Get Equipped Analysis: Metal Blade

by Redmage1987

Mega Man 2 is now upon us! So lets turn up the heavy metal, because It’s time for Metal Blade!

Damage Data: The numbers represent the amount of hits it takes to kill each enemy. The numbers on the left represent normal difficulty, and the numbers on the right represent difficult. If there is only one number, then the damage is the same for both. If there is a zero, then the enemy isn’t hurt by the weapon.

The Metal Blade allows Mega Man to fire large, powerful saw blades, and is obtained by defeating Metal Man. Besides being large and powerful, the blades can also be aimed in any direction. You can have three shots on the screen at a time, and each shot consumes 1/4 of a bar of energy, thus giving you 112 uses to a full bar of weapon energy.

Very few stage enemies resist the blades (only four of them, to be exact), and while some of them take the same amount of hits to kill with the Mega Buster, you’ll find that most of them go down in half the amount of shots (or less) than if you had fought them with the standard Buster.

Perhaps the best feature of this weapon would be the ability to aim it. That alone makes it great for a variety of situations, and the large size of each blade makes it that much easier to hit your target. This makes it a perfect weapon for hitting enemies above or below you before they can become a threat, or just fighting enemies on uneven surfaces.

The ability to aim it is also very helpful for sniping down Pipi’s, as well as certain enemies that home in on your position, such as Tellys and Battons. The large size of the weapon also allows you to hit enemies below the Mega Buster’s firing range, such as the Schworm dispensers.

The Metal Blade is also an effective boss killer. On difficult mode, it can kill Bubble Man and Flash Man both in as little as seven hits. It does two bars of damage to Wood Man, thus letting you kill him in fourteen hits, and while it does the same amount of damage as the Mega Buster on the Picopico-kun’s in Dr. Wily Stage 2 and both phases of Wily Machine 2 in Dr. Wily Stage 5, having the ability to aim and rapid fire at those three bosses works really well. Plus, to put the icing on this boss slaying cake, Metal Man himself dies in only two hits of his own weapon!

So where would be the best places to use this weapon? Anywhere! With the exception of the very few enemies that resist it, once you’ve obtained this weapon, you can use it anywhere and it will be a very effective choice. Having 112 shots to a full bar of energy means that you have to try really hard to completely run out, and being able to fire three shots at a time means that you’ll never be left vulnerable if you miss your target, or have multiple enemies coming at you at once. This is an excellent replacement for the Mega Buster!

Before we move on to discuss where the Metal Blade is rated when compared to the other weapons, let’s fill in those “N/A” marks on the damage chart, shall we? Normally you can’t return to stages that you’ve cleared, but by using the Game Genie code above (PAIPIZ), you can start the game with all of the weapons. This allows you to take the Metal Blade into Metal Man’s stage, thus the damage changes. Observe:

Nothing too incredible, but still interesting to know that the Pierrobot doesn’t stand a chance against the blades. His round gear isn’t affected by them at all, though.

I know you guys “saw” this coming! Yes, the Metal Blade is, without a doubt, the best weapon in Mega Man 2. It’s so energy efficient that you can run through entire stages with only this equipped, and even continue to use it on a lot of the bosses as well!

Like I said, having 112 shots to a full bar of weapon energy makes it very difficult to completely run out of ammo. It’s powerful, aim-able, spam-able, easy to use, and overall very effective in just about any situation. The Metal Blade is not only the best weapon in Mega Man 2, but also one of the best weapons in the entire Classic series.

On a final side note. There is an interesting glitch that you can pull off with Metal Blade by holding left and right at the same time, or up and down at the same time, and firing the weapon. This will cause the blade to sit still and spin in place. Of course pulling this off on a controller is near impossible, but it can lead to some fun and interesting situations if you can find a way to pull it off at will:

—

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.

LBD "Nytetrayn"

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

For a full list of places to find him online, click here.