[Music] oh boy, it's Mega Man. This game's like a legend. It's pretty [ __ ] good. I mean, I don't really feel like I need to sing its praises, but whatever. It's got tight controls. It's got a simple objective. It's just [ __ ] fun to play. So go slap it in your NES machine and have a grand old time. Before 1987, when Mega Man came out, it was hard for a lot of game designers to understand what games needed to engross a player, you know, to carry you along, to keep you wanting to play their game. About there really wasn't like a book written on game design, and oftentimes designers wrote books on why their game was fun, like literally. You had to read through manuals, and even then, the games were still confusing. I don't even like inherent rules of game design didn't exist. So video gaming was treated like traditional gaming, you know, like baseball and solitaire. You just had

to have someone like tell you the rules, and then you can kind of play after you watch someone else play a couple of times. And I don't get it, and there's not really anything wrong with that, but what's unique about video games is that there are ways that you can teach a player as they play. And I'm not talking about educational games, Mavis Bacon, number Munch. I'm talking about teaching a player all about your game, you know, like how to play it. Now, usually when you hear things like how to play, you think of things like a tutorial or a bunch of stupid dumb menus that pop up that you got to read, or one of these, See, look, I know you're not a stupid kid because I say [__] a lot, and you're okay with that. And I think it's kind of weird how gaming subject matter has been aimed more towards adults and teenagers with all the blood and the killing and the bam boom, but the way games are designed seems

like it's catering more towards kids who don't know what the [ __ ] is going on with the world. They don't know Obama. Let me give you an example. This is a very scientific graph showing the amount of times a gamer says yeah, I get it during gameplay over the years. See, in the '80s, this very rarely happened because games were crafty about the way they taught players, and they did a pretty good job respecting the intelligence of human beings. Sometimes they made things a little too oh man, what now? You can see there was a rapid increase in yeah, I get it in the late '90s due to gaming hitting the mainstream. This is a result of game developers assuming the non-gamer masses are all dumb and they can't identify simple patterns in their head like normal human beings can and need to be able to do in order to be besides. No matter how stupid you are, I'm sure you don't enjoy when you're having a good time and all of a sudden someone

comes up and goes, Hey, you know what you need to do? You really need to jump over this open pit because it'll kill you. Okay, I just wanted you to know. Okay, thanks. So, what does all this crap have to do with Mega Man? Well, everything really. Mega Man's major strength, even way back in the '80s, has always been its ability to teach a player through its level design. It won't very often put you in a situation where you have to learn, like, immediately how to do something and then react faster than your brain can even respond. Yeah, like that. Let's take a look at some examples. Mega Man 1 and Gutsman and Stage. There are these platforms sliding along these little path lines. You jump on the first platform with no fear, whatever, and then you just kind of ride it out. And then, What the [__] is that thing? Mega Man. Mega Man, there's a hole in the zipline. No, shut up. I don't need

you because look, the game shows me what it is before I even feel confident enough to jump down another platform, moves over it, and whoosh. Okay, so there you go, I fall to my death. I'm glad I knew that, so I wasn't [ __ ] shoved down my throat by a robot chiming in. Get it, man? Too. I'm sure you all know this Quickman stage has this segment where you just start dropping, but right away, there's these big yellow beams that are like, And so Mega Man, Mega Man, come in. There's these big yellow beams to kill you if you shut your mouth. I don't need you because look, the stage is shaped like a funnel, so it draws me towards the bottom. So I've got no problem feeling there's some tension in escaping these obnoxiously loud death beams, you dumb [ __ ] all around Mega Man 3. There's these green ball swinging dudes. Mega Man, Mega Man, those are called Hammer Joes. They'll swing their Mighty Hammer around.

and then throw it, so you better watch your. I already know this because look, the levels are all designed so it's uncommon for you to actually be in their line of fire once they throw their ball for the first time. The designers wanted it to feel justified when you got hit. It was your fault you got hit, not theirs, and overcoming that obstacle is more satisfying as a result 'cause you're improving by learning Mega Man 5 and Gyro man states that she gone [__] serious. Okay, all right. I don't think I hear anything. So in Gyro man stage, there's these flying spiky dudes that fall down on you, but you kind of have a lot of space to avoid them, so it's not really a big deal. But suddenly you jump on this weird platform, and because you're Mega Man, those platforms following, hey no [__] [__] they're falling, they're [__] falling. I can see that. How many [__] I'm going crazy.

here I'm sorry I just I don't feel sorry for you okay so you jump on these platforms and since there's really nothing in your way you're just kind of like oh I'm just going to keep going right but then you see they're falling and so after learning about both those things the spiky guys and the falling Platforms in a controlled environment you're introduced to both at the same time so now there's like this really big challenge so you don't feel like nobody told you what the [ __ ] going on with the spiky guys and the Fallen rocks so cool all right so after six games of Mega Man with some slight changes here and there people were like H [ __ ] Mega whatever Mega Man 12 was just Land Before Time Capcom was like [ __ ] people are losing interest in Mega Man we got to make a new holy [ __ ] this awesome look at the graphics and the music oh my god it feels so good

it's not on Sega Genesis, it's Super Nintendo. See, this is a sequel. This is a [ __ ] sequel. You thought I was going to talk about bad sequels all the time on sequelitis [ __ ]? No, this game makes my dick rock hard. Remember in the first episode, you know what they did wrong, what they did right [ __ ]? Please, this is why Mega Man X is so [ __ ] good that it makes my RO hard. Also, I talk about what elements of the original Mega Man games were enhanced to be even more effective. Number one, the intro stage. All right, so if you're a seasoned Mega Man classic player, the first thing you'll notice about Mega Man X is that you don't immediately get thrown into a stage select. You always start out on an intro level. H, so let me level with you for a second. Electrical engineering is pretty smart. General relativity, it's pretty [ __ ] smart. The intro stage in Mega Man [ __ ] genius. The classic Mega Man's

had a lot of teaching tools strewn about its design, but the game itself was, you know, pretty simple. It was just a game about jumping and shooting. Jump and shoot should have been called jumping shoot man, jumping and shoo. Hey Mega Man, what are you doing? Oh, nothing, I'm just jumping, shooting. What are you going to do next? I'm going to run, and I'm going to run to the right, and then I'm going to jump Sho. There weren't a lot of complex concepts in the overall design, so it didn't need a lot of time to teach you the basics. Mega Man X, on the other hand, has so much to offer, and it teaches you all of it in the first level. No, in the first [__] seconds of the game, it's nuts. So, I'm going to show you everything it teaches you on this little checklist here. I'm going to check it off whenever it teaches you. All right, okay, so let's turn it on and start this thing up. Okay, skip the intro [__]. Okay, okay, so

oh, look at that, you got a little Mega Man on the menu screen. That's nice. See, right off the bat, that's kind of strange how he's the cursor, right? Usually, it's like an arrow or like a finger or something. I don't know. Anyway, you press start and wh [ __ ] did you see that he shot a little green blast out of his hand there? That was Neato. By the way, this is important, so write it down 'cause I'm going to do like a thing where I blow your [ __ ] mind. All right, so moving on, so ready and teleporting, bam, there's X just standing there. So, so let's just assume I'm like a [ __ ] idiot like modern game devs assume I am. I don't know what to do. I don't. I don't know what I'm doing, okay? So I'm holding the controller, uh, so there's arrows on this thing, and maybe the right arrow makes me go right. Oh my God, I'm moving right. Holy

[ __ ] so there's a wall to my left, so I should probably go right, right? Yeah, that's cool. All right, so I'm walking. I'm walking. Giant wheel with spikes. Oh God, oh God, go back, go back, go back, go back, go back, back. Oh [ __ ] no. Oh, go man, okay, so I got a lot of life, so that wasn't a big deal. It's okay to make those mistakes. I'm good, I'm good, unless I fall into a [ __ ] damn it. Okay, so I got a lot of lives too. Okay, so it's good to make those mistakes too. I'm ready. Let's [ __ ] [ __ ] this spiky dude up. All right, so if I can't walk through the dude, I must be able to do something else. All right, so uh, there's some buttons on this controller. Hit some buttons and what? Oh my God, I'm in the air. I'm jumping. Holy [ __ ], I'm like a, I'm like a

jump man. I'm going to jump over this guy, no biggie. It's cool, yeah. I'm the [ __ ] best. Holy [ __ ] new guy. He's shooting things at me. I don't know who. Oh my God, why. Okay, okay, so I can jump over his things, but he's too tall to jump over. Maybe I can like wait a second. Flashback on the title screen. I shot a green thingy when I pressed start. So how do I. I'm going to press buttons and yeah, yeah, lemons. All right, I did it. I beat. I beat the guy. See what confuses me though is that I shot a green thingy on the title screen, but um, I only shot lemons when I hit the button and no other button shoots the green thingy. So what do I. How do I shoot the green thingy. Well for the sake of pacing in the video and for the fact that I'm going to blow your [ __ ] M with this [ __ ], let's assume that I'm not willing.

to experiment any further than what I've done, and I'm a stubborn dick, and I just want to move on, so let's move on. Next up are some flying enemies. Just jump and shoot them. Holy [ __ ]. I can jump and shoot at the same time. This game's amazing. This is so cool. This is so goddamn cool. What the [ __ ] is that a be? Yeah, just to let you know, there's going to be mini bosses, and they're going to be [ __ ] awesome. This battle also acts as a small misdirection for a battle that's coming up that I'll go into when it happens. It's going to play your [ __ ] mind. Also, what they drop. These enemies that have these long legs, they walk real slow, so you get just the right amount of time to realize that your shots are going through their legs. They're not hitting them, so you just tried the big dumb head, and Bam, they're dead. So now you know that there are

certain enemies who need to be attacked at certain sweet spots. See, this entire situation is teaching you all the rules of the game. And do you feel like you're in school yet? Do you feel like Mrs. T. Williger is going to give you detention for playing video games in class? No, you feel like you're playing a game, stupid. All right, so let's get serious here for a second. Check this [ __ ] [ __ ] out. Take down the bubblebee man, and he falls and goes boom. And now you're stuck in a ditch. Well, what the [ __ ]? How the [ __ ] am I supposed to get out of here? You go left, you go right, and there's no way out. What do you [ __ ] do? Okay, so here we go. Bumblebee man fell on the right side of the platform, but there's this little gap between him and the wall. Now, when you're drawn to the walls because there really isn't anything else to be drawn.

to you hop up on the Bumblebee run at the wall, and then you slide down the wall. Now you can easily observe your descent is slow. There's a little smoke trail coming up, so you try it again, and this time hitting buttons. Usually, you know the jump button 'cause that's the only function you've learned so far that makes you ascend. And B, bang, b boom, you're hopping on the walls. That's how you get out. Good job. Now, now as a little additional bonus, on the right of the ditch, you see that there's health items and stuff. So you know if you want to test out your newfound ability that you taught yourself, by the way, the game didn't mag mag, yeah, you get the whole idea. You can go grab the reward, and it feels [__] great, feels [__] good. But hey, you know, maybe this all seems silly to you, like duh, right? Like of course you learn about a game by playing it long enough. That's like an inherent

thing about games right now, like think of a game like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the NES, for example. Everybody should play this game if you want to get into game design. It's a perfect example of doing nothing to teach the player about its limits and goals. Nothing in this game seems to make sense. Stuff happens at random. People hurt you, some people don't. You walk backwards as Mr. Hyde. I don't, of course. The game itself has limits. It has rules. It is a game, but it doesn't teach you anything about itself through the gameplay. And on top of that, the presentation's confusing 'cause all the clashing information you're being fed constantly. Just play this game for 2 minutes, and you will understand how poorly you can teach a player how to play your stupid game. The term used a lot for this concept is conveyance, and I think that's a fitting name. I mean, haven't you ever been playing a game, and you're just like, What do I do? Where do I go? That's what I'm

talking about that's bad conveyance. All right, okay, so now are you ready to get your mind [ __ ] blown? 'Cause this is where I'm going to [ __ ] blow your [ __ ] mind. You get to the end of the level, got to be some stupid cars or whatever, I don't [ __ ] know, riding on [Music] cars. Then this [ __ ] huge ass dude comes down in a giant robot Man suit and starts wrecking your [ __ ] [ __ ] all the things I've learned, all the things I've applied, aren't helping me. He's just [ __ ] wrecking me. How weak and helpless do you feel? Mind blow number one: you have no idea if you're hurting vile or not. So you don't have any idea whether or not this is a scripted sequence or not because the first boss you fight in the game, the B, doesn't have a life bar. So how are you supposed to

know whether or not Mega Man X goes about the same conventions as Mega Man classic. What if all the enemies don't have life bars? You don't know this helps drive the helplessness point home. You have no idea what you're doing to this guy fighting for your life, so to add insult to injury, he traps you in a little electrical cage thing, and then he grabs the [__] out of you, and he's like [__], and you're like [__], and he laughs, and you cry. But what's that wa [__]? That's the blasty thing I saw earlier on the title screen. That's what I want. I want that. How do I [__]? What? How do I do that? And who the [__] is this person? Is that a guy or a girl? I don't [__] know, but D, what's that? Looks like he's charging his shot. That's what the mind blow number two. It all makes sense now. The green shot is the same shot that Zero fires, and I have to

charge up my Buster to do it. Now I know I didn't have to have somebody tell me with a Mega Man shut up so clearly this guy's awesome. He just wrecked this dude you didn't even know you could do damage on and the dude's like oh and just runs away. So he turns around this guy's name Zero by the way so he looks over at you and he's like look X let me level with you for a second you're strong but you're not as strong as I am but check it out some day you will be as strong as I am. What the this blew my goddamn mind when I was little forget it I get to be as cool as zero forget it the crazy super Blue Buster shot the dash the the the hair I don't know it's zero I want to

be him this my little sequili itis disease is this is called theming this is what makes the feel of Mega Man X's story elements feel so potent. Everything in this game has to do with Mega Man X growing stronger, and all the elements are clear. You not only have the personal parallel character Zero, who represents how strong you will become, but also the goal to defeat vile, who at this point in time you can't even visibly damage. And this isn't just experienced in Cuts scene or anything like that, it's also expressed in gameplay. You get to feel the utter helplessness of being so weak as a player. You don't have to empathize with a character on a screen, the feeling happens directly to you. So now you have true motivation as a player, you want to defeat this [__] you couldn't even damage, and you want to do it by becoming as strong as zero. How do you do this? By playing the [__] game. You find the armor, you beat the enemies, you ride on

the cool roller coaster thing, all the armor upgrades, which by the way, make you look more like Zero, the health upgrades, the enemy upgrades, they're all motifs of the theme of growing stronger. Everything that makes Mega Man X unique resonates with the theme it establishes immediately and through to the end. You feel something, a connection to the hero that not a lot of games can successfully manifest. Something you legitimately desire as a player is something that's relevant to the game story. Your desire to surpass Zero and defeat Vile are both gameplay elements that are fun and interesting theming intro stage. [ __ ] number two movement. Okay, so let me cool down for a second. Mega Man classic had super tight controls, nobody can argue that. The movement was at a really nice, non-frustrating speed. Your hitbox was really clear and square, like jumping felt good because you could control height, and you could also control your trajectory midair. How does that even work? Now, what's interesting is Mega Man X's controls were nearly identical. Seriously, the speed, the jump

ARs, they're pretty much spot-on from the first games. I mean, why fix what isn't broken? But now there's two factors that dramatically change the way the entire game is designed: wall jumping and dashing, an ability zero had. How about that [ __ ]? Now it seems like two really simple upgrades, but everything is different now. The way you avoid enemies, the way you can approach enemies, the way you can traverse obstacles, everything. These two movement options give you the ability to go more places, much more easily and much more quickly, which means the terrain had to expand to accommodate. Mega Man classic focused a lot on single-screen obstacle course type layouts, which were basically rendered obsolete by dashing and wall jumping. Not to mention the flow of the game's openness would be [ __ ] up by the super slow screen transitions from Mega Man classic, which have all been completely eliminated except for the boss battle introduction rooms, which in my opinion actually increases the drama even more so before a boss battle.

because now there's a huge contract from how the rest of the game goes about its scene transition. Now dashing also uniquely influences another change in terrain slops. The ability to ascend but still maintain a dash and not have to run into a stupid wall was essential to keeping the game's flow intact. Now wall jumping exclusively affected the abundance of vertical segments. Mega Man classic tried the whole vertical thing with the Elect Man stage in Mega Man 1, and they were dumb and hard, and they didn't revisit them unless they involved some sort of gimmick like the bubbles in Waveman stage or straight down falling like Man stage, which comes a lot more naturally to Mega Man's control scheme because I mean there's gravity, which gravity. So that's it, that's number two. Number three, man, I just like Mega Man X. I mean, I'm serious. I this is like my favorite game, so I'm just going to like

I'm just going to gush right now, okay? I'm just going to gush. Dude, wasn't it awesome when you used Boomer Kuwanger's weapon on Flame Mammoth and his trunk came off? That was so... yeah. Wasn't it so neat how you could ride in like a giant Mobile Suit armor and like punch... oh man, wasn't it the bomb getting the Street Fighter Hadouken and then like trashing Vile like in one hit, just bam? Yeah. All that stress you gave me in the first level, I don't even give a... yeah. Wasn't it cool how like Storm Eagle's stage was like... it wasn't even like in a box room, it was like outside on an airship and you were like, Oh, he's flying around. Where the... is... isn't it cool that if

you like decide to skip the to getting the mobile suit armor thing then if you just walk forward as regular X the other enemies that are in Mobile suit armors they're actually outside their Mobile Suit armors so you get like a chance to kind of like stand a chance against them cuz they're [ __ ] hard right and then if you kill them before they go into their Mobile Suit you can steal it and it's God [ __ ] brilliant you know how Sigma you know how the last boss sigma's like really [ __ ] hard even if you have full subtanks so like you use up all your subtanks and then you die and you're like well [ __ ] now I don't even stand a chance because I couldn't even beat them with four subtanks but the level right before you go up to Sigma has like these infinitely spawning caterpillars that you can just kill with armor millo's charge thing and you could just stand there and be like and just

kill him, and then your subtanks get filled up in like a second, and then you could beat Sigma again. It's [ __ ] brilliant. It's amazing. God, all right, so that's it. Just go on eBay and buy a Super Nintendo unless you already have one [ __ ]. Just go. Just play Mega Man X. All right, it's good. I swear it's [ __ ]. Go. If this makes me that excited, if I can tear down Castlevania 2, which people have been like, Oh, it's a good game, and I'm like, Mega X, the best game ever, then you better [ __ ] play this game because it's good riding on [Music] cars.

Sequelitis - Mega Man Classic vs. Mega Man X

Sequelitis - Mega Man Classic vs. Mega Man X