[Editor's note: It's people like Kazooaloo that makes Capcom put out a new Mega Man game every other day. Check out his Start of the Affair as part of this month's Monthly Musing. -- CTZ]
My love for gaming started like any other gamer out there, on the NES. I was two when I started playing games. But when you're that age, you don't mind the game; just the pretty colors being emanated on the screen. My dad was playing a copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 and doing tag team with my sister. Unfortunately, they couldn't get very far in the game, world 4 if anyone's keeping score. That, and there was no save option in the original game, so every time you started the game, you had to start from the beginning. But one day when I decided I wanted to play, my sister showed me how to move Mario and how to make him jump. Over the next week, the two of them would sit in the room with a notepad going "you can do that?" and the occasional "I didn't know that was there," while I was playing. Ah yes, the birth of a gamer.
It was also during this time when there was no ESRB rating system. You judged your games by how the front cover looked. So to my parents, when they saw Mega Man 2 for the first time and saw the wonderful boxart, they figured it would be too violent for me and I was never allowed to play that game. This is also the same family that thought The Legend of Zelda cartoon was too violent for me, and the day I swung from my bed to the other side of the room using the curtain rod was enough to stop allowing me to watch the Adam West Batman. Of course, as the years went by and all other kinds of games entered the market, the banning of Mega Man in my house was soon forgotten.
More after the jump.
Then 2002 came, the year that would introduce me to
Mega Man. My latest copy of Nintendo Power came in the mail, and I was so excited to come home and read what was inside. Of course I also had the Internet and was able to find out what was going to come out moments before NP told me. In the issue was a video game series that I had never heard of. The name was
Mega Man Battle Network, and the article was talking about the second game in this series. "Interesting name," I thought to myself as I skimmed the article, and then continued read on the rest of the article. But as I found myself bored in my room working on homework, I kept opening up that copy of NP and kept re-reading the article on
MMBN2. The more I read it, the more I wanted to buy it. So when I saved up my money I went to Target to buy it. My mom looked at the box and wondered if I really wanted this.
After playing the second game, I was hooked. I loved it. I was really into the depths of the Internet: creating my own web sites, talking on forums, all that fun stuff. I really liked how this game made the Internet come to life. Having a device where a computer program could talk to you. Then you could take a plug from the device and "jack-in" to the Internet. There the program could wander around the Internet, talk to other programs, even battle against computer viruses. But wait, this is game
2. That must mean there is a game
1 out there somewhere. Well when I found the first game and played it, I liked it but not as much as
2.
By the time
Mega Man Battle Network 3 was announced, I was ecstatic. Not only was
Battle Network 3 coming for the GBA, but a whole new
MMBN game was announced for the Gamecube.
Mega Man Network Transmission was the game. But as I went to GameStop to pick up my copy, I noticed something on the box that made me think. On the box had a nice little symbol that said "Mega Man 15th." "15th?" I wondered. I asked the clerk who told me that
Mega Man had been around for 15 years. Well that's not possible because
Battle Network 1 came out in 2001. That's when I realized that there were other
Mega Man games besides
Mega Man Battle Network out there.
Over the next couple years I went out trying to grab every
Mega Man game I could find; actual or ROM, it didn't matter to me. I had to play every one. It first started with
Mega Man Zero for the GBA, and then
Mega Man X5 for the PC. Yup, I found a copy of
X5 at a GameStop for PC and instantly grabbed it, and it is still my favorite
X series game. When a new
Mega Man game came out, I knew about it and I saved up to get it.
Then I stumbled one day on a little site called Rockman.EXE Online. As I started to read about it, I realized that there was an Anime based on the
Mega Man Battle Network series. But Rockman.EXE? Why is it called Rockman.EXE? And that's when I started to piece together that Rockman is to Japan as
Mega Man is to America. When the anime came to America, I always made sure I was there in front of the TV just to watch it. When the DVD's and the manga's came out, I always got them just to watch whenever I got bored.
To me,
Mega Man is probably one of my favorite video game series out there. I don't play for the best graphics, or the amazing surround sound feature. I play for the story. Although pretty much every
Mega Man sequel in a series looks like the game before it, I don't care. As long as the game has a good story, I'll play it. For the original games, there wasn't much of a story. All you did was start a stage, fight your way through, and then try and beat the boss without him wiping the floor with you.
But the best story, for me, is the story that got me roped into
Mega Man in the first place:
Battle Network. In the beginning of the series,
Battle Network attempted to create a
Mega Man story that was believable. Robotics was the in thing for science fiction books, movies, even games. However by today's standards, the Internet is more fascinating and has pretty much controlled almost every aspect of our lives. To take that experience, expand it to control all aspects of our lives, and to make the Internet more interactive with human beings was cleaver and is plausible in today's world. In all honesty, wouldn't you like your watch to be able to check the Internet?
I know a lot of die hard
Mega Man fans hate the
Battle Network and its spin-off Star Force series, but that's only because of it's card-based RPG. To me,
Mega Man can be side-scroller, first person shooter,
Devil May Cry style, it doesn't matter. All that matters to me is the story of
Mega Man and whatever distant or alternate universe brothers he has.
Over the years I've collected a lot of
Mega Man merchandise and games. Not because I'm one of those hard-core collectors, but I buy the games and usually my sister buys me the merch and stores it for my birthday, or I get for free, like the 15th anniversary wall scroll from a GameStop and the grey
Mega Man t-shirt my boss gave me at a conference of his. Of course this is not everything I own, but most of it is there.
The first step towards healing is admitting you have a problem Looking at my pile there sitting behind me, it's kinda scary. I never realized how much stuff I have bought for
Mega Man. But then again, when you buy something for something you like, that's called support right? Nevertheless,
Mega Man will keep on chucking out games, and I'll probably keep buying them up. And who's to blame for all of this? Why
Nintendo Power of course. For without them, I wouldn't have this giant collection currently sitting in the family room waiting to be brought back into my room where the rest remain.
The article that started it all. Thanks Nintendo Power.
Contest:
12:59 PM on 06.05.2008
| 
Also, I loved MMBN but couldn't get into Star Force.
Do you think Star Force is worth another try?
Oh, and if you love the way MMBN plays, you might wanna try The World Ends With You. It's not EXACTLY the same way, but collecting Pins to make a neat deck reminded me of it greatly.
And how long have you known me? Seriously Nick.
Yeah, you're glad I have an editor. When I read this months musing, I knew exactly what to do it on. And he took out a lot of parts and told me to rewrite some stuff. All in all I like how it turned out.
@ Terance
MM9, not really. Fans consider Mega Man & Bass to be Mega Man 9, but that's just them.
I've played the Japanese version of Star Force 2 and it was better. Battle system is the same, plot doesn't revolve around space aliens this time, and there's Wi-Fi Wave Battling. Online's fun, can be a bit laggy, but that's only I was fighting against people living in Japan. When I did it with a friend who lives a state over, it was fine. It's a 50/50 shot on if you're gonna like it or not. To me, the online battles were what sold me. The best part of MMBN was the multiplayer.
As for The World Ends With You, loved it. Never finished it since I borrwed it from a friend, but whenever I buy it I can't wait to beat it.
-Kazoo
Although I didn't start collecting MegMan games like you did (and that is a really impressive collection you have there!), I really like them.
Fans consider it Mega Man 9. I don't think Inafune does or he wouldn't be uh, never mind.
*runs*
Yeah, Mega Man 3 for Game Boy was the only one to take the music from the NES games, which IMO helped make the series for what it is. I mean it's bad enough when someone at work goes "Victory music, now!" and someone else sings the FF6 victory music. As far as the BN Games, the stories of 2, 3, and 5 were the best.
Pretty much if it's BN I like to grab it, because it's my favorite series. I don't have too much merch from the others. But I have the PET's that came in Japan, my sister bought me EXE 4.5 (another Japan exclusive) with the Battle Chip Gate. The gate is cool because you can use it with 4.5 and use your actual battle chips from the merch with it. And with all the EXE merch I bought... I've got quite a collection of Battle Chips.
@ Nick
*shrugs* don't run away from me. I don't care. I'm not gonna kill you or something. Others might, I won't.
Sounds like I should preorder SF2 when I can. ;(
@Nick
Sounds like the rumors might be more than rumors after all... Hmmm...
. . . did someone finally pay Inafune enough money to give us MM9 proper?
I'm really interested in reading this article.
Yeah, I have to say, that like every series .exe has had it's ups and downs (Or rather, a decent middle point start, a 2 game high, a two game low and a finalé that is made of win and awesome and battle opera) of course, thow in the rest of the merch and stuff and the graph goes all over the place.
Xebec, the makers of the anime, fell fantasticly from thier Nadesico/Zoids grace with the sequel series of the anime (and Negima! But that's another story altoger) and don't get me started on beast + otherwise we'll be here till the cows come home.
I recently got Starforce 1 and, I have to say, I want to get into the story but Geo as a protagonast starts dangerously close to the Belt'n'Zipper angst standard and hasn't pulled up for me (The scoobie gang ain't doing much for me ether, I'm at the "Trial from AM Admin part" as a point of refrence).
That and the battle system feels a bit...choppy...as a result of going from 2D to 3D and doing away with Chip Codes and Program Advance.
I honestly feel The World Ends With You is a much better game in comparison (Yes, it's oranges and pairs but I have to work into what I bought).
But, it forced me to go back and play the older games. I bought Mega Man 8 and X4 for PS1 at a Sams Club. I got Anniversary Collection for my Xbox (and it's one of only two original Xbox games that I have sitting on a shelf with my 360 games). I've got Xtreme 2 for the GBC.
I was born in 1991, so... Mega Man really shouldn't have any relevence to me. I didn't get serious into gaming until I got Pokemon in late 1999 (I had an NES and SNES, but those came with games that someone else had bought before they sold them at a yard sale).
Erm... I dunno where I'm going with that. I just want to say that fans of the original series can give all the crap they want to Battle Network, but, it gave me the opportunity to play what has become one of my favorite series of games.
I liked the anime series. Original was good, Axess was amazing, Stream not so much, Beast was better, and I never watched Beast +. The movie was good too, but felt more like an extended episode.
Xebec also made the cutscenes and movies for Maverick Hunter X as well as the Star Force anime, which the dubs weren't bad on Toonami Jetstream.
@ Reaprar
Maybe for you they're bad, but for me they're great. Companies make various games and types of games. Those that sell continue to make games of that series. Battle Network is one of those series. Yes many fans would like a MM9 or even a Mega Man Legends 3, which Inafune has said on more than one occassion that he would love to make MML3.
There are so many games out there that everyone has their own opinion. If all of the Battle Network games were terrible, I doubt Capcom would continue to release them. Fortunatly for them, Battle Network 4 (both Red Sun and Blue Moon) was the second highest sold Mega Man game with 1.35 million units. beating out Mega Man X and Mega Man 3. And even though that since Battle Network 3 they've released two versions of the same game, they've helped it become the second highest series in Capcom with 120 titles and selling 28 million units.
In short, although you might not like them, Battle Network does have a strong fan base that keeps it going. And I happen to be one of them and proud of it.
-Kazoo
Source: The Mega Man Network
I also loved the Battle Network series, except 4 and 5 weren't that great. I totally love the battle system for the series, I think it's my favorite part. The way you can just move across the tiles so fast leaving just a blur as you move. Also I liked how the series uses all of the old bosses from the NES Mega Man games. Some of them are nicely redone too, looking pretty different from the original designs. I haven't liked Star Force quite as much, but I'll still be picking up Star Force 2 at the end of this month.
@Kazooaloo
Oh, and I didn't see them in your collection from what I could tell, but do you have the PC Mega Man games? I think they only made 1 and 3, but the games are completely different from the NES ones. I used to have 3 but the game was horrible because the controls at least for the keyboard made it impossible to play. The games have different bosses, and I remember 3 had Sharkman in it which you may remember from the first Battle Network.
Nope. The only PC game I own is X5. I know there's a website around that you can download the old PC Mega Man games, but I forget what it's called. I also know X1, X3, and Legends were made for PC in America. In Japan, X1, X3-8, and Legends 1 and 2 were made. In China, there was a Mega Man RTS game, following the classic series.
The good news is, if you wish to feed GameStop, you can buy X3, X5, X8, and Legends 1 from their website. X8 has the English voice acting from the PS2 version. Unfortunatly it's a direct download, so no box or anything. But that also means no CD.
---
Thanks for all the comments guys.
-Kazoo
Also like Cloud09 was saying how they used the Robot Masters from the classic era and mapped them into Battle Network. In a way, MM and MMBN are alternate universes... a "what-if" scenerio. So as I went back to the old MM games I was going "oh yeah, I know that character." Sure MMBN doesn't have the Rock-Paper-Scissors approach to boss fights as the old games do, but the strategy with elemental weaknesses and card-based RPG helped give it the "Mega Man Tough" stamp of approval. I refuse to count how many times those bosses killed me, especially the finals Gospel from MMBN2 and Nebula Grey from MMBN5.
Even though Battle Network is still my favorite, every once in a while I'll grab X8 off the shelf and start playing it or another Mega Man game. In all honesty, you do need a drink (X8) to go with your full course meal (MMBN). If only MMBN had online Net Battles like MMSF2 is going to have.
And finally, thanks for the congrats.
---
Okay, it is a known fact that even for comments I write too much. -_-;;.
-Kazoo
Couldn't get into Star Force originally but after writing that I picked it back up and it's been a bit smoother this time around but I miss Lan and the gang. Omega-XIS is meh to me.
How do you feel about Star Force so far? I'm only about 6 hours in and its been a mixed bag for me.
But yeah I play through the main series once a year now; and thanks to X Collection, I've added that to the yearly count. Probably ought to go back and play through the BN games every year too.
If the Battle Network got you into the old school stuff, I guess it can't be all that bad. It'll be my first card battle game, but the Mega Man flavor might do something for me.
Between your article and Tug Your God Out's Musing last month, I'm going to look for one of the early BN games and give them a shot. It kind of reminds me of the decker parts of ShadowRun from the SNES, which did a similar "there's a little guy running around in the network fighting things" sort of concept.
I'll let you guys know if you've got another fellow fan.
Though pardon me if I'm sceptical. :D
Thanks. Yeah there are actually a lot of BN fans lurking in the shadows. Every once in a while we make an appearance. The problem is that there's the Mega Man fans, the Legends fans, and then the Battle Network fans. There are also a lot, like myself, that enjoys all three genres. However when something comes up more for another series than the one you love, they'll always be harsh critisim. Unfortunatly for Battle Network, not everyone loves the card-based system. So when they see that, they turn their noses and walk away. And every game that's released after that, they critise it on all the boards they can find. Now there are a few that HAVE played it and decided it's bad. But even still, they'll be harsh criticism on the next BN universe game, and I'll be there defending it.
Here's the curse of me and importing games. I imported BN5:DS because it was almost half a year from when the game released in Japan, and there was still no report on an American release. So I imported it. When it came in, Capcom annoucned BN5:DS for America. Ryuusei no Rockman was out for a while, never announced. I figured that if it didn't sell well in Japan, it wouldn't come here - a la Legends for PSP. Imported, came in, next day comes the announcing of Star Force. When Ryuusei 2 was released, I said "f*** it, it's coming out eventually. But I still wanna play it."
The first one wasn't bad. They tried to impliment TOO much of Battle Network into the first one, which made me really want crack the game and replace the sprites to the BN gang. The second one however really feels solid. I haven't finished it yet, mainly because I got lost in the world of the Japanese language, but it actually felt like a different series. And the good thing this time is, you can actually skip the tutorial which is something they needed to do badly in BN. Now of course, Ryuusei 3 has been announced, and based on the image alone it looks like it could be the best in the series, but we won't know that till it releases, now will we.
All in all SF1, meh. SF2, great with story and the online battling portion. However the battle system is pretty much the same. But the good news is SF2 comes packaged a la BN5:DS with 2 games on one cartridge (and yes, you can brother yourself if you want. I've done that for my Japanese version)
Now if only they redid the first three BN games with BN5 and have the online battles like SF2, I'm sold. Course a MMO based on BN wouldn't be bad either, as long as an experienced team did it.
@ Tubatic
Thanks. See I don't mind any flavor of strategy game as long as it's good. When I first got my PSP last month, I really wanted to try Metal Gear Acid. It was good in my opinion. But yeah, BN helped me get into the other series as well.
Let me give you a run down of the games themselves in the event you do like it and want to try the others, or you don't know which one to start with first.
MMBN 1 - Not bad, but the battle system needed much improving
MMNT (GCN) - Not bad as a side-scroller with Battle Chips. Graphics are nothing to look at. Story is not considered canon mainly because it was made after BN2. Overall, not missing anything.
MMBN 2 - Better, battle system tuned, much tougher, overall gaming feels like you're in the internet.
MMBN 3 - Same if not better than BN2. Added customization feature that gives you all kinds of different equipment in battle.
MMBCC (Battle Chip Challenge) - Avoid. Not really a game, more like a distraction. Also not canon.
MMBN 4 - *The start to the "kiddie" approach* Not bad, can be replayed but gets repetitive, sub-story is randomly generated, main story is solid.
MMBN 5 - Just a little under BN2, but much better than 4. DS version is perfered over GBA. DS version can also take the GBA games to unlock special features and power-ups such as Bass Cross MegaMan. Can also use Boktai (Konami) games. Boktai 2 gives you Django Cross MegaMan.
MMBN 6 - About as good as BN1. Story isn't much to look at.
And any criticism is appreciated because you've actually took the time to play one of them.
-Kazoo
It's just kind of cool how the love of Mega Man can branch and go. I started with the actual Mega Man 2 and by the end of the NES cycle had all the original carts. And seem to be the only one to defend MM6.
Kinda picked up X a little disjointed. It wasn't until X Collection that I finally could get my hands on X3 and X4.
Started with BN when I saw the first game in a bargin bin for $10. Picked it up and got BN2 about a month later starting the addiction there.
I know most people will call this crazy -- I like BN but Dash/Legends -- I really don't get the hype. Love the characters but the games are meh to me.
And good with Shooting Star that I'm not the only one that played it and the overall thought was -- where's the gang? And the skipping tutorials should have been implemented by BN3 or 4. About damn time.
So are you learning Japanese because of these games, too? Now that's awesome. I took a little in college and probably could get through most of an import like this -- maybe with the help of a book. But now I'm studying on my own out of college and that's kind of stalling a bit.
I'm about to write a History of Roll article today.
And you gave a better rundown to Tub than I did. I figure -- just start at the beginning if you can. Availbility is a pain at times.
I suggest NTrans a little bit more than you, it's vastly underrated and I saw it at my local EB for $2.99 on Tuesday so it's got to be about the same elsewhere. I laughed and asked if the price was right as most of the old Cube games they were hawking were over $10 and he said yep, it wasn't very good either. Didn't really want to start a debate with anyone.
4.5 is good mainly because it takes the experiences of the show to a game. The fact that you actually give battle chips and commands to the navi instead of controlling it yourself. I usually play as either Rock, Blues, or Forte (MegaMan, ProtoMan, or Bass). Plus the Battle Chip Gate allows you to use your Battle Chips (the ones for Advance... you got those in the Mega Man NT Warrior toys) in the actual game. The BCG's were also used for 4, 5, and 6. However 5 used the Progress Chip Gate (used the Progress PET BC's) and 6 used the Beast Gate (used the Link PET BC's). Unfortunatly, the BCG feature in 6 was taken out. Now with the BCG in 5, it works the same way as it does in 4.5. The added bonus is... they even translated that section.
As for NT don't get me wrong. I like that game mainly because it's different. Also I'm taking some of the NT stages and building them in MMPU for the PSP. I've completed FireMan.EXE, working on ElecMan.EXE, and then IceMan.EXE. I've already uploaded FireMan.EXE to the database.
But coming from someone who just wants to start out in the series, it's not one you want to start with. If you play the others and decide "hey, I like this series", then it wouldn't be a bad game to pick up.
-Kazoo
I had friends to play it with which made it even better. Me and one of my other friends were really competitive about it, and we wouldn't use guides or anything.