Game:

Mega Man X (1993)

Duration: 3:22

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132

Now we get into the reason why I had certain stages come rather far in advance from the others. One of them was Spark Mandrill's stage, because as you will see things are a little different this time around.

It took me a really long time to put the connection together myself, because honestly I never took much interest in the particulars of what it was (besides that it looked weird, never mind the fact that I'd actually seen it before then!), but the reason why this stage is experiencing some technical difficulties is because the Death Rogumer has crashed into it.

That is, as I'd mentioned briefly before now, the airship from the Central Highway attack led by Vile and the location where X and Storm Eagle fought (and thoroughly destroyed) is none other than the same source as the colorful rubble you see at the entrance. And yes, for the record, I never drew any connection between the oddly colorful and out-of-place bits of wreckage and the precise cause-and-effect of what puts it there. (Heck, I already admitted I didn't even recognize it as being one and the same in both its appearances while it was still functional!)

See? Playing the stages outside a specific order is more educational than I had originally thought!

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Spark Mandrill stage
(a.k.a "Power Plant Stage" and "Electromagnetic Power Plant")
Hidden upgrades:
-Sub Tank (requires Boomerang Cutter)
-Heart Tank

The ladder-infested early sections of the stage actually proves to be much less complex than it seems... particularly if you're only interested in the fact that the low road is entirely a dead end, except that there's a Sub Tank visible on the other side of a wall, just sitting there and taunting you. You can venture further along the path, just to hit an even more imposing wall offering nothing to tempt you with, thus forcing you to go back the way you came.

Of course, we came prepared (as in we beat up a bunch of Mavericks and took their toys), so we have the Boomerang Cutter, which is actually one of the weapons less useful as an actual weapon and more interesting for its utilitarian capabilities. It will fly out a short distance from X when fired, then arc back around and return to him. This arc is upwards when he's on the ground and downwards when he's in the air or clinging to a wall. If a cutter intercepts a pickup along its flight path, it will snag it and bring it back to your eagerly-awaiting hands.

This usually means simple life and weapon energy collection, but it's also more than capable of grabbing hold of Sub Tanks and Heart Tanks for you, making it necessary for the collection of all the goodies you crave.

I'm sure you'll notice that besides the cosmetic destruction of the stage's entryway, there's a rather distinct energy shortage around here. Pesky sparks running through the floors are now gone, the lights are far more flickery than before, small things like that. Apparently this doesn't affect any OTHER areas, but you'd think that the destruction of a city's major power production facilities might have an impact... but whatever.

As noted in Launch Octopus's stage, minibosses will still be present to take you on again if you should revisit their old haunts, and Thunder Slimer is no exception. Unfortunately, it also seems to have been hit hard by the rolling blackouts, and its majorly annoying electrical discharge attacks have been completely removed. After all, it plugs in, but it can't seem to suck out enough juice to get anything in terms of output. Poor thing! And, of course, I've got the dash upgrade and some overpowered options to use to neutralize its sticky drippings, so trying to avoid its other attacks is made much simpler. (But it's still hardly a triviality.)

The other item to turn out watchful eyes upon and seek to collect for our own enjoyment is the stage's Heart Tank, which is on a little ledge just out of sight and just out of reach for unupgraded X. Actually, it seems that the designers are constantly underestimating X's natural abilities to navigate with his handy wall-clinging capabilities, so I'm pretty sure you can get to it without the ability to dash as it's hardly an extreme stretch of the imagination... but at the same time, it's an exceedingly demanding jump to make, and I wouldn't personally recommend it anyway. (Besides, the upgrade is handy for so much more than just this!)

In the remake, the ledge is actually lengthened and Boomerang Cutters were tweaked slightly so as to make them alternate between flying down and up whilst airborne. That said, I'm still fairly sure that you could probably make a crazy dashing wall-jump to reach the lip of that edge anyway. (Never underestimate the twitchy tenacity of some players or the crazy moves that tool-assisted runs can achieve, pushing X well past his "intended" limits.)

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