NES Challenge - Mega Man in 1:07:42 [164/714]
1One of my favorite games growing up. Picked up a used boxed copy at a video store and have had plenty of offers for it which I won't take. I still remember my childhood impression of the game - finally your character picks up one of the enemies weapons and uses it against them.
What to say about the original Mega Man that hasn't been said. Amazing graphics, sound, gameplay, stage select, infinite continues. Everything you needed to enjoy, gain confidence, and grow in your skill of the game. I was clearly out of practice as I used to beat this in about 40 minutes. I never used the speedrunning tricks available, just smooth gameplay and no deaths. That said, the Foot Holders (flying platforms) gave me incredible difficulty. This was an area that never really gave me any problems without the magnet beam - frankly this was my first attempt using it as the platforms were just natural and I saw this was one of the speedrunning tactics used so I gave it a whirl. The best I can figure for my first death was the platform fired at the same moment I landed on it and detected it as a hit. I do remember these giving me a bit of a headache in the Wily stage as every so often one would close in on the ceiling with no real escape to jump to the next platform.
Anyhoo, one of the tricks I'm sure many will want to know about is how to handle the Yellow Devil. Only the bottom 2 rows can hit you so you need to stay calm and just do small jumps over them. After the first 3 lower jumps, you need to make a long jump on the 4th to clear the next piece that comes your way. Rewatch that section of the video and just count where each piece is and you will see those 2 pieces are consecutive.
Looking back I know there are some things I didn't get to demonstrate or show off. The moonwalking on Ice Man is always worth a grin. I surprisingly didn't have a single Gutsman block glitch - Not sure what triggers it - maybe a single frame grab, but you can grab a brick but a copy will remain in its spot so you may grab it multiple times. I believe you can wipe out the Bubble Boss on Wily stage using this trick.
To wrap up, this is a personal Top 10 game for me, but I would place it in the Top 30 overall - Mega Man 2 is better in every aspect, but this one was first and did an outstanding job. To those who say it sucks/worst in the series - NEVER trash the classics. Without MM1, you don't get MM2 or the 30 or so games to follow. This was the blueprint and foundation for everything to come - if it truly sucked, the franchise would have never happened. With that, pick it up again and give it try. I think I have outlined how to get through all the tricky parts and any strategy you would need.