Mega Man (Rockman) is a game that needs no introduction. As many of you know it's been TASed over and over and over. I've always wanted to see a buster only run of it, so I went ahead and made one.
This Run:
-Takes No damage
-Uses Primary weapon
-Does not abuse game-breaking glitches
This run only uses the mega buster, except for 5 spots where you are required to use other weapons. These places are:
-Elec Man's Stage, Guts Blocks where you get the Magnet Beam (Super Arm).
-Wily Stage 1, Guts Blocks at the beginning and in the middle of the stage (Elec Beam). There's also some great heights right before the Yellow Devil (Magnet Beam)
-Wily Stage 4, Guts Blocks near the beginning.
I didn't use any game breaking glitches such as the pause trick or any wall zipping. The only glitch used was making a flea disappear in Fire Man's stage because I couldn't jump over or dodge it. I changed up the order of bosses since it's buster only and the order doesn't matter as long as I beat Guts Man before Elec Man. The Order is Cut>Ice>Fire>Bomb>Guts>Elec>Wily.
Cut Man - Easy stage, easy boss. No gripes or hardships
Ice Man - The popping blocks aren't trouble, but the moving platforms are kind of sparatic. I tried to get them to move along as quickly as possible. Ice Man only takes 1 damage from the buster, but his post-hit invincibility isn't very long so he dies rather quickly.
Fire Man - The only thing that slows this stage is waiting for the fire bars. I also made a flea disappear to ensure I wouldn't take damage from it. Fire Man falls into a very basic pattern during the fight. Just jump and shoot.
Bomb Man - This stage is very basic. Manipulating Sniper Joes is always fun [/sarcasm], they dont give me that much trouble though. Bomb man just likes to hop around.
Guts Man - Short stage, but the Conveyor Belts without the magnet beams just drag on and on. The pick axe robots are also annoying. Guts Man dies quickly.
Elec Man - This is the stage where I use the Super Arm for the first time. Elec Man is very easy but takes a while.
Wily 1 - I use the Elec Beam two times and then the Magnet Beam at the end. Yellow Devil takes 2 and a half minutes because you can only land 1 shot at a time. Luckily he takes 2 damage per buster shot. I tried to spruce up the battle a bit but I'll admit though it's a little boring, I you feel like skipping it, I don't blame you.
Wily 2 - Cut and Elec refights are nothing new, a few (5) score pellets were picked up along the way because of bad enemy placement. It's faster than waiting for them to disappear. Copy Mega Man is too easy.
Wily 3 - The shortest stage. Each Bubble takes 10 shots. The faster they get, the more they have to come out of the top so no damage is taken. They appear depending on where you are standing in the room.
Wily 4 - The last place I have to destroy a Guts Block. Boss re-fights went well. They are a little off since I have to get back to the teleporters ASAP after the fight. Wily's first form is destroyed in a matter of seconds, form 2 can only be hit at the peak of Mega Man's jump so it's a little longer.
Noxxa: Claiming for judgment.
Noxxa: This run was largely not well received. There are multiple reasons behind this: first, its optimization level is visibly lacking in some areas. Bosses stop blinking, especially later on, luck manipulation could have been much better overall, and player movement is occasionally
suboptimal. In its current technical state, it has too much imprecision to be accepted.
However, the larger issue is the categorization itself. The run tries to achieve too many goals at the same time, which results in the run looking very bland. Any of the three individual categories (no-damage, buster-only and glitchless) on their own would likely have stood a better chance. A perfect run with weapons and glitches, a glitchless run with damage and weapons, a buster-only run with damage and glitches, or even just a perfect buster run with glitches would all likely make for a much more interesting movie. While the current run would be impressive for a real-time playthrough, as a TAS, it falls flat.
That said, if Rockman were to have a second category, the best candidate category would most likely be a Magnet Beam-less glitched run, as was suggested by
Nach. Such a run would require very different strategies in many places, yet retain much opportunity for glitching through areas in traditional Rockman style. The only downside is that such a run would be very advanced and difficult to make as it requires multiple uses of DelayStageClear and such glitches, like the currently published
Rockman TAS.
But for now, I'll have to reject this movie for poor viewer feedback and poor optimization.
