Although later games were better about it than earlier ones.
No, it is actually extremely straight-forward in practice. It means that in order to get an A rank you just need to clear a stage in a single life while not messing up too badly. Since Zero 1 already encourages players to beat missions without dying due to its punishing continue system, the main gap between A rank play and low-rank play is whether or not you use Cyber-Elves.Originally Posted by Shadow Hog
I can't help but think the scoring system sounds incredibly stupid.
For the most part, the EX Skills actually are not all that good. Some of them can be useful, but Cyber-Elves are much, much stronger in practice. They are mostly just fun to use, which makes them a pretty good "carrot-on-the-stick" to encourage players to try for higher scores. It isn't unlike how you could unlock stuff in Goldeneye 64 by clearing stages under certain time-limits.Plus, IIRC, good rewards are handed out to high-ranked players. Y'know, the ones who don't need the rewards.
EDIT:
Ah, that is a factor of Zero 1's continue system, where you get a finite number of continues. If you continue too much in that game early on, it becomes much harder down the road when you need those continues for the final areas.Originally Posted by Shadow Hog
I just recall hearing horror stories at the time about how if you don't go out of your way to get good ranks, the game gets insanely hard far too quickly. Obviously good players should be rewarded to some extent, but there's a balancing act that, to my understanding, wasn't performed correctly.
Although later games were better about it than earlier ones.
That is a completely different matter than EX-Skills, since they changed that system at the same time they implemented EX-skills. Zero 2 and onward give the player a minimum of two continues at the start of every stage, so you don't run out like you can in Zero 1. Zero 2 and Zero 3, the games where you can earn EX-Skills via rank, are generally much more forgiving than Zero 1.
The main purpose of the EX-SKills is really to give a player aiming for rank a little extra boost to help them keep the momentum up. Maintaining an A rank is hard. Just because you can get the first one doesn't mean you can keep it up for another nine stages.
In any event, it isn't too hard to get half of the EX-skills on a regular, cyber-elf using, playthrough, thanks to the existence of rank boosting elves.
Mega Man X4 - Storm Owl (this is essential listening!)
Mega Man 4 - Drill Man
Mega Man 3 - Shadow Man
Mega Man 4 - Dive Man
Mega Man 3 - Magnet Man
Magnet Man is Storm Owl? Who knew.Originally Posted by Videoneon
Mega Man X4 - Storm Owl (this is essential listening!)
Yardley needs to start being the regular in this book, Ben Bates can be on the Sonic comics.
Metalman does not fuck around, and I'm rather interested in Shadowman's hidden agenda
You can impose the same play choices on the X series and it will start to challenge you much more. That is, avoiding anything not absolutely forced on you. It also toys with a ranking system later on but doesn't really do much with it.Originally Posted by goldenpp72
Thanks for the tips thus far, lots of good info to plod through. I'm on the final boss of Zero 1 right now (I assume) and getting my ass handed to me a bit, this is the first time i've ever been truly challenged in a Mega Man game. In my childhood people always talked about the original and X series being so difficult, but this is the only time I've actually been slapped around and had to really nut up. Not having any sub tanks and such is a real pain.
Edit: Just beat the last boss, cool enough ending, but I feel a tad exhausted from the experience lol.
The Zero series fleshes all of these concepts out more into a proper inplementation. The choice between using all the extra powerups and doing without is much more apparent.
After that, I messed around a bit in Elec Man's level, and then quickly moved on to the Zero and X series. I pick it up again months later, and after a couple hours, I've pretty much cruised to Dr. Wily's stage. It just all clicked, somehow. The joy of the classic Mega Man series is really shining through now, and I'm excited to see how Mega Man 2 refined the experience. It's pretty neat finally interacting with these characters I've read and heard so much about, too.I have a feeling this also has something to do with playing it on the 3DS, but the physics, the hit detection, the art direction, the level design, the punishing mechanics, the music... It all combines to form an almost surreal experience for me. I'm not used to this little guy (look at how tiny Mega Man is!) jumping twice his height, with no actual sense of momentum I can perceive, ever so floatily. On the other hand, whereas you land perfectly still from a jump, I'm still really not used to the ever so slight slide Mega Man does when he stops running. Working with these physics, memorizing the block patterns, choosing which block to jump to, timing it all correctly, whilst avoiding the stupid little spike thing (thinking ice level here).... Good god, it's just so different. :p
I can feel myself adjusting. I finally beat the ice dude. Damn those stupid helicopter things. And I never thought I'd ever hate penguins.
Wait, I think you got the names mixed up...Anyone else read Megaman #30?
Yardley needs to start being the regular in this book, Ben Bates can be on the Sonic comics.
Metalman does not fuck around, and I'm rather interested in Shadowman's hidden agenda
This is Yardley's work
This is Bate's work.
Unless though, you liked Yardley's interpretation of Mega man which alot were iffy on. I for one think that Bates is the best artist Behind Spaziante for the job and his work on the MM2 arc was spectacular.
I love me some Mega Man, but this game is actually pretty awful, which I find very surprising since I loved X1 and X3. Also, is it normal that this game has so much fps drops during boss fights and slightly busier moments? It's near unplayable at certain parts. I'm just wondering if it's due to the emulator or if it was originally like this on SNES.
The soundtrack was updated and they added Arcade Man 8-bit version. I was actually fairly impressed when listening to it.
Meanwhile in Dead Rising 3:
Protoman's cutout can become a weapon now.
That's crazy. It's always been X2 > X1 > X3 for me. I do think I recall what you mean by slowdown in the original, but I'd hardly call it unplayable.Just finished Mega Man X2 on Wii U virtual console.
I love me some Mega Man, but this game is actually pretty awful, which I find very surprising since I loved X1 and X3. Also, is it normal that this game has so much fps drops during boss fights and slightly busier moments? It's near unplayable at certain parts. I'm just wondering if it's due to the emulator or if it was originally like this on SNES.
Just finished Mega Man X2 on Wii U virtual console.
I love me some Mega Man, but this game is actually pretty awful, which I find very surprising since I loved X1 and X3. Also, is it normal that this game has so much fps drops during boss fights and slightly busier moments? It's near unplayable at certain parts. I'm just wondering if it's due to the emulator or if it was originally like this on SNES.
Weird, just checked some Youtube footage of the Crystal Snail fight, hardly any drops in fps and I had it near constant in that fight (and I don't mean his special move in the second phase). The Wii U virtual console emulator must be the cause then.Originally Posted by Choppasmith
That's crazy. It's always been X2 > X1 > X3 for me. I do think I recall what you mean by slowdown in the original, but I'd hardly call it unplayable.
I personally prefer Yardley and the work he did during the Worlds Collide art on Megaman. Ben Bates' art on the Sonic comic has been good, I recall some pre-reboot stories he did were among my fav. of his works.Originally Posted by Karakato_001
Wait, I think you got the names mixed up...
This is Yardley's work
This is Bate's work.
Unless though, you liked Yardley's interpretation of Mega man which alot were iffy on. I for one think that Bates is the best artist Behind Spaziante for the job and his work on the MM2 arc was spectacular.
Not gonna lie, while Yardley does do a good job at drawing Sonic, his Mega man interpretation felt way off and it sparks a contrast between the first and the third act of the crossover. Don't get me wrong, I respect the artist (checked out a few of his works on his art blog too) but Mega man is not his style. Glad Archie did not go on with his concept art for the blue bomber:I personally prefer Yardley and the work he did during the Worlds Collide art on Megaman. Ben Bates' art on the Sonic comic has been good, I recall some pre-reboot stories he did were among my fav. of his works.
X1:
Homing Torpedo: it does your work for you sometimes, the degree to which you can use this to speed through stages is iffy but still useful. You can at least manipulate this weapon to attack.
Chameleon Sting: badass charged version, wide range on normal shot, tons of weapon energy
Storm Tornado: the heavy hitter, and you can follow it around
X2:
Bubble Splash: some light aerial damage with normal version, but then the charged version is a godly barrier. yes please.
Speed Burner: Surprisingly long lasting charged version.
Silk Shot: accumulating energy can be nifty indeed. charged silk shot is fun.
X3:
Parasitic Bomb: Charged version can be fun.
Triad Thunder: the basic shield is all you need for isolated threats.
This game is really quite bad with weapons, as I remember it.
X4:
Twin Slasher: lots of WE (which doesn't really matter), decent charged version with as good a range as you can ask for
Frost Tower: Great defensively, and the prime miniboss wrecker.
X5:
Crescent Shot: charged version? yes, I'll take a shield.
I can only really think of that. I think about charged Firefly Laser, Gel Shaver, and Spike Ball, and give up.
X6:
Yammar Option: More firepower I guess. They stick around, too.
Metal Anchor: Charged version is the best thing that X has ever had in his arsenal.
X7:
Volt Tornado: This is the only weapon you need. Takes up a ton of space. X-Buster is absurdly strong, but this is strong against all bosses, except maybe Soldier Stonekong.
X8:
Drift Diamond: It's not strong, but its spammability and freezing capabilities are nice. Shield isn't as useful, but it's a shield!
The special weapons have interesting ideas, but are very situational and weak. Too bad.
Ooooh. Ouch. That looks bad.Originally Posted by Karakato_001
Not gonna lie, while Yardley does do a good job at drawing Sonic, his Mega man interpretation felt way off and it sparks a contrast between the first and the third act of the crossover. Don't get me wrong, I respect the artist (checked out a few of his works on his art blog too) but Mega man is not his style. Glad Archie did not go on with his concept art for the blue bomber:
The 8-bit version is better than the original, easy.http://www.capcom.co.jp/sound/en/dis...c_xover-00001/
The soundtrack was updated and they added Arcade Man 8-bit version. I was actually fairly impressed when listening to it.
The intro is annoying, but otherwise it's an alright composition. It's like a way more caffeinated version of Sheep Man. I was hoping for something at least a little more playful from an arcade-themed boss. But whatever, I don't care about this game.
Hopefully you guys got to check out the boss contest submissions, as that was one fun thing to come out of this.
I think X2 is a good game. It's not terrible, but there's nothing really remarkable about it either., except for the mavericks concepts, buster only fights, "maybe so, but I still don't like you!", and Counter Hunter Stage 1 theme. inferior weapons, inferior music, randomized x-hunter placement are things I dislike.Just finished Mega Man X2 on Wii U virtual console.
I love me some Mega Man, but this game is actually pretty awful, which I find very surprising since I loved X1 and X3. Also, is it normal that this game has so much fps drops during boss fights and slightly busier moments? It's near unplayable at certain parts. I'm just wondering if it's due to the emulator or if it was originally like this on SNES.
Not sure how you can mention best MMX1 boss weapons without mentioning flame mammoths weapon. It does lose some of its usefulness once you can charge weapons but nothing shreds enemies faster.
Now I'm clueless when it comes to the Battle Network series, as I haven't played any of them. So any recommendations as to which one to get for him?
Well if he has a 3DS/DS you can get him the DS version of Battle Network 5. If you have a Wii there is Network Transmission for the Gamecube what plays like a mix of Battlenetworks chip deck and classic Mega Man platforming. If you have access to a GBA/DS then get him either BN2 or BN3 those are the best.So my son is a huge Mega Man fan. Recently, he saw some videos of some of the Mega Man Battle Network games on youtube. Now for his 9th birthday coming up, he pretty much put this on his list, and he knows it's a bit different then the other Mega Man games he's played.
Now I'm clueless when it comes to the Battle Network series, as I haven't played any of them. So any recommendations as to which one to get for him?
The battlenetwork series is kind of like a Mega Man card battle series, you make a deck of chips and each turn you 5 random chips which you can load into Mega Man based upon various rules like stack 3 of the same chip or 3 chips that are classified as A chips etc. Once you run out of chips you can use Mega Man's regular buster and dodge until a gauge fills and you get a new set of cards/chips.
MMBN2, 3 and 6 are great! Totally worth it
If you have a DS, starting from the beginning is not a bad idea although the first game is pretty dated now. 2, 3, and 6 are the best games, with Network Transmission being a a fun spin off. If you only have a 3DS 5 is your only option really, but there's also the Starforce series which is similar and set in the same universe.So my son is a huge Mega Man fan. Recently, he saw some videos of some of the Mega Man Battle Network games on youtube. Now for his 9th birthday coming up, he pretty much put this on his list, and he knows it's a bit different then the other Mega Man games he's played.
Now I'm clueless when it comes to the Battle Network series, as I haven't played any of them. So any recommendations as to which one to get for him?
Network Transmission, is a very nice looking game and has an amazing soundtrack. But the beginning, the first two stages (leading up to the Navi bosses) can be unnecessarily rough. Failing to complete a stage in one run is inconvenient, and if you get a Game Over, well screw you, you get a five second Game Over screen and that's it. In the beginning, you don't have many tools to farm Zenny or good battle chips without it being massive slog. While the Fireman segment isn't all that bad, the Gutsman segment is long, and the fight is notoriously fucked up because he does a lot of damage for your un-upgraded self at that point in the game, and Gutsman's hammer comes out fast as hell and his movements can be hard to predict if you don't stand next to him all of the time. basically with Gutsman, I think normally he only acts after about two seconds, so use that to your advantage and preemptively jump if you're not comfortable with fighting him.
The reason why the Gutsman fight being obnoxious was such a problem is because there aren't save points or checkpoints throughout progressing through the Internet or Comp Systems or whatever. So if you get all the way to Gutsman and get a Game Over, you have to redo that journey from Internet 2 to Internet 4 or whatever it is. Sure, there are checkpoints I think before a Boss Gate and at the start of a new Internet area, but if you Jack Out you can't restart at a checkpoint, and there's no quicksave-like feature.
I recommend it as an interesting experience, but it's got flaws, for sure.
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