Goron_3 Posted April 4, 2013 Posted April 4, 2013 Thought I'd start a late to the party thread on a certain franchise which those who have played seem to adore however for some reason I had never touched...Until last weekend. I downloaded Mega Man 9 off of PSN on Saturday night and oh wow, what a fantastic title! Tight platforming, incredibly catchy music and some spot on 8-bit gameplay. It's hard as nails and I can barely beat more than a stage or 2 in succession but I'm getting there! Anyway, are any of you Mega Man fans? What memories do you have of the franchise? And where should I start when it comes to playing the old games?
Retro_Link Posted April 4, 2013 Posted April 4, 2013 Ahh... Late To The Party ... not Link To The Past! :p Yeah have to say Megaman is one of those series that I've never played either! Have been kind of interested in giving some of the new ones a go, maybe I'll look at Mega Man 9 too.
Goron_3 Posted April 4, 2013 Author Posted April 4, 2013 Ahh... Late To The Party ... not Link To The Past! :p Yeah have to say Megaman is one of those series that I've never played either! Have been kind of interested in giving some of the new ones a go, maybe I'll look at Mega Man 9 too. I've actually browsed neogaf for a few years and I've spent most of that time confused as to what LTTP stood for I would definitely suggest trying them out. MM9 is fantastic and it's putting a big grin on my face. The soundtrack is great and the gameplay is tough but rewarding. It's making me want to get out my Sega Master System and play through Land of Illusion/Castle of Illusion...Love old school platformers!
Hero-of-Time Posted April 4, 2013 Posted April 4, 2013 Love the series to bits and quite sad about the way it has been treated recently by Capcom. I played Megaman 1 and 2 back when I was a kid on the NES and they were fun but tough as nails. Just this year I downloaded Megaman 1 on the 3DS and it was much easier being able to save at any point. IMO the Megaman X series is the superior one. Better boss, music, stages, weapons....everything basically. I played the hell out of Megaman X on the SNES all of those years ago and even though the series lost the plot ( literally ) I still enjoyed playing through them. I also enjoyed the Megaman Battle Network games, but again Capcom ruined those by milking it to bits. The first 2 on the GBA and the one on the Cube are by far the best. I hope the GBA ones appear on the VC at some point. Another good spin off was Megaman X Command Misson. They took the Megaman universe and turned it into a RPG.
Rummy Posted April 4, 2013 Posted April 4, 2013 I was wondering about the LttP too! Though link to the past is still just as good :p Re:Megaman. In my younger, naiiver days where I might have used emulators I played MegaManX - it seemed pretty cool. I didn't really know what I was doing though, but I liked the idea of doing any stage/getting your weapons and then using them elsewhere - I do, and always have, liked the idea of choice of playstyle in games(hence why I love kirby). I like the open-endedness of sorts. Anyhow, unfortunately, I used to spend a lot of my time trying to hack out gameshark codes for games, and I therefore didn't really play games in all their natural glory - I think with megaman X I used codes to get the guns but in turn it made the stage unplayable/completed. Couple years ago I may or may not have got a nes copy of MM2 for use on my micro. Awesome soundtrack, I'd actually listen to that outside of the game, but MAN is it HARD. Fortunately due to my means I could use save states, which took a lot out of the challenge, but I appreciated just how brutal the game was. It was a good design too, I kept playing with that 'one more try' mentality. Never finished it off, but did play a fair ol' bit. Not played any since, because without savestates I wouldn't have the patience to stick with it - but I can see why the games are big stuff. They're proper old school, retro hard, pattern learning reaction perfecting. I find a lot of similarity in that to what I feel with rhythm games, It'd be interesting to know if people who like the latter also appreciate MM.
Captain Falcon Posted April 4, 2013 Posted April 4, 2013 There was a reason I put Mega Man 9 in my top 10 Wii games - it's just, that, good. I do enjoy Mega Man a lot but when the series moved to the PSX/PS2, I lost my connection to it, and the RPGs never interested me, so it wasn't until MM9 showed up that it resparked my interest in the series. For me, Mega Man 9 and 3 are the best of the classic games with 2 following afterwards. Mega Man is a bit slippy in 2 and it always annoyed me plus weapon balance is none existant... not that 3 is much better in that regard. And I know this likely to cause some controversy but damn it, 3 has the better soundtrack. As for X, I'm only familiar with 1-3 and I'd rank them 1, 3 and then 2. 1 has a lot more nostalgia for me and remember using my birthday money to get it from Argos way back when, but the more I play 3, the more I realise how good it is and so find them quite close, plus 3 has some awesome music - 2 whilst still good is definitely the weakest of those three. But they are all worth playing. Awesome Music alert: Audio The Zero series is pretty good. 1 is a bit basic with some strange design decisions, but 2 and 3 are really good though the ranking system/skills unlocking needed more thought. 4 addresses the ranking issues but doesn't really progress the series in any meaningful way but it still worth playing. H-o-T found me the Zero Collection and being able to map buttons to whatever you wanted, plus additoinal customization for sub weapon use, made it a joy to play through in a way I doubt it would have been on the GBA. Gotta love this opening theme from 3 for making you feel like a total badass. Audio Mega Man X Street Fighter isn't bad either for a free game, though not a patch on the best of the series, and can be had from Capcom Unity - it's been downloaded over 1 million times already.
Jonnas Posted April 4, 2013 Posted April 4, 2013 I love me some classic Megaman I'm not sure why I never got around to buying Megaman 9 or 10, honestly, especially considering how much I've heard about them. I was first introduced to Megaman when I first got my old-school Gameboy, as I wanted a game for it besides Tetris. "Which game from these do you want?" "This 'Megaman' looks cool. I want it.", and that's when I knew I was good at judging books from their covers Audio Megaman: Dr. Wily's Revenge was a pretty good game. Short, kind of unfinished when compared to others, but the parts that got done were really good. The soundtrack was very good (it sounds better than its NES counterpart, in fact), the levels and enemies were well designed, Megaman controlled wonderfully, and most of all, I loved the concept of choosing your levels. And later on, I loved the concept of getting the weapon from the guy you defeated. Some time later, a friend with a NES got Megaman 2. That's such a good game. We played it so much, trying to figure out how to beat levels and bosses, writing down password, trying the different weapons... And during the Wily levels, it got even better (though we never found out how to defeat those cannons. I guess we just weren't thinking about ammunition management, we just thought there was a trick to it). During my childhood, I also got to try the first level of Megaman X, and Megaman V (for the gameboy). Man, figuring out Megaman could slide took way too long, considering how many of us were playing that copy Audio Eventually, I grew up, didn't play much Megaman until I found OCRemix. I fell in love with the MM2 remixes, and decided to play more of the series via emulators. Also bought a used copy of MMIV for the Gameboy. Megaman 1 was a mess in terms of game design (which they thankfully corrected). The weapons and robot master designs were good, so it's no wonder those were reused quite a bit. Megaman 2 is still the best in the series, honestly. It has great level design, memorable weapons (even if Metalman's is overpowered and Quickman's is useless) and the best music. Megaman 3 is also good, but the control doesn't feel right with me for some reason. It also has a lot of bland and/or useless weapons. It's still pretty good, though (It's a shame that "revisiting old, but changed, stages" didn't become much of a thing) Later games just kept adding stuff without thinking about balance or design. MM4 has good weapons, but the level design is uninspired, so you rarely feel like using said weapons. The charge shot feels tacked in, too. MM5 has the same problems in twofold, and "bland" written all over it. MM6 has lame weapons to begin with, but the Rush suits were a good idea, for once. Funny that most of the Gameboy games* felt like polished versions of their counterparts. Wily's Revenge, MMIII and MMIV are polished versions of MM1, MM4 and MM5 respectively (where the cool weapons were given good uses, and levels and bosses were actually designed with them in mind). *Megaman II is the exception. That one is bad. Megaman V is just excellent. Strong candidate for best of the classics, too. Megaman 7 is nice, but it feels like something is missing, for some reason (Might be because of MMX). Megaman & Bass is pretty good, though, and quite underrated. (Megaman 8, 9 and 10 are the ones I haven't played yet) Regarding the X series, like Captain Falcon, I only played the first 3. The later ones don't really seem to make a good case for their quality, either (except for the music). Megaman X is excellent in everything. Megaman X2 feels like an expansion pack (a DLC-like game, if you will), but it's decent, considering that. Megaman X3 I have yet to replay, but I remember it being good, though it made the X formula feel stale. The Megaman Zero series is nifty. I love the challenge in it. Megaman Zero is good. A couple of design flaws here and there, but nothing that's actually serious. Megaman Zero 2 decided to include the stupid "rewards for S-rankings" system, though. Since we can't actually replay the levels, you only had one shot at those upgrades, which made the game more frustrating than fun (and playing for S-rankings should be more about personal accomplishment, anyway). I don't remember much about Megaman Zero 3, but I recall it being better than Z2, at least. Megaman Zero 4 is the best of the series. It's better designed, more polished and also the most memorable. The Battle Network series does nothing for me, and I have yet to try the Legends and ZX series. Phew I'd like to finish this post by recommending A Day in the Limelight, a very well made fangame where you play as the Robot Masters. It's a fresh take on the classic Megaman formula, so feel free to check it out (and the sequel, if you end up liking it).
nekunando Posted April 5, 2013 Posted April 5, 2013 I'm gonna be somewhat late to the party too as I've only briefly played Mega Man 9 at a friend's house a couple of years ago. However, with the last of my 2000 Nintendo Points not able to be registered on the 3DS, I've been looking to see what I can use them for on the Wii Virtual Console.. and Mega Man X seems to be a solid contender
Recommended Posts