What's happening to me? Whenever I think about him, I
get this funny feeling. Right.
See you later. I can't take my eyes off you for
a second, can I? Here we go.
Welcome to Remember 64. Where this week, man are we?
Mega welcome to this show, everyone.
My name is David Pitrangelo. This is Remember 64.
And what is this thing on my arm?
Why am I wearing this weird blue suit?
It seems like I'm ready to go to war, but I don't even have a
helmet on. Well, at least have this really
cool spiky hair. Feels like maybe I should have
some frosted tips. Let's go, 90s.
Oh wait, it's 2001. Jeez, I'm way too late for this.
Well if that little quip made any sense to you whatsoever, you
may have guessed that we are playing and chatting about Mega
Man 64 or as it's known on other consoles like the PlayStation
Mega Man Legends. That's right, we are digging
into this really weird anime style game for the late console
cycle release for the N64. This is Remember 64 everyone and
momentarily I will be joined by Danny from Retro Wars.
Once again this was the next game that popped up on the
spinning wheel of goodies for us to play.
We pick a random number on a number generator and then we
just match that up with the release dates and boom, here we
are, Mega Man 64. And because I usually forget
about this and the other sort of, you know, formats that I
have for Remember 64, I always forget to plug the Patreon page.
I always forget to ask people to rate Remember 64 on their
podcast app of choice. So this is my moment to shine
sort of speak. I Remember 64 can be found on
Patreon for support as a little as a dollar a month.
Anywhere between that and just a couple bucks more, you will be
able to get all episodes early on video and audio versions.
You'll be get some extra content as well that I'm going to be
working on and reviews and comments on games that are not.
And 64 related. All of that on Patreon and it
just helps the show continue to grow.
And a little couple extra bucks our way here as well for myself
and Jiggy look back. So always a great time.
And if you don't want to support the show monetarily or you
can't? Not a problem.
You can also give us a rating on your podcast app choice.
Of course. Apple and Spotify are the main
places to do that. And on top of that, tell your
friends, Send him a link. Let him know that the show is
out there. And you know what?
There's a lot of great nerds that grew up with this console
and this console life cycle and around this time.
So let's continue to grow the community and look back at games
like this, like Mega Man as well.
You can also find video versions of most of the episodes, nearly
all of them trying to catch up and get some more up there at
our YouTube channel, Remember 64 on YouTube, so check that out.
And lots of extra content as well, including some menu music
to chill to, little bit of tunes to kind of pop in your ear as
you fall asleep at night. Trying to find some cool menu
music out there on the N64 that is not so bombastic and just
sort of chill to listen to. You can put on in the
background, stuff like that. Also gameplay video as well for
games like this and many others, so you can check those out.
Some of my gameplay out there for almost all of the games that
we've had recently and you can just laugh at how terrible I am
at a lot of these, but that's pretty much it.
Remember 64 out there on your podcast feed?
Tell your friends, give us a rating, support us on Patreon,
check us out on YouTube, and remember 64 show across social
media as well. So where do we begin with Mega
Man 64? That is the question.
Essentially what this comes down to is this is a game that came
out over three years after its initial release on the
PlayStation and just a couple of years after the Japan release.
And I don't even know where to start with this.
You'll definitely hear Danny and I speak about this in a couple
of moments here, but I just will tell you that it's definitely an
interesting game and we're going to dig right into it.
So you know what? I'm not going to beat around the
Bush. Let's jump into it, everybody.
Let's play and talk about Mega Man 64.
You. Will save us Mega Man.
Join him on his alternate quest in 3D.
You are his friends. Who are his enemies?
Danger ducks around every corner.
Mega Man uses also firepower to battle diabolical forces.
Amazing home stop blasting action.
Who can save the cities from destruction.
Don't call a plumber, it's all in a day's work for Mega Man.
Let's do it now. I remember at the time when we
did the Wheel and I was like, Oh no, because it looks shit.
The first screenshot, I was like, this looks terrible.
And then played it, completed it, followed a guide and then
you find out. I found out very quickly.
Hang on, this actually is not Mega Man 64 a new game, it's
Mega Man Legends that came out for the PlayStation One.
It's just a port of it. I had no.
I had no idea. I I've seen.
I think what I what it is, is that I just assumed it was the
exact same game that came out at the exact same time because I
recognized the cover as a kid. I never played this game on
either of these consoles and I didn't really know much about
it. Not gonna lie.
I kind of went in and thinking, oh it's Mega Man.
I know it's 3D, that much I knew.
But one of one of my earliest memories of this game is seeing
it on the shelf at whatever store I was in around that time
to purchase games for 64 or rent them or whatever.
The price tag on this thing at that time when this game was out
was, I think it was 80 or $90.00 for the cartridge.
Wow. Which, you know, sometimes,
yeah, sometimes that comes into play with like imports and
things like. I don't know if that had
anything to do with it, but I just remember thinking like I
already am. So, so on Mega Man games, I'm
not just going to give this a shot.
I should rent it, if anything. And then I never got around to
it. So this was my first time
playing it. Was it for you?
Is this your first time going through it?
Yeah, my first time playing it, because I'm not.
I've never been a big Mega Man fan, and it's just because it
wasn't. They weren't on my radar.
Like the only games I played before were for the show were
Mega Man X and Mega Man Battle Network.
They were the only Mega Man games that played.
So this was the 3rd, 10. And as I, as I found out very
quickly, this is like another world where you've got Mega Man,
the NES games, then you've got the X series which runs the
Super Nintendo, the legend there.
So the network series is it's own world as well, and Legends
is it's own world. So then there's four different
actual dimensions and timelines of Mega Man.
So this is completely different. Yeah, it was a bit of AI, wasn't
it? Wasn't.
I wasn't. I don't know what I was
expecting, but it doesn't follow any of the actual previous games
at all. No Robot Masters, none of that.
It's complete. It's an RPG, which, like I
wasn't used to this. I wasn't ready for that.
That's I I I didn't really think it was like going in and that it
would be that would have RPG elements.
I just assumed like, oh, they'll take the controls and you know,
some of the some of the baddies and enemies and stuff like that,
and you'll sort of just play it in more of a 3D play.
And it's, I mean, honestly, this is to me based on the character
models, based on the world a little bit the story, you know,
just the way things are presented and stuff.
This is like a Mega Man anime game.
That's what it felt like. That's it's a really real anime.
Yeah and and it looks like that some of the some of the the
voice acting is kind of like that.
I know it's sort of hard to sort of translate things sometimes
the voice acting is very hit and miss depending on what scene
you're doing and stuff, but it felt like that.
So I I actually like the fact that it felt like it was that
like an anime, which is not generally my thing, but like an
anime style come to life, which you know, it's not smooth edges
'cause it's a 64. It doesn't look fantastic, but
just the fact that they did that, I was like, OK, I kind of
get what they're doing with this direction and I appreciated that
part of it. It's it's things that come after
or added on to the presentation that I'm like so, so with but
yeah. There's a lot of there's bitchy,
there's mostly, yeah, this is the thing.
This game is. So they came out as legends on
the PlayStation? Yeah, And that was three to four
years prior to this game coming out.
So crazy. That's that's naughty.
That is literally a huge cash grab.
And when you think of it, let's look at, you know, time wise.
So Legends came out on the PlayStation before Majora's
Mask. Sorry.
Before or Karina of time. OK, so we we talk, we'll talk
about the camera, the the movement, the targeting.
This is before or Karina of time.
Mega Man 64 came out after Majora's Mask, after the
PlayStation Two had just been released.
It's it doesn't. It doesn't add up.
It just does not add up. It's a very shitty cash grab,
very shitty cash grab. But.
What's what's interesting with that as well is that maybe it
is, but I also find it hard to believe that they were really
that sure that this many people were going to buy and play this
game. It just doesn't.
It doesn't sell or it doesn't scream.
Hey, this is Mega Man as much as what I am familiar with, which
is the first three to four and the X series.
And no, I'm not very good at them.
Like to me Mega Man is Mega Man XX2 and and the first few, which
are the ones that I always played growing up or at least
tried to play because I suck at them.
To me this doesn't, it's just just the cover alone.
It's like, hey, it's Mega Man and he doesn't have his helmet
on. It's like this is just some kid
in a blue. Suit.
It's the thing that the use of the box art.
He doesn't have it. It's just him like turned in a
3D mode. The box art's fucking dreadful.
It looks disgusting. It's brutal.
It's boring. It's boring.
It's it's 100% boring. That could be one of the
reasons. When I when I mentioned that
story before of me seeing it on the shelf, it was just like,
well yeah, I can look at a couple of the screenshots on the
back or I can look at it maybe a Nintendo Power or Game Pro or
like maybe I could see like screenshot.
But I'm not going to seek out and maybe like grab this game
off the off the blockbuster shelf for example, to even rent
if it just looks like, I, I don't know some some kid with
spiky hair. Like it just doesn't.
It doesn't sell it very well. And I know that's not the only
reason why this may not be as much of a cash grab as as I may
assume it is. But it also just doesn't.
It just doesn't sell itself well even to start.
So if you were to rent this game, I don't know that those
first few hours or couple hours would have gotten me to grab
onto it and be like, oh hell yeah, I am in.
I have to rent this again next weekend.
Well, it's in the Japanese box art is at least decent.
It's a bit of a cartoony thing, like.
Oh, I didn't even look at that. I'm going to look at.
I'm going to look at that now. Have a look at the Japanese.
1:00 is way better. Like, put that on.
Often they are. You want to sell this game as an
anime game? Use the Japanese box art and
you. I would have been more
interested. Oh, it's way better.
Yeah, it looks, it looks, you're right.
It looks like you like a sort of thumbnail that you'd see on on,
you know a streaming service nowadays for an anime for
example. Like it's it's right there.
It looks great. There we go, see way better and
oh, it's just it's terrible. Like, OK, let it is basically
Mega Man with anime. That's it.
I suppose you should talk about the plot, because there is a
plot. And it's a bit more.
Detailed than it is, most Mega Man games don't really have like
a bear. Those plot this thing full
again, full blown anime. So basically the world's been
flooded and now society is kind of stabilized and it's like
Waterworld. We're basically Waterworld.
What's the Zelda? You know The Wind Waker?
Oh, Wind Waker. The situation.
We're in, yeah. So society's now resolved
itself, but basically the world's fucked.
So I imagine billions died. And basically they have these
people who dig to find these things called refractors, and
you're part of this team of diggers.
And the whole point is that someone you know is basically
hoping that there's a legend of the mother lode the year, which
will provide endless energy. And you as a dig as part of a
Digger team are trying to find these refractors like energy
calls to make money. And you're partnered with Roll
and her grandpa. And that's the plot, basically,
to begin with, until you crash on an island, your ship, the
flutter falls on an island called Catalogue.
And it basically starts off with we better just help get our
stuff sorted and get our ship sorted.
And then you, you land on this island and you realize, hey,
God, considering the world's meant to be pretty fucked, this
catalogue island's doing pretty well.
It's like a whole city. It's like everyone seems fine.
Oh, it's a it's like a whole full on civilization thing.
They got a mall, they got streets, they got everything's
good. It doesn't seem all that bad.
They got a nice forest like it doesn't seem too bad.
They've got a government, they've got everything.
They've got a government, yeah. They've got like governments.
You can play mini games where you could kick a dog and why.
We'll get into that. You can kick a dog and basically
then divulges into the islands going to get destroyed.
It's like, whoa. And it's going to be purged.
Holy shit, this jumped up a notch.
And yeah, pure anime. And it's, it's, it really is.
And I didn't mind that. I was like, great, give me
something to sink my teeth into. I thought the plot was okay.
It was okay. That's fine.
I agree. I actually think, like to me, I
mean, you've played the Battle Network games.
I think those have a little bit of a story to him.
I don't know. I've never played them.
But for me Mega Man is okay you're Mega Man you're there to
just take out these bosses and do these stages get your powers
and that's the game right? Totally fine.
I I'm good with that like I need like simplicity works for me
especially when they were out in the mid 90s and early 90s.
Great I I'm all for it. So I never really like I
expected there'd be some sort of story here and and they yeah
you're right they like they went for it and I think you know it
goes it goes some really wacky places which sort of plays into
the anime thing but to set it up I I I think it's pretty good.
I I think the getting off on the wrong foot kind of thing to me
is that there's not a whole lot to do with the gameplay when you
start but when the story starts and and starts ramping up and
take some turns here and there those things still kind of work
even if they were a little bit insane every once in a while.
So I agree and and I and I will say one of my favorite parts of
the story happens literally right off the bat and I think
it's even before you start the game.
But it's definitely when you start a new game is the way that
they read the the sort of story crawl at the beginning.
The person that reads that is just, I don't know they are
hamming it up like it is. I don't know if that's on
purpose or not. I mean I guess it they're
supposed to but man it is so goofy.
It's so funny. I loved it.
Yeah, if you want to go, what the fuck is this game?
Listen to the opening story crawl of the guy.
Whoever they decided to hire that they're coming for the
mother lode. In a world covered by endless
water, people are forced to eke out a living on the small
patches of land that remain above the sea.
However, over the years, the story of a fabulous treasure,
the legendary Mother Lode, began to be whispered among the
diggers. He's like, what the fuck?
It's like, you know what it is. It's like he's trying to tell a
story to a little kid and they can't find, they can't find the
book that that they're supposed to read that night before bed.
So he has to like, create the scene with all these voices and
all this different tone. And like, I was just like, I
could close my eyes and probably picture what this dude's trying
to say. It's hilarious.
Hope. Despair Charity.
Greed. Duty.
Power Who can? Say what truly motivates the
digger and the problem is, is like one of the huge problems
that this thing is all voice acted and we can.
I'll praise a lot of the voice acting, but on the N64 the audio
is dreadful. It's one of the worst I've ever
heard. So where's the PlayStation
version? I went and had to look.
The PlayStation version sounds nice and crisp.
You got that CD quality right. I this is what the N64 sounds
like. I have a cushion because my
chair is shit. Behind me is my Mega Man and his
plan are going to say shit. That's what it sounds like the
whole time. OK, Mega Man, I'm coming.
It's like thankful for text because it's so bad I I watch
it. Watch it, Mega Man.
Watch it. That's what it sounds like.
It's terrible. It's so bad.
And then you see on you go back to PlayStation versions just to
compare. You're like holy shit that
sounds amazing Massive 3 years later.
Yeah, yeah it it it, it just points to the limitations of the
cartridge right. And and why I think around this
time which is you know late 90s early 2000s and Nintendo just
kept banging their head against the wall with cartridges and the
only ones doing it. I I I mean obviously until the
game Cube but it's just it just shows you that like they they
they packed a decent amount into this game.
Like it is not a small game. There's there's a lot of
characters there's a lot of voice acting there is a decent
amount of it. It's like I would say 70% of
it's like voice acted which I fully appreciate for sure.
And and you know it's yeah it's not a short game and there's
decent amount of stuff going on in a lot of the scenes and stuff
but like yeah unfortunately the voice acting is is there but
it's it just yeah it sounds like they're talking through a pillow
just like you said. Absolutely.
And the N64 thing also struggles because like graphically, OK you
have to remember the time when this game came out.
I I give it a pass for Legends, but I don't give it a pass.
Then for N64, sorry for the Mega Man 64 because of the time
difference. So it it doesn't look that good.
Like when you consider it was the end of the N64 lifestyle,
it's got it's problems. Don't get me wrong.
I like how the characters they because they're anime esque,
they can have a lot of emotions on their face.
That's great. That's fine.
I agree. I agree.
The game itself looks very, very old.
It looks very of its time and again, as I said, if it was
legends, I'd give it the pass and you look, the buildings look
basic, the enemies look, the enemies look quite good.
Good designs, it's all clunky and squarey and stuff.
But when you play the the N64 version and you go through towns
and stuff to show how much the game can't manage, when you look
at things in the distance, it has that South Park approach
where there's like this white mist.
And when you basically go up to it, then the white mist
disappears. And I was like, fuck, that just
looks so shit. Then again, you go to the
PlayStation version and there's no white mist.
The footage, the footage I looked at, it's it's like
significantly less like every once in a while there is some
because it's just, it's part of sort of programming the game to
be able to handle you know, distance and all that.
So this whole like, fog, fog of war thing, like, I get why it's
there, but it it is just, it's so much like you can't see more
than probably 20 feet in front of your character at all times.
It's wild. It's.
So bad on the ends on the Mega Man 64 it's so bad, The fog of
war. It's barely there on the
PlayStation and it makes it such a better looking game.
And I was like sitting there going cursing, you going, you
fucker, why don't you just make me play Mega Man Legends
instead? Why Mega Man 64?
I was like Jesus. Because I have a 64 podcast.
I'm so sorry, Danny. I'm so sorry.
That's change change direction. It should be.
Like pivot. Just pivot if there's a better
version that came out before. Mega Mega Man 64.
Yeah, Mega Man 64 is going to make me pivot from to a
completely different console. Never mind, just this one game.
Yeah, the show is gone. The show has changed.
There was ever a time I looked at an N64 and gone, I hate you.
It was this moment. You know what The funny thing
is, right? So on the Patreon, on my Patreon
and Chris made this big thing about what our patrons Chris got
playing from the Retro Hangover podcast.
There's your plug. He always.
Gets there it is. There it is now, he mentioned.
I hate N64. I said I don't hate the N64.
I like the N64. I had an N64.
Playing this game made me think I hate the 64.
Dude, there there's So there's aspects of this.
We'll get into the gameplay in just a SEC, but there's aspects
of the way that this looks like it's unfortunate, right?
Because we both seem to enjoy the anime features of this and
the anime approach to this. Like the art style, the
aesthetics in this I think work, even though they don't feel like
those classic 2D Mega Man games that, you know, I could say that
I was used to or we were used to that.
That's totally fine. If you're going in a different
direction, especially once I learned like you mentioned
earlier that this is like a completely different timeline
and sort of universe or whatever you want to call it, then it's
fine. Go with a different style, go
with a different sort of take on things, great, no problem.
But it's just so much of it is hindered by the fact that this
game is a few years old and the fact that the cartridge just
limits them from doing things like this.
Because I think yes the voice acting was would have been there
anyways it seems like, but it would have been so much better
if there was more or it was clearer Or when you're running
through some of these cities or towns or underground areas, they
didn't just look like, oh a couple of posts standing in the
middle of the street happened to be buildings and you're
underground. And I honestly some underground
spots I couldn't even tell where the door was because the wall
looked the same as the door. Like they just looked so ugly
underground and they used to spend so much time in these
underground areas that it it just I I don't need to have an
open world quote UN quote open world sort of thing.
Like some of the missions are in this game but this I I actually
would prefer Mega Man in a tighter space.
But the tighter spaces in this game don't look good at all.
And it's unfortunate because some stuff looks good enough and
then you have the fog and then you like it's just it's just
it's it's a shame. It really, it's a shame with
that, because I think this could be something that would look and
feel a lot better. But it's two of its time.
And its time was three years prior to when this was released,
yes. Or more.
And because the dungeons look dreadful, the dungeons they.
Do. Just boring.
They're boring and generic, and once again, they're a product of
their time. And yeah, we haven't even talked
about essentially the gameplay, because the gameplay is such
like, yeah, if you're used to that Mega Man 2D style, it's
not. It's completely 3D and it's more
of a third person perspective. Mega Man's right in front of
you. His control style isn't great.
Again, product of the time like you had tank controls.
They were still trying to get used to things.
You you can kind of you can't go left and right per SE.
You have to turn the camera and to get him to move, which that
takes some getting used to. It's very it's very clunky.
Like when you say tank controls, it's like you know this is like
a blue tank with spiky hair in front of you.
Like that's that's what it feels like at times.
I I got used to. I don't know, did you play with
the on a 64 controller at all or on a particular controller when
you? Played it, you know I've got an
N64 controller, I've got APC one, so that's.
I don't. Mind so so did you use the the
joystick or did you use the D pad?
I used the D pad, yeah. OK, because the joy.
The joystick. Yeah, the analog stick was what
I went to automatically and I was like, OK, this.
She would. I of course I I just it's 3D
game or whatever you know I I feel like but with the way that
you turn the camera and he sort of does his like side strafe
step type of thing it just made so much more sense and just felt
right doing it on the D pad. So if anyone is going to go out
and play this game, I I just automatically grab the
controller on the left and right side.
Just just ignore the middle of it unfortunately.
Like it would be nice to be able to utilize that that part of the
controller, but it's not necessary and because it's so
tanky, just use AD pad that that'd be my recommendation.
The first time, the first time in all my years of ever playing
ever, ever, ever playing an N64, I held the control that way.
I've never held the control that way.
Ever. Oh see, I I'm used to doing that
with the wrestling games. All the wrestling games do that
and I'm a big fan of like the WWF and WCW games.
Like I grew up with a bunch of them and stuff too.
So I'm used to that. But for the most part, no.
You're you're using the joystick and and you're you're encouraged
to in most games or you have to so.
Yeah, this was, this was so weird.
I was like, I don't know, I've got this little bit.
It's it's now got a penis. It's, I don't like it.
I'm holding. I was like, I'm holding his legs
and it's got a penis. I don't like it.
What's this third leg? Oh my God.
It's a new concept to me, but you mentioned this.
You mentioned the strafe. The you could strafe.
Yeah, you can. And like, literally, my strategy
for this whole thing was just use Mega Man's Buster gun as pea
shooter and strafe any enemy, any boss strafe round them.
That was my tactic. Repeats.
It's the only way though, man. It's it like it's the only way.
I I don't understand how else you could you could succeed,
especially in the boss battles, which we'll talk about boss
battles in a little bit. But I think like because they
have such a large health bar, because there's sometimes
multiple stages to them or different, you know, abilities
or whatever, you got to watch out for the like they they shoot
at you and they are sort of, they have a little bit of a tank
control to some of them. So like all you have to do is
keep moving and they have to kind of turn awkwardly just like
you do. So I understand that might like
balance things a little bit so you don't feel like you're being
outmatched constantly. But the problem is, is the the
peashooter his? His blaster?
Like forgetting what the name of it is?
Buster. Is that what it's called?
Basically his gun arm. It's just.
Yeah, his regular one, which doesn't run out of energy, which
is fine all day long. Yeah, and it and but it's just
like Pew Pew Pew Pew PPP and that's it.
And it and it doesn't only sound like that.
It feels like you're only doing Pew Pew Pew type of damage.
Like it just feels like you're not making any progress most of
the time. And it unfortunately like it
would be nice and like yes, you do pick up you know collectibles
and you do have different sort of things you can do later on
and stuff. But it's still felt a little too
repetitive, especially on some of the longer fights where
you're trying to figure out, like there's different tasks you
have to do to kind of save a city or something like that.
And it's like, I get what they're going for, but the way
that they they make you do the combat and just how he shoots
just just felt tedious. Yeah.
And The thing is though it's gone, you do have the ability to
get extra guns. Now in usual Mega Man games, how
you would basically do that would be you would be one of
their masters and you get their gun, which kind of gives you an
ability. It's not how this game works.
Basically you go and you can get like upgrades and roll will make
you secret gun or make you secret or make you special guns
and you can equip them so you can get like a blade, you can
get like a huge sniper S gun cannon which have limited
energy. The problem I find with these
weapons is that when it came to the original Mega Man games like
when I played X, you can switch by these games on the go.
So I switch by these weapons on the go.
Like yeah, Menu switch, Menu switch.
Menu. Yeah, that's right.
I forgot about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You, you've got to go to roll every time.
And I was like to switch. I was like, fuck that.
No, I can't be arsed. I'm just sticking with the Pew
Pew, Pew Pew, Pew, Pew Pew. I'm just sticking with that.
That's all I'm doing. Yeah, I, I.
And that's that's sort of like like an RPG approach like a 90s
RPG approach I think to be like OK well you have this sort of
like hub I guess you could call it or a home base kind of thing.
Go back to the home base and do a thing and you know that's how
you sort of yeah. And I just, you know, one look,
we're we're adults or at least we pretend to be adults on on
our shows. But you know, we don't have the
time to do that either like we want to.
We want to play these games and experience them and talk to
everybody and and tell you about our time with them.
But like at a certain point spending basically what would
end up being an extra 45 minutes probably of play time to switch
between all the different abilities and weapons that you
have. It sounds fine to have the
variety but you got to make it easier.
You're right. I think like, I I'm not spending
the extra time to do that most of the time.
I did it a few times and I I found it fairly enjoyable.
But the your, your playstyle changes which I do a little bit
at least. So I get that like that is good.
There is variety but it's just not good enough because
everything is still clunky. Like, it's not like all of a
sudden, not like all of a sudden you have this like, like you've
mentioned like sort of sniper sort of gun thing, like you're
going to play like everything so super differently is going to be
so much easier. In some ways it makes it harder.
Sometimes it's like, well, what's my incentives?
And The thing is because you got those tank controls it does, it
makes it more difficult to, you know to get the game well, the
style of gameplay you want. Like if you want to do with this
on this weapon, but if it does have a lock on system which that
helps dramatically the lock on system?
Holy shit does the lock on system work if it?
Didn't. Oh my God.
Oh. Yeah.
Oh, if it didn't have that lock on system.
Holy shit like again this is Pre or Karina.
And I always thought oh Karina a time to the lock on system very
well. It still the lock on system very
well. And it kind of gets you over the
fact that you've got to kind of you know you got to strafe right
or you got to turn the this blue thing round if you've got the
auto thing automatically does it was like oh that saves a bit of
a time. And again with the controls it's
just practice. But I just thought you know what
peashooter it is I can't be arsed upgrading and upgrading
costs a lot of money. It does.
Oh my God, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Like I think I googled something.
I think one of the weapons, a weapon is like 2,000,000 Zenny
is like oh fuck oh. Come on.
Yeah, right. That's wild.
And this is the problem as well. It's like when you, because
you've got these shitty controls, you you beat enemies,
and then when money falls over, all over the place, right?
And you can collect the money you like.
Yeah, great. I'm gonna collect the money, but
because you got tank controls, it's like, hang on, hang on.
I'll get that money. Hang on it.
Forward, back, forward, left, right.
Shit. And then the money starts
disappearing. I was like, where are you
disappearing? I was.
Disappearing. Oh my God, I I was about to talk
about this part exactly. Or it's just like, you know,
there's currency and there's things that give you like health
as well, drops. Just like it doesn't every Mega
Man game or any other sort of adventure game and stuff like
these enemies explode or you defeat the boss or you know
whatever it might be and the things just spread everywhere.
Like why? Why can't it just like suck into
Mega Man? My God, I found sometimes I just
left it. One because things were I really
just looked for health really. But one because things were just
like, yes, hard to to grab. But also like you mentioned like
if I'm not, if I feel like I'm never going to get to that
currency sort of tier that I need to to unlock the stuff,
like why am I even bothering trying over and over and over
again. I could just, I just just give
me the health, you know? But just just just give me what
I want. Yeah, just give me what which is
the health. But sometimes, like you said,
you can't even get it because it friggin disappears after a
couple seconds. It's.
Just when does that happen in real life?
It's the whole you know, when someone dies in a video game,
they suddenly just fade away. It's like, when does that shit
happen? If I threw money on the floor
now, if I got like 10 seconds and then suddenly the money
starts going shit, it's gone Shit.
Disappearing money in this economy like.
Fucking monies. We need that shit that pays me
rent with shit, yeah. Yeah, well sorry kids, looks
looks like we're not eating today.
Yeah. Sorry, kid.
I'll eventually look at hiccups. One day he goes, Sorry, kids,
you're dead. I'm going to have to sacrifice
you. Lord of the Flies S what?
Was I going to say, oh, so for so for the most part, the sort
of basic enemies, I I agree. You also said I think it goes
back to sort of like the soil style for art choice and art
style is they they generally look good enough pretty good I
would say most of them are are are fairly good and designed
well The the basic enemies for the most part because if a lock
on like you said and stuff like they're fine I think most of
them are pretty easy to defeat. My my issue with the sort of
regular bot, regular enemies was yes the lock on is there, but
anything that was like airborne constantly is really tough to
kind of figure out where you're walking and stuff 'cause the
camera kind of gets close to you.
So I'll like fall off a a Cliff and then lose my aim and be like
oh shit well now where do I go and where did that enemy go?
Or like one particular mission early on in the game that I I I
understood what they were doing with it and understood what to
do. But there was a decent amount of
these like things, these machines in the sky picking up
tanks and dropping tanks in the middle of the city and trying to
demolish town hall and the police station and stuff like
that. It's fine.
I I kind of like, you know, don't put a timer on my mission,
but give me a reason to go from this spot to that spot to sort
of save people and save buildings and stuff.
But to stop that from happening constantly, you had to destroy
the things that were carrying all the tanks in.
And I found it hard to shoot them because they're in the air.
And then I found it hard to see them most of the time, because
that's stupid fog we were talking about.
Yeah, because the fog. And the problem is if you don't
destroy them. As I found out, this game is a
fucking morality system. Right.
People. It's basically the building.
If you don't stop buildings being damaged, they stay
damaged. They obviously don't repair
because they don't, you know, this is a video game you should
be repairing dramatically and automatically.
Should be doing it now. But basically, people will treat
you differently if you don't save them.
It's like, oh for fuck's sake, don't you give me shitty
controls. I could barely do anything,
shitty aim and now you're giving me a fucking morality system.
I was like, I'll piss this, Yeah, this is so annoying.
And it it didn't, it didn't need it, you know, like that this
kind of game, you really don't have to add that kind of layer
on to it. I I agree.
It just it felt unnecessary. They just shoehorned an RPG like
system in there and it just just stick with what they had.
Like that actually was a big, big enough thing to me that I
was like I I don't really want, I don't want to think about this
like I don't want to think about that stuff.
I just can. I just keep going through these
areas and through these dungeons and just start defeating bosses
and bad guys? Like I don't.
I don't need to worry about extra shit like I just, I'm
already struggling to get through some of these missions.
Do I have to add that on to it? All I wanted to do you know what
this kind of felt like? I kind of got bored with the
gameplay and I just wanted to find about more about the story.
I agree. When Mortal Kombat games come
out with the new ones, like I don't buy them, but I like to
watch the story on YouTube. Yeah, it's like a two hour
movie. This was the same sort of thing.
It's like fuck the gameplay. I just want to watch what's
going on the plot because I'm intrigued with the plot and it's
like I just want to get through this shitty dungeon just so I
can get some more story. That's all I want.
Yeah, I want my cartoon. I'm 100%, yeah, I want my
cartoon exactly. And that's, you know, that's the
high point of the game, is that stuff.
It's not incredible. It's not the best, but it is
definitely better than actually playing through the game, and I
mentioned it before too. It's like sometimes when you get
to a boss or defeat a boss or leading up to it even just like
maybe a couple of scenes and stuff.
I I I was, I was. I liked what surrounded the boss
and I enjoyed the bosses initially.
But because like I mentioned earlier, their health bars are
so much larger and like we've talked about the shooting and
all those types of things are not great.
After like 2 minutes of a boss fight, I was like, OK, I'm done.
Can we just move on? Like, yeah, I'm gonna win this
fight. I have more health than they do.
I'm just running in circles like you mentioned.
Like, can I just get to the part where we talk to the guy after
and we have sort of like a little cutscene thing like that.
I wanted that instead. Like, just let me shoot them
twice. Good enough.
Let's move on. Yeah, that that's fun.
And this is the thing, like you play your Mega Man Vol nuts,
worst name ever and he's like an anime typical anime protagonist.
I don't mind him, but the best thing about this game are the
bad guys. And they are, well, I say the
bad guys, it's the the Bond family, Holy shit, the Bond
family. You've got Tron Bond, who is a a
female character around the same age as role and basically her
role hate each other because they kind of broke fancy Mega
Man. But then I looked and I went,
holy shit, Tron born what? I know where I know her from and
that's Are you going? To say the same thing I'm going
to say. What?
Marvel VS Capcom. Yeah, Marvel's Capcom Two was
like, holy shit. I was like, that's where she's
from. I was like, I've never.
Because I knew. I knew when I saw Marvel's
Capcom Two, I was like, OK, she's Mega Man and but I didn't
know. I didn't know much more about
Matt and I was like, I've never, I've never seen her in Megaman
X, I've never seen her in the network games.
But then I'll learn. Yeah, she came from the Legends
game I just did the surf bots, the little Lego, little, little
people who are so cool. Oh, they're oh, they're Lego.
They're 100% Lego for sure. The dare is like Lego mixed with
minions. I was like, but the the the cue
enough not to be annoying. I was like that's great you you
are fine. I'm happy with you guys and her
design's great. Their design's great.
Her character's great. Her funny every time she comes
on. But I think the the best bit is
the brother. Oh my God.
The brother's so funny and the first time you see him, he's
basically sitting in a library waiting for like, isn't.
I wonder what's going on here. I oh, I can trust Rod Bond and.
That later on that you see them all like him and Toronto, the
whole like, bad guy of the Bond family having this meeting and
they're sitting there having a coffee.
I was like this is funny as fork.
I agree and he's like you said great design too you know both
of them like yeah it adds to it for sure and and the over the
top sort of you know speech and the the sort of very I don't
even know if it's anime acting or whatever but it it's. 100% it
is. Yeah, it it's very, it's very
corny, but probably purposely corny and it's over the top and
whatever. But yeah the those those two or
I guess that group in in particular like is definitely
the highlight. I am 100% on on board with that.
I I totally agree. I just love the fact, like,
they're having, like, these family meetings and it happens
more than once. They're just sitting around
having a coffee. I was like, right, What's the
plan? I was like, this is fucking
amazing. I was like, do you imagine if
you had, like, Doctor Robotnik in the sidelines sitting there
having like, a conference call with a coffee?
That'd be so funny to see. I would love it.
Guys do. I'd love that.
Like Bat sitting there. Like, you know, you see Bat in
the recent film Bowsers playing the piano.
There must be moments where he's sitting there.
He's like, right, Everyone together.
And he's got like this latte. He's like, right, OK, what's the
plan? I fuck, that's so funny.
And the annoying thing is I want to praise the older brother.
I want to praise him so much. But I can't.
I don't want to really say his name because I found out I was
like, oh, what's this guy off the voice actor?
He's not off much. And I'm not going to praise him
because I eventually found out he was convicted of naughty
things with children. Oh.
Jesus. OK.
Of of distributing naughty things with children, not not
doing stuff, but distributing, which is still fucking
horrendous. And then he, he deleted himself.
Afterwards, he went to prison and deleted himself.
So that's the history of him. So it is.
He knew. Yeah, I know.
It goes dark, don't it? I was like, wow, Because if it
didn't, I would have been, I would have been singing a lot
more. So yeah.
Fair enough. Fuck the voice.
Fuck the voice actor. Yeah, Don't choose the ground.
Yeah, yeah. I don't know if he was on the
second one, but it was this. It's annoying because I would
have found that out. It was like proper dishearten
because I liked his performance. But then I went, yeah, go fuck,
go fuck yourself. Yeah, there's a line.
That's the line. There's definitely a line.
Straight up, straight up crossed it.
And this is the thing. I like it when bad guys are
interesting. I like it when, yeah, there's
more to them than that. But again, the only thing I
wanted to see about this game was those two.
I wanted to see what they were getting up to just because they
were funny. And the only problem, as I said
earlier, was that it sounded like it was being spoke for a
cushion, which was frustrating. And do you know what?
I like the world it was trying to build.
I know people said, oh, it's not Mega Man, it's not what it is.
Well, yeah, it's not Mega Man, Mega Man Ledge, Mega Man, Battle
Network wasn't Mega Man. That was completely different.
If you ever played Battle Network on the GBA, that's so
different. It's ridiculous.
I really want to try those games.
They look, they look interesting to me.
I want to try them. Like, that's not Mega Man esque
at all. That's a card game with like, I
don't know how you describe it. It's like it's like a I don't
know how the hell you describe Mega Man Battle Network.
I I loved it. I but I I hated the story but I
love the gameplay was the complete reverse with this one.
But people, I know people were desperate for a traditional Mega
Man game on an N64. I get that.
But the whole everyone wants to do 3D.
You know, stepping away from 2D meant that maybe traditional
Mega Man wasn't the way forward. And I know this game had a
sequel and a prequel, A trombone prequel, but I would love them
to actually go back now and maybe try this again.
Maybe try like a new Legends game on a new, you know, on a
Switch or something like that. And let's see how it does,
because everyone would know this is what it's going to be like.
It's going to be more RPG elements and it's not going to
be a traditional Mega Man game. But you can fix the camera, you
can fix everything else about this game.
And I thought you you can, I think you can make it a decent
game. I agree.
I think that if it had like a little bit of a touch up even,
you know, if they didn't fully remastered, that's totally fine.
But if you did modern controls, if you maybe changed a little
bit of the systems with getting new weapons and abilities and
stuff like, I think that could potentially help it as well.
But like just modernize some of the stuff could be enough.
I mean, keep the story the same, even keep the voice acting, It's
totally fine. Like just make it, make it that
game. That's that's fine.
But yeah, if you if you change the way that this game played,
some of those like minor things that they could change would add
up to something so much better. I think.
So yeah, I think that's what they I I'm on board.
I I agree. I think it definitely would and
like keep the mini games as well.
Well, like the only mini game I I played in, this was one where
you're kicking a ball at like it's like a fairground ride, you
know, like the well describe it, you know ducks are moving along.
It's similar to that. But basically you've got like a
man being chased by a dog and you've got to kick a ball at the
dog. It's not a real dog.
But if because you can get your
timing really well and it becomes really trivial game,
then all of a sudden some guys kicking these balls, a real dog
came in and you kick the real dog.
I was like, holy shit, I've just kicked a dog.
Yeah, that. If anyone's still wondering
where this game goes at times, that's the kind of places it
goes. Yeah, you're kicking a dog at a
model dog. Proper launches.
And this is Mega Man, so he's going to have this amazing kick.
I was like, holy shit, that dog's probably just broken about
6 ribs. Oh my God, that poor thing.
He's just come for a cuddle and you just can't fuck off.
Damn it. I see you.
He's like, why Mega Man? Why Mega Man's like, what was
that? Don't care.
More balls to kick. Oh, here comes another dog.
Next. Fucking brule, he's a piece of
cunt. Hey man, as long as you win the
prize, that's all that matters I guess, right?
Winning. Winning is everything,
apparently. The Mega Man winning.
Imagine that he gets his prize. Oh, you've won a cuddly toy and
six dead dogs. This game, honestly, this game
would go there. It would go there.
I feel like it could. And there's bits like doing
stuff like that. OK, I look, I don't advocate for
kicking dogs before anyone has a go at me, but it's so light
hearted when you think what the fuck have I just done?
It's. It's.
It's so strange. It's so I lost.
So much of this game is so strange.
It's so strange. Yeah, and considering I said
I've gone into you, there are bits I like.
There are bits I don't like. Seeing something like that just
completely takes me out of left field and I was like, what the
fuck? OK.
Fine. And it made my it made my time
bearable. Playing, Yeah, I'm again, I'm
not implying to make my time bearable.
I go around kicking dogs. It's in the context of this
random part of this game, absolutely.
There's no, there's no way I'm getting round this.
I'm I'm going to get, like, brought onto the Piers Morgan
show. So you believe kicking dogs in
video games is OK? Oh, for fuck's sake.
God damn it. God damn it, I'm fucked.
But he had. But of course, he had boat
levels. Yes, he had boat levels.
That is a that's a great point. So those, I don't know what you
thought. I thought they were they were
OK. I thought I was seeing what I
was. Going to hit, right?
Yeah. No, I thought I would.
Before the boat levels are OK, I thought, You can't fuck up
anything else, but they got that right.
Yeah, 'cause I think because of the way that things control when
you're on land, I guess you could say because those felt so
awkward somehow, like keeping you in place a little bit more,
worked better. Sadly, yeah, definitely.
I think because it kind of tank controls kind of work on a boat,
it's like, Oh yeah, that's how they actually move so well, ish.
So it's like, you can have that. I didn't mind the war levels.
But again, it's another thing this game was trying.
It was like, right, grab that, grab that, grab this, grab this,
grab this, grab this, boom. I'm gonna go to game.
That's how it kind of worked. Yeah, I agree.
I agree. It's it's a lot of it is fairly
awkward, you know, I don't mind the way things wrap up.
It's just, you know, at least the boss at the end has some
variety to it. You're not doing the exact same
thing every sort of stage that the boss has the story sort of
those places in the middle of the final boss fight.
So I found, you know, like there's there's there's like
story progression as you find the final boss and as you're
fighting them. It's not, you know, anything
super elaborate. But I was like, OK, I I get it.
This this is kind of cool. Yeah.
It just, you know, when you're doing the, when you're fighting
a long battle in this game, it just ends up feeling tedious
either way. I just appreciated that, at
least for the most part. Things were a little bit
different here and there when it came to some of the boss fights
and and that, that and the and the the boat levels were were
probably the standouts to me. Yeah.
But they're it's still, it's still not a fantastic game.
I I don't think it's the worst thing ever, but I, you know,
it's not fantastic. No, it it it isn't.
But I the final boss's design is awesome.
I give you that. I was like, this is weird and
fucked up. I'm so weird and fucked up.
But I liked it. I was like, OK, you can have
that. That's that's really good.
That's a really cool boss. Another, another set of designs
that that made sense and and worked.
Yeah, I think that and that those, those were the bigger,
the biggest standouts for it, like you said, the story and and
a lot of the character design and models and stuff.
Yeah, sure, they look a little chunky and things like that, but
that's the time and that's totally fine.
And to me that part works. So.
Yeah, and yeah. Look, would I play it again?
No. I am kind of glad I'm done with
that now. I was like, fuck, I'm God, this
is done. But what?
I want to play a sequel. Mega Man Legends 3.
Yes, I would. I would like to play a Legends
3. I'd say the Legends 2 probably
very similar, but I want to play Legends 3 and make a new world.
I don't know why they haven't. Yeah, I I agree.
I think that like whether they like remade this one or remade
one of the ones in this series and sort of touched it up like
we mentioned or made a new one and made it a sequel or prequel
or whatever. I would, I would give it a shot.
I think I would give it a shot. But I don't think that this is a
a game that you go back to. I really don't because it's
clunky, it doesn't control well. The story's good enough, but
it's not going to make me want to experience it all over again
because of everything that happens around the story, which
is the gameplay, and the gameplay is very so, so at best.
So yeah, and I think it is very so, so and but what I will say,
this game is now made me want to go back to Marvez, Capcom 2, to
Marvez, Capcom Three and players trombone.
Dude, I I played. I played as her.
Yeah she was she was in my rotation in in two like fairly
consistently. I just liked the way she played
and and yeah, I honestly, I thought the exact same thing
when I first saw her and they said the name I was like Oh my
God. All right.
Marvel VS Captain I I haven't loaded it back up.
But I I am tempted now. I I'm with you.
Yeah, and The thing is, if you look at Marvel VS Capcom 3, Mega
Man's not even any. Oh, he's not in three.
I don't remember that. Oh my God. 00 is Trombon is, but
Mega Man himself isn't in. That's so weird that is so that
makes no sense. And I don't know if if
somebody's adamant because I've I've been a big advocate of the
amount of characters they've added in and all knowing is XX3.
Hang on, who's who's that? Oh, it's X3.
Looks like X3. I don't know who'd even is it?
I didn't even know. Either way.
I need to play some more. I need to play some more
marvelous Capcom. I really do.
Yeah. I think.
I think they added him in. I think they added him in later,
and possibly I need to find that out.
Either way, I want to play some more Trombon.
I want to play some more Trombon because she's so cool.
I'm with you. She's fucking amazing.
So if you're going to be scoring this, then out of 10, what are
you giving it? Let's see it.
It's tough because there are a lot of ups and downs to it.
There's a lot of stuff I enjoy. I've enjoyed enough and there's
a lot of stuff that just didn't work.
And I think unfortunately, because the gameplay is just so
average for me and the story is there, but I'm not a massive
anime person or whatever. I think of A4 or A5 is where I
would sit with this. Honestly.
Like, it's not, it's not great. It's not great.
I'm going to lean towards A5 and be a little bit generous because
of the things we talked about. But that's the most second.
It's the most I can sit with is giving it A5.
Yeah, I'm I'm probably going to give it A5 as well.
And they're frustrating. Thing was, if I was playing Mega
Man Legends, if we were, if you'd asked me to do Mega, you
can't. But if you asked me to do Mega
Man Legends, I would have given this game higher because I could
have seen it from the point of view of the time it was from.
But the fact that it's on the N64 three to four years later
and it's not as good, takes it lower definitely.
Yeah, that is a very, very good point.
Absolutely. I think.
I think you're definitely on to something there.
Sure, for sure. Thank you as always for joining
me on Remember 64. And as always, of course, thank
you to Danny for coming on the show as well.
Check out Retro Wars on your podcast feed and on social
media. Danny does such a great job, has
so many great insights, plays a variety of different games.
It's definitely not just the N64 really worth listening to.
The guy is just a joy to work with and a joy to talk to.
So look forward to more episodes of the two of us as well coming
in the coming weeks and months. But until next time, everyone,
thank you so much for joining me on this continued nerdy journey
of Remember 64. Go bust out some retro games
everyone. We'll talk to you soon.