Now, I'm in an area with VERY few Arcades, or Arcade-like Areas. However, I, like many of my fellow Dtiod-ers, enjoy the games. It was in a Jillians that I found an amazing game; Megaman: The Power Battle, one of my favorites.


Title Screen~

Now, when starting up the game, you are presented with a choice, and that's who to start with. The three characters; Megaman, Protoman, and Bass, work near exactly the same, as far as I can tell, gameplay wise. They all can use Master Weapons, charge, and use a dash-like move. Another addition is the wall jump, added from the X Series.
The differences between characters are mainly the dash moves. Megaman has his Slide, Protoman puts his shield forward and dashes, and Bass flies forward for a quick moment.


Character Select Screen~

One thing you'll notice as early as the Character Select, is that graphics-wise, the game isn't too special. It looks much like Megaman 7, enough so that Capcom themselves used Megaman's Power Battle/Fighters sprite instead of the actual MM7 one. However, instead of just having the player face an unchanging set of Masters, you can choose a "course". These courses include:
- Megaman 1-2
- Megaman 3-6
- Megaman 7


Megaman and Protoman fighting Plantman, in Course 3-6~

The course you choose determines the Robot Masters you'll face, as well as weapons and stages. The stages and music will vary between Courses. The game works the same regardless, you select a stage (Note that it's like a roulette, and it's very likely you won't get the one you want until later), and you fight a boss. No, not a level and a boss, just the bosses.


Protoman, after just beating Heatman in Course 1-2~

Once all eight are defeated, you will move on to the "Fortress Stages", which really just mean a Wily Machine, and a subboss (Yellow Devil, Yellow Mini Devils, or Shade Man's Pumpkin). Once you've defeated Wily, you'll be treated to the character's ending, and the credits.


Protoman's Ending~

Now, even though this is a great game, nobody remembers it! However, there's a reason for that. You see, Power Battles, as well as Power Fighters, it's sequel, wasn't widely released outside of Japan. Heck, I only found it in a multi-game (As in 8+ games) cabinet. However, Capcom was nice enough to include ports of both Arcade games in the Megaman Anniversary Collection.

Look forward to more of these articles. I've got a lot of Arcade games to go through.