RGR018 - Tying Up Loose Ends

The last password Mega Man ever gives you leads to the beginning of the castle, so you're forced to go back and fight through Wave Man and Toad Man's stages again. Wave Man and his stage get easier each time, and I think the same can be said of Toad Man. Having finally mastered the timing of his jumps, I was able to hit him with the Water Wave as he landed from every other jump. Hitting him prevents him from using his Rain Flush power, but since he jumped too far away on the odd-numbered jumps, he did have an opening to use it. Still, most of the damage I took was from him jumping right at me and landing on me. By beating Toad Man, I was able to complete my set of powers with the Rain Flush, as usual renamed the "Rain Weapon" by the Game Gear version of the game.

The last password you'll ever need... or get.

This picture is artificially naughty.

See? Water is super effective.

I can make it rain... I hate that song.

Instead of moving on to fight Dr. Cossack, as would have been the case with this castle in Mega Man 4, we're instead brought immediately to Dr. Wily's castle for the final stage, an exact replica of Quick Man's stage from Mega Man 2. With the exception of fewer enemies (most stages in this game have had fewer enemies than their counterparts in the original NES games), the final stage was just as nerve-wracking as the original, which you may remember was infamous for its deadly, screen-filling lasers. The lasers are here in full force, but I noticed something odd about them: getting hit initially by one of these lasers only does one point of damage, but hanging around in the beam for too long can still cause instant death. At least this gives you a chance to get out of each room alive even if you do get hit.

The lightning knocked out the castle's power.

I've got a bad feeling about this place...

And now I remember why!

Ooh, I like the place in red!

Pshaw! Your giant lasers don't scare me!

So I guess it's time to fight Quick Man, then.

Final Boss: Dr. Wily

Just before reaching the boss room, Mega Man zips away to a new mini-stage, a quick walk to a teleporter guarded by a single cannon. On the other side, Dr. Wily was waiting for a fight in his little one-man pod. That's right, no giant screen-filling robot to fight, no fighting all the previous bosses over again, just Dr. Wily. His pattern had him warping around the room, dropping two energy pulses that move in opposite directions upon reaching the floor, and then warping away, leaving four pulses in his wake that spin outward and back in. The toughest part about the battle is that he tends to appear just above Mega Man, not giving much of an opportunity to get away before the pulses hit. I tried several weapons against him, with little luck, so I wound up relying on the charged Mega Buster to beat him. I've since read that the Rain Flush is his weakness, and that's one I didn't try. I was forced to use my one and only E-Tank to refill my energy, but I managed to defeat him on my first attempt.

After blowing up Wily's pod, the scene changed to a view of Dr. Cossack's castle, strangely enough, as it was engulfed in explosions that caused the screen to fade to white, at which point I was informed that the mission was, in some way, perfect. I would have to disagree, with all the bugs and deaths and all, but Mega Man did save the day in the end, and that's what's important.

AGH! What just happened?

Where could this possibly lead?

Wait, no giant skull machine form?

Ow! Watch it with those things!

How dare you make me use my E-Tank!

One more shot, and...

Whoa, I think I killed him!

Oh, we're blowing up the first castle?

Well, I'd hardly call it perfect, but...

SHOOT HIM, MEGA MAN! DO IT!

So, after much unnecessary frustration, Mega Man for the Game Gear comes to a close. The game was plenty fun; if it hadn't been for the Bright Man bug, things would have gone totally smoothly.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to play next; Dragon Warrior IV is fast approaching, but there are a couple of things I want to take care of first.

RGR018 - Back on Track

After countless failed attempts to manually duplicate the timing of the fated reset during playback, I gave up and started manually editing the recording to try to strip out everything just after the reset. Finally, I was able to get playback to synchronize again from the beginning, and can now move on with the rest of the game.

The second time around, Bright Man was kind of a pushover. I already knew he was weak against the Star Crash, so I just had to be careful about getting hit as he jumped around the room. He's much less prone to using his time stop attack in this version, preferring to use himself primarily as a weapon. I got hit a few times, but had no trouble starring him to death. By defeating Bright Man, I gained the Flash Stopper, which this game calls "Bright Weapon".

Now let's get it right this time...

No more of that buggy cheaty stuff, 'kay?

I'll destroy you with my... little star thingies!

That's not a helpful description.

Arbitrarily Chosen Fourth Boss: Napalm Man

Napalm Man's stage takes place in a jungle-type area, which may or may not be quite culturally insensitive. Robotic tigers try to pounce on you, and are surprisingly adept at jumping over your shots, though I'm pretty sure that's a coincidence based on my bad shot timing. The path then descends into a deep cavern lined with Metool-operated cannons that fire shots that look like bubble gum, along with shrapnel-filled missiles and a few different large humanoid robots. The final stretch is a series of pits with narrow footholds (some of which have become blind jumps, thanks again to the Game Gear's small screen), with vertical rocket enemies poised to knock you out of the air.

Napalm Man attacks with small bombs that explode on contact, and appear to contain no napalm whatsoever (napalm would stick to Mega Man, and keep on burning) as he jumps around the room trying to be as difficult a target as possible. Luckily, he's weak against the Flash Stopper, making most of his movements a waste. Beating him grants the Napalm Bomb, known here as "Bomb Weapon".

Finally, a boss with actual weapons!

Well played, robo-tiger. Well played.

Fear the bubble gum cannon!

Who put this giant meat tenderizer here?

Look! A cleverly-hidden energy tank!

I want a tiny copter like Sniper Joe's!

I should probably do something about the missile.

How do his tiny thighs support his weight?

Watch out for spikes, even if you can't see them.

Hmm... I hope there's something between these.

Just hand over the bombs like a good boy.

See, that was easy.

With the four Robot Masters out of the way, it's time for Mega Man to stage the final assault on Dr. Wily as usual. However, as the image of the castle (Dr. Cossack's castle from Mega Man 4) fades into view, we see that the path first leads to Wave Man, another Robot Master from Mega Man 5.

Fifth Boss: Wave Man

Wave Man's stage is unique and actually very fun, at least as you get closer to the end. The beginning is a gauntlet of big swinging spiked balls and broken pipes venting steam, leading to an area where Mega Man is forced to ride bubbles to reach a platform two full screens up (that's two full original NES screens, so a little over three Game Gear screens). Only large bubbles can support his weight for more than a second, but the small bubbles have to be used as stepping stones in order to cross from one side of the screen to the other, to avoid spiked ceilings. The fun begins after Mega Man reaches the top: an autoscrolling jet ski shoot-em-up! Buoys, jumping fish and other jet skiers attack from both sides, and a giant octopus mini-boss stands in the way of Mega Man's progress.

Wave Man waits on the other side of the jet ski course, brandishing his harpoon gun and tiny waterspouts. His pattern is simple, as he just creates a waterspout where Mega Man is standing, fires a harpoon, and then jumps over and over again. But timing jumps to avoid the waterspouts is trickier than you might expect. He has no weaknesses, though the charged Mega Buster does plenty of damage. Mega Man wins the Water Wave by beating Wave Man.

This doesn't seem quite right...

I guess I'm still hunting bad robots.

Steam or spiky steel ball:
which is more dangerous?

Ceiling spikes? I'm not falling for that again.

Jet ski duel!

Eight tentacles and you just shoot rocks?

Your harpoon... will be MINE!

That's not what I meant!

Fact: water is super effective against robots.

But I wanted harpoon weapon!

Sixth Boss: Toad Man

The path through the castle appears to be halfway done, as the second part leads to Toad Man, from Mega Man 4. The beginning of the stage takes place in a storm with strong winds that push Mega Man back when he jumps. Groups of birds that look an awful lot like flying penguins make dive bomb attempts while other little robots float down on umbrellas to attack. Inside, where it's drier, Mega Man encounters giant snails, waterfalls that interfere with his jumping, and cute little two-legged rat-raccoon hybrid bots.

Toad Man, as expected, spends most of his time jumping, but his special attack is the Rain Flush, a sudden downpour of acid rain that covers the screen and can't be avoided. He's weak against the Water Wave, but hard to hit since the Water Wave moves along the ground, and Toad Man spends most of his time in the air. I was on my last life when I reached this stage, and found one extra life along the way, but it wasn't quite enough, and I found myself staring at my first Game Over screen.

So the castle is just two more stages?

Yeah, keep bringing out the winners.

Caution: Low-Flying Penguins.

It's cute, but what is it?

I didn't know snails could do angry.

Eek! Killer jumpy-fish!

Prepare to croak... yeah, that was pretty lame.

And at the hands of a toad, no less.

I've got my password ready to go, but I think that's enough for tonight. Tune in tomorrow for an extra special episode of Mega Man!

Okay, so there's nothing extra special about it, but tune in anyway.