Made it! Through the rest of
Mega Man 2, too. I am definitely going back - the game keeps ticking away in my mind. The music, the graphics, certain set-pieces, that feeling when I scraped through sections which used to seem impossible: yes, this is a game which is worth the effort of learning, and which I'll find fun to replay. That music though, some themes are so good I want to play the levels again so I can listen to it, and to be good enough at the game I can pay more attention to the music instead of focusing survival. Wily Castle 1 is great motivation music: listening to that I feel like I can do anything!
Then I die.
The Wily levels were mostly not too horrific, boobeam trap and the sheer number of bosses in the last 2 levels excluded. There were some spots where I ended up rewinding and retrying so constantly I hardly knew if I was going forwards or backwards by the time I got through. The rewind on the two Nintendo Online apps is nicer than the one in this collection as it lets you choose from still frames instead of slowly playing backwards. I think I'll try and rely more on save states in future, and trim the number down with each replay. It's a shame that the Legacy Collection's challenge mode locks most of the scenarios away until you finish some. I want to practice certain boss fights and it probably has a mode for that, if I finish a bunch of irrelevant stuff first. Ho hum.
It's been fascinating to see how these NES games strike me.
Metroid I finished and found ok but couldn't see any reason to play again when the rest of that excellent series is right there. Except it kept niggling away at me. Something about how cold it feels. Played it through again, liked it a bit better but still wasn't too bothered, assumed I was done, and then I started wondering about the viability of the long beam.
Legend of Zelda was brutal to get into but once I acclimated to the combat and pace (and got a map) I got on quite well. Will probably replay as sweeping the overworld for goodies so I can go uber my way through the dungeons is satisfying.
Rygar I got on well with, to the point where I hardly needed emulator support. I wouldn't play it again despite that success. Nothing about it lasts with me.
Castlevania 1's Japanese mode was decent enough fun, and I'd like to both get better at it and play through the sequels. Eventually. I have a lot of history with the Igavania side of the franchise so it'd be nice to get on with the Classicvanias.
Super Mario Bros was ... ok? If I improved my skill so I need to cheat less I'd probably like it more, I just don't feel terribly compelled to do so.
As a kid, Mega Man 2 was the only Mega Man game I could actually clear most of the bosses. Except Quick Man. I'd look at my Jeff Rovin book, and it would say "use the flash stopper," and I'd do that and still lose. I figured it was literally impossible. And I was playing it on easy mode! I wasn't able to clear Mega Man 2, on any difficulty, until I was an adult.
The best tech if the beams are gettin' you is to learn the first couple patterns and save the stopper for the later ones. But using the stopper at all also makes Quick Man much harder, because you kinda need it for him, too. Of course you can grind out weapon recovery from some of the enemies in the stage. But those quick beams, man. Keep at it!
If you can make it past the first few screens for the second set of lasers, I think you can pretty safely use the flash stopper to get past the rest!
Thank you for being supportive. I found the previous incarnation of this forum while searching for a sensible Mega Man 11 discussion at that game's launch. The two decent forums I knew of were mostly ignoring it as it didn't appeal to the userbase. Had to make sure this place was free of the Git Gud crowd, the Suddenly Nazis effect, and judge whether I needed to be gender ambiguous or not if I posted. Took me a while to get around to making an account after I decided it was safe.
I had been wanting to play the Mega Mans ever since I played Battle Network 1 and learned that the characters were pulled from an old series. Each time I've thought about it the fanbase has put me off with their combo of "these games are super difficult!" and "these games can be finished deathless by a blindfolded baby!". People have been playing these games for their entire lives and have lost perspective on them, which is understandable, but then roll their view out in an aggressive and belittling way which instantly put me off every time. 11's speed gear and newbie-friendly modes got me to take the risk, and by gosh is that game fun. I had some encouragement from another site at the start of Covidtimes and now here I am, with 11 recently replayed, various other MMs dabbled with, and Mega Man 2 finished.
