I love Mega Man games! Mega Man 9 is coming soon, possibly even this month! I wonder since people didn't know about beat em ups, how would everyone like to read a retrospective about the Mega Man series? Instead of doing them all at once like I did my beat em up series, I thought I'd separate them by a few days and talk about some other old school games in between.



I have a long story of how I first heard of Mega Man. My cousin who owned an arcade started off renting video tapes and games. One among them was this "mega man." The cover looked so awesome that I just had to play it. Upon doing so, I learned that this game could quite possibly be among my favorites ever for a number of reasons this game is special.



If you had to put mega man in a genre, its an action platformer. Not quite a run n gun game like Contra, but just enough shooting to make it hard to classify in a genre. Just play it and don't worry what genre it is. You start off with only one weapon a small yellow dot. Pressing your button quickly you can shoot out three little balls. Now one of the things that makes Mega Man cool is his ability to copy the moves of the other robot masters. Not only that, but you get to CHOOSE which order to play the each robots levels in. Every stage culminates in an epic battle against the boss. Each boss is weak to another bosses power and takes more damage from it than the regular yellow blaster. If you're a mashositic gamer like myself you'll try to take down any boss with any weapon. This one its even tougher because you can't charge your weapon or do any doge move other than jumping projectiles.



The first Mega Man only has six robot masters. Most of the original series has eight. I think the first one has some of the most hilarious and memorable designs of the series. Cut Man is the most brilliantly thought up character in a game ever.



The platforming in some of the stages can get extremely awesome. Moving platforms at the start of guts mans stage. Tons of ladders to climb in Cuts Mans stage. Fire sploshes up from the ground in Fire Mans stage, which if you use ice man's weapon you can freeze! Disappearing platforms in Ice Man & Elec Man's stage being among the highlights. Stages are just plain out awesome.One last thing to mention is the final Dr. Wily stages after you beat all the bosses. Basically the culmination of all that you've faced, but a lot more of it. Spikes, giant mini boss robots everywhere, fire beams, and all the other stuff you've seen just more of it.




Today when I played through the game, the path I took was:

Ice Man > Fire Man > Bomb Man > Guts Man > Cut Man - Elec Man - Wily



I managed to beat the first wily stage with relative ease, but the second killed me with when I miss judged a ledge and was sent back to the start of the level. I was so furious, I quit playing. I started off early this morning on going Cuts Man > Elec Man, but then I realized "I don't have guts man's power to get the line weapon. Dang." So I quit playing and started back later in the day. I was surprised at how good I did. I only lost a few extra men and never made it to the continue game over screen. Made me feel great. Until I got to the Wily levels and died and it sent me back to the start of the level. I just quit playing out of frustration.



I love Mega Man. One of my favorite games. If you've got a Nintendo and haven't played Mega Man, you owe it to yourself to find a copy of it. Its one of my favorites for the system. Just playing it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Its so great.



The first game is also available on PSP in an enhanced remake that adds to extra bosses and several other extra gameplay modes. Another previous remake along with remakes of Mega Man 2 & 3 is available on the Sega Genesis. Its only available in PAL and Japan regions, as it was only available in America on the Sega Channel. The Mega Man Anniversary Collection is a re-release of the original Mega Man games. It even includes the two arcade only Mega Man fighting games There is no reason for you to not have played this Mega Man. It may not have the features of the later ones, but its the foundation for all the classic nintendo capcom games. Ducktales, Darkwing Duck, and most other capcom games, not just the Mega Man series, use a version of the Mega Man game engine. The more you know!

In the gallery I put a *TON* of screenshots from when I was playing.

One last thing: I was listening to talk radio with the tv muted and I realized I was humming the level music and making the bleeps and bloops! I can't think that any other game has me do that. That's how awesome the sounds and music of this game are.

Next week on old school games: Mega Man 2

Going up tomorrow: Castlevania!