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 Episode 1 - Nintendo Should Sue Spiked Death Count: 19 And we begin Mega Man 10! (With a slight title formatting change!)
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Mar 29, 2018 00:44
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| # ? May 15, 2024 22:35 |
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Because of course the robot is an electric sheep inside a computer level. Surprised they didn't add pillows too. The lamb has been chopped?
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Mar 29, 2018 01:13
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Ewe've been rammed
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Mar 29, 2018 01:44
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Mega Man & Bass originally released on the SNES (this was after MM8 on the Playstation, mind, with MM&B actually using sprites and Robot Masters from MM8), but that version never saw a US release, presumably because the SNES was on its way out by the time the game hit shelves. It was re-released on the GBA back in the early 2000s, which did see a US release. The whole Maverick Virus and the fact that the Mavericks were being influenced by something outside their own programming was introduced in MMX3, IIRC. In the first two, Sigma was simply the leader of the Mavericks, not their root cause. As for the events surrounding X and Zero's creation and the time skip between MM Classic and MMX, Capcom has been deliberately vague. I believe the "Zero killed Dr. Wily" bit is technically fanon based upon the very little that we do know about that time period, and possibly the plotline of Bob and George, a popular Mega Man sprite fancomic.
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Mar 29, 2018 02:55
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The opening crawl to this game DID say 20XX instead of 200X, so I'm willing to accept it as the MMX lead-in.
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Mar 29, 2018 03:03
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So can you hotswap in Protoman, or is it just a character select?
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Mar 29, 2018 03:46
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Commander Keene posted:Mega Man & Bass originally released on the SNES (this was after MM8 on the Playstation, mind, with MM&B actually using sprites and Robot Masters from MM8), but that version never saw a US release, presumably because the SNES was on its way out by the time the game hit shelves. It was re-released on the GBA back in the early 2000s, which did see a US release. MMX2 definitely had the maverick virus, being that was the final form of Sigma in that game. The fact it was the original cause of Maverick Reploids didn't come into play until MMX3, and its further connection to Zero came even after that. Zero being made by Wily wasn't a thing until it first showed up Mega Man Power Fighters 2 (the fighting game) of all places, but it was confirmed in X4 and all the stuff about the virus originating from him either wasn't there or wasn't there explicitly until X5 (where it was actually a gameplay mechanic). What actually happened between MM and MMX is very much still up in the air. The fan theory I remember back in the day was that Wily had the brilliant idea to make Zero and give him the maverick virus using some of the  energy from MM8. The theory posits Zero went berserk and caused a big cataclysm before being rendered dormant, later being dug up in the MMX time period to cause more havoc with the virus jumping to then-Maverick-Hunter Sigma when he and Zero fought. There was a decent circumstantial case for most of this but big swathes have been confirmed non-canonical over the years with later official materials saying Zero was explicitly never activated until the X games so he couldn't have caused whatever ended classic Megaman. Notably a big chunk of all this chronology was because classic megaman ended right around MM8 and people assumed that there was some grand Megaman narrative and that the ending of classic Megaman at that point in the series was somehow deliberately causal. More to the point people assumed there was some grand Megaman narrative at all rather than a bunch of minor story and dialogue scenes over a run and gun shooty mcbangbang robot blasting game. Both assumptions are rather questionable two decades on from the height of the Megaman storyline debates, especially since the revival of classic Megaman.It's always worth remembering that MMX3 ends with narration explicitly stating that X is destined to destroy Zero for the sake of world peace, something that never ever happened in any of the dozen plus games with both characters. The idea of there being some grand deep Megaman storyline tripped over its very first hurdle and fell headfirst in a well.
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Mar 29, 2018 03:48
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Bruceski posted:The opening crawl to this game DID say 20XX instead of 200X, so I'm willing to accept it as the MMX lead-in. Omnicrom posted:MMX2 definitely had the maverick virus, being that was the final form of Sigma in that game. The fact it was the original cause of Maverick Reploids didn't come into play until MMX3, and its further connection to Zero came even after that. Zero being made by Wily wasn't a thing until it first showed up Mega Man Power Fighters 2 (the fighting game) of all places, but it was confirmed in X4 and all the stuff about the virus originating from him either wasn't there or wasn't there explicitly until X5 (where it was actually a gameplay mechanic). Omnicrom posted:What actually happened between MM and MMX is very much still up in the air. The fan theory I remember back in the day was that Wily had the brilliant idea to make Zero and give him the maverick virus using some of the Omnicrom posted:It's always worth remembering that MMX3 ends with narration explicitly stating that X is destined to destroy Zero for the sake of world peace, something that never ever happened in any of the dozen plus games with both characters. The idea of there being some grand deep Megaman storyline tripped over its very first hurdle and fell headfirst in a well.
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Mar 29, 2018 04:04
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Commander Keene posted:That actually started with MM5, and MM6 carried it over. My mistake, MMX's start year is 21XX not 20XX
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Mar 29, 2018 04:07
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Commander Keene posted:I definitely think more than a little of that fan theory was people reading too much into things and it was helped along by B&G. Also, I heard some bit about MMX was supposed to end with X5 and then the Capcom execs did X6 without Inafune (who was working on one of the MMZ games at the time, IIRC). This is a chicken and egg debate, but my recollection was actually that B&G was pretty loyal to the pre-eminent fan theories of the time. Having actually been one of those sad chumps (read: pre-teens) who read Bob and George for a good long while back in the day I recall quite clearly that there were firmly established fan theories along the lines of what I regurgitated for quite a while before B&G took a swing at portraying the end of classic Megaman.
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Mar 29, 2018 04:18
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I think a lot of the "Zero kills Wily" stuff comes from the first X4 cutscene on Zero's path. It involves a flashback/dream where Wily's silhouette wakes up Zero and tell him to kill his rival (Dr. Light), followed by Zero getting a headache and a bunch of flashes of destroyed robots and Zero's hands covered in blood/oil. It's all just vague enough to heavily imply things while giving Capcom endless amounts of wiggle room. None of it really matters since the X series throws any lore it has out the window from game to game (especially later on) and the original series is never going to portray the brutal murder of its Saturday morning cartoon villain. As far as Mega Man 10 goes, I'd say that its shop, the rate at which you get bolts for said shop, the minibosses, and the fortress levels are all improvements over 9 and most of the boss fights are good too. The biggest knocks against it are that its weapons are mediocre and its robot master levels vary more in quality compared to those of 9. The quality of unique level gimmicks tends to be the main factor in determining how good a Mega Man game is and 10 has some really interesting levels like Sheep Man's and some others where the gimmicks feel underutilized or just aren't very interesting in the first place. It's still one of the better Mega Man games overall, but I'd definitely put it below 8 and 9. Also, I used my own copy of Legacy Collection 2 to confirm that 10 does have quick swap for the weapons so you don't need to worry about constantly opening and closing the menu this time around.
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Mar 29, 2018 06:09
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Bruceski posted:Because of course the robot is an electric sheep inside a computer level. Surprised they didn't add pillows too. I got the same reaction as tea and nat when I first played. Then it dawned on me. genius But yes, you can already see how much better the level design is, it lets you see and plan out so you don't get cheapshotted, it's harsh at times but fair overall. There is one mechanic that is really counterintuitive and I feel the game just fails to teach properly, but that's a lone exception and it's more of an optional thing really. I can think of one instance where it comes into play. mortons stork fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Mar 29, 2018 |
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Mar 29, 2018 19:06
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I swear I remember there being a cutscene in one of the X games where Maverick Hunter Sigma punches Zero in his big green head crystal thing, and a liquid sprays out all over Sigma that's implied to be the Zero Virus.Omnicrom posted:It's always worth remembering that MMX3 ends with narration explicitly stating that X is destined to destroy Zero for the sake of world peace, something that never ever happened in any of the dozen plus games with both characters. The idea of there being some grand deep Megaman storyline tripped over its very first hurdle and fell headfirst in a well. An awful lot happens between the end of MMX and the beginning of the Mega Man Zero series. A plausible fanon would have X getting turned into an elf during the Elf Wars, his body being co-opted into a despot who rules in the name of world peace, and Zero getting destroyed while fighting said despot. IIRC it's never explained why Zero's corpse is in some random basement at the start of the MMZ series.
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Mar 29, 2018 20:44
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:An awful lot happens between the end of MMX and the beginning of the Mega Man Zero series. A plausible fanon would have X getting turned into an elf during the Elf Wars, his body being co-opted into a despot who rules in the name of world peace, and Zero getting destroyed while fighting said despot. IIRC it's never explained why Zero's corpse is in some random basement at the start of the MMZ series. According to the presumably official audio dramas bundled onto a remastered soundtrack CD of MMZ music (because that's a sensible place to divulge this information), it was actually Zero who sealed himself away at the end of the Elf Wars between MMX and MMZ.
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Mar 29, 2018 21:58
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 Episode 2 - That's Not What I Want Spiked Death Count: 19  Voting is Open! Please input your votes in this format: 1. 2. 3. Going from your most favoured to least. E.g. 1. Solar Man 2. Commando Man 3. Chill Man.
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Mar 31, 2018 12:59
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Those ceiling spikes are completely non threatening IIRC, the rail cart doesn't offer a platform high enough that even a max height jump can get you onto spikes. Anyway, sure'd be nice to put those boss weaknesses to use 1. Pump man 2. Strike man 3. Solar man
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Mar 31, 2018 16:03
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mortons stork posted:1. Pump man I've got no problem with these.
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Mar 31, 2018 21:14
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mortons stork posted:Anyway, sure'd be nice to put those boss weaknesses to use What he said.
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Mar 31, 2018 21:42
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mortons stork posted:Anyway, sure'd be nice to put those boss weaknesses to use Agreeing with this. Also, there was a Blade Man before this, in the licensed game Mega Man 3 for DOS.
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Mar 31, 2018 23:43
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I definitely think Blade Man's stage is the weakest in the game (even if I love the miniboss design); the cart things are just tedious to deal with and they're never varied up in an interesting way. I didn't use checkpoint saves the two times I went through MM10 so fighting Blade Man without his weakness was pretty much out of the question for me and it was great to see people gradually learn one of the hardest Robot Master fights in the entire series. As for Thunder Wool, it's good for large, immobile targets or for getting around shields so it has its uses, but they are few and far between. Commando Man's stage is the one I'm looking forward to the most, though seeing one of the better weapons in 10 would be nice too so: 1. Commando Man 2. Pump Man 3. Chill Man
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Mar 31, 2018 23:57
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I think it's the autofire that made Thunder Wool that terrible, but wow that's a tiny clip. Are they expecting you to keep that energy saver rolling?
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Apr 1, 2018 01:55
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Megaman prior to 10 had Cut Man, Tomahawk Man, Slash Man, and Sword Man so Blade Man already had peers. This doesn't count Metal Man, Shadow Man, Punk, Pluto, Compass Man, and several more who use bladed weapons in combat. Anyways. 1. Strike Man 2. Solar Man 3. Pump Man
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Apr 1, 2018 05:16
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Seeric posted:I definitely think Blade Man's stage is the weakest in the game (even if I love the miniboss design); the cart things are just tedious to deal with and they're never varied up in an interesting way. I didn't use checkpoint saves the two times I went through MM10 so fighting Blade Man without his weakness was pretty much out of the question for me and it was great to see people gradually learn one of the hardest Robot Master fights in the entire series. As for Thunder Wool, it's good for large, immobile targets or for getting around shields so it has its uses, but they are few and far between. Yeah Blade man overall is one of the most MM9 stages in MM10, and it shows. The other stages aren't nearly as needlessly mean in their traps. I also dislike the boss fight's design. Blade Man is either insanely hard or completely trivial, since he can be locked in a pattern and there's a trick you can use where you are basically unhittable by him. I would've preferred a middle ground, like a fight that's doable on reflexes and a partial pattern. Figuring out the pattern is part of the fun, but I think this is too extreme and it becomes boring and unsatisfying once you figure it out perfectly.
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Apr 1, 2018 09:59
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Sorry there hasn't been an update folks. I'm a little under the weather so I've been putting off dealing with editing in favour of sleeping. Should be something out tomorrow.
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Apr 3, 2018 20:08
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 Episode 3 - Ambush Catfish Spiked Death Count: 19
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Apr 5, 2018 20:11
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I like the ways Pump Man's level plays around with a bunch of water mechanics, it's a rare example of a good sewer level and probably one of the better levels in Mega Man 10 in general. It's also the first level in this run with a branching path, but it's not the only one; 10 likes path branches more than other Mega Man games and I think that's one of 10's biggest strengths. Pump Man's shield isn't as ridiculous as Jewel Man's, but it is still a nice shield which provides both offense and defense. As for Pump Man himself and a fair number of the Robot Masters in 10, I think the problem is that Capcom tried to make them more "involved" fights than usual. Unfortunately, this is usually accomplished by giving bosses patterns where they spend a huge chunk of the fight outside of the mega buster's range (ex: Blade Man and Sheep Man) or by giving them attacks which make them more or less invincible for extended periods of time (ex: Pump Man whenever his shield is up, which is most of the time). The bosses don't change up their patterns or otherwise evolve as the fight progresses, so they end up feeling like battles of attrition where you're just dodging the same hard-hitting attacks over and over while waiting for the boss to present a very brief opening. They're generally tougher fights than in other games, but not usually in fun ways and losing to them can be especially frustrating if you're not loading checkpoints. They also all still fold like paper to their weaknesses (even Pump Man if you can aim Thunder Wool properly), so for many bosses you're basically choosing between long, tedious fights with the buster or fights which are over almost instantly with a weakness with no real middle ground. 10 polishes up some of 9's rough edges (ex: the shop isn't prohibitively expensive), it adds in some nice stuff (more branching paths and minibosses), and it adds Bass as a playable character for added replay value, but I think its low points are also noticeably worse than those of 9, making it a more wobbly game in terms of quality.
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Apr 5, 2018 21:05
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I was legit trying to throw you guys a bone with regards to boss choices  . I tend to agree that the MM10 bosses can feel a lot weaker, and I genuinely think the levels are the best parts (Wily has actually good bosses, but YMMV), so wasting too much time on bossfights that tend to be either very predictable and long or very brutal and also very long might sour you on the game a bit. I think they tried to make them more "learnable", which results in them being heavily pattern-reliant, so they're more doable on reflexes but they are also much more boring. It's a difficult middle-ground to find, and I personally don't think MM9 did it right either.The boss weapons are pretty good though, starting with the shield and with the tri-blade now you'll be seeing it. They have lots of utility and damage to them, and I encourage liberal use. Apart from thunder wool, you were indeed correct in your assessment of it being among the, if not the worst.
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Apr 5, 2018 21:25
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Thunder Wool is indeed a terrible weapon, but I cringed every time I saw two clouds go out either directly into the boss or nowhere near him. Y'all did the same thing when you were testing it out on regular enemies, and it's not really a hard concept to grasp - the weapon summons a cloud that shoots lightning directly down. You hit enemies with the lightning bolt, not the cloud. It's annoying to aim, and perhaps the cloud shouldn't disappear on contact with an enemy, but you can kill Pump Man in as few as three shots - the lightning sticks around long enough to hit him twice if your timing is good. Unless you just fire the clouds directly into his shield, in which case nothing will happen and you'll look a bit foolish in retrospect.
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Apr 5, 2018 22:21
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There have been a few branching paths in Mega Man classic games - the final Dr. Cossack level in Mega Man 4 had a split path, and four of the bosses from Mega Man 6 had alternate boss rooms to collect Beat, and I think the fortress levels also had a couple of separate paths based on using the Rush Adapter.
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Apr 6, 2018 01:26
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I think you might want to turn off autofire. It doesn't look to play nice with the boss weapons here, which is a weird limitation for a system they programmed in themselves.
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Apr 6, 2018 13:19
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Glazius posted:I think you might want to turn off autofire. It doesn't look to play nice with the boss weapons here, which is a weird limitation for a system they programmed in themselves. This made me curious, so I loaded up one of my old saves and held down autofire with Pump Man's weapon. If you hold down the button the shield will start to surround Mega Man like usual...and then immediately swirl away the moment it's complete. I don't want to ruin the blind run with too many details, but it also constantly double shoots Strike Man's weapon the way it does Thunder Wool and it completely negates the special feature of Nitro Man's weapon. So yeah, autofire and Robot Master weapons really don't seem to get along at all.
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Apr 7, 2018 00:22
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 Hello everyone! The next episode should be out tomorrow morning (I messed up some encoding creating an 8 gig video for 25 minutes whoops!) We have three bosses left and need you to vote on where we go. Please vote as such with your favourites in order: 1. 2. 3. e.g. 1. Nitro Man 2. Chill Man 3. Commando Man
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Apr 7, 2018 19:36
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Chill Man's stage is so forgettable that I can barely remember anything at all about it despite having played the game just a few months ago and I don't like his weapon so: 1. Commando Man 2. Nitro Man 3. Chill Man
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Apr 7, 2018 20:29
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1. Commando Man 2. Chill Man 3. Nitro Man Just so we can have a semblance of boss order here. Also, I'm seconding the recommendation to turn of turbo fire, or at least not use it with boss weapons.
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Apr 7, 2018 21:07
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Technowolf posted:1. Commando Man Honestly I have no idea what anyone's weak to in this game.
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Apr 7, 2018 21:53
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 Episode 4 - Touchdown! Spiked Death Count: 19 Voting remains open!
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Apr 8, 2018 14:05
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The most recent video made me realize one of the biggest differences between 9 and 10 which I never quite noticed before. 9 tends to stick to more traditional enemy types and areas, but it places a heavy emphasis on level gimmicks like Tornado Man's rotating platforms and Hornet Man's unrolling platforms. Meanwhile, 10 has a lot of very unusual level settings like Strike Man's and it focuses on adding in a ton of new, thematic enemy types, but the gimmicks are often underutilized. 10 is at its best in levels like Sheep Man's where you get a neat theme with fun new enemies and an interesting gimmick all rolled into one and it's at its worst in levels like Blade Man's and Solar Man's where the enemy types aren't particularly interesting and the gimmicks are underutilized or just bad (I guess Solar Man's gimmick is "dodging stuff on ladders"). It reminds me a bit of Mega Man 6 in that regard as 6 also has a lot of interesting ideas which, for the most part, never seem to go anywhere, though I'd definitely say 10 is better than 6.
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Apr 8, 2018 15:59
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Proto Man having to fight Mega Man would be pretty cool. The opposite has been covered pretty well already.
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Apr 8, 2018 21:30
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Yeah, Strike Man had a really neat stage. I wonder exactly how many years of sports-themed robots they had sketched out before they finally got one.
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Apr 11, 2018 02:21
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| # ? May 15, 2024 22:35 |
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Bonus Episode 3 Spiked Death Count: 19 More Bonus today, it's quarter end at my work and being ill hurt our ability to record a session last weekend, but that doesn't mean I'm not making content for you!
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Apr 11, 2018 22:31
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