Mega Man 10 came out a few weeks ago making the classic series finally hit double digits. When it starts up, it has a full list of the Mega Man series from No.1 to No.10 and the years they were released. I realized that I have been playing Mega Man games for a long, long time. The first one I ever played was Mega Man 3 on a friend's NES. The first one I ever bought (or more like my parents bought) was Mega Man 2. I was big into robots when I was really young and seeing the next set of "Man" designs was a real treat. Knowing the cold hard fact that there are ten of these games is funny and awesome all rolled up into one. Ten is a nice round number so I wanted to collect my thoughts as I go through each one and measure them with what I know now.
Mega Man (released 1987)
My favorite robot master from this game is Fire Man. I intend to make the captions on pictures as cheesy as possible in honor of the cover art. Bad is good, baby.
Mega Man 2 (released in 1988)
Mega Man 2 was my very first Mega Man game when I got an NES. It came loaded with eight robot masters, awesome music, decent game play, and could actually handle the action it was dishing out. We had this game at my daycare and took turns playing it to death. Nearly everyone started with Metal Man so his stage music is permanently stuck in my brain along with the clown robot that rides the gear and tries to steamroll you. The other part of this game I will never forget is the gargantuan pit right before Heat Man that you can only navigate by jumping across goddamn disappearing and reappearing blocks. The kids at my daycare nicknamed it the "Duh Duh Blocks" after the sound effect when they blink in and out of the wall. I always skipped it by using Item 2 (Rush Jet before Rush Jet). The only time I actually tried to jump across using the blocks was after the Mega Man Anniversary Collection came out for the PS2. Bubble Man sucked, Flash Man's music was the shit, and Dr. Wily turned into an alien at the end of the game (but not really).
Oddly enough my favorite robot master from MM2 is Air Man. I liked his design and his stage music was really catchy. Not to mention, his power can kill that jumping lunatic Crash Man in one hit if you're lucky.
Mega Man 3 (released 1990)
It's always hard to recapture the first time you do or see something incredible. But after beating the eight robot masters of MM3 and seeing the funky Doc Bots show up, it was something else. The stages got harder and changed a bit but nothing was quite as awesome as fighting all the robot masters from MM2 again. Holy shit. It was so incredible. At least it was incredible until I realized that Quick Man was back. Then I killed him and things were incredible again. The only things that didn't work so well with the Doc Bot stages was the level design. In Needle Man's stage, if you played through the bottomless pit section with Rush Jet and died somewhere near the end, the strategically placed energy pellets that let you refill Rush's energy didn't respawn, so you couldn't make it unless you got a game over and restarted the stage. Or maybe if you got incredibly lucky drops after killing enemies. Repeat playthroughs made the Doc Bot section a little taxing, so memorizing the code to go straight to Dr. Wily's castle was gold back then. Mega Man 3 is awesome.
My favorite robot master from MM3 is Spark Man, mostly because his expression when he tosses his ball of electricity is hilarious.
Mega Man 4 (released in 1991)
I remember this game mostly for the robot master levels. They had some sort of gimmick that made every stage have at least one part that really sucked. The robot whales in Dive Man's stage. The funky half-circle moving platforms in Bright Man's stage. The dust crushers in Dust Man's stage. The switches that spawned platforms in Drill Man's stage. I mean it goes on and on. This shit is now standard in nearly every Mega Man game, but at the time it was a little hard to take in. There was a time when I thought I would never get past Dust Man's stage because of the stupid crushers. This game also pulled the first of many "Dr. Wily is still behind everything". Who knew in a few more games it would be as predictable as a Scooby Doo routine? Dr. Cossack has a sweet castle though.
My favorite robot master from 4 is Dust Man. I think he's cool. Most people think he's the dumbest thing ever. So I guess that means I am the one and only Dust Man fan. Go Dust or go home.
Mega Man 5 (released in 1992)
Even after playing MM9 and MM10, it's STILL my favorite Mega Man game ever. The music hits all the right notes with me. The level design is sweet. I mean, this game has an anti-gravity stage! C'mon, anti-gravity stages are the best thing ever. You also get to ride a train and kill robotic chickens. If that wasn't enough, you get to hop on a jet ski. Not to mention you have the full use of slide and charge shot if you want to use it. Nothing is made artificially hard by hindering your abilities. The fortress bosses are cool and this game also introduces Beat. Your homing bird of death that will kill the last form of Dr. Wily dead no problem at all. I could go on and on. The only part of this game that I hate is Crystal Man's stage. There are these shafts that drop crystals into bottomless pits. The opening to jump across is pretty small, and sometimes it feels random. They kill me just about every single time. Other than that this game is golden.
I suppose it helps that this game has my favorite robot master of all time. Napalm Man. To give you an idea of how old I was when this came out, I had no idea what Napalm was. Or Vietnam. I had to hit up a dictionary and ask my parents questions to which they had the understandable reaction of "Why are you asking about Napalm?". A lot of robot masters have funky designs and a few aren't that threatening. Napalm Man is one of the few where he looks like he was designed to blow shit up until shit no longer exists. Grenade launchers, missile launchers, treads. I don't know why he's purple but that's probably thinking too hard. It was very satisfying to see Napalm Man come back in the Wily Archives in Mega Man 10. After I got over the initial shock, I immediately picked up on his pattern and had a nostalgic moment to remember. That might be a spoiler. But if you've read all the way down here about some guy's opinion on the Mega Man series, you probably already know about the Wily Archives anyway.
That covers the first five games. I'll be getting around to the other five another time. It's late where I am, and I've had one hell of a time adjusting to Giant Bomb's system on putting images in topics. Hopefully everything turned out well and looks okay.
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