Mega Man X - The OST

Here it is: the soundtrack for Mega Man X.

NintendoCapriSun plays Mega Man X - Part 10 of 10

What can the Hadouken do? A lot, apparently.

NintendoCapriSun plays Mega Man X - Part 9 of 10

Enjoy your ending.

NintendoCapriSun plays Mega Man X - Part 8 of 10

This is it. It's the final fight.

Sigma Stage 4

This is just a simple wall climb to the final chamber. There are two holes near the bottom that caterpillars will come out of. If you need to refill on health or weapons energy or if you need to fill up your Sub-Tanks, you can do it here, but it's going to be very monotonous. You're better off backtracking to another stage before you go here.

When you reach the top, you'll meet Sigma, who will sic his dog on you. It will run around the room, shoot fireballs and also leap off the walls, but Shotgun Ice will do the most damage to it.

When you beat the dog, you'll finally take on Sigma himself. The Electric Spark will do the most damage, but to land a hit on him you'll have to avoid his lightsaber as well as his wall jumps. To avoid the latter, jump up to the upper corner of a wall. When he's just below you during the wall jumps, leap down right when he leaps to the other wall and he'll follow you back down.

When you defeat Sigma, his head will remain. It will float onto the head of a giant robotic wolf body. The hands will not only shoot lightning bolts in two directions (up and down), but also try to smack you. Wait for one of the hands to lower, then shoot at Sigma's head with the Rolling Shield. You can also wall jump to one of the hands, but they can still attack even when you're on them, so be careful. When the eyes of the wolf head flash, they're about to do one of two attacks, a wide spread projectile firing that goes from left to right that is hard to avoid, or a flamethrower attack that goes from right to left.

When you beat Sigma, you've finally done it.

NintendoCapriSun plays Mega Man X - Part 7 of 10

We continue through Sigma's fortress and take the fight to more of the Mavericks one more time!

Sigma Stage 2

Remember the platforms from the Storm Eagle stage? Well, they're back, and they now run across paths on walls that are much easier to see.

You'll face Chill Penguin right after the beginning. Since you have the Fire Wave this time, you can proceed to light him on fire.

The Robot Ride soldiers can be killed before they can hitch a ride. You can do this with the Fire Wave.

You'll soon come across a bridge, where you'll face Storm Eagle.

Use the fully charged version of Chameleon Sting to get to the final boss. Be sure to save weapons energy for it, because you're going to need it for the boss at the end of this section.

This is a wall face. The weak spots are the two eyes that pop out as well as the center piece. After the two eyes come out to hit you and return, the walls will close in a little bit and allow for the "nose" to fly around and hit you. Sometimes the eyes will be blue instead of red, and will shoot fireballs in two directions. If you take the eyes out first, the walls won't narrow the room down when you finish off the center piece.

Sigma Stage 3

No sooner do you begin this stage that you have to fight Armored Armadillo.

You'll take on Sting Chameleon soon after. Since you now have the Boomerang Cutter, you can basically get him in an infinite damage loop. When he latches onto the ceiling with his tongue, just fire a Boomerang Cutter towards him. It will arc upwards and knock him off, and he'll leap over you and do the same thing again. Once again, face him and shoot a Boomerang Cutter. This will keep happening until he dies.

You'll then face Spark Mandrill, followed by Launch Octopus and Flame Mammoth.

Finally, you'll take on some sort of dinosaur skull tank with an independently moving platform at the bottom. The bottom will move back and forth across the ground, smashing the walls as the top "skull" part flies around. The top part is the thing you want to hit, and you want to hit it with the Boomerang Cutter. When they combine and create lightning bolts, leap up the left wall and stay in the corner to avoid the purple energy balls it shoots out.

Whatever you do, you don't want to be on the bottom platform when it hits a wall, or X will be stunned for a few seconds. You also don't want to be on it when the top part moves towards it, either.

NintendoCapriSun plays Mega Man X - Part 6 of 10

We're nearly done. Now it's time to take down Sigma and save humanity!

Sigma Stage 1

After taking on several enemies, you'll have to take flying platforms to the opening to Sigma's fortress. Those flying pink and purple robots will dog you during your jumps, but the Storm Tornado can stick around long enough to destroy them.

When you reach the mid-level doors, you'll meet Vile. Zero will chase him into the following rooms, and before you enter, you'll hear some heavy fighting before the room goes silent. When you enter the large hallway at the other end, you'll find out Zero has been captured, and Vile takes you on.

This battle is much like the one you had with him in the intro stage. Just like before, keep pounding on him with the X-Buster, and get hit by the yellow energy ball after you get low on health. Zero breaks out of the energy cage and destroys Vile's robot armor, leaving you to fight just Vile. Your health will be fully restored for this battle.

Vile's weakness is the Rolling Shield. Vile will jump and dash around and also throw grenades that create explosions that move along the ground, but the Rolling Shield will destroy him after a few hits.

Go right and you'll talk to Zero one last time. His lower half is missing due to the explosion that destroyed Vile's Robot Ride armor. If you haven't gotten the Arm upgrade from Flame Mammoth's stage, he'll give it to you here. Zero "dies," even though he's restored in the next game.

You'll then see the trip laser robot systems from the Boomer Kuwanger stage after this. You'll also see springs on the ground that make it easier to jump over a lot of stuff, especially if you're dashing around.

You'll see a vertical section once you make it past all that. By fully charging the Chameleon Sting weapon, you'll be able to get through this part without taking unnecessary damage. There are flying robots similar to the pink and purple ones that you've seen throughout the game, but these are blue and purple and just fly downward in a sine wave pattern.

You'll fight Boomer Kuwanger next. You know what to do here. Use the Homing Missile. Unlike the NES series, there are no teleporter pods that lead to the Mavericks at all. Even the first NES Mega Man game had teleporter pods, albeit different from how they traditionally work. Instead, you'll have to fight them at certain points in the fortress. You also don't get to refill your health after you beat them.

As always, the rematches against the Mavericks involve the same strategies needed to beat them the first time.

One more short section later, and you'll take on a giant spider. The only weapon you can use against it is the X-Buster. This may remind you of those Japanese lottery games (or at least that mini-game from Super Mario Land 2). There are four columns, and green bars will spawn at random places. The spider will go down one, and if it comes in contact with a green bar, it must cross it before going down again. You have very little time to figure out where it's going to go, and it's almost like the spider homes in on you. When the spider reaches the bottom, smack it with a charged-up X-Buster shot before it rises back up to the ceiling.

Every once in a while, the spider will send out smaller spiders, that will go for the nearest ceiling and climb up it. You'll have to shoot enough of them to clear the floor. Whenever it spits out spiders, it goes back to the ceiling again before continuing its regular attack.

This is a good fight to have all four Sub-Tanks filled up for, as this one can drive you nuts. 

CGR Undertow reviews Mega Man X

Here it is: CGR Undertow's review of Mega Man X.

NintendoCapriSun plays Mega Man X - Part 5 of 10

It's now time to backtrack for the last of the secrets and get prepared for the final stages of the game.

Boomer Kuwanger dashes a lot and will throw the pincers on his head like a boomerang. He also turns translucent and teleports everywhere. If you have the Homing Missile, you'll be able to hit him and knock him out of his disappearing act. He's easy at this point.

Beating Boomer Kuwanger gives you the Boomerang Cutter. If the weapon returns to you, you regain the energy you lost from firing it. You can also use it to grab items from a distance.

When you beat all eight Mavericks, Zero will know where Sigma's fortress is. You can now play the Sigma stages, but before we do that, let's find everything first. It makes getting through the game much easier.

Spark Mandrill - Secrets

Stay close to the bottom at the beginning as you keep going right. To reach the Sub-Tank, jump up and fire the Boomerang Cutter. The weapon will arc downwards instead of upwards, allowing you to grab the Sub-Tank.

Also, if you want to leave a stage you've already completed, use the Escape Unit. This allows you to go back to the Stage Select screen.

Chill Penguin - Heart Tank

Remember that part where you had to ditch the Robot Ride armor and scale a wall, only to choose between going left and going right? Go left this time. One of the silos that contain the dragonfly robots has a Heart Piece. Just destroy it with the Fire Wave.

Sting Chameleon - Heart Tank

Now that you've beaten the Launch Octopus stage, go back to Sting Chameleon's stage. Remember the pit before the cave? Instead of going up, go down the pit. You'll be able to break the rock wall with the wall jump. Now that there's a pool of water to jump around in, you can Dash jump to the right and get the Heart Tank.

Armored Armadillo - The Hadouken

To get this, you must first have all the Heart Tanks, Sub-Tanks, enemy weapons, and power-ups. Play through the level like normal. When you reach the final mine cart, which launches you through the air at the end of the level. Just before you reach the wall, jump up and climb the wall. At the top, there will be a large health pick-up. Get it, and either fall into the pit or exit the level. Repeat this step five times. On the fifth time through, a capsule will appear on that same ledge. Dr. Light will show up dressed as Ryu, and he will give you the ability to use the Hadoken. You can use it just like in Street Fighter II: Down, Down-Forward, Forward and then Y. You must have full health in order to use it, or else it won't work. If you turn the power off or reset, you'll have to do all this again to get it back.

If you need to stock up on stuff, the bats at the beginning of this level are a good source of things. It should also be noted that there is sometimes a red bat similar to those in Mega Man 2 that can show up here. This bat will almost always drop an extra life when killed, so you can keep getting this bat to respawn for free lives.

NintendoCapriSun plays Mega Man X - Part 4 of 10

We're pretty much done with the Mavericks at this rate.

Armored Armadillo will roll around the room and bounce all over the place at 45-degree angles. He's invulnerable when he does this, so keep dodging him until he stops rolling and hit him with the Electric Spark. This will fry the shields off of him. He also fires electric shocks out of a cannon in his head, but you can easily avoid him and win this shoot-out.

Since he no longer has his shields, he can be damaged even during his rolling attack.

Beating Armored Armadillo gives you the Rolling Shield.

Launch Octopus

It won't be long until you go deep into the water. Here, you'll take on robot seahorses that roll into balls and try to slam into you.

You'll be taking on two submarines that act as seperate mini-bosses. They have the ability to suck you towards them and/or blow you away from them, and they also send out robot lampreys that zig-zag across the screen and into different directions. If you keep firing at the submarine, the lampreys won't pose much of a threat. The second sub battle also has you dealing with spikes, but if you pay attention at all times and keep taking out the lampreys while firing at the sub, you shouldn't have a problem.

The puffer fish will try to suck you into them. If that happens, keep firing at the fish until it's destroyed.

After the second submarine, you'll see a green ship that sends out those yellow grabbing robots and also shoots out bombs. Use the tornado generator to get on the top of it and take it out with the Storm Tornado. The ship will crash through the ground and open up a secret area. You'll take on a sea dragon here (you may remember the head of it from the conveyor belts in the Flame Mammoth stage). Stand on its body as it moves around and shoot at its head with Storm Tornado. You'll be able to easily take it down. Make your way to the right and you'll get the Heart Tank for this level.

Launch Octopus not only jumps around while shooting regular bullets and homing missiles, he can also create a whirlpool around him that keeps you away and also repels your firepower. The Rolling Shield will do the most damage to him. If you use the Boomerang Cutter on him, you can cut his arms off and put him at a disadvantage.

Beating Launch Octopus gives you the Horming Torpedo. Yes, you read that right. That's actually how the game spells "Homing Torpedo." Chalk it up to a mistranslation on the way to the West.

Boomer Kuwanger

What's a Kuwanger, you ask? Well, Boomer Kuwanger is a stag beetle, and Kuwanger is actually a play on the Japanese word for "stag beetle," kuwagata. It doesn't translate well outside of Japan, though.

Instead of going right all the time, you'll be spending more of your time climbing up a tower. The turrets that move up and down the walls and slowly track you will move up suddenly when you fire at them. Different weapons will be able to hit them from a standing position, and you can jump prior to shooting a charged X-Buster shot to get rid of them.

The laser beams have blue robots above them. If you trip these lasers, these robots will fire a laser at you. The Dash ability makes it much easier to get away from them if that happens, though.

You'll take an elevator up after this. Avoid both the walls and the spiked platforms that get in your way as you make your way to the end of it.

After this part, there will be platforms that move in and out of the side of the building that have turrets on them. You'll also see robot lizards that move up and down the ladders, which you'll have to take out before you can move on.

You can charge up Shotgun Ice to maximum to create a moving ice platform. You can then use that to get the Heart Tank at the end of this part.

The next part has you taking out those spinning turrets from Spark Mandrill's stage, which are now on moving platforms. Take out the turrets, then use the moving platforms to get to the top. You'll then face Boomer Kuwanger...

NintendoCapriSun plays Mega Man X - Part 3 of 10

Time to blow through over 25% of the game.

Flame Mammoth

Flame Mammoth is not only the easiest Maverick to take down with the X-Buster, he's also where the weakness cycle repeats itself.

If Chill Penguin's stage hasn't been completed yet, the lava circling this stage will be red hot, and there will also be lava plumes halfway through the level. There also won't be snow everywhere, either.

The conveyor belts push around both robot heads (which don't do anything) and robots that will fire lasers at you. If either of these enemies fall off of the conveyor belts, they break apart and die.

Once you make it past the conveyor belts, you'll see the platforms where the lava plumes are supposed to come out through the cracks. Since you have the Helmet and Dash upgrades, you can now make a dashing jump off the left edge of the first of these plaforms and break the blocks to the left. Break the blocks with your head, and you'll be able to find the fourth and last upgrade capsule. This will change the appearance of X's arms and power-up the mega buster, giving him a third charge level. You'll notice it when you hold the fire button longer and X glows purple instead of yellow. This makes for an even more powerful shot that can go through enemies and take out even more that are behind it.

This also allows you to charge up all of the special weapons. Fire a special weapon when X is glowing purple, and you'll be able to perform a unique ability that you wouldn't be able to do otherwise. Of course, this uses more weapon energy, but sometimes it's worth it. Among the best charge-ups are for Chameleon Sting (which turns X translucent and has his sprite cycle through the color spectrum, making him invincible and giving him the ability to run through enemies)

The miner robots will throw pickaxes at you.

The lower-right corner of this area hides the Heart Tank for this level. If you've completed Chill Penguin's level, this is a lot easier to obtain. If you can make it to the end and go all the way to the left, keeping to the top of the area, you'll be able to break some blocks that block your way to another Sub-Tank.

You'll see some more conveyor belts just like those in the beginning of the level, but you'll also see crushers. If you use your Dash ability, you'll be able to move past them without a hitch.

The last section of this level has you dealing with pipes. Lava droplets leak out of them at certain points, and you'll have spikes that move back and forth while spinning around. 

Flame Mammoth is perhaps the easiest boss to beat with the X-Buster, but the Storm Tornado takes him out even more quickly. Flame Mammoth has a few attacks. The most notable one is that he can shoot flames out of his trunk, as well as blobs of oil. You'll also be fighting Flame Mammoth on a conveyor belt. If he raises his arms and roars, the conveyor belt will change direction. He also jumps around.

If he shoots out a blob of oil and then hits it with his flame attack, it will ignite and cause a huge flame that you'll have no choice but to use the walls to avoid.

If you hit Flame Mammoth with the Boomerang Cutter, his jump attack will be the only thing he can do, as his other attacks will be made useless, including reversing the conveyor belt's direction.

Beating Flame Mammoth gives you the Fire Wave.

Spark Mandrill

Oh, wow. If you've beaten the Storm Eagle stage, you'll finally find out where that jet crashed: Spark Mandrill's stage. Usually, there are a lot of areas to walk around in with electric currents forcing you to jump every couple of seconds, there's not as much. Also, the power will go out in a few spots at the beginning.

You'll see a few flying enemies that shoot out a beam of light as they quickly pass by. Take them out with fully charged shots, or better yet, use the Storm Tornado to get rid of them as easily as possible.

You'll see a mid-boss shortly after you begin the stage. This is some red robot in some blue gelatinous material. It will shoot four small blobs of this stuff at you, and if it touches you, you'll be stuck to the floor for a while. This mid-boss will move across the ceiling as well as the floor, and when it's on the ceiling, it will also shoot lightning bolts at the floor. If you've beaten Storm Eagle's stage, however, it won't be able to do that.

You'll also see ceiling turrets that spin around and shoot, as well as gold robots with two spike arms and one wheel that move around and try to chase you down.

You'll also see large tortoise style robots that shoot bombs with parachutes at you. Like most enemies, they're fairly easy.

After the first tortoise, you'll see the Heart Tank for this stage. You can press A and B at the same time to do a dashing jump off of the wall to get it, even though you're normally expected to get it by doing a dashing jump towards it and grabbing it with the Boomerang Cutter.

Through the second half of the level, the power will keep going on and off, and it will also be dim in some parts. Keep your weapons ready and be prepared to make some wall jumps, as some more of those flying robots from this level will show up near the end.

Spark Mandrill's weakness is the Shotgun Ice. While you can directly hit him with it, the weapon also splits into five smaller crystals that scatter at linear angles if it hits a wall.

Spark Mandrill sends large shockwaves along the floor, walls and ceilings, and he can also climb on the ceiling to get the drop on you. If you hit him with the Shotgun Ice, he'll be frozen for a few seconds. If you can time it right, you can keep hitting him with the Shotgun Ice and repeatedly freezing him.

Beating Spark Mandrill gives you the Electric Spark.

Armored Armadillo

The mine cart at the beginning of the stage lets you power through quite a bit of stage and almost set a land-speed record in the process. Don't worry about taking damage from enemies, as this spiked and seemingly unstable cart plows through them. Of course, you'll have to jump off before it sends you down a pit.

You'll then be chased by a digging robot. It takes a bit of abuse before it goes down, but if you go back to where it was, you'll find the third Sub-Tank. The spike pit will kill the digging robot, but it goes down in mere seconds with the Fire Wave.

After some more mine cart madness, you'll see another digging robot. Take it out with the Fire Wave. This makes it easier to get the Heart Tank for this stage, since the digging robot hasn't destroyed that part of the ceiling.

You'll then see the last mine cart, which will help you breeze through the last of the stage. Keep your X-Buster ready, so you can actually hit the birds near the end.

NintendoCapriSun plays Mega Man X - Part 2 of 10

Phew! Now that that looooong first entry is finally behind us, it's now time to focus on taking on more of the Mavericks!

Sting Chameleon

The game does not zoom in on the center when you select a stage, by the way. I wish it did, though, now that I think about it.

Anyway, Sting Chameleon is one of the last Robot Masters you'll take on if you're doing it in order of weakness. So why do this one now? Because the Armor Upgrade is here, that's why.

Some of the pits here will have water in them if you've beaten the Launch Octopus stage.

In this stage, the woodcutters return, but you also have robot grasshoppers and mettaurs with bushes for heads that are really easy to defeat, with or without the small worms they shoot at you.

You'll then come across a cave. Instead of going in, go back. From there, leap up to the ceiling of the cave and jump up the wall. You'll find an area that's pretty easy to miss. There will be a robot that you will have to fight off here. Avoid its extendable arm and shoot it in the head until it's gone. If you're far enough away, you shouldn't have a problem. This robot will also try to jump on you, but the Dash ability will make avoiding him easy.

When you beat this robot, the capsule will appear. Jump in and X will now have a white armor plating covering his torso that cuts the damage he receives by half.

The cave has falling rocks all around. You can destroy them with the Mega Buster, but they'll just keep coming. If you have the Helmet upgrade from Storm Eagle's stage, these rocks will not harm you if you are standing completely still. The large rocks are really monsters that throw boulders at you.

The robot woodpeckers send robot caterpillars at you if you're close enough.

The green robots with the shields and maces have a unique way of being destroyed. Get close enough so they shoot the mace at you, then get between the mace and the robot and shoot it down. Jump over the mace as it returns and advances, and shoot at the robot until it's destroyed.

You'll find some more Robot Ride armor (as the game calls it), and it will help you traverse through the mud pit much faster.

Unless you have the Boomerang Cutter from Boomer Kuwanger's stage, you're going to have a harder time. But since you have the Armor upgrade, taking him on with the X-Buster isn't as bad as it usually is.

Sting Chameleon's major attack is blending in with the background and being almost completely transparent. You can still see him, but just barely. He's also invulnerable when he's blended in, so you'll have to wait for him to turn opaque again before you can go back on the warpath.

Sting Chameleon has two other attacks. He'll latch onto the ceiling with his tongue and shake spikes out of the ceiling. He can also hang onto the wall and shoot a three-way stinger shot out of his tail. If you and Sting Chameleon are both in opposing corners, you're in the easiest position to dodge this attack. You won't even have to jump!

If you're in range, he'll get you with his tongue. It's a really good mid-range weapon that's hard to see coming. He usually attacks with his tongue if he's in the center of the room.

Beating Sting Chameleon will award you the Chameleon Sting.

Storm Eagle

The yellow robot with the hook arms that you'll see at the beginning of this stage will grab you, fly around with you in its grasp and explode in an attempt to take you with it unless you fire at it and mash the buttons to get loose.

If you get to the top of the platforms at the beginning and make a dashing jump to the left, you'll find a red, heart-shaped icon with metal on the top and bottom. This is the the Heart Tank for this level. The Heart Tanks add to your maximum health, and collecting all of them will give you as much health as the bosses! You may be asking "Well, PrinceWatercress, why do we have so little health?" This is why. You take less damage from all the enemies in the game compared to previous Mega Man games, but you have half the health of the original Mega Man to balance out the difficulty. If you want the same amount of health as the bosses, you'll have to earn it.

You'll also see windows and gasoline tanks that you can shoot down and take out to find some secret stuff.

The Mettaurs here will pop out when you're close enough and try to run into you. Thankfully, they have the same vulnerability as they did in 20XX: as soon as they show their face, they can take a bullet in the face.

After the "Airport 1001" sign, use the platforms that go up and down to find a window you can shoot out. Blow out one side of it, and you'll destroy all of the windows. You'll find a Sub-Tank here. These are like the Energy Tanks in the classic series, but with a twist: they're re-usable and can only be filled by picking up health power-ups while your health is full. There are four in the game to collect, and filling them up prior to a boss battle will give you a definite edge.

Some of the flying platforms contain turrets that shoot a line of flames at you. They can be easily taken out with a fully charged X-Buster shot, and their weapons don't have a very good range.

Near the end, there is a wall of gasoline tanks that can be shot down. This leads to a secret area that leads to another upgrade capsule. This will upgrade X's helmet, and allow him to break certain blocks with his head.

You'll reach some platforms at the end. They fall into the abyss shortly after you stand on them, so get to the other side quickly! These lead to a jet. You may remember this jet from the intro stage. Guess what? If you go through it, take down the two turrets along the way and stand on the lift platform, you'll tear this jet apart.

You'll then have a flat ground to fight Storm Eagle on. He'll swoop down at you from one side of the screen (which is best dodged with dashing jumps), spit eggs that send out four birds at you, and try to push you back with either his Storm Tornado weapons or with his wings (walk and dash towards these to keep from being knocked off the sides of the jet).

If you have the Chameleon Sting weapon, you'll be able to beat him more quickly. If not, go at him with the X-Buster and fire off fully charged shots. Storm Eagle is one of the easiest Mavericks to beat with the good ol' arm cannon.

Beating Storm Eagle gives you the Storm Tornado.

NintendoCapriSun plays Mega Man X - Part 1 of 10

Why three Mega Man games at one time? Because after Mega Man 5 Capcom made a Game Boy sub-series and ultimately different sagas that took place in a time after the classic Mega Man universe.

After the events of 20XX, Dr. Light made one more robot before he passed away. This was a robot warrior that had the ability to think for himself and have the same high-level thought processes, emotions and feelings as human. Since this technology had not been done before and had yet to be proven, he stored this robot, Mega Man X (who we'll simply call X at this point), in a diagnostic capusle somewhere. The opening shows Dr. Cain in 21XX, who has managed to unearth Dr. Light's cache of hidden secrets, on his computer. This basically shows the specs of Mega Man X as well as a huge warning file involving the new technology involved in creating him, as he is afraid that X will turn on mankind.

Now, let's take a look at this intro screen. You're telling me that in the years 2105, 2109 and 2114, we'll be computing with hard drives that have several terabytes worth of information? Well, I got news for you, 1992's version of the future. This is 2013, and we've been using 1 and 2 TB hard drives (external, no less!) for the past few years now. Also, data caches that only consist of mere kilobytes?

Really? REALLY? Really?!?

I'm pretty sure I'll be dead by that time, but in and after 2100, I'm pretty sure that we'll have so many exabytes (one exabyte is 1024 terabytes, or 1048576 gigabytes) that we can...oh, I don't know...create our own private miniature Internets?!?

Also, for something that's supposed to take place about 100 years after the time I've written this guide, these are really, really conservative estimates. Web browsers in 2013 use several megabytes worth of data for their data caches, so how could you save everything in mere kilobytes? Now, granted, this game was made shortly before the Internet was unleashed upon the masses...but seriously...kilobytes?

Anyway, you'll see the warning screen which says that X is in a capsule that continuously runs diagnostic tests on him. Long story short, Dr. Cain frees X, and the technology used to make him is recreated with help from X to create replicate androids, or "Reploids," which have the same freedom of thought X has, and the world flourishes. Then, the Reploids go rogue and go on a terror spree to the point that Sigma, one of Dr. Cain's greatest creations under the Reploid technology, does the same. At this point, Sigma becomes the leader of these rogues, which go by the name of "the Mavericks." (In Japan, they're known as the "Irregulars.") He feels that humans have inhibited the growth of Reploids, and has now declared all-out war on humanity to drive them into extinction.

The Maverick Hunters were created to capture and disable "Mavericks," rogue Reploids who go haywire and partake in any sort of criminal activity. They also have a role in damage control in any incidents involving Mavericks. However, the Hunters' numbers have been decimated somehow. X, feeling guilt in helping create such a dangerous type of robots, goes out on his own to take the Reploids on himself.

Highway

Unlike past Mega Man games, the first game in the X had a few things that hadn't been shown in the series before. Besides a mature storyline that would blossom in future entries, it also introduced the intro stage, which you had to go through before you could tackle the meat of the story.

The spiked wheels fall after a few shots, but can be completely destroyed with a charged shot. In this game, instead of a Mega Buster, you have the X-Buster, which is basically the same weapon except much more advanced and able to charge up other weapons, as you'll see later in the game.

The blue robots that stand there and shake have two attacks: missiles that can't be repelled by any weapons as well as electric shocks that travel across the ground. Both attacks can be jumped over.

The purple flying enemies will crush the highway with their spiked bottoms. If you destroy the extendable spiked bottoms, the explosion will travel up to the robots themselves and get rid of them, which is pretty advanced for something we've seen this far in the history of the entire series.

The pick-ups are back, as always. The white and gold ones are health, while the blue and gold ones are weapons energy.

You'll soon take on a giant mechanical hornet which has a machine gun in front of it. Hit it with a combination of normal and charged shots. It also sends out white spherical robots with legs that can only be hit in the face. When you destroy the hornet, it falls and sends the bridge careening down with it. To get back up and continue, jump towards the wall and keep holding forward on the Control Pad. As you do, keep holding forwards and jump repeatedly. This is Mega Man's wall jump, and you'll be using it not only throughout this game, but throughout the entire X series as well.

You can also keep holding forwards on the wall without jumping to gently slide down the wall.

It should be noted that as you go through the highway, the ground gets light, then dark, then light again as you go forward.

The gold hornet-like robots shoot bombs onto the ground. They're easy to destroy for the most part, but around the time that you start seeing them, you'll also see parts of the ground that will crumble and fall when you stand on them.

The pink and purple robots with the helicopter blades on their head will follow you around and dog you unless you get rid of them immediately. Charged shots work best on them.

The robots in the cars will fire lasers at you. When you do enough damage to the cars, they'll be damaged and the driver will be destroyed, but the cars will keep going. You can actually take a ride on these cars at this point, believe it or not. You can also keep destroying the cars to the point that they no longer move around at all. You can let them sit there and explode or you can just hasten the inevitable and get rid of them immediately.

When you reach the end, a giant jet plane will be on the top of the screen and send a bunch of car-driving robots at you. You've already tackled them before the end of the stage, so they're nothing you can't handle at this point.

After you take out four of these cars, you'll see some guy dressed up very much like a purple Boba Fett in a giant, armored robot body with two hands and two legs. This guy is Vile. Not surprisingly, he's known as Vava (spelled VAVA) in Japan due to the fact that he looks very similar to Boba Fett. There's nothing you can do against this guy; he will pound you into scrap metal and your X-Buster will have no effect on him. When you're low on health (which also puts X in an animation where he breathes heavily and the red crystal on his helmet flashes if he's standing still), he starts shooting out yellow energy projectiles that gently fall towards both you and the ground. Have one of them hit you. You're not supposed to win this battle, but you're not supposed to die, either. Instead of dying here, you'll be caught in a energy field that leaves you immobile. Vile grabs you, and before he can destroy you, a giant arm cannon blast knocks the arm off of Vile's robot. The blast comes from a red robot with what seems like long, blonde hair and even more outlandish-looking armor. Vile flees on the returning jet, which takes off before this guy can do some real damage to him.

Apparently, he already knows who X is. (This is also the only time in the game where X has a speaking part.) He tells you to become more powerful if you have any chance of being able to turn the tide in the war against the Mavericks. He plans to scout ahead for more information on Sigma's fortress, and will meet X there when he makes it. Zero then leaves, and X leaves the area as well.

After beating an area, you'll get a 12-digit password, with all the digits being anywhere from one to nine. For the first time, the passwords got more complex, as the X games had more secrets than the classic saga did on the NES.

The stage select screen is more complex-looking as well. You'll be able to tell where in the city you'll fight a Maverick (which are basically the Robot Masters of this saga) with a map. Apparently, you're going throughout a city as opposed to the entire world.

Chill Penguin

Instead of "insert-item-here Man" for boss names, you have "adjective noun." Usually the name involves an ability name as well as an animal name coming after it.

The flying gold robots are back, but you also have snow rabbits with laser-shooting ears, woodcutter robots that send parts of a metal tree stump at you with their axes and bats that hang on the ceiling and fly at you. The woodcutters can be taken out with a fully charged shot, as can the robo-rabbits. The tree stumps regenerate, but they can blasted endlessly if you're bored enough to do it.

You'll eventually go through a cave, taking on those bats as well as the rolling wheel robots, then you'll come across a capsule. When you approach it, you'll see a hologram of Dr. Light. I'm guessing he knew this time would come, and has placed capsules in certain areas for X to find to enhance his abilities. This one will give X the ability to dash, either by double-tapping Left or Right on the control pad or by pressing A.

The capsule abilities also change X's appearance. With the Dash ability, X will have white panels on his upper legs.

The ostrich robots have buzzsaws on their heads. They have some weird smile on their face before they rotate their upper body, flinging the buzzsaw forwards.

You'll soon come across a sea green robot, similar to what Vile was riding. Jump into it, and you'll be able to dash, jump and punch the crap out of anything until you either get off or the robot is destroyed. These robots will prove very useful against the guys in the Robot Suits, who take a lot of abuse unless you have a robot of your own. They also can destroy the silos that produces the flying dragonfly robots that try to drop small bombs on you.

At one point, you won't be able to go any further with the robot, so you'll have to continue on foot. After scaling a wall, you'll either have a choice of continuing to the right, or going up to the cave ceiling to the left and seeing what's up there. Go right. There is something to the left, but you won't be able 

You'll be dealing with snowballs that get bigger as they roll down the hill as well as robots that throw snowballs at you.

The doors that lead to the boss are more advanced...and judging by the loud noise they make when they slam, a lot more menacing, too.

Chill Penguin has a freeze breath that creates two ice penguins that can be used as temporary shields, which break after a few hits from the X-Buster. He also spits balls of solid ice at you, too. He also has a slide attack that has him slide around the room for a few seconds, as well as a high-flying stomp attack that's easy to move under. His nastiest tactic, however, is a hook in the center of the ceiling that blows you to the left and leaves you unable to move. When that happens, charge up the X-Buster and hit him when he's at ground level.

If you have the Fire Wave from Flame Mammoth's stage, you can do some major damage from close range. The weapon also sets him on fire, which leads to another first in the Mega Man universe - bosses reacting to certain weapons. Unless he's about to do the slide attack (which makes him invulnerable), all the Fire Wave has to do is touch him to set him ablaze, allowing you to almost corner him.

Beating Chill Penguin rewards you with the Shotgun Ice.

The Music of Mega Man X

Here you go, guys: 34 tracks of awesome!

PrinceWatercress plays Mega Man X - Part 8 of 8

This is it. It's the final fight.

Sigma Stage 4

This is just a simple wall climb to the final chamber. There are two holes near the bottom that caterpillars will come out of. If you need to refill on health or weapons energy or if you need to fill up your Sub-Tanks, you can do it here, but it's going to be very monotonous. You're better off backtracking to another stage before you go here.

When you reach the top, you'll meet Sigma, who will sic his dog on you. It will run around the room, shoot fireballs and also leap off the walls, but Shotgun Ice will do the most damage to it.

When you beat the dog, you'll finally take on Sigma himself. The Electric Spark will do the most damage, but to land a hit on him you'll have to avoid his lightsaber as well as his wall jumps. To avoid the latter, jump up to the upper corner of a wall. When he's just below you during the wall jumps, leap down right when he leaps to the other wall and he'll follow you back down.

When you defeat Sigma, his head will remain. It will float onto the head of a giant robotic wolf body. The hands will not only shoot lightning bolts in two directions (up and down), but also try to smack you. Wait for one of the hands to lower, then shoot at Sigma's head with the Rolling Shield. You can also wall jump to one of the hands, but they can still attack even when you're on them, so be careful. When the eyes of the wolf head flash, they're about to do one of two attacks, a wide spread projectile firing that goes from left to right that is hard to avoid, or a flamethrower attack that goes from right to left.

When you beat Sigma, you've finally done it. Enjoy your ending.

PrinceWatercress plays Mega Man X - Part 7 of 8

Sigma Stage 3 brings the last of the Maverick rematches and is pretty darn quick.

Sigma Stage 3

No sooner do you begin this stage that you have to fight Armored Armadillo.

You'll take on Sting Chameleon soon after. Since you now have the Boomerang Cutter, you can basically get him in an infinite damage loop. When he latches onto the ceiling with his tongue, just fire a Boomerang Cutter towards him. It will arc upwards and knock him off, and he'll leap over you and do the same thing again. Once again, face him and shoot a Boomerang Cutter. This will keep happening until he dies.

You'll then face Spark Mandrill, followed by Launch Octopus and Flame Mammoth.

Finally, you'll take on some sort of dinosaur skull tank with an independently moving platform at the bottom. The bottom will move back and forth across the ground, smashing the walls as the top "skull" part flies around. The top part is the thing you want to hit, and you want to hit it with the Boomerang Cutter. When they combine and create lightning bolts, leap up the left wall and stay in the corner to avoid the purple energy balls it shoots out.


Whatever you do, you don't want to be on the bottom platform when it hits a wall, or X will be stunned for a few seconds. You also don't want to be on it when the top part moves towards it, either.

PrinceWatercress plays Mega Man X - Part 6 of 8

We're nearly done. Now it's time to take down Sigma and save humanity!

Sigma Stage 1

After taking on several enemies, you'll have to take flying platforms to the opening to Sigma's fortress. Those flying pink and purple robots will dog you during your jumps, but the Storm Tornado can stick around long enough to destroy them.

When you reach the mid-level doors, you'll meet Vile. Zero will chase him into the following rooms, and before you enter, you'll hear some heavy fighting before the room goes silent. When you enter the large hallway at the other end, you'll find out Zero has been captured, and Vile takes you on.

This battle is much like the one you had with him in the intro stage. Just like before, keep pounding on him with the X-Buster, and get hit by the yellow energy ball after you get low on health. Zero breaks out of the energy cage and destroys Vile's robot armor, leaving you to fight just Vile. Your health will be fully restored for this battle.

Vile's weakness is the Rolling Shield. Vile will jump and dash around and also throw grenades that create explosions that move along the ground, but the Rolling Shield will destroy him after a few hits.

Go right and you'll talk to Zero one last time. His lower half is missing due to the explosion that destroyed Vile's Robot Ride armor. If you haven't gotten the Arm upgrade from Flame Mammoth's stage, he'll give it to you here. Zero "dies," even though he's restored in the next game.

You'll then see the trip laser robot systems from the Boomer Kuwanger stage after this. You'll also see springs on the ground that make it easier to jump over a lot of stuff, especially if you're dashing around.

You'll see a vertical section once you make it past all that. By fully charging the Chameleon Sting weapon, you'll be able to get through this part without taking unnecessary damage. There are flying robots similar to the pink and purple ones that you've seen throughout the game, but these are blue and purple and just fly downward in a sine wave pattern.

You'll fight Boomer Kuwanger next. You know what to do here. Use the Homing Missile. Unless the NES series (as well as #6), there are no teleporter pods that lead to the Mavericks at all. Even the first NES Mega Man game had teleporter pods, albeit acting differently from how they traditionally work. Instead, you'll have to fight them at certain points in the fortress. You also don't get to refill your health after you beat them.

As always, the rematches against the Mavericks involve the same strategies needed to beat them the first time.

One more short section later, and you'll take on a giant spider. The only weapon you can use against it is the X-Buster. This may remind you of those Japanese lottery games (or at least that mini-game from Super Mario Land 2). There are four columns, and green bars will spawn at random places. The spider will go down one, and if it comes in contact with a green bar, it must cross it before going down again. You have very little time to figure out where it's going to go, and it's almost like the spider homes in on you. When the spider reaches the bottom, smack the red jewel you see when its body opens up with a charged-up X-Buster shot before it rises back up to the ceiling.

Every once in a while, the spider will send out smaller spiders, that will go for the nearest ceiling and climb up it. You'll have to shoot enough of them to clear the floor. Whenever it spits out spiders, it goes back to the ceiling again before continuing its regular attack.

This is a good fight to have all four Sub-Tanks filled up for, as this one can drive you nuts.

Sigma Stage 2

Remember the platforms from the Storm Eagle stage? Well, they're back, and they now run across paths on walls that are much easier to see.

You'll face Chill Penguin right after the beginning. Since you have the Fire Wave this time, you can proceed to light him on fire.

The Robot Ride soldiers can be killed before they can hitch a ride. You can do this with the Fire Wave.

You'll soon come across a bridge, where you'll face Storm Eagle.

Use the fully charged version of Chameleon Sting to get to the final boss. Be sure to save weapons energy for it, because you're going to need it for the boss at the end of this section.


This is a wall face. The weak spots are the two eyes that pop out as well as the center piece. After the two eyes come out to hit you and return, the walls will close in a little bit and allow for the "nose" to fly around and hit you. Sometimes the eyes will be blue instead of red, and will shoot fireballs in two directions. If you take the eyes out first, the walls won't narrow the room down when you finish off the center piece.

PrinceWatercress plays Mega Man X - Part 5 of 8

We've got everything. Now it's time for Sigma.

Sting Chameleon - Heart Tank

Now that you've beaten the Launch Octopus stage, go back to Sting Chameleon's stage. Remember the pit before the cave? Instead of going up, go down the pit. You'll be able to break the rock wall with the wall jump. Now that there's a pool of water to jump around in, you can Dash jump to the right and get the Heart Tank.

Boomer Kuwanger

What's a Kuwanger, you ask? Well, Boomer Kuwanger is a stag beetle, and Kuwanger is actually a play on the Japanese word for "stag beetle," kuwagata. It doesn't translate well outside of Japan, though.

Instead of going right all the time, you'll be spending more of your time climbing up a tower. The turrets that move up and down the walls and slowly track you will move up suddenly when you fire at them. Different weapons will be able to hit them from a standing position, and you can jump prior to shooting a charged X-Buster shot to get rid of them.

The laser beams have blue robots above them. If you trip these lasers, these robots will fire a laser at you. The Dash ability makes it much easier to get away from them if that happens, though.

You'll take an elevator up after this. Avoid both the walls and the spiked platforms that get in your way as you make your way to the end of it.

After this part, there will be platforms that move in and out of the side of the building that have turrets on them. You'll also see robot lizards that move up and down the ladders, which you'll have to take out before you can move on.

You can charge up Shotgun Ice to maximum to create a moving ice platform. You can then use that to get the Heart Tank at the end of this part.

The next part has you taking out those spinning turrets from Spark Mandrill's stage, which are now on moving platforms. Take out the turrets, then use the moving platforms to get to the top. You'll then face Boomer Kuwanger.

Boomer Kuwanger dashes a lot and will throw the pincers on his head like a boomerang. He also turns translucent and teleports everywhere. If you have the Homing Missile, you'll be able to hit him and knock him out of his disappearing act. He's easy at this point.

Beating Boomer Kuwanger gives you the Boomerang Cutter. If the weapon returns to you, you regain the energy you lost from firing it. You can also use it to grab items from a distance.

When you beat all eight Mavericks, Zero will know where Sigma's fortress is. You can now play the Sigma stages, but before we do that, let's find everything first. It makes getting through the game much easier.

Spark Mandrill - Secrets

Stay close to the bottom at the beginning as you keep going right. To reach the Sub-Tank, jump up, then hold Down on the Control Pad and fire the Boomerang Cutter. The weapon will arc downwards instead of upwards, allowing you to grab the Sub-Tank.

Also, if you want to leave a stage you've already completed, use the Escape Unit. This allows you to go back to the Stage Select screen.

Armored Armadillo - The Hadouken

To get this, you must first have all the Heart Tanks, Sub-Tanks, enemy weapons, and power-ups. Play through the level like normal. When you reach the final mine cart, which launches you through the air at the end of the level. Just before you reach the wall, jump up and climb the wall. At the top, there will be a large health pick-up. Get it, and either fall into the pit or exit the level. Repeat this step five times. On the fifth time through, a capsule will appear on that same ledge. Dr. Light will show up dressed as Ryu, and he will give you the ability to use the Hadoken. You can use it just like in Street Fighter II: Down, Down-Forward, Forward and then Y. You must have full health in order to use it, or else it won't work. If you turn the power off or reset, you'll have to do all this again to get it back.


If you need to stock up on stuff, the bats at the beginning of this level are a good source of things. It should also be noted that there is sometimes a red bat similar to those in Mega Man 2 that can show up here. This bat will almost always drop an extra life when killed, so you can keep getting this bat to respawn for free lives.

Spark Mandrill A Capella by Smooth McGroove

Because why not.

PrinceWatercress plays Mega Man X - Part 4 of 8

Next up on the list: two Heart Tanks, two Sub-Tanks and the first death of the Let's Play.

Armored Armadillo

The mine cart at the beginning of the stage lets you power through quite a bit of stage and almost set a land-speed record in the process. Don't worry about taking damage from enemies, as this spiked and seemingly unstable cart plows through them. Of course, you'll have to jump off before it sends you down a pit.

You'll then be chased by a digging robot. It takes a bit of abuse before it goes down, but if you go back to where it was, you'll find the third Sub-Tank. The spike pit will kill the digging robot, but it goes down in mere seconds with the Fire Wave.

After some more mine cart madness, you'll see another digging robot. Take it out with the Fire Wave. This makes it easier to get the Heart Tank for this stage, since the digging robot hasn't destroyed the part of the ceiling from which you can wall jump to access it.

You'll then see the last mine cart, which will help you breeze through the last of the stage. Keep your X-Buster ready, so you can actually hit the birds near the end.

Armored Armadillo will roll around the room and bounce all over the place at 45-degree angles. He's invulnerable when he does this, so keep dodging him until he stops rolling and hit him with the Electric Spark. This will fry the shields off of him. He also fires electric shocks out of a cannon in his head, but you can easily avoid him and win this shoot-out.

Since he no longer has his shields, he can be damaged even during his rolling attack.

Beating Armored Armadillo gives you the Rolling Shield.

Launch Octopus

It won't be long until you go deep into the water. Here, you'll take on robot seahorses that roll into balls and try to slam into you.

You'll be taking on two submarines that act as separate mini-bosses. They have the ability to suck you towards them and/or blow you away from them, and they also send out robot lampreys that zig-zag across the screen and into different directions. If you keep firing at the submarine, the lampreys won't pose much of a threat. The second sub battle also has you dealing with spikes, but if you pay attention at all times and keep taking out the lampreys while firing at the sub, you shouldn't have a problem.

The puffer fish will try to suck you into them. If that happens, keep firing at the fish until it's destroyed.

After the second submarine, you'll see a green ship that sends out those yellow grabbing robots and also shoots out bombs. Use the tornado generator to get on the top of it and take it out with the Storm Tornado. The ship will crash through the ground and open up a secret area. You'll take on a sea dragon here (you may remember the head of it from the conveyor belts in the Flame Mammoth stage). Stand on its body as it moves around and shoot at its head with Storm Tornado. You'll be able to easily take it down. Make your way to the right and you'll get the Heart Tank for this level.

Launch Octopus not only jumps around while shooting regular bullets and homing missiles, he can also create a whirlpool around him that keeps you away and also repels your firepower. The Rolling Shield will do the most damage to him. If you use the Boomerang Cutter on him, you can cut his arms off and put him at a disadvantage.


Beating Launch Octopus gives you the Horming Torpedo. Yes, you read that right. That's actually how the game spells "Homing Torpedo." Chalk it up to a mistranslation on the way to America.

PrinceWatercress plays Mega Man X - Part 3 of 8

In this episode, Spark Mandrill puts on a light show and I show off the versatility of Shotgun Ice. Oh, and I also get all the enhancements for X. Check it out!

Sting Chameleon

The game does not zoom in on the center when you select a stage, by the way. I wish it did, though, now that I think about it.

Anyway, Sting Chameleon is one of the last Robot Masters you'll take on if you're doing it in order of weakness. So why do this one now? Because the Armor Upgrade is here, that's why.

Some of the pits here will have water in them if you've beaten the Launch Octopus stage.

In this stage, the woodcutters return, but you also have robot grasshoppers and mettaurs with bushes for heads that are really easy to defeat, with or without the small worms they shoot at you.

You'll then come across a cave. Instead of going in, go back. From there, leap up to the ceiling of the cave and jump up the wall. You'll find an area that's pretty easy to miss. There will be a robot that you will have to fight off here. Avoid its extendable arm and shoot it in the head until it's gone. If you're far enough away, you shouldn't have a problem. This robot will also try to jump on you, but the Dash ability will make avoiding him easy.

When you beat this robot, the capsule will appear. Jump in and X will now have a white armor plating covering his torso that cuts the damage he receives by half.

The cave has falling rocks all around. You can destroy them with the Mega Buster, but they'll just keep coming. If you have the Helmet upgrade from Storm Eagle's stage, these rocks will not harm you if you are standing completely still. The large rocks are really monsters that throw boulders at you.

The robot woodpeckers send robot caterpillars at you if you're close enough.

The green robots with the shields and maces have a unique way of being destroyed. Get close enough so they shoot the mace at you, then get between the mace and the robot and shoot it down. Jump over the mace as it returns and advances, and shoot at the robot until it's destroyed.

You'll find some more Robot Ride armor (as the game calls it), and it will help you traverse through the mud pit much faster.

Unless you have the Boomerang Cutter from Boomer Kuwanger's stage, you're going to have a harder time. But since you have the Armor upgrade, taking him on with the X-Buster isn't as bad as it usually is.

Sting Chameleon's major attack is blending in with the background and being almost completely transparent. You can still see him, but just barely. He's also invulnerable when he's blended in, so you'll have to wait for him to turn opaque again before you can go back on the warpath.

Sting Chameleon has two other attacks. He'll latch onto the ceiling with his tongue and shake spikes out of the ceiling. He can also hang onto the wall and shoot a three-way stinger shot out of his tail. If you and Sting Chameleon are both in opposing corners, you're in the easiest position to dodge this attack. You won't even have to jump!

If you're in range, he'll get you with his tongue. It's a really good mid-range weapon that's hard to see coming. He usually attacks with his tongue if he's in the center of the room.

Beating Sting Chameleon will award you the Chameleon Sting.

Chill Penguin - Heart Tank

Remember that part where you had to ditch the Robot Ride armor and scale a wall, only to choose between going left and going right? Go left this time. One of the silos that contain the dragonfly robots has a Heart Piece. Just destroy it with the Fire Wave.

Spark Mandrill

Oh, wow. If you've beaten the Storm Eagle stage, you'll finally find out where that jet crashed: Spark Mandrill's stage. Usually, there are a lot of areas to walk around in with electric currents forcing you to jump every couple of seconds, but now they're not existant. Also, the power will go out in a few spots at the beginning.

You'll see a few flying enemies that shoot out a beam of light as they quickly pass by. Take them out with fully charged shots, or better yet, use the Storm Tornado to get rid of them as easily as possible.

You'll see a mid-boss shortly after you begin the stage. This is some red robot in some blue gelatinous material. It will shoot four small blobs of this stuff at you, and if it touches you, you'll be stuck to the floor for a while. This mid-boss will move across the ceiling as well as the floor, and when it's on the ceiling, it will also shoot lightning bolts at the floor. If you've beaten Storm Eagle's stage, however, it won't be able to do that.

You'll also see ceiling turrets that spin around and shoot, as well as gold robots with two spike arms and one wheel that move around and try to chase you down.

You'll also see large tortoise style robots that shoot bombs with parachutes at you. Like most enemies, they're fairly easy.

After the first tortoise, you'll see the Heart Tank for this stage. You can press A and B at the same time to do a dashing jump off of the wall to get it, even though you're normally expected to get it by doing a dashing jump towards it and grabbing it with the Boomerang Cutter.

Through the second half of the level, the power will keep going on and off, and it will also be dim in some parts. Keep your weapons ready and be prepared to make some wall jumps, as some more of those flying robots from this level will show up near the end.

Spark Mandrill's weakness is the Shotgun Ice. While you can directly hit him with it, the weapon also splits into five smaller crystals that scatter at linear angles if it hits a wall.

Spark Mandrill sends large shockwaves along the floor, walls and ceilings, and he can also climb on the ceiling to get the drop on you. If you hit him with the Shotgun Ice, he'll be frozen for a few seconds. If you can time it right, you can keep hitting him with the Shotgun Ice and repeatedly freezing him.


Beating Spark Mandrill gives you the Electric Spark.