Saturday, October 11, 2008

The Man that is Mega

With recent completion of Megaman Battle Network 5, plus the slightly-less-recent Megaman available on WiiWare, I thought now would be a good time to briefly explore some of the changes between the different Megaman games and series.

Most people know Megaman started out on the NES. But few people know that it almost didn't go much further past there. According to some sources, Megaman 2 was actually made by the original Megaman team in their spare time, because the company didn't want to make one. Then, when the company saw how good it was, they published it and the rest is history. Phew! That was a close one.

Most people say that Megaman 2 is the best of the NES series, but I would have to disagree. Megaman 3 has everything great about Megaman 2, plus cooler bosses. And, you can power slide. Hooray! Megaman 2 is good, but 3 is better. And I'm always right.

Anyways, the next 3 Megaman games continued in the same style and tradition as the first 3. Then, Megaman 7 was made for the Super Nintendo. It had significantly better graphics, but the controls were very different. Not bad, just different. Plus, the end boss was the hardest of the original 8 end bosses. What a pain. Then, Megaman 8 was made for the (stupid) Playstation, complete with anime cutscenes.

Then, the series started to branch out. Capcom started the Megaman X series, which had a much "cooler and fresher" Megaman design. Also, they decided the games weren't hard enough and bumped them up a notch. Dang. Tough stuff. While I haven't played much of the Megaman X series, I do know they are fun games. And hard games. Often, those two adjectives can't be used on the same game.

When the GBA came out and started breaking sales records everywhere in the universe, Capcom started the venerable Megaman Battle Network series. It was pretty much the first Megaman RPG, and the graphics, sound, story, and battle system were nearly flawless in every way. Little has changed since the first one, but it has been a popular franchise worldwide. Now, the Battle Network series has transformed into the Megaman Starforce series. It's almost the same thing, but it's for the DS, and the graphics are 3-D, plus a few other additions.

Other games from the Megaman world include Megaman 64 (a 3-D platformer), Megaman Battle Chip Challenge (a tournament battle game, and spin-off of Battle Network), Marvel vs. Capcom (a fantastic fighting game), and the odd Megaman Racing (arcade). It is estimated that there are over 120 Megaman games total. That's more than Street Fighter and Resident Evil combined (also Capcom franchises). Not bad for little blue guy with one arm and a light gun.

-benjamines

Currently Deciding What to Play out of: Mario & Luigi Partners in Time, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Megaman Battle Chip Challenge

2 comments:

Devin said...

Megaman has got to be one of the most classic of all video game characters. I love it! I would agree that 3 was the best of the series, just because it had Snake Man (so cool...). But in any case, I would agree that although Megaman has gone a long way, it still stays true to its roots.

Rachel said...

Hehe, for some reason this series reminds me of Land Before Time. Except the game is still awesome, and appearantly gets better, after the first one :) Hopefully you'll like Megaman 9 as much as you like the other ones you've played :) I love you, Ben! :)