I’ve been playing this off and on since completing Mega Man X2 way back when. Not because I don’t like it, just because I kept forgetting it was there to play. Over the last week I’ve made a more concerted effort to finish it off (much like with Wario Land, actually) as I’m trying to complete a load of games I’ve not reached the end of yet in preparation for when Fallout 4 arrives. Clear my plate, if you will.

So Mega Man X3 is just like Mega Man X2. Which, in turn, was pretty much the same as all the other Mega Man games before it. Like previous games, you start off mostly powerless and beat boss after boss obtaining new weapons and then finding upgrades around the levels to turn X into a walking tank. So I did that. Once I’d picked the the Gold Armour (which required picking up all the health upgrades and sub tanks too) only the final few bosses even worried me.

But yes, they did worry me. I’m glad I spent the time getting X as powered up as possible (although I seem to have missed out on getting Zero’s sabre? Not sure how to get that) because Sigma at the end was damn hard. I suppose, looking back of the series, there have been a lot of damn hard bosses, but how you’d beat Sigma (in his second form especially) with only half the energy and only a quarter of the armour, not to mention a weaker X-Buster, I’ve no idea. I went through three sub tanks as it is!

And now, the all important Mega Man Game Which Is Best List:
X>X3>X2>6>4>7>5>3>2>1.

But now what? I’ve no more Mega Man X games. I know there ARE more Mega Man X games, but they’re all for the Playstation, aren’t they? Boo! And I don’t have any of them. But what I do have, however, is Mega Man Zero! Woo!

The post Mega Man X3 (Wii U): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

It’s taken a while to finish this off, but not because it was especially difficult or long – more because I’ve been playing it sporadically and in short one or two level bursts.

Unsurprisingly, it’s a lot like Mega Man X. And better than Mega Man 7. I was a bit frustrated that there’s a certain point in the game that you reach (the final robot master before the Sigma levels) where, if you haven’t managed to retrieve all the parts for Zero, you can never return and get them. Of course, I didn’t even know they existed until it was too late. As it turns out, collecting them makes a fight with Zero later on a lot easier, but I beat him first time anyway.

Still, I could return to earlier levels and get all of X’s upgrades, which was good.

The final Sigma levels were pretty easy, and the bosses – which like usual seemed impossible at first – ended up far easier to beat than most other Mega Man games, especially the final Sigma boss itself.

Was it better than X, though? I don’t think so. Better than 7? Yes, certainly. In fact, lets wheel out the order and extend it.

X>X2>6>4>7>5>3>2>1. There. Fact.

Unlike the NES Mega Mans (Mega Men?), Mega Man 7 has two sets of four robot masters rather than one set of eight. After beating the first four, a second set is added. I’m not sure why they felt doing this was necessary, as all it does is reduce the choices at the start of the game. It would seem that the first four levels have hidden letters on them (I picked up R and H), but whether the second set have, I don’t know – I never actually looked for any.

The second subscreen (which contains how many E tanks you have, amongst other things) remained pretty blank for the entirety of the game, so I’d obviously missed something. Something huge, as it turned out. Once I’d beaten the first Wily level (yes, no changes there), I tried to get back to the level select screen as I wanted to redo an earlier level and get a replacement E tank. I pressed Select twice by mistake, and ended up in a shop! I assumed there must have been one somewhere – after all, I’d collected about 600 bolts – but assumed I’d missed it or not unlocked it. I’d no idea you could enter it at will. And E tanks were just 60 bolts? Bargain!

With that knowledge, I was less frugal with the tanks for the last few levels, and had a nice surprise when I found the W tanks (I’d bought a few of them too) refilled ALL your weapons, not just one. That made the end of the game easier! Which is just as well, because the final boss was nails.

Once again, Mega Man saved the world etc. and Dr Wily begged forgiveness and mercy, but this time Mega Man actually threatened to end him… but of course, robots can’t harm humans, so he didn’t. And Wily escaped once more. Sigh.

And then I started Mega Man X2.

Unlike the NES Mega Mans (Mega Men?), Mega Man 7 has two sets of four robot masters rather than one set of eight. After beating the first four, a second set is added. I’m not sure why they felt doing this was necessary, as all it does is reduce the choices at the start of the game. It would seem that the first four levels have hidden letters on them (I picked up R and H), but whether the second set have, I don’t know – I never actually looked for any.

The second subscreen (which contains how many E tanks you have, amongst other things) remained pretty blank for the entirety of the game, so I’d obviously missed something. Something huge, as it turned out. Once I’d beaten the first Wily level (yes, no changes there), I tried to get back to the level select screen as I wanted to redo an earlier level and get a replacement E tank. I pressed Select twice by mistake, and ended up in a shop! I assumed there must have been one somewhere – after all, I’d collected about 600 bolts – but assumed I’d missed it or not unlocked it. I’d no idea you could enter it at will. And E tanks were just 60 bolts? Bargain!

With that knowledge, I was less frugal with the tanks for the last few levels, and had a nice surprise when I found the W tanks (I’d bought a few of them too) refilled ALL your weapons, not just one. That made the end of the game easier! Which is just as well, because the final boss was nails.

Once again, Mega Man saved the world etc. and Dr Wily begged forgiveness and mercy, but this time Mega Man actually threatened to end him… but of course, robots can’t harm humans, so he didn’t. And Wily escaped once more. Sigh.

And then I started Mega Man X2.

After the slight drop in quality that Mega Man 5 brought to the series, I was glad to see that things improved for the final NES Mega Man outing.

As I’ve mentioned before, each game so far has added some new move, add-on or feature to the series. Mega Man 6 sort of brings two, as Rush is removed as a rocket/trampoline and becomes a sort of exoskeleton for Mega Man, giving him two new powers – a jetpack (which works for a very short amount of time) and a power suit which allows you to break cracked blocks (much like Guts Man’s power from the original Mega Man) and destroy some otherwise invincible enemies.

Most of the levels also include branching paths, including two different locations for the final bosses in each of the first 8 stages. Finding the alternative location results in an extra item in addition to the power that the boss normally leaves behind. Four of these items are the letters BEAT, which provides you with, obviously, Beat from Mega Man 5. I had to redo one of the levels to get the B as I’d missed it, but it wasn’t worth doing as Beat has absolutely no use anywhere in the entire game.

Once more, the difficulty of the game has been reduced, meaning that apart from Mega Man 5, the games did get progressively easier as the series went on. In 6, this was in part because of the abundance of E-Tanks, but also because of the ridiculously simple to beat final boss(es) and some of the alternate routes in the levels (almost all of which I took) seemingly miss out large sections of the game.

And that’s it. All the NES Mega Man games done. End of an era, or something. Thankfully, there are plenty more SNES titles to work through next! Final best-o-meter: 6>4>5>3>2>1.

And so the steamrollering of Mega Man games continues. Once again, eight evil robots stood between Mega Man and Dr… wait – Cossack? Not Dr Wily? That can’t be right?!

Spoilers: No, it isn’t right. Turns out rubbish Russian stereotype Dr Cossack was merely Dr Wily’s pawn, working for him as Wily had kidnapped Cossack’s Ushanka-wearing daughter (more stereotyping). Tch.

Robot ideas are running low now. Toad Man? Pharoah Man? Dust Man?! Rubbish. Oho! That’s a joke by the way. Dust Man is literally a vacuum cleaner who shoots rubbish at you. Pharoah Man is the easiest baddie of any kind (minion or boss or otherwise) in any game ever created ever, once you use Bright Man’s weapon, which freezes him allowing you to just keep hammering shoot. Also: “Bright Man”? Terrible name.

Mega Man 4 follows three Mega Man trends that I’ve noticed. The first is “add more stuff”. In 4, Mega Man’s Mega Buster has a charge shot. Something I thought he’d always had, until I started this adventure into playing all of the NES titles.

Secondly, Mega Man 4 is even bigger than the previous game. Again. As well as the main robot levels, you then have Dr Cossack’s castle, followed by Dr Wily’s castle.

Finally, once more the game has become significantly easier. Specifically, in the bosses. Ring Man was hard, but every other boss was waaay easier than those in the earlier games. The final bosses were a laugh to beat too. I don’t even think it’s just that I’m getting better either.

Onto 5 then. Scores so far: 4 > 3 > 2 > 1. Nice to see constant improvement, Capcom!

Three down, three to go. Well, NES Mega Man games, anyway. They just announced the SNES Mega Man 7 is in the pipeline for the Wii U Virtual Console, so it won’t be over so soon.

Mega Man 3 adds some new stuff to the series. The main thing, which had me stumped in a room until I realised, was you can now slide. This lets you squeeze under stuff, and is useful for avoiding certain attacks. The vaguely named items (1, 2 and 3) from Mega Man 2 have been replaced with the Rush devices – a dog who can be used as a spring, a moving platform, and a submarine, the latter of which is used for all of about twelve seconds in the entire game.

The game is also quite a lot longer than previous ones. There are still 8 Robot Masters, but once you beat them you have to replay remixed versions of four of their levels, complete with cloned robot masters from the older Mega Man games. The “Dr Wily stages” are next, and they’re longer too. That golum thing reappears too.

In general, it’s easier again than Mega Man 2, with the final boss being a complete walkover. I do wonder if the decline in difficulty is going to continue in the series?

Anyway. 3 > 2 > 1, if you’re keeping score.