Rockman No Constancy (Hard Version) Review by: Boxia - 7/10
Oh boy.....During the ongoing Mega Man hack craze, many hacks have tried to capitilize. Many failed, and very few actualy saw real success. Rockman no constancy is one of those few, and it's arguably the most famous. Released in 2007 by a japanese developer named IKA, many players found that the original hack was way to easy for them, so IKA released a version of the hack that's a million times harder to answer their calls. At least, i think that's what happend, because there would be no other logical reason to release a much harder version of a hack that's already quite a bit more difficult than most of the original Mega Man games. Any windmill, let's take a closer look.
Story: 7/10
The story is the same as in the hacks root game, Mega Man 2. After a failed attempt to destroy Mega Man and take over the world using robots constructed by Mega Mans master, Dr.light, Wily has constructed eight robots of his own, and has resumed his plans for world domination. Now, Mega Man must stop Wily again...... only for some reason now his arm cannon is now basically a pea shooter, but that's beside the point.
I give the story a 7/10. I appreciate that they've made it so Wily's constructed his own robots. What i don't like is how none of the story is mentioned in-game. But i can't deduct too many points because this is only the second game in the series.
Graphics: 8/10
All of the enemies have returned from Mega Man 2. Instead of keeping their textures the same, however, IKA decided to change them a little. Ambitious, yes. Successful...... yes, but it came at a cost. Enemies and their projectiles emit so much flicker and static i almost thought i was having a seizure. Not only that, it slows the game down, so much so it almost looks like i'm watching a replay. What's lacking in textures for enemies is certainly made up for in textures for the stages and terrain. IKA has revamed all of the stages, and they now look FANTASTIC. Backgrounds are extremely detailed and things like walls, floors, and ceilings don't look too shabby either.
I give the graphics an 8 out of 10. It's unfortnate that the fantastic look of the stages has to be dragged down so severely by that problem with the flickering enemies, but it isn't something that can be just ingnored, especialy when it affects speed.
Sound: 9/10
Like pretty much all Mega Man hacks, all of the music comes from other games. And like all good Mega Man hacks, the job of remixing the songs to sound more "MM2-ish" has been done very well. Each song matches its assigned area very well, while still sounding awesome. From the happy, "wintery" theme of Wood mans stage (which is now wintered-theme) to the foreboding tune of Wily 1, there's plenty of variety. Unfortunatly, many of the sound effects that are emitted by enemies can be quickly described as "a cat in a blender". Worse still, the enemies that emitt these sound effects have increased in number from MM2 about 20 million-fold.
I give the graphics a 9/10. The music is purely amazing and has a huge amount of variety, so there's bound to be a track in there that tickles your fancy. But you better be ready for the ear torturing sound effects.
Difficulty: 10/10
I probably should have discussed this earlier, but here it is now. To begin with, Mega Man's been coloured green! What does this mean? It means that the damage dealt by the Green bomber's buster has been halfed, and now his charged shot now does about one damage. In addition, enemies can take a bit more of a beating. Yeah, you better mash that fire button like you've never mashed anything in your life because it's going to be the only thing that will save you from the seemingly infinite hordes of enemies that clutter every single screen. The best part about these enemies is that many of them can either kill you in two seconds- oh yeah, did i mention you now have no invincibility period after getting hit?- or are so ubiquitous that once you're done with them, your health will be so low that there'll be no way for you to survive the next "attack".
I give the difficulty a 10 out of 10. It certainly lives up to the games new subtitle. The only thing that could help with the challenge are e-tanks, which are extremely scarce and you can only carry 4 at a time. This is not a game to be played if you're not ready for such a challenge.
Addictiveness: 2/10
I usually rave that some games difficulty makes them more rewarding. This is not one of those games. Instead of feeling great when i clear a screen full of enemies, i feel angry because by the time i clear the screen, my health will be so low i know i won't last long! The bosses aren't much different either; if i do manage to defeat one, my rage level will be so high, i'll have to close the darn game! The only pleasure any human could get out of this game- if they rage as easilly as i do- is if that you're a masochist.
Depth: 1/10
All that's there is to do in this game is play the stages. No collectables, no hidden power-ups, nothing. So let's talk about the stages. There's 11 of them; eight robot master stages, and five fortress stages. The difficulty can cause many of the stages to take up to 15 minutes, but there's not actually much to talk about. A game that's all stages- not even that many, mind you- isn't gonna earn any points in this catagory.
Overall: 7/10
Rockman no constancy has some pretty awesome graphics, minus the flicker of course, and music. Unless, however, you're a sadist who enjoys insanly difficult hacks, it's best to just look and listen.
Graphics
8 Sound
9 Addictive
2 Depth
1 Story
7 Difficulty
10
User Notice 
-1.png "Rockman No Constancy (Hard Version) Title Screen")
-2.png "Rockman No Constancy (Hard Version) Screenshot 1")
-3.png "Rockman No Constancy (Hard Version) Screenthot 2")
