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So wait... what?

The game features Rush Coil *AND* Mega Ball?

I thought half the point to Mega Ball was being a more effective/versatile "Rush Coil" to begin with! And a funner one too. Because face it... it IS. And... weird how they stuck with all 45-degree angles. (Did they?) I preferred the 30/60s, myself. But hey, I haven't played it yet.

Removing Rush Bike in favor of Jet makes some kind of sense. But Bike is still pretty fun, and isn't it key in speed runs? (If not, how come?)

 

Everybody knows the worst was the first.

The GutsMan canyon. The disappearing block traps. The Footholders. The nigh-inescapable FireMan traps. The exact-frame fire-freezing, and those oddbal upward jumps to make in a single tile-width of a gap.

BIG EYE. (Logic: Way harder to beat than any robot master.)

I'm breaking rule #1, because there's no way I can have a video recorded, uploaded, and annotated by 3 days ago.

1.- Best Game play

MM3, hands down. Both require precise movements to be successful, yes. But the updated physics in MM3, and the added depth of sliding and the Rush Adaptors make it more possible in 3; though 2 does get props for some unique elements, like the Buebeam Trap and concept of QuickMan's level; even if a little unbalanced in concept (BBT: blow it once, and you're screwed for good!).

2.- Best Robot Masters (compare the 8 robot masters from each game)

Duh. MM3 features all sixteen.

3.- Best Weapons (compare the weapons of both games and give your toughts)

TIE. Every weapon has it's usefulness, even if Spark Shock's is just MagnetMan. Even Shadow Blade ultimately makes sense, as ShadowMan is an amalgomation of QuickMan and MetalMan, and Shadow Blade is one of Quick Boomerang and Metal Blade.

4.- Best Design

Apples and oranges. MM2's plot is supplanted as it's opening and ending, while 3's gameplay IS the plot (though badly illustrated/not clarified.) MM7 is like a midpoint in design that, applied to either of these titles, would be maserful.

5.- Best Soundtrack

MM2, hands down, practically DEFINED the MegaMan sound, all around. MM3's soundtrack was great, but a little more hit-or-miss in some departments; most notably the use and appropriate level of percussion.

6.- Best Ideas

MM3. Not only with Rush and the slide, but the unforgettable concept of the Doc Robot levels; a key ingredient in the MM3 masterpiece that has yet to be reproduced in any of it's following titles. Another example is it's use of widgets; the magnets in MagnetMan's stage produced an anomaly in the gameplay that made such a level seem impossible to navigate otherwise.

7.- Best Game

MM3, but such a concept would never exist if MM2 hadn't existed first, AND been such a blockbuster to begin with.

Well, since the entire point of RMW was to adapt MegaMan action for a smaller screen size and lower processing power, and even cellphones now support Rockman 1 & 2, I think it's safe to say, apart from porting the original RMW games for kicks maybe, it very much IS dead. In fact, the closest thing I see to RMW ports is adapting the general level structures and bosses to full-screen or widescreen gameplay, now.

A little piece of Duo comes back every time you play Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter.

Yep. The new Doc Robot Needle Man section is friggin' brutal too - revenge of the TELLYS!

EDIT: Anybody get to the would-be-final chamber? The vertical one with the 3 Top Platforms...

What. The. FLICK. "?".

Posted on: March 03, 2009, 18:26:30UPDATE!!
And now, there's a Rockman 4 Endless, too.

Already done. Look up "Star Man." He takes on half the bosses from MMV (GB).

Pay close attention to the last entire minute of this video.

It's proof that it CAN be done, even if barely so. Man, that guy's a nut!

Where during this whole game, is Beat? (Noting suspicious "open icon" in weapons screen.)

I dunno.

Progress: Working lots of bugs/inconsistencies out now, getting minor baddies to act right, and procrastinating a bit too.

'

Also, anybody know if the Robot Master sprites for Rock8/Rock & Forte FC are done yet?

Okay, tested the SfW route with everyone.  Bass does in fact gain a double-somersault kick, which is very useful BTW.  Duo actually gets a downgrade; his useful uppercut becomes a straighforward punch, which rarely knocks anything back and more-often-than-not results in you getting hit.  Megaman and Protoman don't seem to get any benefit whatsoever, which still leaves those two open.

Continue holding up, and press Shoot rapidly using Duo's. His normal giant knuckle acts like Birdie's Hammer Slammer (he does a follow-up), and with the upgrade, it makes his setup a one-two combo first. IIRC, Proto Strike just lasts longer, or he moves a little bit forward with it, and Rock's Upper does a multi-hit, ala Ken.

http://nintendo.joystiq.com/2008/10/29/capcom-mega-man-9-still-holds-one-secret/

A gem, huh? Sounds like something going on in the Jewel Man stage, actually.

[that]

As for Rockman & Forte's Castle Stages, they're not that bad. I can see why they might say that if they're playing that GBA port, mind you.

The reduced visibility makes some otherwise normal parts of that game LETHAL. A couple sections of TenguMan's and GroundMan's stages come to mind, too.

How does that video support your belief?  He hardly charged up at all.  I tried playing that part of the game just now, and a single fully-charged shot was NOT enough to beat the Malmets which normally take 4 shots, and it only took 3 notches off the Skull Blazer meter.

So you all think = 3 shots should still be the standard, then?

The other comparison I was making before was that of Shadow Blades, Magnet Missiles, and Gyro Attacks to enemies, in comparison. Should each of those only = ~3 shots too?


Practice: I am using the MM4-style Balloon lifts, a practical equal of Item-1, and Item-2 is roughly equal to the Super Arrow from MM5, which is also featured; only main difference being that it doubles as a weapon and you can have more than one on the screen at a time. (I'm making that a set amount of energy though, not the continious/nearly-instant drainage that MM5 does with it.)

I suppose I could duplicate them with their MM2 sprites, for what that would matter. But roof-squishing = death, not glitching. Fair warning!

If it's true, then it could just be something as simple as stopping them at the 9 o'clock position, too. I'm sure that's been tried, right?

And IIRC, he supposedly creates Beat with the circuit plates you acquire in the game.

WOW. This topic actually reached an interesting point! And those are pretty badass illustrations, too. But to be honest, I'd only seen the MM9 one before now.

I mean that about other baddies, not just undamagable ones. Baddies themselves can be sub-coded to take "0 damage" from a weapon, rather than -just- deflecting the shots (Mizziles in MM5 come to mind). But exceeding the total damage for enemies theory pertains mostly to other enemies, not just the infinitely-damagable kind.

Proof of concept: I suppose charged Buster ~= 4 shots. Or at least, it's supposed to.

You think 4's easy, wait 'til you play MM6! Seriously. Just skip to MM7. You'll thank me later.

You mean from Deviantart MM3 chain weakness, right?

Huh? There's a DA of that? Link plz.

My guess, on both occasions, is that they're seperate sprites (the "Crash Bomb" and the "Explosion," for instance). Seems like you're already through the first chapter of the bunch (IE: MM1-3/WW); and 4-6 seem pretty systematic... about all I think will change there would be the weapons and their corresponding values. And it's also possible that your final hit -exceeded- the amounts needed to finish a baddie, rather than the exact total thereof. I'm pretty sure that a program as basic as NES-standard games is nearly all solid numbers.

I'm still tinkering. It's just taking time to get things coded correctly. I'm having to recode, making the mistake of hyphenating objects (which for some reason in GM, *always* implies a subtractive calculation, regardless of it's spacing), adjusting the coding to match... and there's not a lot of definitive stuff to talk about, really. ^.^'

I am trying to keep the baddie selection to a minimum of standard grunts (for example, to make everything similar to "Big Eye" or "Sniper Joe" consistent), for both sakes of simplicity and quicker loading; but it's still important to know where different weapons from different titles stand in regards to damaging such enemies. Comparing a Shadow Blade to a Magnet Missile is simple enough, they're in the same game. But comparing either one to say, a Gyro Attack or Silver Tomahawk, might not necessarily be so smooth, you know?

Also, debating on the quantity of screen-dedicated minibosses to feature... and preferably the funnest ones (like the Sphinx-thing in the Uranus stage of MMV (GB), the waterfall squid from AquaMan's stage (MM8), or the elephants in ConcreteMan's stage (MM9)). A lot of them are simply tedious, but some are really fun to fight... and I really just want to plug in the fun ones.

I think I've been nailed with a blade while spinning. Also, I believe ShadowMan gets motion sickness from spinning (hence the weakness). Well, that, and it's just freaking hard to land sometimes.

Only if I could copy/paste the NES code for them, which I doubt would work; being re-engined and all. Physics speed reflects that, too. And IIRC, the whole reason why they track enemy shots in WW is because the shots are no longer differenciated from being "enemies," themselves. (IE: "Shots = Enemies")

No, I'm just saying "I wish this were easier than it actually is." And in retrospect, randomizing elements probably IS a bad idea, especially if ghost-racing elements are in play, too.

Oh, [parasitic bomb]. That's right, "stalling" a rival, even minorly, would mistime the widget elements that are timing-specific like vanish-blocks or cloud-lifts. And scrolling them on-screen differently would, as well. That might not work either, after all...

[How Random is Too Random?]

How Random is Too Random?

I'm actually thinking of starting the project from scratch again - at least the room layouts; though I will keep a backup of where things are now. But after a few days of playing Spelunky, it got me to wondering... what if each level segment was constructed by randomly arranging a stage's elements? Granted, some are very vertical-oriented (ElecMan, CrashMan, and QuickMan come to mind) and many of the aerial ones, in irony, are very horizontal. But maybe doing such a thing is being too random.

I mean, Spelunky makes it work by giving you the ability to destroy the terrain, a liberty that's not very RockMan-like. And while adjusting to differing heights is addressed in many ways... I'm still not totally sure how to make such a thing work - for example, the vanishing-block rooms would have to be arranged so that travel in BOTH directions would be possible, and not by predictably going around in a circle, right?

The other reasoning/excuse behind considering a redo, besides testing this new concept approach, is making sure the graphical adjustments involved would actually work. Since the soundtrack isn't strictly 8-bit, then would using comparable graphics be so bad? (Besides that, there's no sign of NGPC-style HeatMan, GeminiMan, StoneMan, or CentaurMan, anywhere).

Finally, I think I'm kind of up against a wall, here. I guess one thing irking my program is the menu/configuration screens. I began charting gameplay rooms first, then came BACK and filled in that need later - but when I did that, the game configured itself to do the gameplay first, and the configuration later. And for some reason, that doesn't work too well!

Either way, it's just redoing the room structure that needs done so far - and I may need to make a MMAC-style character-based interface, instead of menus.

But how do you feel about "LEGO" terrain? By that, I mean a series of individually navigable screens, but arranged in a random order, sometimes mirrored around and such? Do you think that's a better approach than totally prearranged scenes? Or maybe use prearranged scenes, but then simply randomize the elements within them...

( *sigh* Why can't I just stick teleporters in WilyWars, and call it even? Oh yeah, Magnet Missiles. )

[and]

Yeah, there was a pretty big time-gap between Mega Man & Bass and Mega Man 9. For crying out loud, he forgot how to slide and charge his Mega Buster!