I thought this day...and this game...would never come...but here it is...
The story begins in the past, where a committee chooses Dr. Light's research into robots with independent thought over Dr. Wily's project. Dr. Wily takes offense to this, and storms off guaranteeing to the committee that the world will soon learn that he was right.
Dr. Wily then wakes up out of bed, complaining that bad memories make the worst dreams. Suddenly, he remembers his research from his youth...
When you start a new game, you will get four difficulties: Newcomer, Casual, Normal and Superhero. NCS will be playing under the Normal difficulty for this Let's Play.
At the start of a new game, it is still 20XX and Dr. Light is giving robots their annual maintenance check-up. He has just checked on Block Man, who is a construction robot. He thanks Dr. Light, and heads to the construction site. Roll reminds Dr. Light that Torch Man, Acid Man, Impact Man, Bounce Man, Fuse Man, Tundra Man and Blast Man are left. Way to spoil the surprise of who we have to face in the game, Roll. Torch Man is about to get his check-up when what seems like an earthquake hits Dr. Light's laboratory.
Dr. Wily breaks in through the ceiling, and tells Dr. Light that he has recalled some research that was crushed by their student committee back in their university years, and has perfected the design. Block Man and the seven other Man robots all show up at once to check on Dr. Light and confront Dr. Wily, but Dr. Wily decides to make them test subjects with the Speed Gear. Dr. Light tells all eight of them to run and hide, but it is too late; the Speed Gear has allowed Dr. Wily to run away with them all.
Dr. Wily is now back in the same place he was before using the Speed Gear, and now has Block Man in a barrier. He promises that the world will bow down to his genius, then leaves. Mega Man is about to head off and go after Dr. Wily, but Dr. Light tells him about Dr. Wily's invention: the Double Gear system, which pushes robots far beyond their normal strength and speed. He is afraid that Mega Man will not stand a chance if Dr. Wily really has completed it, but realizes Mega Man will let nothing stop him. He hands Mega Man the prototype that Dr. Wily developed back at Robot University, and warns him that the great strain it can place on robot systems can be dangerous. Mega Man goes ahead with the upgrade, and a few days later, the Double Gear is fully installed. The adventure then starts.
You can then get an explanation of the Double Gear system and the Double Gear technique, which you can skip. There are three different techniques that you can use, and the Double Gear system allows you to do some pretty nifty things that can sometimes make the game easier at times. You'll want to be careful with it, however, as using it long enough to the point that you fill up the gauge that pops up above Mega Man's head will overheat him, and when he overheats, you won't be able to use the Double Gear system again until Mega Man has cooled down.
You'll then get the stage select screen. NCS will be starting with Blast Man.
Blast Man
In case you can't tell what things are on the upper-left corner of the screen, the yellow gauge is your health (which you don't want empty; obviously), the red gauge is for Rush Coil, which you start with at the beginning of the game, and below both gauges is the gauge for the Double Gear system. More on that gauge later.
Also, you can slide in this game after being unable to in the ninth and tenth games (which always grinded my gears), and you can charge the Buster again. Now we can go back to putting the "Mega" in Mega Buster! The only draw back is that Mega Man gets knocked back a little bit while firing a fully-powered shot.
Blue pick-ups still give you weapon energy, yellow ones still give you health, and the screws are back as use for currency in Dr. Light's Lab, which you can access by pressing L on the stage select menu. Of course, Mega Man heads will give you extra lives.
The robot with the red flamethrower can on its back will shoot fireballs into the air, which will then drop onto the ground. When you shoot them down, the can will fly into the air and then fall down as a desperation attack.
If you land on any small red blocks that are connected to a purple box on the wall, a fuse will light up from the purple box and travel down the pipeline to the red boxes, blowing them up. If anything is next to them when they blow up, the explosions will hit them, too. This leads to chain reactions that blow up multiple flammable boxes, where you'll have to run from beginning to end to avoid getting hit. It starts out a little simply at the beginning, but as you progress, you'll be sliding to avoid explosions that will hit Mega Man in the head and you may have to make use of the Speed Gear. (Again, more on that later.)
The small screw robots that scamper back and forth will, when shot, get knocked back and blow up when destroyed. They can also jump into the air, glow purple, and home in on your current position with a flying kick.
The Speed Gear is the blue gear on the system that allows Mega Man to slow the game speed down for a limited time. It's like The Matrix or Max Payne-esque bullet time, except you're using it in a Mega Man game. You'll move slowly as well, but so will everything else, and you'll be able to avoid everything and also handle difficult jumps more easily.
Not only are the Sniper Joes - and their attack patterns where they hide behind their shields and make themselves vulnerable to attack when they shoot - back for this game, but so are the mechs that they rode in the second game. Shoot the mech riders in the head to destroy both them and the mech at the same time. These guys shoot four projectiles, one forward and three down and forward, with each shot being closer to the mech than the last.
By blowing up the yellow bus, you can get to a higher area that even the Rush Coil won't be able to get you to.
The purple and gray rocket cars with the small screw robots are the mini-boss here. They spin around on an oval track in the background, and the small screw robots will jump out of them. You will want to hit the rocket cars with fully charged shots while also dealing with the robots that pop out. If you can get the explosion of a robot to hit one of the cars, you can deal some sweet damage.
When one car runs into another, they will both bounce off each other repeatedly. When this happens, get to the center of the room and keep jumping until it stops, and get some fully-charged Mega Buster shots in on one of the cars.
Once you take one car out, it won't be long until you take out the other one.
Remember those rotor robots that opened up, shot a projectile, closed back up and flew at you from the earlier games? They're back after the mini-boss, and they are vulnerable when they open up to shoot at you.
Spikes, as ever, are instant death when you touch them.
Also, just like every other game, there is an "I move back and forth, speed up when you're at my level, and am vulnerable to only one weapon while everything bounces off" enemy. They seem to be the same ones from the eighth game. You can destroy them with the Chain Blast.
Blast Man will jump up and throw a series of five bombs that will explode on the walls and floor. Find a safe spot at a distance, then use the Speed Gear to do some fine-tuning if you have to and get some fully-charged Mega Buster shots in.
The bombs with the "white spikes" on them are sticky bombs. They will float in the air, and if Mega Man gets close enough to them, they will follow them and also group up into a small cluster for an even bigger explosion. When they glow red, they're about to blow.
When Blast Man glows orange and creates an energy wave around him, he will use the Power Gear. He usually does this when he is down to 50% health. When this happens, he will throw even bigger bombs with even bigger blast radii. You can stand between them, but space between the explosions will be a tad tight. This is where the Speed Gear really comes in handy.
Beating Blast Man will net you Chain Blast, which lets you shoot the sticky bombs. You can connect up to four just like Blast Man did, and you can control when it detonates. Using the Power Gear will let you fire bigger bombs.
Also, unlike past games, instead of just getting a simple color change, Mega Man's physical appearance changes a little bit, with Mega Man getting the spikes that were on Blast Man's helmet.
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