Get Equipped Analysis: Fire Storm

by Redmage1987

Next up is the one true flame-a-justice, the Fire Storm!

Damage Data: The numbers represent the amount of hits it takes to kill each enemy. If there is a zero, then the enemy isn’t hurt by the weapon.

The Fire Storm is obtained by defeating Fire Man, and is a combination attack consisting of a gigantic fireball and a fire shield. Every time you use the weapon it will shoot a large fireball directly in front of Mega Man while at the same creating a temporary shield of fire around him. You can only have one shot on the screen at a time and each shot consumes one bar of energy, thus giving you 28 uses to a full bar of weapon energy.

The Fire Storm is an extremely powerful weapon. As you can see from the damage data, it can kill almost every stage enemy in a single hit. The only exceptions to this are Big Eyes, Sniper Joes, and Super Cutters. Even though those enemies don’t go down in one hit, they can still be destroyed more quickly with this by standing near them and letting the fire shield deal extra damage.

It’s also worth noting that since the fireball is rather large, it can hit enemies below the busters firing range such as Gabyoalls and grounded Screwdrivers.

There is a trick that you can perform, and doing this trick will give Mega Man a longer lasting fire shield at the expense of not being allowed to fire the weapon again for a small period of time. In order to do this trick you must fire the weapon and then once the initial shield has disappeared, press the shot button again before the fireball also leaves the screen. Most of the time you will have to run in the direction you shot the fireball so that it doesn’t leave the screen before you can press the shot button again, but if you did it correctly, then the fire shield will start circling around Mega Man without him firing another fireball.

If you shoot another fireball after you’ve performed the trick, then the fire shield will disappear at its regular time. It’s also worth noting that the fire shield will keep circling around Mega Man even after he’s gone through a screen transition. Normally the fire shield will disappear after about a half a second, but doing this trick will keep the shield around Mega Man for an additional four seconds, thus allowing the shield to protect him for about nine times the normal length.

The best bosses to use Fire Storm on are Bomb Man and during Dr. Wily’s first phase. The Fire Storm is excellent for destroying these two bosses not just because they’re weak to it, but also because the fire shield can deal additional damage. The fire shield also allows you to attack them while you run away or dodge.

The Fire Storm is also tied with Thunder Beam and Hyper Bomb as the weapon that deals the most damage to the Copy Robot. Of the three weapons to use on the Copy Robot, I would recommend using Fire Storm the most. The Copy Robot will jump either towards you or away from you whenever you shoot at him. Using the Fire Storm will allow you to hit him no matter which way he jumps. If he jumps away from you, the fireball will hit him, and if he jumps towards you then the fire shield will get him. It’s win-win for you.

So where would be the best place to use this weapon? Anywhere!

Just like the Thunder Beam, once you’ve obtained this weapon, you can use it anywhere and it will be a very effective choice. It’s efficient enough on weapon energy that you can run through entire stages using only this weapon until you reach the boss.

You can only have one shot on the screen at a time, but the power of this weapon is very high and the additional damage dealt by the fire shield is just the icing on the cake. It can destroy almost every stage enemy in one hit, and the enemies it doesn’t kill in one hit still go down in fewer hits than with the Mega Buster.

So does Fire Storm make the other weapons in Mega Man 1 “burn to the ground”? Well, as combat weapons, both Fire Storm and Thunder Beam can be about equally useful. The Fire Storm’s fireball is very powerful on its own, and if you have no problem getting up close and personal with the enemies that it doesn’t kill in one hit, then the fire shield adds additional damage to your enemies, making this weapon that much more powerful. Thunder Beam just barely beats out the Fire Storm as the best weapon in Mega Man 1 due to its utility function outside of combat, but other than that, they’re pretty even on how useful they can be.

Overall I would rate it as the second best weapon in Mega Man 1. It’s fast, powerful, energy efficient, and covers both offense and defense. “The best offense is a good defense”, as they say. The Fire Storm is not only one of the best weapons in Mega Man 1, but one of the best in the entire Classic series.

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Redmage 1987 is a member of The Mega Man Network’s User Content Submission System, and the views expressed here reflect the views of the authors alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Mega Man Network.

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