How to tell if your Mega Man sucks. (How NOT to play with MM)

Classic Fighting Games Marvel VS Capcom 2
1

As an avid MM player, I’ve seen a lot of players come and go. However, I’ve noticed a little something that bugs me. A lot, actually.

MvC2’s been out for over 10 years now, and I’d like to think that is more than enough time to really flesh out our skills with the characters we like to play. As it turns out, though, this is not the case with Mega Man.

It seems like 90% of the time my opponent picks Mega Man, he adopts the run and gun method of playing. You know…jump back, FP, jump back, FP, etc, etc.

And then I promptly kick his ass three ways till Sunday because he forgets that Mega Man has more in his arsenal than just running like his ass is on fire going, “PEW PEW” all day.

And so now, I humbly present my list to the SRK community, to better help their MM gameplay: “How to tell if your MM sucks.”

1) You forget that his Special Weapons exist. I’m talking about Rock Ball, Tornado Hold and Leaf Shield. Leaf Shield’s my favorite because it’s a good surprise against jump-ins, sets up combos and goes through projectiles. Rock Ball is good too because it comes in handy against flyers, and it zones nicely.

A common mistake MM player make is to keep hanging back and firing shots, all the while not realising that the oncoming Leaf Shield is still heading towards him, and will now set him up for an oncoming combo.

2) The only Super Combo you know is Hyper Mega Man. Seriously? I have NEVER seen any other player attempt to use his other two Super Combos to their advantage, and that’s a damn shame, because Beat Plane is a damn good way to inflict damage and setup for a hell of a lot of DHCs.

Now you may be wondering, "But Beat Plane has slow startup and I’ll get punished!"
Only if you play like a dumbass.
You can use Beat Plane in a combo. Try these on for size:

  • Charge Buster, Jump-in, LK, LK, Standing LK, LK, Release, Beat Plane XX ???
  • Leaf Shield, LK, HK, Jump, LP, LK, LP, Leaf Shield XX Beat Plane

Also good for flying over and punishing a few moves as well. Ever got above Doom’s Photon Array? BEAT PLANE.

I wouldn’t advise using Rush Drill, though. It sometimes whiffs and allows your opponent to block what HC you’re cancelling into next.

** 3) The only button you know exists is Fierce Punch.** As a result, you never learn how great of an Anti-Air FK can be, or how it sets up his many combos. Try this on for size, because if you’re serious about MM at ALL, you’d be using this a lot:

FK, Jump, LP, LK, Hyper Mega Man.

That’s probably his best punisher. If you didn’t know this, NOW YOU KNOW.

Also, his crouching LK, LK, FK is awesome. In addition to chaining to Tornado Hold, If Tron (Proj) is your partner, you can call her immediately after the chain, pop your opponent for an extra hit, hit FK, and use his punisher for almost 50% DAMAGE. I open many of my matches like this, and it puts my opponent at a huge disadvantage from the start.

4) You only use FP for running away. Sound, since is decent, but whatever happened to zoning? FP isn’t just a running tool, it’s also a good way to make approaching an opponent safer. What do I mean?

Leap towards you opponent, fire FP in the air and dash forward quickly. Your opponent may not see this coming, and he’ll probably get hit, allowing you to move in and punish. If he blocks it, he’ll either be pushed slightly away or be in block stun long enough for you to get closer. Either way, this is a good way to be offensive with Mega Man.

5) You are unaware that charging your Mega Buster exists. Which is just plain stupid, because it’s the strongest projectile in the game, bar none. Of course, this depends on if you’re capable of holding that button for a long time. I’ve trained myself to do just that. Here are a couple of videos showing the potential of it.

[media=youtube]TO3oiayA3Vo[/media]
[media=youtube]wCRT6CmNOLI[/media]

(Forgive the crappy music, by the way.)

Understandably, this can cancel out and even pass through projectiles depending on the charge, which can put you at an advantage if you get caught in say, Iceman’s Arctic Attack and you release the charge just as you get hit. The fireball with hit him out of it AND stun him long enough for you to punish with Beat Plane.

And this is THE number one reason why I beat so many wannabe MM players online. They keep spamming FP at this big fireball heading towards them, and then they absorb the hits like a sponge, leaving me free to do with them as I see fit.

6) You don’t know which characters to charge against, and which to lob free Buster Shots at. Certain characters require different strategies. For one, I NEVER charge against Storm. Air FP is a great counter to Hail Storm. The same for Magneto… FP stops his Triangle jumps cold.

However, against others with less than stellar air ability, charging is decent, because it’s a good way to get a huge advantage on them as soon as an opening presents itself. Juggernaut, for example, although spam FP works well against him, too.

7) You don’t know how to multi-task. As in, you don’t know how to use Mega Man’s other weapons while charging. I use Leaf Shield to cover myself while doing so, or an Assist when I’m going in.

To be blunt, if all you know how to do is “EY! EY! EY! EY!”, don’t come crying when a million weapons are heading your way all at once. LEARN TO MULTI-TASK WITH MEGS.

8) You think his only good Assist is Mega Buster. Guess again. His Anti-Air works well, too. Not to the same extent as Ken, but he has a little OTG property with it that allows an additional hit if the opponent hits the floor. See this video:

[media=youtube]SI-EYRR9LNQ[/media]

And that’s all I’ve got to say about that. I’m hoping to see some decent MM players out there. And if you’re just going to play like a mook anyway, believe me, I will find you. And I’ll crucify your Megs with mine.

Class dismissed!

2

Very good post… I agree with all of it. I don’t even EY! EY! EY! with megz basically ever cept maybe vs heavy rushdown… I normally just charge and look for the spot to use it on either point or assist. Several times I’ve charged it to like 50 hits… gotta keep dashing into them so it doesn’t pass through. In between dashes engage leaf shield and start a new charge. As the first charge is nearing it’s end I dash in, launch, combo to leaf shield, release the second charge as I fall and cancel to hyper MM or beat plane… depending on if I’m gonna DHC or not. Sounds crazy but MM can do shit like this w/out even tough execution. Most low tiers gotta work pretty hard to do 80 hit/80% combos solo…

Also when you aren’t focused on EY! EY! every second MM becomes a much safer character to play. Against sent/mando it’s often not hard to just charge and keep sj.ing strait up and down… using wall jump to mix that up… do it for 20 to 30 seconds. Then bait a mando call… release xx super DHC… dead mando… nothing sent can really do. Buster charge will own all his shit. He can trade with you with hsf… but then you’ll just roll behind while he’s still riding the buster… so to speak…

3

i agree with most of this stuff but:
if you are charging a buster shot you cant even pushblock or wavedash, are you serious, 20 to 30 seconds? and then they just avoid that shit

also i like rockball the best because of how well it controls space

4

Obviously, you’re not going to be firing it randomly. There are a lot of good setups to use Charge Buster. LK, LK (release) up close being one of them. You’d pretty much have to learn how to play Mega Man while holding down FP…it’s very rewarding, especially if you punish somebody with it. As for wavedashing and pushblock, I recommend constantly being on the move for the latter. Personally, I wouldn’t try wavedashing with Megs, because a mis-timed FP will leave him vulnerable for a couple of seconds.

5

If you’re not wave dashing because you’re afraid of doing a fierce punch by accident, then you need to practice your wave dashing.

The inability to push block while holding HP (and, thereby, the inability to lock down with Buster Shots) takes away pretty much all of Mega Man’s game.

He builds meter while locking you down, it’s pretty simple.

You’re gonna tell me that not wave dashing and not push blocking (which makes you a sitting duck against anybody with any kind of rushdown) is a good trade off for being able to do a few more hits with mega buster?

I think you’re wrong.

I agree for the most part with the rest of it (especially people not using his other specials), but I seriously don’t think that charged buster is a good trade for the ability to push block and not get raped by anybody fast.

6

Charging is useful for stuff like rescuing an assist from HSF, but I definitely don’t feel comfortable giving up the FP (and locking my hand in an awkward position) for as long as it takes to make that useful. Without charged buster, I get meter faster, have more movement, and make the other player have to play smarter.

7

Listen to Preppy, fo realz.

8

See number 6.

In any case, though, Mega Man’s game isn’t completely nerfed by holding down FP by any means. You just have to know how to use the rest of the weapons to your advantage (for example, firing Leaf Shield and standing FK are good against overheads). Of course, against rushdowns like Storm and Magneto, you don’t ever charge.

9

It really is all about the match up…

Cable… sent… storm… spiral… cyclops… doom… stider… will all run away or force you into blockstun for extended periods where charging is free so why not do it?

10

The thing is, against those characters you are better off NOT charging. Buster Shot stops Magneto’s Air Dash/Storm’s Hail Storm dead, and charging would severely limit you from doing that. I wouldn’t dare attempt charging against Cable either, because my objective when facing him is to subdue him as quickly as possible (with Assists of course) and this is where timely Buster Shots combined with Rock Ball can come in handy.

Basically, any character that proves deadly on chip and is capable of flying/jumping all over the place is not okay to charge against.

11

I can only do HMM combos T-T I like using Rock Ball for zoning against most characters, Tornado Hold works better for me against Spiral and Sent. Preppy saw my one and only use of charging my buster shot, lol! A lot of MM’s tricky movement involves throwing out regular buster shots at that perfect height(about head height for Doom and other mid size characters) and wave dashing into position. Early jump LK or HK overhead combined with well timed Sent drones or Tron is a great setup. And wall jumps in the corner for crossups as well. Pretty fun stuff, I still like MvC2 more than MvC3, haha!

12

I use mega man all the time. Stuff that works;

Super jump Charge Mega Buster cancel- You charge up buster super jump at a low height, and you will be able to charge buffer or shoot aerial buster shot. i’d go for the aerial buster shot so you can wavedash in.

cr. LP is a very very useful tol when you corner your opponent. you should incorporate using your slide with an otg Charge buster. when you are in the corner, you an assist that can help out your cr.lp along with an assist.

you can charge buster to super at mid range or full screen if you can catch them off guard.

Just some of the tactics I think that work, on my side of the fence that is

13

One thing that a Storm can do is TK a typhoon repeatedly. Once you get out of the habit of jumping H, she’s free to do her Hail.

Now I don’t know if this will still work, but before I retired Megaman, one thing I loved to do is pair him up with Jin-b. I’d charge the buster. Buster XX HMM is almost UN-punishable outside of Cable and frame cancel DHCs when used right. If they…

1-jump on him, I’d call JIn-b and walk away.
–If they blocked it…
I’d whiff buster under the character, HMM, they’d get guard broken by Jin, and eat the HMM’s growth phase. Any assists called will most likely get aborted and caught in all this by the whiffed buster.
–If they took the hit…
I’d sj, and buster XX HMM. If they block the buster, they’d fall out of block stun and eat the HMM. If they take the hit, at such extreme range, the Buster XX HMM will combo.

2-call an assist and get hit by Jin
–SJ low buster XX HMM. This will sometimes guard break and even if it doesn’t, the assist gets hammered.

3-Call an assist and block.
-Buster XX HMM to hit the assist for decent damage.

Other annoying things I used to do are…
1-Repeated dlk,dmk,dhk, charged buster, dash, repeat. This is a frame trap. Occasionally I’d call assists in this to increase the pinning during the dash part. If they …
a-Call an assist [mine’s off screen]
–Drop Jin-b, walk back or dash back, buster XX HMM pinning the pointman making the assist eat it. If the pointman gets hit, I SJ, low altitute Buster XX HMM. The pointman at best must block while the assist gets raped.
b-Call an assist vs mine [unlikely if the ground series is timed right…]
–Buster XX HMM the assist forcing the point man to block while the HMM hits the assist.

Sadly, I doubt half this will work today. If you’re normal jumping today, unless you’re some character who has no say in the matter, you’re an idiot. I bet most of this here is obsolete.

14

Back dash, buster XX HMM vs assists is pretty cool when used right. With Doom-b, Jin-b, and Tron, the pointman often has to just sit there and watch the assist get hammered, or eat it all too.