Wednesday, June 21, 2017

PrinceWatercress plays Mega Man X3 - Part 3 of 11


Well, there's no audiovisual desync here, but the action is as hot as ever! Time to roast some Mavericks!

Blizzard Buffalo


You'll meet another typing of flying enemy at the beginning. These guys will fire missiles straight ahead when they see you.

After the first ladder, you'll see a platform you can stand on. However, this won't be used to any extent...yet.

You'll see empty rooms separated by doors midway through the levels. These rooms will serve a purpose later on.

Light blue boulders will drop from the ceiling when you get close enough. Don't let them touch you, as they will deal six HP of damage when they do. Shoot them down quickly before they get their rock armor back!

The level gets darker and lighter at certain points, but once you manage to make it back outside from the cave segment into an open-air area, you'll have new hazards and enemies to deal with. The wind generator below the bridge will blow you upwards in the air, but it's not a problem. What is a problem are the blue robots that shoot straight ahead with their arm cannon from a fixed position, as well as the snowmobiles that spit out snowballs from the back.

At the end of this stage is Blizzard Buffalo. Blizzard Buffalo will try to dash into you, and also use two attacks: throwing ice crystals that turn into Frost Shields when they hit a surface and a laser that spans the entire room. If you here a rather low noise, you'll know he's firing the laser. It should also be noted that the Frost Shields track your current location, and if you move around too much, you'll be trapped in a corner until probably the last possible second, as the Frost Shields can stick to walls.

Blizzard Buffalo will also charge at you, even from as far as the other side of the room. You don't want him to touch you at this point, because he will grab you and smack you right into the wall if he does.

You can easily fight this guy with the X-Buster, but his weakness is the Parasitic Bomb from Blast Hornet's stage. If you hit him with that, it'll stop him dead in his tracks.

Beating Blizzard Buffalo gives you the Frost Shield. It works like Blizzard Buffalo's weapon, but it has to bounce off a wall or an enemy in order to perform the shield properties.

When you beat two Mavericks (doesn't matter which ones), you'll see Dr. Doppler. He calls for Bit and Byte, and tells them to bring X back alive. You'll also find out that Vile is still alive (despite being named "MYSTERIOUSMAVERICK" here) and that Dr. Doppler's master is obviously Sigma.

Gravity Beetle


The first section takes place in some hangars, and we spend about fifteen seconds showing off the beginning of the stage theme, which is as good as the late '90s got for Super Nintendo music. 

After the first set of doors, you'll climb up a ladder. Wall jump up the left wall, dash jump to the right and dash straight-up in mid-air to reach a strange icon with a small blue "F" on it. You'll find out what this does soon enough.

On the plane, the wheel enemies from the first X game are reprised. This time, they're green and they sprout blades across their bodies when you come close enough.

After the second door, you'll find the platform we saw in Blizzard Buffalo. Since you have that strange "F" icon now, I'll go ahead and mention what it is: it's the Robot Ride platforms. Instead of having to steal one, you have to go to one of these platforms and use one of the icons for the Robot Ride Armors you found to choose that armor. Different Robot Rides obviously have different powers. The "F" icon is the Frog Robot Ride armor, which allows for aquatic "flight" in underwater areas. Unfortunately, you need the Normal armor to even use these things, and we'll find these soon enough. All you have to do is wall kick up the left-hand wall, jump to the right and dash upwards with the air dash in the right position so you can get it.

Near the end are some boxes that act as a wall. You'll need to use a Robot Ride armor to break that, but that won't be happening yet

Gravity Beetle is weak to the Ray Splasher, but if you don't have it, the fight against him is going to be much harder. Gravity Beetle will throw gravity voids at you that bounce off the walls a few times and can cause some major damage. You'll have to keep him as far away from you as possible as you whittle away at your health bar. Sometimes he'll have two of those voids on the screen at once. He also has a tackle attack where he flashes sickly colors much like Tunnel Rhino does during some of his tackles, and predictably, he's also invulnerable when he flashes that way.

When he's down to about half health, Gravity Beetle will then throw a black hole into the ceiling. If you leap into it, it will hurt, so stay low when you jump over and dash past him.

Beating Gravity Beetle will award you with the Gravity Well. This weapon will attack any airbone enemies and destroy them, and will try to suck in their parts as long as its onscreen.

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