggers test later in the game and you have two classes to unlock; A and S. Both unlock access to one of two extra dungeons to complete, which house items that can be converted into powerful weapons. But the game gets harder, with A being 'Hard' and S being 'Super Hard'. If you do NOT want your game getting more challenging, ignore this or make a new save to try the difficulty out.



Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Legends 2. It is a great Zelda-like experience and its clear that the team making the Legends games got better from what they learned with Legends 1. Rock may be on the moon, but he got new life from newer generations playing the Legends series thanks to their North American PlayStation Network releases, like myself. I never played the Legends series before until recently, so I have the PSN releases to thank for me covering Legends in this Mega Man Retrospective!

Lets keep on exploring and one day, we will get Rock off the Moon.....

Hello everyone.

Considering how similar the classic series games are to one another, plan on putting together Mega Man 2 & 3, Mega Man 4 & 5 and Mega Man 9 & 10 for unique threads for each pair of games. Figure it will make the retrospective go faster and will ensure things get covered at a more constant clip. Going to do this with the X series as well, as Mega Man X2 will be covered alongside X3 while X7 & X8 will share a Retrospective considering how different each game is.

If you read my Sonic 4 Episode I & II and SEGA All Stars thread, they will function like those threads.

Hope you guys are cool with this move and lets enjoy the Mega Man 2 & 3 thread tomorrow!

Have a great night and lets have fun with the threads for Mega Man 2 & 3 tomorrow, Mega Man X2 & X3 on Wednesday and Battle Network on Sunday!

The next two games in the Mega Man Retrospective are some of the most important games in the Mega Man series. They continued refining the very strong base Mega Man 1 created and it was a labor of love by the developers.

These two games are both fantastic and they were a treat revisit again.



Mega Man's 2 development was very rocky, with the game more or less being a side project for the Mega Man 1 staff. The original Mega Man wasn't the hit Capcom was expecting, so they pushed for the team to make other, more profitable games instead.

This lead to Mega Man 2 being a passion project by the staff of Mega Man 1 while they were working on various other games. What were some of those games? Why of course, the NES Classics Ducktails, Ducktails 2 and Chip N' Dale Rescue Rangers.



Mega Man 2 finally released and it was a massive success. EVERYONE loved the game and got universal praise. So, Capcom gave the team a bigger budget for the sequel, Mega Man 3, but the team got a lot of new hires. This lead to it being one of the hardest games for the team to produce, as they had to rush the game for the holidays, staff having issue understanding how to make a Mega Man game and the game not being optimized enough.

It released and it got great reception, leading to Mega Man becoming a pillar franchise for Capcom. And it lead to three more sequels being commissioned for the NES for the next few years.



So, one must be asking, "Why did you lump MM2 and MM3 together for one Retrospective? MM1 and MMX didn't get that...."

I'm doing that because while the games got new mechanics and more features as time went on, the base was very much the same. Iconic run-and-jump action across 8 stages in both MM2 and MM3, a Wily Fortress to take down and level design that pushes for challenge but also is fair with the level teaching you how to play as you play it with very careful and intelligent level design.



But gameplay wise, both Mega Man 2 and 3 are similar, but with some key differences.



Mega Man 2 in many ways, is prototype Mega Man 3. I say that, as a lot of its core elements carry over into Mega Man 3. Mega Man gets three items from Dr. Light after clearing 2 Robot Masters, which unlocks new abilities. Item 2 for example creates a flying platform Rock can ride on while Item 3 allows you to throw a spider-like platform that climbs up walls for you to hop on.



They later evolve into this trusty robotic dog; Rush!



He is a major character for the classic series and the items Mega Man gets are passed down to Rush in Mega Man 3, and work even better hear. Rush Jet for example is ALOT better than Item 2.

Mega Man also learns the ability to slide on the ground by pressing down + jump (or O in the Rockman PS1 version of MM3, which is what I played on my Vita for this Retrospective). This is allows Mega Man to dodge attacks, slide under foes and even slide under platforms. Very helpful move that carries over into latter games.



Mega Man continues to jump and shoot, with tighter controls and even better Robot Master items. The Leaf Shield defending against some attacks, the Metal Blade being amazingly over-powered with a ton of ammo, the Time Stopper that freezes everything in place, the Stealth Snake that allows you to attack foes by little snakes crawling on the ground, the Magnet Missile homing in on foes; amazing line up of weapons in both games that are a blast to use.



Level designs in both games show a lot of growth from Mega Man 1 too, but with such a strong base, you can only get better and better as you build off that. More challenge is presented with the level design in terms of vanishing blocks, smart placement of foes and some really hard but rewarding platforming sections. Mega Man 2's Flash Man's stage and Mega Man 3's Snake Man stage come to mind.



Boss fights are great in each game too, but Mega Man 3 goes a step further; the robot masters are brought back with beings called Doc Robots. These guys you fight in slightly harder stages you already visited (four of them) and you fight them twice with NO check points. So, you have to carefully attack these things. But what makes them 'interesting' is that they are more or less re-purposed MM2 Robot Masters; same attacks and patterns but with a larger hit box (which can be annoying to fight with).



These fights are okay enough, but they feel like padding in the worst possible way. Mega Man 3 also introduces a new character for Mega Man; Protoman or as he is called in Japan, Blues.



He is Rock's brother that Dr. Light built before Mega Man and he has a powerful Mega Buster and a large shield. He is playable in latter games but he is more or less a foe you fight here in-between stages. His fights aren't too hard but they can be annoying if you run into him with low health.

So, both Mega Man 2 and 3 improve on the core gameplay in Mega Man 1 in a lot of great ways. Nice to see sequels further improving upon gold you struck day one.



Presentation in both games is very impressive, with bolder color and more level detail compared to Mega Man 1. But Mega Man 3 suffers from its rushed state; sprite flickering is common and slowdown can be frequent. The version I played (PS1 JP version) ran well though and I only saw the sprite flickering; no slowdown.




Musically, both games are outstanding. They are some of the best soundtracks of the entire Classic series (with Mega Man 6, 7, and 9 coming close).

Mega Man 2 Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpnTmirnEIk&list=PL8B78DBAB74CE66CD&index=2
Mega Man 2 Metal Man - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8nsmQ4Qc5I&index=6&list=PL8B78DBAB74CE66CD
Mega Man 2 Air Man - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygqCSVboG10&list=PL8B78DBAB74CE66CD&index=7
Mega Man 2 Bubble Man - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JY3xFNcg_g&list=PL8B78DBAB74CE66CD&index=8
Mega Man 2 Heat Man - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JcYIfF0bnU&index=12&list=PL8B78DBAB74CE66CD
Wily Castle 1 (MM2) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as_ct9tgkZA&list=PL8B78DBAB74CE66CD&index=17
MM 2 Boss Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdoJ5Bcnbh8&index=20&list=PL8B78DBAB74CE66CD
Mega Man 3 Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2kTeh7FNl0&list=PL5B01BDBBF4783C7A
Mega Man 3 Stage Select - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xix6u4HyGPo&list=PL5B01BDBBF4783C7A&index=2
Protoman/Blues Whistle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt4UpLez4Fc&list=PL5B01BDBBF4783C7A&index=3
Mega Man 3 Gemini Man - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2LF3YR2dNM&list=PL5B01BDBBF4783C7A&index=4
Mega Man 3 Snake Man - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqGLXispP08&list=PL5B01BDBBF4783C7A&index=9
Mega Man 3 Top Man - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dgtHw-uAxY&list=PL5B01BDBBF4783C7A&index=11
Wily Fortress 1 (MM3) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfOE4rJnYYc&list=PL5B01BDBBF4783C7A&index=18
Wily Fortess 2 (MM3) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC0EWRZE3Dw&index=19&list=PL5B01BDBBF4783C7A
Protoman/Blues Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIDkiPAqhhk&index=23&list=PL5B01BDBBF4783C7A
MM 3 Ending Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSmanKQ8d0s&index=24&list=PL5B01BDBBF4783C7A



Overall, both of these games are outstanding action/platformers of the 8-Bit era. They are hard, challenging, but fun & rewarding. I had a blast going through both games for this Retrospective and I hope that if you never played these games, this Retrospective gives you a 'push' to give them a shot!

You can play them on anything really; 3DS E-Shop, PS2/GC/Xbox, PS4/X1/3DS via Legacy Collection, Vita & PSP via PS1 JP Classics (on both NA & EU PSN Store Fronts), and Nintendo Wii/Wii U via VC.

Lets get rocking!

I think you should cover the real Megaman 9 first before covering the fake retreads. for one thing, the real Megaman 9 came out before them.

Cow Mengde said:

I think you should cover the real Megaman 9 first before covering the fake retreads. for one thing, the real Megaman 9 came out before them.

Click to expand...

Um, what are you talking about? After Mega Man 8, we stopped getting mainline classic games (outside of MM & Bass) for a number of years, with 2009 getting MM9. If you are talking about Fan Games, I will be covering a few of them once more games are covered in each respective sub-series.

These two games are part of the Mega Man Retrospective, following the success of the outstanding Mega Man X. Mega Man X is one of the rare times in gaming where it is really close or is perfect, so it has to be hard to top such a great game.

The interesting thing about both X2 and X3, is that both do some really great things with the X gameplay style and introduce some really fun ideas, but execution of said ideas can be problematic. These are a set of great games but both have unique issues holding them back from being as good as Mega Man X.

Covering Both Games at Once:
Mega Man X2 and X3 will be covered via same thread, similarly like Mega Man 2 & 3’s Retrospective. I am doing that, as both of these games offer great compare/contrast opportunities. So how it is going to work is that I will be covering both games in unique sections, so it gives each game proper attention and respect.



Hope you all enjoy this and let’s get rocking!



This follows the events of Mega Man X1, with six months passing after Sigma’s defeat and Zero’s death. A new set of foes pop up, called the X-Hunters, with the main goal being to resurrect Sigma and defeat X once and for all. They also have plans to put back together Zero and have four of his parts. So as X, you are tasked with defeating 8 Mavericks all the while keeping an eye for the X-Hunters to find the parts of your friend.

The story here is a good excuse to shoot up some robots and earn new armor parts, get new weapons and so on. Before I touch on the bosses, which I have a lot to talk about there, lets go to the gameplay and level design first.

Gameplay is the same as X1, with X dashing, jumping, wall clinging/jumping and shooting. But you also get a great ability called the Air Dash after you collect the Leg Armor, and this really makes things interesting.



Mega Man has momentum, and using the Air Dash is very useful in keeping this. Mega Man X3 further improves on this but will touch on that when I cover that game in the next section. The level design is also more focused on playing with X’s wall jumping and sliding ability. One big example is Bubble Crab’s stage, where to get a heart tank, you have to carefully time your wall jumps underwater to cling to hovering platforms in the air.



I love level design like this and it pushes you to play around and look for secrets. Speaking of secrets, the weapons you earn are really fun to use and when you get X’s Arm Cannon Armor, you can play with some really fun charging abilities. The fire weapon’s charged stage is a blast to use for example and very useful with collecting items.



Stage design is also more dynamic compared to X1, with some stages having major set pieces. One example being Overdrive Ostridge, with his stage having a big focus on the new motor-bike (which can dash, shoot and jump….hard to control though) and when you reach the boss gate, you hop on a rocket, shoot the ship you are riding on, it explodes and you land in a large desert with Overdrive running into the background, and popping back into the screen. One of my personal favorite stages in the game.



The boss fights themselves against the Mavericks are good too, with them having fun patterns to figure out and they are very manageable to deal with you understand the weakness order. Overall, it sounds like I had a great time playing this game and love it as much as MMX, right?



Well, I have one major problem; The X-Hunter Fights. They are cheap, aggravating, frustrating, annoying……..hate these fights. They are very unfair and can really drain your health if you are struggling, like I was. So, one must think “Oh, these are super hard because you get a reward for beating them, right?”

Nope, all you get is avoiding one fight against Zero before you fight Sigma in the Castle Stage. How rewarding to tear your hair and throw your controller against the wall, only for the game to just say “You saved your best friend, good job! Why are you still here? You can move on to Sigma now, go now”. Like I said about the Air Dash though, this element is improved upon in X3 greatly.



X2 also has the Castle Stages and they are quite hard, with one interesting thing being the X-Hunters. You fight them at the end of each level and like in the main levels, they are very, very hard. Thankfully, they have weapon weakness like the main Mavericks, so they aren’t impossible to take out.

X2 also has something special; the very first X vs. Zero fight in the entire series. It is amazing, considering the history behind X and Zero's creation (Light vs. Wily). This happens in a future game, and its just as fun as it is here.

The good thing about X2 is that you can avoid the X-Hunter Fights and play the game normally. And then, you get a really fun action/platformer that while annoying at points, is still a great time.



X3 take what X2 did but adds a few more things to the mix. Remember how I talked the Air Dash and the X-Hunter Fights? They are brought back, but done in interesting ways. The Air Dash can be used upwards too (in addition to right/left in the air) and you get it earlier in the game (Ice Stage). The X-Hunter fights come back too, but done differently. You have three guys to take out; Bit, Byte and a resurrected Vile. Each one is found across the stages, with Bit & Byte forced on you mid-level. They aren’t impossible to take out and Bit is weak against the Ice weapon, so makes sure to beat that Maverick first before moving on. Vile is found at different parts in the levels (via teleporter) and its best to fight him when you are close to beating all the Mavericks.



The games big gimmicks though are the inclusion of Zero being playable and Ride Armors being summoned via pads after you find special chips in the different stages. These are awesome additions, but they present annoying issues that make them worthless.



Zero can’t be used during bosses and cannot collect important items for X, meaning every time you play as him, it’s only to get through the level as fast as possible. This makes him completely worthless to play as due to the fact you might be missing out on important armor parts, heart/sub tanks and other items for X to collect. And you need them, as your defense is FAR lower compared to X1 and X2. The worst part is that you don’t get armor upgrades until very late in the game (if you go in weakness order).

The Ride Armors cannot be used until you find the very first one in the Wasp Maverick’s Stage, and his stage is not a great place to start the game. Overall, it sounds like I dislike X3 a lot, but despite these issues, it still is a good game.



The air dash rocks like it did in X2 and the level design is solid. I also like how if you go in weakness order, you get two sub-tanks very early in the game (making harder fights and damage in general being less rough). The boss fights are very hard and if you do not go in weakness order, they can be very hard to deal with.



I tried playing them on non-weakness order at first and died many, many times. But I had fun fighting them, as they were great fights. Weakness order is recommended though. The Castle stages are great to and this brings me one point I really like; if you take out Bit, Byte and Vile using their weakness, you do not fight them here.

Instead, you fight new bosses and some of the level design changes completely (mainly in Castle Stage 2, with it looking newer compared to it being in shambles if you let Vile live). I love this idea, as it makes replaying this place more enjoyable if you decide to not kill the sub-bosses without their weaknesses.

Overall, really enjoy X3 despite some small issues annoying me a bit.

Presentation:
Both games continue the great look and soundtrack of X1, with stages having bright colors and really interesting effects. X3 should be noted, as it used advanced tech for the SNES to have wire-frame models at various points in the game (weapon get screen, one of the bosses, ect). X3 also got a PS1 port in Japan and Europe, leading it having a different soundtrack and anime intros for every Maverick encounter. Overall, presentation for X2 and X3 is great.

X2 and X3 also were the first times Capcom's Cx4 chip was used for a SNES Cart. Remember the wire-frame models I mentioned in X3? That was possible thanks to the Chip.

Here is the link to the PS1/X Collection version of X3's cut-scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfHPZexnpfo&list=PL5A7C4F746080930F

Soundtracks for each game is less consistently amazing like X1’s but still rocks hard with some great tunes. The intro stages in each game and Zero’s theme in X3 are a delight to listen too.

MMX2 Into Stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUok5GFpRds&index=3&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8EVuf3OAOfQF-5PlYuBvtUs
Zero's Theme (MMX3): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO6sZmTbeuA&list=PL33EB3FCAD02650BA&index=30
Wire Sponge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbTL4iPunsw&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8EVuf3OAOfQF-5PlYuBvtUs&index=7
Bubble Crab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivJE61heDJE&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8EVuf3OAOfQF-5PlYuBvtUs&index=9
Flame Stag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqLsqb2n3Cg&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8EVuf3OAOfQF-5PlYuBvtUs&index=10
Overdrive Ostritch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTJ_aKkBmVQ&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8EVuf3OAOfQF-5PlYuBvtUs&index=14
Absolute Zero: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvsJ6A9uZXE&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8EVuf3OAOfQF-5PlYuBvtUs&index=22
Zero's Rebirth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ1NjQScy8E&index=27&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8EVuf3OAOfQF-5PlYuBvtUs
Judgement Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG8a6qi3TrY&index=29&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8EVuf3OAOfQF-5PlYuBvtUs
MMX3 Intro Stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQYQfDylKYM&index=5&list=PL33EB3FCAD02650BA
Volt Catfish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHllgCwUnN8&index=8&list=PL33EB3FCAD02650BA
Tunnel Rhino: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou_BEbpnOO0&index=9&list=PL33EB3FCAD02650BA
Toxic Seahorse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjGPMTcD-O4&index=10&list=PL33EB3FCAD02650BA
Gravity Beetle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsucgB8832w&index=12&list=PL33EB3FCAD02650BA
Dr. Doppler Stage 01: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m50ZidEsgY&index=20&list=PL33EB3FCAD02650BA
Simga Battle 1 (MMX3): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yRTcTWpx4E&index=25&list=PL33EB3FCAD02650BA

The PlayStation version of X3 got its own soundtrack, so will link to a few tracks from that version here.



Intro Stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Am1XppfNos&list=PL5FC0CB98B5C6676C&index=2
Zero's Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U4DmFNuA4M&index=3&list=PL5FC0CB98B5C6676C
Blizzard Buffalo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqMtZoy89ps&list=PL5FC0CB98B5C6676C&index=5
Tunnel Rhino: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG1zD_ys18s&index=7&list=PL5FC0CB98B5C6676C
Doppler Stage 1 & 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCMMfVtoUJ0&index=13&list=PL5FC0CB98B5C6676C
Vs. Vile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YsvRrjBGLI&index=17&list=PL5FC0CB98B5C6676C

Overall:
I enjoyed my time with both games quite a bit, with each game doing something interesting and in X3’s case, taking what X2 did and further expanding on it with new mechanics, ideas and concepts. Both are flawed, but they are still very enjoyable games in the Mega Man X series.



The X series continued in a great way and it was great seeing the series maintain the high quality X1 established. But, what follows these two games? Why, one of my personal favorite of the X series; Mega Man X4. Can’t wait to cover this and hope you all look forward to it.

RK128 said:

Um, what are you talking about? After Mega Man 8, we stopped getting mainline classic games (outside of MM & Bass) for a number of years, with 2009 getting MM9. If you are talking about Fan Games, I will be covering a few of them once more games are covered in each respective sub-series.

Click to expand...

Megaman and Bass is Megaman 9 IMO. Even though it wasn't numbered, it came after 8 and was a traditional Megaman.

Cow Mengde said:

Megaman and Bass is Megaman 9 IMO. Even though it wasn't numbered, it came after 8 and was a traditional Megaman.

Click to expand...

Ah, okay . That IS in the OP so I plan on covering it . Sorry for my confusion man .

I loved the soundtrack to X3 (Snes), so many excellent themes included.

The Saturn/PC/PSX version wasn't as good in my opinion, the soundtrack lacked the same edge that the Snes tracks had. The Snes stuff was more rock in sound, while the ports had a more techno sound to them.

I did quite like the animated scenes in the X3 ports though, they looked pretty cool for the time. Gotta love the hilarious spelling mistake though - Bilzzard Buffalo! (instead of Blizzard). Still cracks me up thinking about it.

Shadowman16 said:

I loved the soundtrack to X3 (Snes), so many excellent themes included.

The Saturn/PC/PSX version wasn't as good in my opinion, the soundtrack lacked the same edge that the Snes tracks had. The Snes stuff was more rock in sound, while the ports had a more techno sound to them.

I did quite like the animated scenes in the X3 ports though, they looked pretty cool for the time. Gotta love the hilarious spelling mistake though - Bilzzard Buffalo! (instead of Blizzard). Still cracks me up thinking about it.

Click to expand...

Poor translation is poor translation XD. The SNES version of X3 has some really great tracks (Zero's Theme and the Intro Stage are amazing).

RK128 said:

Ah, okay . That IS in the OP so I plan on covering it . Sorry for my confusion man .

Click to expand...

I know. I'm so used to calling it MM9 for so many years.

The title says it all.....completely taken by surprise at how much I am enjoying the game right now. I never played any Battle Network game outside of Network Transition (though that is more or less a Classic Mega Man game wrapped within some of Battle Network's core Mechanics).

But, man, I'm impressed. Honestly impressed, as they take Mega Man and faithfully convert it into a Role Playing Game. Love how the combat system works, with MM.exe being able to move around on a grid (rapidly) with the D-Pad while B is for your Mega Buster and A is for your Chips.

The Chip system is such a good risk/reward set up so far (first half hour) as you can use the ones you get right away, or you can wait it out until you find the ones you really want. Love this system and it makes using the Mega Buster all the more important. And its powerful too! Move around all over the place and your shots become faster and faster.

The music in the game rocks too, with the main theme and battle theme being great.

Exploring the net as Mega Man is cool too and the hub settings/characters remind me of Mega Man Legends.

Really like this game so far and can't wait to dive into more of the game !

You have a lot to look forward to then, since the original Mega Man Battle Network is considered to be the unpolished predecessor to the actually good Battle Network games. The next two games in the series are going to be even better. You're just getting started; you haven't yet seen close to what the Battle Network games have to offer (or what challenges they will throw out you, either).

SkyOdin said:

You have a lot to look forward to then, since the original Mega Man Battle Network is considered to be the unpolished predecessor to the actually good Battle Network games. The next two games in the series are going to be even better. You're just getting started; you haven't yet seen close to what the Battle Network games have to offer (or what challenges they will throw out you, either).

Click to expand...

*Looks at my OP and sees the amount of BN games*

Man, if I really dig the series, its going to be fun covering them .

My plan with the Battle Network games coverage wise is this though; considering they are long RPG's, going to give them much longer gaps compared to the Classic/X Series. Meaning, they will be covered every two weeks.

So, after I cover BN1 this Sunday, will cover MM Zero the following week, with BN2 being covered the next week. Gives me plenty of time to get through each BN game(s) with little rush or issue .

I was genuinely surprised at the BN games. I'm not the biggest RPG fan but I love the series on the whole (random encounter rate is a little high though). The battles work well as do the boss fights and the secrets in each game make them incredibly addictive... The original can be pretty hard to 100% in a couple of spots - I got real bored trying to get the last Shadow Man chip I needed since it would take me forever to get in a random battle against him... So glad they came up with the instant rechallenge item for all other BN titles to make it way easier (and more importantly quicker) to refight bosses to get get their rare chips.

I loved BN1-3 and 5, but I never did finish 4 yet, the battles felt like they took forever to finish, not to mention the random encounter rate was absolutely broken, I couldn't go 3 steps without another slow fight interrupting everything. Its a real pity that I never could take to the game, as Shade Man is so awesome in the game.

Hello everyone .

The next week or so, no more new Retrospectives for anything (Mega Man, Ratchet, Spyro) and the reason is......I need more time to cover each game fairly. 2D MM isn't hard to get through but RPG Mega Man (Battle Network) alongside wanting to give greater attention to MMX4 and MM4&5, I'm letting my self not rush through things.

I might be posting the Ratchet Dreadlocked thread this Sunday (replacing plans for posting Battle Network's Retrospective) but otherwise, taking a break for a week or so.

Need time to focus on other stuff, need more time to get through a few games (never played Battle Network, MM5, and Zero, the upcoming game's I'm covering before) and just want to let myself take a break for a bit.

Jumped right into Mega Man after my Sonic Retrospective concluded, so taking a week to just recharge and what not is a good idea .

Hope you all understand and have a great night!

This means when I get back, the games I plan on covering includes the following:
-Sunday: MM Zero
-Monday: Mega Man 4&5
-Wednesday: MMX4
-Thursday: Spyro 2 - Rypto's Rage/Gateway to Glimmer
-Friday: Ratchet Dreadlocked/Future Tools of Destruction
-Sunday: MM Battle Network (or it might be covered on Tuesday)

Take your time with Battle Network. It can be a bit grindy so if you go too quick you may dislike it. There's also some pretty tough boss battles in the game that can definitely slow your progress...

Looking forward to the Zero retrospective too. Love that game.

Yeah take your time, no need to rush if you´re enjoying the games (MMBN can be a great timesink if it traps you).

I´m replaying some classic MegaMan games for a personal project and will be playing MM9 this week, so if you want to share notes or whatever let me know

Played this for a good two hours at this point and really enjoy the game so far. The story is an interesting take on the 'Rock vs. Robot Masters!' concept that was in the classic series, with MM.exe going up against 'evil' Navi's that are trying to corrupt the net.

The best way I can describe the game, is MM Legends art style, character focus & upgrade system + MM Classic like move and shoot + a little Paper Mario.

I say Legends due to the visual styling mirroring that incarnation of the series so well in addition to a Legends 2 poster being on Lan's wall XD! The upgrade system also reminds me of Legends, where you use Zenny to upgrade MM.exe with more health and buster upgrades (can use them one at a time)..

MM Classic is due to the structure of the game (taking out X Evil Navi) and the combat system mirroring Classic Mega Man in some ways. You don't jump and shoot, but move and shoot, with you moving around on a grid.

Paper Mario is one I mentioned due to the combat being real-time and active; I love the battle system here. You have so much control over things and even though the chips you get are random, the re-charge gauge to summon new chips loads up so fast, that its never a problem for me (2 hours in).

The presentation, the music, the combat.....really like this game a lot so far and I can't wait to talk about the game in a week. Want to really get sucked into this before I make the retrospective on Battle Network.

Going to leave you all with a lovely tune from the game .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2K_r_tuCjM&list=PLACB9E941ADAC2F21&index=16

Tried playing both games and my thoughts on each one couldn't be further apart. MM4 is a game I honestly snap my Vita (playing the JP PS1 version) in half but MM Zero is a lot of fun so far.

MM4's level design is horrible. Okay, it isn't completely bad but there are spikes all over the place and the levels are HARDER then the robot masters themselves. I mean....how does Toad Man, one of the easiest bosses in MM history, has one of the hardest levels in the game X(?! Those two mini boss fights with the flying eyes? They can go f*** itself for all I care.

Otherwise, its nice game so far. Gameplay is great like before and the charged buster is a great addition to the series. Music rocks and visuals continue improving from MM2 & MM3.

Mega Man Zero on the other hand, I really like it so far. Only played it for an hour (where I played MM4 for hour as well, but it felt like ages and still didn't beat a robot master yet ) but it is great so far. The combat feels fast and fun, visuals shine as a GBA game, and the cyber-elf system is one I like (as you have the risk of using them with little use or use them after you feed them enough).

Story is interesting as you are Zero fighting an now-evil X (or so it seems.......) and the presentation is an interesting directional shift compared to the X series. Like it a lot so far and can't wait to dig into is some more .

I have Battle Network Blue 3, but I've only played it a tiny bit. I might give it another try, especially if you post favorable impressions of the series.

And it's cool that you're playing Mega Man 4. I think you'll be able to get through it, even though some of the mini-bosses take practice to learn their patterns, as do the robot masters. I just decided to replay MM4 tonight after I saw your post... I like the game and I can even defeat a few of the bosses with buster only!

Looked some more info about future games I plan on covering and, man, did I find some good stuff !

Learned a bit more about the MM Star Force series and its odd that Battle Network goes from cyber space to.....literal space XD! Talk about jumping to radically something different but the gameplay appears to be a bit different (card system and 3D visuals during combat). Will be fun trying this out when I'm closer to covering all the BN games.

Also looked up some more of the Classic series and man, MM Battle & Chase has a fantastic soundtrack XD! I mean, Mega Man's/Rock's theme sounds like something ripped right out of MMX or something! Can't wait to cover this in the future, as I love cart racers .

Excited about covering future games and its nice playing through the series, as I missed out on a lot of MM games.

whiterabbit said:

I have Battle Network Blue 3, but I've only played it a tiny bit. I might give it another try, especially if you post favorable impressions of the series.

And it's cool that you're playing Mega Man 4. I think you'll be able to get through it, even though some of the mini-bosses take practice to learn their patterns, as do the robot masters. I just decided to replay MM4 tonight after I saw your post... I like the game and I can even defeat a few of the bosses with buster only!

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Love what I'm playing of Battle Network 1 right now and people consider that the weakest games, so take that what you will buddy .

I'm sure I will get through MM4, but I'm grateful that later classic series games are easier. The mini-bosses are a pain so far though X(. But, like you said, learning their patterns shouldn't be that hard. Plan on covering MM4 and MM5 together when I start making Retrospectives in a week, then MM6, MM7 & MM8 will get unique Retrospectives (no dual-game ones).

You should find MM5 easier than 4, that one is the easiest of the classic games in my opinion. I never really found 4 hard though to be honest. If you want to destroy Ring Man's mid boss enemies (the weird eyes protected by rings) you the Pharaoh shot to 1 shot ko them.
I always disliked the Hippo's personally, they always annoyed me even though only 2-3 pop up in the entire game! I do love some of the bosses in 4 though - Skull and Pharaoh Man are two of my all time favourites and I quite enjoy fighting Dive, Ring and Drill Man.

As for Bright Man, not a fan, I hate getting stuck in a corner trying to dodge his shots... make sure to shoot him once with your normal buster shot before using Toad Man's weapon against him to prevent him from ever using his time stopper power.
Fun fact - he only uses the time stopper when his health hits certain points, shooting him once means his health will never hit the points at which he'd use his time stopper so you'll never get frozen. It makes the boss slightly less frustrating in that aspect.

I just finished replaying MM4, and I think it might even be a little easier than MM5. Maybe not for first-timers, but if you know what you're doing, it might be. I like fighting Ring Man and Pharaoh Man the best. Dive Man is tricky because his dive missiles hit me while I'm trying to line up a charge shot on him. It's hard to do without his weakness. Also there really isn't a whole lot of tricky platforming sequences in MM4. It's a solid game for sure, I also like how there aren't a whole lot of gimmicks like collecting However, the final boss in MM4 is a bit tricky to fight.

whiterabbit said:

I just finished replaying MM4, and I think it might even be a little easier than MM5. Maybe not for first-timers, but if you know what you're doing, it might be. I like fighting Ring Man and Pharaoh Man the best. Dive Man is tricky because his dive missiles hit me while I'm trying to line up a charge shot on him. It's hard to do without his weakness. Also there really isn't a whole lot of tricky platforming sequences in MM4. It's a solid game for sure, I also like how there aren't a whole lot of gimmicks like collecting

Spoiler

the Beat letters, just the Balloon and the Wire.

However, the final boss in MM4 is a bit tricky to fight.

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Dive Man with buster shot is fairly ok, just don't use the charge shot and you should be fine. I just pepper him with shots and watch his mouth - if he opens his mouth his attack will be a dive missile. If he doesn't open his mouth he's going for the torpedo attack. It takes a couple of tries to nail it down but when you do its fairly straight forward.

Shadowman16 said:

Dive Man with buster shot is fairly ok, just don't use the charge shot and you should be fine. I just pepper him with shots and watch his mouth - if he opens his mouth his attack will be a dive missile. If he doesn't open his mouth he's going for the torpedo attack. It takes a couple of tries to nail it down but when you do its fairly straight forward.

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I just did the MM4 buster only challenge, and I definitely find Dive Man the hardest one, but I beat him after a few tries. The best thing I could do was distance myself from him on the other side of the screen, so I could avoid whatever attack he does. That's what worked for me. I did use the charge shot until he was low on health. And thanks, I didn't notice that about his mouth.

whiterabbit said:

I just did the MM4 buster only challenge, and I definitely find Dive Man the hardest one, but I beat him after a few tries. The best thing I could do was distance myself from him on the other side of the screen, so I could avoid whatever attack he does. That's what worked for me. I did use the charge shot until he was low on health. And thanks, I didn't notice that about his mouth.

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No prob, glad you managed it I love that the bosses have little "tells" to indicate certain attacks, I'll take any advantage I can get in some of the boss fights!

I don't remember who I found the hardest in the MM4 buster only run. I'm tempted to say Bright Man just because I always screw up against him, or Ring Man as he's pretty fast and I always misjudge the angle of his rings.
For the longest time it was Drill Man, but I got his pattern down perfectly and can now clean his clock without much trouble. Thankfully on the other end of the scale you have Dust Man and Toad Man who could be defeated by a light breeze, and Pharaoh Man isn't too bad if he doesn't start leaping around too much. I probably enjoy Skull Man the most though, he's not too difficult, but his pattern leads to a fast paced and fun boss battle, he's probably one of my favourite shield type boss battles in the entire series (with Plant Man being easily the lamest).

Just got the Legacy collection and I started up MM1.

Man, I forgot how much this game throws at you quickly. They use the dreaded disappearing blocks almost immediately. So many little additions to make the game more difficult.

Having great fun going through it though.

I know I'm jumping ahead a bit but want to get across every mainline Classic & X title (NES too PS1 Era at least) before the week ends.

Considering that, I really like MM6, a lot. It has a fantastic score (love Knight Man's and Flame Man's themes), the charged Mega Buster is very powerful and the Rush Armor is amazing. Can't wait to play more of this.

Also gave MM4 another try after initial frustrations and I got it now; the level design is great, but the enemy placement can be prickish at times. Bright Man is the Robot Master I'm at now and the level is annoying with how the little leaper robots jump at you, over a large pit you are trying to jump across. Stage is fine though other then that (and I like the gimmick of the lap robots; if you shoot them, the whole stage goes dark, so it presents a challenge to avoid shooting them). Having fun now with MM4 .

Got MM5 today (playing them via Vita & 3DS) but never played it yet. Beat MM7 a while back as well, so know a good deal about that one already . MM8 I got via PS1 Classic's version and I never touched it before; can't wait to play this one soon .

Regarding MMX, know exactly what I'm going to say about X4 and X5 & X6 I'm considering putting together into one Retrospective (as both are interesting to compare/contrast with one another). Own every X game but Xtreme 1 & 2, MMX7 and X Command Mission; might need some help covering those when I get to them.

Still playing through Battle Network and Zero 1, so will have more clear thoughts on those games later in the week.

So, outside of all that.....things are going well . My goal is to get through most of the games in the OP so that way when I write up on them, I have more then enough material to make Retrospectives with. Honestly, that is why I needed the week break from making MM Retrospectives.

Might make ones for Spyro 2 and Ratchet Future: ToD later this week though, as I beat those games and have very clear thoughts on each title .

Hello everyone! My week break is being cut short with Mega Man 4 starting my return to the Mega Man Retrospective! Hope you enjoy my look at this okay sequel.

History:
This game started development not long after Mega Man 3 released and Capcom wanted to pump out as much Mega Man games as they can to the market, as it became a killer and flagship IP after the release of Mega Man 2.

Other important information on the games development stems from its entree on the games Wikipedia Page:

"Mega Man series artist Keiji Inafune, credited as "Inafking", stated that the development team had very few problems while working on Mega Man 4. Inafune designed Dr. Cossack and Kalinka as two new storyline characters for the game. Cossack, who was originally named "Dr. Vice", was made much younger than Dr. Light and Dr. Wily. Inafune also considered giving him American traits, but decided upon influences from Russia instead. Kalinka was created because so many male characters already existed in the series at this point. However, Inafune did not intend for players to compare her to Mega Man's sister Roll. The idea for Eddie originally came about during the development of Mega Man 2. Eddie was designed as a supporting character that "would behave like a lottery", either pleasantly surprising or disappointing the player with the item he gives Mega Man.

Mega Man 4 was the first game in the series for Hayato Kaji, credited as "K. Hayato", a prominent designer for many later Mega Man games. Kaji was responsible for the chargeable Mega Buster, a gameplay mechanic that would become a staple of the series. "We knew adding a two-level or three-level charge would change the whole flavor of the game in some respects, and we were very mindful of that," Inafune explained. The Robot Masters in Mega Man 4 are a result of a design contest for fans held in Japan. With over 70,000 character submissions, the development team spent an extended period of time narrowing them down to only eight bosses. According to Kaji, the team was very satisfied with many of the chosen designs and almost no changes were made to their original illustrations. They were so impressed with Skull Man that they scrapped an entire level being created just so they could restart it and devote it to that Robot Master. The winning eight contestants of the design contest were each issued a special "golden cartridge" edition of Mega Man 4. As there are only eight of these cartridges in existence, they are extremely rare and fetch a large collector's price today. The musical score for Mega Man 4 was composed by Minae Fujii, credited as "Ojalin", while the sound programming and sound effects were handled by Yasuaki Fujita, credited as "Bun Bun", who had composed the soundtrack for Mega Man 3 the previous year."

This history is interesting, as it was nice seeing a new developer Hayato Kaji, give some new gameplay mechanics to Mega Man and the concept of fans pitching Robot Master concepts is something that continued in later Mega Man Classic titles. Mega Man 4 released in December 6, 1991 to strong critical reviews and development on Mega Man 5 soon followed.

Gameplay & Level Design:
Not going to lie here; I had a very rough time getting through most of the game for this Retrospective. While I had a good time with the other MM Classic games and my experiences with the MM X series, I wanted to snap my Vita in half playing Mega Man 4.



The game is the hardest game in the classic series to me (next to Mega Man 9 & Mega Man & Bass), with spikes being all over the place, knock-back making platforming harder then it has the right to be and most importantly, the levels being harder then the robot masters.



I mean that, as Toad Man is a lovely example of this. His fight has a simple pattern and is a great first robot master to fight.....but his stage is horrid. You fight two snail-like robots at points in the stage and it can be annoying. You have to dodge bombs that have a wide blast radius and his eye attack can be annoying. Not to mention the second fight where you have a waterfall in-between a platform that gimps your jump if you are under it.



The level design has some great points, like Pharaoh Man's quick sand being a great stage gimmick and Bright Man's moving grasshoppers being a great platforming gimmick. But with spikes everywhere, the game becomes such a challenge, that I just couldn't get through it all. I didn't get to the Wily Tower at all here, so will not comment on that for this Retrospective.



Will comment on other gameplay mechanics though. You have new Items (like in Mega Man 2) such as the hook shot that can pull Mega Man up on walls above him and a balloon platform that can be stacked. These make some platforming elements more easier to deal with (large pit in Bright Man's stage......really needed this item for me). Rush returns with Rush Jet, Underwater Craft and Rush Coil too.

Not to mention Mega Man's new power; the charged buster. This is a very powerful tool that can be used even when you get hit. Once you charge it enough, it can take out powerful foes with less shots and make some robot masters very fun to fight.

The new robot master items you get are fun to play around with too. Like Ring Man's weapon a lot and the rain storm power you get is a great screen nuke.





Presentation:
Game looks great like past Mega Man games with bright colors and very detailed stages. Toad Man's rain and Pharaoh Man's stars shining in the sky really stand out to me.



Musically, its a great soundtrack like the other Classic Mega Man games and I like it quite a bit.

Bright Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OJ-uYd-F-8&list=PL4D2790D9626692B4&index=7
Toad Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zncV6Vado9g&list=PL4D2790D9626692B4&index=8
Pharaoh Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T11JGxCxFPY&list=PL4D2790D9626692B4&index=10
Ring Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtZUl2IpgQU&list=PL4D2790D9626692B4&index=11
Skull Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy-2JyPyQDg&list=PL4D2790D9626692B4&index=14

Overall:
While I honestly didn't enjoy my time with this game, I appreciate it for what it did for the series. The charged shot, new items, and the robot masters/weapons are all fun to use and make the game great. But the difficulty is something that turned me off completely from this title. Mega Man is a franchise I only recently went back to and my time with Mega Man 4 clearly showed this to me; was not ready to play it.

But many love the game and it is a quality Mega Man title. Just very difficult compared to past Mega Man games for me.



Next up for the classic series is Mega Man 5 & 6 and I can't wait to go into those games, as I never played them before!

RK128 said:

Next up for the classic series is Mega Man 5 & 6 and I can't wait to go into those games, as I never played them before!

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Looking forward to it!

What do you think of the argument that the charge buster damaged the game balance by encouraging players to keep it charged at all times? At least, it was persuasive enough that the charge was eliminated from 9 and 10.

Andrew J. said:

What do you think of the argument that the charge buster damaged the game balance by encouraging players to keep it charged at all times? At least, it was persuasive enough that the charge was eliminated from 9 and 10.

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I didn't mind it being gone when I played MM9&10, so I suppose it wasn't that vital to the core gameplay in later games. But ya, they do have an impact in MM5&6 (being very powerful for robot masters).

Andrew J. said:

What do you think of the argument that the charge buster damaged the game balance by encouraging players to keep it charged at all times? At least, it was persuasive enough that the charge was eliminated from 9 and 10.

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I think that's silly. The charge shot wasn't even that good in the classic Mega Man games. At least, it generally isn't as useful or powerful as X's charged shot, and even in the X games you are often better off using rapid uncharged shots instead of fully charged ones. A fully charged shot only does three points of damage compared to the one point of damage done by a regular shot, and you can shoot a heck of a lot more than three shots in the time it takes to charge the Buster. Against enemies that don't have invincibility frames, using uncharged shots is absolutely better than using the charged shot. Even against robot masters, usually their invincibility is much shorter than the time it takes to charge a shot, so you can get multiple regular buster hits in that time.

There are generally three situations in which you want to use a charged shot:
1) You want to kill multiple weak enemies with one shot (which won't work if any one enemy has more than 3 health left).
2) You want to take advantage of the wider hit box of the charged shot to hit an opponent you can't hit with a normal bullet.
3) You are in a phase of a boss fight where you can't hit the boss, and are waiting for an opening.

This dynamic changes a bit in the X games, where you have a shorter charge time for the buster and bosses tend to have longer invincibility after taking damage, but even in them using the charged shot isn't always the best option.

When I was a kid, I tried to keep X's buster charged as much as possible, and I only ever used the charged shot. This was silly of me. Now that I'm much better at these games, I use the charged shot significantly less, even in the X and Zero series games. I do enjoy using the charged shot though. It is a great option that adds to the gameplay depth. I am not a fan of the Mega Man 2 purism that caused Capcom to remove both the charged shot and slide from Mega Man 9 and 10. Those tools had a place in the series.

Nice.

This continues my ongoing Mega Man Retrospective and since I covered MM4, lets move to the fourth Mega Man X title! Man, this game is a massive one. It brings a lot to the X series in major ways; new gameplay style, updated presentation, and anime cut-scenes. We even get insight on backstory of Zero!

Mega Man X4 is my favorite Mega Man X title and I can't wait to explain why this is such a fun action platformer.

History:
This game has a simple history, with the developers trying to make a great sequel to the fun Mega Man X3. One thing they set out to do was make Zero playable, but work different compared to X. In Mega Man X3, he was more of an 'extra' character with larger health and a stronger Mega Buster.



In X4, they made him play COMPLETELY different from X and it shows, but will get to that in the gameplay portion.

The rest of the history follows here thanks to the game's Wikipedia Page:
"Mega Man X4 was developed by Capcom. Instead of designing the game's various pieces of artwork as he had done in the past, Keiji Inafune focused his attention on being a producer. He was also involved in creating the game's storyline, a role he described as "only slightly less than it was for X1". Instead of presenting Repliforce as blatantly evil villains like Sigma, the writing staff decided to leave them some "moral leeway. They did not want the ideals of Repliforce and the Maverick Hunters to be so black-and-white. Inafune left his former design responsibilities up to other artists that had previously worked on the Mega Man X series. Artist Haruki Suetsugu did not design its characters as he would do for later games in the series, but was given drafts in order to draw illustrations for promotional purposes. Hitoshi Ariga was responsible for designing X's secret "Ultimate Armor" featured in both the game and as a Japanese Bandai action figure. He spent four days coming up with the initial blueprint, but was told by his supervisor to go back and try again. After tinkering with the Mega Man X3 armor parts, he noticed that attaching them in specific ways made it look like an airplane. Ariga recounted creating the armor as an extremely difficult yet fun task. He also revealed that Zero was intended to have his own Ultimate Armor, but the development team chose to not finalize it."

So the focus on making a more realistic story with the Repliforce and not making things so black-and-white was important for the development team. The game released in August 1, 1997 to critical success with high reviews and people loving the game. The cut-scenes were made fun of in the western versions though.....but we will get to that soon enough.

The game also saw release on other platformers, like the Sega Saturn the same year, 2006's MMX Collection on PS2/GC, and most recently in 2014 on North American PlayStation Network (with support on PS3, PSP and PS Vita).

Story:
The plot has X and Zero head out to protect a city from attack with it sadly being destroyed by unknown forces. A army of Repolids called the Repliforce come storming in to help but then get labelled as Mavericks due to people thinking they caused the attack.



They revolt and send members of their armies across the world to take over the world. In the shadows, a familiar face is pulling the strings *cough* Sigma *cough* and X & Zero have to save the world yet again.



But things are different this time out......while X just goes out to stop Sigma from ruining things as usually, Zero has a much more larger tale. We get insight on his history before becoming a Maverick Hunter, his relation to Sigma, WHY Sigma became so evil and most importantly, hints toward Zero's true origins as the game progresses.



Even Marvericks have more personality, with X & Zero having fun dialog's with the different hunters when they meet them. Overall the story is enjoyable and I really like how strong it is. But, what makes it gold, is the voice acting. The NA voice actors for the game are.....amazing.

We have a young boy voice X, some whinny guy voice Zero and we get the infamous statement.
"What am I fighting FOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRR!?!?" - Zero

Love the story in the game and the bad voice acting makes it even better.

Gameplay:
Well, its more Mega Man X. Iconic jumping, dashing and shooting robots and Mavericks that get in your way across colorful and well designed stages. But, what makes this different is how the little things work.



X has two different types of arm cannons he can pick up from Dr. Light and his special weapons are mapped to /\. Outside of that, his upwards Air-Dash is sadly gone from X3 and the Ride Armors only come in one style. Though the Jet-Bikes are back from X2 and they are a lot more fun to use compared to that game!



Zero is where everything changes, with his gameplay being completely unique from X. Zero has his Z-Saber and can learn different abilities when beating robot masters, not outright having new 'cannon weapons'. So, instead of shooting a fireball upward, you have a fire sword uppercut. Instead of shooting a electric web, you have a powerful forward lighting strike. This continues and it makes Zero more of a fighting game character then a platforming hero.



The best part about the game is that every level is designed for BOTH X and Zero. Nothing is that different for each character and it allows the game to work on a Sonic 3 & Knuckles style level. You have these different styles to play as, but they function evenly.

Level Design:
Very strong with great usage of themes. You have the fire level but flaming rocks keep getting close to you, they are destroying your grounding and pillars of flames are over your head. The Ice stage works great too, with ice blocks, well, blocking your path and the ice making movement more slippery.



This continues with a cyber space stage that pushes you to have a literal time attack and by doing so, you can get more goodies for X (heart tank, Dr. Light Armor upgrade).

Love these stages as both characters. The bosses have great designs and patterns too. While they are easy with the weakness, they are very hard with Zero and this makes fights fun. A new play style & classic Mega Man challenge? I'm game!

My favorite fights are with Split Mushroom and Jet Stingray. Not to mention, the game has its own Street Fighter character. Yes, Magma Dragoon might as well be a dragon version of Ryu with fireballs and uppercuts making him quite the foe to fight for either character.



X knows some of those moves though, as X and X2 prove.

Sigma Fortress:
This section of the game is fun, they are hard but fair. You have options to take the upper or lower paths, great visual design and some great fights against a number of foes. Fighting the Repliforce Leader, Ires (Zero) or Double (X) are some of the most fun fights in the X series.

The final fight against Sigma is quite hard too but was fun.



Presentation:
The game looks great with really detailed sprites, strong animation work and great designs for characters old and new. Love the little details in every stage and the Ice Level has some nice nods to X1 and X3.

Then we get the anime cut-scenes and history on that is here:
"The FMV cutscenes in Mega Man X4 were produced by IG Port's subsidiary XEBEC. The game's musical score was composed by Toshihiko Horiyama. The score also features the opening theme Makenai Ai ga Kitto aru (負けない愛がきっとある?, lit. "Unbeatable Love I Surely Have") and the closing theme One More Chance, both sung by Yukie Nakama."

Musically, the game rocks, man. You have wonderful Intro Stage theme for X and the other stages have catchy themes too. Not as memorable as X1 or X2, but still really great sounding tracks.

Player Select: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V96NPJ5jPU0&index=2&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8F4XJDsztd9KadNadVR6koK
Opening Level (X): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EceE4uc3DeU&index=4&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8F4XJDsztd9KadNadVR6koK
EREGION THEME: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMI3r4G4yxU&index=6&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8F4XJDsztd9KadNadVR6koK
Stage Select: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3YFjBID83o&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8F4XJDsztd9KadNadVR6koK&index=3
Colonel And General: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzB4P7T8edQ&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8F4XJDsztd9KadNadVR6koK&index=18
Final Weapon Stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzZICFT-BxI&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8F4XJDsztd9KadNadVR6koK&index=23
Web Spider: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHu9Zel0NYU&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8F4XJDsztd9KadNadVR6koK&index=8
Cyber Peacock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlGUVUDEeyA&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8F4XJDsztd9KadNadVR6koK&index=9
Magma Dragoon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odgb3Pqqtvw&index=11&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8F4XJDsztd9KadNadVR6koK
Frost Walrus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYb1dvQe3as&index=16&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8F4XJDsztd9KadNadVR6koK

Overall:
This is a wonderful Mega Man X adventure and one I highly recommend any fan of the series give a look. Zero gives the game a lot of replay value and the core game is fun as X OR Zero.

I'm hammering this point home as X6 will make this a major talking point. Overall, lovely game and recommend everyone gives this a shot!

Mega Man X4 is one of my all-time favorites. It was the first Mega Man game I actually owned, rather than just renting or borrowing from a friend, and as a result I played it over and over again. It was great. I still know the game like the back of my hand. I really only have one complaint about the game, though:

Why the heck did they decide to use the voice actor for Mega Man from Mega Man 8 for X?!

The voice just doesn't suit X at all. For some reason, the sound X makes whenever he wall-jumps grates on my nerves like nothing else. Sure, I can tune it out after a while, but I still wish they could have picked a different voice actor. At least they do get a great voice actor for X for three later games.

Also, does anyone actually pick the rapid buster upgrade over the Plasma shot? The Plasma shot is the third best X Buster upgrade in the series, while the Rapid buster is just kinda unimpressive.