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So, the description isn't really clear, because it's not just "jump and press R" to execute the nova strike. You have to be holding B, and then press R. You can't be holding Y (i.e. charging up your buster) either, or this just won't work. It also has to be from a jump specifically; if you try to do it from a fall, nothing happens.

The nova strike itself is neat, even if it's a little wonky. The plasma shot works more or less like you would expect. These parts of the hack are largely fine. One notable downside is you can't switch weapons, and I have no idea why. I can understand how R had to be mapped to something else, but I don't see why you can't still use L to cycle. There are a few other oddities as well, chief among them being the fact that you can't charge weapons. Your mileage will vary with that, I guess.

It's worth noting that I strongly, strongly recommend just playing the easy mode hack. As difficulty hacks go, "hard" mode is pretty awful. It's mostly a lot more invincibility time, which really just makes the fights more tedious than actually difficult. A lot of these fights would actually be made a good bit more fun if not for that added "feature", but sadly, that's not what we get. It just ends up making the fights feel artificially elongated. What's funny is that it seemed like a promising hack when I started with Wheel Gator because hey, they actually did a really good job with that one. Sadly, it was all downhill from there.

Also, it's worth noting that the difficulty hack only applies to the eight stage bosses. Part of me is disappointed, and part of me shudders to think of what would've been done with those.

If you just want to mess around with the nova strike and plasma shot, this is worth checking out. Don't bother with the boss changes, though.

There's some confusion about how to execute the Nova Strike move in the reviews below. No, it's not just pressing R while in midair and it's not pressing R when ascending during a jump. The correct way is actually very simple and you'll be able to do it any time you want. To do it just press B and R at the same time. Yes kinda like a grab in Street Fighter 2, you press two buttons at the same time, in this case the jump button + R.

Now I found it a bit less overpowered than in the later games, but maybe that was intentional to balance things a bit. The game still gets pretty easy though.

Having that said, the hack is very impressive and the fully charged buster works exactly as in X4 and beyond which is very cool. So I certainly recommend it.

Played through SNES9XTYL emulation on PSP

Loved playing this rom-hack. Only thing I wanted to point out for the coders is on Bubble Crab stage if you get hit by the Giant Fish belly laser the game will crash especially when going back into the level to get the 4th e-tank. I only tried in Easy mode version. I have not tested this in hard mode. Thank you for your efforts and creativity.

ALSO a few notes to players complaining about the Nova Strike's "inconsistency": 1. The people who put this together are pretty damn smart for figuring this hack out. if you don't like it, you code it and quit complaining. it's a game have some fun. 2. Can't hold a charge shot and expect it to work like in x4-x6. 3. you have to jump before activating nova strike. if you notice in x4-x6 he does a forced mini jump before doing the nova strike. It also takes place as the air dash. so if you want to try and double up the air dash and nova strike, its a no go. thinking of which you also cant combine it with speed burner dash since you need to charge it, execute burner dash, change weapon to x buster and try to execute nova strike. 4. Press R on an upward jump. once you start to fall it won't work.

Enjoy.

This is a great hack that turns Mega Man X2 into a fresh experience fit for any fan of the Mega Man X games. The Mega Man X4 "Plasma Ball" charged shot made some of the bigger enemies and even a few of the bosses much easier to fight, and the Nova Strike made the enemy-filled/spike-filled corridors much easier to overcome. Playing as one of the best armor sets in any Mega Man game is fantastic, especially in a game it was never in before. One of the only gripes I have is one that the previous reviewer also brought up: a slight inconsistency with the Nova Strike's functionality. The Nova Strike works more often than not, but there were several instances where it just didn't activate. That, and not being able to change the default controls without giving up the Nova Strike (it wouldn't work at all when I swapped some of the controls in the in-game menu). This isn't the biggest deal if you're emulating, as I just swapped buttons in Retroarch, but it could be an issue for those trying to play on original hardware. But this is still an outstanding effort by the developer to breath new life into Mega Man X2, an effort that fully succeeds.

I really want to like this hack. The idea of backporting X's Ultimate Armor to an earlier entry from the SNES era is a fantastic idea, and it's one that I was so happy to see pop up here. It's a great effort by Programer Peru, but the end results aren't nearly as fun as I had hoped they would be.

Right from the start, the Armor has a lot of promise. The sprite work looks fantastic, the Plasma Shot works correctly and looks superb, weapons feel like they use less energy. The damage reduction, weapon charging, and air dash are all present and accounted for, so the Armor's bonuses are working splendidly. The Foot Part's hover is missing, but it's a forgivably trivial feature in X2. That aside, it's a very faithful 16-bit recreation of this godly Armor.

Things start to sour when you get to the Nova Strike, which looks the part when it actually works. Normally, you would press R2 to use it, but for an SNES controller, the input has been simplified to jump and hit R. Sounds completely reasonable on paper, but I can't seem to get to work consistently, and I spent time trying to figure out if it's a timing issue, or if maybe changing directions in midair was causing it to fail, or if maybe I had to not move left or right when performing the Strike. I just couldn't figure out how to get it working in a way that felt like I had tight control over it.

Nevertheless, I tried playing through a few stages, and eventually gave up on fiddling with the Nova Strike. The Plasma Shot kept coming out on top as the easier attack to use, and this was especially the case versus bosses. I'm glad that it works as well as it does, but that's not enough to sell the Armor.

For the high level of detail in X's sprites, I was also disappointed by the few rough edges still lingering. X's dash trail uses the same dark hue as the Armor, instead of its correct cream color. The Giga Crush, though disabled as expected, is still selectable in the weapon select menu.

Ultimately, as much as it pains me, I'm not sold on this hack, which is a shame because there is a ton of potential here. The new sprites look gorgeous, and I can forgive the hover not working. The inconsistent Nova Strike inputs derail the experience for me, and that Strike is the Armor's biggest selling point. The Plasma Shot looks great and works perfectly, but that's not a strong enough feature for this hack. For these reasons, I can't give this one a recommendation; at least not until the Nova Strike's input recognition is tuned correctly.

Have you ever wanted to play MegaMan X2 using the ultimate Armor? Well, this hack is for you. This hack gives you the ability to play the MegaMan X2 through in the ultimate armor. Is this necessary for most players to get through this game, no... but is it fun... you better believe it. my only issue is the nova strike can be a bit unpredictable activating (killed myself a few times trying to get it to activate), There is undeniable coolness to this hack and definitely worth checking out.