Game:

Mega Man Maverick Hunter X (2005)

Duration: 7:12

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11

-Hard mode
-Minimalist (no boss weapons, no dash, no upgrades)
-No damage
-No stage hazard reduction

We've finally put the trivial stuff aside and managed to get to the part where the game tells you that you better use all the means you have. I honestly can't imagine another reason for putting 5 fucking turtles in a row other than to entice you to nuke these guys with Storm Tornado or Fire Wave. Of course, this isn't a thing in this run, and it turns the stage into the most difficult one so far.

The section up to Launch Octopus is cake for one exception. The turtles are melon fodder and only serve the purpose of tiring your thumb. The seahorse enemies are even less of a threat than when we first met them, and even though the miniboss seems troublesome with only that little platform in the middle, he really isn't due to his tame moves. The one thing that is dangerous is the little squad of fat fish afterwards. Once again, it looks complicated and trying to shoot your way through will make things overly annoying. If you want to get through in one swoop without firing a single shot, you first need to wait a tiny moment before jumping off of the first platform to lure the fish. I just ran off a bit of the platform and used a wall jump since it matches the timing pretty well, but the time frame you have isn't huge. If you take too long, the upper fish will start sucking you in and you can basically try again. The final two fish can - again, wtf? - be simply jumped over.

Launch Octopus is still the same dude as before who isn't really that big of a deal. Although you can't lock him into the spinning move since he can still use his homing fish, he opted for the least threatening option here anyway. The segment following is troublesome though, and this is no doubt one of the most fucked ones that minimalist X has to face in the game. I won't go into detail, but improvisation isn't a good idea here - every single situation here was memorized. You generally don't have too much room to go about, there's enemies at almost every corner and in ass combinations, the vertical nature demands wall jumping which makes everything a bit extra crazy, and a lot of precision is needed to get through here unharmed. Often, it's best to lure the green guys and just jump past them to avoid things to get stupid. Overall, after a good amount of practice, the segment is perfectly doable without taking hits and not too bad, but with how careful you need to space yourself during some jumps, it will still take some of your attempts.

And I'm ashamed to say this, I can't even explain it, but Kuwanger stole way too many takes. I guess I often lost my focus when I got to him after all that has happened before, though it's still no real excuse, given how easy this guy usually is. Anyway, the section following him is easy, and Bosspider, Bosspider, does whatever a Bosspider does. The attempt I finally managed to take down Kuwanger was the same I beat Bosspider - concerning its difficulty, that's pretty telling if you ask me...

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