Tag: Mega Man X

PSP Sony

Maverick Hunter X

Completed Maverick Hunter X.
They changed the locations of all body parts. So now you get the Legs upgrade on Flame Mammoth stage where you previously got Arms in that insanely difficult jump. Now it’s easy. Head is in Chill Pinguin stage in a new tiny room. And where head previously been it’s now Armor. So you get Armor before getting the Arms, which are the ones guarded by the boss now.
With Dash and Armor Eagle is doable. And I’ve got Mammoth even without Eagle’s weapon. Chameleon is also doable without the Boomerang now, I think his attacks are slower and spikes are more predictable. Armadillo is a bit harder than before, as you can’t stick to walls, he has a new rolling attack against that. With that, my two last bosses where Octopus and Kuwanger.
Octopus is easy now, as his fish fly in an arc pattern, giving an opportunity to dodge.
One interesting bit is that in Sigma’s Fortress, when you meet Launch Octopus, the first of the returning bosses, again, he speaks like a zombie, and X comments that Sigma brought them “back to life”. In the original game, there was no explanation given why you have to fight the bosses again after killing them once.
Also, the design of the location is more immersive, I would say.

It’s the first time I understood that you don’t just jump on handing platforms, those are stairwells that collapsed during Zero’s assault.

The only returning boss that isn’t a pushover is Armadillo. That “Sonic roll” is still an immense pain. The unique bosses are much easier, though. Especially notable on the spider: it’s slower, and the paths aren’t as favorable as in the original.
Sigma is also much slower now, making it for a fight that even a normal person could enjoy. And the final Wolf form, while still punishing, has saner hitboxes.

Despite the slightly more difficult start due to lack of Dash and new attacks for some bosses, Maverick Hunter X is a welcome remake, that enraged me far less than the original. What really makes this game outstanding in my eyes, though, is the voice acting. It’s great, a really brings the characters to life.

Tags Mega Man X

PSP Sony

Maverick Hunter X

This is a remake of Mega Man X, and probably one of the most impressive remakes I’ve seen. They got the designs, and the tone exactly right. So it’s sad that it was only ever released for PSP.

One thing that is “rigth but wrong” with transition to 3D, though, is X turning. With 2D model it was just the flipping of a sprite, the speed they kept with 3D, but now it looks strange.
Interestingly they changed the bosses quite significantly. It’s well known that the fight with Vile can’t be won on SNES. Here, you actually expected to beat him before he grabs you and Zero intervenes.

Another example is Storm Eagle. I mentioned that in the original game it’s quite harmless. Not anymore! Not only it can flow you off the ship easier to instadeath, but it now also throws homing pigeons at you as well rams you horizontally.

The upgrades were changed a bit as well. You don’t get Dash on Chill Penguin stage for free anymore.
After harder Eagle, I didn’t expect Mandril to be so easy. The original Mandril had invincibility after you froze him twice. So you had to dodge his dash attack. Not anymore. You can freeze the poor monkey to death now.

Tags Mega Man X

Emulation Nintendo

Mega Man X

Completed Mega Man X.
What surprised me after Mega Man X4 is that although you need to figth the bosses again, it is not a gauntlet. Instead, they are spread organically through multiple stages, and you also have unique bosses to figth along the way. The spider boss is difficult, but I’d say fair, after you understand it’s gimmick: it can only get to you if it has a path on the “ladder”. The “sleepy face” boss that throws its eyes at you is less fun, as it has this one-hit-kill spikes mechanic, and the “nose” has a bounce mechanic.
And by “TRex” boss I ran out of most of my ammo, so I was just throwing shit at it.
Sigma fight is three stages, but at least you start it with full health and energy tanks. First phase is the dog, which is easy. Second phase is Sigma jumping on walls, and it’s tiring, because you need to be very precise, and constantly walljump. Third phase is the wolf form, which is cool, but also random, akin to last form from Mega Man X4. Sometimes you just get unlucky and will be blasted by the plasma balls over and over, which are extremely hard to dodge.

I’ve heard some complain that this game is too easy.

In my opinion, it’s reasonably hard. You still need to know what you’re doing and be very intentional about it, and some jumps are quite ridiculous, but it’s doable even with someone bad reflexes as I am.

Tags Mega Man X

Emulation Nintendo

Mega Man X

Strangely, the midboss of the Mandril stage, Thunder Slimer, gave me much more trouble that Mandril itself. It’s hard to avoid due to its sticky slime, and still kills X in a couple of hits.

Unlike previous three bosses, Armadilo is no pushover. It’s a “bouncy” boss, but unlike second phase of Sigma in Mega Man X4, I couldn’t find a clear pattern, so I had to brawl it cyborg’o’marsupial
The Mammoth is very easy if you fought Pinguin and Eagle first to freeze the stage and get the Eagle weapon. Octopus though is tough. First, his stage is beautiful, with an impressive on SNES water effect, but it has one of the worst mini-bosses in the game, that sucks you on spikes, which are one-hit-kill. What’s also cool about Octopus stage is that I didn’t destroy the submarine, and fought mostly harmless eel. Turns out if you do destroy the submarine, you have to fight it in a spiky arena. Have no idea why someone would prefer it, though.

Then there’s the X-Buster upgrade on Mammoth stage… What can I say, the reason I won’t replay this game ever, I think, is this bullshit jump you need to perform.

Tags Mega Man X

Emulation Nintendo

Mega Man X

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 23, 2024

Decided to give Mega Man X a try. For SNES, this is definitely impressive. Not in terms of visuals, as I think Disney’s games and Earthworm Jim are more impressive. But the first level takes place on a bridge, and crusher enemies destroy that bridge. Terrain manipulation in a 2D platformer from ’93 is mindblowing.
Regarding bosses difficulty, I found Pinguin to be extremely easy. You stick to the top of the wall and shoot it in the face until it dies. The only issue solved in later games is that X doesn’t automatically shoot away from the wall. Which doesn’t make any sense, I know.
Also, Dash is a special move in the first game, which you need to aquire. Luckily, it’s impossible to miss it if you pick the right stage.
Eagle is also surprisingly easy. I mean, you can literally smash him in the face with regular shots, no need to charge them.
A feature no other game implemented, I think, is that killing one boss makes another stage easier. I thought it’s insignificant at first, but then the electric floor at the Mandril stage was so infuriating I went to pay Eagle a visit first.

Tags Mega Man X

PSX Sony

Mega Man X4

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 20, 2024

Since Zero playthrough went so well, I decided to give X a try, although I always found him more difficult. Maybe I was wrong. What you do need, though, is to remap your controls: I put dash on left bumper, regular attack on right trigge and special attack on right bumper. Because you need them all at the same time. How people play with default mapping is beyond me.

X’s regular attack is basically a peashooter, but his fully charged attack is quite good. And since his attacks are ranged, the bosses I struggled with as Zero, such as Spider and Stringray, are much more manageable. You still need to master the evade for the Spider, though.
The playthrough this time was Dragon, because always start with Dragon, then Walrus, as he’s still vulnerable to fire, unlike Peacock, then Spider, then Stingray, which is easy with Walrus’ weapon.
Colonel is still vulnerable to Ice, for some reason, just like with Zero.
Then both Mushroom is vulnerable to Spider’s web, and Lion to Stingrays. And Owl fight with Peacock’s weapon is laughable.
Overall, I feel like X gameplay is much easier than Zero, because his weapons realy exploit their weaknesses. During the General fight, which I found to be thoughtest with Zero, I literally took no damage with X.

First two phases of Sigma are also easy. Third one is just… long. Unlike the first two phases, this one doesn’t seem to have any weaknesses. So you just go through the annoying phases over and over until it dies.
It is more than 5 minutes of real time. I know, because I recorded only last 5 minutes of it.

I had to pause the game to give my fingers a rest at one point.
But now, I can say I’ve done it. Finished Mega Man X4, 28 years later 😆

Tags Mega Man X, Mega Man X4

PSX Sony

Mega Man X4

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 18, 2024

Completed Mega Man X4 with Zero, fulfilling my childhood dream, one might say.
While Colonel is manageable, Zero against the General is another story. His only vulnerable part is the head, but touching it, or any other part of the body hurts Zero. I had to backtrack to get the second energy tank, and refill it in the Walrus stage, and beat Iris again just to be ready for this fight.

Then you need to beat the 8 animal bosses again. This sounds terrifying, but there are a few caveats to that challenge. You do get to replenish some life between the fights, and if you die, you don’t need to repeat the gauntlet all over, the killed bosses stay dead.

The final boss is all-in-all not that hard. First phase is extremely predictable. Second phase requires some well timed wall jumps, but still doable. The only challenge is to have enough life for the third phase. And the third phase is total random. I got lucky with the “alien” shooting above Zero’s head over and over.

Tags Mega Man X, Mega Man X4

Emulation Nintendo PSX Sony Switch

Mega Man X4

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 17, 2024

I always had a special relationship with Mega Man X4. It was the first Mega Man game I’ve seen, because for a strange reason, it was ported to PC. But also, many years later, while trying Mega Man X3 and Mega Man X5 I understood that it hit the sweet spot of looking amazing, unlike X3 which still had SNES era visuals, but still having solid core gameplay, unlike X5.

What I didn’t understand as a kid is that Dragoon literally screams “hadouken” and “shouryuken”, because his moveset is basically Ryu/Ken from Street Fighter.

For some strange reason, Mega Man X Legacy Collection on Switch doesn’t have save states. I rarely use them nowadays, but Mega Man without them is still brutal.
My path is Dragon, which can be beaten with exosuit, and I think that’s the easy choice. Then Peacock, turned out to be easy as well with the fire sword. Then Walrus, for obvious reasons.

Then Lion, you just need to dodge the stomps. And Stingray, despite being weak to the Walrus weapon, can also be taked out with a saber, you can jump safely underneath.

The most trouble, I had with the spider. You need to dash-jump to avoid the homing webs, and even then, I feel that sometimes it’s very hard to do, as his position is quite random.

With Spider weapon, Mushroom is easy. And I left Owl for the last, although with Peacock’s weapon, I could have done it much sooner.

Tags Mega Man, Mega Man X, Mega Man X4