Part 17: Final
And so we end.
Boss Comments:
Wily Machine 3 has, as is tradition, two phases. The first one, though, is usually over in seconds and pathetically easy either way. The cannon at the bottom fires out circular shots that are pretty easy to dodge, although the slowdown doesn't help; it falls in four hits from its weaknesses, those being Spark Shot (as shown), Hard Knuckle (making Spark Shot useless, again) and Search Snake (according to the Wiki at least, never tried it).
Phase 2 is far more interesting, and I like it a lot. It will slowly shamble from one side of the room to the other, requiring a slide to dodge under it when the pin feet are raised; every one step, it'll come crushing down. During all of this, shots targeted at Mega will get fired, with deceptively large hitboxes, as is par for the course in this game; a shame.
Dealing with normally it is surprisingly difficult, seeing as it's only hittable when it crushes down, or, as shown, when it's on the other side of the room with Hard Knuckle. Knowing in advance when it'll come in reach is essential, as is dodging the last shot before it does. Weakness is obviously Hard Knuckle...or Search Snake, too, apparently. Huh.
All in all, even though it can get tedious, you should have metric fuckton of E-Tanks, so it's not that big of a deal.
Or you completely break him with Rush Jet which obviously wasn't playtested enough to balance stuff like that right out. Works too.
Gamma is a complete joke. The first form can't even hit you if you're standing right and falls to Shadow Blade spam, of all things, and it'd also be weak to Hard Knuckle if you're so inclined; this would necessitate traveling up by Rush during the first part...making the second even more trivial. As soon as Wily's cockpit comes down, Gamma will start punching, always from the right; this is no big deal to avoid, and you can travel up it to be able to actually reach the guy. Or you use Rush like me because it's boring waiting for the thing. Dodging the shots isn't too easy, but it doesn't really matter either way. A barrage of Search Snakes or one single use of Top Spin does him in...and no other weapons work, so it's even meant to be broken.
Oh, and I won't spoil which track I used again, maybe it'll put a grin of recognition on some people's faces!
Music:
- Wily Stages 3 - It's almost exactly like the second Wily theme of MM2, except it does have a part where it picks up...and you only hear it for a very small part of the game. I like it to set the mood, fits far better so late.
All Stage Clear - Da-da-da-daa you won!
Ending - I love it. Expanding on Proto Man's whistle, so calm and contemplative...great atmospheric tune, fits the ending perfectly right as you're wondering who this Proto Man fellow actually is and Wily is presumed dead...
Staff Roll - In the bonus video I made with Dectilon, I didn't recognize it as coming from this game. Why? Because it's...surprisingly bad, in my opinion. The more I hear it, the more I think it would fit perfectly into the fifth game, style, instruments and all, and as much as I love MM5, the music is one of the low points of the whole series. Oh well. Suitably energetic and celebratory at least.
Thanks to all the people who dug up pictures for the video - Doc V, Spelling Mitsake, Taoto and Violen specifically!
Taoto also provides us with very interesting insights into the story - why did Proto Man (Blues in Japan) work for Wily anyway?
Taoto posted:
Blues/Proto Man was the original, prototype robot Wily and Light built, but he had a defective nuclear reactor inside himself that would cut his life short. Wily and Light, if I'm recalling correctly, were going to dismantle him due to this defect, which caused him to run off before they could. After that, they redesign the reactor, make Rock, Roll, and the construction robots.
After Wily turns evil, he encounters Blues. He works on Blues to extend his life and complete him, which causes Blues to be in his debt. During this game, he works on Wily's behalf to repay him, despite not wanting to support him. We see flashes of the fact Blues is really not evil in Gemini Man's stage, as well as it can be easily be inferred that they tracked Blues absconding after their fight to find Wily's Castle. As a side note, great foreshadowing for a game with almost no text in it, considering the ending.
I imagine Blues was going to continue working with Wily when he came to the rescue at the end, which is why he asks where Wily was.
I apologize, but I don't remember where I originally saw most of this, because I've just known it for such a long time. I do recall the defective reactor being specifically brought up during Blues's ending in the second arcade game, The Power Fighters. Light was offering to fix him and be able to save his life, but Blues declines.
This is also the specific, canon reason for why Blues is gone by the time of the X series.