Mega Man X6

This page details one or more prototype versions of Mega Man X6.

This prototype of Rockman X6, dated Sept. 28, 2001, was circulated around the internet in 2010. It is mostly complete, but the developers made plenty of significant changes before the final release. If you've played it, you'd know they probably should have kept going.

To do: There are probably more X5 leftovers, document them. Graphics for ending and credit are present in the game data.

General Gameplay Changes#

• The duration of the dash maneuver is longer than in the final.
• While wearing the Falcon armor, the regular air dash (X, O) is the same as the 'double jump' air dash (X, X).
• On character selection, the cursor always defaults to X regardless of which characters/armors are available; in the final, the default is Falcon armor.
• Dr. Light's capsules were not yet implemented in the proto.

Proto	Final

• Press Start Button graphic on the title screen uses a different palette.
• No Heart Tanks, Weapon Tanks or Energy Tanks were implemented yet.
• The cheats for unlocking X and Zero's ultimate armors were not implemented yet.
• All bosses use the X5 general boss icon instead of the X6-exclusive diamond icon.
• The game hangs permanently when trying to load the first Secret Lab stage, making playing past the first 8 stages (+ opening stage) impossible without hacking.
• Nightmare Viruses appear to behave more aggressively during movement in the prototype.
• Most bosses aren't weak to their weakness weapons, but display weakness behavior if hit by X's Z-Saber in the prototype. Some bosses are weak to Yammar Option, instead.
• Nightmare Viruses have differing health values between difficulty modes, and their Xtreme-exclusive behaviors (different shot attack, teleportation) are implemented, similarly to final. However, the Xtreme health value is higher than the final one by 1.
• There's a game crash glitch that involves using the Z-Saber as X while you're sliding down on a wall: if done just as you reach the ground, the game will crash. While difficult to do normally, having Rapid Fire active in the settings allows to do this easily. This was fixed in all versions of the final game.
• The glitch involving swapping weapons as you use the Z-Saber as X in the air to reset aerial state is present, just like the final Japanese version. However, rather than displaying weapon-related graphics in place of the saber's, the prototype displays Magma Blade saber graphics with no visual issues when performing the glitch.
• When Secret Lab is available and the player didn't beat Nightmare Zero or High Max, they can still be fought, unlike the final.
  • This will also make Lv.4 version of Zero Nightmare and High Max available.

• • The Lv.4 version of Zero Nightmare behaves like the normally inaccessible one in the final version.

• • Zero Nightmare's teleporting animation is less polished in the prototype, and when hit by his weakness, his teleport animation can briefly get stuck in walls.

• High Max is immune to all of Zero's special attacks in the proto, and his movement pattern is slower.
  • When the game is about to load High Max's dialogue to X/Zero, it tries to load Alia's message to X/Zero at the start of an Another Route instead.
  • Lv.4 High Max has no noticeable difference from previous levels, except his HP gauge length will change after the player's first defeat to match the final value. A similar glitch is present in the final version if you fight High Max once you load a save file.

Prototype	Final version (Japanese)	Final version (English)
		240px

Before player's defeat, Prototype	After player's defeat, Prototype	Final version
		240px

• Normally, the only possible method to hurt High Max (as X) is: Shoot a Charged Shot at his body, then use a boss weapon (Yammar Option, etc.) or specific armor attacks (Blade Armor's Mach Dash, Shadow Armor's Engetsurin, Ultimate Armor's Nova Strike). But the situation is different in the prototype: here, your Z-Saber and various other attacks can also hurt him. Through this, you can unlock Secret Lab without obtaining any additional armors, weapons, or using Ultimate Armor in the prototype. High Max in this prototype also doesn't get stunned by most attacks upon being hit, allowing some weapons or Falcon Armor's Giga Attack to deal very high damage to him. In the final version, this only applies to Nova Strike and Mach Dash, with the latter being blocked from dealing damage more than once per usage.

	Prototype	Final
X-Saber
Falcon Armor Giga Attack

• After High Max's defeat, Signas' head shot is glitched (or not implemented properly).

Prototype	Final version (Japanese)	Final version (English)
		240px

• Dynamo doesn't appear in the proto at all. If you enter his boss chamber, his music plays and you hear a few sound effects, but no boss. Since you can't escape or die your only option is to restart the game.

Proto	Final

• The cutscene after X (or Zero) obtaining a huge amount of Nightmare Souls exists in the prototype version, but it's triggered after obtaining 5000 Nightmare Souls instead of the final version's 3000.
  • Despite the still-available method to meet Level 4 Zero Nightmare, Black Zero is not normally available in the prototype.

Save prompt	Loading	Save menu
		240px

• When entering the save menu from Mission Report, it loads correctly, but has some graphical differences to final.

• Additionally, weapon icons will use a broken palette if saving as Zero.

• Dropped items are extremely rare, and it's more difficult to gather health refill items from specific enemies.

• Items do not show up properly in the inventory once found.

• Alia's ! message symbol appears on the lower left corner of the screen; in the final, it's on the lower right. The button to answer it is mapped to L2 instead of the final's Select button.

• The flies produced by Nightmare Bug have less health, but accumulate in greater numbers. Hitting them doesn't produce the metallic ching sound/visual effects, they just fly away.

• Nightmare Iron is destructible by X's Z-Saber, but not affected by Metal Anchor.

• Douglas and Signas's names in Stage Select dialogue are colored green in the proto, instead of the final's yellow and dark blue respectively.

• Nightmare Dark and Nightmare Wind are not implemented properly in Commander Yammark's Another Route.

• Nightmare Fire isn't implemented properly, meaning you can't enter the alternate path of Blizzard Wolfang's stage at all.

• The hologram of X/Zero generated by Nightmare Mirror effect can be defeated not just by Guard Shell, but also X and Zero's sabers, potentially needing multiple hits to be defeated depending on the attack used by the player. This behavior was also seen in early promotional videos. Nightmare Mirror's spawning frequency also appears to be lower, making it unlikely to be seen normally during the first section of Inami Temple.

• The rank system is glitched and the player's rank/boss level can't match the amount of X/Zero's current obtained Nightmare Souls (Final version's value) properly. Fortunately, it is fixed after certain events (The Nightmare Soul scene mentioned above, etc.).

• Though Blade Armor, Shadow Armor, Black Zero, Ultimate Armor are disabled by default, they are already more or less functional and have several differences over final release. They can only be activated by using character modifier GameShark codes at the Stage Select screen.

Blade Armor - GameShark code 800CFE26 0003

• • Blade Armor is missing several sound effects for Mach Dash. No Giga Attack available.
  • Charge Shot uses normal X's Buster as placeholder.

Shadow Armor - GameShark code 800CFE26 0002

• • Shadow Armor has early sprites and palette. Sound effects for charge shot/ceiling shot are missing. Special background effect of its Giga Attack is missing.

Ultimate Armor - GameShark code 800CFE26 0004

• • Ultimate Armor is the most functional among all, using a different color palette: the underlying X uses his X6 armorless X palette, while the armor graphics use their palette from X4.
  • Sound effect for Nova Strike is missing, instead using the extra life sound. The final version would use a different sound effect from the one in X4/X5.

Proto	Final

Interestingly, the mugshot graphics for conversations also use a different palette from the final game, looking similar to the in-game palette in the prototype.

Black Zero - Use GameShark code 800CFE27 0030 before stage select screen loads, and choose "ゼロ" (Zero) at character select screen.

• • Black Zero is missing the built-in Saber Plus attribute as it seems to be not implemented in this build.

Weapons Changes#

X#

Proto	Final

The Falcon Armor's Giga Attack is missing both its sound effect and its animated background at this point.

As a consequence, some background objects in Metal Shark Player's stage can be seen when using it. This may occur in other stages as well. The final version's animated background makes this irrelevant.

Proto	Final

Yammar Option has Ice Burst's palette and Metal Anchor's icon. The charged version fires at half the rate as it does in the final.

Proto	Final

Ice Burst has Guard Shell's palette and icon.

Proto	Final

Magma Blade has Meteor Rain's palette.

Proto	Final

The sprite used for its fully charged version has a different (uglier) animation.

Proto	Final

They almost got Metal Anchor right except for the icon.

Proto	Final

Ground Dash has Yammar Option's palette and Arrow Ray's icon.

Proto	Final

Meteor Rain has Magma Blade's palette.

Proto	Final

Guard Shell has Ground Dash's palette and Yammar Option's icon.

Proto	Final

The charged attack is a broken version of charged Spike Ball, leftover from Mega Man X5. It lacks sound effects and uses Guard Shell's graphics. In addition to this, rather than despawning after a few bounces like Spike Ball, it sometimes glides across the ceiling with a jittering motion, before resuming bouncing.

The palette corrects itself when you do an air dash.

Proto	Final

Arrow Ray has Ground Dash's icon. The attack itself however is completely different: It is a graphically corrupted and silent version of Wing Spiral, another leftover weapon from Mega Man X5.

Here's what its charged version looks like.

Note all incorrect prototype X colors match their incorrect variations shown on the Rockman X6 Japanese PlayStation manual.

Zero#

Proto	Final

Zero's arsenal was similarly affected with misused icons for certain techniques. Aside from all palettes being messed up, both Shoenzan and Rekkoha's names are displayed as ????????, and the button combinations for their activation are not present on the row of text.

Proto	Final

The Z-Saber retains its green palette when using Shoenzan in the proto.

Proto	Final

The background for his Rekkoha attack is blue lightning instead of red vertical lines, and the beams lack their top graphics. The right hand side of the background is covered by a graphical glitch.

In the prototype, many bosses aren't immune to Rekkoha, with it being able to hit them more than once per usage in some cases. In the final game, most bosses are immune to it, possibly for balancing reasons.

Fade-in	Flash	Beams
		240px

Alia's conversations can be activated as Rekkoha is performed. This causes a dimming effect and slowdown if done during the fade-in animation of the attack, a bright effect that blocks portraits if done during the flash, and the background animation blocking portraits if done after that.

When performing his wire slash, Zero's Z-Saber appears to have a broken palette.

General Graphical Changes#

Boss Portraits#

All of the boss portraits seen after selecting their stages are in a preliminary stage, some of them still sketches, while the rest are of a lower quality than the final game.

Proto	Final

Proto	Final

Proto	Final

Proto	Final

Proto	Final

Proto	Final

Proto	Final

Proto	Final

Others#

Proto	Final

Stage images were not yet drawn, instead displaying placeholder names, while stage names are just "stage description 0x". Killing a boss does not change its portrait to grayscale, and the stages affected by the Nightmare system do not turn red. Secret Lab uses placeholder graphics for the stage image and icon, which are also shared with ????? Stage, though the two have different stage names (stage description 09 and stage description 10)

To do: Images.

Proto	Final

Proto	Final

To do: Figure out what the hand-written text next to Alia in the prototype says

Both the parts and rescued reploids screens are incomplete sketches in the proto. When switching to these, they scroll in, likely a leftover of X5's Stage Select sub-screens. The rescue screen received layout changes: the stage name used to be to the bottom-right of the L1 graphic, but was integrated into the Alia box. Said section was made smaller to leave space for the reploid counter, which used to be below the last reploid of the page on the bottom left of the menu in the prototype. The next/previous graphics were moved to above the total section, rather than to the bottom-right of the name list, and the bar above the name list that said NAME, STATES and ITEM was removed.

While most of the details covered by placeholder graphics aren't of much interest, the next/previous placeholder graphics in the prototype are in reverse order to how the menu works, while the sketch and final layout are correct. Due to these graphics also appearing misplaced, this is likely to be an error. Despite the unfinished look of the parts menu, the whole part system does work. (Sans for Saber Plus not working). Oddly, unlike the rescue screen, the parts screen appears to have had a part of the graphic removed, with some of the space near Douglas indicating there was something drawn/written there.

Note the Armor sketches drawn to the place of all 4 possible Armors, though one side is simply mirrored. The Armors shown are Shadow Armor and Falcon Armor.

Proto	Final

High Max is a slightly lighter hue in the proto.

Proto	Final

The bricks left by Nightmare Cube are pretty basic in the proto, so much that you might not realize their presence is unnatural. Despite their appearance, they will function normally without issues.

Proto	Final

The portals that take you to each stages' alternate paths have two additional animation frames which were removed in the final. Also, they're green. This does not apply to the portal in Metal Shark Player's stage, which is still blue (but with the two extra frames).

Proto	Final

Nightmare Zero retains his regular colors in the prototype. Considering his face portrait and sprite in the opening stage had the correct palette, this was probably an error.

Prototype-Only Graphical Glitches#

Stage-Specific Changes#

Opening Stage#

Proto	Final

This Junkroid enemy was moved back a bit to be less annoying.

Proto	Final

They removed one Meta Wheel F in the final. However, it is still present on Xtreme difficulty.

• When the game loads the last line of dialogue with the wounded hunters, the hunter's name is blue (the same as X) in prototype and green (the same as the previous hunter) in the final version.

Prototype	Final version (Japanese)	Final version (English)
		240px

• The flashing of D-1000's body when it was stunned refreshes quickly, instead of the final's Mega Man X5-style.

• The sound effect when Nightmare Zero finishes D-1000 is absent.

• The demonstration seen by leaving the game idle on the title screen shows X shooting and slashing into nothing and generally acting like a moron. It's possible that such demonstration inputs were leftovers from one or more earlier game builds before the action scene in opening stage received major revisions.

Press Start Button in the demonstration uses a broken palette, and the other 3 demonstrations appear to not have been implemented yet.

Commander Yammark#

Proto	Final

The projectile dust from the Killer Moths was changed from yellow to a toxic purple, probably so you wouldn't think it was harmless.

• Nightmare Insects already have their Xtreme-exclusive properties, having faster regeneration, the quicker spawn attack, and unique boomerang behavior like in final.

• Worm Snipers also have Xtreme-exclusive properties (higher HP, shorter pause between attacks) like in final.

Proto	Final

A Nightmare Virus was added to the same room as these helpless reploids in the cave portion of the stage in final. Yammark's stage seems to lack Nightmare Viruses with infection behavior altogether in the prototype, as the one near the Another Route portal is also missing, while the one above the cave room is unable to infect anyone.

• The sound effect heard when Yammark fires his weapon is different.

• Yammark is weak to X's Z-Saber, but not to Arrow Ray.

Blizzard Wolfang#

Proto	Final

A single Wolfloid was removed from over this ladder, probably because its presence makes it difficult to escape if you climbed down while it was still alive. It retains its position over the ladder in the final's Xtreme difficulty, but the object placement in this section otherwisee matches final's Normal mode.

Proto	Final

The avalanches in the descending area of the stage were changed from the regular 'wall of ice' seen in the first section to a unique variation where sets of 4 big/small ones bounce. The avalanche sound effect was also changed to something a bit less crude.

Proto	Final

In the proto, the first falling ice block section doesn't include Wolfloids.

Rainy Turtloid#

Proto	Final

A Monbando was added, guarding the Weather Analyze at the end of the stage's second Nightmare Rain section. This enemy is also present in the final's Xtreme difficulty.

Proto	Final

The prototype has a single-use recharge station sitting around in the third Nightmare Rain segment. The final replaces it with a bunch of small and large energy capsules. Nightmare Mirror also appears earlier in the third section here, being able to spawn as early as the first part of the area with Sea Attacker STs, while in the final, it only starts appearing once you reach the area with a ceiling.

• Turtloid is weak to X's Z-Saber, but not to Ice Burst.
• Charged Yammar Option deals a huge amount of damage toward Rainy Turtloid at several specific timings, and is super effective toward him (probably a bug).
• The Weather Analyze conversation's trigger is placed earlier, at the right corner of the first Weather Analyze rather than at the right corner of the platform.
• The Sea Attacker ST enemies move slower in the proto, and can move off screen temporarily.
• The moving platforms in this stage and Secret Lab 2 have slight issues with wall sliding, where sliding off of one while another is moving towards you can lead to clipping into it temporarily, then being pushed out.
• You can't enter this stage's Another Route

Blaze Heatnix#

Proto	Final

The green lights on the Nightmare Snake miniboss were made to look glassier. It was also given the ability to shoot tiny homing shots. The inability to shoot was retained for the final's Easy difficulty.

Proto	Final

The magma was changed from orange to a toxic purple. The magma in the background of the stage is purple in both versions, so this may have been done for consistency.

Proto	Final

The boss is weak to Yammar Option, but not to Ground Dash. This is potentially for testing purposes, similarly to the Z-Saber weakness behavior on other bosses.

In the optional path present at the path fork, the left one of these two Nightmare Iron was removed. Given that the Nightmare Iron shortly after blocking those without Metal Anchor/Rakukojin from going further wasn't removed, it's possible that this change was for balancing reasons or to prevent a small bug involving repeated wall climbing if trying to jump high between the two of these.

Proto	Final

At the end of the Another Route, a platform blocking you from accessing the decorative portion on the left appears to be missing. However, this is only a visual difference, as you're still blocked from accessing it.

Proto	Final

Proto	Final

In the Another Route's boss gate room and boss arena, many tiles were changed to give it a more polished look.

Metal Shark Player#

Proto	Final

This Junkroid was moved to the far end of the nook, making it less likely that you'd die from hitting your head on the ceiling.

Proto	Final

A single Nightmare Virus was removed from the long Nightmare Press path leading to the Another Route portal, making it more difficult to get through. It's present in the final version's Xtreme difficulty.

• Nightmare Press bug is easier to do in the prototype: just entering the Ride Armor in the correct spot while an Ice Burst is placed to damage the player character is enough to make it raise higher than normal on both floors. However, doing the full setup is still necessary to cause it to go away entirely.

This misplaced tile appears in the second part of the stage with the conveyor belt.

• Likely due to a sound effect priority glitch, the trash compactor in the second part of the stage is silent.
• The music stops after destroying Nightmare Pressure (the miniboss fought before confronting Metal Shark Player).

• Yammar Option functions as a weakness against Metal Shark Player, while Meteor Rain does not.

Ground Scaravich#

Proto	Final

The blue color and transparency effects on Totem Gates weren't implemented yet.

Proto	Final

The location of the portal was moved to another part of the same room, potentially due to Nightmare Iron being able to affect the portal's position in the prototype.

Part of the animated terrain has a glitch where it flashes black occasionally.

• Totem Exits visibly drop upon spawning in, which is hidden in the final version.

• There are significantly more Nightmare Viruses present in the proto.

• Scaravich's voicelines appear to play at a different pitch.

• Scaravich doesn't gain longer invincibility frames when hit by Yammar Option, meaning that if he enters a state when he can't be stunned by it (such as performing Stone Kick), he will be hit multiple times in a row, causing high damage to him.

Shield Sheldon#

Proto	Final

One of the palette cycles in the background has a graphical error. It was removed in the final version.

Proto	Final

The second Nightmare Laser room's unique background has palette cycles in the prototype, which was removed in the final, possibly due to palette issues making it look jarring.

Proto	Final

Similarly, the pink lights in the third and fourth rooms used to have palette cycles.

Proto	Final

The entrance to the second Nightmare Laser room has a portion of the floor use an odd palette, which was fixed in final.

Proto	Final

This room also has parts of the background use slightly different colors compared to the final version.

• Corners of some floors in the stage have icy terrain properties in final, but in the prototype, this also applies to various floors and platforms of the Nightmare Laser rooms that lack this property in the final game.
  • Unlike other icy terrain, the floors which only had this property in the prototype don't restrict wall jumping.

Proto	Final

A Guardian was removed from the entrance to the fourth Nightmare Laser room.

The reason for this is likely due to it being near a checkpoint: if the player character respawns there, the Guardian will hit them during the initial animation, knocking back X/Zero once the animation finishes.

Proto	Final

The prototype lacks the Guardian near the last mirror of the room, and an additional Nightmare Laser.

• Xtreme Mode was used for the final game's comparison images, as the object placement in these rooms otherwise matches it.

In the prototype, you can spawn in a Nightmare Laser from the room below while you're in this room.

Proto	Final

If you open both of the entrances in this room and then enter the optional path, the camera will reveal a portion of the stage to the right. Because of it, that portion was altered in the final game to hide the background. A miscolored part of the ground in the boss corridor was also changed.

• When Nightmare Laser mirrors are hit with certain attacks (such as X's charge shots), they're hit multiple times in a row, making it harder to turn them with precision. They were given invincibility frames in the final.

• Shield Sheldon behaves mostly differently from the final. Projectiles he fires during Guard Shell move slower than in the final game. His voicelines appear to be higher pitched.

Infinity Mijinion#

Proto	Final

At the beginning of the stage, you get Infinity Mijinion's boss conversation. In the final, you get a unique message from Alia instead. The conversation plays even after the initial stage visit, unlike final.

Proto	Final

Illumina has electric wires in the proto which it didn't get to keep for the final. Meteor Rain doesn't function as its weakness, but Yammar Option does.

After depleting its health bar for the first time in the final, a continuous electrical buzz sound effect is heard. In the proto, this sound effect is only played once. Illumina's head release sound effect is more muffled, and the sound of the beam emitted by the enemies spawned after the first encounter with Illumina differs. During the second encounter, walls lowering uses a different sound effect, and Ground Snipers use a repetitive electric sound as they move around.

• There are significantly more Nightmare Viruses present in the proto's post-Illumina section on Xtreme, even more so than in final's Xtreme mode.

• There's no hidden item area to the left of the Another Route starting point.

• There's a glitched graphic above the boss gates in the Another Route.

• Yammar Option can stun Infinity Mijinion like he was stunned by the projectiles generated from Guard Shell in the final.

• Mijinion doesn't create clones upon reaching certain health points. Given that he still creates clones when using saber attacks, this might be a mistake or a balancing change.

• Mijinion's voice appears to be in a different pitch.

Inaccessible Stages#

There are a number of stages not finished but still present within the data. Using a GameShark code, you can access a few of them without crashing. The GameShark code 800CFDD4 0XXX where XXX is the stage you wish to access. This code must be used at the Stage Select. The GameShark code 800CFDE5 00XX is a stage checkpoint modifier which can bring you to different checkpoints, but the player should activate this code along with the stage modifier mentioned above, then deactivate checkpoint modifier code before "Ready" text appear; otherwise the transport light won't appear.

• 000 - Intro Stage
• 001 - Commander Yammark
• 002 - Blizzard Wolfang
• 003 - Blaze Heatnix
• 004 - Metal Shark Player
• 005 - Ground Scaravich
• 006 - Rainy Turtloid
• 007 - Shield Sheldon
• 008 - Infinity Mijinion
• 013 - Commander Yammark (Another Route)
• 014 - Blaze Heatnix (Another Route)
• 015 - Ground Scaravich (Another Route)
• 016 - Shield Sheldon (Another Route)
• 114 - Metal Shark Player (Another Route)
• 116 - Infinity Mijinion (Another Route)

00C - ?????? Stage (Boss Rush)#

No teleporters to fight the bosses exist. Camera scrolling is broken. Falling through early gaps will take you to the stage boundary before dying.

This stage does have corresponding checkpoints for each boss rematch, but none of the bosses are implemented.

011 - Secret Lab Stage 2 Part 1#

Featured standard enemy setting, with more units of Giga Death than the final version.

Final battle with High Max is intact, but dialogue box is broken - for this instance the blue dialogue box base is at the top of screen instead of bottom, a Mega Man X5 leftover not cleaned up. For Shadow Armor the broken dialogue box may get stuck for a long time before the text box shows broken text chunk.

• High Max's attack speed is the slower one seen at the opening stage/Another Route in the prototype with the final moveset, and features the same attributes as alternate area High Max (Zero can't hurt him).
• The statue in the background for final High Max battle is missing (not implemented?).

012 - Secret Lab Stage 2 Part 2#

Enemies are the same as in the final - except for one thing - you'll warp to the "Gate defeated" cutscene in the final after you enter the warp portal. The rest of the stage and Gate's boss fight are already in the game data, but can't be accessed without external checkpoint hacks.

X's Route, Checkpoint 01#

End stage object and the Weather Analyze objects are missing.

Zero's Route, Checkpoint 02#

End stage object is missing.

Group Jet section before Gate's Arena, Checkpoint 03#

This area uses the exact same enemy placement as in the final.

Gate's Arena, Checkpoint 04#

Gate fight is largely similar, but has several differences over the final release.

The dialogue box content reuses High Max's instead of Gate's. Darkness effect of the scene is not implemented. For Shadow Armor the dialogue box may break a few specific times but will eventually fix itself.

Gate has no invincibility against X/Zero's normal attacks like in the final; here he takes full damage from normal attacks with standard boss post-hit invincibility, allowiing you to easily defeat him using attacks such as charged Ray Arrow or Zero's slash combo...

...and revealing a glitch involving Shadow Armor's Engetsurin and the red Nightmare Hole type: if you hit Gate with Engetsurin as a red Nightmare Hole activates, the player character and Gate will get stuck in the air, with Gate slowly taking damage from the attack until he is defeated. They may have noticed this glitch at some point after this build, with that or balance concerns being the reason for giving Gate full invincibility to normal attacks.

The invisible platform used to let the player character enter the boss arena safely is not fully erased after the fight begins, which was corrected in the final release.

Gate's defeat animation is unfinished: the player character doesn't freeze upon dealing the last hit to Gate, and isn't teleported to the left platform upon the explosion fading out. The fade out is shorter, and the character does the victory sequence once Gate teleports, rather than teleporting instantly like in the final game.

As a result, defeating Gate in the prototype while you're over a bottomless pit can result in a death.

Gate's AI is somewhat different from final as he always chase X/Zero's X/Y position until he casts Nightmare Hole/Nightmare Strike attacks. The broken version of Wing Spiral/Ray Arrow, Nova Strike and Shadow Armor's Giga Attack are the most effective method against Gate.

113 - Blizzard Wolfang (Another Route)#

The path leading to the Wolfroid possessing the High Jump/Jumper part is blocked. Interestingly, you can't access this stage's Another Route without having Nightmare Fire active, which melts similar walls in the main path of the stage.

115 - Rainy Turtloid (Another Route)#

The Weather Analyze is missing - as a result the player can go directly to the shutter while ignoring all stage enemies.

10C - ?????? Stage (Sigma Battle)#

Enemies are identical to the final.

Sigma will not appear but his dialogue box will. A strange square dot would appear on his portrait, hinting that at some point in game development, Sigma's portrait was also animated when the dialogue rolls, along with other characters'.

• 09 to 0B and 0D to 10 crash the game.
  • Secret Lab 1 is not accessible. The game crashes trying to load it. Likely Stages 0D-10.
• Some stages do appear to load when using 2XX. Potentially bosses for the Boss Rush?

Oddities#

• Nightmare Souls have mass unlike the final. They can collide with terrain or certain objects and be pushed in various directions.
  • The easiest place to see this phenomenon is in Metal Shark Player's stage when the ceiling lowers.
• Loading Zero into the opening stage will crash the game.
• Text in the last part of Mission Report isn't correctly aligned, the cursor at the top moves slower than in final, and Zero's technique icons have the incorrect palette.

Sound Changes#

Music#

Two BGMs in the prototype are partially incomplete, missing a few instruments.

Opening Stage#

Rainy Turtloid Stage#

• The music heard in the Zero cutscene is absent in the proto.
• All of the music tracks in the final are looped several more times than in the prototype, taking up much more disc space. There is also a common glitch in where after fading out, the background music skips to the next numbered stream in the game's data.

Sound Effects#

The WARNING when confronting a boss is vocalized.

• There is no background ambience in cutscenes (e.g. wind blowing).
• The swish heard when picking up a Nightmare Soul isn't present.
• Alia's ! pager beep is absent.
• The Ride Armor (in Metal Shark Player's stage) does not produce sound effects.
• Sound effects for the Nightmare Soul sequence after defeating a Nightmare Investigator boss are missing.
• For Zero's special attacks, Hydroga and Shoenzan have the Z-Saber swing sound as placeholders, while sound effects for Sentsuizan, Rekkouha and Ensuizan are missing.
• Sound effects and voicelines for Zero Nightmare are absent.