Hello. I am back from Santa Monica, which means I might actually be able to post things here again. Between horrible Dreamhost service and my week-long absence, this past month has really undermined all the hard work I’ve been pouring into rebuilding GameSpite’s traffic since its big drop-off over the last half of 2011. Please enjoy this final article from GameSpite Journal 10 while I go eat a grenade in despair.
Definitely sounds like a solid Mega Man entry – pity we didn’t get it on the Mega Man Anniversary Collection.
It’s worth emulating the SNES version instead of playing the legit GBA one. I hate saying things like that, but in this case it’s only right.
I’m sorry you’ve had stress over the site. I have never had quite the money to spare to buy the journals, especially now that we’ve just bought a house and all my spare cash goes to the hardware store for tools.
But if this cheers you up at all, I have Firefox set to open three windows every time I start it: my home-made javascript page allowing me to click through all my favorite webcomics, Rock Paper Shotgun, and Gamespite. I read it daily.
I’m at that age described in an old PvP Online comic – where the middle aged husband is always a year behind on videogames because of life duties and the inability to afford games until they’re on sale. I’m only now playing Oblivion, for example. But GameSpite reminds me of old games I need to replay, or that I missed and always said “oh, I’ll try that, one day”. I decided recently to give my old untouched SNES copy of Secret of Evermore a try because of the article. I haven’t yet, but it’s sitting out. I just haven’t unpacked the SNES from moving.
Rockman and Forte, I always wanted to beat back in the days when all you could play it on in the US was an emaultor – and I bought a GBA copy instead. I bought a programmable joystick just so I could swap the buttons so it was playable old-style. And I still can’t beat it. It’s just blindingly unforgivable – and I lived and breathed Mega Man from 1 to 8, and the first five X series games.
After this article I want to try again.
I’m not even married and I don’t have any time to play games . I believe I’m two years behind modern releases.
This is a universal problem :p
By the time R&F was released I had already lost interest in gaming, save for the odd PC and GameBoy game. Good thing (?) emulation eventually sucked me back into it.
When R&F was rereleased on the GBA I snapped it up immediately, only to be fiercely dissapointed. Large Snes sprites did wonders for SF Revival and Final Fight One, but they wrecked R&F on the GBA’s low resolution screen. Too bad, because the original game is a fine, if unspectacular addition to the series.
Truth: I 100%ed Rockman & Forte on its resolution-impaired Game Boy Advance port when I was on a Mega Man kick circa 2007. >_<;
My general opinion is that it had some fun toys (A flamethrower? Cards that swipe up items? A giant drill that splits into more drills? Hell yes!), but some of the bosses could be a colossal pain in the ass.
Burner Man comes to mind, given that he's usually the second Robot Master to fight since Cold Man's a predictable wimp compared to the other two starting branch options. And given his "weakness" involves using the Ice Wall to push him into the spikes (which he's still very resistant to compared to the instant death sharp pointy objects bring others), he becomes an even bigger pain in the ass when you see just how mobile and unpredictable he is.
The only really good strategy for taking down Burner Man is to shoot the crap out of him with whatever plain old buster you have, then on the off chance he goes into flamethrower mode, get behind him and send him sliding with an Ice Wall before he can turn around and break it. To beat the aggressive bastard, you have to be nearly as aggressive as he is.
Of course, then there's Dynamo Man's regeneration machine and an entire stage that revolves around a couple of drawn out vehicle bosses and a multi-part battle against the current "totally not masterminded by Dr. Wily" stand-in. Those were troublesome for a good while.
Ah, I’d peg the boss problems being the fabulously unkind invincible tank that keeps coming back to life (the one with the discordant music). The third or so time you fight that thing while chasing it across bottomless pits on crummy platforms is just about the hardest thing I can remember outside of the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2.