Mega Man
Re: Mega Man
I remembered Mega Man X8 being pretty good (though it's possible that was only by comparison to 6 and 7), but I fired it up and found I didn't have the patience for Normal Mode. Too many cheap instant deaths -- not as many as X6, but X6 also gave you unlimited lives. Maybe not as many as the NES Mega Man games, either, but again, I'm not as patient as I was then. (And I've got a hell of a lot of other games I could be playing instead, which wasn't necessarily the case when I was playing the old NES entries.)
So I fired up Easy Mode, and I like it a lot better. Some of the cheap deaths are gone (though a lot are still there), you have unlimited lives so you don't have to worry about a Game Over after said cheap deaths, and there's a lot less grinding. (X8 takes a cue from the Zero series and has you buy Heart Tanks and Sub Tanks instead of finding them. And a whole host of other shit.) All three characters start with maximum health, and X and Axl start out with maxed-out weapon damage, too. That last one feels like it makes the game a little too easy; I haven't really had any problems with any of the bosses, and haven't even been able to work out a weakness in most cases because they die before I'm done trying out all my weapons.
I like a lot of the ways they shook the format up. X6 was straight-up fucking terrible, while X7 tried a lot of new things but wasn't very good at most of them. Axl's copy ability is still an undocumented mess; it's never clear which enemies he can copy and what the effects will be. Wish I could find a walkthrough that just had a list of which enemies he could copy, with pictures.
Anyhow, it's not bad. At least on Easy Mode.
So I fired up Easy Mode, and I like it a lot better. Some of the cheap deaths are gone (though a lot are still there), you have unlimited lives so you don't have to worry about a Game Over after said cheap deaths, and there's a lot less grinding. (X8 takes a cue from the Zero series and has you buy Heart Tanks and Sub Tanks instead of finding them. And a whole host of other shit.) All three characters start with maximum health, and X and Axl start out with maxed-out weapon damage, too. That last one feels like it makes the game a little too easy; I haven't really had any problems with any of the bosses, and haven't even been able to work out a weakness in most cases because they die before I'm done trying out all my weapons.
I like a lot of the ways they shook the format up. X6 was straight-up fucking terrible, while X7 tried a lot of new things but wasn't very good at most of them. Axl's copy ability is still an undocumented mess; it's never clear which enemies he can copy and what the effects will be. Wish I could find a walkthrough that just had a list of which enemies he could copy, with pictures.
Anyhow, it's not bad. At least on Easy Mode.
Re: Mega Man
I finished Easy Mode and it does that thing like in the old days where you don't get a fucking ending if you do it on Easy. On the one hand, that's irritating; on the other, Easy really DID kinda feel like a warmup.
You get a New Game+ where you don't get to keep any of the stuff you got except your money (or chips or whatever they call it), but that's actually a pretty good start, and I suspect it's the way the game is meant to be played; it certainly makes the early going a lot less of a bastard if you can max out everyone's health right at the start.
I'm not entirely sold on the collection stuff; I don't like having to find an item and then pay to use it. Mega Man 7 did a pretty good job with this, in that every item could be found or bought. (On the other hand, finding items in MM7 was often pretty fucking obtuse and largely came down to just using Rush Search fucking everywhere. In X8, you can usually tell when there's something there, even if it's not immediately clear how to get it.)
The limited number of lives is vestigial coin-op crap and I wish it would die, and X8 differentiates itself from earlier games by not having any 1up drops anywhere in the game; if you want an extra life you have to buy it in the store. (I suspect that buying 1ups, at least, makes them permanent -- ie if you buy your way up to 5 lives then you'll always start every stage with 5 lives, you won't have to buy more when you run out -- but I haven't checked; my current mindset is "Fuck this shit, I'm using savestates." Which means you collect fewer chips, I suppose, but seriously, there is no way I would finish something like, say, the ride armor sequence on the Panda stage without save states; having to go back to the beginning of the stage and get a new armor every time you miss a jump is bullshit.)
I finally remembered that the guys whose powers Axl can absorb are the Generic Reploid-looking guys, a vital gameplay detail which is never explained anywhere in this game (or, IIRC, X7 either). I guess some of them are immune to spikes? That should make things easier.
Anyway, it's engaging enough that I'm actually giving it another try on Normal; it's got a lot of interesting ideas despite its flaws, and it's fun to play, which puts it ahead of 6 and 7.
You get a New Game+ where you don't get to keep any of the stuff you got except your money (or chips or whatever they call it), but that's actually a pretty good start, and I suspect it's the way the game is meant to be played; it certainly makes the early going a lot less of a bastard if you can max out everyone's health right at the start.
I'm not entirely sold on the collection stuff; I don't like having to find an item and then pay to use it. Mega Man 7 did a pretty good job with this, in that every item could be found or bought. (On the other hand, finding items in MM7 was often pretty fucking obtuse and largely came down to just using Rush Search fucking everywhere. In X8, you can usually tell when there's something there, even if it's not immediately clear how to get it.)
The limited number of lives is vestigial coin-op crap and I wish it would die, and X8 differentiates itself from earlier games by not having any 1up drops anywhere in the game; if you want an extra life you have to buy it in the store. (I suspect that buying 1ups, at least, makes them permanent -- ie if you buy your way up to 5 lives then you'll always start every stage with 5 lives, you won't have to buy more when you run out -- but I haven't checked; my current mindset is "Fuck this shit, I'm using savestates." Which means you collect fewer chips, I suppose, but seriously, there is no way I would finish something like, say, the ride armor sequence on the Panda stage without save states; having to go back to the beginning of the stage and get a new armor every time you miss a jump is bullshit.)
I finally remembered that the guys whose powers Axl can absorb are the Generic Reploid-looking guys, a vital gameplay detail which is never explained anywhere in this game (or, IIRC, X7 either). I guess some of them are immune to spikes? That should make things easier.
Anyway, it's engaging enough that I'm actually giving it another try on Normal; it's got a lot of interesting ideas despite its flaws, and it's fun to play, which puts it ahead of 6 and 7.
Re: Mega Man
In honor of Mighty No. 9's new trailer:
[trailer in question]
Now I just need a gif of a sign that says Humor, and a tumbleweed to end my post.
[trailer in question]
Now I just need a gif of a sign that says Humor, and a tumbleweed to end my post.
http://cyanamazing.tumblr.com/ <-- check out my awesome games here!
Re: Mega Man
"Okay, so the repeated delays and the failed fundraising campaign for a spinoff before the game was released were good, but there's gotta be some way to further alienate all the people who gave us money on Kickstarter."
- Brantly B.
- Woah Dangsaurus
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Re: Mega Man
Oh man that trailer is a treasure, just not the treasure that IntiCreates wanted.
When I finally got around to watching it my reaction was "okay this is pretty cheesy but par for the course, I don't understand what everybody is wait what the fuck did he just say?"
IC maintains that it's the publisher's fault, though, which is pretty believable; these are probably the same guys who came up with the original pack-in bonus for Dead Island Riptide.
When I finally got around to watching it my reaction was "okay this is pretty cheesy but par for the course, I don't understand what everybody is wait what the fuck did he just say?"
IC maintains that it's the publisher's fault, though, which is pretty believable; these are probably the same guys who came up with the original pack-in bonus for Dead Island Riptide.
Re: Mega Man
That line alone secured Mighty No 9 a free wave of buzz, so...
Re: Mega Man
So?
Re: Mega Man
So no such thing as bad publicity, I think is the point.
Re: Mega Man
Yeah, the thing is, though, that's demonstrably not true. Subway, Chipotle, Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, Bill Cosby, Batman v Superman, Daikatana, Duke Nukem Forever, Charles Carreon, Ocean Marketing, the Xbox One's launch, and Marco Rubio are all examples, off the top of my head, of bad publicity.
I mean, I can see a possible circumstance in which this thing leads to more sales ("Oh right, Mighty No 9 is coming out; I meant to pick that up"). But I can also see a possible circumstance in which it doesn't just harm Mighty's already-spotty reputation but taints the entire brand going forward. Red Ash is already facing some pretty serious skepticism, and I don't see how this helps.
I mean, I can see a possible circumstance in which this thing leads to more sales ("Oh right, Mighty No 9 is coming out; I meant to pick that up"). But I can also see a possible circumstance in which it doesn't just harm Mighty's already-spotty reputation but taints the entire brand going forward. Red Ash is already facing some pretty serious skepticism, and I don't see how this helps.
- Brantly B.
- Woah Dangsaurus
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Re: Mega Man
Yeah, you always want to gauge the success of a product by how well the NEXT one performs (see: sales of FF8 vs sales of FF9). If this has any effect it'll manifest when in sales of Red Ash or MN9-II or Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 or gee whiz these guys might just be a little overextended.
In all honesty though, MN9's target audience is mostly people who got very used to video game advertisements insulting their intelligences throughout the entire 90s, so I don't expect THAT many of them to be unable to separate the quality of the ad from the quality of the game. The real effect is just going to be putting a damper on an already pretty moist hype train.
In all honesty though, MN9's target audience is mostly people who got very used to video game advertisements insulting their intelligences throughout the entire 90s, so I don't expect THAT many of them to be unable to separate the quality of the ad from the quality of the game. The real effect is just going to be putting a damper on an already pretty moist hype train.
Re: Mega Man
They got the name back out there, as we were inevitably forgetting about it after yet another release date delay disappointment.
I don't buy games based on their marketing campaigns, but their gameplay.
I found the anime gibe funny. But then I tend to enjoy things made in poor taste.
Brentai wrote:I don't expect THAT many of them to be unable to separate the quality of the ad from the quality of the game
I don't buy games based on their marketing campaigns, but their gameplay.
Hiring Guildenstern for marketing concerned me far less than repeated release delays and kickstarting a fucking movie for a separate, unborn video game IP, before they'd brought anything to market with their new team.Thad wrote:I mean, I can see a possible circumstance in which this thing leads to more sales ("Oh right, Mighty No 9 is coming out; I meant to pick that up"). But I can also see a possible circumstance in which it doesn't just harm Mighty's already-spotty reputation but taints the entire brand going forward. Red Ash is already facing some pretty serious skepticism, and I don't see how this helps.
I found the anime gibe funny. But then I tend to enjoy things made in poor taste.
Re: Mega Man
I'm giving Mega Man 2 a replay, and you know what? The Worlds of Power boss order really is better than the weakness order.
I mean, it is the weakness order, except that Heat Man and Quick Man are shunted to the end. Which they should be. Because doing Heat Man's level before getting Item-2 is an exercise in masochism. (Yeah, I've done it. And, having done it, I have concluded that there's no reason to do it except to say you've done it.)
Quick Man right after Flash Man isn't so bad, I guess. Those beams aren't really any less of a bastard whether you play the level third or eighth.
I mean, it is the weakness order, except that Heat Man and Quick Man are shunted to the end. Which they should be. Because doing Heat Man's level before getting Item-2 is an exercise in masochism. (Yeah, I've done it. And, having done it, I have concluded that there's no reason to do it except to say you've done it.)
Quick Man right after Flash Man isn't so bad, I guess. Those beams aren't really any less of a bastard whether you play the level third or eighth.
Re: Mega Man
I've taken to doing Quick Man first. Dodging through the beams is still ingrained in my muscle memory from childhood, and the Boomerang is surprisingly useful in the other stages. Low energy consumption and almost nothing resists it. Quick Man himself with only the arm cannon is no pushover, but eh, still easier than some of the MM3 fights.
Re: Mega Man
Hm. So maybe Quick Man third, but still put Heat Man off for last?
That means you don't get Item-1 until the end, and that thing's pretty useful. But Atomic Fire might be the least useful weapon in the game, and this is a game that has the Time Stopper in it. The low-level shot doesn't do enough damage, the fully-charged shot takes half the fucking gauge, and...I don't know, maybe the partially-charged shot is actually good, but I can't say the game ever incentivized me to experiment enough to find out.
That means you don't get Item-1 until the end, and that thing's pretty useful. But Atomic Fire might be the least useful weapon in the game, and this is a game that has the Time Stopper in it. The low-level shot doesn't do enough damage, the fully-charged shot takes half the fucking gauge, and...I don't know, maybe the partially-charged shot is actually good, but I can't say the game ever incentivized me to experiment enough to find out.
Re: Mega Man
Wait, so in this universe Jean-Paul Valley became Zero? All these reboots and retcons are getting confusing.
Re: Mega Man
Mighty No 9 isn't as bad as some people are saying; it's just bland and feels dated. It would be a perfectly respectable first effort, but...this is the company that gave us the Zero/ZX series and Mega Man 9 and 10. We have pretty good reason to expect better from IntiCreates; this game leads me to suspect that everybody who actually worked on those previous games is either no longer with the company or was working on some other project when No9 was getting made.
I want to like it and I want efforts like this to succeed -- and hell, I want it to be successful enough that they can make a sequel and try and polish the rough edges. It's got enough interesting ideas that I want to spend a little more time with it, but realistically? There are a lot of games that I've also paid money for that I would rather be playing.
Also I just bought an 8bitdo SNES30 controller and I'm liking it so far. It feels like the real thing, so it's pretty much perfect for a game like this. (I mapped the dash to the A button the way God intended.)
I want to like it and I want efforts like this to succeed -- and hell, I want it to be successful enough that they can make a sequel and try and polish the rough edges. It's got enough interesting ideas that I want to spend a little more time with it, but realistically? There are a lot of games that I've also paid money for that I would rather be playing.
Also I just bought an 8bitdo SNES30 controller and I'm liking it so far. It feels like the real thing, so it's pretty much perfect for a game like this. (I mapped the dash to the A button the way God intended.)
Re: Mega Man
Pretty much. I'm all for judging games on their own instead of on their hype, but the MN9 team made their own bed and now they have to sleep in it. I haven't played that much of it yet, but have already run into a handful of spots where I'm surprised they made it through regular development, let alone millions-of-dollars-budget given to experienced developers, and that's not even counting the really disappointing art downgrade and such.
Re: Mega Man
I'm not sure why "bash your face into the boss with no i-frames or your damage doesn't count" made it past development, but when a professional speedrunner and several of his speedrunning friends commenting with advice have the final boss to the point where he no longer takes damage from the first stage except for when he's trying to make his damage actually take effect, and the second stage is still bad enough that it keeps killing him, that's a pretty serious issue with the game.
Also, $4 million and they couldn't even half-ass lip sync?
Also, $4 million and they couldn't even half-ass lip sync?
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