Poll: Mega Man vs Mega Man X...Which Was More Challenging?

[RJ 17]

I know a lot of people don't take the series seriously, but a little discussion I was engaged in with the Wily vs Eggman Death Battle video got me to thinking....which Mega Man series was more challenging: the original or the MMX series?

As Egoraptor so eloquently put it, the mechanics of the original series were pretty much just jumpin' and shootin'..."Shoulda called it JUMPIN'-SHOOTIN' MAN!" The MMX series, on the other hand, introduced a number of new mechanics such as wall climbing, refillable energy tanks, dashing, etc. That said, the Mavericks (robot bosses) in that series compensated by becoming a lot more powerful and complex in their attack patterns. Even so, the game held true to the original mechanic of "If you have the weapon the boss is weak against, you should be alright so long as you can make it to the boss in the first place."

Personally I found the MMX series to be easier...though only the first game. It seems with each new game in the series it got a bit tougher. I say this because MMX was the first MM game that I was ever able to beat as a kid. My older brother could beat the original MM games without too much trouble, but I never could. MMX came around and suddenly I found myself capable of handling the challenge.

So just a curiosity poll here: which MM series did you find to be the most challenging? Please feel free to explain your reasoning.

And now for your listening enjoyment while you think it over: the a'capella version of the best MM level theme of all time:


Edit: Looks like I screwed up in answering my own poll and because I voted for MMX by mistake (because I said in this OP that MMX was easier, while the question is "which was more difficult.") That's right...I'm smooth, like butter... :3

2nd Edit: Wow...nothing? Not even a drive-by vote? And here I thought with the amount of complaining about Capcom's neglect towards the Megaman series there would be some fans of the series out there interested in comparing the old series against the "new" one...my mistake, apparently. Looks like my run of crappy topics continues.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Overall? The MMX series was better balanced and less lopsided in difficulty, primarily on account of hindsight. So my pick is classic series.

But if you want to talk about "unfair", both series have contenders for "Epic Dick Move".

-From the original series, is of course MM1. Despite (or because) being the first, it manages to cram a surprising amount of DICK MOVE into a relatively short game. Capcom's pioneering inexperience is largely to blame for the massive difficulty spikes between the regular levels (try doing Ice Man's stage without the Magnet Beam, not fun) and the even bigger spikes in the Wily levels (enjoy killing 5 bosses in a row with no energy tanks).

-Mega Man X6 is infamous in its (lopsided) difficulty. It's difficult because, well, most of its difficulty is just cheap shots and spamming the screen with enemies and attacks. Some of the stages are just room after room of bullshit, others are trivially simple.
The stages just didn't have the proper attention given to them because it was rushed in development; a development that wasn't originally planned since its existence forcibly retcons what was supposed to be the X series finale.

The only upside is that Capcom at least provides the player with some bullshit attacks of their own...if they can find and learn how to use them.

Outside of those two, the next biggest bullshit moment is probably from Mega Man 2.
Yes, MM2. I of course refer to Beur-Beam Trap, that fucking boss that needs 7 Crash Bombs to kill. Fuck up, and you can't beat the game.

 

[ASan83]

I've beaten every Classic Mega Man game except 1. (Fuck you, Wily Stage 1 Boss)

I'm going to have to go with Blue Bomber Classic. This might be because the classic games were some of the first I ever played, but I just remember them as being much harder. The aforementioned boss battle above has made me rage more than almost anything game related ever had, and I still go back for more every once and a while. I remember the near impossible block puzzles in Heat Man's stage, hard times I had platforming in Ring Man's stage with those disappearing bridges, Gravity Man's stage giving me a headache, every single water stage, and Mega Man 7's final boss, the second hardest fight for me in the series. Yeah, those games had some challenges, but to this day, beating almost every one of those games remains one of the gaming accomplishments I'm most proud of.

 

[RJ 17]

Seems so far (counting my misplaced vote) the original series was unanimously the more difficult one (at the time of writing this there's only been 6 votes). Glad to see I wasn't the only one who had trouble with those games when I was a kid.

-Mega Man X6 is infamous in its (lopsided) difficulty. It's difficult because, well, most of its difficulty is just cheap shots and spamming the screen with enemies and attacks. Some of the stages are just room after room of bullshit, others are trivially simple.
The stages just didn't have the proper attention given to them because it was rushed in development; a development that wasn't originally planned since its existence forcibly retcons what was supposed to be the X series finale.

Taken as a whole, I'd say the MMX series has a steeper difficulty curve than the original series. The original series was pretty steadily brutal, but as I mentioned in my OP: each game in the MMX series was more difficult than the last. While - as you said - a lot of the stages in the later part of the MMX series were just relentlessly unforgiving.

This is mainly because they added new mechanics and aspects to the games as they went along, having to pick and swap out which armor upgrades you keep and what-not. I think it was MMX 4 (not sure, it's the first one where you can chose to play the full campaign as Zero and Sigma's first form is a robotic Grim Reaper) where the difficulty finally caught up to me. I could beat the game as Zero, but not as X. At least when the game first came out for the PS2. I've since beaten it as X, but when it first came out I just could not, for the life of me, defeat those big-ass Sigma heads in Sigma's second form...even as an older gamer with much better skills than my younger self it took a great many tries to conquer it.

 

[Juste Goose]

I much much prefer classic Mega Man. In X (or at least the first one, that's the only one of the X series I've played,) you started off really weak and had to go through and get upgrades, subtanks, and health boosts if you wanted to stand a chance.

Mega Man classic was just "Here's some shit, get through it." Nothing game-wise to help you get through a tough part that wasn't available at the start, except the occasional E Tank.

 

[piinyouri]

By a landslide, the original games.
Through a combination of legitimate challenge brought on through careful level construction and just plain bullshit design that is often refereed to as "nintendo hard".

X is easier all around. Maybe the last few levels of each X game might be able to contend with the older stuff, but I doubt it.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

OG MM is harder for a variety of reasons. In X you start out being able to wall jump so you can save yourself from most bad jumps. You get to dash, dash jump, airdash, and you can shoot while doing it. Not like the crappy slide which is the only break you get from your snail strut in OG.

In X you get health bar extensions, multiple refillable E Tanks you can top off by farming enemies anywhere. In OG you had a finite number of one use E tanks, eventually getting to buy them using a currency that is a pain to farm.

In X you start with the Xbuster, and get murderbeam charge upgrades. You get screen clearing giga crush attacks, armor upgrades that let you walk on spikes etc., and oneshot streetfighter moves/the Z-saber in X3.

Then there are the ride armors which make you practically invincible, and most X bosses can be beat without taking any damage as they have obvious patterns and you have way superior mobility.

Oh yeah you also get to play as Zero in the later games which trivializes most things outright.

I have both anniversary collections so I'll admit I haven't played past X6, which is one of the worst games I have ever seen in my life, and harder than most any of them too. I'll also admit that I can barely beat X4 or X5 using X because I don't like playing as him in those games, or either game itself, and think most of the weapons he gets are lame compared to Zero's.

I haven't played MM 7 or 8 either for very long.

So I'm comparing MM1-10, excluding 7 and 8 vs. X1-6...also excluding 7 and 8 right? I forget how many they made.

I also vastly prefer the original series, though X series does have some good music.

 

[RJ 17]

In X you start with the Xbuster, and get murderbeam charge upgrades. You get screen clearing giga crush attacks, armor upgrades that let you walk on spikes etc., and oneshot streetfighter moves/the Z-saber in X3.

I remember being a kid and a friend of mine telling me about getting the Hadouken in MMX, I thought he was full of shit. But sure enough I did what he told me to on Armored Armadillo's stage and saw Dr. Light pop up in his little Ryu costume...that was one of the highlights of my childhood gaming.

You're right though, a lot of the armor upgrades do make the X series pretty easy. I forget which one it is but one of them gives you some kind of aerial dash-attack that kills anything you touch while making you completely invincible while executing it.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I have both anniversary collections so I'll admit I haven't played past X6, which is one of the worst games I have ever seen in my life, and harder than most any of them too. I'll also admit that I can barely beat X4 or X5 using X because I don't like playing as him in those games, or either game itself, and think most of the weapons he gets are lame compared to Zero's.

The funny thing about X in those games is that while Zero has crazy damage potential, some of the levels really punish his lack of range with nasty enemy placements. This is especially evident in levels like Squid Adler's in X5, Split Mushroom in X4, and over half the levels in X6. (fuck Ground Scaravich's level)

Zero's special attacks do make up for it quickly, but plain ol' X can wreck those levels pretty as easily with just charged buster shots and pellet spam, at least until X6 where the game just shits on you if you DON'T abuse every advantage you're given.

Barring certain abuses (like the Hyperslash in X6) Zero is pretty well balanced with X for difficulty, though I do admit that it depends heavily on the level sequence. Starting Zero on, say, Grizzly Slash to get the C-Sword in X5 will make much of the game easier since it extends his reach in all directions and reach is what Zero initially lacks.
(but then you miss out on the Damage Buffer upgrade which is the only way for Zero to acquire damage reduction)

Also, do give X8 a try if you ever can. It's a pretty good game overall (minus the gimmick levels) and every character has a variety of fun, stupidly powerful attacks available to them. (there is a PC version and a PS2 version)

Zero also gets an arsenal of different weapons to play with in addition to his Z-Saber, and his moves change a bit to adapt to those weapons.

Oh, and fair warning about X7: don't spare it a second thought. It's just...awful.

Taken as a whole, I'd say the MMX series has a steeper difficulty curve than the original series. The original series was pretty steadily brutal, but as I mentioned in my OP: each game in the MMX series was more difficult than the last. While - as you said - a lot of the stages in the later part of the MMX series were just relentlessly unforgiving.

I find the original series gets easier and less bullshit-esque with each installment. MM1 was brutally, stupidly difficult because it was designed as more of an arcade game (point system, cheap deaths, little innate or long term sustain).

Just about every stage has a big ol' 'BECAUSE FUCK YOU' moment in it. (Cutman being the only exception)
MM2 has fewer 'BECAUSE FUCK YOUs' in it, but they're there. (Heat Man's fatal block puzzle stage, Beaur-Beam Trap)
MM3's worst can be bypassed to a degree with Rush Jet, but is pretty damn challenging without that.

MM4-MM6 are just stupidly easy compared to most of what came before, mainly thanks to the inclusion of Charged Buster shots.

MM6 is the easiest by far, thanks to the Rush Armors, which are grossly OP (and very fun).

This is mainly because they added new mechanics and aspects to the games as they went along, having to pick and swap out which armor upgrades you keep and what-not. I think it was MMX 4 (not sure, it's the first one where you can chose to play the full campaign as Zero and Sigma's first form is a robotic Grim Reaper) where the difficulty finally caught up to me.

Which I find odd, because I find most of MMX4 a cakewalk.
Oh, and while X's weapons are pretty awful in X4, the Plasma Shot more than makes up for it by being a stupidly OP wrecking ball. (available as early as the second stage; just do Web Spider first so you can get his weapon)

I could beat the game as Zero, but not as X. At least when the game first came out for the PS2. I've since beaten it as X, but when it first came out I just could not, for the life of me, defeat those big-ass Sigma heads in Sigma's second form...even as an older gamer with much better skills than my younger self it took a great many tries to conquer it.

Sigma is the notable exception; he's a royal asshole in X4 (well, also in X3 if you don't snag the Z-Saber) with his last form being a long, technically challenging slugging match.

Ironically, Sigma is a complete pushover in X6; probably because the team was phoning it in, or possibly out of pity for making you suffer so much just to reach him.

 

[Leonardo Huizar]

Try beating Sigma in MMX with a laggy lets play recorder. But i still learned an easier way to beat his final form by charging up the Chameleon Sting, then climbing the walls, waiting until the lightning blasts pass, and the switching to Roll Shield and just face blasting away

I didnt like the later MM Battle Net games since they started to do things with randomization, buy two games ala Pokemon for the whole experience, and just exponentially cheaper boss battles

Megaman Zero were hard games from the start but beatable if you developed the skill. They a good mix of avoiding attacks in the vein of MM but some upgrading and boss fights just like in MMX

Was hoping someday for a sequel to MMX Command Mission, even if it was easy with some cheap bosses... but Crapcom

 

[HellsingerAngel]

It really comes down to the matter of "easy to learn, hard to master". Mega Man has a very simple control scheme -- you just jump and shoot. X, on the other hand, has a lot of more advanced moves that demand more of the player initially. When these moves are mastered, however, they provide more options to the player to avoid taking damage or solving jumping puzzles, where as Mega Man will still only be able to jump and shoot his way through most problems. Something as simple as a vertical scrolling level is infinitely more difficult in Mega Man compared to X because X is able to slowly descend or adjust his positioning with a well timed jump if he has a wall nearby.

Though X is definitely the easier series because of his many upgrades and options in gameplay, it's ultimately the better series for it.

 

[RJ 17]

This is mainly because they added new mechanics and aspects to the games as they went along, having to pick and swap out which armor upgrades you keep and what-not. I think it was MMX 4 (not sure, it's the first one where you can chose to play the full campaign as Zero and Sigma's first form is a robotic Grim Reaper) where the difficulty finally caught up to me.

Which I find odd, because I find most of MMX4 a cakewalk.
Oh, and while X's weapons are pretty awful in X4, the Plasma Shot more than makes up for it by being a stupidly OP wrecking ball. (available as early as the second stage; just do Web Spider first so you can get his weapon)

I could beat the game as Zero, but not as X. At least when the game first came out for the PS2. I've since beaten it as X, but when it first came out I just could not, for the life of me, defeat those big-ass Sigma heads in Sigma's second form...even as an older gamer with much better skills than my younger self it took a great many tries to conquer it.

Sigma is the notable exception; he's a royal asshole in X4 (well, also in X3 if you don't snag the Z-Saber) with his last form being a long, technically challenging slugging match.

Ironically, Sigma is a complete pushover in X6; probably because the team was phoning it in, or possibly out of pity for making you suffer so much just to reach him.

Oh I never had trouble with the game itself. As I said I could beat it quite handily as Zero. It was most specifically the 3 Giant Sigma Heads that always gave me trouble as X. As you said it's a long, technically challenging, sluggish, and I'd say tedious fight. Even once you learn each head's attack pattern, the fact that the room is so wide that it actually has to scroll back and forth as you move around means that the heads can appear on the other side of the room, giving you only a second or two to react properly to the head's attack. It was just a huge pain for me, while the stages leading up to it weren't that bad at all.

 

[Klagermeister]

I'd say they're about the same in terms of *intended* difficulty, but the original comes out on top simply because of some unintentional bullshit tactics the game implores, such as enemies that spawn where you're about to land your jump and it is too late to change your path, or those appearing platforms wherein one could spawn directly above your head and it would be impossible to survive without prior knowledge of the patterns.

Yes MMX does give you some decent upgrades that make things easier but these are ultimately overshadowed by some things:
-Your default health bar gives about 3/5 of the default health in the original series.
-You are practically required to use the complete variety of tactics at your disposal to be effective.
-If you fill ALL four subtanks completely, you get four not-quite-full heals, whereas in the original series you can hoard up to 8 or 9 gauranteed full heals.
-Both series had overpowered attacks, such as MM2's metal blade which the majority of bosses were weak to, and the charge kick, which made you invincible whenever you used the slide kick.

This is just off the top of my head. As I said, the original series is in fact harder, but it's not an intentional or enjoyable type of hard. It's filled with tactics where it seems the developer simply said "Hey, let's make this aspect of the game hard because reasons." Take all those away and you're left with a core difficulty equal to MMX.

 

[Norithics]

I enjoyed X more, and I still say MM was more difficult. It just forced you to really stretch the limits of that moveset. X felt like you could really alter the the difficulty if you mastered a few skills effectively.

Though MMX6 was brutal.

MMZ felt like it said "Hey remember those things you mastered to make X easy? Yeah, those are required now, and it's still gonna be hard. Welcome to my lair, *****!"

 

[Flaery]

I've actually beaten most of the X games, so I'm going to have to say the original series. Mostly due to the limitations of the controls and the technology of the time.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

The original series always has the deadly Yoku blocks, often in one of the first eight stages. The X series has had them exactly one time, and they were much easier due to dashing/double jumps/hovering/Falcon Armour.

In general the X series was a drift away from quite so much tricky platforming and more emphasis on blowing stuff up with your enhanced buster. Not saying X isn't challenging. In fact it probably has the potential to be much harder in subsequent playthroughs due to so many optional upgrades- without them your life meter is less than 1/2 the normal size (X3's Kaiser Sigma is ridiculously hard without an air dash ability or sub tanks), but the original was made during an era with a much higher difficulty ceiling (we will never again see the 'Chasm' form MM3 or the Buebeam Trap from MM2, and with good reason). As time went on the original's difficulty was brought more in line with the X series- Mega Man 6 introduces the time-saving Energy Balancer, X series always has a built-in Energy Balancer, MM6 also introduces pseudo-armour-upgrades that don't consume weapons energy along with more hidden things to find in stages.

 

[WoW Killer]

Probably the original series, though I think X is the better game and I agree entirely with Ego's analysis of that one. I don't particularly like the other X games though. I haven't played them all, just X, X2, X3 and X... 7? or 9? or something? Don't even know how many there have been. Anyway, I didn't like X2 or X3 as much as the original, and I played another X that was more recent and it was probably better than X2 or X3 but still nowhere near as good as the first X.

Just going to talk mainly X, X2 and X3, because those are the ones I specifically remember. X2 and X3 were definitely harder than X, but I thought they were worse games. I don't want to say it was because of the difficulty, but it was part of it. I felt like in X2 and X3 the special weapons were custom designed to beat the specific bosses that were weak to them. Like as well as them doing extra damage, their shape was specifically designed to hit bosses during their various attacks. In X it didn't always make sense to go through the levels in order of weaknesses. To me, the best path was Penguin -> Hawk -> Mammoth -> Mandrill -> Armadillo -> Octopus -> Kuwanger -> Chameleon. Also what you found was that each of the weapons you received were useful in normal situations. You've got that "super secret" powerup by completing Armadillo's stage repeatedly; when you do that stage over and over again, you end up using at least 4 different weapons to get through in the most efficient way possible. In X2 and X3, I felt like the powerups weren't all that useful in normal settings, and their only real purpose was to kill the boss they were designed for; if I was repeating a level over and over again in the quickest time, I'd probably be only using the X Buster. I remember one specifically (can't remember which of those games it was from I'm afraid, as I haven't played either of those games as much and not for a long time) which was like three beams going out to the sides and above you, and it'd only ever be useful if you were facing a particular boss which spawned clones of itself that appeared in those exact positions. The weapons in the first X just felt like normal things which you could make use of, and hence that made it feel like more of a progression when you got them.

Also, can't remember which of the original series I played, think it might have been 9, but anyway, it was hard as shit. Still wasn't as good as X.