Now armed with drills, we finally get around to Dust Man and his hodgepodge of weird gimmicks.
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity #4: Talk to me of Recycling (Heavy Sigh, Great Joe, and Jspades)
Meanwhile, in Hard Mode, we get murdered by rocks.
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity Hard Mode #4: Red Militaire (Heavy Sigh, Combat Lobster, Jspades, Shinryu, and Word on the Wind)
The end of Dust Man’s stage is pretty much taken from one of the worst parts of Gradius 3 arcade: the cube rush sequence.
There’s a reason this part was cut from the SNES port of Gradius 3 so I can’t fathom why they’d add this stupid thing to Minus Infinity.
You know what this game needed? DINOSAUR BONES.
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity #5: White Army, Blue Baron (Heavy Sigh, jspades, and Great Joe)
and In today’s Hard Mode episode, the runs sync back up, so now you can directly compare what Hard Mode brings to the table, like DOUBLE HELL WHEEL.
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity Hard Mode #5: Skull Island (Heavy Sigh, Combat Lobster, Jspades, Shinryu, and Word on the Wind)
I always liked the gameboy style of presentation.
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity #6: The Bright Way (Heavy Sigh, jspades, and Great Joe)
YOU GOT BLIND POWER.
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity Hard Mode #6: Bright Chaser (Heavy Sigh, Combat Lobster, Jspades, Shinryu, and Word on the Wind )
You can actually pick up the E-Tank in the dark area without the ring boomerang, but it involves dropping down what would seem like death.
This level contains some graphic cursing, so I must kindly ask that all children to either leave this thread now or be accompanied by a legal guardian.
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity #7: Pals, we must not grow old in our Pyramids (Heavy Sigh, jspades, and Great Joe)
Meanwhile, in Hard Mode, we ask a simple question: How many bullets can you fit onscreen at once?
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity Hard Mode #7: Pharoah of Fillmore (Heavy Sigh, Combat Lobster, Jspades, Shinryu, and Word on the Wind)
~Slip’n’slide down the drain, and find yourself in a world of pain~
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity #8: Oh, toads (Heavy Sigh, jspades, and Great Joe)
Meanwhile, in Hard Mode, Toad Man somehow managed to accumulate more junk than Dust Man.
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity Hard Mode #8: For the Toad the Bell Tolls (Heavy Sigh, Combat Lobster, Jspades, Shinryu, and Word on the Wind)
Stuff happened, and now we’re back to your regularly scheduled programming!
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity #9: Our Balloon (Heavy Sigh, Kalonzombie, and Shinryu)
oh, and FUCK THIS GIMMICK.
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity Hard Mode #9: Wrath of the Red Moth (Heavy Sigh, shinryu, word on the wind, and new friends dijondujour and Terror Van)
Hot damn was the hard mode change real bad. I would have said that adding the smaller hitbox would have helped but the sheer number of them as well as Rush’s slow movement ensures practically undodgeable situations. That the frogs can also turn to bullets is just a final insult.
It’s time to start Cossack 2, and what better way to start it off than with some Disappearing Blocks?
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity #10: Little Laboratory (Heavy Sigh, Kalonzombie, and Shinryu)
Oh, and maybe throw in some QuickBeams for Hard Mode?
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity Hard Mode #10: Hero Megaman in the Cossack Laboratory (Heavy Sigh, shinryu, Word On The Wind, dijondujour and Terror Van)
If I remember from playing the in-development versions of this the vertical wire room was originally the layout used by the final hard mode version. I guess playtesters had problems messing with the wire there and was changed for normal mode despite there really being no pressure.
I played mario a lot this week.
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity #11: Song about Sewers (Heavy Sigh, Kalonzombie, and Shinryu)
and a lot of fire emblem.
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity Hard Mode #11: Devil Killer Mega Man (Heavy Sigh, shinryu, word on the wind, dijondujour and Terror Van)
As much as I like the boss fight at the end, the bubble challenge just before it has got to be one of the worst parts of the game. It’s a really long fight where there isn’t any good way of clearing it quickly. It isn’t even difficult in the end, just tedious.
It is time to finish off the Red Menace once and for all!
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity #12: Cossack Final Battle (Heavy Sigh, Kalonzombie, and Shinryu)
And as for hard mode, anyone here good with those crane games?
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity Hard Mode #12: Red Hopper (Heavy Sigh, shinryu, word on the wind, dijondujour and Terror Van)
For our first foray into Wily’s Fortress of Death, what better greeting could we get than the old Mega Man staple…
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity #13: Under the eyes of Joes (Heavy Sigh, Kalonzombie, and shinryu)
and in Hard Mode, well, Wily could always use a few more spikes…
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity Hard Mode #13: Wily Serial Productions (Heavy Sigh, NGBDSS, shinryu, Simply Simon and Word on the Wind)
Now it’s time for EVERY ENEMY IN THE GAME to fight us.
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity #14: Unfinished Marseillaise (Heavy Sigh, Kalonzombie, and shinryu)
And in Hard Mode, a piece of 21XX technology makes its way back to the past, just for our sake.
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity Hard Mode #14: Rushed Out Overheat (Heavy Sigh, Simply Simon, dijondujour, shinryu, NGBDSS, and Word On The Wind)
I’ve really been digging the side-by-side videos to better appreciate just what Hard Mode does (or doesn’t do) differently. Were there any plans the hack creator had they just couldn’t make work, or are we seeing more or less a director’s cut of Minus Infinity?
Also, are there any changes for Hard Mode you think are objectively worse than their standard mode versions?
While I can’t say for certain whether there was anything that PureSabe wanted to do in Rockman 4 but couldn’t, I can say for certainty that a lot of the Hard Mode Changes were actually from previous versions of the hack, as playtesters complained about parts being too hard, Like the wire room in Cossack 2. So in some respects, Hard Mode is a pre-beta version of R4MI.
As for objectively worse, the only one that massively stands out is Cossack 1. That whole stage, already only playable thanks to Balloon’s high speed, gets massively worse once the death bullets come in.
You got your Metroid in my Megaman!
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity #15: Maze of the Defenders of Wily (Heavy Sigh, Great Joe, and Crow)
And it’s Still there!
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity Hard Mode #15: Wily’s Pursuit (Heavy Sigh, Simply Simon, dijondujour, shinryu, NGBDSS, and Word On The Wind)
Better late than never, it’s time to finish off the last proper stage of the game!
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity #16: The International (Heavy Sigh, corn in the bible, Combat Lobster and Great Joe)
And as always, at center square, Doctor Wily.
Rockman 4 Minus Infinity Hard Mode #16: Something Wily (Heavy Sigh, Simply Simon, Shinryu, Word on the Wind, and dijondujour)
