https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6gr35W-Sas

My mom has been given six months to live, so, again, I'm not feeling exactly cheerful. But X2 turned out to be just the distraction I needed after coming home from seeing her.

No, don't feel sorry for me.

Let's just get this out of the way.

Despite the real life bullshit, I actually had a lot of fun with this one. Zero, in particular. There's actually a story to go along with this.

When I was a kid, this fight with Zero was *by far* my favorite videogame-related thing up to that point. Bar none.

It all goes back to X1.

At the beginning of X1, X is far less powerful than the Mega Man we had in the NES games. He had less health and he seems to get hurt more by the enemies. Not only that, but he gets his ass *kicked* by Vile in the first fight.

It takes Zero to save his butt. Otherwise, X would have been a goner.

As a kid, we all felt the same way: why are we stuck with this loser X and why can't we play as Zero? He's so much cooler! Zero is all we want and hope we could be.

We then randomly enter one of the 8 main stages, and all of us got our asses handed to us, yet again. It happened to all of us.

It's only as we stumble upon Chill Penguin's stage and get the dash boots that it all starts to make sense: we're supposed to grow along with X himself.

That journey of growing and becoming stronger *with* X is what, still, puts X1 above all the others for me, personally. Cliché as it may be.

At the first Sigma stage, Zero sacrifices himself and gives X his blessings. Perhaps X is strong enough to defeat Sigma.

Zero was the big brother to X who was always stronger than X. As the player, we grew to respect Zero and wanted to reach his level of power and overall awesomeness.

So, when I got the chance to actually battle Zero in X2, I was game!

In X2, we control a different X. He's not the rookie he was at the beginning of X1 - now he's a mature Mega Man, powerful enough to take on Sigma and his goons by himself. Having been given the challenge by Zero, my reaction as a kid was: *"Bring it on, bitch! I'm not who I was in X1, I'll show you."*

Of course, the first time around I got my ass handed to me. Again. Zero *demolished* me.

I became rather intrigued and obsessed with this particular boss fight, if only because of the notion.

So, I did what any healthy and normal five-year-old would do.

I spent absurd amounts of hours studying his AI and patterns.

The end result is what you see in the video.

There's not a single thing in this fight that Zero does that's not by my command. I can exploit his AI to do whatever I want, and I'm never at any risk of taking a hit because I know what he's going to do before he does.

What's the trick, you ask. Well, a good magician never reveals everything.

Keep in mind, though, that Zero is a damn quick motherfucker. Probably the fastest boss in the series. So, if you're not aware, at all times, of what it is that you're doing, he'll chew you up, spit you out, step on you, and do all that in two seconds.

After Zero, it's on to Sigma's first form. It doesn't give me any trouble. He does his teleporting thing, which is easily avoided by waiting for a visual cue, and then dashing out of the way before he makes contact.

His purple orbs are slow and easy to dodge. It takes a little concentration, but it isn't threatening as far as No Damage goes.

The second form, however.

It's not hard in a casual run. He spawns enemies that drop health when killed. His weakness is the Strike Chain, which takes a chunk of his health at every hit. You could argue he's one of the easier final bosses in the X series.

Only using the X-Buster and avoiding getting hit once... well, that's a different story.

The amount of tries this took is unspeakable.

There's not a single moment in the fight when I'm not exactly where I need to be, or aware of where I need to be a second later. Not only do I need to worry about Sigma, I need to keep an eye on the random enemies he spawns. I needed to study their patterns to be a step ahead of them at all times.

Sigma's head flies all over the place, and gives very little room to maneuver around, so every piece of movement has to be precise to preserve No Damage.

All of this does beg the question of why.

Why does a 29-year-old still find such joy in putting himself through torture like this.

I can't offer a good answer, other than the fact that the X games still offer something that no other game quite does. I can't really put my finger on it, but the magic can be felt every time I pick one of these games up.

That last shot at Sigma was so rewarding, and I'm happy that a 2D platformer from the 90s can still give something like that to me.

So, will I attempt some type of an asinine challenge for X3, as well? You bet.

But I need to think of something insidious enough.

Until then, enjoy the Sigma fight.

See you later.