I'm new so hopefully I'm not restating bugs. I just finished playing this game and I love it. Its a great game all around but I also had some troubles due to bugs I found. I also want to offer some suggestions but not an issue if they don't come, the work you have done with this project is amazing and I'm a fan for sure. (There are a bunch of ideas I have but its completely fine if they are not used at all.)
Bugs -
- Magnet Beam slot is buggy. there are times where i will start a stage with half the bar filled. I think this bug is active when you pick up a second Magnet Beam. Its just a guess,
- Tanks Buggy - Shows up as M. Beam and since it uses a weapon bar, I can fill it with weapon energy thus negating the need to stock up before starting a stage. I cheezed Dr Wily this way. (Also Dr Wily is way too hard compared to the other iterations, hence why I cheezed him. maybe tone down the purple attack a bit.)
- No Lives? makes needing to recharge weapons pointless.
- Couldn't find Items 1 - 3 so I could not test them.
- There is a bug that will happen when you press start as mega teleports in at the start of the stage or a check point. Cutman's face will show up in the boss bar and the bar will fill up. this stops the boss from spawning into the room when you get to the end.
- Sometimes Items will overlap weapons in the load-out screen.
- Sometimes Weapons will over lap in the Weapon select menu.
- Is the ability to select the Proto Buster and the Bass Buster on Mega (Or anyone) a feature? Its cool if its is but it should only be able to change the Mega buster. Id love to see that be its own slot in the load out.
Suggestions -
- I didn't need any of the items from the shop Except E-tanks. They're nice to collect but since i could only have one slot to use them unless i gave up some weapons, it proved to sort-of not be needed. I would suggest a separate equip system for them. You can only equip 4 upgrade items from the shop. The one of the two extra selection boxes in the middle of the screen can house this option.
- Make Tanks a new feature to the weapon select screen. Id say for the challenge a player should only ever hold 2 E 1 W 1 S and 5 R. But for easy play, 2 each. I like Tanks but having too many of them makes picking up lives useless. MM2 had it right with just 4 E-Tanks to be held. That system for tank selection might be useful here.
- Magnet Beam should be always active and not something for the weapon slots (Though it still needs weapon energy). It would be kind of cool to see it as a dedicated button. But it should always be its own weapon slot that can't be moved at least. The 3 Items if they exist, should be the only things that could change that slot. For variety, adding the Balloon and Wire upgrades from MM4 might be cool and the Super Arrow from 5. Beat would be cool to see (The version from 6), and I personally would love to see something unique with Tango the cat as an upgrade and (For Bass only) Reggae the Bird. Rockball from 8 could be cool to see.
- The Charged version of some weapons were not great on the damage output. Id adjust values.
- I loved that the Super Arm gets to shine in this game. It even was a great weapon against wily bosses, such a fun way to fight yellow devil. It was perfect in terms of Energy use also, I can't say the same for the other weapons though, It always seemed like they ran out way to fast compared to other games featuring these weapons. Maybe readjust the energy needed for each shot. Especially the Time Slow Arrow, the range just sucked on that one (Cool otherwise). A suggestion for a uncharged Shot for the super arm could be just tossing a small rock for free, (Similar throw Arc to the Rock weapon in Friday the 13th for the nes) and the damages out put is the same as a mega buster shot) OR instead of that, a short ranged punch (call back to the Ruby Spears Mega Man Cartoon but similar to the Rush Power Adapter in use).
- The Limited range of the mega buster was troublesome and a bit unfair since bosses could attack full screen. Maybe for boss rooms only the buster could have increased range. I do like the challenge it offers in the stages but the boss rooms not so much.
- Rush Jet adapter just needs some tweaking. I think the recharge is a bit to slow and the hover arc feels weird to use. But I Do love it as an addition to this game. (Could Rush Power Adapter from MM6 Be in the works?)
- Proto's shield should be an extra find for other characters (MM7). It would be cool to see Proto have to find this shield to since this is the first Game in the story. If you ever implement an Intro stage, that stage could be use to set up each of the select-able characters. Rock becoming Mega, Proto finding his shield, Bass traveling back in time, etc.
- Can't wait to see if Roll gets into this game playable. and If so, Id love to see the broom version and the Buster version (a call to that Rock and Roll fan game that came out)
- Rokkochan, if anyone remembers that fan game, cool secret character to unlock if you beat the game.
- Add two more secret bosses to this game. The Pick Axe throwers always seemed to me like they could be a boss that Mega could steal a power from, Sniper Joes too. A Secret spot in Guts Man and Bomb Man could lead to a Boss version of those two robots that offers a new weapon. Or rather than a secret room, doing something very specific in that stage after betting the respective bosses will have those powered up versions be in the boss room instead. These 2 stages are the ones that don't have alternate routes and are from the OG 6. This will give the player more of a reason to change up weapons in the load out screen, if you make any of the other changes I mentioned prior. Also you wont have to design new parts of the stage if you use the scenario I came up with for those bosses to be in the boss room. Boss Sniper Joe could run around like Break Man in MM3. (Could be how you get a "Proto Shield".) The Pickaxe Man Would give his Pickaxe Toss as a weapon I just don't know what his attack patterns would be like. The Sniper Shield could make the Enker fight easier, since the screen switching like it does is way too disorienting.
Anyway That's all I got. I love how this game is turning out and can't wait to see the finished vision that you have in mind, The suggestions I mad you don't need to use any of them at all, but thanks for taking the time to read them.