Navigation
Mega Man 9: FAQ/Walkthrough
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
/'\_/`\ /'\_/`\ /'_ `\
/\ \ __ __ __ /\ \ __ ___ /\ \_\ \
\ \ \__\ \ /'__`\ /'_ `\ /'__`\ \ \ \__\ \ /'__`\ /' _ `\ \ \___, \
\ \ \_/\ \/\ __//\ \_\ \/\ \_\.\_ \ \ \_/\ \/\ \_\.\_/\ \/\ \ \/__,/\ \
\ \_\\ \_\ \____\ \____ \ \__/.\_\ \ \_\\ \_\ \__/.\_\ \_\ \_\ \ \_\
\/_/ \/_/\/____/\/____\ \/__/\/_/ \/_/ \/_/\/__/\/_/\/_/\/_/ \/_/
/\____/
\____/
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
**************************************************
* *
* Mega Man 9 *
* *
* *
* General Walkthrough *
* Version 1.00 *
* By Justin Morgan *
* Created 9/23/2008 *
* Last Updated 9/24/2008 *
* *
**************************************************
Version History:
1.00 - First complete version of the guide
[=====================]
= Table of Contents =
[=====================]
I) Basics
1-01 Story
1-02 Controls
1-03 Main Menu
II) Walkthrough
2-01 Splash Woman
2-02 Concrete Man
2-03 Galaxy Man
2-04 Jewel Man
2-05 Plug Man
2-06 Tornado Man
2-07 Magma Man
2-08 Hornet Man
2-09 Wily's Fortress 1
2-10 Wily's Fortress 2
2-11 Wily's Fortress 3
2-12 Wily's Fortress 4
III) Equipment
3-01 Weapons and Adapters
3-02 Items and Power-Ups
3-03 Shop
IV) Extras
4-01 Challenges
4-02 Hints, Tips and Secrets
V) Contact Info and Copyright
[=============]
= I) Basics =
[=============]
---------------
- 1-01 Story -
---------------
The prologue to the game can be seen at the very beginning, after the company
logos come and go. It explains the main plot of the game, but here's a more
concise run-through.
After Dr. Wily was bested by Mega Man seemingly once and for all, the world
felt a period of peace and calm. However, one day robots started going wild
all over the world once again! Unbelievably, Wily doesn't seem to be behind
this recent series of attacks--he appears on the world news and claims his own
innocence while offering video proof that it was actually Mega Man's creator,
the kindly Dr. Light, admitting that he was behind the attacks! Dr. Light,
though confused and obviously guilty of no wrongdoing, admits to Mega Man that
the robots shown attacking the cities are, indeed, ones built by his own hands
for various purposes useful to mankind. Have they gone haywire? Have they
been reprogrammed? Mega Man is determined to find out, put a stop to them and
prove Dr. Light's innocence! Thus he sets out with Rush on his first adventure
in a long time! Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!
------------------
- 1-02 Controls -
------------------
[[Wii]]
Mega Man 9 is best played when holding the Wiimote sideways with the Control
Pad and Sensor on the left and 1 and 2 buttons on the right. This emulates
an elongated Nintendo Entertainment System controller, which was used to play
the original Mega Man games that Mega Man 9 emulates.
Control Pad: Moves Mega Man left and right, up and down ladders, or maneuvers
the Rush Jet upwards or downwards. Also moves the selection cursor on various
menus and the Stage Select screen.
A Button: Skips the Safety dialogue when first starting up the game.
+ Button: This game's equivalent of the NES's Start button. Starts the game
and opens up your Pause/Menu screen in gameplay.
- Button: No known use. Equivalent to the NES's Select button.
Home Button: As with all Wii titles, brings up the Home Menu.
1 Button: Fires your weapon and serves as a 'back' or 'cancel' button in some
menus.
2 Button: Jumps and serves as a 'forward' or 'confirm' button in menus.
(Xbox 360 and PS3 controls yet to come)
-------------------
- 1-03 Main Menu -
-------------------
Upon pressing Start (or +, or whatever) on the title screen will bring you to
the name screen and a familiar tune from Mega Man 2. Once you input a name,
you will be brought to the main menu. Here are your options.
GAME START
- NEW GAME (starts a new file from the beginning)
- LOAD (allows you to load a saved game from one of 8 save slots)
- TIME ATTACK
- STAGE SELECT (gives you a list of all stages, including the final stages,
to try and speedrun. You only have one life; if you die, you're brought
back to this menu. You start with all weapons at full energy, but no
items; and there's a myserious hidden stage at the bottom, presumably
one to be released later as downloadable content. Note, bosses ARE
included at the end of the stage and count toward time spent in that
stage. Also, if you spend 10 minutes in a stage, you will instantly die
and receive a "Time's up!" message.)
- RANKINGS (gives you a list similar to Stage Select, but selecting a stage
will connect you to Wifi and give you a list of the top 10 time trial
rankings for that stage by people around the world)
- RULES (explains the rules for Time Attack mode)
- BACK
- ????? (mystery option, supposedly unlocked with downloadable content later)
- ????? (another)
- BACK
CHALLENGES LIST (a list of all 50 Challenges in the game, a crown icon appears
next to Challenges you've completed. See the Challenges
section later in the guide for more info)
RANKINGS
- TIME ATTACK RANKING (brings up the same list as Time Attack > Rankings)
- ????? (another mystery option)
- ALL CLEAR RANKING (connects you to Wifi for a list of the top 10 overall
times through the entire game, from beginning to end)
OPTIONS
- CONTROL TYPE (allows you to switch between 'b' shoot 'a' jump similar to NES
style, or 'a' shoot 'b' jump similar to Mega Man Anniversary Collection for
Gamecube, switching whichest two buttons your controller uses for those
actions)
- LEGACY MODE (allows you to toggle sprite flickering, as in the flashing of
moving sprites when too many were onscreen at the same time a la how the NES
functioned in such a situation)
- PLAYER NAME (allows you to change the Player Name that you put in when you
first started up the game; this name displays on all your Time Trials
records and is potentially viewable by the world)
DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT (brings up the Downloadable Content menu. As of this
writing, there is none yet released)
BACK (returns to the title screen)
[===================]
= II) Walkthrough =
[===================]
You begin the game on the Stage Select screen much like the earlier Mega Man
titles from long ago. From here you can select one of 8 Robot Masters to
tackle as well as go to the Shop, but there's not much reason for that at this
point as you yet have no Screws with which to purchase any items. You may of
course take on the Masters in any order you so choose, but I have listed them
in order, starting with the easiest to be defeated with your Mega Buster alone
and then moving forward to which Master is weakest to the last's weapon.
----------------------
- 2-01 Splash Woman -
----------------------
Selecting the stage and being greeted by an old-style Boss Selected cutscene
and a well-animated 8-bit sprite of a mermaid/robot chick with a rad trident,
you're promptly teleported to the bottom of a water-filled mechanical base
with a sunny, fluffy-clouded backdrop. This peaceful scenery will turn rather
abruptly into a fight for your life as a floating mine in the water to your
right comes to life with an angry disposition upon being shot at or walked
close to. There's no use trying to defeat it--only a powerful weapon like the
Black Hole Bomb will do the job, and even then it's generally a better idea to
just avoid these guys. They'll home in on you and eventually self-destruct,
but they move in such wide arcs that it's not difficult to dodge them safely.
At the end of this corridor, fall into the pit purposely to reach the next
room.
In this room you'll find pink-colored octopus enemies that hide in jars and
periodically peak out to pelt you with an orb of ink. It doesn't hurt much and
can be destroyed with your shots, but if you're hit it will turn Mega Man (as
well as all Weapon Pellets) a tar-black color. From all I can figure, this
doesn't actually hinder gameplay in any way. Once you've dispatched the octopi
with short jump-shots in order to hit the head, move right to find another hole
as well as a third octopus and Large Screw beyond it. It's in your interest to
grab this screw, as it's by far the easiest and quickest to find an obtain in
the game and adds 20 to your currency (that's one extra life, or 2/3rds of an
E-tank at the shop!) Now fall down and BEAR LEFT! There's a small bed of
spikes in the center of the room below, that you must fall left or right of;
the left path leads to an easy Extra Life. Continue forward in the room below,
but be wary of the speedy fish-bots that will come from the left side--they're
weak, but very fast. You'll approach a pair of mines as well as a green wall
climbing bot on the right wall--you'll want to move back and have the mines
dispose of themselves and quickly destroy the wall climber on your way back, as
his shots will explode into an 8-directional mess if not countered quickly.
Fall again here to reach a split path. The right path, this time, is the one
you'll want to take, despite the fact that it looks more dangerous. Past this
screen it quickly becomes much easier than the left one, and even offers a
reward in the form of a large Energy Pellet if you bear left after the spikes.
The next room contains a wall crawler at the top, unreachable with just your
Mega Bustger, so you'll get a chance to learn how its shots work--and how to
avoid them--while you do battle with the octopus on the bottom and move your
way up. After one more quick fish and a mine, it's on to the next room, the
halfway point of the stage (you'll continue from here from now on if you lose
a life).
Here's the bubble room! Just like in Wave Man's stage from Mega Man 5, you've
got an array of large and small bubbles to ride up to the further areas of the
stage. From right to left, the bubbles come out in order; small, large, small,
small, large. Large bubbles are slower but safer, never popping and serving as
ideal platforms to ride on to the next screen. Smaller bubbles are faster but
may only be used as quick stepping stones which you must immediately jump off
once you land on or else they will pop and send you way back down to the first
bubble room. You can technically ride them up to the next screen as well, but
I wouldn't advise it. Anyway, jump on the far right big bubble and ride on up.
You'll get some bubble-riding practice on the next screen as a couple fast
drill-nosed fish will fly through from the left as you rise; shoot at them as
you jump to the left big bubble to avoid the spikes, and remember to stay light
footed on the small bubbles. The next screen contains thee of the speedy fish
but is otherwise quite safe; if you ride the left big bubble to near the very
top of the screen, you can make a daring leap all the way to the one on the
right easily (which you'll need to do to avoid spikes on the next screen up).
If you're confident of your bubble-hopping skills you can use the two smaller
ones to reach a large Screw on the left, but otherwise proceed to your right.
After a fairly safe room you'll climb a ladder to reach a corridor with a
single wall crawler to your left and a series of water-filled platforms that
periodically jet out of either wall, in a specific pattern from bottom to top.
Destroy the crawler from its lowest point and memorize how the platforms come
out; practice in this room as much as you like before proceeding, because the
next few chambers will have similar puzzles. Also take note of how the water
level inside the platforms clues you to how long they will last before
dissipating. Move upward to reach a more tricky platform puzzle with spikes
littering the bottom of the screen. Make sure you have a plan before moving
forward; check out the bottom two platforms and realize their pattern. If you
run and jump on both at the right time you can easily reach the right-hand rest
but be careful not to let the platform moving out just above it push you off.
It's also possible to summon Rush on the spikes on the bottom and time your
Coil jump so that you land on the uppermost platform from the left, and reach
the ladder easily. The next room is the toughest, but it's really not as hard
as it may seem. You obviously can't use Rush here, so get ready to do some
platform-hopping. Just remember--stick to the left! It may seem dangerous but
with some quick hops on all platforms from bottom to top focussing on reaching
the left wall as soon as possible makes this room much easier. Get past this
point and it's only a couple small rooms with simple enemies and then the Boss
Door. Oooh, just like Mega Man 2 but with a "Dr. L" symbol? Very nice!
{***********************}
* WARNING! *
* BOSS: SPLASH WOMAN *
{***********************}
Ahh, the first boss! According to this guide, anyway! Luckily, she's the
weakest Master there is to your Mega Buster, taking double the damage from it
any other Master would, so she's great to start off with. After her flashy
intro, Splash Woman will proceed to sit on her trident and sing adorably while
swishing back and forth across the screen, moving upwards. As she does so,
schools of three yellow fish will enter the screen in quick succession from
one side then the opposite, three schools in total. They can be destroyed or
avoided, though it'll take a bit of practice to be able to evade both Splash
and her minions at once at this point. Since she takes so much damage from
your trusty Buster, though, it's easy to just tough it out with her as long as
you don't take *too* many unneeded hits. Once at the top of the screen, she
will point her trident fiercely downwards and quickly unleash shot after shot
of Laster Trident, her signature weapon. It's not really that difficult to
avoid simply by moving back and forth, but if you've got her on the ropes you
can jump and hit her at the apex of your leap. After 6 shots she'll pause for
and instant and then thrust straight downward with her mighty fork, all the way
to the bottom of the screen--this is her most deadly attack, so be sure to
avoid it at all costs! At this point she'll set herself back up for the siren
song and continue a pattern like this throughout the fight. Just try to avoid
her more damaging attacks while pelting her as often as possible with your
Buster and you should win out.
Your prize will be the Laser Trident, which shoots a rather basic, but powerful
projectile straight forward; it's stronger than the Mega Buster though not
quite as rapid-firing, takes very little weapon energy and eats through
shields, not to mention destroys special blocks you'll find later in your
journey. Not bad at all, it's a special weapon you'll find yourself using very
often!
If this was indeed your first Master defeated, you'll now be treated to a short
cutscene expanding the story introduced in the prologue movie. Press Start to
skip it or watch the whole thing--either way, you'll be sent to the Stage
Select screen once again and get the chance to spend some of your shiny new
Screws at the shop or just proceed to the next stage.
----------------------
- 2-02 Concrete Man -
----------------------
And if you want to choose your next stage according to the Master weakest to
the weapon you just acquired, Concrete's your man! Upon entering the stage
witih its scenery and catchy tune preceded by a short drum beat, you may get
flashbacks to Wood Man from Mega Man 2--and with a lot of close-quarters
combat, a couple tricky pit traps and a trio of big minibosses one after the
other, it's easy to tell that old Master was likely Concrete's inspiration.
Move to your right and you'll quickly face legions of rock-holding birds,
flying swiftly from the right (or from the left if you backtrack). They'll
drop their mini-boulders near you and once they contact the ground they'll
split into smaller rock-shrapnel, so be ready to jump and fire rapidly to get
rid of them all. Once you reach the pits further on the right, LOOK before you
leap! Small capsule-shaped bots will fly upwards when you near the pit and
occasionally open up and shoot at you. You'll want to destroy them on their
upward initial flight and quickly jump over the pit as another will briskly
spawn if you take too much time. At the end of the screen you'll face a cannon
enemy that slowly aims toward you while lobbing large, explosive orbs which can
be destroyed, followed by a ladder upward. As a note, if you have the Jewel
Satellite before facing Concrete Man, it makes this entire first room much
easier.
This next room is highly reminiscent of the first room of Elec Man's stage in
Mega Man 1. You have two Spikes (those annoying, mostly invincible ground
based enemies in just about every Mega Man game) on two platforms jutting out
of the opposite walls; you can shoot them to freeze them, but it's possible to
just quickly hop all the way up without ever being touched. Black Hole Bomb
or Tornado Blow can destroy them completely if need be, though. The next room
has an easy 1-up to reach on the top left, and you'll definitely want it for
the one truly challenging portion of this stage which is just ahead--the robot
elephants!
Wood Man's triplet of fire dogs may have been annoying in their own right, but
these guys are just deadly. The first one introduces you to the concept of the
miniboss you are about to come very accustomed to, giving you a ladder on the
left that basically guarantees a free kill. Simply climb to the top and fire
at the elephant's face to dispose of it, but you may want to study its attack
patterns first. It will blast a large red ball forward and then proceed to
immediately suck it back to its snouth once it reaches the far left of the
screen.. and this suction works rather powerfully on Mega Man, as well. You'll
want to practice jumping over the ball on both its rolls while trying to stay
in the same small area (around the middle of the screen would be best)-you'll
see why soon enough. The next room, and second elephant, has no ladder and a
green ball that works a bit differently. It'll instead bounce to the left
instead of rolling, but once reacing the screen's edge the action is basically
the same. The safest spot to dodge the bouncing ball is actually just in front
of it, this guarantees an evasion each time. This one's not too hard.
Now, the third room and final elephant is the really tricky part! You have a
red ball-equipped elephant just like the first, but no ladder, and two pits
in the floor! It may not seem that difficult, but trust me and the countless
players who've already died multiple times in this room--being hit ONE time, at
ANY point in the room to the left of the elephant, while he's suctioining the
ball pretty much GUARANTEES a death! You'll be taking damage and won't be able
to control yourself during your knockback animation while the elephant vacuums
you right into a hole! I hope you practice on the first one well enough,
because it's really going to be put to the test here. The trick is to move to
the middle platform and slowly shoot at the elephant when you get the chance..
above all, stay calm! Your main goal is to survive, and to no matter what,
always dodge the ball, especially during its return roll! Even if you only get
one shot off on the elephant each round, it's worth it--the halfway point is
just past this room. The Laser Trident may actually come in handy here as
even though it can't destroy an elephant in as low a flat time as the Mega
Buster fired rapidly can, in your patient one-or-two-shot rounds it will take
less overall shots to take it down with your new weapon. Also, if you have the
Magma Bazooka it only takes four charged shots (which is only two actual shots
if you manage to hit it with multiple flame bullets each time) to down it, and
the Concrete Shot actually destroys it amazingly quickly, but you could only
have that if you're going back through the stage or on Time Trials...
Anyway, after THAT ordeal, you come to a small room with a ceiling spider which
will lower itself and bounce around when approached, as well as a large Energy
Pellet only obtainable if you have the Hornet Chaser and the first of many
floors found in the later half of this stage which have a 'fake' block; you'll
notice that one block is the inverse 'lego-like' shape of the others, and
that's the one you'll want to avoid, as you'll fall through if you attempt to
step on it. Continue down a room to the actual halfway point and then BEAR
RIGHT as you fall to the next room below it for a large Screw. If you miss it
you can still just destroy the green cannon and use Rush Coil to reach it,
though. As you move right across this room be sure to jump each time you reach
the waterfalls that obstruct your view, as many of them conceal pits. When you
approach the second green cannon, jump up on the concealed platform behind the
first waterfall then drop down to the visible platform to finish it off before
leaping clean over to the floor on the right side. Destroy the cannon in the
next room before climbing up and remember which blocks to avoid. The above
room is actually the long final area before the boss. Stay cool as you fight
off the palm tree enemies, they'll hop and lob bullets in both directions if
you near them but otherwise they're harmless. Take the top path for a couple
small screws or the middle for some small Energy Pellets. Past this is a large
Weapon Pellet that you'll want to grab if your Laser Trident is low at all on
energy; don't waste a Rush Coil, just ride the upwards platform nearby to reach
it. After this is the final stretch of the stage, a series of upwards and
downwards-flying platforms that is somewhat reminiscent of the end of Top Man's
stage in Mega Man 3. Quickly jump off the downward-falling green ones while
riding the upward-flying red ones as high as you wish to make the subsequent
jump easier. You'll have to ride the next-to-last one pretty high to make it
to the final green one, from which you can quickly jump to reach safety and,
finally, the boss. (The Rush Jet can help a lot in this last room if you have
it!)
{***********************}
* WARNING! *
* BOSS: CONCRETE MAN *
{***********************}
Upon entering his chamber, Concrete Man will clench his fists together as his
health bar fills and immediately proceed with his assault, which is made up of
three different moves which he'll use relentlessly in any random order he so
pleases. He can and will:
A) Shoulder charge across the room towards you directly into a wall and knock
himself back a bit
B) Jump up and forward into the air, then come crashing down E. Honda-style to
the ground, causing a quake which renders Megaman helpless for a moment unless
you jump just before he lands
C) Blast three globs of concrete that arc low-to-high towards you, solidifying
into solid blocks if they touch the ground or solidifying Mega Man into a solid
statue if any of them hit him
You can get out of the concrete shell if you press buttons rapidly but you'll
have to be *very* quick to both achieve this and dodge his next assault. It's
also possible to destroy the Concrete Shots with your Laser Trident, though it
may take a bit of practice to get the timing for this down. You'll want to
equip your Trident and pummel him with it in rapid succession any time you
get the chance; make sure to jump over his charges and hit him up to three
times as he bonks himself into a wall. Make absolutely sure you're in the air
when he lands or his next attack is sure to hit you, and they're all VERY
powerful. His Concrete Shot's the hardest move in his repertoire to dodge;
just try to move toward the opposite wall and jump over the furthest-moving
one as it nears you, or destroy them with your Laser Trident.
Winning will grant you the Concrete Shot. Despite its funny name, basic color
scheme and drab graphic of a simple grey blob, it's one of the most versatile
and useful weapons in the game. Not only does it do huge damage, but it
creates blocks that can be used as platforms and it freezes and stops certain
tricky hazards throughout the game.
--------------------
- 2-03 Galaxy Man -
--------------------
With his fruity intro and flashing multicolored body as if he'd just touched a
Super Star, you know this one's going to be interesting. You teleport into a
stage very reminiscent of Star Man's from Mega Man 5, but unfortunately you're
not going to find any low gravity here. While listening to the funky beats,
move right to be assaulted by a troupe of small green UFOs that move
surprisingly predictably and are simple to defeat. A bit further in you'll
encounter some Mets--and yes, they're Mega Man 1 style Mets! No movement
whatsoever other than opening up to shoot (and be shot) and no silly Met
gimmicks (save for one very funny one we'll see later). Move forward past the
simple platforming area to climb up to a room with an interesting new twist:
teleport boxes! Jump in one and you'll come out another in the room, shot
straight upwards into the air. Luckily, this duo is simple to understand and
prepares you for what to expect out of later ones. Jump in the left, come out
and fall back into the right, then come out the left again and onto the ladder.
This next corridor seems simple enough, and even has a nice large Energy Pellet
on the top le---OOOHMYGOSHWAAAAAAAH! Oh yes, yes indeed. The most terrifying
enemy in this entire game if not Mega Man history. A shockingly sudden, loud
helicopter noice will fill your ears as a yellow grappling robot will dive
lightning-fast from the top of the screen and pick you up, hastily carrying you
to the right at full speed. You can jump and shoot while it's holding you, but
it won't actually let go until it feels like it. You can get these to fall
before running into their grasp, but until you know where one is this can be
tricky to do. Of course, you can also use the Jewel Satellite to make them
think twice about diving toward you, but if you're following the order of this
guide you probably don't have that yet. Now, if you've got your nerves back
together, grab the pellet if you want and advance to the right--very carefully.
Jump over the spike pit and try to land on the very left tip of the platform if
you want to avoid further manhandling by the grapplers. One will drop down
just slightly into this platform and if you're grabbed by it you'll have to
carefully time your jumps with its movement so that you pass over the next few
spike pits unharmed. At the very beginning of the second spike pit after
having grabbed you it'll float away, so you'll have to be bearing right as you
jump to make it all the way. Near the very end of this platform another one
will drop, so be careful. There are a couple final spike pits right next to
each other immediately following that grappler that are especially tricky to
get past when under its control. A third one will drop down near the beginning
of the final platform of the room to try and force you to fall down the end of
the corridor instead of climbing down the ladder--which, while not immediately
deadly, will set you up for being impaled by the spikes on the far right of the
room below if you don't hold left while falling. Destroy the Met and fall to
the right into the next room to avoid yet another bed of spikes and traverse
another chamber of green UFOs before coming to a spectacular little maze of
teleportation boxes set precariously above a long bottomless pit.
Jumping into the first box teleports you to to the second, immediately right
and up in the air, and falling back into it returns you to the first box. The
third box will teleport you to the last, and you must maneuver yourself around
it and onto the platform under it without falling to pass through. Re-enering
the last box will send you back to the third, which will shoot you straight
into the second, starting you back all over again. Once you pass this little
puzzle, head right into a room full of... giant floating green eyeballs. They
look kind of like little blobs of the Rock Monster/Yellow Devil from Mega Man
1, and interestingly the two versions of this enemy are green and yellow just
like the two notorious Devil bosses fromthe series. Shooting one a couple of
times will cause it to abruptly split into three smaller blobs that each propel
slightly in a random direction, so be careful. The Concrete Shot will destroy
them completely, so using that would be a good idea here--but don't waste too
much as you'll want some for the boss. The next room contains the yellow
variations which are fundamentally the same at first but split instead into
four smaller blobs which all tend to propel in a similar direction rather than
all over the place. Defeat both of these and use Rush Coil on the middle plat-
form to reach the extra life on the far right before proceeding. The next room
contains a couple more as well as the Shield Attackers' (presumably) first Mega
Man 9 appearance; these basic, classic enemies move back and forth in a simple
pattern and can only be damaged from behind. But remember, the Laster Trident
is capable of piercing shields, so use that to your advantage.
This next room seems safe enough. There is a grappler bot but it doesn't seem
to be dangerous as it simply runs you into a wall on the right side.. but
remember its position! There are spikes on the second platform on which you
have to run back to the left, and he'll spawn again and smash you into them if
you aren't careful. He spawns just a bit right of the ladder up to the third
platform, so be sure to spawn him before he grabs you. Go up through an easy
room with some easy Screws to obtain, into the final room of the stage. On the
left are a set of powerups and a wall of spikes, but remember that the
grapplers only run you to the right. There IS a grappler that will drop down
just to the right of either powerup and run you to inevitable doom on the right
wall, though, so make sure to get him out of the way if you need the items. To
the right is one last puzzle, another maze of teleport boxes. Jump around the
first to grab a large Screw if you're daring, then move into the maze.
The first box takes you to the second, and vice-versa. The third takes you to
the sixth. The fourth takes you to the seventh. The fifth takes you to the
eigth, which leads you to the boss door. There are UFOs constantly spawning in
the top of this area but if you're careful you don't have to worry about them.
Once you're finished, on to...
{*********************}
* WARNING! *
* BOSS: GALAXY MAN *
{*********************}
Yesh, do that flashy dance for us one more time. Galaxy Man is honestly one of
the simplest bosses to learn; he only has two tactics, which he uses randomly.
He'll either hop up into a small UFO form and fly forward slowly arcing up, or
jump way up to the top of the screen and release a small Galaxy Bomb which will
slowly move left and right, faintly 'homing' in on you until it reaches just
above Mega Man's head, at which point it'll explode into a miniature black hole
and vacuum you in while Galaxy Man teleport underneath it and goads you on. If
he hops slightly and is about to dash, if you're like me, you'll REALLY want to
slide under him! But alas, your best option is to jump towards and over him
just as he begins his dash. If he leaps into the air, be prepared to run back
and forth, attempting to be as close to the opposite side of the screen as the
Black Hole Bomb as possible once it reaches its bursting point. It's easy to
turn around and quickly blast Galaxy Man several times while he's sitting
pretty underneath his little sinkhole in the cosmos if you're far enough away
that you're not at risk. His weakness happens to be the Concrete Shot which is
likely the most difficult weapon in the game to hit him with, but considering
his fairly simple attack patterns anything more would have perhaps made him too
easy. It actually does have a neat special effect, though; if you manage to
nail his Black Hold Bomb with a Concrete Shot, it'll freeze and dissipate and
yet Galaxy Man will teleport down to the ground and pose anyway, giving you
several easy, free shots to his mug. If you find this difficult or are low on
Concrete Shot juice, alternatives to nailing him in the air include Tornado
Blow and Hornet Chaster (the Chaser being a favorite alternative of mine for
this battle even if it does only a point of damage at a time).
You'll earn the Black Hole Bomb, which is pretty much as awesomely powerful as
it sounds. Press fire to release a small ball that you can control freely then
fire again to morph it into a little black hole you can call your own--eating
anything but the largest enemies in one hit and devouring any and all
projectile-based shots IN THE GAME. Luckily, it still drops helpful items for
you to collect from whatever it destroys.
-------------------
- 2-04 Jewel Man -
-------------------
Another flashy boss, this pink Top Man lookalike adorned with an array of gems
and jewels prances for you to come take him on at the end of his fancy stage.
Yep, this guy's as hetero as Hard Man, that's for sure. Anyway, this stage is
actually very easy on the eyes, offering lots of smooth, cool colors and a gem-
infested crust of earth to look at while you're being pummeled by the various
rock-and-jewel based enemies, the fierce miniboss and the myriad of spike and
pit-based traps. Star your perilous journey by moving down into a small hall
full of Mets that leads out into a large room of cannons, rock-filled minecarts
that spill painful pebbles upon being hit and four explosive ones in the
immediate area when destroyed, and... dollar bills that float featherlike to
the ground and then turn into tiny, spinning spiked wheels of death upon
touching the floor. Yeah. There's not much I can say about this room other
than the fact that you'll want to use Laser Trident to take out the bills once
they reach the floor as they'll be too short for the Mega Buster, and you may
want to try out your Black Hole Bomb here and see the marvel of it eating
anything and everything in its path.
Down in the next room are three of the ceiling spiders you may have first
encountered in Concrete Man's stage. They only take two hits, but their wily
movements can leave you in bruises if you aren't careful. They move to the
floor when approaches and proceed to pounce wildly around thereafter until
destroyed. The best plan of action is to quickly pop two Mega Buster rounds
into them just as they land, but the spider on the bottom will cut loose before
you can reach him, so you may want to land a Black Hole Bomb on him or slice
him with a Laser Trident while dropping down if you're already weak from the
previous room. The room below contains two more, even trickier spiders; one
on the far left wall that will drop too fast for you to kill when approached
and another on the bottom in a small chamber. You can dispatch the spider on
the left by jumping and shooting it from where you fell into the room, but the
bottom one will require you to lead it to the right then quickly run left and
drop down, killing it before it reachest you. Proceed to the right and greet
what may be your new worst nightmare; momentum-based platforms in an 8-bit
game! Jumping on these, they sway lightly back and forth and seem to function
as normal platforms, but running back and forth of them will cause them to
swing in increasingly wide arcs the more you do so to a certain point. You'll
have to "power up" many of these to reach the next platform, so you'd better
destroy the Spike with a Galaxy Bomb or Concrete Shot and practice on the first
platform before moving forward. The first couple are easy enough, but the
third will require a very wide-arcing swing to reach the fourth. This final
platform you actually DON'T want to swing too far, into the spikes on the right
hand wall. It's actually best to allow the platform to 'calm down' and inch to
the right edge of the platform in its default position, then make a hefty leap
to the 'boss door' to avoid both the spikes and the pit below.
And here comes one of the most surprisingly challenging minibosses I've ever
had the pleasure of facing. You come to a room with boulders lining the
ceiling, and in no time tremors shake the chamber and boulders begin to loosely
fall from top to bottom. They'll fall in a fairly easy-to-recognize little
pattern but they come FAST so you have to stay on your toes. At the end of the
barrage comes a boulder-shaped robot with an angry disposition that will land
with a heavy thud, shocking you similar to a Concrete Man stomp if you're not
in the air while it lands. The boulder with stay put for a second or two
before rolling at lightspeed toward whichever side of it you happen to be, and
back up the wall into the boulder nest on the ceiling. Trails of dust will
then rustle from the boulders and that dust's stopping point will clue you in
to where exactly the boulder bot will drop next round. The only time you
really have to attack the guy at all is during his pause phase just after
landing, and then just for a second and only if you didn't get caught by his
quake--it's a very tricky miniboss that took me many attempts to truly
conqueor, but once you know how he works and have a little practice he actually
becomes quite simple to beat.
Out of the back of this chamber we have our halfway point immediately followed
by a room of three diamond-shaped flying enemies that are sort of like a mix
between the Flying Shells (aerial Mets) of Mega Man 1 and the Peris of Mega Man
5. They fly around in an invincible diamond state for a bit then stop, open
their eyes, and shoot a projectile at you; of course only damageable when eyes
are exposed... well, unless you hit them with something silly-powerful like,
say, Black Hole Bomb, which these three like to group up perfectly for. Down
below we have a couple more miine cart enemies, and watch out for the first
couple of pits as they have more of those capsule pit-lurking enemies from
Concrete Man's stage inside! Past a couple more pits is another momentum
platform flanked on the right side with a platform covered in every are but the
one you can walk on with spikes. The trick here is to build up near-maximum
momentum and them simply walk off the right edge onto the ground below. You'll
be rewarded--well, if you have the Hornet Chaser already--with an extra life
and large Energy Pellet nestled in the stone below. After a couple more
diamond flyers and an easy-to-avoid Spike you fall into one last deadly trap
room Jewel Man has up his sleeve. A momentum platform in the middle of a room
littered witih spikes, with the only way to the next room being a shaft
directly below the center of the platform. Of course, you have to move the
platform left and right far enough that you can quicklky jump down into the
shaft without hitting the spikes.. which, needless to say, can be a pain. It
could very well be worth buying a Shock Guard for this stage and avoiding every
spike up to this point as best you can just to purposely use it here and skip
the challenge, but this whole game's pretty much a big challenge, so it can't
hurt to try it the old fashioned way. Too much, at least. The best way I can
describe to do it is to build a lot of momentum as best you can without leaving
the relative center of the platform, and once you have it going jump when the
platform's just above the center of the hole--lightly--so that it will swing to
either side and allow you through. It may take a little bit of midair
maneuvering but it's that or be spike food. The last room has a lot of spiders
and dollar enemies but after the last few rooms they should pose little threat
compared to all the one-hit wonders you've just passed. At the very end is
your (perhaps) first encounter with the stomping enemies that are this game's
equivalent to Mega Man 1's mighty Big Eye; they aren't as.. big, and don't
respawn as easily (thankfully), but they do MONSTER damage and take a boatload
of shots to go down. Rapid firing while moving slowly backwards with the Mega
Buster works, but it's usually worth it to just wreck it with a few well-placed
Concrete Shots if you have the energy to spare.
{********************}
* WARNING! *
* BOSS: JEWEL MAN *
{********************}
And here's the prettyboy himself. After such a hellish stage, it's only a nice
reward that the boss is quite simple and straightforward. Basically, he will
call forth a Jewel Satellite, surrounding himself with four rotating diamonds
that protect him from your shots and make his 'size' big enough that you can't
easily jump over him. The real trick to this guy is that when you press the
jump button, at ALL, even a tiny bit, he'll leap high into the air, allowing
you to pass over him--it's a lot like how you could 'control' Gemini Man and
Freeze Man in past Mega Man games with your shot button, only this time it's
jump. Also, each time you shoot one of his precious diamonds it will fly off
towards you, weakening his defenses but giving you something else to worry
about dodging. Periodically if you haven't shot off all his diamonds he'll
blast them off himself, sending each one that was left, one at a time in quick
succession, in your general direction, and re-summon his full-capacity shield.
It's overall pretty simple to beat him any way once you get the jump trick
down, but the really easy way is to come equipped with Black Hole Bomb. Not
only does it do a lot of damage to him, not only can you coax him into being
hit by it several times per use with the jumping, but it eats up his jewels,
whether they're being shot at you or being ripped right off his orbit.
Overall, not a bad fight.
And for finishing this frustrating-yet-beautiful stage you receive the Jewel
Satellite, quite frankly the best thing to happen to Mega Man shield weapons
since Junk Shield. It takes infinite hits from enemies it can destroy in one
hit, it reflects projectiles back whence they came, and you can shoot it off at
will at no extra cost (except the cost of re-summoning the shield if need be).
If this was, in fact, your fourth boss, you'll receive an odd gear-shaped item
upon defeat of it. This triggers another cutscene once you choose Stage Select
that details further points in the plot before allowing you to tackle your
fifth Master.
------------------
- 2-05 Plug Man -
------------------
Here we have perhaps the overall most odd Master of the new bunch, a top-heavy
purple guy with a rubber-looking helmet whose theme is... electrical plugs.
Yeah, like the kind you plug into electrical sockets at home. Kinda like Spark
Man with a face like Dynamo Man, but a million times less cool than either of
them--at least until you hear his catchy tune and play his totally sweet,
unique stage--and very likely get totalled by him in the boss room unless you
brought his weakness weapon with lots of energy.
You begin your electric trek by quickly happening upon the first pipe-shaped
Telly/Pipe Bomber generator in the game, and you can by all means activate your
fresh Jewel Satellite under it to collect a neverending amount of Screws, lives
and powerups as long as you want to stay idle. There are faster areas of two
Tellys at once in other parts of the game, but this one is the easiest to
access. Continue right to reach a simple platforming section made slightly
more dangerous by the presence of a few amoeba-esque yellow electrical enemies
that travel continously around whatever platform they're attached to. They're
invincible to the Mega Buster and many other weapons but the Jewel Satellite
effortlessly absorbs them (and you can use other weapons such as the Black Hole
Bomb if you, for whatever reason, don't have it yet). The end of this room
holds the fabled large Screw nestles in between two platforms that many viewers
of the early gameplay footage of Mega Man 9 spotted and claimed to have proof
that the slide was indeed obtainable in the game somehow, but alas, 'twas but a
cruel joke and the only way to actually obtain that Screw is with the Hornet
Chaser.. as Mega Man, at least. Upwards is a simple room with two more
electric blobs followed by a simple room with some Mets and a cannon... and...
and... oh yes, disappearing blocks! Many a Mega Man fan's bane, these phasing
block puzzles are present in some form in just about every game and are very
imposing to the new player--but with enough experience, practice and
memorization anyone can surpass them with flying colors. Just have patience
and study them, and tune yourself to the rhythm at which the blocks appear and
disappear. You'll get by! The second set of them in this room has one tough
spot--when the path splits, you'll have to be FAST to take the upper route, or
else you'll be shunned from the platform by an annoyingly-placed block. It may
be safer to just fall to the lower route unless you're speedrunning. Finally
we come a block puzzle that's entirely skippable, but beating it will net you a
big Screw and an Extra Life, and it's really not difficult at all. You can use
the Rush Coil to skip most of the first set, and though the second looks
dangerous, it's really quite easy.
Fall down from here to reach what seems like a safe room but actually contains
two hologram machines that looks like they're part of the background. Walking
in front of one will produce a black and grey 'anti' Mega Man that will chase
you relentlessly across and down platforms and make meager jumps that can allow
it to follow you up low rises as well. You can destroy it with a couple Mega
Buster shots but it's almost certain you'll take damage if you attmpt this.
Again the savior in this stage, the Jewel Satellite will end them effortlessly
if they approach you with it activated but remember that this is a tough boss
and that weapon is his weakness, so don't overuse it unless you have a Mystery
Tank handy. Fall down to reach a dark room with more holograms and, glee, yet
more block puzzles. It'd be a wise idea to activate the Jewel Satellite at the
beginning of this room to make like a bit easier as you make your way past the
various hazards. Midways through the first block puzzle you'll have to wait a
bit and make a leap of faith from the second to third and then immediately jump
straight up to the fourth. In the third block puzzle, you'll actually want to
fall from the third block to the set of two that appear on either side of the
lone one at the bottom of the screen then quickly run across and jump to the
seventh overall block to survive. You'll be able to jump to safety on the
right from here but if you wait and jump to the left wall just as the next
block wave appears, and then wait to jump straight up just as the next wave
after THAT appears, you'll be able to climb to a jumble of small Screws
surrounding an Energy Tank. Or, well, you could just take the easy lower path,
obliterate all the mega-clones with Jewel Satellite and then Rush Coil up to
the goodies. Interestingly, if you spawn some clones on the bottom path here
and then jump up onto and run along the path above it you can actually run them
into a bed of spikes at the end of the lower hallway which will actually
destroy them, after which you can pick up the goodies down there at will! Past
a final few clones lies a wondrous platform covered in Telly-spawning piped
that can actually produce the unheard-of number of three onscreen at a time.
In addition to being able to nab a very easy big Screw at the top of the
platform, you can stand at the very bottom-right section underneath the two
parallel piped on the right-hand side with the Jewel Satellite activated and be
fed a constant stream of Tellys from which to get any number of powerups--and
it's a great way to refill your Satelllite itself for the battle ahead as well.
Did I say you might want to save your Weapon Energy? Well, I meant only if you
were in a rush or on Time Trials, heh heh.
The next room up contains one last simple block puzzle, but it's a real kicker
in that if you don't make the leap up to the top level perfectly you're pretty
much guaranteed a death (or loss of a Shock Guard) on the spikes below.
However, if you make it, you're rewarded witih a free extra life, so it's kind
of fair. Head up once more to reach the final room, a simple chamber with a
few more electric blobs and a big stomper at the end. I'd advise just using
a Black Hole Bomb to dispatch the blobs and take out the stomper with Concrete
Shot, then head to the boss.
{*******************}
* WARNING! *
* BOSS: PLUG MAN *
{*******************}
This strangely-named, strangely-shaped fellow will quickly remove all ill
thoughts you may have once had of him when he rips you a new one with his
fast-moving, tricky to doge Plug Balls and crazy constant jumps in his funky
shaped chamber. Like Snake Man on acid, he jumps around his room while
releasing Plug Ball after Plug Ball (as disgusting as that may sound), each of
which will crawl along the floor, up the wall and across the ceiling before you
can crack a joke at the name. Once they meet up with Mega Man vertically while
traversing the ceiling (i.e. you're directly under them) they will quickly drop
straight down and finally out of existence--that is, except for their brothers
who are constantly coming out of Plug Man's buster cannon (yeah, it's really
difficult not to make this sound strange). But seriously, he's a tough boss.
Even if he pretty much just does one thing at a constant rate, it's really very
difficult to dodge all the stuff going on at once--and each hit Plug inflicts
on you does really substantial damage. So unless you have a Guard Power Up and
some E-Tanks, what do you do? Use the power of one of the EASIEST Masters, of
course! The Jewel Satellite, as infinitely useful as it was in Plug Man's
stage, is even more useful against the boss. Not only does it deflect all the
Balls he could ever throw at you (snort) but coming in contact with him with
one on will, although dissipate the shield itself, take a huge chunk out of his
health. The amount of health he uses is actually proportionate to the amount
of Weapon Energy each Satellite takes to use, so you need to make every hit
count to make this a truly easy battle--but it's not that that's very difficult
seeing as Plug Man isn't quite maneuverable enough to get out of a large flying
Jewel Satellite's way most of the time and they'll even deflect his shots while
whisking forward. Basically, you want to start the battle by immediately
activating then tossing several Satellites, and once he's near you, just get
close to him and activate one after the other in his face; they'll instantly
disappear and trade chunks of Weapon Energy for boss health, and in no time
he'll be down. One of the easiest bosses to get the Quick Draw challenge for,
this is.
The Weapon you receive? Well, of course, it's the hilarious Plug Ball, aptly
turning Mega Man a vibrant pink color. In fact, though, this weapon isn't much
of a joke as it not only crawls along floors, walls and ceilings, but fires
extremely quickly and TRAVELS even more quickly, takes almost no Weapon Energy
per shot, and does totally decent damage. The only downside is it fires
STRAIGHT downwards and is only useful to grounded enemies or ones attached to
or touching a wall or ceiling in some way.
If this was your fifth boss (or whatever ends up being your fifth boss defeated
if not) upon picking Stage Select you will be treated to another cutscene, but
this time a happier one than the last. Auto has been kind enough to refit Rush
with his Jet parts of long past, giving you access to one of the most handy
pieces of equipment in all that is Mega Man: the Rush Jet! Unfortunately not
the insane, free-form version of Mega Man 3, it instead takes the route of the
later games in the series by providing you with a forward-moving platform that
can be tilted up or down gradually. However, in Mega Man 9, you can summon it
even from midair, and if you use it quickly after a Rush Coil boost you can
breeze past difficult areas with your head in the clouds! It may take a bit of
practice, but this is an amazing technique!
---------------------
- 2-06 Tornado Man -
---------------------
Now, just after receiving Rush Jet, we get to play the stage that it's perhaps
the most useful for. Tornado Man's quite popular both for his smooth looks and
catchy themesong used in the origiinal trailer for Mega Man 9 and confused by
many to be the main themesong of the game for a time. With great visuals, some
very interesting enemies and obstacles and one of the best music tracks the
game has to offer, it's all the least you could be offered when confronting
what is likely the most difficult Master level in the game.
After watching Tornado Man's cool intro pose, you're dumped headfirst into an
aerial-themed level and immediately forced to climb upwards; little more can be
said about the inevitable plethora of bottomless pits and tests of platforming
prowess. The second room is very simple but contains one of the most
interesting and cool enemies, a little hot air balloon bot that hovers steadily
while occasionally pelting you with a small projectile. There are two ways to
defeat it; blasting its face thrice is the safer way, but more time-consuming,
and causes the balloon to rise safely into the atmosphere.. but popping the
balloon itself with your Buster will cause the bot to spin around out of
control, circling around in wide arcs a couple times before leaving the screen.
It's potentially hazardous but extremely fun to me and disposes of the enemy in
one clean hit--although the Concrete Shot will do the same without any dodging
to fuss about. Another screen up you will find a funky little platform that
you'll be seeing a whole lot of throughout this stage. This battery-looking
cylinger moving back and forth across a wire seems enough like a normal moving
platform, but jumping on it will cause Megaman to spin around vertically,
almost in a pseudo-3d fashion, with feet staying adhered to the platform. Now,
this isn't too bad--you just need to remember that jumping while Mega Man's in
the upper three frames of the spin animation will have him jump up as normal
and jumping in the lower three frames will send him plummeting downwards.
However, you'll quickly realize that you won't get much time to think about it
on many of these platforms later, and it may be a better, although more risky
approach to instead bunny-hop on top of the platform over and over to ensure
you're staying on the top end and jumping normally except when other action is
required. As with most strange contraptions in this game, you can use this
first sighting to practice and get a feel for how it works, as you are quickly
thrust into having to use them as if they were the only platforms in the game.
Up again and you find another balloon enemy followed by, you guessed it, a big
fat platforming section composed almost entirely of those new spinny battery
things. Now, this would be a great time to try that Rush Coil + Rush Jet
combination maneuver, but if you don't have the Jet yet or would rather man it
up the hard way, get on the nearest battery and start riding. Bunny-hopping
generally makes a lot of this section easier for me, but except when dealing
with spikes along the platform trail you can generally just spin around and be
patient. There are a couple areas in which bunny hopping makes timing for
leaping to the next platform much easier, and some areas in which it's heavily
inhibited by the presence of spikes, so choose your moves wisely. There are a
few places in which it's much easier to drop down from the platform to a lower
one instead of attempting to jump it, so keep an eye out for those. If you're
using Rush Jet, try to stick near the middle of the screen and memorize the
locations of spikes; even if you die a time or two, knowing this will later
make this section much easier to pass. And, if you used the Coil+Jet trick,
stay at the VERY TOP of the screen until just past the spikes near the top,
then move down so that you won't bump the even higher set against the top of
the screen a bit later. There's a rest platform near the end of this whole
mess of a section, and once you reach it, I urge you to use Rush Jet here if
you haven't already. Veer down as soon as you hop on so you don't bump your
head on the spikes and then you're home free. After a few balloons the room's
end offers you the small reward of a large energy capsule that you should feed
Rush for his performance as a wonderful jetsledrobotdog and move down.
This next area's fairly straightforward, but be very wary of the extra-slippery
ice platforms. The weather's changing suddenly; it's like an 8-bit version of
Cloud Man's stage from Mega Man 7 but without the weatherdoll bots. Move past
the next few chilly screens, readying your Laser Trident to deal with the
Shield Attackers, then meet your first beefed-up Mega Man 9 version of Sniper
Joe in the far right room. These guys are blood-red and equipped with what
looks like an uzi instead of their standard fare of a standard arm cannon!
While they may seem intimidating, and they certainly are more difficult to beat
than they used to be with your Mega Buster, there are a few tricks to make life
easier against them if you have some Master Weapons. Needless to say Black
Hole Bomb destroys them and Laser Trident removes the fear of counterattack as
it can pierce through their shields while they defend, but perhaps the coolest
way to dispatch them is using a Jewel Satellite and watching what happens when
they try to machinegun you to death. Freakin' sweet! Now move up to find a
Met, a Joe and a big Screw easily reachable with Rush Coil. And then up once
more to reach...
...a rainy area, filling out the three weather conditions of Cloud Man rather
nicely. The rain here actually pushes you back as you jump, exactly like Toad
Man's stage in Mega Man 4, so be prepared to make some really crazy jumps. You
can use Rush Jet again but you'll have to contend for the skies against
regularly falling umbrella enemies and it may get hairy up there. An
alternative is to activate the Jewel Satellite again which happens to absorb
falling umbrellas quite well and track forward, using Rush adaptors when
absolutely necessary (i.e. the next jump looks freaking terrifying). It can be
unnerving since you walk at normal speed but jump at half, but luckily many of
the small grey cluods below the platforms hide footholds that can help you
across. At the end is a set of three more spinny platforms with spikes
underneath, which can actually spell a quick victory if you have a Shock Guard
to spare; otherwise summon Rush Jet one last time on the last platform if he
has any energy left, and make an easy escape to the end of the room.
This next room actually has rain flowing the OPPOSITE way, making your jumps
quite longer when facing right. Though the obstacles are greater in this final
stretch, I find this room much less scary and stressful than the last to be
perfectly honest. Move forward and Rush Coil up to the upper platforms for an
easy 1-Up. If you somehow have managed to keep a good amount of Rush Jet
energy up to this point you can use it form the extra life platform to make the
last room a good deal easier but you have to remember to constantly fire to
protect yourself from the umbrellas. Jewel Shield and fancy footwork will also
get you by, and allow the slightly more daring to reach a big Screw near the
bottom of the screen at the end of the platform section; though it would be
much safer to attain from a higher foothold if you have Hornet Chasers to
retrieve it for you. Finally, you'll reach the boss door with one last leap.
{**********************}
* WARNING! *
* BOSS: TORNADO MAN *
{**********************}
And here's our man once again, showing off his sweet moves before beating the
crap out of you with barrage after barrage of tornadoes and bodyslams. Like
Burst Man before him (geez, this guy and his stage sure remind me of a lot of
Robot Masters) Tornado Man has an array of spikes nestled in little gaps in the
top of his chamber whicih he will try to force you up into with his wind power
when he's not using it to simply cause damage to you. Upfront, Tornado Man is
a very intimidating boss, summoning mini-whirlwinds up from all over the place
to do you in in between running around the room and slamming into you with his
little personal ridable twister. On the contrary, he's rather simple to avoid
if you know what you're doing, but you have to be careful not to splatter
against the ceiling spikes when you're doing well. Basically, Tornado Man will
immediately fly into the air in a small tornado and begin to summon barrages of
small green storms from the bottom to top of the screen, always four in a row.
Just keep moving in one direction and they'll never be able to hit you, and
while he's summoning them like this you can jump in the air easily to shoot at
him if you have the guts--but make sure you don't hit any of the spikes if you
attempt it! After a few rounds of this, he'll drop forcefully toward you in an
attempt to crush you, but with, again, a solid run in one direction, he'll
never aim his descent with much accuracy. Of course, sometimes you won't have
all the room to keep running in long stretches and dodge both him and the ever-
continuing waves of tornadoes at once, so you can 'trick' the tornadoes into
coming up where you were at one poin while rapidly moving around to cause
others to follow suit and create a pattern that should be evadable with some
prowess. Now, his weakness weapon is the very unlikely Plug Ball; a weapon
good against anything but airborne enemies being the weakness of the airborne
Master? Go figure. Surprisingly, it works incredibly well, though; he's hit
easily by it on the ground, and he tends to fly up very close to his own
ceiling, at which point a Plug Ball climbing toward him from any angle is sure
to connect. What's more, they cause his Tornado Blow attacks to disintigrate
instantly on contact--and since you don't have to jump to use the Ball
effectively, you can concentrate on attacking him safely from the ground when
he's causing havoc in the air.
Upon defeat Tornado Man will relinquish his Tornado Blow, Mega Man 9's full-
screen saturation attack. It will pick up just about any normal enemy in the
entire game from any point onscreen and lift them up and out of the game, never
to be seen again (until the next time you spawn it or reenter that room). It
actually can be activated while moving forward and will proceed to pick off any
further enemies that appear onscreen during its entire animation, which
lasts for a bit, making it somewhat of a combination of Rain Flush and Gravity
Hold for you oldschoolers out there. It even does damage to things that it
can't otherwise destroy in one hit, so it's never useless to use. Of course,
it comes at a cost, though, draining Weapon Energy faster than any other weapon
in the game.
-------------------
- 2-07 Magma Man -
-------------------
Upon entering this fiery domain you'll instantly be taken aback by the bright,
powerful colors and flowing lava immediately ahead; it's going to be a bumpy
ride, but with all the experience and equipment you've attained up to this
point it shouldn't seem daunting!
Move forward to quickly be assaulted by flying welding mask enemies that try to
push you off platforms with their flamethrower. Thrash them with your Laser
Trident to get them out of your face and try to take the airborne platform
when you reach it to skip having to deal with one of them. The little fire
spout robots in the lava at the end of the room can be eradicated quickly with
Plug Ball, and though the jump across the last lava pool to the ladder is very
difficult normally, you can actually summon Rush into the lava below to help
you reach it! Now that's one faithful dog! You'll meet fire tote enemies in
the upper room but they're quite simple to overcome, especially susceptible to
Concrete Shots. Up again you'll meet more welding maskers, and then... ooh,
that noise just doesn't sound good at all, does it? These giant vats of magma
(that remind me more of Lava Reef zone from Sonic and Knuckles more than
anything from Mega Man, though they seem to be big, fat, less-scary versions of
the Quick Beams seen in Quick Man and Turbo Man's stages in the past) make a
decidedly alarming noise and are quite deadly to the touch, but they move so
slowly they shouldn't be a problem. If you are having trouble, you can
actually 'freeze' them with the Concrete Shot which keeps any more from pouring
out until unfrozen, but make sure you freeze it such that you can proceed and
aren't blocked by your own concrete creation. A few more welding masks and
you're at a safe zone with another totem and a big Screw to be found.
Drop down and you'll find yourself in a pitch black room with a pair of ominous
white eyes staring at you, just like those golems from Plant Man's stage in
Mega Man 6. What appears is the fire dragon made up of giant versions of Fire
Man's old Tackle Fire enemies, that likes to spit them out at you and leave
trails of burning flame at a rapid pace. It's very difficult to actually dodge
all its attacks and the best course of action is generally to defeat it in as
little time as possible. The Black Hole Boms is the weapon of choice for this,
as it actually rips the Tackle Fires right off the dragon's body, exposing
nothing but a mechanical spine underneath and leaving the dragon to fly away,
sad-faced, and return with his power renewed. It just takes a few well-placed
hits to take it down this way, and each time you strip it bare it won't attack
anymore for that round through the screen, so if you're skilled you can defeat
it quickly without taking any damage. A good alternative weapon to try is the
Hornet Chaser, as firing it quickly when the dragon's onscreen will have it
downed in just a couple run-throughs if you're fast.
The following room is a relatively simple dual-layered corridor filled with
fire spout bots and flame totems; you'll want to take the high road for the
extra life at the end. Safely remove the fire spout with a Plug Ball and the
totem with a Black Hole Bomb and drop down to your left, using Rush Jet or a
Concrete Shot to make your way safely across the last lava pool. Watch out in
the next room for a magma vat directly above the lava pool, and proceed
upwards. This room is full of many magma vats close together, but it's really
no challenge to pass with some patience. The easiest way to reach the large
Energy Pellet at the end is to turn around and freeze the magma beam with a
Concrete Shot when it's at a low point, creating a safe platform to and from
the Pellet. Dispose of a couple more fire spouts (you may want to use one last
Concrete Shot or Rush adapter to traverse the last lava pit) and you've reached
the boss.
{********************}
* WARNING! *
* BOSS: MAGMA MAN *
{********************}
Magma Man, the big, hulking robot with powerful flames bursting from the top
of his body, jumping around and blasting you with huge, shotgun-like bursts
of superheated fire... Well, yeah, it seems tough, but he actually has a very
simple attack pattern. He'll jump, and shoot in midair. Then jump, and shoot
in midair. And... that's pretty much it. Sometimes he'll shoot just as he's
jumping, mixing it up just enough to get you off-guard. You can sometimes
trick him into jumping over you again and again between platforms at the bottom
of the stage or up and down a single 'step' of terrain, but he'll eventually
make a short jump and crush you. You'll have to learn his patterns of shot
timing to stand a chance against him with your Mega Buster--though they seem
erratic he seems to have a pattern, and remember that low jumps have delayed
shots and high jumps have instant shots; keeping him around the bottom of his
corridor, jumping back and forth across the two nearest platforms seems to be
the easiest way to 'confuse' him into an easy enough pattern, though it'll take
practice to do it right.. Now, his weakness weapon makes this whole mess a lot
easier to deal with; Tornado Blow, being a saturation attack, couldnn't miss
him if you tried, and each time you use it it not only blows his blasts right
off the screen but it actually puts out the flame on his head which causes his
shots to become smaller and weaker until he refuels himself. Keeping him
periodically pelted with this attack ensures a very easy victory.
The Magma Bazooka comes into your posession with this win, and it's a mighty
weapon indeed to have in your arsenal. Shot normally it releases a three-shot
blast of small fireballs that travel simultaneously forward, angled upward and
angled down in a 'shotgun' like fashion. However, you can actually charge up
the weapon much like Heat Man's Atomic Fire, only much faster. This grows the
shots substantially and makes them more powerful and easier to hit with, but
it also causes the shot to take a bit more Weapon Energy than normal. You can
shotgun enemies at close range with this weapon to do up to three times damage,
which can be very devastating when charged up.
--------------------
- 2-08 Hornet Man -
--------------------
What a chestpiece on that robot. No, I haven't selected Splash Woman again,
I'm talking about Hornet Man! A huge, out-of-place looking beehive covering
his upper body... do hornets even make honey? Ah, well, anyway, this stage
greets you with a catchy melody (aren't they all?) and a flower-laden grassy
scenery. This ain't no Blast Hornet, that's for sure. Moving forward we'll
find our old friend, the minecart (which is probably more of a wheelbarrow
full of dirt in this stage), followed by a flowerpot that shoots annoying
homing missiles in the shape of tulips to track you down. Moving on to the
next screen we find this stage's patented gimmick platform, this time in the
form of a giant, mechanical, yellow party blower. You have to jump on the flat
section and shoot the rolled up portion with any weapon to get it to 'blow' out
and unravel; you then have only a short time to reach the end and jump to the
ladder before it rolls up, rolling initially all the way back to the beginning
portion and knocking off anyone who took too long (there's no way to land on
the rolled up portion, so you have to wait until it unravels to its natural
position again). Yet again, I urge you to practice with this and learn how it
works as you will be seeing more of them soon.
The next room immediately reveals a large Screw on the top left, but it's
guarded somewhat by spikes nearby, making an ascent with Rush Coil dangerous.
Move right and be prepared to be surprised by the lightning-fast scissor enemy
that will quickly fly, in two separate halves, toward you from the upper-right
and lower-right corners of the screen and form into a whole scissor which not
only dashes toward you and off the screen but boomerangs BACK for one last
attempt before finally disappearing. The Jewel Satellite makes quick work of
them, but you should fight a couple to really understand their attack pattern
first. Anyway, once you've disposed of that one way or another, turn around
near the edge of the first platform and summon Rush Jet then ride it, bearing
upwards, and jump off at the end to safely reach the Screw before proceeding to
the right. This next room contains a bit of a predicament; a large cannon on
the right that refuses to fire, and a floor that seems impossible to pass
through. You must shoot at the cannon to activate it, and it will proceed to
launch three large orbs, one after the other, toward whatever position you were
in at the time at which the orb was launched. Basically, you have to get the
orbs to fall where you'd like the floor to be destroyed, while also avoiding
them so as not to be damaged in the process. You'll obviously want to try to
make a path on the left side for the big Screw at the bottom of the screen, and
again in the next room you'll want to fall through the lower-left section,
bearing left and shooting rapidly as you do so so that you'll hit another
cannon on the next screen down. Activate this cannon and stay near the lower
left to open up a gap with an extra life inside, or if you failed to do so on
the initial drop, hit it with a weapon like the Magma Bazooka. This last
cannon-based screen always shocks me at first, it looks like you're falling
into a bed of spikes but once the screen fully scrolls a safe floor will be
revealed. Well, kinds safe, as you have to blow up the middle just right if
you want a clean drop down from here.
Once below, you'll enter a clock-like room with a series of eight platforms
arranged around the room circularly with a 'clock hand' composed of flowers
constantly spinning cloclwise around. Touching the flower 'hand' will cause
damage, and you must destroy flower-based miniboss enemy that randomly appears
on any given platform while avoiding its own petal projectiles, the hand and
the spikes littering the floor. Beating this miniboss with the Mega Buster
alone without taking any damage or dying may prove your platforming
superiority, but don't get discouraged if you get hit by the hand a couple
times during the battle, especially along the lower set of platforms which are
tricky to maneuvre beyond without taking damage or hitting the spikes.
Remember that just one shot of any kind will cause the boss to stop shooting
petals and stop momentarily, defenseless, before reappearing on another
platform and trying again.
Defeating the miniboss opens a path on the lower-left of the screen leading to
the halfway point, and a platform puzzle involving those party blowers.
Remember to be FAST in this area, as taking too long on any platform can
sentence you to a spikey death. Also understand that the Jewel Satellite won't
help you here, as coming in contact with the party blowers' rolled portion will
cancel it out and you have to shoot it anyway to proceed. Tornado Hold won't
do much good either, as it will open the blowers early and pretty much screw
you over. Your options are pretty much to use your Mega Buster and hope you're
quick enough on the draw to destroy the scissors before they can knock you off,
or... use the Rush Jet. You can use him from the left side of the corridor,
fly to the top of the screen and just shoot often for safety and reach the end
with no problems at all provided you have at least nearly a full tank of
energy for him. The next room contains another 'wheelbarrow' as well as a
flowerpot similar to the ones at the beginning of the stage, only this time it
shoots... cacti. And then the next room hast a host of various ones, all easy
prey to a couple Gravity Holds or Tornado Blows. The end of the stage has a
big stomper and an easy 1-Up, but collecting it causes the stomper to respawn,
so be ready with your Concrete Shot. Now to the boss door...
{*********************}
* WARNING! *
* BOSS: HORNET MAN *
{*********************}
Here's Hornet Man, and we promptly get shown exactly what use that crazy
honeycomb is. He'll float into the air, releasing a triplet of robotic bees
(or hornets, technically), presumably from each of those silly oversized
hexagons, which line up vertically in front of him and then proceed to fly
toward you... somewhat slowly, then stop in midflight. But they're not done
yet--they'll fly toward you again, and stop.. yet again, and then once more and
fly on off the screen. They're like sneaky slow little versions of Wily's
insane projectiles from the end of Mega Man 7.. but, well, nowhere near as
frightening. Anyway, they ARE destructable, though it will take two Buster
shots per hornet which can be a lot to ask for when you're in the middle of a
boss fight and he's summoning them in swarms rather often. In between Hornet
Chasers, Hornet Man will drop to the ground and leap across to the other side
of the stage, quite easily avoidable, but made more frustrating when you
constantly have hoardes of bees on your tail. Weapons such as the Black Hole
Bomb and Tornado Blow can put them out of commission, but they don't do much
damage to Hornet Man himself. Magma Bazooka is your answer to that--its
shotgun effect can take out an entire set of three bees at once, and quickly
charging it up then blasting Hornet Man himself with it as he scrambles across
the stage does substantial damage. Repeat this process until he's toast.
Your most humble reward is possibly the cutest weapon in Mega Man history. The
Hornet Chaser releases a little bee at an upward angle that spins around and
homes in on the nearest enemy or item in the vicinity, either retrieving the
item for you or sacrificing itself on the enemy. They can pass through smaller
enemies, destroying them and remaining unharmed, though, and if that enemy
drops a consumeable the bee will grab it at the same time and boomerang it back
to you. You can shoot these rapidly, three onscreen at a time, and they take
minimal weapon energy, but are rather weak offensively. And I realize I should
probably call them hornets, but 'bee' just sounds right somehow.
Now, if this was your 8th and final Robot Master defeated, or whichever one
happened to be, it will drop a blue memory chip upon defeat. Once you pick
Stage Select after this, you'll once again be treated to a cutscene, even
further explaining the story and, DUN DUNNN, exposing Dr. Wily as the true
culprit behind the recent robot attacks and revealing him as the true enemy of
the game. Absolutely mindblowing. Anyway, from now on, when you go to the
Stage Select menu on this saved game the screen will flash several times and
Mega Man's face in the center will be replaced by the good old Dr. W sign. And
thus begins your latest assault on Wily's 395th Skull Fortress. At least we
know where he got the funds this time...
Now, I would highly, HIGHLY advise going to the Hints section and reading up
about how to get fast Screws, as unless you plan on a lot of Game Overs and
starting over from the beginning of the castle many times you will need to be
*VERY* prepared. And I'm talking E-tanks, an M-tank, three Beat Calls and
Shock Guards, and at least 5 or 6 lives. You're gonna need all the help you
can get mowing through four of the toughest Wily stages you've ever seen.
---------------------------
- 2-09 Wily's Fortress 1 -
---------------------------
Upon selecting the big W you will be treated to a VERY familiar cutscene with
VERY familiar music. As if straight from Mega Man 2, here's Wily's rockin'
castle, with an awesomely fun first stage with totally gnarly tunes just as
good as the ever-so-popular MM2 version to back it up.
I'm no longer going to attempt to explain enemies in detail or drone on about
simple things that you surely are very aware of by now past this point. From
here on, it's just going to be a concise play-by-play on how to lay the
smackdown on Wily and his new pad, and we're gonna do it in style. I'll do it
room-by-room, separated by paragraphs.
To start, activate your Jewel Satellite. Everything up to the end of this
area is devoured by it, and it'll just make your life a lot easier. Once you
reach the large shield bot, change to the Laser Trident and quickly stab it 5
times to do it in. The odd platform at the end of the screen can be activated
with the Tornado Blow, so use it and ride on up.
You can try and grab the powerups on the upper-right but I wouldn't worry about
them; I'll tell you why later. Just activate the platforms and jump to the
left about halfway up, then up to the next room we go.
Grab the Weapon Pellet to your left, activate the platform, grab the next
Pellet, etc. This section is very simple, just make sure you don't somehow
mess up and run out of Tornado Blow energy (but you shouldn't). It's very easy
to jump to the platform with the 1-Up; grab it, fall to the next platform, and
don't even bother activating it, just jump on up to the next platform and climb
up.
Just take out these drones with your Laser Trident. Note the awesome lightning
effect in the background.
One Tornado Blow will take care of these palm trees in a flash. Move on up.
Another magma dragon miniboss. Use Black Hole Bomb or spam Hornet Chaser.
In this room, grab the extra life with Hornet Chaser IF you need it.
Otherwise, just leave it alone, as this is the halfway point of the stage and
if you die later you can grab it then. This room has two Tellys so you can sit
around here with Jewel Satellite and refill your energy and weapons quickly.
This next room contains a horizontal magma beam chute that you must freeze at
the right moment with Concrete Shot and run across. It's not difficult, but..
..The next room is notorious for dismaying many a player. There are two ways
to defeat it; the first, 'normal' way is to immediately jump up on top of the
left chute, freeze the magma beam when it's reached out pretty far, and get
ready to freeze the second beam fairly quickly (but when it's reached far
enough out to you that you can reach it, jump on it and reach the ladder above
in time); jump on top and either go for the far-right ladder or try and turn
around and freeze the third beam and climb up the left ladder for an Energy
Tank and a dead end if you REALLY need it. Now, the simpler way is to climb up
with Rush Coil equipped and IMMEDIATELY summon him, jump up and try your best
to grab the middle ladder. It's quite difficult but the cleanest and fastest
way past this room. Also, remember, if you ever run low on Concrete Shot just
go back down to the halfway point and kill Tellys for energy.
The room between the tough room and the upper room with the E-tank and dead-end
does have one last magma chute, so be careful of that. If you used Rush and
took the middle ladder, you'll have to wait for the magma beam and then jump
from the top of the middle ladder to the far right one to continue.
Up a room and we have a combination of gimmicks form Jewel Man and Galaxy Man.
It's quite simple, just build up some momentum and jump into the right teleport
box.
And this room's a joke. Just use Rush Jet on both the lower and upper levels.
Toss a Black Hole bomb up from the bottom level to dispose of the palm trees
in this room, then climb up.
This is it--just Laser Trident the shield bot and you're at the boss.
{*************************}
* WARNING! *
* BOSS: SPIKE CRUSHERS *
{*************************}
For lack of a better name until I can find the official ones, I'll just call
these Wily bosses the best thing I can come up with to suit their appearance.
This is basically a set of four robots each on the far right side of the room,
each with a spiked ball in front of them that's deady to the touch, pushing it
slowly forward with shots. Honestly, there's no weapon that's especially
useful against these guys, and there's not a whole lot of strategy involved.
Weapons like the Magma Bazooka and Tornado Crush can push back multiple balls
at once but it's generally not worth it. The Plug Ball can be useful for, say,
quickly pushing back the lower ball when you're closer to the top but I see
little use for this when you could be pelting the top one just as well with
your Mega Buster. Basically, you will just want to use your Buster and treat
this almost like a semi-dangerous minigame. Just pick a row and start blasting
the snot out of the spiked ball, pushing it back into the bot and destroying
it. Each bot destroyed takes a couple slivers off the boss's health bar, and
it's quickly replaced by another bot, either blue or red; red ones shoot more
slowly but their shots are stronger and push the ball further forward. If you
allow any ball to reach the far left side, it will revert back to the middle,
but the bot that was pushing it will begin to shoot triangular blasts toward
you that are dodgeable but become increasingly annoying the more bots you allow
this luxury. It can be very difficult to keep all the balls from reaching the
left side but it's best to not let more than one or two do so at any given time
if at all possible. When the boss nears death, certain rows will cease
producing further bots, until you're left with only one and the boss's health
finally reaches zero. Everything left explodes. Good game.
---------------------------
- 2-10 Wily's Fortress 2 -
---------------------------
You enter a green metallic-looking area that's very similar to many of the
'middle' areas of Wily Fortresses of yore, providing you with a free large
Weapon Pellet to either side. The music is very catchy here and really reminds
me of Double Dragon for some reason.
Anyway, move up the left ladder to nab a 1-Up with Rush Coil while avoiding
some Mets.
In the next room, a well-placed Black Hole Bomb will take care of all the
electro-blobs. The lower jumps here are a bit tricky, you have to make sure
you hit the bottom of the upper platform on your leap.
Concrete Shot or Black Hole Bomb the eye blob and move past both the upper
paths with Rush Jet.
The green hologram-producing flying enemies here like to produce 'fake' blocks
and just fly on by. An easy way to make all rooms like this simpler is to re-
enter them with the Tornado Blow equipped and instantly use it to wipe them
away before they can mess with anything. Use Rush Coil or Concrete Shot blocks
to ascent this room.
The hologrammers here don't really do anything destructive, just blow away the
Joe with a Black Hole Bomb, Jewel Satellite or some Laser Tridents before
continuing.
You'll probably want to Tornado Blow this room, effectively making it
ridiculously simple. Another option would be the Rush Jet.
The easiest way to pass this room is to stand just on the vertical 'seam' in
the floor near the left edge of the screen and shoot a Concrete Block to the
right. It will make a platform perfeclty on top of the left formation of
spikes and allow you to easily reach the next room.
Another flower miniboss from Hornet Man's stage. Hornet Man's own weapon can
make this easier, use it when the flower appears somewhere ludicrously far
away and you can often nail 3 hits even.
Move down and collect the powerups, then go into the water.
Skip the upper octopus and obliterate the lower one with Black Hole Bomb. You
can easily traverse the dangerous-looking lower path with Rush Jet to collect
an Energy Tank, but the round-trip back and forth will take most of his energy
from full. For the upper path, evade the first few mines and Black Hole Bomb
the last two.
Jump up a bit above the upper platform in the next room to spawn a drill fish,
then simply walk to the next room.
This room has a lot of spikes and and a lot of walls destructable via the Laser
Trident. Make your way to the right, collecting any powerups you'd like, and
fall down the pit leading back to the large Weapon Capsule. Go back and
collect it, but pay heed that those groups of two drill fish will reapwn very
rapidly if you run back and forth in the right spot. Activate your Jewel
Satellite and run back and forth about half a screen left of the set of two
spiked balls low near the ground. You can spawn and destroy the groups very
quickly and easily recharge all your health and Weapon Energy right here for
the battles ahead. When you're ready to proceed, Laser Trident the block in
the middle of the vertical column to the right, stand on the left edge of the
ledge where that block used to be and blast a Concrete Shot. It should land
on the left edge of the platform to the lower right, making it a bit safer to
land on. Blast the last green block under the ladder and try to jump UNDER the
ceiling. If you bear right, you should make it every time.
Jump once on the far right side to spawn a couple drill fish, then proceed up.
Thunder Blow this room. Proceed left.
There are many small yellow UFOs in the next set of rooms. You may be tempted
to Tornado Blow or Black Hole Bomb, but there's not really a point. Just
proceed up, then drop bearing right as you fall to slip into a shortcut to pass
some unnecessary ladder climbing. Move up to the next screen again, blast the
wall climber from behind the wall, move up and dispose of the big stomper
simply with your Mega Buster.
One more big stomper and then the boss. Get ready!
{***************************}
* WARNING! *
* BOSS: SHARK BATTLESHIP *
{***************************}
This huge battleship is composed of three sections each with a separate health
meter--the tail, the underbelly and the head. You enter from the right and
fight it right to left, starting with the tail. An incredibly fun boss, if I
say so myself.
To start with the tail; it'll float up and down on the left side of the screen,
periodically opening a compartment from which it will launch three homing
missiles towards you. These are difficult to evade but can be destroyed with
just a single Mega Buster shot. The tail is only vulnerable when the
compartment is open to shoot, but it takes decent damage from your Mega Buster
(two per shot) so as long as you keep destroying the missiles before they reach
you and pummel the tail when it's open and low enough to hit this won't take
very long or be very difficult. The easy way, however, is to use the Hornet
Chaser. Your hornets will intercept and pass through the homing missiles, lock
on to the compartment and spin around it until it opens, and then deal two
damage a pop to it when it opens.
The next phase is the underbelly; you move underneath the spike-laden stomach
of the craft and on either side is a pod that opens up to release a small shark
bot that will move forward briskly and is nearly unavoidable due to the low
ceiling you have to work with (hitting your head on the bell will do a good
deal of damage). The best way to beat this with your Buster would be to
constantly destroy the small sharks just as they spawn and only jump to shoot
at the pods when the battleship has raised to near its peak velocity. You'll
also want to alternate between pods as often as possible, as being left with
one pod produces a constant stream of mini-sharks that are very difficult to
deal with. Of course, this phase has an easier option, as well. Equip the
Magma Bazooka and charge it before unleashing it near whichever pod is spitting
out sharks. It will not only destroy the mini-shark but the upper-tilted blast
will deal substantial damage to the pods' health meter.
Finally, you move to the left and final phase, the head of the shark. The
craft will continue to hover up and down, intermittently opening its mouth to
deliver a volley of several laser blasts straight out to the left. These can
be difficult to dodge, but unless you're low on health your only goal at this
point should be to destroy the thing as fast as possible. Laser Tridents do
the job, slicing through its health bar like butter. You can have it down
easily within two rounds of it opening its mouth.
And that's that.
---------------------------
- 2-11 Wily's Fortress 3 -
---------------------------
Now we're getting deep. With a darker color tone and more menacing-sounding
tunes, we know we're in the belly of the beast at this point and there's no
turning back.
The first room contains a couple big stompers. Mega Buster or Concrete Shot.
This next room contains a new gimmich--antigravity rooms. You're constantly
floating upwards, and the only way to move left or right is by shooting.
You'll move softly in the direction opposite of which you shot, and move faster
the more times you shoot in the same direction. You can slow yourself down by
shooting in the direction you're moving. The first room is simple, just blast
yourself all the way to the far right wall, and ride up.
And up.
And up.
And up. Once you reach the ceiling hear, blast yourself left and climb the
ladder.
Move right across a simple room of Shield Attackers, diamond flyers and spikes.
Then down a room with one diamond flyer and a couple powerups. Fall down the
right path for some Weapon Pellets. If you miss them, you can get back up with
a well-aimed Rush Coil. Climb down the right ladder for a large Weapon Pellet,
then fall down the left shaft.
Press on, taking out the Shield Attackers then activating a Jewel Satellite for
the Joes later on in the corridor.
Another antigravity section. Move up the left side, avoiding the blob. If you
go too far right past the spikes, note that a grabber will scare the pants off
you.
Move up further, bearing left, but not hugging the left wall; a couple blocks
from it.
And again.
Here, turn left and make sure you spawn the grabber (that hopefully won't grab
you if you're in the right position) before pressing right. You'll want to
push right hard quickly to avoid the spikes, and to grab the M-tank. Then push
left, having already spawned the grabber (hopefully) you've saved yourself the
trouble of the most annoying and jump-from-your-seat part of the game. If you
didn't spawn it, equip and use a Jewel Satellite just after shooting enough
Mega Buster shots to push left hard, so that the grabber will fall onto your
shield. Climb up.
This room is hilarious. Three extra lives for all your troubles--only two of
them hurt you! They're freaking Mets hiding under Extra Life-shaped helmets..
how rude! The life on the left is actually real, though, so be sure to grab
it. Move right, beating up the Mets and cannons; this is a tricky cannon
section, remember that Concrete Shot and Black Hole Bomb destroy them quickly.
Once you reach the Joe, activate a Jewel Satellite, which will aid you
a great deal in traversing the Joe and Met-infested remaining platforms.
Defeat the last big stomper in the game, and fall down to a VERTICAL boss door.
Haven't seen one of those since Bomb Man unless I'm forgetting something. Now,
get ready for one of the deadliest boss fights in the game...
(Oh, and if you die on the boss, you respawn on the little ledge above the
first door, so don't worry)
{**********************}
* WARNING! *
* BOSS: DUAL DEVILS *
{**********************}
Oh yes, the Yellow Devil and the Green Devil. Both at once. Except... not
quite. It's more like the Yellow and Green gooey substances that were left
over after Mega Man destroyed each of them at least twice apiece.
The green blob starts at the lower left and has the 'eye' initially. The
yellow one starts at the upper right. They will proceed to 'trade' blocks with
each other like a funky co-opping Yellow Devil that seems like insanity at
first, but with time and observation it becomes rather obvious that this guy's
nothing compared to, say, the hellish original Yellow Devil fight from Mega Man
1. Starting from the 'front' and working towards the 'back', each blob will
trade block-sized blobs to each other; halfway through the second 'line' of
blobs, out will pop the eye, which is susceptible to damage only when
travelling through the air during this short period. Needless to say, it's a
long and tedious fight with most weapons, but not when you know its weakness.
Unleash a Black Hole Bomb just in front of the eye after the first 'row' of
blobs have completed their transfer and watch as the eye falls for it every
single time, moving out and instantly being heavily damaged by the black hole
right in front of its face. This makes actually damaging the boss the easy
part and leaves you to worry about dodging the blobs as they fly about. Lucky
for you, they fly in the same pattern EVERY SINGLE TIME, only switching the
positions of the main blobs themselves after evrey transfer is totally
completed. You'll learn the patterns more and more as you fight the boss and
understand that most of the transfers can be easily evaded by simply standing
near the center of the platform and jumping at the right time... or by standing
under them.
Oh, and the Galaxy Bomb pause/unpause trick is fantastic for this. Next!
---------------------------
- 2-12 Wily's Fortress 4 -
---------------------------
Ah, the final stage. That tell-tale skull. Here awaits your final battle,
with all that you'd expect with this being a new Classic Mega Man game and all.
Moving through this small stage, you'll encounter little more than very simple
platforming segments, a few Mets, scattered powerups and a unique obstacle in
the form of force fields which can only be stopped by a well-placed Concrete
Shot. These actually do little damage, even less if you use your Guard Power
Up for this stage (a smart move), and with the scattered Energy Pellets and the
fact you'll want to save some Concrete Shot energy you may not want to even
bother witih stopping most of these. The last one is a very long one just
before a high jump, so you'll definitely want to Concrete it, though, to both
avoid damage and create a platform to get up there. You'll drop down to a
small room with a couple large Pellets on the left side you can quickly grab
with Rush Jet, and a corridor leading straight down decorated with the classic
"Dr. W" signs. Oh, whatever could be down here? I haven't the foggiest idea?
{***********************************}
* WARNING! *
* BOSS RUSH: THE TELEPORTER ROOM *
{***********************************}
Oh ho ho. Our old friend, our old pal! The teleporter room! The one
component that ties together most every Mega Man game from most series on most
every platform, the Teleporter Room. The Boss Doors. The Master Rematch.
It's here, folks, and it works like it always has. Enter the rooms in any
order you wish, exploit the Bosses' weaknesses and receive a large Energy
Pellet to keep you going after each victory. Once all 8 Masters are defeated
again, the door of destiny to the final battle awaits. Now without further
adieu, the teleporter map:
|[G]_ _[P]|
| |
|[C] _____ [T]|
| |
|[S] [J] [H] [M]|
=================
(Note: you CAN unlock Boss-related Challenges here!)
Counter-clockwise from the top-left, we have Galaxy Man, Concrete Man, Splash
Woman, Jewel Man, Hornet Man, Magma Man, Tornado Man, and Plug Man. Just in
case you need a refresher course, the weaknesses are as follows:
Galaxy Man - Concrete Shot
Concrete Man - Laser Trident
Splash Woman - Mega Buster or Hornet Chaser
Jewel Man - Black Hole Bomb
Hornet Man - Magma Bazooka
Magma Man - Tornado Blow
Tornado Man - Plug Ball
Plug Man - Jewel Satellite
Once you've finished off the last of them, the final teleporter opens in the
top-middle portion of the screen. Entering you will take you into battle
with....
{******************************}
* WARNING! *
* BOSS: DR. WILY, PHASE ONE *
{******************************}
Lo and behold! It's the Wilymachine, Mk IX! Or Mk X, if you count Megaman and
Bass as well. Now, this is a REALLY interesting and honestly very fun battle.
As per usual, Wily's in a large, skull-faced mechanical tank of a vehicle,
launching bouncing orbs of death in your direction. Only this time, instead of
energy orbs you must dodge, they're egg-like objects that you get to play ping
pong against Wily with. You shoot them with your Mega Buster to send them back
towards Wily, and they crack a bit upon contacting his ship. On the third time
back the egg will explode, and it has to explode near the skull-shaped face of
the ship to do damage to it. It is a bit time-consuming but a rather fun warm
up to the "real" phases of the final boss hereafter. (It's weird, but isn't
this battle kind of strangely like a very cartoony, very Mega Man-like homage
to Link vs. Ganon in various Zelda games playing tennis with a ball of
energy?)
(Note: I've found that hitting the egg when it's lowest to the ground almost
guarantees a direct hit to the face on this phase)
{******************************}
* WARNING! *
* BOSS: DR. WILY, PHASE TWO *
{******************************}
Destroying the skull and revealing Dr. Wily himself at the controls and, in
more detail, that this Wilymachine is in fact modeled after a dinosaur for some
reason, he'll begin his assault anew by moving directly towards you and
unleashing a low fire shot that arcs up very similar to the fire dog minibosses
from Mega Man 2. After this he'll float into the air and move back and forth,
attempting, obviously, to squash you flat. You generally want to run to the
right to taunt him in that direction then make a mad dash for the left so that
he sits down far away and gives you a great opportunity to blast his mug
several times. His fire is possible to dodge with a well-timed jump when it's
from far away, but when he dashes up close and use it I'm not sure how to
escape it..
Oh, and his weakness is Concrete Shot.
{*********************************}
* WARNING! *
* BOSS: DR. WILY, FINAL BATTLE *
{*********************************}
Ahahahaha. The pod tactic again. For the last, like, 7 games, it's been the
pod tactic. Fighting Dr. Wily in a combat-modified version of his little
escape pod, he'll randomly disappear and reappear around the room while
shooting at you with various shapes and sizes of energy orbs that tend to hurt
quite a bit and make for a challenging final boss but after this many times
it's just getting silly. Of course, it was just right for a classic Mega Man
game, but I was kinda expecting something near like the alien hologram from
Mega Man 2... oh well.
Now, let's get down to business. Wily's in a small pod, disappearing and
reappearing, shooting at you with various shapes and sizes of energy orbs that
tend to hurt quite a bit (a-hyuck). This time, a lot of them are really scary,
but it's nothing compared to Mega Man 7's ridiculous fiinal boss. This one's
only bad because you have to fight all these phases, but with all the Energy
potentially at your disposal as well as a potential use of the Guard Power Up
item, it's not like he has much of a chance here.
His attacks include:
A) Four purple balls shot in four directions from his pod; directly left and
right, and diagonally down-left and down-right. They will all home in on you
slightly and fly off the screen. You'll want to basically run in a single
direction, drawing them all into a tight bunch, and try to jump over them as
they speed towards you. If he's high in the air, you can simply run to one
side of the chamber.
B) He charges electricity at the center of his machine then launches six
electrical orange balls that all work simlarly to Plug Balls. Three fall
straight downward then crawl along the floor in your direction while the other
three fly horizontally from his ship to your direction and fall down if you get
near them. Try to run away from it, turn around and jump over the lower ones..
then turn back around and run away from the upper ones.
C) He'll simply reappear and disappear quickly, as if taunting you.
And that's all I've ever gotten out of him. Now, about actually beating him..
Similar to past games, you can defeat him with just your Mega Buster, but it's
weak and many times he will appear too high on the screen to be hit by it.
The funny thing is, every single special weapon in the game works on him, for
at least one point of damage, so you can technically use whatever you like
best--though, some work better than others. Namely, these:
Magma Bazooka can hit him up high and if you manage to shotgun him with it
(even uncharged) it will do multiple units of damage to him depending on how
many hit. A good choice.
Black Hole Bomb will only do one unit of damage but will eat all of his shots
if you place it right. Yes, it eats all of the last boss's shots.
Tornado Blow, again, only does one point of damage, but doesn't need good
placing to blow all his shots off the screen. Both this and Blach Hole Bomb
would be excellent for playing defensively if you, say, were attemtping
something akin to the Mr. Perfect challenge.
Hornet Chaser does only one unit of damage, but is quite likely the single
easiest weapon to hit him with other than Tornado Blow. This is probably
overall the optimum weapon of choice for battling this version of Wily.
Plug Ball is... his weakness. Yes, one hit from the pink wonder ball with the
crazy name will do a (comparatively) massive amount of 4 damage. However, as
you may have guesses, he will have to be low to the ground and you'll have to
put yourself in harm's way to use it. It may be possible to make better use of
it with such tactics as using Rush Coil then switching to this to hit him
higher in the air, or using a Black Hole Bomb or Tornado Blow and quickly
switching to this for more damage and a safe hit.
Aaand there you go. By now you have everything you need to beat Wily,
especially if you stocked up on supplies and still have enough E-tanks by the
time you reach him to tough it out. He should fall fairly quickly with all
these weapons and tactics.... and then....
Well, then there's the ENDING! It's spectacular! It's tremendous! It's
satisfying! You'll laugh! You'll cry! You'll probably enjoy it to some
degree! In all honesty, I was very satisfied with the ending and some parts of
it are just gold--things that longtime Mega Man fans will definitely enjoy.
But then comes the credits, which are more awesome in this game than any Mega
Man before it. You'll love it.
And then, after the credits roll and all the lights go down.. you're asked to
save your game. This "New Game +" style of feature will provide you with a new
file that retains, at least, all the Screws you earned during the playthrough.
So you can start fresh, able to immediately buy lots of goodies and powerups to
make unlocking some of those pesky Challenges a lot easier. Oh, and now you
should have access to Time Trials, allowing you to choose any stage up to the
final Wily fortress to speedrun and practice. Especially useful is picking
Wily 4 to get quick access to all the bosses to practice on anytime you like.
Well, enjoy, and good luck with those Challenges! As of now, this is the whole
game--but the forthcoming downloadable content promises to add a lot more!
I'll see you then!
[==================]
= III) Equipment =
[==================]
------------------------------
- 3-01 Weapons and Adapters -
------------------------------
You begin the game with only the Mega Buster and Rush Coil, but receive a
weapon each time you defeat a Robot Master. You also earn the Rush Jet after
beating 5 Masters. I've listed the weapon, from where it's obtained, and give
a description.
[[Mega Buster - Starting Item]]
The trusty weapon Mega Man begins the game with in every installment. In the
years since his last adventure, it seems to have lost its ability to charge
up--but the damage from normal shots seems more powerful, a la the earlier
games. Up to three shots can be fired at a time, it's reasonably fast, travels
horizontally and is effective in some way against most every enemy in the game.
[[Magma Bazooka - Magma Man]]
This flaming projectile travels in three directions at once; forward, angled up
and angled down. You can fire it at close range to shotgun the enemy with all
three shots at once for more damage. It can also be charged up much like Heat
Man's Atomic Fire from Mega Man 2, but in a much shorter time.
[[Hornet Chaser - Hornet Man]]
Fires a small hornet that travels at an upward angle for a bit and then homes
in on the nearest enemy or item. It will explode on contact with an enemy
unless it's an enemy that the Chaser destroys in one hit or it's the final hit
said enemy could take; in such a case, the Chaser will either continue flying
in the same direction until it reaches the end of the screen or hits something
that causes it to explode, or, if the enemy dropped an item, it will boomerang
back to you with that item. It can be used to retrieve stray items throughout
stages as well, except Energy and Mystery Tanks (but including Extra Lives and
Large Screws!). You can have up to three on-screen at a time.
[[Black Hole Bomb - Galaxy Man]]
This powerful tool will release a small, slow-moving orb that you can control
freely. Pressing the fire button again will cause it to erupt into a miniature
black hole, sucking any nearby enemies or projectiles into oblivion. This
includes any small or medium-sized enemy in the game, even otherwise completely
invincible ones; and includes ALL projectiles, including those from bosses,
even the final boss! Not to mention it usually does damage to enemies it isn't
able to absorb.
[[Tornado Blow - Tornado Man]]
One tap of the fire button with this weapon will summon an array of green
tornadoes from the bottom of the screen, sweeping up to the top very quickly.
It will carry with it any on-screen enemy with few exceptions (such as
minibosses). If it can't completely remove an enemy, it will usually damage
it. It can also be used to ride the wind-powered platforms found in one stage.
It's quite similar to the Gravity Hold from Mega Man 5, only you can actually
move forward during its animation to catch more enemies than were initially
onscreen when you triggered it.
[[Jewel Satellite - Jewel Man]]
One of the most powerful shield weapons in Mega Man history, this rotating
barrier will completely shield you from smaller enemies and never dissipates
unless you run into an enemy it doesn't destroy in a single hit, purposely fire
it or leave the edge of the screen. It also reflects most projectiles,
returning them back to their source for a great amount of damage. It can be
fired forward by pressing the fire button once it's already summoned, which
takes no extra Weapon Energy.
[[Laser Trident - Splash Woman]]
Likely the overall most efficient weapon in the game, the Laser Trident fires a
simple, forward-moving projectile in the shape of a trident for miniscule
amounts of Weapon Energy. Large, fast-moving and fairly rapid-firing, this can
be substituted for the Mega Buster in most situations and does a bit more
damage to most enemies. Its most unique feature is the ability to pass
completely through most shields, making any enemy who hides behind a shield
much easiet and giving you the ability to shoot behind things such as covered
Mets. This is also the weapon that breaks through the thick destructable
walls found in certain areas.
[[Plug Ball - Plug Man]]
The lovechild of the Bubble Lead and Quick Boomerang weapons from Mega Man 2,
this releases a small ball that trails along the ground... down walls... UP
walls.. and across ceilings. It travels extremely fast and can be fired
quickly, but it falls straight to the groung upon firing much like Mega Man 8's
Ice Wave, so it can be very difficult to hit airborne enemies with.
[[Concrete Shot - Concrete Man]]
Fires a blob of concrete that lobs forward and down until hitting the enemy or
an obstacle. Upon hitting an enemy it simply does a great deal of damage, but
if it hits a wall or floor it will create a small block that Mega Man can use
as a platform until it crumbles a short time later. This can be used to climb
up the sides of walls or create small platforms across beds of spikes or other
hazards. Interestingly it will freeze the large magma beams which can then be
used as platforms similarly to freezing the flame pillars with ice weapons in
previous Mega Man games. It can also stop the force fields near the end of the
game momentarily.
[[Rush Coil - Starting Item]]
Since Mega Man 3, most games have had this basic Rush adapter in some form. It
summons Rush, Mega Man's robotic dog, directly in front of where he's facing,
and, if it's an applicable spot, he will stand there wildly wagging his tail.
Jumping on his back will then catapault you into the air with a springboard--
much higher in Mega Man 9 than any installment I can think of, in fact. It's
surprising where all you can use Rush, even on dangerous lava fields, and he'll
do his job!
[[Rush Jet - Obtain after defeating your 5th Robot Master]]
This ever-helpful Rush adapter will, like Coil, summon Rush in front of the
direction you're facing; even in midair! He'll stop and transform into a
canine hoverjet, moving forward once you jump on him through the air on his own
while being coaxed higher or lower with the up and down buttons. Very useful
for crossing long chasms or hazards or just as a platform, it constantly drains
energy when in use and moving so beware.
----------------------------
- 3-02 Items and Powerups -
----------------------------
Some items drop by a chance when you destroy an enemy. Small Screws, Energy
Pellets and Weapon Pellets are common while large Energy Pellets, Weapon
Pellets and especially Extra Lives are more rare. Some are only found in
certain hard-to-reach spots of a stage or from Eddie, such as the Large Screw.
Yet more are only found in shops. I've listed what the item costs (if
applicable), where each it can be found as well as a description of its
appearance and use.
**Instant-Use Items:**
These items are often found in a stage or from destroying an enemy and take
effect immediately.
[[Small Screw - Enemy Drop, Find in Stage, Receive from Eddie]]
A tiny screw.
It's worth two Screws' worth of currency.
[[Large Screw - Find in Stage, Receive from Eddie]]
A large screw, almost identical to the large Bolts of Mega Man 7.
Worth twenty Screws' worth of currency. These are rare and NEVER drop from
enemies unlike large Bolts would in older Mega Man games.
[[Small Energy Pellet - Enemy Drop, Find in Stage, Receive from Eddie]]
A small, flashing black-and-white orb.
It restores a tiny portion of health.
[[Large Energy Pellet - Enemy Drop, Find in Stage, Receive from Eddie]]
A larger, outlined flashing black-and-white orb.
It restores a hefty portion of health.
[[Small Weapon Pellet - Enemy Drop, Find in Stage, Receive from Eddie]]
A small, flashing blue-and-cyan box.
It restores a tiny portion of Weapon Energy for the selected weapon.
[[Large Weapon Pellet - Enemy Drop, Find in Stage, Receive from Eddie]]
A larger, rectangular flashing blue-and-cyan box.
It restores a hefty portion of Weapon Energy for the selected weapon.
[[Extra Life - Enemy Drop, Find in Stage, Buy in Shop, Receive from Eddie]]
Cost: 20 Screws
This looks like a large, smiling Mega Man head.
Also known as a Spare Body, it adds an extra life to your total, up to 9 (and
remember "Life 0" counts, so 9 Extra Lives in the menu means you actually have
10 total lives). Note that I also tend to call them 1-Ups from time to time.
**Usable Items:**
These items are rare; some can be found in stages but some must be bought. They
need to be used from the pause menu in order for them to take effect.
[[Energy Tank - Find in Stage, Buy in Shop]]
Cost: 30 Screws
A blue can with an E on the front.
This is added to your pause menu inventory and can be used at any time to
restore your health meter to full. You can hold up to 9 total.
[[Mystery Tank - Find in Stage, Buy in Shop]]
Cost: 50 Screws
A blue can with an M on the front.
There is only one of these in the game findable in a stage that I know,
otherwise you must buy them in the shop. This is added to your inventory next
to your E-Tanks, and is used in the same way; it refills all your health and
all the Weapon Energy for all your weapons and adapters. It also has another,
secret function, hence the "Mystery"; if you use it when all your health and
ammo is at max capacity, you'll get hear a positive sound and when you leave
your menu all on-screen enemies will instantly be destroyed and turned into
Extra Lives! You can only hold one of these.
[[Eddie Call - Buy in Shop]]
Cost: 50 Screws
An image of Eddie, the small, red, package-shaped robot.
Using this item will call down Eddie (aka Flip-top) who will toss you a total
of 5 random items ranging from small pellets to Large Screws and Extra Lives!
In the old games he would sometimes drop an E-Tank though I have yet to get
one from this item; I'm not sure if it never happens or is very rare. You can
only hold one of these.
[[Guard Power Up - Buy in Shop]]
Cost: 100 Screws
An action symbol with the number "1/2" inside.
This expensive but extremely useful item will, upon use, grant Mega Man double
armor, or cause everything to do half the damage to him that it normally would.
It affects the entire stage you use it in and even dying won't remove its
effect.
**Passive Items:**
These all must be bought in the shop. They are always in use once you have
one of them in your posession unless you lose them or use them up.
[[Beat Call - Buy in Shop]]
Cost: 50 Screws
An image of Beat, the small, blue bird that aids Mega Man in many games.
Having one of these will cause Beat to fly in and pick you up if you ever fall
into a hole, afterwards fluttering upwards while you can control him left or
right and cause him to drop you if you press the jump button. He will even
come back for you again if you fall into a hole from his clutches back into a
hole, but each fall will use up a Beat Call. You can carry up to 3 of these.
[[Shock Guard - Buy in Shop]]
Cost: 50 Screws
An image of a blue boot on top of two floor spikes.
These will protect you from spikes; instead of dying instantly upon touching
a spike, Mega Man will simply be 'hit' as if by a normal source of damage and
knocked back a bit, even becoming invincible for a moment, but take no actual
damage. Each time you touch a spike with this in your inventory, it takes one
away. You can hold up to 3.
[[Energy Balancer - Buy in Shop]]
Cost: 100 Screws
A small mechanical contraption with an orb-like object on the upper-left.
The only truly permanent item, once you buy this you have it for the remainder
of that playthrough. Carrying this makes it so when you pick up a Weapon
Pellet with your Mega Buster or a weapon with full Weapon Energy equipped, the
energy that the pellet would have refilled will go directly to the weapon with
the least energy currently in your inventory. Picking up a Weapon Pellet with
a weapon with even a sliver of energy gone will force it to refill that weapon,
though.
[[Hairstyle Book - Buy in Shop]]
Cost: 20 Screws
A book with a bushy-haired face on the cover, presumeably Rock.
Buying this will immediately remove Mega Man's helmet, allowing his hair to
flow freely a la Mega Man 2's title screen. It even changes the portrait of
Mega Man in the center of the Stage Select screen. This actually causes you to
take DOUBLE damage, so it's mostly for a challenge (both figuratively and
literally).
[[Helmet - Buy in Shop]]
Cost: 20 Screws
Mega Man's trusty blue helmet.
You can only buy this once you've already bought the Hairstyle Book. It
returns Mega Man's original look, and defense, to him if you'd rather not have
to die to get your helmet back.
[[Roll Costume - Buy in Shop]]
Cost: 200 Screws
An image of Roll's face.
The description would lead you to believe that this grants you a costume of
Roll in which you can play, but in fact it actually changes hers--from the
default 'old school' NES Mega Man style to an 8-bit rendition of her newer
style a la Mega Man 8 or Marvel vs. Capcom. It's only a cosmetic change and
doesn't affect anything, but it is needed for a Challenge. Interestingly, the
game remembers if you bought the item and keeps the outfit for her on all
subsequent visits to the Shop in that save as well as throughout all cutscenes.
--------------
- 3-03 Shop -
--------------
There is a Shop in the game in Dr. Light's Lab in which Auto and Roll will sell
you a variety of useful items, some of which are rarely found in the stages but
most of which are uniquely available from the Shop. To enter the shop, select
the house icon at the bottom of the Stage Select screen and confirm. You can
buy items here with a Screw currency system similar to the Bolts of the past
few Mega Man games or the P-chips of the later few Mega Man games for Game Boy.
It is unknown how to unlock more items for sale than the ones readily available
from the beginning of the game, though with downloadable content and the
possibility that Proto Man may have some of his own items we can't be sure yet.
Available items:
Extra Life - 20 Screws
Energy Tank - 30 Screws
Mystery Tank - 50 Screws
Eddie Call - 50 Screws
Beat Call - 50 Screws
Energy Balancer - 100 Screws
Guard Power Up - 100 Screws
Shock Guard - 50 Screws
Roll Costume - 200 Screws
Hairstyle Book - 20 Screws
Helmet - 20 Screws (only if you have the Hairstyle Book)
[==============]
= IV) Extras =
[==============]
For now this section contains information about the 50 Challenges and some
general hints and tips for the game, but eventually it will include info and
strategies for the various special modes coming supposedly in the form of
downloadable content.
--------------------
- 4-01 Challenges -
--------------------
In the box is the challenge itself and its description straight from the game
itself. Below the box, if applicable, is any helpful strategy I can think of
to ease in achieving the challenge as well as extra info if needed, or just a
little insight about things I at least know *not* to do.
If I note that I'm not sure if a strategy works, that's a call-out for people
to either try it and see or e-mail me if they already know--or I myself am
planning on trying it. My e-mail is at the bottom of this guide.
_________________________________________
|01 WALTZ |
|Clear the game in 120 minutes or less. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|02 TANGO |
|Clear the game in 90 minutes or less. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|03 JITTERBUG |
|Clear the game in 60 minutes or less. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|04 BUST A MOVE |
|Don't miss with the Mega Buster and clear|
|the game. |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|05 HEADBANGING |
|Defeat 8 bosses without your helmet. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
Lose your helmet by buying the Hairstyle Book in the shop. Dying gives you
back your helmet, so you'll have to buy the book again each time you mess up.
_________________________________________
|06 BUNNY HOP |
|Clear any stage jumping 50 times or less.|
| |
|_________________________________________|
My guess for the best stage to try this on would be Concrete Man.
_________________________________________
|07 MR. TRIGGER HAPPY |
|Clear the game with more than 500 Mega |
|Buster shots. |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|08 DOUBLE TROUBLE |
|Visit all stages twice and clear the |
|game. |
|_________________________________________|
I believe this means reaching the end of each a second time as well.
_________________________________________
|09 MR. PERFECT |
|Clear the game without getting damaged. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
The big one. This is doubtlessly the most difficult Challenge, and good luck
to anyone who tries it. I'd suggest making liberal use of the Jewel Satellite,
Black Hole Bomb and Tornado Blow special weapons.
_________________________________________
|10 INVINCIBLE |
|Clear the game without dying. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
This shouldn't be difficult if you collect enough Screws to keep at maximum
capacity your Beat Calls, Shock Guards and E-Tanks.
_________________________________________
|11 ALMOST INVINCIBLE |
|Clear the game without continuing. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
Just keep your lives at 9 all the time. Protective items and Tanks will ensure
you lose minimal lives, even through Wily's Fortress.
_________________________________________
|12 NO COFFEE BREAK |
|Clear the game without using any Energy |
|or Mystery Tanks. |
|_________________________________________|
Just pretend you're playing Mega Man 1. Or 8.
_________________________________________
|13 AIR SHOES |
|Clear the game without falling into any |
|holes. |
|_________________________________________|
I'm not sure if using a Beat Call counts for this.
_________________________________________
|14 MEGA DIET |
|Clear the game without picking up more |
|than 8 energy pellets. |
|_________________________________________|
I'm not sure if collecting an energy pellet at full health counts.
_________________________________________
|15 ENCORE |
|Clear 4 stages using the same special |
|weapon. |
|_________________________________________|
A simple, low-energy use weapon like the Laser Trident would be your best bet.
_________________________________________
|16 PEACEKEEPER |
|Clear the game by defeating the fewest |
|number of enemies possible. |
|_________________________________________|
I'm not sure if this means defeating only bosses or if there's a certain number
that you're not supposed to go over.
_________________________________________
|17 CONSERVATIONALIST |
|Clear the game by using the least amount |
|of weapon energy possible. |
|_________________________________________|
There are very few areas in which you actually need to use a special weapon.
I don't know if Rush counts toward this or not.
_________________________________________
|18 FAREWELL TO ARMS |
|Clear 4 stages without using a special |
|weapon. |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|19 GAMER'S DAY |
|Clear the game 5 times in 1 day. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|20 DAILY DOSE |
|Clear the game once a day for 3 days. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
I'm not going to mess with my system clock to see if that affects this, but
feel free to clue me in if it does.
_________________________________________
|21 WHOMP WILY! |
|Clear the game once. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|22 TRULY ADDICTED! |
|Clear the game for the 10th time. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|23 TRULY HARDCORE! |
|Clear the game for the 30th time. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|24 CONQEUROR |
|Defeat your 100th enemy. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|25 VANQUISHER |
|Defeat your 500th enemy. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|26 DESTROYER |
|Defeat your 1000th enemy. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
If you're having trouble with this or the previous two, try the fast screws
trick in the Hints section.
_________________________________________
|27 WORLD WARRIOR |
|Defeat every type of enemy. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
Oddly, I didn't attain this even after finishing the game. There's a chance
it doesn't include enemies defeated in such ways as using the Tornado Blow.
_________________________________________
|28 TRUSTY SIDEARM |
|Defeat the 8 bosses with the Mega Buster.|
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|29 PACK RAT |
|Collect 999 screws. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
You need to get all 999 without buying anything. Try the fast screws trick in
the Hints section.
_________________________________________
|30 VALUED CUSTOMER |
|Purchase all items. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|31 SHOP A HOLIC |
|Purchase 30 items or more. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|32 LAST MAN STANDING |
|Defeat all bosses with only one pixel of |
|energy left. |
|_________________________________________|
It can be tricky to coax bosses to leave you at exactly one pixel of energy
unless you do some serious research on which attacks do how much damage.
The best plan of action would be to use the Guard Power Up item, get the boss
to very low health and hope he leaves you with a single shred of life before
finishing him; stocking up on lives beforehand would be a good idea, too, as
the 1/2 damage continues until you finish the level or get a Game Over.
_________________________________________
|33 SURVIVOR |
|Defeat one boss with only one pixel of |
|energy left. |
|_________________________________________|
See above.
_________________________________________
|34 HARD ROCK |
|Reach a boss's room without getting |
|damaged. |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|35 HEAVY METAL |
|Reach a boss's room without shooting. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|36 SPEED METAL |
|Reach a boss's room without stopping |
|once. |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|37 FANTATSTIC 9 |
|Accumulate 9 lives. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|38 FULLY UNLOADED |
|Hit a boss with all special weapons |
|before defeating it. |
|_________________________________________|
This is only possible once you've actually beaten all 8 normal bosses. It's
easiest to achieve during the Wily's Fortress 2 boss or the final boss.
_________________________________________
|39 BLUE BOMBER |
|Defeat a boss without getting damaged. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|40 ECO FIGHTER |
|Defeat a boss with only the Mega Buster. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|41 MARATON FIGHT |
|Fight a boss for 10 minutes. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
This may sound easy enough, but remember you must SURIVE for 10 minutes. For
me, the easiest boss to attain this Challenge on would be Galaxy Man.
_________________________________________
|42 QUICK DRAW G |
|Defeat Galaxy Man 10 seconds or less. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|43 QUICK DRAW C |
|Defeat Concrete Man in 10 seconds or |
|less. |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|44 QUICK DRAW S |
|Defeat Splash Woman in 10 seconds or |
|less. |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|45 QUICK DRAW H |
|Defeat Hornet Man in 10 seconds or less. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|46 QUICK DRAW J |
|Defeat Jewel Man in 10 seconds or less. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|47 QUICK DRAW P |
|Defeat Plug Man in 10 seconds or less. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|48 QUICK DRAW T |
|Defeat Tornado Man in 10 seconds or less.|
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|49 QUICK DRAW M |
|Defeat Magma Man in 10 seconds or less. |
| |
|_________________________________________|
_________________________________________
|50 QUICK DRAW X |
|Defeat the final boss in 180 seconds or |
|less. |
|_________________________________________|
---------------------------------
- 4-02 Hints, Tips and Secrets -
---------------------------------
* The FASTEST way by far I've found to quickly accumulate extra lives and
Screws is as follows: Enter Concrete Man's stage and deploy a Jewel
Satellite. Move to the second small rise in the floor over a waterfall
(perhaps 5 seconds' walk into the stage) and move to the seam between the
third and fourth concrete blocks that make up the platform. Now move and
jump back and forth across this seam and a constant barrage of rock-lobbing
birds should spawn from either side of the screen, giving you a constant
flow of powerups and screws. This is also a very easy way to grab the
'enemies destroyed' achievements. An alternative is to use the Black Hole
Bomb, instead of the Jewel Satellite here, which is very satisfying and fun
to watch, but overall not as efficient.
* Similar tactics to the one above can be used anytime a weak enemy can be
spawned by moving back and forth at a certain part of a screen with the Jewel
Satellite to not only gain lives and Screws but energy to refill your health
and weapons. One example is the water area of Wily's Fortress 2 with the
breakable blocks. At the very bottom of this area, in the long path you can
run back through to reach a large Weapon Capsule, many pairs of the fast
fish-bots will spawn if you move back and forth at certain key areas. You
can very quickly refill yourself for the battles ahead here. Likewise, any
area with Pipe Bombers (aka Tellys, the small, spinning purple bots) can be
turned into a rest stop by standing nearby with the Jewel Satellite.
* Almost every weapon has a special secondary use or ability such as the Hornet
Chaser's ability to retrieve items and the Concrete Shot's ability to create
small platforms, freeze magma and stop forcefields. Refer to the Weapons
section for more information.
* The Rush Coil and Rush Jet can be used in conjunction to amazing effect. Use
Rush Coil and while bulleting through the air, access and use Rush Jet. If
you timed it right, you'll move further up in the air just enough to be able
to land on the Jet once summoned, and will have a sky-high platform with
which to cross huge sections of stage with no hassle. Not only does this
make the game itself much easier at several points, but it's integral for
time trials!
* If you need to practice on a certain boss or unlock a Challenge pertaining
to him, remember that you can instantly access the final stage and rematches
with all the Bosses from the Time Attack menu--assuming you've
finished the game.
* Covered in ink? Simply access and leave the pause menu and you're all clean!
* The Galaxy Bomb has a simple glitch/trick that can make it infinitely more
useful, especially against bosses weak to it such as Jewel Man or the Twin
Devils. You know how it kind of just stays onscreen for a few seconds after
eruption and only the initial touch of it will hurt a boss? Well, just enter
and leave your pause menu and it'll be reset--you can use it again
immediately. Honestly, using this trick against the Twin Devils makes it
seem even more like Mega Man 1, using the Thunder Beam with the pause trick
to defeat it...
[=================================]
= V) Contact Info and Copyright =
[=================================]
(c) Copyright 2008 Justin Morgan (aka Klaej on GameFAQs)
This guide may only be used with permission from and credit to the author.
Mega Man and all related characters, phrases, etc. copyright Capcom.
Be sure to send suggestions, additional hints and tips, spelling or grammatical
error alerts, and anything else you can think of to me!
E-mail: jkm553(at)gmail(dot)com
DEMOS
PATCHES - CHEATS
REVIEWS
GAME VIDEOS
Alter Ego Demo
Captain Morgane and the Go..
Adam's Venture 3: Rev..
Gateways Demo
Age of Decadence Public Be..
Captain Morgane and the Go..
Adam's Venture 3: Rev..
Gateways Demo
Age of Decadence Public Be..
NEWS ENTRIES
THIS WEEK'S MOST POPULAR DOWNLOADS
Soldner: Secret Wars Community Edition v33910 Free Fu.. Diablo III Open Beta Weekend Underway and Client GamersHell.com Saints Row: The Third Giveaway Alter Ego Demo Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle Demo Adam's Venture 3: Revelations Demo Vsevolod Prologue Free Game
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare v1.7 Patch (patch) The Sims 3 v1.31.118 Patch for PC (patch) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare v1.6 Patch (patch) Arma 2: Free (client) Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Free Full Game (A.. (fullgame) PES 2012 Demo (demo) PES 2011 Demo (demo)