The Mega Man / Rockman Thread

[Ziggy]

I've been replaying Mega Man X 1-4 lately.

Mega Man X is still probably my favorite. I just played through the SA-1 hack for the first time via the FXPAK Pro. This game has some pretty significant slowdown in a few areas, and this SA-1 hack completely fixes this. It also stores your most current password and control scheme into SRAM, which you can load by choosing the password option. It was a lot of fun to play through the game with these QOL improvements.

Mega Man X SA-1 hack: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5145/

I've come to realize that Mega Man X Collection on PS2 is awesome. The menus are in 480i, but the games are in 240p. They look and play awesome on a CRT. I've noticed some minor sound things here and there, but overall they're nearly indistinguishable from the original versions as far as I can tell. For X 1-3, a save feature is added which also saves your control scheme. I didn't play through X1 on the collection, but I played it briefly for testing and it seems that the slowdown issues are improved. So really you can accomplish the same thing for X1 with either this version or the above SA-1 hack.

I played through X2 on the PS2 collection, mainly because I wanted to use the save feature. I like X2, but not nearly as much as 1, 3 or 4. I know a lot of people say that it's a great sequel that improved on the first game in a lot of ways. And the general consensus seems to be that X2 is better than X3. But after playing through it again, I disagree. I don't like it as much as X1, and it turns out that I enjoyed X3 a lot more. I think what I really don't like about X2 is the level design, which is funny. I use to think that about X3, and that seems to be what most people say. But I prefer the level design if X3 to X2. In X2, it seems a little claustrophobic. And there's way too many cheap instant spike deaths. By the end of the game, the level design was really starting to annoy me!

I just finished playing through X3. I've beaten the vanilla SNES version a few years ago, and it didn't leave any lasting impressions on me. This time I decided to play the SNES version with two hacks. One, the Zero Project hack. And two, the MSU-1 hack that adds the PS1/Saturn soundtrack. The Zero Project makes Zero fully playable, but it actually does a lot more in the way of QOL improvements. It's worth using even if you ignore Zero. Too many changes to list here, so just check out the read me file in the link below. But a big draw for me is SRAM saving. It gives you multiple save files to track your progress, and int works wonderfully. Though it doesn't save the control scheme setup (although I'm not sure if I'm using the latest version).

Zero Project: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4086/

MSU-1 hack: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2342/

MSU-1 volume fix: https://www.zeldix.net/t1339-msu1-volum ... econd-wave

So what I've always read about MMX3 makes it out to be the black sheep of the SNES trilogy. But in fact, at this point I like it more than X2. Another thing I've always read is that the PS1/Saturn arranged music is crap and a sin that they removed the SNES music. So for the Mega Man X Collection on PS2, it included the PS1 version of MMX3 but not the SNES version. I've read a lot of people say that this was a bad thing. And the new Mega Man X Legacy collection has the SNES version. Well of course I like the SNES version, being that the SNES is my favorite retro console. But I never actually played the PS1 version, so I was just going off what others have said about it. Well it turns out, I think I prefer the PS1 soundtrack over the SNES!

I briefly checked out the Saturn version. It was released in Europe, so that's the version I picked. There's two problems there, though. One, the Saturn version has a screen boarder. It has to do with the Saturn's resolution and it's either a cheap or clever way to get around the difference depending on how you look at it. But it seems the PAL version was "fixed" for PAL resolution, so it doesn't look right on my NTSC TV (everything is too skinny). I assume the Japan version would look right, although still with a screen boarder.

So then I went down a bit of a rabbit hole with the PS1 version, the Mega Man X Collection PS2 version, and then the SNES version with the MSU-1 hack.

You always hear that the PS1 version replaced the SNES chip tunes with arranged music and adds FMVs, but there's actually more changes than that. There's some minor changes peppered in, and I'm not even sure if I caught them all. Overall, a lot of the sound effects sound different. The buster shot, doors opening/closing, stuff like that. In Toxic Seahorse's level, when you're ascending vertically and there's that green water (slime?) pouring down, the transparency of the green water looks different in the PS1 version. Also in Toxic Seahorse's level, when you go underwater there's an air bubble sound effect added.

So speaking of the PS1 version, it was only released in Europe and Japan. There's a patch for the European version to make it NTSC. https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4104/

The version included in the Mega Man X Collection on PS2 seems to be identical for the most part, but there are actually some big improvements. The most noteworthy improvement is loading speed. From turning the console on to loading the first level, the PS2 version is significantly faster than the PS1. Once you're in game, the pause menu loads as fast as you normally would expect (such as the SNES version). The PS1 version has a slight delay when loading the pause menu. And the saving screens, the PS1 versions seems to take forever in comparison to the PS2 version.

But the SNES MSU-1 patch actually has a leg up on the PS1 version. For some reason, the PS1 and Saturn port (as well as the X Collection PS2 version) doesn't loop the audio correctly. Tracks sort of fade out and then restart, including the small intro to tracks. The SNES MSU-1 hack actually has all of the tracks loop properly, which is a much better experience in my book. The MSU-1 hack doesn't add all of the PS1 audio, however. Anything that is an FMV scene in the PS1 version is still a SNES cutscene with SNES chiptunes. And IIRC, the capsule upgrades are SNES chiptunes while the PS1 has arranged music here too. Also, the SNES version seems to balance the music level with the sound effects better. The PS1 version by comparison, the music seems too quiet or the sound effects seem too loud.

So yeah, I actually rather like the PS1 version. But the SNES version with the Zero Project and MSU-1 hacks end up being the best way to play the game in my opinion. Still, I don't think you can go wrong either way. I was just kind of surprised how much more I enjoyed X3 than X2 this go around. I've only ever played either of them once before, and X3 didn't leave any lasting impressions on me back then. This time around though, I rather enjoyed it.

[Ziggy]

I just replayed X 2, and I have some follow up thoughts...

I've only ever played it once, and that was a few years ago now. I just recently played through it again via the Mega Man X Collection on PS2. I wanted to give it another go, so this time I decided to play the SNES version. Specifically, I played an authentic SFC cart. One thing that sticks out at me is there is MASSIVE slowdown in this game. There's slowdown here and there, like with the big fish and stuff like that. But then there's some massive slowdown with a few bosses. Namely, the snail and Sigma's second (wire frame) form. Quite a few bosses have pretty bad slowdown, but these too in particular are extremely bad. And no, I don't mean the snail's time slowing attack LOL. But yeah, the slowdown on these two bosses actually makes it more difficult to beat them. The final Sigma fight was taking FOREVER because of the slowdown, and I kept missing clean shots because of it.

Now I just played the PS2 version prior to this, and there's virtually NO slowdown (none that I can recall anyway). I know X 1 gets a bad rap for slowdown issues, but X 2 is actually way worse. After experiencing X 2 on the PS2, I don't know if I can justify ever playing the SNES version again. I can tolerate the SNES version of X 1 even though there's better ways to play it (SA-1 hack or PS2). But I was getting so frustrated with the slowdown in X 2, it really sucks.

Slowdown aside, I actually grew to like X 2 a tad more this playthrough. Perhaps it's more enjoyable after learning the game more. When I played the PS2 version, I failed to defeat the X Hunters and collect all of Zero's parts. So I wanted to play through it again and get the "good" ending. Despite my frustrations with the slowdown, I did enjoy it more this time around. Although I still feel that the level design is frustratingly hard in quite a few places, namely all of the instant death spikes. The X Hunter stages in particular are extremely tough. I know people like to cite the snail vertical climb in X 3 as being bad design. But X 2 has that vertical segment with those pizza saucer things that you have to change the direction by jumping on them. I find that to be WAY more annoying than the snail climb in X 3. But overall, I still like X 2, just not as much as 1, 3 or 4.

You know, a thought occurred to me. The Mega Man X games are basically Metroidvanias. The only thing really stopping them from being just that is that you exit levels back to a stage selection map. If the levels were interconnected instead, it would play just like a Metroidvania. You come across items in the early game that you cannot yet reach. After gaining new abilities, you can backtrack to those locations to get those items. You can increase your HP, your defense, and your attack. You gain new weapons. Am I describing Mega Man X or Symphony of the Night? LOL. The only thing the X games lack, other than interconnected levels, is experience points. But it's kind of fun to imagine for a moment some kind of massive hack that stitches X 1, 2 and 3 together in a way that makes them play as a Metroidvania. Instead of exiting each level after defeating the boss, you simply traverse to the next area like you would in Metroid/Symphony. The maps in X 1, 2 and 3 already make it clear that these levels are in proximity to each other (and can affect each other). So you would have to backtrack on foot, they way you would in Metroid or Symphony, instead of entering and exiting levels. Naturally there would be some sort of teleporting gained at some point for faster travel, which makes sense since X and Zero teleport in and out of stages anyway.




PS, a bunch of the Mega Man collections are on sale on Steam right now.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Awesome posts, Ziggy. I really enjoyed your comparison of the different versions. I didn’t know the PS2 versions were so different!

[Raging Justice]

I always thought it was funny how the upgrades apply more so to X than Zero. In fact, I think it was in MM X 5 or 6 that you can find a Light capsule with Zero and he basically says, "I don't need any power ups" LOL

Zero is just THAT powerful.

What Ziggy is describing though is something that has actually been in the works for years in the form of Mega Man X Corrupted, but it's starting to seem like hell will freeze over before it ever gets released

[Ziggy]

What Ziggy is describing though is something that has actually been in the works for years in the form of Mega Man X Corrupted, but it's starting to seem like hell will freeze over before it ever gets released

LOL, that's awesome.