It’s the first round of the Red Sun Tournament yet again and our first opponent is the final Normal Navi of the game. His operator is a generic thug sprite named Jack Bomber. Just like how Lan dismisses his opponent for simply being a Normal Navi Bomber dismisses Megaman since he’s never heard of him before. He soon realizes that he’s talking to Megaman’s operator and hastily tries to recant, but Lan’s takes the slight as a license for being a bit of a passive-aggressive dick for the rest of the scenario, though admittedly I can’t really blame him considering the upcoming minigame.
That minigame is a sport called Foot Bomb. Jack Bomber’s joined the tournament to show the world the greatness of Foot Bomb, a sport that goes back two-thousand years and is now only played online between Navis. It simply involves kicking a ball into a goal and the opposing player trying to defend it, but what separates Foot Bomb from soccer is that the ball is actually an explosive. No wonder it’s only played online now. Lan gets roped into playing a game of it, which requires us to first fork over a Guard 1 A for some “Bomb Shoes” as a prerequisite before jacking in to the goddess statue on Netopia’s main street to called Bomber’s Navi.
The way the minigame works is that Megaman and the Navi will alternate between offense and defense in front of a soccer goal. When on offense Megaman kicks the ball by pressing A and the direction he wants to kick it in, left, right, or center, while the Navi tries to block it. When on defense, same rules apply. If the ball gets past the goalie and into the net it explodes, dealing two-hundred points of damage. When one player runs out of HP, the game ends.
What’s terrible about this is that there’s absolutely no indication, no tell whatsoever, as to which direction the opponent intends to kick/block the ball. It’s purely random guesswork, and the detection on button presses is, you guessed it, lousy. What’s more, the Navi will almost certainly have more HP than Megaman, severely stacking the odds in his favor.
After we (eventually and with great haggardness) win Lan decides to rub his victory in his opponents’ faces, and they angrily storm off. Afterwards Megaman manages to convince Lan to apologize, so we have to head over to Netfrica Area to find the Navi. His mood has improved my now, and he’s ready for Round 2 in the charioteer statue right outside of the Coliseum. This time the bomb deals a whopping four-hundred damage if it gets in the goal. Paradoxically, this is a good thing, since the minigame is much shorter now. Either you win very quickly or you lose very quickly. After winning again it’s time for the Net Battle at last.
Normal Navi Beta
HP: 1200
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Mega Cannon – The Navi pulls out a Mega Cannon and fires a blast down one row for 100 damage.
- Wide Sword – The Navi slashes the column in front of him with a sword for 150 damage.
- Big Bomb – The Navi throws a bomb three panels ahead that explodes a 3 x 3 area for 100 damage.
- Wind – A Wind Box virus is summoned to blow wind that constantly pushes Megaman to the back of his area.
- Fanfare – A Trumpy virus is summoned to play a song that grants the Navi invincibility.
- Discord – A Tuby virus is summoned to play a song that confuses Megaman.
- Blinder – Megaman is temporarily blinded.
Ironically enough when Normal Navis get to this point I find them more annoying to fight than most custom Navi bosses.
Yay, we won, and a television producer in the audience was so impressed with the battle he wants Jack Bomber to appear in a documentary to talk about Foot Bomb. Yay I suppose. Next is Thunderman’s scenario again. Totally not yay.
Comments
