Mega Man Annihilation - Part 6: Hornet Man (Superhero Mode, No Damage, Buster-Only, No Miss)
12I know it's been a long time since I uploaded one of these challenge runs, but this one has been in my upload queue for some time now, but I never got around to uploading it until now. Besides, I've been busy with other stuff lately.
Rules of the challenge: Beat the Mega Man robot master stages without:
1. Taking damage.
2. Using anything except the Mega Buster.
3. Missing a shot.
This time we're taking down Hornet Man from Mega Man 9. This one took more attempts than Yoku Man did, but he doesn't get as high a rating because there are only a couple main trouble spots here while Yoku Man is just tough throughout.
This is a stage that forces you to break either the Buster-Only rule or the No Miss rule in order to advance in the stage. As AltimaMantoid put it, if bouncing a shot off of something is required as part of the mechanic to kill an enemy or get past an obstacle, then it is allowed, otherwise it counts as a miss. This stage has two obstacles where this is required: the roll-out platforms and the destructible floors where you have to bounce a shot off a ball dispenser to make it shoot out the floor beneath you. Nico demonstrated in his run that you can also use Rush to get past the roll-out platforms, but I prefer sticking to Buster-Only whenever possible.
By far the main trouble spot is the flower miniboss. More than half of my fails in the stage were against that thing. He randomly appears in different spots in the clock-shaped arena, and it is completely possible for him to appear right on the platform you're jumping to, or appear directly in front of you while the clock hand is right behind you, making it impossible to avoid getting hit.
Hornet Man himself is pretty tricky too. Getting the pattern started is the hardest part because his first swarm will move out farther on the first pass than the others, going all the way to the edge of the elevated platform. Timing is everything in dodging the bees. If you jump away too early, the bees will sting you on the second pass, and if you're too slow on avoiding the third pass, Hornet Man himself will charge into you. It can be really easy to mess it up.
Also, an announcement. Some of you who have been following this challenge series have told me I should record commentary for these videos, and I just got a new headset a few weeks ago, so I'm finally able to provide, once I can figure out how to record my voice.