The last “Face-Off!” was sort of a joke, so let me assure you that there shall be no joking this time around! This is serious business. It's a heated battle of two fierce rivals -- Mega Man vs Rock Man! (We'll get to Pong later).

Err wait... they're the same dude. Okay well for the sake of fun let's have a quick debate on which name is better!

Rock Man's the original name, but apparently there were copyright issues with some sort of amplifier or something called the "Rockman Guitar Amplifier". Heaven forbid that its name gets some free publicity. For some reason, I doubt the sales of amplifiers would be affected by a game having a similar name. Why they didn't just change the games name from "Rockman" to "Rock Man" is beyond me, but I digress.

In any event, our hero's name "Rock" was changed along with the name of the game to "Mega" which killed the whole connection between "Rock" and "Roll" (Get it? Rock and Roll? Haha!) and gamers have been confused ever since. Okay, gamers haven't really been confused, with most of us having grown up used to the "Mega Man" name, and many of us not even realizing his original name was different.

While I'm always one for preserving things in their original form and not bastardizing them, the name "Rock Man" is pretty... well... lame. Yes, I can totally see they were going for some sort of "Rock and Roll" reference, but what the heck does that have to do with a robot that has to stop other robots that have gone insane? The music of the series is amazing but it's doesn't resemble rock and roll at all -- it's the predecessor to electronica! They could have called him "Ones and Twos Man" (bonus points if you even understand what that means)

I also realize that Proto Man and Bass -- two characters also found in the Mega Man franchise originally had musical names (Proto was Blues, which would explain his theme song; Bass was Forte.. though Bass itself is a musical term so why the change? Weirdos.) But that still doesn't explain what music names have to do with a blue-clad robot shooting other robots dead? It's not like he gets a guitar or flute power-up. They totally could have ran with 6 different music monsters in the first game and gone with that. Instead the whole "Let's give em musical names" seems half-baked, especially considered Dr. Light and Dr. Wily's names aren't musical, either.

All of that aside, I have to say Mega Man wins simply because it rolls off the tongue better.

POINT FOR MEGA MAN!

Wait a sec... I almost forgot this is about Mega Man 2 vs 3 (vs Pong). Okay then, moving on!

Round 1: Story

Dr. Wily makes robots go insane. Dr. Wily sets up intricate levels for each robot then locks them in a room at the end of the level. Mega Man traverses level. After many deaths and a few continues, Mega Man kills evil robot master who's only wish was to get out of the confines of their dark, empty room. After committing much robot genocide, Mega Man confronts Dr. Wily at his hideout. Upon defeating the mad scientist, Mega Man lets him off with a finger-wagging and a stern "Bad, evil scientist, bad."

Which one am I talking about? Pretty much every Mega Man in the original series! Sure, Proto Man shows up in 3 a few times, but unless you're a complete Mega Man story geek, he's just another enemy for Mega Man to blast -- an annoying one that jumps around a lot.

We need to see at least a little bit of bloodshed this round so let's find something that's worth shedding blood over... I know! Dr. Wily's final forms in either game!

(Mega Man 2 on the left ; Mega Man 3 on the right)

"Pfft, no contest, look at how big the second on is!" you might be thinking to yourself with a smirk on your face. Au contraire, mon petit fou! (Okay so my French is terrible, don't hate me.) Size isn't all that matters... at least not as far as Mega Man is concerned!

Let's look at this for a second. On the right, Dr. Wily's in some oversized robot trying to squish Mega Man. No big surprise there... on the left, he's an ALIEN. Dr. Wily morphs into an alien right before Mega Man's eyes and you're just like "OMG is Wily really some crazy alien?! That explains EVERYTHING!" He's a pretty mean alien, too (though he's got a weakness against bubbles for some reason).

After the fight it turns out that he was just giving Mega Man a mind-trip and was controlling some sort of virtual reality device behind the scenes. Holy plot-twists, Batman!

For that, 2's trippy ending that lead you to believe Wily was an alien wins this round!

:: Mega Man 2 crushes 3's Dr. Wily under a pile of rubble, dealing 20 damage! ::

Round 2: Music

The original Mega Man series (and Capcom in general during the NES era) has always been known for its catchy melodies and foot-tapping beats. I've said it once already and I'll say it again -- the music in these games was one of the predecessors of electronica music. The music of the NES era's influence has been felt (and heard) far and wide, with many big-named DJs including mixes of old school video game songs (including classic Mega Man tunes) into their mixes. An entire sub-genre of 8-bit electronic now exists that attempts to recapture the sound and mood of these songs and many recent games have included many such tracks.

Which of these two Mega Man has the better music? Let's dare to compare, starting with the Opening Themes! This is going to be weird to make comparisons without including the actual songs, so here are some links to some midis (courtesy of vgmusic.com) that -- while not perfect -- give a general idea of what the songs sound like.

Mega Man 2 Opening Theme - http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/mm2titl3.mid

Mega Man 3 Opening Theme - http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/mm3intro.mid

Both are pretty awesome, though 3's jumps into the upbeat part much quicker and even the intro has a cool jazzy feel to it. 2's starts off pretty slowly and takes some time to build up. This was probably designed with the intro scene in mind that hits crescendo the same time the music does. Mega Man 3 doesn't have a similar intro, only presenting the start screen with the song playing in the background.

However, this isn't about the setup of the songs, it's only about which song is overall better, so this match-up goes to Mega Man 3!

:: Mega Man 3 opens up on Mega Man 2! Mega Man 3 deals 20 damage! ::

Next up is the stage music... Picking a few examples to use as match-ups is tough, as different songs are going to appeal to different people. So what I did was go over to OCRemix.org and find out which stages had the most remixes. If people were still making remixes of these old songs recently, they must be memorable, right? Well maybe not, but that's what I'm rolling with for the time being!

(Again, these are midis that aren't perfect replicas of the songs, but they do the job and if you are familiar with the games, should instantly recognize them. It's surprisingly hard find versions of these songs that don't have extra instruments or drumbeats added! You might wanna check out OCremix.org for fancier sounding remixes)

From Mega Man 2 we've got -

Flash Man - http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/Flash1_0.mid

Bubble Man - http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/by-bubbleman.mid

Metal Man - http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/mm2meta2.mid

Quick Man* - http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/Quick1_0.mid

From Mega Man 3 there's -

Snake Man - http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/mm3-snkm.mid

Magnet Man - http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/MM3Magnet_Man.mid

Gemini Man - http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/GeminiMan.mid

Spark Man* - http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/mm3spar2.mid

 * : Didn't top the remix counts but I included them cause I like em. Deal with it!)

If we were to go only by the remix count on OCremix and VGmusic, Mega Man 2 would win by a decent margin. Hmm… you know what? This is as good a reason as any to award the points to Mega Man 2! Ultimately, which soundtrack you prefer will come down to personal taste (like most things), but overall Mega Man 2's stage music is more catchy and memorable and if you don't agree, well at least the remixing community does... maybe.

:: Mega Man 2 remixes Mega Man 3's face! Mega Man 2 deals 30 damage! ::

Final match-up! The most memorable Dr. Wily song from 2 and 3! Honestly, I couldn't think of one that really stood out from 3, so I had to listen to them again, while 2's immediately sprang to mind -- the song from the first two stages of his base.

Dr Wily's Stage 1 & 2 song from Mega Man 2 -- http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/mm2wily1.mid

Skull Stages 3 & 4 from Mega Man 3 -- http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/mm3skull3-4.mid

I'm sorry but this is no contest. Wily's song from his first two stages in 2 is just so catchy that it wins without a fight. Remixes have been made just from the last few bars of this song! While the song from the third and forth skull levels (opened after beating the 8 original levels)  in 3 has a hauntingly beautiful feel to it that differs from the usual Mega Man music, it just can't compete.

:: Mega Man 2 uses his Wily attack! Mega Man 2 deals 20 damage! ::

"Aww but Mega Man 3 has that cool Proto Man theme song! That should be worth something, right?!" Fine, fine, I'll admit it is a cool little tune.

:: Mega Man 3 counterattacks! Mega Man 3 deals 10 damage! ::

Round 3: The Robots

We’ve finally reached the robots -- the very heart of the original Mega Man franchise. Without them, we wouldn't have a robotic hero dressed in blue that blasts things with his cannon. Instead, we'd have some RoboButler who helps with chores around the house. The Face-Off would consist of which RoboButler can make beds faster and mix a better cocktail. It would be madness!

Thankfully for us, Dr. Wily has a weird robot fetish and continually enslaves them to do his bidding (I don't want to think about what else he has them do...) and our robotic hero has no choice to save the day time and time again.

As much as I would love to have a robot match up, squaring different robots from 2 against different ones from 3, there are no direct rivals. It's not like Heat Man holds a grudge against Gemini Man or anything like that. With that in mind, the best we can to is decide which of the two games has better robots overall.

Let's list em off, shall we?

In Mega Man 2's corner -

Quick Man -- He's fast. Zoom.

Metal Man -- He's made of metal.... like all of the robots (cept maybe Wood Man)...

Heat Man -- He's a Zippo lighter.

Air Man -- He's a giant AC unit

Wood Man -- He's a log.

Flash Man -- He stops time. Not sure why he's not just Time Man.

Crash Man -- He blows things up. Bomberman was already taken.

Bubble Man -- He blows deadly bubbles of air.

In Mega Man 3's corner -

Snake Man -- I'm going to avoid making jokes about this one...

Hard Man -- Auggghhh... must... resist....

Gemini Man  -- He likes reading fortunes.

Top Man --  Worst. Robot. Idea. Ever.

Magnet Man -- Secret in love with Metal Man.

Shadow Man -- Probably should have been called Ninja Man

Needle Man -- He's got needles. Surprise!

Spark Man -- Elec Man with a name that makes sense!

So let's take a look at the robots! Both 2 and 3 feature a few similar robots to the first Mega Man with different names -- Crash Man instead of Bomb Man, Heat Man instead of Fire Man, Spark Man instead of Elec Man, and Hard Man instead of Guts Man. So already we're off to a good start in the "originality" department! In any case, 2's has a general theme it follows -- elements. It's got fire (Heat Man), water (Bubble Man), wind (Air Man), earth (Wood Man), heart, goooo Planet! Err.. okay so the part about heart was a lie. But it does have that the four elements and builds on it adding time (Flash Man), mechanics (Metal Man), destruction (Crash Man), and... err..... quickness? Okay I'm not sure where Quick Man fits in to the picture... They just needed a level that actually used Flash Man's weapon, I suppose.

While I might be totally grasping at straws to find a common link between the robots (though I’ll never admit it, haha!), at least I'm able to! Now let's look at 3's. There is no way you could possibly link the robots together... One's the personification of a snake, another is based off a toy, another shoots electricity and would have fit better in 2, while another is a member of the Zodiac, etc. It is clear there was no common theme even attempted with these robots. More than likely there was a contest to pick different robot names and they went with the most popular ones (a similar thing was done with subsequent Mega Mans. Nintendo Power even got in on the action for Mega Man 5), or they just rolled with ideas that were kicking around the office.

3's robots aren't nearly as memorable as 2's. Maybe this goes hand-in-hand with the music, but when it comes to names did anyone really remember Gemini Man, Needle Man, or Top Man? Characters like Metal Man or Quick Man are easy to recall, but their Mega Man 3 counterparts don't feel the same.

And if someone can justify a reason for Top Man's existence, I would love to hear it. Or Snake Man for that matter. Why Snakes? Why not Bear Man or Wolf Man or, hell, even Bee Man? Gemini Man doesn't even make sense -- sure, he splits into two, but then why is the weapon you get a laser? I'm a Gemini... WHY DONT I HAVE A LASER BEAM?!?!

I'm more than happy to point out 2 has its own share of weird robots, but when it comes to these guys, most of the issues are purely visual. Wood Man, Air Man, and Heat Man all look kind of ridiculous. A log? A giant fan? A Zippo lighter?! It's madness! But at least the weapons are cool and they represent things that make sense.

And while Shadow Man would have gotten points for being a ninja, 2 already did the ninja thing -- TWICE! Both Metal Man and Quick Man are pratically ninjas. They rock. Now if only one of em had a Pirate Man. Arrr.

:: Mega Man 2's robots kick the crap out of 3's! Mega Man 2 deals 30 damage! ::

Round 4: Stages

Let's get the most obvious point out of the way first -- In Mega Man 3, you get to fight all of the robots from 2 again after defeating the first 8 robot masters. That's pretty awesome, even if they all take the form of Gutsman for some reason.

:: Mega Man 3 raises the dead and makes them attack! Mega Man 3 deals 30 damage! ::

Now that that's out of the way, it's time to focus on the stages. I'm certainly not going to talk about each individual stage, rather, let's discuss general difficulty. Neither game is particularly easy to newcomers, however 2's is certainly manageable and when you die, it's generally because you screwed up, not because a monster appeared at the last second when you least expected it and knocked you into a pit.

There are stages in 2 that a newcomer can breeze through without even dying with a bit of finesse. Mega Man 3, on the other hand, is VERY focused on trial-and-error. Very few levels will let you through without a couple deaths unless you've memorized where enemies spawn or know the invisible block sequences. After completing the first eight stages, you're introduced to some of 3's most unforgiving stages -- the level that requires you to use Rush Jet to cover a looooooong gap, for example. If you're new to the level, you'll have to start it from the beginning of the pit many times, even after finally completing the gap and getting to the next section, as you figure out how to make it through without dying. Fighting the bosses from 2 is little consolation if you have to restart the level many times over to get through it.

While some people love this sort of challenge, think about who the average player of Mega Man 3 was when it was first released -- a young child or teenager who didn't have money to buy another game. We played through this game because it was what we asked for and what we got. We weren't going to let dying a few hundred times get in the way of showing it that we could beat it! That worked for then... but now with the plethora of games available, unforgiving difficulty does not make a game "good". If 3 had a difficulty option like 2 had where it let you choose normal or hard, this wouldn't even be an issue -- masochists could have their hard difficulty while the rest of us could enjoy the game. However, deciding to not include such a device when they released 3 was an unfortunate oversight.

:: Mega Man 2 starts preaching about difficulty levels! Mega Man 3 is stunned! Mega Man 2 deals 20 damage! ::

Bonus Round: Pong!

Oh right, this was also versus Pong! This, of course, is not an attempt to find a loophole so that this post doesn't get moved into some obscure franchise forum. It's a completely legitimate comparison between Pong, Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3, and can be summed up as such -- Both Mega Mans are vastly superior to Pong as side-scrolling shooters. Pong's controls are rigid, the graphics are terrible, and the sound is hardly even worth mentioning. The last boss is poorly designed and has no cool moves, either. All that the boss can do is reflect your attack back at you.  If you miss him, he takes damage! That's a pretty broken mechanic if you ask me.

:: Pong takes critical damage from both Mega Mans (err Men?) and dies. Sorry Pong. ::

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And the winner is...

~ Mega Man 2 ~

While 3 holds a special place in many people’s hearts (mine included), 2 is just a better game all-around. Cooler robots, better music, and the concept was fresher. 3 did do something awesome when it included all of 2's bosses after you defeat the first 8, but that's really the only thing about it that's truly memorable. The difficulty was unforgiving, many of the robots were just bizarre (Top Man? Seriously?), as were the weapons and which robots were weak to them, and Dr. Wily didn't show up as an alien!

But a lot of those criticisms are exactly what the series is now about -- strange robots using strange weapons with harsh, unforgiving trial-and-error levels. If that's what you're into, then all the power to you. Mega Man 3 is not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but when compared to Mega Man 2, it just doesn't feel as innovative, inspiring, or fun.

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  : Hey there! This is just a lil quick link section for anyone interested in other Face-Offs! I'll warn you though -- they're not all that great, so view at your own risk!

• Eternal Sonata vs Tales of Vesperia
• Persona 3 FES vs Persona 4
• The Last Remnant vs the Final Fantasy Franchise
  

(Hopefully all the links in this post work. Gonna try and double check them... the blog editting tools don't seem to want to cooperate with me very well when I mess up on links or try to remove one...)