Mega Man Legacy Collections (Switch)

[Ike]

Are we getting a physical release, can't find it available to preorder anywhere..?

[Julius]

Now that’s a good-looking icon!

[Julius]

Played through Mega Man 2 for the first time tonight as my first Mega Man game after @Jonnas recommended that's where I start when I was asking about platformers back in the summer (thanks!), and really enjoyed it. Especially playing it with the NES Online Controller (though I'll admit my hands are a little cramped now!).

Took a bit of getting used to, and I didn't really understand the Transport Items until Wily's Castle, when scaling that first grey wall (the first time in the game you're forced to use one?). Took a good 5 minutes for me to realise the controller wasn't set up right (B was set to jump and A wasn't doing anything), which meant I was just trying to get by on jumping alone, thinking the weapons - even the starting weapon - came along later .

Anyways, that soundtrack is absolutely God tier 

...but what the hell is up with that boss on Stage 4 of Wily's Castle? 

[Jonnas]

Nice, you're even using an NES controller? That's hardcore (and something I haven't been able to do since I was a child).

The first time you're forced to use one of the items is Wily Castle, yeah. Has to be, because you can do the other levels in any order.

The Stage 4 boss is (imo) the main hiccup in design from this game, because the way to defeat it is so specific, and requires you having a full bar of the one weapon that can damage it (with no good way to recharge it if you die). That was the biggest stone wall when I was a kid. And to this day I will never forgive it for being unaffected by the Time Stopper.

I'm impressed you got so far in one sitting, though! Especially since it sounds you completed Heat Man's stage without Item-2 (like, damn, kudos! Doing so is an actual extra challenge in the collection). What did you think of the infamous Quick Man stage? That's one that haunted many a child back in the day. Also, what do you think of the various weapons, you using more than just the Metal Blade?

[Julius]

57 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

Nice, you're even using an NES controller? That's hardcore (and something I haven't been able to do since I was a child).

Yep! I did the same for Super Mario Bros. when I played that through NES Online, and it's probably something I'll stick with where I can, just because it adds an interesting dimension to the experience. Saying all that, it's certainly not the most comfortable way to play for long stretches, but fortunately the NES games I've played through so far have been kind in their length, and the longer games I want to play from that system thankfully are going to rely less on reactions (like the early FF games). 

It's something I'm weirdly picky about, playing with the original controller where I can (it was an absolute treat getting to spend a long time with the SNES controller for long stints playing through Final Fantasy VI last year!), and even if it's not on the original hardware, I strangely still gravitate towards picking them up on their modern console counterparts (a big part of why I got the Mega Man and Castlevania collections on Switch).  

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The first time you're forced to use one of the items is Wily Castle, yeah. Has to be, because you can do the other levels in any order.

The Stage 4 boss is (imo) the main hiccup in design from this game, because the way to defeat it is so specific, and requires you having a full bar of the one weapon that can damage it (with no good way to recharge it if you die). That was the biggest stone wall when I was a kid. And to this day I will never forgive it for being unaffected by the Time Stopper.

Yeah, I genuinely ended up walking around that first part of the stage trying everything except for scrolling over and trying the Transport Items out. Because of that I ended up killing a lot of those birds with Leaf Man's weapon, which was great to replenish my weapons! 

Yeah, it was a genuine nightmare, especially once I realised that I wasted most of them bombs on breaking down those walls at the start!   one of those bosses where it feels less like a challenge and felt genuinely unfair. Locked-on shots with absolutely zero heads-up coming from every direction? Crazy! To push that point even further, after my first few deaths I managed to get to the last few of those domes, and I was really curious and wanted to test if the Rewind function included in the collection might trivialise the fight, so I tested it for five minutes and genuinely felt like I was going insane, so the short answer is that it really doesn't make a difference there, which just speaks to how poorly done it is. Easily the boss I spent the most time on, I really enjoyed the game, but it doesn't inspire me to return to it because of the stress of that one section if I'm being honest. 

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I'm impressed you got so far in one sitting, though! Especially since it sounds you completed Heat Man's stage without Item-2 (like, damn, kudos! Doing so is an actual extra challenge in the collection). What did you think of the infamous Quick Man stage? That's one that haunted many a child back in the day. Also, what do you think of the various weapons, you using more than just the Metal Blade?

Yeah, took up a decent chunk of my evening! I'll admit there were one or two instances when I used the Rewind function early on getting used to the game on one or two daft mistakes. It took a while to get used to controlling the height of the jump, so I mainly used it on practicing that and testing things like weapon direction - figuring out diagonal attacks and things like that - and shooting on/jumping from ladders. 

Yeah, Heat Man's stage with the Item-2 would have been so much less stressful than what I ended up doing. Jumping from one vanishing block to another was pretty intense, especially the deeper into the stage I got! Especially that one room where you jump onto a vanishing block, and have to jump up and around onto another vanishing block, then jump to the left, and then onto that ladder, it was a nightmare!

Those lasers on Quick Man's stage are almost comically deadly, those and the spikes I think on Wily's Castle Stage 3 - I think? - where the walls are lined with them and you're just dropping from one screen to another with the drop twisting all over the place, it's moments like that where the game shows it's age a bit I feel, because the difficulty is a bit more artificial than it is skill-based. That being said, obviously I had a huge grin on my face every time I got by one of those challenging parts, so it was totally worth it in the end 

Yeah, the Metal Blade I didn't really get used to late on, it took me a while to get it going diagonally with any real consistency. Wasn't the biggest fan of the Bubble Lead if I'm being honest (apart from using it on Heat Man), which was probably my second least utilised weapon, miles ahead of the Time Stopper (which I tested at different points and just really didn't get to grips with). I'd probably say that the Quick Boomerang was my favourite weapon by some margin, just throwing that over and over at a boss and taking them out so quickly made me feel very overpowered, which was a great feeling in a game I found to be really challenging! 

[Jonnas]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

Yeah, I genuinely ended up walking around that first part of the stage trying everything except for scrolling over and trying the Transport Items out. Because of that I ended up killing a lot of those birds with Leaf Man's weapon, which was great to replenish my weapons! 

That's the old school experience! Get stuck on a seemingly obvious place because you couldn't figure out a base mechanic. Had a similar experience with the slide (from another Mega Man game).

1 hour ago, Julius said:

Yeah, it was a genuine nightmare, especially once I realised that I wasted most of them bombs on breaking down those walls at the start!   one of those bosses where it feels less like a challenge and felt genuinely unfair. Locked-on shots with absolutely zero heads-up coming from every direction? Crazy! To push that point even further, after my first few deaths I managed to get to the last few of those domes, and I was really curious and wanted to test if the Rewind function included in the collection might trivialise the fight, so I tested it for five minutes and genuinely felt like I was going insane, so the short answer is that it really doesn't make a difference there, which just speaks to how poorly done it is. Easily the boss I spent the most time on, I really enjoyed the game, but it doesn't inspire me to return to it because of the stress of that one section if I'm being honest. 

To be fair, that boss is much better on a replay, once you know what to do. And getting hit by the shots is trivial once you know the solution.

I can think of at least one Mega Man game that also requires a specific weapon for a specific boss, but that game has the decency to provide you with tiny weak enemies near the checkpoint. That way you can actually recharge the ammo if you die. The turrets from MM2 give you no such alternative, sadly.

1 hour ago, Julius said:

Yeah, took up a decent chunk of my evening! I'll admit there were one or two instances when I used the Rewind function early on getting used to the game on one or two daft mistakes. It took a while to get used to controlling the height of the jump, so I mainly used it on practicing that and testing things like weapon direction - figuring out diagonal attacks and things like that - and shooting on/jumping from ladders. 

Yeah, Heat Man's stage with the Item-2 would have been so much less stressful than what I ended up doing. Jumping from one vanishing block to another was pretty intense, especially the deeper into the stage I got! Especially that one room where you jump onto a vanishing block, and have to jump up and around onto another vanishing block, then jump to the left, and then onto that ladder, it was a nightmare!

Those lasers on Quick Man's stage are almost comically deadly, those and the spikes I think on Wily's Castle Stage 3 - I think? - where the walls are lined with them and you're just dropping from one screen to another with the drop twisting all over the place, it's moments like that where the game shows it's age a bit I feel, because the difficulty is a bit more artificial than it is skill-based. That being said, obviously I had a huge grin on my face every time I got by one of those challenging parts, so it was totally worth it in the end 

Yeah, the Metal Blade I didn't really get used to late on, it took me a while to get it going diagonally with any real consistency. Wasn't the biggest fan of the Bubble Lead if I'm being honest (apart from using it on Heat Man), which was probably my second least utilised weapon, miles ahead of the Time Stopper (which I tested at different points and just really didn't get to grips with). I'd probably say that the Quick Boomerang was my favourite weapon by some margin, just throwing that over and over at a boss and taking them out so quickly made me feel very overpowered, which was a great feeling in a game I found to be really challenging! 

Disappearing blocks are the bane of many a player, but Heat Man's are particularly brutal. Other MM games are much more fair with their use (and you can still use items to help, anyway)

Quick Man's stage is the perennial choice, having to choose between using Time Stopper to get through the lasers (what I used to do) or using it to defeat Quick Man (what I do now). But after having so much trouble beating it, Wily Stage 3 was actually quite feasible! I remember beating it on the same day I first went through it (but surely with plenty of lost lives).

Surprising to hear you didn't make copious use of Metal Blade, I think a lot of players prefer to be able to shoot up and diagonally. Also surprising to hear you liked the Quick Boomerang on your first playthrough, as I thought it was useless back in the day. Now I know it's super useful for bosses and the screw-mole segments.

Did you beat the game, though? I was under the impression you stopped on Wily Castle 4.

[Julius]

5 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

Did you beat the game, though? I was under the impression you stopped on Wily Castle 4.

Yep! Posted that on a short break I gave myself after Stage 4 because my hands hurt a little bit, and then went on to finish the rest of the game last night too 

The boss rush in Stage 5 was a lot of fun, lost a few lives to it but handily got through without seeing a Game Over screen (thankfully), think having some level ground definitely made the difference.

The first stage of the boss fight against Wily was easy once I figured out I could just cling to the left, time my jumps well (and make sure to jump high enough), and shoot the window on his ship. The second stage was a tad trickier and had me on two lines of health left once it was over. 

That final boss fight was a bit weird. I changed direction whenever it shot at me, had to really nail the height of the jumps, and switched weapons constantly to figure out what it's weakness was, and of course Bubble Lead being my least favourite weapon, that was the weakness here  once I figured that out it was then a case of getting a shot in at close range without getting hit, which was way tougher than it looked!

But yeah, overall had a absolute blast with it  I haven't even mentioned some of the boss sprites in this game! They look pretty astounding for an NES title!

[Jonnas]

Nice. I do love MM2, so it's great to hear you had a good time with it!

Are you planning to check out some of the other games in the collection? Now that you know how Mega Man works, I think you could tackle them in any order (though keep in mind MM1 is still more difficult than the rest).

Edited February 6, 2021 by Jonnas

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Jonnas said:

Nice. I do love MM2, so it's great to hear you had a good time with it!

Are you planning to check out some of the other games in the collection? Now that you know how Mega Man works, I think you could tackle them in any order (though keep in mind MM1 is still more difficult than the rest).

Yeah, I definitely think so! I think I might tackle the ones I have (I picked up both of the Legacy and X Legacy Collections) in a general order of release, though I won't stick to a hard and fast rule on that, and will probably jump ahead a bit if I see one that really takes my fancy. 

Definitely going to be Mega Man 3 next, though, if only because I've heard the title screen music for that game before, and I'm convinced that the soundtrack will be magical there too. 

[Ronnie]

Nice one @Julius, and ignore what half of the fanbase tell you, next you get to experience the actual best 8bit Mega Man game  3 is a fair bit tougher than 2 though so be warned.