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fanboymaster

(He/Him)
I'm on the last stage of MM4 now and I feel quite mixed on it. It's usually a better "feeling" game than 3 but its doubled down on the good and bad aspects of its predecessor. Some sections are by consequence very neat and then some are very troll-y and obnoxious. The biggest change feels like it's that they've retreated super far from how the master weapons had been designed earlier. It feels like they wanted to make the Robot Masters more of a fight even if you had the right weapon and to emphasize the Mega Buster, whatever the case they didn't make so many of the weapons "X but worse" by accident. That said there's clearly a desire for a relatively uniform level of power which leads to odd situations like Bright Man's time stop being way more conventionally useful than Flash Man's, but the more prevalent balancing direction's downward. I can walk with Skull Barrier but it dissipates so quickly that's not typically useful and I'd rather be able to fire it. This was noticeable as the way things were trending in 3, Shadow Man's weapon is basically Metal Man's with additional drawbacks, but like many of 3's decisions it's more pronounced here.

EDIT: Also I decided to grind just to see if the E-tank counter having two digits meant you could actually have more than 9, but no the second digit is a lie.
 
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fanboymaster

(He/Him)
Those are actually what made me irritated with the Skull Shield, I kept getting bad results using it and resorted to using Bright Man's weapon to just stop the boulders from dropping at all (assuming I'm thinking of the same section).
 

Destil

DestilG
(he/him)
Staff member
Yep, I just stop those and keep moving; the other weapons fall off hard after the stopper.

Pharaoh Shot is a top 5 weapon for sure, though.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
I like Mega Man 4, but the introduction of the charge shot definitely changes the calculus with Robot Master weapons. In general, efficient charging can get you through stages without even resorting to the other weapons. It also de-emphasizes the boss order as well, since you can waltz in with a weapon capable of dealing three damage per shot.
 

fanboymaster

(He/Him)
I feel like that's true if you know these games well, but if you're a novice at them like me the charge shot is too painfully slow to make most of them workable without dying a number of times learning their pattern... or the boss being Toad Man.
 

ShakeWell

Slam Master
(he, etc.)
Speaking of Mega Man 4, I found this quite interesting:


Includes some Game Genie codes to fuck around with the Charge Shot, etc.

ALSO: this video taught me that if Mega Man doesn't move, neither will SKULL MAN? Like, you can just stare him down.
 

4-So

Spicy
Truefax on Skull Man. "Whoever blinks first loses."

Anyway, I love this game. I love all of the first six. I replayed MMLC for the second time last summer, finishing each game and getting gold on all the challenges and this thread is giving me a hankering to do it again.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
I feel like that's true if you know these games well, but if you're a novice at them like me the charge shot is too painfully slow to make most of them workable without dying a number of times learning their pattern... or the boss being Toad Man.
Yeah, that's probably true, too. I'd been playing Mega Man for a long time at that point, and I think I might have even had MM5 before MM4, but that's all fuzzy in my head now.

As for Toad Man, he's ridiculously exploitable as long as you use the normal shot. You can keep him in the "cancel rain storm, slide under jump, cancel rain storm, repeat" pattern until he's dead. I almost always start at him because of that.
 

4-So

Spicy
I used to start with Toad Man but nowadays I usually go with Pharoah Man or Bright Man. Pharoah because he's fairly easy and Bright Man because he's easy if you do the trick to get his HP in such a way that you charge shot him to death and skip right on past the trigger for his using the Flash Stopper.
 

ArugulaZ

Fearful asymmetry
Speaking of Mega Man 4, I found this quite interesting:


Includes some Game Genie codes to fuck around with the Charge Shot, etc.

ALSO: this video taught me that if Mega Man doesn't move, neither will SKULL MAN? Like, you can just stare him down.

You could say that you can keep Skull Man from attacking if you just... play dead.
 

MetManMas

Me and My Bestie
(He, him)
As for Toad Man, he's ridiculously exploitable as long as you use the normal shot. You can keep him in the "cancel rain storm, slide under jump, cancel rain storm, repeat" pattern until he's dead. I almost always start at him because of that.
Given his main attack targets the entire screen he would be nigh impossible to fight if you couldn't easily stop him from using it.

Toad Man is definitely a fight that goes from kinda bullshit to an easy starter once you know the trick.
 

fanboymaster

(He/Him)
5 and 6 down. 5 was pretty eh not a whole lot of strong feelings, smoother than 4 but unmemorable, particularly the soundtrack. 6 I actually really liked. Good soundtrack, fun level design, way easier than the prior ones but mostly for lacking a lot of instant death cruelty. Nice to have all the NES games polished off for the first time.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Congrats. Now you'll break them out again every so often like the rest of us. :) And your opinion might even change each time you play through 'em again.
 

fanboymaster

(He/Him)
Mega Man 7 initial thoughts a few stages in. This seems fine though I feel like it learned the wrong lessons from MM6 and X. 6 had neat branching levels with cool stuff in them, X had intuitive interactions between level layout and weapons along with neat secrets. 7 has... Rush Search, which turns a lot of the cool bonuses into "hope you looked up where this is" because I haven't seen any indications where the special items are. It also generally feels less intuitive when to use your weapons. Using Freeze Cracker on the weather robot in Cloud Man's stage feels kinda arbitrary. Still the game is pretty, has some decent music. Having a decent time.
 

4-So

Spicy
I love the aesthetics of MM7 much more than actually playing it. It's not bad, per se, but it feels quite a bit different in comparison to the NES games that I love, which is to say, all of them. Maybe it's because of the great albeit rather large spritework. It feels plodding and claustrophobic, Mega Man himself isn't as fun to control. I've been through the game once and that was enough. These days, I'd rather watch someone else play than play it myself.
 

fanboymaster

(He/Him)
Woo that went downhill in the last third I say as though I didn't just ragequit the wily capsule for the night.

EDIT: Couldn't sleep so took another crack at it, still just a dreadful fight even aside from being too hard. Overall the game's not baaaaad but all of the difficult parts are difficult generally so for irritating reasons. Still, there's good in there. That said, the game's done onward to... Wily Wars? Sure why not.
 
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ArugulaZ

Fearful asymmetry
The Wily fight in Mega Man 7 is total crap. They balance it out a little in the Legacy Collection 2 by having him do half damage, which is good because you're going to need all the help you can get.

(By the way, no spoilers, but the ending is worth the trouble. Just trust me on this.)
 

LBD_Nytetrayn

..and his little cat, too
(He/him)
The Wily fight in Mega Man 7 is total crap. They balance it out a little in the Legacy Collection 2 by having him do half damage, which is good because you're going to need all the help you can get.

(By the way, no spoilers, but the ending is worth the trouble. Just trust me on this.)

Wait, really? Is that an easy mode thing, or anything you can adjust? I can take on Wily just fine, I'd rather go for the full experience if I decide to stream it or something.

Either way, though, yes, the ending is absolutely one of my favorites from the entire franchise. It gutted me when they removed most of it in Mega Man Anniversary Collection.
 

ArugulaZ

Fearful asymmetry
Wait, really? Is that an easy mode thing, or anything you can adjust? I can take on Wily just fine, I'd rather go for the full experience if I decide to stream it or something.

Either way, though, yes, the ending is absolutely one of my favorites from the entire franchise. It gutted me when they removed most of it in Mega Man Anniversary Collection.


You can turn it on and off as you please. I turned it on, because I think 7 was the one where he launches four tiny bullets that hone in on you and intersect on your location, all in the blink of an eye. Annoying! ANNOYING!
 

LBD_Nytetrayn

..and his little cat, too
(He/him)
Dipping into Wily Wars to avoid skipping it entirely, this sure is the first 3 games but mostly worse.

I liked it when I played it, honestly. The NES games are better, sure, but the visuals and music kept it interesting, and I found it a good test of my skills and knowledge in the first three games.

Of course, the real reason to play lies at the end: Wily Tower. That's the sweetest plum.


You can turn it on and off as you please. I turned it on, because I think 7 was the one where he launches four tiny bullets that hone in on you and intersect on your location, all in the blink of an eye. Annoying! ANNOYING!

Oh, right, the extra armor mode, I forgot that was in there.

And yeah, that's 7.

If you can turn it on at any time, I'll have to remember that for more casual playthroughs. (I.e probably not on stream.)
 

fanboymaster

(He/Him)
Wily Tower unlocked. Impressed that they didn't take the time to make sure protoman's pallete displays properly when you beat Wily with Top Spin at the least. Kinda exemplifies how unpolished the whole thing feels.

EDIT: Put Wily Tower off for a bit and did GB Mega Man 2, that was a breezy thing. Pretty sure if I'd played that as a child I'd like Mega Man more but I played Dr Wily's Revenge which is a bastard game. In any case, not amazing but a very simple easy to pick up game, no real complaints.
 
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Phantoon

I cuss you bad
Dr Wily’s Revenge is at the very top level of difficulty I'll put up with. It's fair but really, really mean. I won't argue that it's a heartless bastard, but if you're feeling masochistic there's some fun to be had.
 

LBD_Nytetrayn

..and his little cat, too
(He/him)
Every time I try, I just can't get into that one.

To me, the Game Boy games just start at the bottom and get better with every installment.
 
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