A Tourist's Thoughts on the Mega Man X PS2 Duology

It’s a wonder of the modern world that two full retail PS2 games are available on one collection alongside 2 PS1 games.  The PS2 classic line on the PS3 has been around for over a decade, but to this day most game collections are either handheld entries or PS1 era games at the latest; the Yu-Gi-Oh Early Days Collection didn’t have Capsule Monsters Coliseum and I’ve yet to see more than one of SNK’s PS2 games available on anything but the original hardware.  Capcom has been on top of the game when it comes to re-releasing their older games.  With these I’ll finally cap off the Mega Man X series and see how it all ends.  Well, how it all ends before the Zero games.

A Tourist's Thoughts on the Mega Man X PS1 Trilogy

Ever one for pushing boundaries of what can be done with their games, Capcom jumped right on the high memory capacity the CD drive of the Playstation was capable of.  They didn’t exactly leave Nintendo in the dust for the Nintendo 64 era though.  They did release Mega Man & Bass Megaman 64 and the Xtreme games, but it’s clear the PS1 was where their priorities lie.  Thus we got a trilogy of Mega Man X games for the system and in the classic series we got Mega Man 8.  I’ll be the judge of how much improved with the new system’s horsepower.

A Tourist's Thoughts on the Mega Man X SNES Trilogy

I’m what some people would call a “tourist” when it comes to the Mega Man franchise.  I didn’t grow up with the blue bomber and I didn’t play any of the games until the Anniversary Collection on the Gamecube and even then I didn’t follow the franchise loyally.  Later I would go through almost the entire classic franchise again thanks to the Legacy Collections and Capcom Arcade Stadium 2.

My opinions on the classic games echo most other people’s: the sequels are all fairly fun, sometimes exceedingly difficult, action platformers with basic stories.  Everyone has a different favorite, but it’s generally agreed that the sequels are of a consistent quality.  The first game is stinky.

I don’t like to give my thoughts or a review on something if I can simply point to someone else’s opinion perfectly matching my own so I didn’t think it would be interesting to go over the classic Mega Man series.  The most controversial thing I can say is that the earlier games are frustrating without save states of some kind.  My personal favorite is 8, for the record, even with the godawful acting.

Classic Mega Man’s sequel series, Mega Man X, is a whole different ballgame.  The things people have said about the Mega Man X games are all over the place and after playing them over the course of this year I think my thoughts about that particular branch of the Mega Man franchise might be a little more interesting.  I have some takes that fans might consider “spicy.”

TV Edits of the Viewtiful Joe Anime: Episode 22

With the most heavily edited episode out of the way, we now move onto episode 22, titled Cleanliness is Next to Escape-liness in English, named after the line "Cleanliness is next to Godliness."  They had to come up with a title that has to do with the plot and this one doesn't consistently reference a particular movie.

This episode mostly centers around Silvia sneaking around Jadow's HQ after the Biankies carelessly let her go get a bottle of cleaner.  Meanwhile Joe fights the Jadow trio in less-focused-on battles.  Since it's in Jadow HQ it means there's going to be editing around Sprocket, but not as much as you'd expect.

TV Edits of the Viewtiful Joe Anime: Episode 21

I was holding off on this one because I already knew this was going to be one of the most, if not the most, edited episodes.  In this episode, Joe and Junior are on the run from Biankies and the returning Bianco Billy and Junior gets help from the old man that found Machine Six and his friend Gina.

 

The episode is a reference to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  There's a bit with Junior referencing the scene where Sundance says he can't swim and the English dub even references the characters directly.

The episode name, Bianco Billy Rides Again, is probably named after the McCloud episode titled Butch Cassidy Rides Again, which is about a bank being robbed by guys who look just like the famous outlaw himself.  A fitting reference, since Billy is the villain in this scenario.