The Rockman/Megaman Series

I could remember the time I was a Megaman addict. So okay if you don't know this, Megaman's name in Japan is Rockman and he was given a companion named Roll but ironically, it wasn't using much rock and roll (thankfully). It began with the NES which those games back then were kind of difficult and had a lot of glitches. He later had a dog named Rush (3rd game), a bird named Beat (5th game) and he also had Eddie to send power ups. Rush reminded me of Springer from Metalder just as I compared Dr. Wily to Neros. Megaman 6 was the last NES game and for me, the most fun one with the upgrade armor he got. It was no longer limited to lack of creativity.

Strangely enough, Megaman 7 was easier than the NES games and the first PS1 game Megaman 8 got a little easier. I also remembered its similarities to Tokusatsu series and frequently compared Megaman/Rockman to Janperson, Protoman/Blues (and later Bass/Forte) to Gun Gibson because of designs. Also I compared the earlier robot masters to Sentai villains and later Metal Hero villains, specifically from Metalder and Dr. Wily to every mad genius in Tokusatsu that came before him.

Then there was the X series which some say that X is actually a renewed Megaman. So we don't know what happened in between but he gets a new ally, a robot named Zero who is later revealed was Dr. Wily's replacement for Bass in Megaman 7, who was more of a nuisance than a real villain. The X series for me was better for me not only in gameplay but in plot. Gameplay had better controls already and they weren't that ridiculously hard especially when Megaman X4 showed up already.

My favorite thing about the X series had to be Sigma, a villain who just refuses to die. I believe he like the Great Leader in Kamen Rider always had a back-up plan so I assume every Sigma fought was most likely a decoy. Maybe even Megaman X3's Sigma virus was just another decoy so I assume Sigma must have been once human but nothing supports my theory. He was revealed to have been deactivated in Megaman X5 but he was reawakened in Megaman X6. He's far more bad-ass than Dr. Wily ever was seeing he doesn't beg for mercy. Also, he has learned more of Megaman's weak points than any other villain.

The Legend series came in between which for some reason, Roll was there. Megaman was found by a family of adventurers but he later must face a group of Mavericks known as the Bonnes, proving that there are non-combat Mavericks. It was a radical departure from the normal series (which I liked) as it was more of an adventure game with RPG elements, no stage select but pure action against the enemy. It also reveals something about the advanced reploids especially with a man known as "Juno" and later in the second game, Sera. Sera turns out to be more humane in the end than Juno (or even Sigma) was. Sadly, there won't be a return for Sigma. Also the Bonnes were an interesting group of Mavericks since they could still cause a lot of trouble even if they (except for Bon) didn't have built in weapons and relied on machines.

The 3D Megaman X games were just frustrating for me. Sigh. I would rather play Megaman Legends over those 3D Megaman X games. Also, I hate the fact that Capcom made Megaman 9 a download NES style game instead of using the Megaman 7 graphics if they needed to make 2D again. So far, I ended up enjoying Megaman in non-Megaman media like the fighting games especially Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, a game me and my cousin play occasionally. My favorite appearance of him was in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 when I had the fun of using him along with big blast characters like Cable, Cyclops, Ryu, Morrigan and B.B. Hood to name a few especially going to training mode to beat Tron Bonne up. In fact, I enjoyed it whenever my sister used Tron, M. Bison (Vega) and Akuma (Gouki) as a team.