Returning to the Mega Mania with X

T

WHAT

I am no stranger to Mega Man X, as those games [and Mega Man Zero] particularly struck a bigger chord on me than the classic games because of being more lenient in their design on top of the dash and wall jumping mechanics, so I had actually beat X1 to X6 years ago...but I still wanted to revisit them again for good measure thanks to RetroAchievements.

The result was trying to tackle the games as blind as possible while getting all upgrades in X1-X3 while beating the entire game without a single upgrade in X4 - I only looked up the secret weapon locations for good measure [since both the locations AND the conditions can be ridiculous to guess blind] and the weapon weaknesses of X4 Sigma [you'll see why later].

I went through the entirety of X1 to X3 without using guides otherwise, which resulted in me spending several minutes in a few occasions to find those few hidden power-ups that I needed to finish the full set [such as the Bubble Crab and the Morph Moth upgrades hidden high, the Crush Crawfish heart tank and the Toxic Seahorse upgrade] - which was kind of bothersome for a bit but at least led to those big AHA moments when I actually got to figure out where they were hidden. With Morph Moth it was the most striking because I had no idea of a certain weapon's effect that I discovered by accident and was like "OHHHH OKAY SO THAT'S HOW YOU FOLLOW THE ITEM CHASER'S HINT LMAO" - so I'd say that the Item Chaser in X2 is actually useful at least in a blind playthrough [because obviously it doesn't do the same if you look up exactly where the things are, duh].

X3 had me in a sort of divided because it had some of the usual highs of X1-X2 but playing it blind and figuring some things out was kind of hit-or-miss when the Ride Armors were now into the mix of finding collectibles for the full item set, Blast Hornet's upgrade being like "Wait why is this open now" and also trying to avoid running into the Enhancement Chip capsules that would lock me out of the Gold Armor [so they were useless for me in that playthrough]. More so when, while the bosses were mostly simple, Kaiser Sigma was VERY tough even with the Gold Armor and took me several attempts to beat - as the Z-Saber was tough to use reliably against the second form and yet that was my only reliable way to kill him on that moment [trying to get a single Z-Saber hit and finish it with buster + sub-tanks].

The buster upgrade in X3 in particular felt like a kick in the shins when it was less damaging than X2's while being less effective against some bosses due to the low speed + spread shot nature of the combined shot, so that was kinda irksome too. But at the end of the day, I still went through the whole thing.

Which is why I think its super cool that I played MMX3 Zero Project right after, because not only it showed me how some things would look if they were tweaked, such as the Buster Upgrade now being AWESOME thanks to the speed and damage buffs - which actually had me strategize a fight against Kaiser Sigma without the Z-Saber AND sub-tanks because of how good it was and how less stressed it made me [allowing me to think a plan], but also had me appreciate vanilla X3 in that there were definitely cool concepts there that are either a bit in need of tweaking or just hard to notice at first because of first impressions.

I had detailed way more the nice things of it in the Backloggd review, but another highlight I can take from it is that there's a New Game Plus option that let me replay the game with the busted as hell set I had earned from that playthrough, which adds both replay value and sweet, SWEET payback time for you when you can slam almost all bosses into the ground when you're all decked out.

The reason why I did X4 with NO UPGRADES instead of all upgrades was because I always thought it was somewhat easy compared to the rest to an extent, which made me curious of the viability of me getting through it as Stock X. Split Mushroom, Magma Dragoon and Storm Owl folded me in half repeatedly, but that aside, it was pretty fun and noticeably...fair. While X3 bosses could easily shred you in half with a few stray hits, in X4 you have way more of a fighting chance even if you refuse to pick up a heart tank.

The toughest and roughest part of the entire playthrough for sure was Sigma though. Having to do a slow Phase 1 fight, then keeping consistency in Phase 2 by making sure the scythe hits the walls is one thing, but having to redo both of those when Phase 3 can be a crapshoot with the Earth Sigma attack that sucks you in was not exactly the most fun thing to grind [I spent ONE HOUR AND SIXTEEN MINUTES ON THAT FIGHT ALONE]. That is why I had to look up its weakness to at least give me THAT in order to kill it faster before I have a chance of dying to a stray rock if it decided to suck [figuratively and literally].

But at the end of the day, I did the damn thing. So yeah, X1-X3 with all upgrades and X4 with no upgrades completed - what a journey to go through the best like that. The funniest part is how I did those to prepare foir X8 Demake, but whether I have played it or not by the time of writing this is yet to be decided...

Honorable Mentions

Coming back to Puzzle games from my childhood

You will hear me talk about PiCTOBiTS and Super Collapse 3 and YOU WILL ENJOY IT.

PiCTOBiTS

PiCTOBiTS is a game that could be said to be CRIMINALLY underrated mainly because its CRIMINALLY forgotten by Nintendo themselves when it was only released in the DSi/3DS store...and both are dead by this point. While the premise of the game very much depends on the game being played in a real console's touchscreen [making it a bit harder in a phone or with a mouse on PC], it IS till possible to very much play start to end if you apply yourself properly.

You take and place bits [the colored blocks] so that they line up with the falling chunks, forming horizontal lines, vertical lines or squares that have at least 4 bits. I think the best way to see it is to watch the game in action and pick up on the logic of the game [as well as the way bits are placed to match], but if you decide to try it yourself, the game includes a tutorial as well.

This game is definitely a rush when you get to the later levels, as the amount of bits you'll have to juggle to keep clearing what keeps falling, as well as the pace of how fast they fall, amps up noticeably. Stage 14 is quite fast paced and demanding to have spot-on reflexes to catch the pieces in time with the right colors before they fall, while Stage 15 [the last one] is always a predetermined set of pieces falling...but those will fall smoothly - giving you less time to dawdle [but still easier than Stage 14 in a way].

But of course, the hardest part isn't even THOSE, but the fact there are hidden Dark stages that you can buy for coins...and Dark Stage 1 is already as hard as a lategame normal level. So good luck with any of those.

The music also adds a lot to the game, between how the stage's music will get more instruments the more you progress into it, being cool remixes of classic NES tunes, and the credits theme has lived in my head ever since I beat the game for the first time many years ago on a real blue colored DSi I haven't seen again in forever.

Super Collapse 3 is a notably simpler game in how it works: You click off blocks that are connected with three or more blocks of the same color until you win. Classic Match 3. But at least the story mode spices up things when you have to face a few of the unique game modes and spins some levels provide on those [Strategy being about each move rising the stack - so you have to play carefully, while Relapse is about managing TWO stacks on the same screen, one above and one below]. The final stage is interesting in how it only looks like this mysterious coin with a question mark for a name.

The stage name is Terminal Velocity. And the ominous name doesn't lie - it will quickly go into a mad dash into trying to run your stack into the ceiling, forcing you to really move fast with your clicking...and adapting to the frequent gamemode changes - so you'll have to actually be worried about not just the standard way of playing at high speed, but also dealing with Relapse as well [and Slider too, but at least Slider feels a bit more lenient in this context].

The Oddball Games

Golgo 13 [Namco's arcade game]

Ever heard of Golgo 13? No? Well, it makes sense when the only piece of media that had the most effect internationally was the Golgo 13 The Professional movie - but interestingly enough, the reason why I found out about this series was because of a playthrough of an arcade game made by Namco.

So, of course, that was something I ended up playing myself.

GO Series: 10 Second Run

You got 10 seconds to run. That's the premise of GO Series: 10 Second Run. It sounds simple, and in most stages, it is, but it uses that along with the way your character falls like a brick to its advantage and do some mean, notably precise levels to go through as you cross the middle point. Feels like it would be right at home on a website for flash player games because of the difficulty hiding beneath the simple look - which makes sense as well when this was a DSiWare only game. Incredible how THIS game actually got a sequel on the Nintendo Switch, so unlike PiCTOBiTS, it isn't completely forgotten [although the original DSi game I played IS lost, though].

Outride Obama

Ever heard of Victory Heat Rally? Of course I have, but did you know that before that existed, one of the main devs had made a game in the style of Outrun named...Outride Obama?.

obamna

This is not a joke though - the game does look like one but it is clearly a take on Outrun but you steer with a mouse [which is honestly genius when you think about how the depth of a game like this would be in the analog steering - and this compensates the game being a browser game]...and you have to outride a flying Obama's head.

Multiplayer of the Year

My Best Replay of the Year

Most Difficult Game of the Year

My Video Game of the Year

Gaming Announcements of the Year

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW?

THIS ISN'T DONE AT ALL, and no spoilers ahead of time