Mega Man X: First of the Last

So, it was silly of me to think that it was just going to be the last boss right away, I OBVIOUSLY was going to have to go through his mystery hideout and fight legions of baddies, and then take on old bosses again. Why didn't I think of that? Tsk, tsk.

Anywho, it started with meeting up with big ol' Zero. I don't wanna say he's a cocky bugger. But. He's a cocky bugger. "Don't worry X, I'll handle the big guys." "Don't worry X, I'll go first so I can destroy all the big guys who might give you trouble." "Don't worry "X, I'm just viscerally better than you in every way, no big." I'm not bitter.

Ya, that's always a good idea.

So, I make my way, tearing through some robo-turtles. Leap on some floating platforms and make my way up along this floating path, careful not to fall to my doom. I enter Sigma's fortress and begin blowing apart some baddies. Nothing too out of the ordinary here, just had to blast away. I started to realize that I had so many different powers that I could totally start using them to ease my way through the levels. The cyclone power is SO FREAKING SWEET. It protects me from things coming at me, and rips apart any bad guy infront of me, cuz it hits them so many times.

I made my way up to this ladder area and had to deal with some rather annoying moving turrets. I popped up through the ladder though, and Purple-Jackass popped down and was ready to get an ass-whooping when Big Red shows up being a 'hero' (even though I'M the hero of this story... Right?)

You jackass, let me do my own dirty work!

So I follow after them and hear the sound of some charge shotting, and a >thunk<, and I'm thinking "Oh shit, Zero got pwned!" And I hurried forward, and I was mostly right.

Oh, so I guess you aren't so ALL POWERFUL are you, Zero!? Hah!... And I resent your words, Purple-face.

So, Purple-Face managed to get IN his mech and trap Zero in a very short amount of time. After some banter about how I can defeat him, and how I know I can't defeat him, the battle began. However, there was no health bar for Big-Purple-Mech so I didn't get the feeling I was supposed to win again. I was right. When I got me down to near dead he paralyzed me AGAIN, and then picked me up to bring me over to the other side of the screen for... Some reason.

He laughed, and said I was helpless. Then Zero did a big ol' "BUT I'M NOT!!!" And broke free of the prison and exploded them both.

... Well shit, he saved me.

However, Zero only destroyed the mech, leaving Purple-Man for me to deal with. Out of nowhere, I broke out of the paralization and was restored to full health. Baddie says "Where did that energy come from!?" I dunno. Still don't. Plot hole anyone?

Anywho, without his mech, I could easily jump over Purple when he charged, and I could damaged him with all my attacks. I didn't really pick a defined strategy, I just charged up my buster, or switched between powers, and just shot the hell outta him. And thus he died.

Not so tough without your big mech, eh? I tore through you, boi.

So, I washed my hands of Big-Purple and continued on my way, only to find Zero's body... And from the looks of it, his legs were gone. He told me I was stronger than he ever imagined, and then said that "Maybe you can defeat Sigma..." And, I still have NO IDEA who that is! So he faded away and died.

Now I feel bad for those bad things I said. Why'd you have to go and die?

And that WASN'T the ended of the level. I still had to fight some regular bad-guys and leap over some other guys. Again, same old same old. No new faces here. And then I came to a boss room, with an especially familiar face. KUWANGER!

When I entered the room and he started in with his phasing-in-out-dance thing, I was like: "Oh, I know how to deal with you." And he was exactly the same as I could tell. I switched to his weakness (missles) and blasted him away with them. Just for the hell of it, I waited when he was at low health to charge up my missle shot and...

I beat you already, bitch. Eat homing pirahnas!

And that wasn't the end of the level! I still had to continue on and fight more baddies, and lump up some walls, and get annoyed with some turrets and whatnot, but I made it to the NEXT boss in a short amount of time. And boy, was he annoying.

Enter Big-Spider-Robot. He has these four long poles in the room which he manuvers on, and when he exits the screen these little horizontal green bars appear in random patterns between them, somewhat hinted out how he'll approach next. That is sometimes difficult to judge. You think he's going to follow the descending path of bars, but sometimes he'll wipe around and come at you from the top. Other than simple charging down the poles at you, Spider only has one other attack. Which is to throw down four mini-spiders which run at you and are an inconvenience.

The only way I seems to be able to get him was to shoot the moment BEFORE he came to the bottom of his trip downwards, because he scurried up the pole very quickly upon reaching hitting you or not. And forget about hitting him if he hits you. Ain't gonna happen. I'm so glad I got the armor upgrade, because he was still hurting me quite a bit with his obviously excessive body weight.

Ouch. Scary robo-spider moves fast.

Also, he speeds up the more you damage him. Just thought you should know.

But he still dies like everybody else!

So I finally beat him by constantly doing a super-charge of my regular ol' Buster shot, as you can see here.

That was the end of the level. The game returned me to the boss screen again, with the same picture of that Sigma guy... So I'm guessing I'll have a few more levels, maybe 3 bosses per level from now on? I guess we'll see.

Catch ya later gamers!

Mega Man X: A Storm's Coming

I've been playing this game whenever I can because I'm really feeling the need to just beat it. I'm getting excited with each new upgrade, each new power; I really feel like X is growing into a powerful force of nature... Er... Technology. Now it was time for me to face the last of the initial 8 bosses, Storm Eagle. Too be honest he is one of the cooler looking bosses I have so far encountered; and his level was a blast to go through.

I entered the level and was clearly on a roof of some kind. I came up to some platforms on a rotating belt. I had to jump from on to the other and work my way up. However, there were some flammable containers across the way, so I switched to my Flame power and burnt them up. All that was revealed was a large health container. I thought this was rather anti-climactic...

But then there were multiple sections of containers. Majority of them had health, but one had an extra life. Win.

I then followed the platforms given path and came on top of an AIRPORT (which was spelled out for me in great big letters.) There was then a pillar which went up and down with a turret on it. So I killed the turret, and stood atop the pillar as it rose and I was shown this command tower. So I hopped atop it, but there was nothing on it. I thought that was strange so I made my way along, and when I got to the other side I saw an energy sub-tank just in the glass. I fired a missile to hit a floating turret, but it turned around and broke the glass! So I scored the tank.

So that was sweet. I continued on my way and had to leap from floating platform to floating platform. I had to kill a turret every now and then, but they only had a flame-thrower, so I could stay out of range.

At the end of this leaping fest, I noticed another string of flammable tanks. I had to slide down the wall, jump (facing towards it) burn it, and then again before they started exploding... However, after the rather long string of explosions, there was no upgrade. -le sigh-

So I made my way to these metal-fence-towers, and there was a gap I could slip through. There I found more flammable containers, so I blew them up. And low and behold there was an upgrade tank! It gave me a fancy helmet that can breakthrough blocks. And I recalled a spot in an earlier level where there were some blocks... I'll check them out later though. So I made my way onward.

There were some more metal parts to jump on, an extra life which I grabbed up, and some more baddies to kill, but it wasn't so bad. And then entered into an airship through a boss door and thus began to battle with Storm Eagle.

So this guy fly's up, making him rather difficult to hit normally, so I found myself veering to the homing missiles. I did in-fact try out all the powers... But I couldn't really tell if any of them did extra damage, none of them stunned him. His most annoying attack was the dive bomb. He flies away and then shoots down at you from an angle; I dodged this every now and then, and when I did I would manage to get a shot off; although the missile was to slow to catch him so I switched to the ice shot for quick damage. He could also use large wind-gusts to try and push me off the ship (cuz we were now flying) or he could shoot out an egg which hatched into 4 little birds that attacked. I felt like I was in control of the battle and defeated him deftly; I even finished him while he was dive-bombing.

After I defeated him I unlocked the whirling tornado power, which is pretty freaking sweet. But cooler, is that there was small little cutscene after the level! That red-guy, Zero, showed up with me and we apparently for Sigma's Base. I'm assuming that's the bastard that kicked my ass in level one. So we set out to destroy him. However, when it returned to the boss screen, the boss there did not look like armored, mech guy... So... I still dunno who that is.

Before I face this Sigma I'm going to back-track through levels and find more upgrades. I'm sure I can find more health, maybe get another energy sub-tank and I still need to upgrade my buster! Catch ya later gamers.

Mega Man X: The Hell is a Kuwanger?

Kuwanger. Boomer Kuwanger. That's the boss I have set myself against. I don't know how to feel about him really, considering he strikes a pose like a disco-fever maniac. I'm guessing that he's going to have a boomerang attack; call me crazy.

The level started in a metallic room with ladder that I had to traverse upwards along. The was that bugger with the shield and the morningstar arm (see Flame) but I could use the rolling shield and a jump upwards to hit behind him without having to be at risk. So I continued onwards until I came to a laser room.

You see where those small grey things float? Well, between them is a laser line that flashes in and out, and if it hits you then those bigger guys shoot you. I had to dash through them, try and leap over others; at the same time avoiding floating robot pink guys. Uncool. I did manage to make my way through only getting hit a couple times though, so it wasn't so bad.

Next section was a moving platform with spiked walls and spiked obstacles. I'm guessing the spikes were one shot kills, but I didn't want to find out. So I moved my ass side to side as fast as I could.

Again, the floating pink robot heads were buzzing around, purposely getting in my way, and hitting me to try and knock me into the spikes. I manage to make it through that death trap without the death which was fantastic.

I exited out of the spiked elevator and was on the outside of the tower I was climbing. So I began my jumping. I went up and up along the wall, avoiding the turrets that would pop out during my ascent. I climbed some ladders, did some fancy dash-wall-leaps, and then came to another entrance. However, there was a health increase that I couldn't figure out how to acquire.

Try as I might, I could not do any sort of leap-wall-jump combo to get to it, so I continued on my way. This section was pretty short, just involved killing some turrets which were floating on moving platforms, and jumping higher and higher until I came to the boss door to face; Boomer Kuwanger!

I just see him going crazy on the dance floor for Saturday Night Fever or something, don't you? Ya, anyway, I thought the Chameleon was fast! Boomer here jumps around in a blinky-dash-teleport thing. And I was right, he whips a boomerang from his head. He was damn hard to hit, BUT the heat-seeking missiles were his weakness. So every time one hit him, he would get stunned; on top of the large chunk of health the missile would take out. Needless to say, he died pretty fast. And I unlocked a boomerang power!

Now, from previous video game experience (Zelda, in particular) one could use boomerangs in order to pull items that are normally out of reach oneself.... Mental note made. 1 Boss left, you're going down Storm Eagle. Catch ya later gamers.

Mega Man X: Shady Business

This was a really fun level; had interesting fights, different environments, and was just a damn good time to go through.

The level started in a forest, which was not really suprising to be honest. I made my way along and killed some hopping robots, and destroyed that guy with the axe who threw chunks of a pillar at me (See post: Penguin)! I blazed through the first chunk of the forest, and then came to a gap which entered into a large tunnel inside a large hunk of rock (Or 'mountain' as some would call it.)

I was hoping for an upgrade of some kind so I checked down the side of the gap, and the camera moved down with me, so I was hopeful. However, all that was there was a wall I could break with a wall jump, and then a really, really long gap. It was too far to jump over, and the camera also didn't pan down if you tried. Not sure what it's there for really. I sincerely doubt Mega Man gets the power of flight.... Or does he...?

Anyway, so I went the opposite direction (Up) in search of power, and a I was met with a mini-boss!

This guy took a LONG ass time to die, I'll tell ya. Mainly because I could only hit in square in the face with a blast to hurt him. He had two things he could do; either he'll jump through the air quite slowly, and land where you were standing when he jumped, OR, he lifts his arm signalling that he is going to reach out his hand to hit ya and then sends it out rather slowly. The only times I got hit were when I got a little impatient and kept jumping and shooting his head when should've just moved. He blew up none the less, and then I acquired new and improved armor! I now take 50% LESS damage! Whoot! I guess this Dr. Light or what-have-you knew how to build a deadly robot.

Now that I was suited up, I entered the mountain. There were falling rocks which turned into robot humanoids who threw rocks at me. Scary. This was over quickly, and then I hopped into a Mech!

Last time I was in a Mech (See again: Penguin) I complained that I was in it for too short a time. This gallivant was not 'lengthy' by any stretch, but it was longer. It may have been partly due to the long sections of mud which I sunk into and slowed my speed greatly. I could dash along the top of the mud for a bit before I sunk too low, as well as smashing anything that got in my way, including other mechs. After escaping the mud field I came face to face with the boss (yes there was a boss door.) Good ol' Sting Chameleon.

That missed.

He's a fast bugger, to be sure, he also rarely stops moving, which makes it kind of difficult to peg a shot off on him. He could turn invisible and when he did that I also couldn't damage him, even if I knew where he was. When he was invisible he could do three things:

1. Move into a corner and hurl three green spikes at me
2. Move towards me and flick out his tongue
3. Drop down to the ground and growl/attack

Needless to say, it was an annoying battle. I had to keep moving and have a charge shot ready for when he appeared so I could hit him with it. These didn't feel like it would be the easiest method though, so I cycled through my powers... Again, I did not have a power which did SUPER EFFECTIVE damage to him. However, I did find that the Missile power I just got from the Octopus sent out Heat-Seeking missiles! Which means I could launch them any direction and as long as Sting Chameleon wasn't invisible, the missile would flip around and hit him. Haha! Take that!

2 more bosses to go! And I'm guessing 2 more upgrades to go. I'm slowly changing from the plain ol' Blue Mega Man to the Mega Man X on the cover, with white and gold armor. I need a new helmet and a new buster cannon. I'm excited to find them. Catch ya later gamers.

Mega Man X: Underwater Battle!

Alright. So, underwater levels never really were 'my thing' in most games. They make your character sluggish, unresponsive, and in general more difficult to avoid attacks. Happily it appears that SNES games (or just Mega Man X here) that they don't change all that much, except that cause your jumping to be slightly slower, but it actually enhancing my ability to choose where I fall when I leap. This level ended up being fairly lengthy, though might've just felt that way.

It started with shallow water which had robot water-bugs. They died with some buster shots. It got deeper fairly quickly and the first deep dive ran me face-to-face with some robot sea-horses who popped out of the ground and hurled themselves at me. They were rather annoying to be honest. I killed a bunch, and tried to keep moving, but they kept launching up from the ground! couldn't escape them. I kept blowing them up again and again, until I finally got out of their 'territory' and ran into these robot piranha things.

If you're wondering where I am in this picture; I'm inside the fish. It ATE me. It sucks in water and pulls you into it's belly. Luckily this doesn't do any damage and I can just shoot my way out, it's just an inconvenience. Next big thing was this guy:

There seems to be a trend of forced movement in this level, which I suppose makes sense, considering that it's underwater. Anyway, this guy didn't really have anything too special, he just sucked and blew, attempting to get me to fall into the pit of spikes. He also launched out these... robot snake-things which homed at me. I was hit by them a few times, but after continuously blasting him with my buster, and a couple other powers, he ended up dying. So I continued on my way, and these bombs started raining down from the surface. They weren't homing, but they were annoying. I moved as fast as I could through that area, and avoided the spikes... Then I heard some rumbling;

And thus, giant-snake-mini-boss thing popped up. It moved slow enough, and didn't shoot anything, so as long as I just kept myself away from where it's head was, I was alright. The only parts of the body I could hit were the head and the end of the tail. The body bounced my shots away. It took a bit to kill, because it would sometimes go back into the dirt, but it was just delaying the inevitable. It died, and dropped me some health and some energy for my ammo for my super powers, and the boss door was there shortly after. However, I didn't find a single power-up in the level so I did some back-tracking and found a rather large gap. I jumped over it before cuz I thought I'd die; but the camera moved down with me, so I decided to see how far down it would go.

I entered a cavern of some sort, and there was another giant-sea-snake-mini-boss thing. So I killed him, and then there was a health increase! I was so happy, and then promptly fell into a spike pit. so I fought my way back through the giant-sea-snake-mini-boss thing and went to slay the boss.

So this punk pointed and me, and said I was going down. So I was like 'Oh, you are SO going down.' This Octo-punk shot missiles. MISSILES! Luckily a charged shot usually destroyed the ones that would hit me, and then hit him, so I could plug away at his health that way. Again, I didn't have the power which was his weakness though, so I had to plug away his health normally. The regular buster/charge-shot combo seemed to be the most effective. So I killed him good.

So there are 3 bosses left, and the last 2 bosses I fought I didn't have their weaknesses... So, I hope I have the chameleon's weakness, because I think I'm gonna take him on next. Catch ya late gamers.

Super Metroid: high jump boots...now what?

So I've been at this for a couple hours today and I think I'm stuck. 

My first moment of joy came when I realized that old memories of a charge-up shot were not invented by my imagination. So, now I'm equipped with an extra-damage-giving arm cannon. Which is awesome cuz I keep wasting missiles on ceiling jumpers.

So then I moved on to find these little jerks.

If I could improve one thing about this game it would be to make it easier to get the hell out of spikey water. I had so many deaths because of that that I was ready to eat my controller. However, with a little patience I got through it and found out that my super missiles blow these guys up in a hurry. It wasn't long before I finally found these suckas:

 Which made life a little easier, but then I realized that a quite a few rooms back and on a whole different level I had left areas what were too high to reach. However, I can't go back there because I've closed myself off. So then I found the next save point, here....

And was doubly miffed to find that I had nowhere else to go. To the right of this save point was a dead end that I couldn't blast through, and all the rooms I could access were either too hot for my armor(or something...) or the door wouldn't open with any of my weapons. I feel like I missed something and its frustrating. There's also a room with Indiana Jones style closing doorways that I have to run through, but the second one still closes too fast. Being too frustrated to continue I have called it quits for the day and will try again tomorrow...or later tonight.