Franchise Review: Megaman Part 1 of 6

Twenty years have passed and the Megaman franchise is still going strong. It has evolved over the years from the classic games that started it to the current leading series such as Megaman ZX and the soon to be released Megaman Star Force. Today, it's going to be about the Classic Megaman series and the impact it has had on the gaming industry and for that matter Capcom in general.

Since it's about Megaman, we're going to start with the franchise that in my own personal opinion makes Capcom a great company. The 1^st Megaman game was made for Nintendo on the NES called Megaman 1 or just simply Megaman. The cover was probably the worst cover of all the Megaman games. But playing the game actually was pretty good. It had a stage select screen and you can pick any of the 6 robot masters you wish to face off with. Once they're beaten, you get their power. At the time, it was actually innovative and different setting it apart from some of the other notable franchises like the Mario and Zelda franchises for instance.

The story is pretty simple. Dr. Light and Dr. Wily once worked together but as time went on Wily became jealous of Dr. Light's accomplishments and took the robots Light made: Guts Man, Cut Man, Elec Man, Fire Man, Ice Man, and Bomb Man and reprogrammed them to do Wily's bidding and take over the world. Dr. Light however took his robot named Rock, turned him into a super warrior and called him Megaman. Now keep in mind I am referring to the name known in North America and not the name he was given in Japan, which is Rockman. Notes about this game is that this is the only Megaman game that features a points system and the only time the Laser was involved and is actually the only one to have 6 robot masters instead of the standard 8 that would come in later Megaman games.

On to the next game, the sequel Megaman 2, a follow up to the previous events of Megaman. This time however, Wily created his own robots and set them out to do his bidding. Megaman would however have to be apart and do what he had to do to prevent Wily from succeeding. No Rush yet but it had 3 items just called Items 1,2, and 3. In what is very interesting, depending on difficulty when you face Metal Man again after beating him the 1^st time taking his power, you could use it against him and it is actually the most effective weapon against him.

Here comes the next game Megaman 3. The game introduces Rush and also other characters like Protoman and a little minor bio on Roll. It also added the feature of sliding, which became a staple for the Megaman franchise. This was actually one of the longest Megaman games for the time considering that you had to replay 4 stages facing robots that had the abilities of the Robot Masters from Megaman 2.

Megaman 4 was attempting to add to the game by including what would become a staple for the franchise in the Mega Buster. You could charge your shot and give out more damage. There were also some secret items like the Balloon and the Wire Adaptor. This game was also different considering you didn't go to Dr. Wily right away but also introduced a character by the name of Dr. Cossack. The game itself was pretty good actually.

Megaman 5 was next and by then it was reaching to the end of the NES line for Megaman games. The concept this time was introducing Beat. To get the character, you had to spell out Megaman V. If it weren't done, then you would not be able to go into any of the later stages with Beat thus making it a bit more challenging. The story mainly involved that supposedly Protoman captured Dr. Light and it was up to Megaman to save the day. After it was revealed that Dr. Wily's robots framed Protoman, he goes their fights Dr. Wily, beats him and the world is safe for now.

Megaman 6 was the last game made for the NES and introduced one final new concept. 4 bosses had 2 alternate areas. If you find the true bosses in the following robot masters stages: Tomahawk Man, Knight Man, Yamato Man, and Centuar Man, the letters B, E, A, and T are hidden. The key to that is simple, find the harder route to the boss and it should get the letter. This one however involved a mysterious tournament with Mr. X and had 8 robot masters involved and then Megaman got involved in the act. Looks like Megaman doesn't get a chance to take a break now do it.

Super Nintendo released Megaman 7, which was actually a bit different from the previous games. For one, the graphics were 16 bit and instead of being able to fight all 8 robot masters at once, there were 4 that you had to face and then after that, an in between stage, finally the last 4. It also introduced a rival character for Megaman called Bass. He would be seen as more or less an evil robot determined to defeat Megaman by himself and was the strongest robot in the world. It was also the last Megaman game to use a Roman numeral. It was also the last Megaman game to use the Password system so this was rather significant as the games were involving into using Memory Cards for instance it seems.

Megaman 8 was out and I ended up getting it for Playstation. It was a pretty decent game and had some cut scenes, which I find pretty cool. The voices I thought Megaman should have sounded like a bit like a teenager. Like Megaman 7, there were 4 robots you could only fight at one time and then after completing the mid-boss stage, it would be the next 4 robots. It also introduced a new character named Duo. He's rather mysterious but is one of the good guys trying to track down the evil energy. It should be interesting that there was a robot named Aqua Man and what was ironic was that the Super Hero character from I believe DC Comics also had that name but a rather different look. I don't know if there was a legal dispute on that name or not so I don't know for sure.

Moving on and making it short and simple, there were 5 Game Boy Megaman games. The 1^st 4 had a mixture of the bosses from 2 Megaman games. There were 4 from each game for example; the 1^st one Dr. Wily's Revenge had the 1^st 4 from the 1^st Megaman game for the NES and the next 4 from Megaman 2. It would continue that way until Megaman 5 for Game Boy. That had robots named after Planets and the final boss was not Dr. Wily though he was involved. It was Sunstar, a rather powerful Stardroid.

There would be another game made originally for the Super Nintendo called Megaman and Bass but it never came out. I think the reason was because by the time the game was coming out, the Super Nintendo was done and the Nintendo people were playing the Nintendo 64. It was released on the Game Boy Advance as Megaman and Bass. Had this game come out in the SNES originally, it would have been I think the 1^st Megaman game to be able to play as either Megaman or Bass like in X4 where you could play as either X or Zero. This is not officially Megaman 9 though this could be argued as such since the events lead after Megaman 9. Megaman and Bass had slightly different endings depending on whom you played the game as.

On the Nintendo Gamecube, Playstation 2, and X-Box, there was a Megaman Anniversary Collection released holding the 1^st 8 Megaman plus 2 games never before released in the US in Megaman: Power Battles and Power Fighters. Those 2 are much different than any previous Megaman games. It had different endings for each character. In the 1^st one, Power Battles, you could play as Megaman, Protoman, or Bass. Each had a different ending and was also a 2-player game. Power Fighters had a 4^th character in duo but it did slightly make a reference to the next series Megaman X. The Anniversary Collection game for Gamecube had an interview with the creator of the series Keiji Inafune. I think the PS2 had an episode of one of the Megaman Animated Series.

If you read this, prepare to be spoiled. If you beat Power Fighters as Bass alone, Wily and Bass argue and then Wily of course comes up with an evil plan that is suppose to have the most powerful robot. The outline of the robot looked and resembled Zero so this could obviously has some connection to the X Series, which I will get into with the next series.

If I had to rate the best Megaman game, I would have Megaman 3 with Megaman 2 and 4 coming close together. The 1^st Megaman game was good as well. They each had good controls, good game play and I thought were rather entertaining. I've only played 2 of the Game Boy Megaman games and I like Megaman V on GB the most. It was very unique and had a different final boss for a nice surprise.

Even today, Megaman still is one of the most recognizable franchises that were ever created. For 20 years, Megaman has still been around and it's surprising that it is even continuing even if it's evolving the characters in general. Capcom stumbled onto this series and no one would have expected it to continue. There is still more to come as the next series gets analyzed, the Megaman X Series.