Metal Blades on Flash Man? What?

It's true, isn't it?  Mangum himself explains:

"Mega Man 2's system of weaknesses was.... not nearly as straightforward.  So Metal Man is half of the Robot Master's weaknesses (including himself.)  It messed up the whole dynamic I did for the other group shots, but I managed to find someway to screw everyone over."

He's even got Quick Man suffering from both the Flash Stopper AND the Crash Bombs.

Never tried Crash Bombs on Quick Man either - he moves way too fast for that. I always found the Air Shooter worked well to polish him off after the Flash Stopper wore off.

Crash Bombs are better on Flash Man - if you make direct hits you'll have just enough weapon energy to defeat him, but if you can detonate them such that he gets hit by the explosion, they can hit multiple times. Metal Blades work well now that I've tried them, but I've never taken a route where they'd be available for Flash Man before. I like to use Quick Boomerangs on Metal Man, and I wouldn't take on Quick Man without the Flash Stopper.

And here I thought I knew it all about MM2. Doubt I'll change my preferred route though

Actually, the fact he moves so fast (too fast) that he ends up running up against the walls blindlessly gives you the opening to use the Crash Bombs on him. It's a better option the second time around (in the boss teleporter room because the room) is flat.

But yeah, I don't usually have the "Clash Bombs" during the first battle w/Quick man either.

Those are f*cking AWESOME.

I never knew people had difficulties figuring out MM2 though.
There's a perfectly normal circle like in most other MMs (I still don't know what they were thinking with MM3).
It's just that...you know, there's some alternatives...

I don't usually have them in the second battle, because the turret room depletes the whole bar. I guess you could get blast all the door, suicide, refill through grinding and then take out the boss and move on, but that leaves you with only two shots, and it takes about four or five to bring Quicky down.

I think I've mentioned this elsewhere, but the way I usually play is:
Woodman (stand on top of him and shoot through the shield, WOOOO - but it's risky) -> Airman -> Crashman -> Quickman -> Metalman (Boomerangs being his weakness outside his own weapon...what a tool) -> Bubbleman -> Heatman -> Flashman (no matter how you use Atomic Fire, you can't kill him, but putting in the last shots with the Buster seems right, for some reason). Then Boomerang the Dragon, Blade the Blockroom, Boomerang the Gutsdozer, Bomb the Turrets, Blade open Wily's cockpit, Air Shoot into his face and Bubble his toy at the end.

Anybody do theirs differently?

I had no idea that you could Air Shoot the second phase of Wily's carrier; I usually stick with the Blades. I'll have to try that next time I play, which should be soon since I have the NES out.

Still, I'm worried about doing that. I have this feeling that it's not going to live up to my memories. The game was so instrumental in jumpstarting my interest in video games and Mega Man in general but I can't help but think it's overrated anymore - even musically.

I know: TREASON!

Since you asked:

Air Man
Crash Man
Flash Man
Quick Man (use Air Shooter after Flash Stopper runs out)
Metal Man
Bubble Man
Heat Man
Wood Man

I use the plain ol' arm cannon to take down the dragon because he's so dang easy. Metal Man gets a taste of his own medicine the second time around of course, and I guess I'll start offering those same meds to Flash Man (as you noted, Crash Bombs are out of stock at that point).

I use the same order as Smeg, which I actually thought EVERYONE did.

Air Man (because it takes too long before you'll be able to get a hit in with Leaf Shield anyway)
Clash/Crash Man
Flash Man
Quick Man (if you're a MAN you just deplete his first half with the regular buster. Yes, his FIRST half)
Metal Man (Never knew his own weapon works as well)
Bubble Man
Heat Man
Wood Man

And I never knew the Air Tornado thingy works against Wily either...

Re: Roll Costume in Mega Man 9:

All it does is changes Roll's outfit in the shop screen?

It doesn't allow you to PLAY AS Roll?

How is that not a rip-off? Especially at 200 Screws? (-_0);

...

My path through Mega Man II?

Metal -> Flash -> Quick -> Bubble -> Heat -> Wood -> Air -> Crash

I always thought Crash was the hardest, so I always saved him for last; while the other bosses follow a set pattern no matter what you do, Crash HOMES IN on you, and his actions are variable according to what you do; the bosses, they just fire, jump to the other side of the room, fire, jump to the other side of the room! Well, Flash also homes in on you, and does Quick Man, but they're not as powerful as Crash Man.

I've been going through the challenge of fighting each of these bosses the first time, using only the Plasma Cannon, and no Energy Tanks, on Difficult Mode. So far, I've wasted 4 of them. Now, a real challenge would be to go through the entire game without dying once!

...

P.S. I always thought the Mega Man games would've been even BETTER if each set of Robot Masters followed a common theme: I liked how all Mega Man VI's bosses were all ethnically infused, and the Gameboy version of Mega Man V, the bosses were inspired by the 9 planets of our Milky Way Galaxy.

...

P.S.S. I, too, once used to think Dr. Wily was called "Dr. Willy," and then discovered that wily was actually a real word, and not that they'd spelled "Willy" wrong. Hah, "Dr. Willy..." that makes him sound REALLY intimidating, doesn't it?

P.S.S.S. Okay, Wood Man's actually really damn hard. You can dodge the Leaf Shield he throws at you, but then a rain of leaves comes down from the sky, and those fluttering little nasties are pretty much impossible to dodge. Add to the fact that it's impossible to jump over Woody without getting hurt, and he probably takes the least amount of damage from your Plasma Cannon out of all the bosses, and he's just one hard tree to cut down...ironic how the robot made out of wood might be the hardest out of them, while the bastard that throws SAW BLADES at you is the EASIEST boss in the game...even easier than the guy who shoots BUBBLES at you.

My order for beating the bosses in Megaman 2 is all at the same time.

Pretty sure there are a ton more planets in the Milky Way than that.

That was wicked, but he totally cheated! You can't interrupt the Flash Stopper once it starts till the weapon energy is completely drained

I'm sure Bernie just forgot the term Solar System for a moment.

Even so, it would actually be 8 of course.
Poor Pluto.

Yeah, Solar System. I'll always consider Pluto part of our 9 planets, just for the sake of nostalgia; I'll just have to remember that's actually WRONG when I talk to someone with actual scientific knowledge on the subject...

I downloaded MM2 on my Wii this weekend and gave it a quick playthrough. I ended up using two E-Tanks on Wily's last form (hint: following figure-eight patterns while extremely hungover is not that easy), and chose to cheap my way out of a few situations (Item-2 trumps Heatman's disappearing blocks for life, son), but other than that I had a goddamn blast, just like I have every other time I've played it. This time through I noticed that the bosses were way easier than I remember, though; I beat Crashman in two hits with the Air Buster (when you release it close to him it hits three times) and Flashman gets owned by the Arm Cannon. That's my only complaint... but then again, there is a "difficult" option that I haven't tried yet. Great game, though!

I'll definitely be downloading MM4 and MM10 sometime in the near future. I don't remember MM4 much outside of some vague stage concepts, so it'll be good to revisit something slightly unfamiliar. And I haven't even touched MM10, so I'm pumped for that, too!

EDIT: Also. Metal Blades kind of break the game a little. They are ridiculous.

Yeah, they are a little too economical and versatile aren't they? Still, they don't really break the game in a bad way; a lot of older games usually have something you can abuse - like the flames in Simon's Quest.

True, it's not broken in a bad way, but more in a fun way. It's crazy how each tick on the weapon meter equals 2 or 3 blades. And they're 8-directional. And they're really powerful. And they're, like, half of the bosses' weakness. Best weapon ever.

The travesty lies in the fact that Metal Man is probably the easiest boss to defeat, even if you're only using the Arm Cannon, and his shots are super easy to dodge. I mean, the guy tosses friggin' saw blades, and he's taken down so easily!

You could say Flash Man's damn easy, too, but you have to dodge at the right time to escape the barrage he fires after casting Flash Stopper.

Contrast that with, say, Wood Man, who's practically impossible to dodge his leaves or jump over, and he doesn't even take all that much damage, not even from his weaknesses, and it's just no-sense-make!

The saw blade guy bites the dust so easily, but the leaf throwing guy is tough-as-nails! And when you get Wood Man's weapon, it's pretty damn useless!

P.S. Boss 4 of Wily's Castle (the lights on the walls that fire homing shots, and can only be destroyed by the Crash Bomb) are so cheap, for the aforementioned stated reason: They can only be destroyed by the Crash Bomb; fire off one round extraneously or accidentally, and you are BUGGERED. COMPLETELY. START OVER. DO NOT PASS GO. DO NOT COLLECT TWO-HUNDRED DOLLARS. OR GO TO THE NEXT STAGE. Either refuel your Crash Bomb (difficult to get weapon replenishes dropped by enemies...) or just die twice to reset your weapon energy levels to max.

P.S.S. Alien Wily at the end, the figure-eight pattern's easy enough to follow and dodge, but still, I had to redo this fight about 2-3 times; his shots take a lot out of you if you get hit. Plus, he's ONLY vulnerable to Bubble Shots.

P.S.S.S. I played the game on Difficult mode. Maybe I'll go back and play it on Normal mode, to compare and contrast just how much they pumped up the game for Difficult Mode...

I guess the lower part helps explain the upper part.
Are you aware that Heat Man's weapon can be charged?
Because it does INSANE damage if used properly (well, maybe not as much as Air Man's weapon on Clash Man, but still).

Heat Man's weapon! (>_<)

I've been using Metal Man's saw blades on Wood Man up until now...

I was always kind of like, "Wait, who does Heat Man's weapon work on? Flash Man? I mean, I guess he's kind of an icy guy and all, his level's filled with slippery floors, anyway...not that I really need any additional help to defeat that poor sod..."

P.S. Just tried it out...with the Arm Cannon on Normal Mode. Wood Man goes down in seconds. They REALLY ramped up the difficulty of the game in Difficult Mode; you take more damage from enemies, and your enemies take less damage from you...

That said, Wood Man's still comparatively more difficult to defeat than Metal Man...

It's more accurate to say that "normal" mode was dumbed down. Capcom apparently decided that Rockman 2 would be too much for American gamers - "difficult" is the way it was intended to be played.

What I thought...just finished the game in "Normal" Mode in an hour...give or take 6 minutes. I lost maybe 2 lives, but I never used any Energy Tanks, up until the 4th Wily Castle Boss, and I used another during the Wily boss fight, after fighting the 8 Robot Masters again...still had 6 lives left, and 3 Energy Tanks...but I defeated everyone with the Arm Cannon, except for the 4th Wily Castle boss, who requires Crash Bomb, and Alien Wily, who requires Bubble Lead.

P.S. What's the deal with Mega Man leaving his helmet behind in the ending? Was he like, "Eff this! I'm tired of fighting these stupid robots! I'm retiring and living in the countryside!" Hey, sounds like a good plan to me!

With Inafune working with another team on MM Universe, I had held a hope in my heart that it meant Inti Creates was readying ZX3 at long last. This is very much not the case.
Well, then. I'm off to go drown my sorrows.

Just finished Wily's Castle in Mega Man 9, for the first time since I started playing the game when it was first released.

The triple magma cannons in the first level of Wily's Castle were always what decimated me, and made me give up for 2 years, before returning to it again.

The blob creature at the end of the third Wily's Castle level, I just used his weakness - Black Hole Bomb - on him, so I wouldn't be stuck in the battle than I could stand; there went my achievement for completing the game using only the Mega Buster... (>_<)

The Wily's Castle stages were still comparatively easier than the main stages in the game, though, if you ask me; after finally beating the game, I went back through some of the stages, and I wasn't able to finish any of them on just 3 tries...

Mega Man 10, I just d-loaded today, and played through each of the 8 robot masters' stages with Proto Man; easier than pie. I defeated practically every single boss in one try...

I heard people calling Sheep Man ridiculous...but how about Strike Man? He's a friggin' baseball pitching robot!

Also, I couldn't figure out what Sheep Man's stage had to do with him; it was like Cyber Peacock's (Mega Man X4) stage all over again - some sort of internet/digital world. I kind of was expecting, say, a farm setting, for his stage!

Good job, man. I always like to hear stories about stick-to-it-ive-ness. Besides the first game, the MM title that took me the longest to finish was Megaman 8; the first castle boss had me stuck for close to a month until I figured out the right way to use the Ball.

As far as this goes, it's one of two possibilities, or some combination of the two. The leading one is that it's a reference to a short story by Philip K. Dick called, 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' The other theory I've heard is that in Japanese pronunciation, if CPU is said as if it were a word instead of an acronym (like calling SNES 'snezz'), it would sound like 'sheepu'. Not sure how much truth there is to the second, but it's interesting.

What difficulty level were you playing on?

I just got the last two games (Mega Man Xtreme, Mega Man Xtreme 2) needed to complete my collection of Mega Man X games. Still, I think it would mean a lot more if some of the games didn't suck as bad as they do.

That's DEEP.

Easy. (-_-);

But then I switched right over to the Normal/Difficult setting, and wasted Strike Man like he was nothing just the same. I'm guessing he's supposed to be the easiest boss?

I mean, really, a Baseball robot? That's like the beginning of a bad joke, like vampires playing baseball!

Okay, so I popped in Mega Man X2 upon finishing the original. I like how some of the enemies (like the X-Hunters) are a bit more threatening and push the idea that the stakes are higher this time around, but I was able to squash all three (during the eight boss levels) without breaking a sweat or without any sub-tanks. Still, I think I'll pop in X3 after this even though it's a pretty standard sequel as well.

Has anyone here checked out the Rockman Anniversary Book. I've never thought that Mega Man 3 was as good as people say it is, and Inafune has some interesting comments about the game's development:

"Although '2' was a huge success, about a year passed before we started work on '3', simply because out eternal leader quit his job. e got a new leader for '3', but he didn't really understand Mega Man the way his predecessor did... and that resulted in some headaches. It was especially hard on me, because I had learned so much while working on '1' and '2', which left me with a lot of preset notions about how things should be."

An interesting note, MM3, also took boss character submissions, and there was 50,000 of them. Wow.

Another interesting comment would be, "Again, i was responsible for taking on anything and everything that we were running out of time on. I did the enemy settings, the specifications, and even worked on the maps. By the time I started working on these things however, we were already in trouble as far as deadlines were concerned. So I got some extra help, and divided up the work amongst us."

Sounds like the depended on him a lot.

After this, it talks about adding sliding action, Proto Man, and Rush, and even a fun little note about Top Man. But there is ONE more note of interest, that backs up your claim.

"I was stretched well beyond my job description for '3' to say the least. At one point, I even found myself having a discussion with the Sound Lead, although that certainly did not mean I had any less illustration work to do. Suffice to say, I was kept very busy. There are a lot of little things that I'm unhappy with when it comes to '3', and if I had the chance, I would definitely redo most of it"

Yeah, I've read these in the artbooks. I'm not a huge fan of III either, although I think II is somewhat overrated despite the fact it was the title that got me into video games.

Still, I think the most important quote has to be in the X artbook, where Inafune apologizes for Mega Man X6. I don't think it was his fault that game ended up being so terrible, but at least someone stepped up plate and said something.

The thing that's funny about the X artbook is when the artists comment on the bosses post-X4 and act like the artwork is just as good. That's not really the case when you're running out of subject matter - can anyone look at Snipe Anteater and even put in in the same league as Spark Mandrill or Magma Dragoon? Still, I guess they do deserve credit for making crap ideas look half decent.

Outside some of the music, I really wish Mega Man X6~X8 didn't exist, even if X8 is decent enough.

I'm in the "like" camp with MM3, partly for the great music and clever boss designs, but also because I geniunely enjoyed the additions of the slide and rush transformations.

I really don't get the hate for X6. Sure, Inafune didn't want it to exist, but designers don't always get their way. The story had interesting possibilities, the music was still excellent, and Gate was an awesome boss. Too bad they threw in Sigma at the end for no reason. At least we got an awesome remix of his theme!

Lastly, the Nightmare System was a cool innovation. I've heard it randomly makes some stages unbeatable. I've only played the game twice and was able to get past everything with the right powerups. Was I just lucky?

It's honestly very difficult for me to choose between the original X and X2. They were both f---ing awesome. I like X3 enough I suppose, but in the end, it's definitely the weakest of the SNES entries. I never really noticed how grating the synth and song composition were compared to the previous two either until I read this article.

While I agree with the article generally, I like X3's music better overall than X2's, and two of the three examples they use comprise two of my three personal favorites from the soundtrack (Beetle and Seahorse, Doppler Stage 1 being the third). It would be so much easier to pick on Buffalo's or Rhino's themes to make the X3-has-crappy-music argument, but hey.