... you could have spent that $5 and had someone punch you in the face.  And it would have been better spent.

And BN4 removed the great ADD function from BN1-3... what a terrible decision.

... I completely forgot to add that.  Yes.  That was a HUGE blow to the gameplay.

Oyi...

Battle Network 4 was a series killer.  The gameplay was changed for the WORSE in every possible way.  I'll break down how the game was utterly destroyed from a gameplay standpoint first.

1) Soul Unisons replace Styles.  Yes, SUs are a lot more in theme with Mega Man than Styles were, but guess what, unlike Classic and X SUs stymied gameplay and were a SIGNIFICANT step back from Styles in the way they were used and worked.  Styles were based on how you PLAY the game.  They were permanent and enhanced the way you preferred to play.  SUs on the other hand, did the exact opposite.  They are rather arbitrary to how you play.  In addition, you don't start the battle using them, but instead have to activate them using a certain chip which you have to wait to randomly show up in your folder.  You can't set it as your regular chip.  As it requires a chip to activate, that means you had to forgo an actual USEFULL chip to add it.  And to increase the chance you GET the type of chip you had to add more, resulting in a good chunk of your folder being JUNK used to activate the SU.  And don't even TRY to say the needed chips were any good for anything other than activating the SU, because they weren't.  Oh, and that SU you had to go though so much ##### to activate?  It lasts 3 turns.  Then you're stuck with a gimped folder full of crap chips whose only use is to activate said now unusable SU.  I undersand they tweaked the system a bit in 6, but it was still largely the same, making just as useless compared to Styles.

2) Multi Version Gimping.  Yes, 3 had 2 versions, but the "extras" between them were largely cosmetic.  4 began cutting the game material in half between 2 versions.  1 2 and 3 had EVERYTHING in one version and the experience was all the stronger and satisfying.  The overall feel and enjoyment of the series was severely damaged by artificially splitting the game content between 2 versions.

3) Chip selection/Program Advances were neutered.  3 is somewhat guilty of this as well, as what was expanded upon to the nth degree in 4-6 started in 3.  Program Advances were almost as worthless in 4-6 as they were in 1, but in 1 they were really a lot more downplayed and "secret".  2 has the best chip selection and PAs in the series hands down.  The broken PAs were fairly hard to get and I think that balanced it out well enough.  Chips themselves were also toned down far too much and the folder limits were just ridiculous in the last 3 games.  Even though 3 took a noticeable hit in this department, again, it wasn't as exacerbated as in 4-6.

4) LOL NET FETCH QUESTS.  4-6 abuse random backtracking and pointless fetch quests in the general net areas to the point at worst BN4 has something like all of 3 unique areas.  5 and 6 are really no better.  1 and 2 consisted of mostly unique computer areas with just about the right amount of using the general net areas.  3 was noticeable heavy on net areas, but not nearly so bad as 4-6.

5) Forced replay value.  4 made you play the game over and over to get everything you really should have just got in one playthough.  Add to that the fact the game was vomit to begin with and between the game content being split between 2 versions AND replays you pretty much miss
70% of the game in the first playthrough with no real pay off.  I don't recall if 5 and 6 pulled this ##### too.

6) Add button?  What's that?  Yes, the add button was removed from your chip select screen.  It was often incredably helpful to skip a turn to increase your selection of chips.  It offered some good depth for some strategy.  4-6 felt noticably slower and harder to get the chips you need when you needed them.  There was NO reason to remove this gameplay element.

In many ways 3 was a hybrid between the first and second set of games.  3 really previewed the awful direction the series would take while still utilizing a lot of the great stuff the first two had.  I quit playing 4 at the end of the 2nd tournament.  It was all just tournament, net quests, tournament, net quest, rinse wash repeat.  The game didn't get better.  I kept a close eye on 5 and was absolutely appalled by it.  It (not surprisingly) kept most all the foundation of 4, and added a horribly gimmicky "liberation" tactical wannabe net battle gauntlet element.  Same gimped gameplay, new added suck.  6 follows the exact same formula with trivial and minimal changes to the formula of 4 and 5.

I can not respect the opinion of anyone who thinks any of those 3 games are good in any way shape or form, and there is absolutely no defence of the poor quality these titles provide.

I don't know, is any one partially disappointed that it wasn't released on some kind of media format that you could actually hold, as an opption?

Yes.

:: a single tear runs down his cheek ::

I'd wager there aren't many of you older than I here.

The problem with FF is how a lot of games were only released in Japan. At least I think so.......

You realize that FF does not follow one continuity or timeline, right?  Outside of sequals/prequals or side games to what ever numbered game they're related to that is.

MM1 is MUCH harder than 9.  The shop system alone makes 9 one of the EASIEST.  Even if you choose not to buy a thing or pick up any E-tanks, it's still easier than 1.  1 had LEATHAL hit damage.  You can die in 3 hits from several bosses, and the stages themselves, while shorter than 9s, are generally built to have more challanges.

OH HO HO HO HO!

:: beats you all with tomatoe stick ::

Would any ADULTS like to talk about why Battle Network 4, 5 and 6 suck on high?

Who in their right mind considers MM9 the hardest of the 8-bit MegaMan's?

n00bs.

YO HO HO HE TOOK A BITE OF GUM GUM!

Just finished all 13 epps of Slayers Revolution.  Pretty good all in all and MUCH better than the #####fest that was Try.  I look forward to Slayers Evolution-R in January.

YOU'LL FIT IN JUST FINE HERE THEN!

4, 5 and 6 are absolute ##### games comapred to 1-3.  The chip system, program advances and style system are far more polished in the first 3.  Sprites are generally much better too.  Music is signifigantly less catch and uplifting in 4-6 and generally feels rather blah, samey and far less epic.  I won't even TOUCH the so called plots of 4-6.  Suffice to say they're shamefully bad and a joke even compared to what the plot was in the series to begin with.

X3 is my least favorite of the SNES games.  I watned to like it, but it's just not as good as 1 and 2.  Music was bleah, Sigma was fail, secret armor was #####.  Stage design wasn't bad, but just not up to par with 1 and 2.

Eh, Mario RPG was a better Mario RPG than Command Mission was a Mega Man X RPG.  Mario RPG's ONLY downside was (ironically) that it had so much original material and didn't use as much established Mario stuff.

Complete Work remixes are a mixed bag.  Some are pretty good, some are awful.  None are better than the originals.

Technically that's not so bad as playing Zero and playing as Zero are pretty much the same.  The rest is... well, yeah...

Chrono Cross isn't a bad game at all, it's just a ##### awful as a sequal to CT.

It's not a good game.  It's a bad game.  But it's so bad it's good.  But not good because it's good.

ARE WE CLEAR?

"Why didn't I prevent this?"

You were over at Ryships with me watching Iris shake her waxed/oiled ass over cocktails and T-Bones.  REMEMBER?

Compare X1 to X8 in terms of stage design and gameplay and there is no contest.  X1 was 12 levels of fast paced action platforming.  X8 is a lumbering, decrepid garbage bag of gimmicky stage design that ranges from not quite as bad as Metal Hammerhead to almost resembling something in a real platform game.

And that's a major part of the problem.  All this "sneak stage", "bike stage", "giant robot chases you stage" ##### doesn't add variety at all (and not because they're just poorly designed or implemented) they only serve to detract from the fast paced, tight controling platform gameplay that built the series.

And that's WITHOUT all the other bull##### that's encrusted the series as well.

MMZ/ZX is nothing but official fan garbage!

... wow.

:: DESTROYED ::

Guilt by association.

Knowing Capcom they prob forgot, but Mega Man 9 takes place a couple months before X was completed.

Hello new friend!  I am ever so delighted and gladend to see another obviously intellectual Mega Man aficionado to converse about inane, make believe fanfiction bull##### spewed from a gaping learning disabled sphincter of a mouth!

Oh wait.  No I'm not.  As banning you for just being a slack jawed inbred douchebag ass master redneck would be beneath us here, break ONE rule, ANY rule, no matter how minor and I WILL ban you.  And nothing of value will be lost.  ENJOY YOUR STAY HERE AT MMM.

BIGGER ISN'T ALWAYS BETTER!

:: runs away sobbing ::

What are you?  Gay?

THIS THREAD NEEDS MORE SAKURA H!

I think we have a Matrix Award winner here.

Simple you poor confused Rez.

1:  Play MM3
2:  Beat the 8 bosses.
3:  Reset the game then use the password to bypass the doc robot stages
4: 
5:  PROFIT

... that's not really bypassing in the sense of skipping it normally as the post seemed to imply.

I've not liked the music in the X series as well since X2.  Each game had a few tracks at least that were good, though X7 and X8 just made my ears bleed.

What was wrong with X8?

- Awful stage design.  AWFUL.  All of them.  Without exception.  X8 took everything X5 - X7 did wrong and rolled it into one game.  The levels were each poorly made "themes" that stiffled your playing to some degree, in some cases rivaling Metal Shark Player's stage.  There was not ONE single good stage in X8.

- 2 man party system was broken and poorly implemented.  It was bad enough changing characters between stages, but IN THEM?  It removed any reason to play as one character as stages were made to be played by switching.  Remember X4?  Some parts were easier with X, some with Zero, and it really extened the gameplay because each character required you play the stage differently.  X8 does not.  It's the same.  Every time.

- 3 playable characters.  Same problem X7 had.  Axl serves no purpose.  He does not offer anything different X or Zero already gave.  He's a 3rd wheel fan character that kills the dynamic between X and Zero.

- Buying your upgrades do not belong in an X game.  I'm sorry, you are not allowed to disagree.  Finding your 8 heart tanks and 4 sub tanks was half the fun of the game and worked quite well.  X8 just adds so much unnecessary GARBAGE that gets in the way of the core gameplay.

- The music was among the worst in the series.

- The change in art direction was like vomit in your eye, and the only reason it isn't the worst thing to ever happen to X and Zero is Mega Man Zero.

- All of the complete and totally RANDOM ##### put in the game to make it "cool".  Vile.  Why's he back?  No fanfare when he dies again.  He was just there.  No reason other than VILE IS COOL LOOK!  LOOK! X8 IS GOOD AGAIN!  The utterly mind bogglingly WRONG use of the word Maverick.  But getting into that is a whole other discussion and not necessairly in itself X8's fault.

X8 isn't awful, certainly no X7, and I can entertain the argument it's better than X5 or X6 (it's not), but you can not say it's a good game, because that is an out and out lie.

I always skip them after defeating the 8 robot masters whenever I play Mega Man 3.

... how do you go about skipping said stages?

X5, X6, X7 and X8 are all bad games.  Though how anyone can call X8 good or find ANY of them worse than X7 is beyond me.

This game is so bad it's good.  Oh my god.  It's delightfully AWFUL!  The story mode had me on the floor in stitches.  The Joker ALONE is worth buying this game for.  His chapter was the single best one hands down, and the only thing that was out and out GOOD about the game because it was awesome, not so bad it was good.

I'd highly reccomend renting this game.  It's not got any real staying power, but as a quick ride at a party, it can offer a TON of fun.

Battle Network had a DELICIOUS Mega Man flavor to it.  Capcom took out a kettle and mixed in all the best parts of the Mega Man mythos.  It was Mega Man, but not at the same time.  It very successfully took the character concepts/designs from Classic and reinvented them to be both familiar and different at the same time in a different continuity and direction that was both whimsical and fun.  It also had a lot of allusions to other things Mega Man besides classic (servbots, data, etc) which added more concrete grounding to the mythos.  The games were light hearted and fun with a nice RPG feel to them without being an out and out RPG.  Then someone came up to the kettle and took a ##### in it, and we had Battle Network 4-6.  The end.

Z was always superior to S when it came to lazers.

To YOU anyway! It's overrated and you know it! It's exactly as Fatass says, it's one of the first thing that comes up when you talk about X1, which I have a first hand experience in. My friends; who aren't huge MM fans, always bring that up when I talk about X1.

There are tons of songs in the game which are better than Storm Eagle, you just have to give them a good listen. Stage Select, Cast roll, Boomer's stage, the Sigma stages.. and even the Sigma battle.

:: respect -10 ::

You're welcome to be wrong.

I would like to hear the X1 soundtrack done using X8 instruments.

X8's music was awful.  X8's instrument samples are INFINATELY inferrior to X1s.

I would not like to hear the X1 soundtrack done using anything but the X1 instruments. It already had one of the best sample sets of any SNES game.

:: +100 WilyFunBux ::

Just listen to the MHX OST, especially since the X8 OST only has a few memorable tracks.. MHX is probably the best you'll get, despite it missing a track.

4 Tracks technically: Password, Ending, Cast Roll and Staff Roll.

Well this isn't Battle Network.

I think you just nailed the reason Star Force is utter trash!

Storm Eagle's theme is great but overrated, and there are tons of better songs in the game.

:: hits with Tomatoe Stick ::

WRONG ANSWER.

You had to be in a certain position for him to shoot lazers at you.

... that is an EXCELLENT point.  The #####ting on X is just a lot more promonant since it's suppose to be directly spun out of it, while Legends itself isn't connected from it's side yet.  And God willing, it never will be.

Better story

Same story really.  ZX's own cast is completely subservient to MMZ's GHOST ZOMBIE POWER RANGER characters.  In that respect ZX's story is even WORSE since it's built up completely on MMZ's.

less rape-you-up-the-ass difficult

MMZ in and of itself wasn't THAT hard.  But earning/getting anything past just beating the game WAS.  ZX isn't any harder, but it's not that easier in that respect.

dual screens made certain functions easier (even though those functions were by-and-large stupid)

I don't see anything that really fits that, but sure, ok.

and they're not actually defiling the X series characters anymore, just their 'souls'.

ZX is 90% MMZ5.  It's just as insulting to X as MMZ, if not more because once great characters are reduced to even LESS.  But in the end ZX is just more of the same MMZ bull##### but even #####tier.  In every way.

:: boots into mauling tent ::

Nothing personal.  THIS TIME.

@thread

...wow.

Don't think I've gotten to him yet.

Well, it used more of the whole "Get a weapon from the boss" aspect in a dumber way, but you could use the weapon or form to explore deeper into the game.

Except... you couldn't explore enough, in my opinion. That's what ZX lacks, as well as many other things.

No, the forms were used to cover basic move sets.  You had to change forms to jump, then change back to crawl, then change back to air dash, then change back to dash, etc etc etc... I know what they were TRYING to do with that mechanic, but it failed utterly.  In Classic or X (or hell, even Zero) you could change weapons to blow up barriers, but you NEVER had to constantly change weapons to move like you do in ZX.  So what do they do in ZXA?  ADD MORE #####ING FORMS with the same problems.

I don't see Diamonds are Forever for the C64 on your little list.  It's a well known fact that was the best Bond game ever made.

In retrospect, I'm GLAD you don't get anything.  God I'd hate to have to try to perfect every #####ing boss.