Weren't you just complaining about a single weapon not being useful enough?
There's a big difference between being useful and being mandatory. Ice Wall is too forced upon the player that chooses Rockman, whereas it's useless with Forte. Not to mention that its role should by tradition be given to Rush or another non boss ability.
Furthermore, I never said I wanted a return of the broken Metal Blade. There should not be a single all purpose Special Weapon; all weapons should be balanced, multi-functional and efficient.
I'll say that I was never too impressed with MM2's weapons. Sure, Metal Blades make MM into a GOD. The rest aren't that awsome, IMHO. they have their place, but ... I've never been overly impressed with them. Speed gamers who can do tricks witht hem impress me even more because of this point of view, but that's how I sees it.
I think it's mostly that I feel a few of 3's weapons could stand to have some additional improvements. Spark Shock for instance, is the visually least impressive electric weapon in the entire series. It either could have used better sprites, or fired more than a single projectile or should have had the ability to aim.
That reminds me, is there actually a proper use of the Spark Shock? It stuns enemies, still allows for contact damage and unlike Ice Slasher, does not allow one to switch to another weapon. Most minor enemies are better off just being shot with the buster, and most bigger stronger enemies can't be cleared by jumping... Where is using it a particularly useful practice? MegaMan1's Ice Slasher was quite useful for taking care of Big Eye's, but there are none in 3...
Then we have Shadow Blade... It probably removed a little too much of Metal Blade's infinite usefulness, either it should have had more distance, or had the ability to fire downward, but not both. I admit, though, it's tough to balance a weapon such as this without falling into the same pitfall as the Metal Blade.
I also find it noticeable that none of the weapons can pass through enemies. Some of the weapons, like Search Snake or Gemini Laser, could have surely benefited from going through enemies that were weak enough to be destroyed in a single hit.
Of course, with Gemini Laser, that opens up a whole new can of worms in that you can't fire again until the first shot vanishes... it's a powerful weapon (more powerful than Hard Knuckle...) but should have had a way to cancel it, or allowed for more than a single attack on screen. It is a great weapon, granted you don't miss a single shot.
Hard Knuckle just needed less firing delay, and perhaps more damage (why does Gemini Laser exceed it?..). Needle Cannon does its thing well enough. Magnet Missile is probably the best weapon in the game, though I'm not sure if it's a blessing or a curse that a lot of enemy projectiles can be destroyed and tracked by it...
As for Top Spin, great once you actually know how to abuse, but badly programmed for inexperienced users. It would have been better if energy use wasn't linked to contact and if it had a bigger Hit Detection box that was clearly visible by effects.
Speed gamers who can do tricks witht hem impress me even more because of this point of view, but that's how I sees it.
I think knowing the kind of tricks that speed gamers use certainly makes the weapons more appealing. It's one of the reasons why 9's weapons are quite infamous. For 2 I know quite a few tricks, but not for 3, which probably skews my perception of their usefulness. Do you happen to have any good examples of 3's weapons in practice throughout the stages?