Mega Man X was released in December 1993. At the time it shocked Mega Man fans by not including
Dr. Wily! The reason is that it takes place a century later than the NES Mega Man games,
with 'Mega Man X' fighting the reploids, copies of his design, who have gone maverick, and
their leader, Sigma.
Hi. If you have seen my Mega Man 3 and my Mega Man 6 comments, you are already surprised. Don't be alarmed; the time taken to do this run warrants good time spent on the comments. I first beat this game when I was three years old, and I'm pretty sure I never really stopped playing it for more than one year.
Before I say anything else, this run features LIVE audio commentary. That means that I was commenting as I was DOING the run, not as I was watching it. I've heard that it is pretty enjoyable, so check it out!
Speedrun History:
2004: September 26. Mike Uyama 37:26
2004: October 9. Mike Uyama 36:10
2006: September 25. Freddy 'Frezy_man' Andersson 34:51
2007: February 11. Sattik 'Tiki' Ghosh 34:42
2007: March 18. Freddy 'Frezy_man' Andersson 34:09
2009: June 20. Sattik 'Tiki' Ghosh. 33:48
That history says a lot about the runs that were posted. There's a reason Mike's 2004 run and Frezy's 2007 run stood for so long -- they were damn good. I beat Mike's run on an emulator a few days before Frezy's 34:51 was posted. It took me a few months to beat that time even with a new and much faster route, and Frezy snipped it in a matter of days again. I vowed to get less than 34 minutes before my next submission. I had no idea that that meant I'd go through hell before getting an acceptable run. And I fully expect Frezy to take the record back in a couple hours.
In 2008, I started to beat Frezy's time little by little. I started with a 34:07 and got 15-20 runs in between 34:00 and 34:09. That streak ended when I got 34:00, said, "Fuck this shit," and quit for about three months. I just took the time to do some other runs, namely Mega Man 3 and Mega Man 6. At some point earlier on in 2009, I got a capture card. I figured it'd be pretty cool to stream some stuff that I'm good at live, so I picked up Mega Man X. After three months or more of not playing it at all, I was better than ever. These live streams continued for a while, and this is where I have to give huge thank yous to a few people. I thank Romscout and UltraJMan for constantly encouraging me in these streams and pushing me to get the run, as well as publicizing it so that I'd have 70-80 people in there at times. I also thank Toothache, ShadowWraith, Wodanaz, Krz, Hanz, RingRush, and anyone else who watched the stream regularly. Without these guys, I probably would've given up speedrunning this game last year. More speedrunners should stream their stuff live, it's honestly a fun thing to do.
Anyway, no one cares about that shit. Actual commentary on the run, GO!
This is a DECENT run at best. I've had attempts die at 33:20 with the final Sigma half dead. The gameplay in this run is pretty good overall, but I got some horrible luck in a lot of places. Here is a level-by-level breakdown.
- Intro Stage: There isn't much to comment on here. The shots in the last stretch were NOT turbo. I just used the three-finger technique to fire that fast - that is, three fingers on one button. You can hear me doing this in the LIVE audio commentary. I sort of have a technique down that guarantees the ship doesn't move very far, and you can see it in this run. Shooting Vile yields a higher chance of him staying close when he captures you.
- Chill Penguin: When climbing up towards the capsule, I did not miss jumps onto the ledges. You might think that's hard, but it's not. It just takes a lot of practice. There was a minor mistake jumping over an ostrich, but other than that, the level went smoothly. Chill Penguin only slid three times, but I wasn't able to take advantage of that. This level ended up being about 4 seconds more than average, and 8 seconds behind my best.
- Boomer Kuwanger: This is a very smooth level. There was a slight glitch on one of the last ladders, but somehow the game fixed it. The boss fight did not go that well, but it's acceptable.
- Sting Chameleon: I finally had a decent run through the level, although I took a stupid hit in the cave. I nearly messed up on the easiest boss in the game, but I saved myself.
- Storm Eagle: I had a smooth run here as well up until the end, where I took a hit from a turret. I mistimed two shots on the boss, which would have saved me the trouble of shooting him while he dove. It cost me probably about 4 seconds.
- Flame Mammoth: Almost a perfect run. Dashing on the forwards-moving conveyor belts makes the ground faster than the ceiling glitch. Nothing else to comment on, thankfully!
- Spark Mandrill: I was too busy making the obligatory "man drill" joke (seriously, what the fuck is a mandrill? Some sort of extinct man-monkey?) to start off the level right, so I walked for about half a second. Other than that, the stage goes very well. The miniboss was quite nice to me. I mistimed two shots on the boss, costing me maybe two seconds.
- Armored Armadillo: This is a pretty standard run, but I messed up the jumps at the end and got a few birds. The boss fight went very well. NEATO MOSQUITO! (Should've said AWESOME POSSUM!)
- Launch Octopus: The beginning was pretty bumpy because I took a big jump off the ledge into the water, but other than that this is another good stage. When the submarines blow you (lol), you can fire C sting as fast as you want at them. Thanks for figuring that out, LigerOfFortune. I shit myself on the boss fight. You might too.
I'm told that the time after these first nine levels is 19:51. This is an important checkpoint for me. 19:51 is slightly below average with the new tricks and my relatively new quality of gameplay, but it is 12 seconds faster than Frezy's run. My best time past the first nine levels is 19:39, and I usually end up with 19:45 or less.
- Sigma Stage 1: In my opinion, this is both the level with the best gameplay in the run and the level with the best live audio commentary. If you hate my commentary for everything else, at LEAST listen to this. Anyway, I made the leap of faith very nicely here. That alone saved probably 5-10 seconds. I then pulled off the Vile-Zero scene skip to its fullest, which saved some more time. The Boomer Kuwanger fight went without a hitch, and although Bospider was being a dick by sending out his little dicks, I didn't ever miss an opportunity to blast him.
- Sigma Stage 2: I took a slightly different path than Frezy for my C Sting invincibility. I think my way is faster, but I never actually tested it. Dill Menguin was a fucking asshole to me, but that's nothing new. I probably lost at least 10 seconds or so to Frezy in that fight through no fault of my own. Fuck the RNG. Storm eagle decided to dive at me once for no reason, but I guess that's not much to complain about. The Rangda Bangda fight went well.
- Sigma Stage 3: Armored Armadillo goes really well, I nearly screwed myself over AGAIN on Sting Chameleon, I missed a shot on Spark Mandrill, Launch Octopus didn't drain which is good, Mammoth died, and D-Rex was kind of being a dick but I wasn't playing very well against him. Overall, it was a good run because of good luck.
- Sigma Stage 4: Everyone died except me. I cried because Mega Man X is a hero. Hanz found a faster way to beat Sigma's first form, but I pussied out because it's a little riskier. Expect to see it in the next run that pops up here.
That's pretty much it. Thank you so much to the following people:
- Mike, Nate, Enhasa, and Dex for being a super duper SDA team. Super ultra mega thanks to Nate for putting up with my DVD recorder, which sucks.
- Freddy "Frezy_Man" Andersson for making the 34:09 run and being an all-around good sport and advice-giver. And he's really god damn hot. Holy shit.
- Everyone watching the streams I did for pushing me and encouraging me to finish the run (scroll up for more details).
- Everyone doing all that TAS stuff for this game (I guess mainly FractalFusion? I don't know).
- YOU, for watching!
If you want to contact me:
AIM: goldenlightning7
MSN/E-mail: soaringeagle93 AT hotmail DOT com
Original Ustream recording: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1690384 <-- There is some after-run stuff here, if you're interested.
Ustream channel: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tiki%27s-mega-man-stuff - I stream EVERY time I play on a console, so watch out for it!
Please subscribe to my YouTube account if you liked this run:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Tiki656
And here are my Facebook and TwitLOLNO
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[00:56] <ZenicReverie> Why has Dr. Light never upgraded Mega Man to shoot up?
[00:57] <romscout> no he can
[00:57] <JOE_THE_PLUMBER> mega man has always been able to shoot up
[00:57] <JOE_THE_PLUMBER> he's just too fucking stupid
[00:57] <romscout> mega man is just too stupid to look up