Monthly Archives: September 2020

Mega Man Derusting: Mega Man 3 (NES)

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So I have a long history with the Mega Man games growing up. I came up with the Mega Man Derusting series to do such a task. The goal is to play and finish the Mega Man classic series along with most of the X series and some other Mega Man titles. I still have some of my Mega Man and X carts and discs and hadn’t really played them in years but I wanted to share my adventures on stream of relearning my way through the classic titles, and in some cases finish the later games to completion! 

THE REVIEW: Mega Man 3 is my favorite of the classic series and the one I have the most experience with. I still love it to this day even with its faults. The story goes Dr. Wily and Dr. Light are working together to build a peace keeping robot(?) named Gamma. They needed extra material so they sent Mega Man out to acquire them and he has to fight 8 new Robot Masters. There’s also the fights with the mysterious Break Man who shows up in some levels to test you. This is also the first of the Mega Man games where after the 8 Robot Masters you don’t go straight to Wily. You have to fight the might 8 Doc Robots in 4 of the previous stages. The Doc Robots have the powers of the Robot Masters from Mega Man 2! Wily was behind everything all along! In Dr. Wily’s newest castle, you’re gonna find yourself fighting a rebuilt Yellow Devil too! Dr. Light also built Rush, a robotic dog to assist Mega Man instead of using utility items. Rush can fly, bounce you higher, and act as a submarine. This is the first MM title with Rush, who becomes a recurring helper in the later games, and the second MM title (and last) where the password system also carries your up to 9 Energy tanks too. Learning a lot about this title recently I’ve discovered there was quite a bit about MM3 that was unfinished or unpolished, leading to lots of glitches to exploit (like getting the Rush Jet early!)

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Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles (PSP) Review

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Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles is a 2.5 remake of Castlevania Rondo of Blood for the PSP, released by Konami in 2007. This game stars Richter Belmont on a quest to save his beloved Annette from Dracula, who had been revived by the dark priest Shaft. Along the way Richter will meet Maria, a young girl with special powers who becomes a playable character. You’ll go through a number of the traditional Castlevania stages as Richter or Maria, and trying to find the well-hidden other 2 maidens along the way along with Annette. Saving the maidens will give you the ability to break red skeleton walls and crystal walls to find more secret items. Along the way you can unlock ports of the original pc-engine Rondo of Blood, along with Symphony of the Night. Other secrets include finding different tracks among the three games and a boss rush mode. Stages 2 through 5 have varying paths to explore, resulting in fighting a different boss and opening up an alternate of the following stage. Auto-saving after levels is a godsend with a game like this. Extra goodies with this include the aforementioned ports, sound tests, watching videos of the boss battles (you pay with the money you earn in stages), and a different types of boss rush modes. Rondo of Blood essentially is the missing link between the old school Castlevania platforming titles, and the later popular Metroidvania style games starting with SOTN. This review will mostly cover the Rondo remake, with mentions of the original Rondo of Blood port and SOTN.

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Retrorevisited: Ninja Gaiden Trilogy (NES)

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Retrorevisited is a stream series where I revisit a game or a game series I haven’t played in over 10 or 20+ years. I’ll go through to try see what I remember until a game over or I run out of continues. In some cases muscle memory may slowly return, in others probably not. This is a chance for me to revisit games of my youth that I still have or had at one point, playing them with and without nostalgia goggles, and do with mini-reviews of them too. If I decide to play any fully later and do a full review, parts of the mini-review would be incorporated into it. Depending on the playstyle or system, games reviewed will either be mini-reviews or one about all games in this session.

I love the Ninja Gaiden trilogy, from the action, the bosses, and the story itself! I have a long history with NG1 it being one my first NES games which i still own. 2 and 3 I rented a lot as a kid and a teen. NG1 I could normally on a good run make it somewhere to Stage 5, and never had much luck fighting my way through Stage 6. NG2 I had gotten to the final 3 bosses a few times but never finished the game after spending a lot of time with it one Summer, with help from the awesome Nintendo Power guide. NG3 not so much due to its difficulty, hard to find, and limited continues compared to its Japanese counterpart. So this is gonna be a fun time seeing how much i can remember with these! The mini-review will be of all 3 games combined, if I play and decide to review one of these on its own, parts of the mini-review will be incorporated into the full review.

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Mega Man Derusting: Mega Man 2 (NES)

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So I have a long history with the Mega Man games growing up. I came up with the Mega Man Derusting series to do such a task. The goal is to play and finish the Mega Man classic series along with most of the X series and some other Mega Man titles. I still have some of my Mega Man and X carts and discs and hadn’t really played them in years but I wanted to share my adventures on stream of relearning my way through the classic titles, and in some cases finish the later games to completion! 

THE REVIEW: Mega Man 2 is actually the best selling Mega Man game of the series by Capcom. Released in 1988 in Japan and then in 1989 in North America, MM2 takes place a year after the events of the first game. Dr Wily is on a mission to take over the world and get revenge on Mega Man and this time built his own 8 Robot masters for his plans. Like the first game and many more after it, each lair of the Robot master is a reflection of their powers and each one will tax your gameplaying to the limit as you learn new tricks to avoid enemies and obstacles. Defeating a Robot master gains his special weapon which you can use on other bosses and to get you through stages. Defeating certain Robot Masters will gain you special items for flying across places and for getting to higher ledges. Defeating the 8 will open up Wily’s Castle where you’ll fight through many stages and fight incredible bosses before a rematch with the mad doctor himself twice. new additions to MM2 in this game became staples to the series in later editions such as new graphics for weapon energy and your own energy, energy tanks and a password system to resume where you left off later.

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