Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Consoles: Nintendo Entertainment System
We start off October with not just a classic title, but the title that started what would become a classic series with several spin-off series. Mega Man has over 90 titles in its library, from its Classic series to the X series, as well as the Zero series, the Battle Network series, the ZX series, the Star Force series, and the Legends series, the last of which was just recently announced to finally get a sequel after over a decade. Mega Man has starred in not just his own games, but also in several titles in the Versus series, and has shown up in one way or another in Onimusha Blade Warriors, Cannon Spike, SnK vs Capcom Card Fighters, Gem Fighters, Dead Rising, Boktai 2, and several others.
So what made Mega Man so big? Well, for those of you that have been living under a rock or just never cared about the series, I'll fill you in; the game is about two scientists, Dr. Light (though in the first game in the series he's called "Dr. Wright") and Dr. Wily, who create Mega Man, as well as six other robots. Cut Man, Elec Man, Guts Man, Bomb Man, Fire Man, and Ice Man were all created to help mankind with demolition, logging, construction, electrical operations, and work in extreme heat or cold, until Dr. Wily turns against his partner. The scientist turns into a mad man, reprogramming the six robots to aid him in trying to rule the world. Light sends Mega Man to stop Wily and the Master Robots and to save mankind, and so on and so forth.
But that doesn't really explain what made the game into the multi-series franchise that it is today. It brought in something new to the field at the time; once you defeat a Robot Master, you get to keep their power to use as your own. So if Mega Man were to beat Bomb Man, he'd have the power to throw bombs. If he were to beat Elec Man, he'd be able to shoot electrical shots in three directions. As if this new way to destroy your enemies weren't enough, each of the bosses had their own weakness against another Robot Master's power.
A word to the wise: if you haven't played many side-scrollers outside of Mario, you WILL get frustrated with this game. The difficulty of the games in the classic series is near legendary. These games aren't the hardest games made, but for a first timer, it certainly feels like it. And many of the games continue to get harder, including the newer Mega Man 9 and 10, each of which were made after the original design of the first games in the series.
As for this game in particular, my honest opinion is that it is challenging, but the powers you get from the Robot Masters are rarely worth it. Fire Man and Ice Man have similar elemental styled bullet attacks. Bomb Man's bombs take too long to explode. Cut Man's boomerangs don't do enough damage. And Guts Man is literally like the worst power of all time - he can throw chunks of wall or large blocks. But they rarely show up, and can simply be destroyed by Elec Man's power anyway. Elec Man literally has the best power in this game, and is the only thing more useful than the regular buster cannon.
Like many others, while this title is fun, and brings a beginning to the epic franchise that is Mega Man, later games in the series definitely perfected what this game started. The difficulty of this game (as well as many of them in the series) is high enough that once you finally conquer the game, you're proud of yourself. Recently I've beaten the first two Mega Man games, as well as 10 (which was my first time defeating ol' Doc Wily), and I assure you they were no easy task, especially the second one. We'll get into that later, though.
If you're interested in "story" or wanna be a Classic series perfectionist, start with the first game. If you're simply looking for a fun side-scroller with a high challenging difficulty, you might wanna start with one of the most famous 2D titles ever, Mega Man II.
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