(Link to video)

Mega Man Xtreme 2 "Xtreme mode" in 27:06.62 by Noxxa

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: VBA-RR v23.5 svn394
  • Plays on hardest difficulty (Xtreme Mode)
  • Starts from SRAM (verification movie here)
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Manipulates luck
  • Takes damage to save time
Like FractalFusion's submission of Mega Man Xtreme, this run uses SRAM to unlock Xtreme mode. It has the same benefits here, allowing one to visit all stages of the game in one run, as well as the true final stage, boss rush and final boss battle. It also includes a tag mechanic, where the player can use both X and Zero and switch the characters in stages at will. (This mechanic would later be expanded upon in Mega Man X7 and on).
This game has two ways to unlock Xtreme mode. One is finishing both the X and Zero modes. The other way is collecting 3000 DNA souls in a playthrough, and then buying it for 2000 souls in the parts shop. While the former method would be shorter movie time-wise, it was easier and simpler for me to just construct a simple script to hoard DNA souls in Flame Mammoth's stage.

About the game

Mega Man Xtreme 2, like its predecessor game Mega Man Xtreme, pretty much copies content and bosses from the main line of Mega Man X games. While the first Xtreme title took its stage designs and bosses from just Mega Man X and Mega Man X2, Mega Man Xtreme 2 takes its stage designs and bosses from Mega Man X, Mega Man X2 as well as Mega Man X3, and also takes other elements from later Mega Man X titles including Mega Man X4 and Mega Man X5, such as a Parts shop, and the presence of Iris from Mega Man X4 (working as a navigator in this game).
Compared to the first Xtreme game, Mega Man Xtreme 2 does have more original content, though. It has an improved story (although it's still rather shallow) and unique fortress bosses (with the exception of Velguarder, Sigma's dog, who was taken from Mega Man X for the first fortress stage, and Sigma's first form which is taken from Mega Man X2) and it has mostly new stage designs that are not so much ripped straight from the SNES games. In fact, Neon Tiger and Blast Hornet's stages have more in common with Sting Chameleon and Storm Eagle's stages, respectively.
The most significant addition compared to either the SNES games or the first Xtreme game is that Zero is a fully playable character here for all our slashing needs. He plays a bit like Zero out of Mega Man Zero, but has animations like those from X4/X5 and X6. Zero can gain weapons from bosses like X can, including an obligatory uppercut slash and drill stab, but also other, more different moves such as a variant of Mega Man X's charged Fire Wave and boss moves like Wire Sponge's Lightning attack and Launch Octopus' homing fish attack. Just plain old slashing with the Z-Saber typically remains the most efficient tool, though.
The game has a Parts system like in Mega Man X5 and Mega Man X6, although it doesn't really have a lot of upgrades, much less useful ones. The only really useful ones, that are used in this speedrun, are the Buster +1 and +2 parts for X and Saber +1 and +2 for Zero. Stacking both upgrades for each character causes a significant damage boost for both characters, which saves a lot of time on boss fights.
Other than that, the gameplay of Mega Man Xtreme 2 is very similar to the first Xtreme game. It has similar pacing and glitching.

Stage by stage comments

Intro stage

I switch to Zero at a high point so the switch animation takes as little time as possible, and do the switch before the intro cutscene (triggered by destroying the chain enemy) so that I take Zero's path, which is faster than X's path.

Flame Mammoth

Mostly straightforward stage. The big fireballs that come from below instantly kill in Xtreme Mode, so I had to take some care in getting past them.

Tunnel Rhino

Also quite straightforward. The ascension part was done by Guga up until the Ride Armor. The Ride armor is needed to break through one of the floors.

Wire Sponge

Not much to say here. Wire Sponge dies very quickly to Fire Wave (it does 6 damage to him). Annoyingly, Fire Wave has a tendency to cause lag.

Overdrive Ostrich

Autoscroller time! The fixed time sections with the Ride Chaser allow for a lot of room for luck manipulation, which is convenient because I need a bunch of DNA Souls before the end of this stage. Guga did the first Ride Chaser section, including the luck manipulation needed for that one.
In the middle section, the player is blocked many times by sand tornado devices in the way, which are instant kills. For all but one of them, though, I manage to take damage from some enemy beforehand so I can pass through the sand tornados.

Neon Tiger

Quickly into the stage, I switch to X (again at the highest height possible). X has the convenient ability to shoot things from a distance, which makes it easier to destroy enemies that are in the way without losing any time.
I have to take the Ride Armor near the end, because it's impossible to make some of the jumps over the spikes otherwise.

Launch Octopus

While underwater, it's possible to maintain above-water dash speeds by hopping off the ground at the first frame possible each jump. (This is used everywhere throughout the run, by the way, as one of the fastest/most convenient forms of movement for shorter ranges - but here it makes a significant impact on speed). I maintain this velocity throughout most of the stage until I need to enter some stairs. There are two routes here, but the other one involves fighting another miniboss, so this route turned out significantly faster.
The sucking fish are quite annoying, as they slow me down considerably (both horizontal speed and vertical speed) whenever I'm in range (though dash speed is still maintained after defeating them). I defeat them as soon as possible to minimize the slowdown.
Launch Octopus is defeated handily by utilizing Ray Claw, which cuts off his arms and leaves him vulnerable for a very long period of time - enough to destroy him completely while he's helpless.

Volt Catfish

There are many doors here because this stage has a flood mechanic, with water floods that either push you back or instantly kill you. However, only one flood appears in the run, because I'm too fast for the other floods to appear.

Blast Hornet

The first half of the stage is rather straightforward. There are a lot of annoying flies that tend to get in the way. On one occasion, I switch to Tri-Thunder just to destroy them more effectively (and reducing lag in the process). The turrets miniboss is quite simple. I manipulate for the two turrets on the left wall to become vulnerable first, and destroy the top one first while falling down to the second and destroying that one, then repeat on the right side.

Sigma Stage 1

Straightforward stage. Velguarder takes a bit less damage from the X-Buster than most other bosses, but it does still enough to tie with anything Zero has.

Sigma Stage 2

Near the start, I need to make the moving platform move a little bit so I can reach far enough to take damage from the bat up ahead, then use mercy invincibility to cross the gap without wasting further time with the moving platform. Later on, I switch to Bomb Bee because its icon is closest to the switch button in the pause menu. I switch to Zero again as high as possible, without wasting time, for a section that needs Zero's air dash to cross quickly, without needing to wait for the moving platforms.
Near the end, I take a small yellow Soul because I needed the extra HP for the boss, and to get enough souls for Saber+2 after this stage.
Isaz & Sowilo is one of the hardest bosses in the game (which says something). They move forward, covering most of the screen, do a lot of damage, and their shots cover even more of the screen. Fortunately, they can be defeated very quickly since each of them take damage/invincibility separately.

Sigma Stage 3

I apply Saber+2 right at the start. Zero can now do some massive damage with his standard Z-Saber attacks. Shortly into the stage, there's a cutscene, after which you're transported to a different stage depending on which character you're playing as. X would get to Berkana's stage, but I can't finish Berkana's stage because X doesn't have the airdash (yes, this is similar to Mega Man X6).
Gareth dies ridiculously quickly because he has an invincibility trick, which renders him vulnerable immediately after being hit by his own spear. This allows me to pile up damage very quickly on him.

Sigma Stage 4

Time for some standard Mega Man (X) features to come back: the main antagonist (Sigma) and the traditional boss rush. The eight bosses die very quickly to being slashed to bits. Sigma dies even faster, but his pattern requires I take a hit in the mean time.
His second form has an interesting feature, however. His gold and blue forms can only be hit by X, and his red form only by Zero. Unfortunately, X is so useless that it's not even worth trying to damage Sigma with it, and I just wait while Sigma does his attacks before switching to his red form. I luck manipulate here for Sigma to attack optimally, doing the fastest attacks in his gold form, and staying stationary and hittable in his red form. I need to hit his red form three times for him to become vulnerable, before actually being able to hit him. I need to repeat this process four times total.
After Sigma dies, the ending, credits, and bonus game unlock cutscenes appear. I skip all three of them. (These, along with the pre-game intro cutscene, are the only cutscenes that can be skipped).

Other comments

Recommended screenshot:

Thanks to Guga for constant support and motivation, and helping along on a few sections (most importantly, luck manipulation in some parts of Overdrive Ostrich's stage).
Thanks to everyone else who supported me, both in the thread, and in the IRC chat listening to my rambles of everything that was wrong in the game and/or hindered me during the making of the TAS.
And thanks to you for watching my movie and/or reading this text!

Nach: Accepting.
feos: Set to publication underway.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #3812: Noxxa's GBC Mega Man Xtreme 2 "Xtreme Mode" in 27:06.62
Editor, Skilled player (1936)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3239
This TAS is nice. Better than my Mega Man Xtreme TAS, in my opinion. It definitely helps that there is a switch-weapon button. I thought at first it would be essentially another Mega Man Zero TAS, but it looks like X found some use here. Which is a good thing. Anyway, I'll vote yes for Moon+. By the way, be aware that, because of a rerecord count bug in some versions of VBA, the rerecord count may be inflated. It is still a huge effort from Mothrayas (and Guga); I can hardly see myself doing a TAS project using over 60K rerecords.
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Why, tasblend, why??! Oh, my eyes!!
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Editor, Skilled player (1402)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2081
Wholly enjoyable movie, fast and fluid, and with less of the sound channel muting the mega buster charging does that made my cry so very much in MMXt1. Yes vote.
Sir_VG
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Joined: 10/9/2004
Posts: 1911
Location: Floating Tower
For being a GBC game, the graphics and sound are pretty impressive. Game looked well played. I found it interesting that some of the backgrounds late are taken from X4, including the Sigma battle room. YES vote.
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
mklip2001
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Posts: 2224
Location: Georgia, USA
Feos: I actually rather liked this version of TASBlend. Nice job with the encode, Mothrayas. Anyway, about the run, this was pretty fun. The game feels even faster than Xtreme, probably because the load points no longer stop you to say "Auto-Save". Things look pretty fluid. Boss fights looked like an utter joke once you had the +2 weapon upgrades. This game does raise some silly questions. Why do DNA souls look like Honeycombs? Why does Volt Catfish's stage have so many doors? What in the world are Gareth and Berkana, and why are their plotlines so vapid? Is now the time to destroyed? More seriously, I'd love to see an explanation of the glitches and some description of how the route was chosen. I'm also curious if it's possible to take a route that fights Berkana instead of Gareth. I vote for Moon+.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Noxxa
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mklip2001 wrote:
Why does Volt Catfish's stage have so many doors?
It's because of the flood system throughout the stage, though it isn't really visible because I go through most flood sections too quick for the floods to appear.
mklip2001 wrote:
Is now the time to destroyed?
Heh, the game has a few juicy bits of Engrish throughout the game. The funniest one though is in the game intro (which is skipped in the run). Apparently the game takes place in the Reploid Research Lavatory. ...yeah.
mklip2001 wrote:
More seriously, I'd love to see an explanation of the glitches and some description of how the route was chosen.
As for the route, I start off with the intro stage (duh), and get Zero's Saber+1. (Saber+1 costs 200 souls, but I get 200 from the intro boss, so this is no problem). This way, Zero is the most damaging character to bosses as he can do 4 damage with an airslash (killing them in 8 hits). I start off with Flame Mammoth and Tunnel Rhino, as those have a few quite useful weapons which also serve as weakness weapons to other bosses. Fire Wave does 6 damage to Wire Sponge, and Drill Crush does 5 damage against Wire Sponge (again), Overdrive Ostrich and Neon Tiger. So I do Wire Sponge and Overdrive Ostrich next. During all stages so far (particularly Overdrive Ostrich's stage, with the autoscrolling sections) I luck manipulate for many soul drops to appear, so that I have 1000 souls by the end of Ostrich's stage (I get 200 for every boss (800 total), and the other 200 souls are collected throughout the stage. 1000 Souls unlock Buster+2, so I buy Buster+1 and Buster+2 in the shop for 200 Souls each (leaving 600 souls). Now X is the most damaging character, as his X-Buster shots do 5 damage to bosses now. The next four bosses could be done in practically any order, but I figured to do the bosses with more useful weapons first. Ray Claw is useful for Launch Octopus, Marine Tornado is useful for Volt Catfish, and Tri-Thunder is useful for Blast Hornet. I stick with X throughout Sigma 1, as both characters do equal damage to Velguarder, but I switch to Zero in Sigma 2 because Isaz & Sowilo are weak to Drill Crush as well as being more useful during the last part of the stage. Also during these stages (from Neon Tiger to Sigma 2), I collect 200 souls, so I end up with 6*200 = 1200 souls from bosses, adding to 200 souls collected and 600 souls I already had to 2000 souls, which is just enough to unlock Zero's Saber+2. Now Zero is the most damaging again, with air slashes doing 6 damage to the standard eight bosses and even more to the fortress bosses (8 to Sigma and 9 to Gareth). So the rest of the run consists of Zero slashing everything in his way again. A brief rundown on the glitches:
  • Wall clipping - Most of the time (depending on positioning), moving into a wall causes X/Zero to clip into the wall for one frame, which allows them to ground-jump off them with no delay. This is used a lot throughout the run. Also very useful for dashjumping. I also use this sometimes for other actions, such as Zero's Fire Wave.
  • Rapid walljumping - like Xtreme 1, pressing A every 7 frames causes X/Zero to ascend walls quickly.
  • Hitbox abuse - quite simply, hitboxes are weird. Most notably, Zero's wall slash has a ridiculously tall hitbox, and it's possible to cancel the slash into an air slash while retaining the original hitboxes. Sometimes, I abuse those hitboxes to do hits that appear impossible.
  • Damage recoil cancel - like the SNES games, the recoil from taking damage can be cancelled by catching a wall.
  • Retaining above-water speed in water - by frame perfect jumps in the water, never walking or standing on the ground, I retain the speed I have before entering water. Used throughout most of Launch Octopus' stage.
  • Gareth invincibility glitch - Basically, he turns vulnerable again when he gets hit by a spear (which also damages him). Combined with Zero's upgrades, I manage to do 9+2+9 = 20 damage near-instantaneously.
Those are the most notable ones I can think of at the moment.
mklip2001 wrote:
I'm also curious if it's possible to take a route that fights Berkana instead of Gareth.
It's possible to go to Berkana by playing as X when the cutscene starts in the first section of Sigma Stage 3. However, I found out it was impossible to complete Berkana's stage within the scope of this run. X needs the airdash to go through one platform section of Berkana's stage, which I don't have. (Yes, Mega Man Xtreme 2 is about on the same level as X6. Without an airdash, X will just get stuck at some point where he'll have to kill himself on spikes)
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Brandon
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Very nice, watched the whole thing. Yes vote.
All the best, Brandon Evans
Rolanmen1
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Yes vote men, love to see some more megaman TASes :)
Joined: 11/24/2012
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It almost feels like X and Zero have more animated frames in that game than they do in the SNES games, that's kinda funny. Anyway, watched it, and got what I expected from a game like that: speed, accuracy, and boss rapes. Yes vote for me.
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Why is it starting from a Reset btw?
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Noxxa
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feos wrote:
Why is it starting from a Reset btw?
To start with SRAM for Xtreme Mode.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [2258] GBC Mega Man Xtreme 2 "Extreme mode" by Noxxa in 27:06.62
Joined: 6/30/2010
Posts: 1093
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
You just have to love the extremely nerdy publication text :)
Current project: Gex 3 any% Paused: Gex 64 any% There are no N64 emulators. Just SM64 emulators with hacky support for all the other games.
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I'm lazy at these. Copypasted until someone writes a custom one.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Joined: 5/19/2010
Posts: 259
Location: California
No game credits? How much more input (extra seconds) would that cost?
#3201
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
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The game restarts. I got no credits.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Noxxa
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I skip the credits. The second-to-last cutscene image I skip (with a portrait of X) is when the credits would have appeared. The final cutscene image (Iris) is about unlocking Boss Attack mode. After skipping that, the game resets.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.