When playing a game, the main question is, "How do I want to have fun this time?"
This question is particularly acute with Mega Man games. Often, you can take the easiest route to victory and end up just getting bored (if you're good enough that is). This is why I no longer start off with Metal Man anymore. His weapon can attack in any direction and is almost impossible to run out of - and too many of the monsters have low HP to make the slightly lower damage it does a serious disadvantage. It's too good, and can be acquired too easily. I mean, here you are throwing rotary saws around! That's got to hurt.
While I don't want to kick ass and take names too easily, I do want to take a weapon that I will actually end up using, thus lending variety to the game. So I can't start off with Flash Man, unless I intend to go to Quick Man immediately thereafter. Similarly, I won't go for Bubble Man first either.
This leaves Wood Man, Air Man, Heat Man, Crash Man, and Quick Man. All of their levels (except Quick Man's) become much harder without the use of Metal Blades. However, Crash Man's level becomes ludicrously easy if I have the Wood Shield, so I will do that before Wood Man... You can see how this goes.
Mega Man hardly needs its difficulty switch (until the last stages) because you have so much control over how difficult the game will be. Even so, I appreciate its inclusion. The entire game has had a lot of thought put into it, and it is still barrels of fun.
Random tips:
- To fight Metal Man most effectively, shoot once, then jump to dodge his blades... then shoot at ground level. If he was still in the air when you shot, then he won't dodge your last two shots. Another tactic is to trigger his jump by shooting, then shoot at random heights.
- To fight Heat Man most effectively, shoot him at point blank range as soon as he comes out of his fire shield. It will spring up around him again. Take this time to retreat to a point where you can react to his charge in time. The first shot, use your P-cannon so it gets there fast. After that, you can use bubble.
- To defeat Quick Man easily, shoot a crash bomb into the wall and stand in it. It will damage him repeatedly, and if you came in with at least 3/4 health you'll be fine. You can even survive with 2/3 if you're lucky with the timing of his jumps.
- To defeat Bubble Man, stand under where he is slowly descending and shoot up with Metal Blades. Ouch.
- Air Man, though vulnerable to Wood, is easier to hit with the P-cannon. Until, that is, he jumps over to your side of the room. Nail him then.
- To defeat the turret room without dying, you must NOT destroy any walls that you can get around any other way. Bring in fully charged Crash AND Item-1 AND Item-3. Your first target is the central turret, since it is the hardest to dodge. From there I usually move on to the bottom right, then upper right (again, order of difficulty of dodging). After that, the order should be obvious.
- An insane cheat on the turrets: when the bullets are about to hit you, pause and unpause the game as fast as possible. Mega Man does not take damage while he is warping in or out.
- To defeat the first Wily-form, use a fully charged Atomic Fire blast. Instant kill! (difficult mode takes another shot) Since charging up doesn't require aiming, you can spend your energy dodging the loopy bullets he is shooting at you.
- The final Wily-form does insane amounts of damage to you if you come in contact with him. The bullets are nasty too. How do you deal with this? Dodge until you see how his pattern has unfolded. He (or rather, his illusionary apple-core) will fly around in a steep figure eight. The only difference is the points in the cycle in which he shoots. Which side of his figure eight does not involve getting shot at? Possibly you have the freedom to use both sides. Usually you only get one side. When you do attack, there are two ways to avoid touching him:
- You can line yourself up so that he will swing up rather than into you. This is hard, what with the flying starfield.
- You can attack him from the rear. This will keep you from getting to the other side quickly enough to attack him on both sides. However, I usually find this method the best.
Easter Egg: press the A button while selecting a level (the stars turn to birdies).