YMMV / Mega Man Unlimited

• Anti-Climax Boss: Prototype Zero, if you consider him to be the final 'boss' of the game, is a letdown compared to the three-part battle in Wily Stage 4 despite it being classified as That One Boss, as shown below.
• Awesome Music: One thing that many fans can agree about the game is that it is chock-full of excellent music.
  • "Explosive Artillery" (Tank Man's theme) definitely feels like you're infiltrating the base and to the nucleus to free the robots from their boss.
  • Wings "Cut Through the Night" (Jet Man's theme). Fitting for a starry night while you transverse the busy airport.
  • "Tears of Glue" (Glue Man's theme). A strange, yet somehow enticing theme, especially considering the setting.
  • "Prismatic Descent" (Rainbow Man's theme), an incredibly fast-paced theme that will pump you up as you dodge the deadly beams to safety. Notably, this theme was composed by the game's director, MegaPhilX, and not by the main composer, Kevin Phetsomphou (symfonikev).
  • "Deathtrap Mirage" (the bonus level's theme), an extremely fast-paced theme that incorporates the dreaded Appearing Blocks, fitting the entire Mind Screw that the level is.
  • "Masters of Chaos" (the Robot Masters' boss theme), yet another fast-paced theme to accompany the ensuing battles. Get ready!
  • "An Unbreakable Will" (Wily's Castle 2). Starts off calm and hopeful, until you get to the bridge... when you realize you've got to give it your all.
  • "Standing on Tattered Feet" (Wily's Castle 3). A panic-inducing theme that fits the entire level's insanity.
  • "Brotherly Corruption" (Proto Man's boss theme). A fast-paced, Tear Jerker boss theme to accompany the ensuing battle... with your brother, who you have to snap out of the dangerous virus.
  • "The Hate Comes Out" (Bass' boss theme). If the revelation of him wasn't a shocker to you, his boss battle (and its theme) will make sure you reconsider!
  • "I Have You Now" (Wily Castle's penultimate boss theme). Another panic-inducing theme that goes to show that, after you survived the last battle, the game is actually and completely done with you.
  • "Countdown to Void" (the very final level's theme). With the level's multiple doors, both the level and music are telling you "you shouldn't be here, and you don't want to know what's at the end". This theme was also composed by MegaPhilX.
  • "Division By Zero" (the final boss' theme). Nothing else to say.
  • "Enigma of Aqua" (Whirlpool Man's theme), an astoundingly beautiful theme accompanying the game's water-themed bonus level.
  • "Chasing Eternity" (the Endless Attack theme). Just listening to it pumps you up for the ensuing fun!
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Prototype Zero, specifically the fact that he doesn't attack you immediately despite being established as a walking apocalypse. Is he merely sizing you up and disappointed at what he sees, or does he have a glimmer of that honorable warrior he's destined to be even this far back and letting you get your bearings before he attacks? Or could it be that because he's still in the prototype stage he doesn't have enough of his AI programmed yet to fight you properly, and he only knows enough to fight back in self-defense, which is why he only attacks when you attack?
• Breather Boss:
  • Nail Man doesn't leave himself too vulnerable with his Nail Shield, meaning his boss fight can sometimes reach Marathon Boss levels, but nevertheless, there's not much to worry about on it. As long as you watch out the pattern on which his nails fall, avoid the one nail acting as a pretty short-lived hazard, and you pelt him with buster shots after you watch where he falls without getting cornered, he shouldn't be terrible. And the icing on the cake is that Nail Man gives you one of the most useful weapons in the game. There's a few reasons why this boss is fought first, after all.
  • Tank Man's attack pattern is predictable and easy to learn. His Tank Assault is fairly easy to dodge, and his only other method of hurting you is ramming into you, which is also easily dodged. He'll try to mix his dash attack on even uses, by stopping short of the dash and firing a shell at you, but that's also easy to predict.
  • Comet Woman, the first time you fight her. Her attacks are somewhat sluggish (even her Comet Dash), the Orbiting Particle Shields she fires have an easy timing to dodge, and the level's gravity is minimal while her lair has no hazards to worry about. Her second fight subverts the "breather" part, though...
  • Hilariously, Yoku Man can become this in the boss rush if you've acquired his weapon, the Yoku Attack. It will track him without fail, and kills him in two hits.
  • Once you learn how to exploit his patterns and keep staying at long range, Bass' battle at Wily's castle suddenly becomes much more manageable. With only three attacks at his disposal (shooting the Bass Buster from afar, dashing and jumping; jumping, pausing midair to fire downwards then dash; and merging with Treble to fire large energy spheres), all of which can be telegraphed easily despite their speed/size, the only thing you should be worried about is staying healthy for the next two bosses.
• Breather Level: The final level, even after accounting for its handicaps, is much easier than the previous ones.
• Broken Base:
  • Individual players either come to praise the game's daring approach or despise it as an exercise in frustration due to the brutal difficulty.
  • On the topic of difficulty, just how difficult is the game? Is it Fake Difficulty abound, with over abuse of Spikes of Doom and instakill hazards? Or is it like any Mega Man (Classic) game, where slowly learning the stage and getting better is key and that you have to be trying to run into most of the Spikes of Doom since most of them are cosmetic? About the only thing people can agree on is the levels are too long.
  • A number of players also dislike the art style and certain (but very few) songs, while the rest find them good enough and, as mentioned above, full of Awesome Music.
  • The ending's take on the events that bridge the Classic and X timelines. Some think it's really awesome and love the connection, others consider it an untouchable plot point and feel offended by the game's pretentiousness. A third camp doesn't mind it, but some of them feel it could've been handled better. One thing many will agree, however, is that having the game end with an unwinnable boss fight ends the game on a sour note.
  • Whether or not ignoring NES color limits was a good idea, which MegaPhilX argued with Zan Sidera over. Some think it makes the stages and assorted details look beautiful by NES standards, while others believe that it was taken too far, like with Whirlpool Man's stage.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: The twist that reveals Bass as the one who kidnapped Dr. Wily and lead the robot attack, since the game's promotional material made no effort to hide that he would have a major role. Also, Wily being the actual villain, but that goes without saying.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Most people tend to go after Nail Man first since his stage and boss fight is generally considered to be the easiest, on top of his Robot Master weapon being a shield that's really useful for dealing with enemies during the hardest platforming parts.
• Disappointing Last Level: While the game wasn't exactly balanced to begin with, the final two levels break the patience of some players due to distinct reasons.
• Ending Fatigue: The sheer amount of things you have to do in Fortress Stage 4 causes this on its own, let alone when considered alongside the "level" that follows it.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Hammer Man, especially for those who wanted to see him as more than a Mini-Boss.
  • Comet Woman, partly thanks to there being so few official Robot Mistresses.
• Fan Nickname: The "Wily Cow Catcher", for the first Wily machine.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • In Rainbow Man's stage, aside from the prism enemy, the only other enemy is a leprechaun in a pot that tosses out gold coins. Why's that? Well what do you find at the end of a rainbow?
  • Yo-Yo Man's dislike is stated to be kids, yet he happily shows off tricks to some in the ending. This might seem like typical Gameplay and Story Segregation, until you realize that the bio likely reflects how he was acting while he was out of control.
• Gateway Game: To Mega Man fan games in general.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The Nail Shield, considered to be one of the most useful Special Weapons in the game (if not the best). It has a large hitbox to keep enemies at bay, can take a large number of hits before finally dissipating and can be fired into four large projectiles that shred through anything that doesn't have Mercy Invincibility. It helps immensely with the trickier platform sections.
  • The Rainbow Beam is up there with the Nail Shield in terms of destructive power. The laser you fire deals paltry damage (as much as a buster shot), but is piercing (meaning some armored enemies that aren't Mets will receive damage from it), and the moment you press the fire button again, you create a Sphere of Destruction from it that deals repeated damage, which will add up to four times the damage you would've normally dealt (for a potential five points of damage per shot) and is very good for crowd control. Even better, it is ammo-friendly, consuming only one unit per shot.
  • The Comet Dash helps a lot with trivializing certain platforming sections. It launches you forward with a hitbox that's invincible to everything save spikes. Have to make a precise jump through spikes? Comet Dash will help make it a non-issue. Its only issue is its very high cost, with only seven uses per full gauge.
  • The Yoku Attack. While it doesn't deal as much damage as the weapons above, it makes up for it by homing in on enemies, grabbing items, and being very ammo-friendly (even more so than the Rainbow Laser). Its only issues are that it makes you flinch if it hits a shielded enemy (though it does not damage you), and that no bosses outside of Yoku Man are weak to it.
  • The Water Cannon, while normally a mundane weapon on its own (there's also the fact it's unusable underwater), is actually capable of doing a number on stationary enemies and/or some mini bosses (chief among them, Hammer Man) thanks to its rapid-fire.
  • Rush Jet. Despite being the most bog-standard utility item in the franchise, it's very clear that most of the levels were not designed with it in mind, as there are numerous Platform Hell sections that can be completely skipped with the jet. Combined with the Energy Balancer, you shouldn't have any trouble with keeping Rush Jet's energy full.
  • Omega Special Weapons, which are denoted by an Ω symbol below their energy gauge. For them to be obtained, you've got to defeat each and every one of the Omega Robot Masters in the Special section, with each defeated boss giving you their respective Omega Special Weapon; the trade-off is completely worth it, however, as Omega weapons consume half as much energy as their respective normal weapons would have consumed. Weapons that were previously considered average can become Game-Breakers in their own right, whereas most of the already Game-Breakers above become outright unfair.
  • Prototype Zero. You have to have already beaten the game already on Original or Insta-Death, so it can't be used to cheese the game as soon as you start. He starts out weak, and grows more powerful the more bosses you beat, but even if you only beat a third of them, he completely punches a hole through a good portion of the game's difficulty.
• Goddamned Boss:
  • Glue Man has a fast pace to his battle, which can throw off newer players. His Glue Shot immobilizes Mega Man, enough for him to crash onto him for Collision Damage. And while this is his only damaging attack, it hurts a lot. He can also cling to the ceiling to shoot three Glue Shots succesively before coming down. Mastering the pace to the fight and where Glue Man will shoot the Glue Shots is essential, but once you do so, you'll realize the fight was actually more reliant on Fake Difficulty than anything else.
  • Trinitro Man. His Nitro Blast can be annoying to dodge and deals a crapload of damage, meaning that if you get cornered trying to dodge Trinitro Man's landing (and this is actually easy to dodge), you will take damage. By the way, see the top of his head? That's his weak point, which you actually do NOT want to hit, as doing so three times will make him explode and take you with him, ending in a lost battle. Fortunately, the Rainbow Beam just so happens to ignore his head's hurtbox limit, all the while dealing more damage to him.
  • Rainbow Man. He follows a set pattern, but his most annoying attack is disappearing in one of two rain clouds followed by them creating sparks, then him appearing from the cloud that shot the sparks second - the problem isn't from avoiding the spikes, but from knowing which cloud shot sparks first. It doesn't help that, after this attack, Rainbow Man plants an arrow in the floor and fires a Rainbow Beam at the arrow, resulting in his infamous One-Hit Kill beam. The latter attack did get nerfed hard in an update, becoming merely a damaging attack, though the fact its huge hitbox can still lock you in place for long is still bothersome.
  • Comet Woman, the second time you fight her. With gravity being normal instead of low, her attacks suddenly have a different timing to dodge, plus you can't count on increased leniency to dodge her attacks because of the regular gravity.
  • MegaPhilX stated this as the reason behind the lack of Devil bosses, finding them boring to fight. As a compromise, the Wily Machine and Wily Walker make use of some of their usual, though less annoying, attack patterns.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • The top of Trinitro Man's head is intended as Schmuck Bait as hitting it causes a lot of damage but hitting it three times causes it to explode. If, however, the 3rd hit's damage is enough to KO Trinitro Man, the head does not explode and you win.
  • Using Glue Man's weapon, you can zip through walls similar to the bugs in earlier classic Mega Man games. It was patched out in a later version, but demand caused the devs to release a "Speedrunning version" that reinstated the glitch, along with adding a few features, like an in-game timer.
  • Earlier editions of the game had a bug where Jet Man would randomly freeze in place, allowing players to simply buster him to death. Unfortunately, depending on when the bug happened, it could become a Game-Breaking Bug; this happened during Roahm Mythril's blind run, where Jet Man froze in place during his entry sequence, essentially freezing the game, and forcing Roahm to start the level over and play through it again.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In Zero mode, you play as a rogue prototype robot who constantly lose health, and the way to stay alive is to kill enemies. In Mighty No. 9, Ray's gimmick is exactly that. It also helps that she's an Expy of said character.
  • Prototype Zero being able to shrug off everything or simply parry everything that Mega Man throws at him becomes this after you see the episode featuring Zero in DEATH BATTLE! He's estimated to be tough enough to survive the explosive force of an impact similar to the meteor that killed the dinosaurs.
  • Both Unlimited and Mega Man 10 have plots that involve robots going crazy after being infected by viruses, and Dr. Wily denying that he is the culprit, only for him to have lied. This is even funnier when you consider that the game's assets, during when it was called Mega Man 10, did accidentally get used for promoting the real 10's official website. Plus, this game's Trinitro Man was originally named Nitro Man, until the official 10 used the name for one of its Robot Masters.
  • StarSimsUniverse allowed Yoku Man to be used in the public domain. This has somehow led to his theme song being included as an unlockable extra stage in Just Shapes & Beats under the name of "Yokuman".
  • Mega Man X DiVE casually implies Bass (who is essentially Mega Man's equal) is able to actually bring Zero to at least a stalemate, which makes Unlimited's depiction of how Mega Man fares against him a bit awkward.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "So, like a normal Mega Man Unlimited level." ^Explanation It's become a meme from both detractors and people who like the game to say this in response to Marathon Levels in other games, either by describing the level in detail or using it in response to someone talking about a Marathon Level in another game, the joke being that all the levels in Mega Man Unlimited are Marathon Levels in and of themselves.
  • The first victim of the robot apocalypse says "What!?" ^{Explanation (Spoilers!)} Fans noted similarities between the Z-Prototype boss fight and CMSPyrowolf's Dr. Wily Fails at Life, in particular how much stronger Zero is compared to regular robots.
• Moment of Awesome: Actually managing to clear Captured Wily Stage 4 can be this for any player, regardless of what comes afterwards.
• Never Live It Down: Despite the many patches and updates made to make the game more balanced, Unlimited is still remembered for its Checkpoint Starvation and odd checkpoint placements (such as putting a few before the mid-bosses of most levels), and for being brutally difficult, often verging on Fake Difficulty at times.
• Nintendo Hard: It's much more difficult than usual for a Mega Man (Classic) game, and most of those games weren't exactly a cakewalk to begin with. According to MegaPhilX in his own Let's Play of the game, the difficulty actually had to be toned down since the original was too hard.
• Older Than They Think: Rainbow Man and Yoku Man are not the first Robot Masters that use an instant kill attack, since Uranus also has one.
• Only the Author Can Save Them Now: The only reason why Mega Man survived the fight with Protoype Zero at all is due to the latter breaking down at the last moment.
• Pandering to the Base: The development of the game itself is a form of this, due to the fans begging MegaPhilX to make a full project out of his fan-made trailer.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The prisms in Rainbow Man's stage. They make the Force Beams take a triangular spread, often forcing the player into react immediately or die situations.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: The Insta-Death difficulty. Take what's already considered to be one of the most difficult Mega Man fan games out there, then ratchet up the difficulty by playing as a One-Hit-Point Wonder. Good luck!
• Shocking Moments: Highlights include Proto Man getting infected and turning on you, Bass going rogue, and the fight with Prototype Zero in the finale. The ending bridging the Classic and X series, however, takes the cake.
• Signature Scene: The final boss battle, especially when Prototype Zero slices Mega Man's arm off.
• That One Attack:
  • Jet Man's missile rain. If you're on the right side of the screen, you get about a second to dodge or counter the missiles (and they don't fall straight, unlike the bombs dropped by the regular enemies). If you're on the wrong side, then you're just screwed. This attack gets an upgrade with his Omega form where he carpet-bombs the whole arena, giving you less room to dodge before they explode. Jet Man's other attacks can be dodged consistently, but this attack alone makes him That One Boss.
  • Yoku Man has an attack where he will make death spikes appear one tile above the ground in a row, except where he is about to appear and right beside him. If you didn't make it through his previous attack pattern properly, you're almost certain to die, unless you get lucky.
  • Elecrab, the first boss in the Captured Wily's Castle, has an attack where it electrifies the ladders in the arena. One hit while on the ladder it affects is enough to send you into a bottomless pit. Its other attack is annoying as well, since one hit from it will also ensure your death.
• That One Boss:
  • Jet Man. Not only is he quite fast, but his attacks all cause small explosions, come out quickly, and deal lots of damage, most infamously his missile rain. He also doesn't give you many opportunities to hit him. He's also notable in that his weakness, the Comet Dash, doesn't have enough energy to kill him alone, requiring you to also hit him with the sonic blasts that come from the dash attack, too. Clash all of this with the fact his stage is That One Level, and you get a fight that will have you on your feet.
  • Yoku Man summons Appearing Blocks, then teleports to a random one and fires a projectile at you. Predicting which block he will appear on can be quite hard, and contact damage from him is high, while his shots aren't weak, either. After doing this three times, he teleports to the bottom of the stage and fills it with spikes, except for a small area in front of him. You'll need quick reflexes coming in on his battle, and hope the RNG is on your favor. Similarly to Jet Man, the fact his stage is a Marathon That One Level, only adds insult to injury. On the bright side, if you got Yoku Attack prior to the fortress, you can serve him a taste of his own medicine in the Boss Rush, as he's egregiously weak to his own weapon.
  • Elecrab, the boss at the end of the first Captured Wily's Castle level is also aggravating. You fight it on a set of three ladders over a Bottomless Pit, where getting hit by anything is almost guaranteed to be fatal thanks to the Knock Back. Coming in with a stock of Beat Whistles is highly recommended. Fortunately, the boss itself is allergic to the Jet Missile.
  • The real Final Boss at the end of the fourth Wily Castle level: the Wily Machine, and the Wily Walker.
    • The Wily Machine's difficulty stems mainly from the fact that unlike traditional Wily Machine fights, all of its attacks aren't easy to see coming because of how the boss moves, plus as per tradition for Wily boss fights, they all deal high damage that stacks quickly. Trial-and-Error Gameplay does apply, but you'll need to be on your wits in order to overcome and memorize each and every attack. What's more, since it's constantly moving and it has such an enormous hitbox on its underside, aiming for the ship's glass becomes incredibly hard, even with the weapon that damages it the most, the Yo-Yo Cutter.
    • And then there's the Wily Walker. Its energy spheres aren't too hard to dodge, but the real problem comes from how the boss jumps around the arena, which is completely unpredictable (which means Trial-and-Error Gameplay doesn't apply as easily). If it doesn't jump from one side to the other, you'll have to contend with quickly sliding and make sure the boss doesn't land on you or in front of you (and if it does, pray you have enough energy on the invincible Comet Dash, otherwise you're taking damage). At least when he activates its thrusters to tackle you, you can outright negate this by shooting at it repeteadly. Only when the boss jumps does it have a window of vulnerability, but the fact is that its a tiny vulnerability window, and the Rainbow Beam, the most effective way to hit it, deals barely any damage, whereas the Yo-Yo Cutter, the weapon that deals the most damage to it, is hard to aim towards it, much like the previous boss (although fortunately less so).
    • Finally, while the previous battle against Bass before the two isn't difficult per se (and likely a Breather Boss as stated above), it is cluttered with the other two fights above and the two battles above come one after another with no chance to regain lost health or weapon energy without an E-Tank or W-Tank.
  • Invoked with the Omega Robot Masters. Their speed, damage and strategies are all cranked up to eleven, to the point easy bosses become nightmarish, while already hard bosses become Harder Than Hard^{Changes to each boss} Nail Man rains many more nails, shoots his Nail Shield faster, and leaves himself less vulnerable; Tank Man shoots Tank Arsenal volleys more often and less predictable, and when he feints tackling Mega Man, fires a barrage of shots to cover his distance; Jet Man is faster, shoots three Jet Missiles from the air before landing, and his missile rain deals more damage while covering virtually the entire arena; Glue Man shoots three Glue Shots on the ground and five all at once when he clings to the ceiling; Trinitro Man needs only one hit on his weak point to explode and fires his Nitro Blast faster; Rainbow Man is much faster and unpredictable, and the clouds he summons shoot many more sparks; Yo-Yo Man is faster and has faster attacks; Comet Woman lacks gravity (like in her Wily Castle rematch), is faster and her Comet Dash sends more sonic waves flying; Yoku Man is faster, his projectiles travel directly towards you, his Appearing Blocks and One-Hit Kill attack are faster, and he teleports faster; and Whirlpool Man is faster and his water mines take one more bullet of punishment (so a charge shot can't immediatly destroy them). For all your troubles at fighting said bosses, however, you receive their respective Omega Special Weapons (denoted by an Ω symbol below their energy gauge), which use only half the energy the respective weapon would normally use.
• That One Level:
  • Jet Man's stage, which involves a long portion over a bottomless pit, which you must cross using platforms that move when you run the opposite direction. This is while steady streams of enemies jump up from the bottomless pit, and a pair of enemies perform what can only be described as an air raid. If you get hit by any of these, especially in midair, instant death is pretty much guaranteed. Finally, there's the battle with Jet Man...
  • Rainbow Man's level, which is loaded with Quick Man's instant death Force Beams. It even gets worse, as some of the beams will pass through prisms that fan the light out into a wide area. It got toned down as of version 1.1.0, cutting out a number of potential cheap deaths, though the stage is still quite challenging. And that's without getting into the fight with Rainbow Man.
  • Yoku Man's level also counts, for obvious reasons. His stage is a Marathon Level to end all Maraathon Levels in the game, full of Elite Mooks, Appearing Blocks, Appearing Spike Blocks, Fake Platforms, enemies that emulate Appearing Blocks, and more. There's only one checkpoint, which comes fairly late for the level's standards, and after that, you'll have to contend with a maze comprised of ten different screens that has only one solution, and you'll get bounced back a considerable amount if you choose the wrong path (though mercifully, the maze is divided in two sections). After the maze, you'll have to contend with a much longer, difficult level section full of Appearing Block puzzles before the battle with Yoku Man. And finally, the battle with Yoku Man is no slouch, either. The developers must have known how aggravating the level would be, as mercifully, there are three extra lives scattered around the level.
  • Captured Wily Castle Stage 3 is long and filled with Gravity Screw, and if you haven't been through Yoku Man's stage, you're introduced to the concept of Yoku Spikes of Doom here.
  • Captured Wily Castle Stage 4 is a prime contender, even accounting for the fact that it's a Fortress stage. 9 Robot rematches complete with gimmick mini-levels prior to each rematch and a 3-part final boss battle. All in one stage! It is enough to make players rage. Doubly frustrating if you haven't been through Yoku Man's level.
• Tough Act to Follow: Downplayed with the game's music. The songs composed by symfonikev are seen as much better than MegaPhilX's and (to a lesser extent) ThunderThouin's. The Captured Wily Castle stage songs make the quality gap more obvious. However, they're not considered outright bad or lackluster, as is the case with Rainbow Man's theme.
• Unexpected Character: How many people were expecting Zero (or at least a prototype of him) to be a Post-Final Boss? Even after that, nobody expected him to become a playable character, either.
• Unfortunate Character Design: At least one fan noticed that the dome on Trinitro Man's head looks phallic.

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