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Mega Man Ruby Spears: Mega X Rant
Reviewed: 06/09/2022
Doctor Wily Is A Vile X-Hole!
So, we continue season two of the blue dweeb's life with episode #26 as the evil Mavericks, Vile and Spark Mandrill have arrived from the future and the two of them quickly prove far too powerful even for Mega Man. He is saved by Mega Man X who's in hot pursuit of the two Mavericks. Mega Man doesn't know what to make of everything but helps X anyway. They work together to stop both Dr. Wily and the Mavericks. I have been waiting for this episode since I first saw this series and I'm ready to see how X gets messed up in the process. How does this episode fare? Let's rant on shall we...?!
Mega X is written by Michael Maurer & Richard Merwin and was directed by Katsumi Minoguchi.
We begin this episode with a sky shot of the city and harbour as we pan northwest to a power plant like building on an island with a bridge and there are a lot of bubbles in the area. We head inside to Dr. Light explaining that the power plant is plasma powered to the press and a generic yellow shirt wearing camera person with his red hat on backwards. There is a lot of green liquid in capsules in the foreground as Dr. Light continues explaining the power plant some more as apparently, Bree Recotta is either no more or has changed her appearance completely just for this episode. Rock shows off his Rock Buster and Roll shows off her Roll objects, as she uses the vacuum cleaner arm on the press, just to annoy them. The camera man is bald because he was wearing a brown hairpiece that Roll sucks off of him. This sucks more than Sean Desmond and the camera guy might as well be Sean Desmond today as Dr. Light shows off some pillars called Titanium Rods which aid in converting plasma into energy to run the entire city. Geez, the Sub-Electron Power Ampilifier is much better than this and is smaller than this power plant ever was and that thing was suppose to run 50 power plants, in 1937! We have regressed in terms of efficiancy and robustness in 20XX, haven't we?! Rush hides behind the rods as the others are walking away stage left and he growls because a conveniently placed vent opens and out comes a Battatton spying on the Titanium Rods as we head back into the skies outside with the Wily Machine RS flying and then inside the cockpit as Proto Man and Dr. Wily look at the monitor to spy on the rods. Dr. Wily is loving life as he orders mini Skull Jets to attack to cause a distraction for a while. These are un-robot master jets this time around since Guts Man, Cut Man and Snake Man are in the cockpit with Dr. Wily. Dr. Wily's motive is to get the rods to power up his Super Blaster and world domination, am I right? Dr. Wily cackles like an evildoer as we cut back to Rush staring down the Battatton inside the power plant. Rush rushes Battatton, Rush misses and lands in the pool of plasma power, which he pops up, licks his chops and says Plasma Power just to annoy me. Rush turns into Rush Jet, flies, bites the Battatton's wings, flies in front of the other babyfaces, comes down as Rush and shows the Battatton to Rock. You got all that?! Good. Rock calls the bat a "Spy Bat" as we hear rumbling as everyone heads to the computer room.
Rock turns on the computer as we see on the monitor the mini Skull Jets attacking the power plant. Rock calls them Mini Jets for no reason that I can think off; and these jets are robotted by the same generic robots we have seen in past episodes. I call them No Personality Men now. Dr. Light turns on the defense security system as Rock, Roll and Rush bail stage left. I will say that so far, the animation has been great outside of a few shots. We get the dog fighting sequence with lasers with two arms of the JAWS OF HALF LIFE. JAWS OF HALF LIFE pinches one of the Skull Jets and flings it into the formation and destroys about half of them as they fall into the drink, creating more littering in the harbour. Sigh. Next up, Skull Tanks as they roll onto the bridge, thus the only reason for the bridge to exist in the first shot of the power plant. Something tells me that Skull Man was a bigger fetish in this show for Dr. Wily than Guts Man was in the early games. The security system has a hose which sprays oil on the bridge and there is slippage and sparking, but no explosions nor fire. Huh? Rock, Roll and Rush finally come out for the fire fight of doom. Roll uses the vacuum cleaner arm to suck up what appears to be a flamethrower buster shot and then turns it on one of the tanks, which would have been cool of the lasers were flamethrowers. Rock and Roll are overwhelmed by this firefight, so Rock runs in and shoots some more, landing on one of the Skull Tanks. He throws out one of the bots and then uses the tank's gun to destroy the other tanks. Wily Machine RS arrives via the sky shot as Proto Man just has to explain the obvious to Dr. Wily, which is that he shouldn't really love life at this point. The back door opens and Guts Man, Snake Man and Cut Man jump down and parachute. The robot masters than cut off Rock and the tank as Guts Man lifts up one of the tank's wheels and throws the tank so that it's upside down, trapping Rock. Guts Man does the "no pain, no gain" promo that is so stupid that Rock somehow breaks logic by popping out, shoots his Rock Buster and creates a hole in Guts Man's chest. Yup; Guts Man deserves no mercy on that one as Guts Man falls backwards and is apparently dead. Snake Man and Cut Man fire Search Snakes and Rolling Cutters, the snakes get destroyed, but one Rolling Cutter manages to hit Rock in the chest, knock him into the wall and knocks him the F out. More Search Snakes eat copper pipe above Rock, Rock dodges pipe pieces.
Rock throws the elbow pipe of doom into Snake Man's blaster and this somehow gets a Search Snake biting Cut Man to crumbling pieces. Of course! Rock shoots Snake Man and Snake Man crumbles to pieces, just like that. We then get a hilarious conversation of Snake Man's head and Cut Man's head yelling at each other. That was funny and them blaming each other for being idiots is so classic. Dr. Wily brings out the giant magnet to take the robots back, and I'm guessing that this was Magnet Man's fate since we haven't seen him since episode #2. Wily Machine RS turns around and leaves, so I assumed that he left Guts Man to die on the bridge. The babyfaces are confused as I am as we head to Skull Fortress RS as Dr. Wily is whining and complaining as always while watching his super blaster thingy, which might as well be stealing from Plunder and Lightning, AGAIN! Proto Man does not help Dr. Wily's headache in anyway by proclaiming that he will NEVER...EVER...get those titanium rods from that power plant. Then suddenly, a green smoke warp gate appears in front of the heels out of nowhere and this is the moment I have been waiting for as out comes a purple Bobba Fett wannabe and a giant mandrill robot walk out. Dr. Wily is stunned to see this as the purple robot knows Dr. Wily right away. This is Vile and Spark Mandrill, from the Mega Man X series. Now, in this canon; it seems Vile is much more than willing to work with Sigma than in the games. I'm sorry; but after seeing the Day Of Sigma OAV from the remake of Mega Man X on PSP; this whole episode has aged like a rotton apple. Vile only agreed to work with Sigma so he could have the honor of proving that he was better than X. That being said though, this episode was written at a time when the Mega Man X series was still trying to distance itself, as the first game still had artifacts from the original Mega Man series, like the classic Mets and the Dr. Wily robot master introduction theme still being used. Sure, Mega Man X5 had the Yellow Devil, but that was intended as an Easter egg. Mega Man X2 was really the first game to become it's own series, rather than just leeching off of the original series. Also, Vile knowing Dr. Wily makes no sense compared to the games, but; it has been heavily implied that Dr. Wily created Zero and Dr. Light created X, especially in "Day Of Sigma" in the case of the later.
By the way, Vile's Japanese name is VAVA, which is an analogue to BABA or Bobba Fett, so it was clear from the start what Vile's character was going to be based off of, which sadly, the writers of this episode forgot to take into consideration. Ironically, Dr. Weil from the Mega Man Zero series' Japanese name is Dr. Vile. Despite this canon silliness, the character designs are actually great and Vile's voice might actually be better than the one done in Day Of Sigma. It's creepy and it feels a lot more threatening to a character who is a Maverick who hates everyone, including other Mavericks. Vile breaks the ice stating that he wants Titanium Rods for his world and points his shoulder cannon on Dr. Wily. I would obey him if I were you, Dr. Wily. He's from the future and no one in this world is equipped to handle him. Dr. Wily backs up and hits a button below the control panel. There is a ping sound and in comes Guts Man, Cut Man and Snake Man. Wait, how did Guts Man come back? Worse, Guts Man proclaims that he heard the silent alarm. WHAT?! You are not suppose to hear the alarm, you simpleton! Vile tells Spark Mandrill to kill them, Spark Mandrill does the ELECTRIC SHOCKWAVE OF DEATH and squashes the robots through the door just like that. Should have reconsidered your relationship with Ice Man there, doc; since Shotgun Ice from Chill Pengiun is Spark Mandrill's weakness. Dr. Wily's expressions are priceless in this scene, he might as well be Sigma's slave and be done with it. Proto Man, the psychopath that he is, praises Vile's cool hardware. Dr. Wily and Vile exchange notes for a while and Dr. Wily wants to work together in exchange for a few rods. Vile grabs him and agrees because despite Dr. Wily being a "useless human", he does respect Dr. Wily's love for conquering mankind because Vile wants to conquer mankind in his world. Well, I guess Mavericks would have secondary motives, but Vile is supposed to just want to beat X and everyone is just in the way, especially that yellow haired traitor to Mavericks, Zero. Dr. Wily shows the computer and Vile punches the computer and transfers the data to his memory circuits, then blows a hole into the wall of the fortress. Vile and Spark Mandrill just walk out saying that they have a job to do. Head to the plasma power plant as there is a red screen flash and an explosion within seconds. Jump cut to inside the computer room with Roll and Dr. Light watching the carnage from the monitor.
Rock enters noticing Spark Mandrill and Vile walks in causally. Rock leaves making a really dumb pun that will haunt him for the rest of his life after this episode is over. Rock comes out via the Landblazer with Roll and Rush in tow. Spark Mandrill and Vile are like "whatever, let's do some foreplay with a feather target practice" as he shoots his shoulder cannon and blows up the Landblazer. Rock and Roll drop to the ground in fear, while Rush is crumbled to pieces. OUCH! Rock and Roll are scared to death in a sort of fear that they don't know what they are doing, and realizing that the future is going to be a bigger nightmare than expected. Vile talks about their bodies being made of a metal alloy that won't be available for hundreds of years, which is kind of stupid because the timeline between the two worlds is literally 20XX and 21XX. A hundred years difference, so the writers hyperbole history here. Spark Mandrill, the silent one of the duo, does another shockwave and that binds the babyfaces into a rock. You can tell how vicious the heels are because the babyfaces are actually selling pain that they would normally shrug off if the robot masters were doing it. Vile decides to point his shoulder canon at the paralyzed Rock and Roll as Vile wants to put them out of their collective misery to end the segment eight minutes in. Wow, this was a really awesome debut for Vile and Spark Mandrill, creative license issues aside. Vile looks like a badass and Spark Mandrill is even more threatening than he was in the actual game. I understand that a Mega Man X series was planned by Ruby-Spears; but the Bandai toy thingy destroyed those plans before it could even start. Also, this episode was basically a preview of what Season 3 could have been as they were making the heels much more threatening than they usually are. It's similar to when TMNT went darker and darker as seasons goes on because the comedy acts were getting old and stale, plus the bloom was off the rose. Ironically, TMNT suffered the same issue as Mega X here: the 4Kids TMNT show was far better than the 1987 version and even better than when it went into the darker themed version of the mid 1990's. Finally, after all of these awesome moments, the editors ruined it with: "MEGA! MEGA! RIGHT BACK! MESSAGES! WOO-WOO!" Keep in mind, just before we went to commercial break; Rush was crumbled to pieces with ease. Imagine watching that and then this eyecatcher comes up! Bad idea, show! BAD!
After the commercial break, Rock has stopped selling the pain and he's just mean now as Roll is panicky while trapped. Thankfully, Vile cuts an awesome pyschopath promo about how he would be lying if he said that it was nice knowing you. Vile does have a red eye as he sets up for the kill; when suddenly, another green portal opens from behind and here comes the debut of Mega Man X, according to Vile. Okay, writers; the guys name is just X, no need to add the Mega Man part, since Mega Man X is the title of the first game in the X series. X looks like a middle aged man and much bigger in this show compared to the game. Also, X here is basically a bigger version of Rock with a lot more power and a lot less restraint. The game version had X basically fighting a battle to reach his full potential after Sigma sees said thing in X and it's a chess fight between X trying to be the good guy to mankind without corrupting himself into being a Maverick which is the heel robot, although the difference is that the Mavericks are either cool heels or sympathic heels who might as well be babyfaces. You could understand their motives even if they are being used to feed Sigma's hatred for humans in general. Sigma wants to kill mandkind, Dr. Wily wants to control them and Dr. Wily sounds worse than Sigma in that regard. So, basically; X gets screwed by the creators here and is basically a giant blue dweeb. X breaks the ice by shooting his X Buster and the heels scatter because X's buster can destroy the metal alloy Rock cannot, you see. Otherwise, Vile would have taken the shot and no sold it. I do admit this, the Ruby-Spears debut of the X series characters were done so well that it put them over as a giant's deal; which is what you are supposed to do here. Yes, television grade animation isn't really the best, however; it is good enough to make it look like this is an awesome showdown. Hopefully, X doesn't squash Vile here from the start, that would kill the moment for me. Vile taunts X as he and Spark Mandrill are on a delivery truck out of nowhere. Fire fight ensues, both dodge with ease. X goes over to the babyfaces and free them from the electrical shockwave, throwing it away with ease before bailing stage right. Roll is confused despite Vile clearly saying who X is. That electrical net must have paralyzed the memory circuits. Rock doesn't know, other than he should back X up, just in case. X might be a heel for all we know since Mavericks can turn as such on their own free will.
I should note that the Japanese name for Maverick is "Irregular". Which actually humanizes them more than Maverick does. More shooting and explosions and dodging make Gregory Weagle something something as X hides behind a crumbled wall. Rock comes up from behind and thanks X for the service. X's voice is horrible by the way, he should have the same voice as Rock does in this show. X keeps shooting and the fire power is making such explosions that even Rock is telling X to reel it in a bit. I don't blame Rock, X has zero clue that the past is ill-equiped to deal with that amount of firepower. I mean, it would be difficult to weld that power properly in X's world. This show cannot resist using the word "bot" for every robot in the show. Maybe they wanted to take the gender out of it, but Maverick doesn't require gender anyway so it sounds corny and that's worse when X is suppose to be a darker series. X also shows his psychopathy by claiming that he must take down Mavericks at all costs as the power plant is getting destroyed more by X's buster than anything else at this point. Rock is worried about this as he should be. More destruction ensues as the place is a war zone, literally. Vile and Spark Mandrill bail out as I expect them to be as X is pissed off that they got away. In comes Dr. Light to check on the carnage as Roll shows pieces of Rush off, as Rock is fine, Roll is fine as X appears. Dr. Light is confused as X introduces himself and he was created by Dr. Light in the future. In defense of the writers here, the Day Of Sigma did imply that Dr. Light created X and I'm surprised Rock didn't say anything. So we head to Skull Fortress RS BEFORE HAPPY HOUR (Sunset) as Vile claims that he and Spark Mandrill were rescued by Dr. Wily. I don't believe you, Vile; because that would be a burial. I think you left on your own accord and Dr. Wily let you stay at the fortress as a show of gratitude. And I threw up in my mouth a lot after writing that one. Vile walks to the computer with the heels watching on, except for Spark Mandrill. Vile shows off X for a while and explains that he's a sadist who kills Maverick because he's a Maverick Hunter. Simplistic, but does have a nugget of truth to it. Vile breaks a monitor for fun. So, Dr. Wily somehow manage to get the monitor to work again, or uses another computer as he has a Krackpotkin Plan: Destroy the conveniently placed dam to flood the plasma power plant and make everyone flee. Could be worse, I guess.
Vile has the Gruffi pose on and sees it as a decent plan from a puny human and decides to agree with it as Spark Mandrill is written back in via teleport. So, we head to Dr. Light's residence AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) as Dr. Light and X are exchanging notes on the situation and their past history. X puts a CD into the computer as he shows red print data for Vile. By the way, Spark Mandrill is now Spark Moundrill and Sigma is Cigma. If you read my Captains Outrageous rant, especially the scene with Rebecca and the checklist they showed, this looks like someone forgot to check to make sure the Engrish was corrected. Say what you want with 4Kids' editing, but they at least try to make sure whatever text is not wiped off is spelt correctly according to the proper English name. Basically, Sigma wants to destroy all humans which is consistant with his character, and Sigma actually looks like Sigma from the games. Yeah, the whole "X is a psychopath hellbent on destroying Mavericks" thing rubs me the wrong way, but the heel side is actually consistant with the games. Writers cannot seem to understand the nuance of X's character because nuance is seen as "moral revelatism", which is silly because the ones who accuse others of this are often the ones who project like IMAXes so to speak. Yes, sometimes the simple way is the best way; but more often than not nuance is your ally. X's character in the games is that he doesn't want to fight; but is forced too because there's no alternative. This X comes off as a "shoot first, asks questions" later type of robot. He's almost a pure Maverick in this regard. Even ZERO, who never appears in this episode, doesn't go for the violence first concept even if it might be his second choice, rather than his eighth or ninth choice like X does. Anyhow, X's future is basically the same as Rock's world, only the names have changed. In many respects, this is true; but it's much more nuanced in X's world than in Rock's in the games. This made the X games different, although you don't really notice it as much in the X series until Mega Man X4, especially the infamous "WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOR?" scene with Iris and Zero. Rock and X decides to form an alliance to stop Vile and Spark Mandrill. They shake hands and then we head to the power plant. X is using his hemet infered scanner which was actually something used in Mega Man X2 as an item searcher in that game. So, the writers did get at least one thing right when it came to X.
X notices that the footprints are there, but not much else. Rock assumes that they left for the future, which is stupid because X is picking up the Wily Machine RS coming for them. He determined this by the fuel octane by the way, which was funny. X and Rock decide to follow some heat trail and this logically leads to Skull Fortress RS which is deserted, so X checks his goggles again and there is a heat trail going due west. Keep in mind that X and Rock had to hide behind rocks to do this instead of picking up the trail from the air. This was clearly done to waste time to set up going to the dam. The Skullcopter arrives because you got to fit Vile and Spark Mandrill in it since all the X characters are much taller than the original Rock robots. Proto Man is piloting in the cockpit as he brings out the underbelly laser as Vile wants to crack the dam open like an egg and orders Proto Man to fire. It's so awesome to see the two second banana heels agreeing with each other as Blues is about to fire the laser; but Rock shoots it off and the babyfaces cut off the heels with Rush Jet and the Sky Cycle. So, X gets to ride on Roll's ride. I hope Roll isn't jealous about this, because that would suck and she would be hating life as Dr. Wily is right now. X somehow shoots the back of the Skullcopter. Dr. Wily panics because the Skullcopter has lost all control and they are going to crash. Vile blows him off and orders him to lan on the dam, which they do without crashing. HAHA! Vile is right, you use emotions way too much, Dr. Wily. Rock and X land on the dam as well. X orders Rock to stay away and let him handle the Mavericks, which is a smart and dangerous move because (a) X is the only one who can stop them and (b) this X doesn't know how to reel in his firepower enough to not destroy the dam and give the heels the victory. Rock is gravely offended and claims that X accused him of being chopped liver. Sadly, X is correct in this regard, but Rock follows him anyway because Blues might arrive anyway and even Rock can take on Blues. The heels get out and then Spark Mandrill gets back in later for no reason. X sets his buster to profits and he acts like a sadist here. To be fair, a lot of X's pacifism in the games wasn't in evidence until the Day Of Sigma OAV and the early X games had poor localization as well. Witness Serges from Mega Man X2 in the US when he dies that he talks about a prophecy out of nowhere, while the Japanese version brings the first signs of Zero's relationship with Dr. Wily, albeit it was very subtle.
Again, the writers might have played the games, but the games didn't do a good job in making the characters, characters since gameplay was king and storyline was secondary. There are times when the modern games are better than the classic games. Nuance is your ally most of the time. Vile and Rock are shooting and dodging and then X just does a jump kick and knocks Vile the F out. WHAT?! Okay, it's consistant with this series that melee attacks occur, but come on now! Vile shouldn't go down in ONE KICK! Cut Man and Guts Man are as confused as I am; and RUN FOR YOUR LIVES~! You are no match for X, you're barely a match for Rock! Instead, Cut Man uses the Rolling Cutter to cut some wire for the power tower to spark as Gut Man rips it off and threatens to shock Mega Man X. Riiiiggggghhhhhttttt. You think that X would squash these two incompentent losers; but nope! Rock shoots a buster shot which does almost nothing and Guts Man gives up and bail. Way to go, writers! If you are going to bury the two big heels of the show, let X stomp them out like bugs! And to think, the booking of this episode has been solid until now. Sure, the "X chooses violence" thing is stupid; but the fights have been awesome as booked! Rock and X give the good thumbs up sign as X teases killing Vile; but thankfully Spark Mandrill comes out and shockwaves X to death. AWESOME! Thank you Spark Mandrill for showing good sportsmanship and fair play. Hopefully, X will go back to his original game character after this, but I doubt that one. Spark Mandrill helps Vile up and he speaks! His voice sucked, he should have stayed silent, or have Proto Man run in to help Vile up; since they seem to respect each other. The heels get back into the Skullcopter and the Skullcopter goes into the air. The side door opens as Vile just shoots the dam outright with his shoulder cannon. Why didn't you just do this from the start? Just open the door, and shoot! That's a dang-it! And a logic break! Rock and X gets engulfed in explosions as the dam is cracked open like an egg. The babyfaces all go down into the flooded river as Vile proclaims that there is no future for X to end the segment 14 minutes in. The heels are carrying this episode kicking and screaming despite X's stupid gimmick due to the writers not understanding the nuance.
After the commercial break and seeing the return to Mega Man Rush eyecatcher after he got swamped in a flood; we get more flooded out footage of a raging river that would out look out of place in a Weather Network Force Of Nature segment. The Skullcopter flies in the sky as Vile orders Dr. Wily to head for the plasma plant to complete the mission. More of the babyfaces going down the flooded area as X finds a tree and the babyfaces do the worst chain ladder spot you ever did see. Half of the time, Rush had to be used as a floater to make this work. The babyfaces get back on land as Rush punches fish out of his ears and we get a hilarious shot of one of the fishes flopping on the ground. Like the head of a turkey flopping on the ground after it's head was cut off in Blood Freak. Somehow, the Sky Cycle is still intact and stuck into another felled tree as X takes it and checks over it hoping it still works since Vile has a head start, so to speak. Jump cut back to the sky as the Skullcopter is over the flooded plasma power plant. Dr. Wily thinks he's won because the security system is disabled; but then two of the JAWS OF HALF LIFE come out and almost grab the Skullcopter. Dr. Wily is such an idiot who ought to know better that Dr. Light has been investing in more robustness since Dr. Wily turned heel on himself. Vile and Spark Mandrill are like "enough of this nonsense" as they take both sides of the Skullcopter, open the doors, shoot their weapons and destroys the jaws to end this nonsense. At this point, I would not be surprised if Vile and Spark Mandrill turn on Dr. Wily after this because Dr. Wily is such an idiot and a liar. The Skullcopter flies over as Vile shoots the roof of the plant open; the Skullcopter uses their JAWS OF HALF LIFE and grabs the Titanium Rods and hoists them into the Skullcopter. Dr. Wily thinks he has won and I'm expecting the turn to come right about now...I check the video...Nope, Dr. Wily cuts his promo and then a shot hits the front of the Skullcopter as the babyfaces cut them off. Why bother keeping them together; there's no reason for Vile to keep the alliance with Dr. Wily. Side door opens as Spark and Vile start fire fighting with the babyfaces on their rides as Spark Mandrill's voice would be the voice of Storm Eagle's in Day Of Sigma and the PSP remake of Mega Man X. Somehow, the Skullcopter escapes as Rock proclaims that the war isn't over yet and X calls him an optmist. Two blue dweebs in a pod, says I!
Scene change to an island as Vile is talking to Sigma for real and Sigma looks good; but he gets off one line and his voice is better in Day Of Sigma than this episode. Sigh. Also, this is the island where the Super Blaster is created and there is enough of the rods on the floating cart to take home, so there is zero chance of a turn on Dr. Wily by Vile. Dr. Wily is so happy and loving life so much it makes Vile sick to his stomach. HAHA! Vile blows his human emotions off so even Vile thinks Dr. Wily emotional skills are trash. He would have a field day with Shere Khan in On A Wing & A Bear and his hilariously bad acting of emotion on gas prices. So, the portal has opened as Vile orders Dr. Wily to blast X and Rock out of the sky. Dr. Wily agrees to; but there is a problem: Vile will never see it because the portal is shrinking and Vile and Spark Mandrill need to leave now. Vile and Spark admit that Dr. Wily has a point as we jump cut back to the babyfaces in the sky as they explain the obvious to us. Apparently, no one in the future found a way to create warps on their own volition. It's stupid; but time travel is impossible so it's not like it's any dumber than the concept itself. Rock and X head to the island as we jump cut to the Super Blaster gun with Proto Man and Dr. Wily controlling the weapon with Cut Man and Guts Man watching on. Guts Man is on the ground, and somehow Vile and Spark Mandrill are still there. Because the heels are supposed to be stupid since they need Vile, Spark and X to all enter the portal at the same time in order to make sure the timelines are kept reasonably intact, without the rods as a bonus. X can always steal them back and let Dr. Cain use them for good like Dr. Light was. By the way, Dr. Cain looks like a generic tyoung doctor in the episode, even though he's an old man who is more like a sage instead of a doctor in the games. Sorry if I forgot that one. Dr. Wily fires the cannon in dramatic fashion and the babyfaces dodge it was ease. Sigh. The concussion of the blast did more damage to them as Dr. Wily's blaster destroyed the lake as more fish are flopping. That's one way to eliminate a flood as Dr. Wily is loving life and is probably having fish chowder after that one. The robot masters are stunned at this as Dr. Wily then makes the fatal error: He admits that he used low power. Why? Because he would have won if he used full power because here comes Mega Man on Rush Jet with his blaster set to profits. Oops! Rock shoots the buster through the control panel room and somehow manages to not kill Cut Man and WARNERED him at the same time. HAHA! Guts Man was so stupid because he was standing exactly under Cut Man during this and he is on bottom. For once, GUTS MAN IS INCOMPENTENT~! Anyone on top would have been caught off guard on that shot.
Snake Man jumps down with his cannon ready and about to shoot; but I think either Rock or X shoots Snake Man down and X touches Snake Man and it's WEAPON GET TIME~! No surprise, it's not like this show allows the robot masters to be killed anyway. Rock cuts off Vile and Spark Mandrill who finally decide to try to flee into the portal with the rods on a kart. Somehow, a blue spark circle is on the ground, Spark Mandrill throws it at Rock, Rock shoots it and the shot causes a concussion shot that Rock has to defend himself. X uses Search Snake to destroy the Super Blaster to shreds, which is anticlimatic in a way because Rock could have done the same anyway. Destroy it to atoms, that would have been better. The heels all flee into the Skullcopter; but not before Cut Man used the Rolling Cutter and X grabs it and crushes it off-screen. Why off-screen?! I don't know. I think the writers are running out of steam at this point as the Super Blaster blows up and is destroyed. Dr. Wily is not loving life as he was so close to ruling this world and he dramatically oversells a headache. I wish Vile would just kill him now, this is so cringeworthy. Proto Man is pissed off as he has to take over piloting the Skullcopter as it goes out of sight. Rock cuts off the escape portal for Vile and Spark Mandrill. Vile is angry and shoots at Rock; but X dodges it and counters, throwing the heels into the kart as all the rods fly off the floating cart. Vile is pissed off of this, shoots at X, Rock makes the save on X. X thanks him with a thumbs up and jumps down onto the ground behind the heels, takes the kart, heels bonk into kart and land on said kart. X pushes the heels into the portal and the portal slowly closes and that is that. Maybe it was anticlimatic to some; but you have to remember that there was a plan for a Mega Man X spinoff and keeping Vile and Spark Mandrill strong for that show was tops, so the "edge win" made sense for the time. Besides, "The Day Of Sigma" destroyed this anyway, but that's hindsight 20/20 and all that. Rock is relieved that there is a hero guarding the future. Oh, how this aged poorly is an understatement, but then again; the X series would take a different direction after Mega Man X4; so hindsight is you gussed it. This ends the episode at 24:00 approx with the portal closed for good. Creative license on X stupidity aside, this was an awesome episode for the time, but time has not treated this episode well. Call it *** 1/2 (70%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Well, let me get the bad stuff out of the way for this episode. I do not like this version of X, he came off as an overpowered Maverick in the guise of a Maverick Hunter with none of the nuance that the video game X had. I know that a lot of people felt that Kit Cloudkicker was done dirty in "The Lost Cargo Of Kit Cloudkicker"; but at least Tanner Johnson was presenting a plot of how Kit was overinfluenced by Baloo's influence since Kit did side with Baloo a lot despite Baloo's flaws. It was a really believable thing and there was a lot of nuance in the Baloo MK II. It's also hilarious that people think Kit was done dirty in a series where the Jungle Book characters were done so dirty (not to say that Walt Disney nor Rudland Kipling deserved it given their problematic pasts) that people respected that show for having the premeditated gall to use those characters. (Since Baloo himself was originally going to be in a show called B-Players which isn't all that clean either, but got nixed) X felt like a violent Maverick and that rubbed me the wrong way here. That being said, it was the only truely bad thing on this episode. The animation was awesome, Vile and Spark Mandrill came off as the best robots in the show period. They were superstars who were badasses being evil and make no apologies for it. Sigma was fine for the little time he was on-screen, Dr. Wily's plan was actually threatening; but the whole X angle overwhelmed it; but I'm fine with that. I was surprised Vile didn't turn on Dr. Wily at any point despite Dr. Wily being as annoying as humanly possible. And I do mean, humanly possible. The finish and ending were anticlimatic; but in the case of Vile and Spark Mandrill, they had to make it so since they couldn't bury either one of them since the spin-off that never came was being planned. The actual Mavericks were awesome here and were consistant with the games, silly "Maverick Bot" nonsense aside. Still, this episode does not age well, not because of anything the episode did, but because of the OAV "The Day Of Sigma" that blew this thing out of the water and presented what X was supposed to be in the game's storyline. Overall, this was a really fun episode; but as canon it sucks. So....
Thumbs in the middle for this episode and I'll see you all next time.