My Jet Tour of Megaman and Megaman X Games

Well I'd like to talk about the evolution of Megaman and Megaman X games.  First I'd like to talk about the series that started it all...

The ORIGINAL Megaman... (I wouldn't be talking about the Game Boy ones sorry...)

The original Megaman was in fact one difficult game.  No password saves and when a boss defeated you, you had to play back all the way from a certain checkpoint.  Luckily there was the "pause glitch" which made  life a little easier but it was removed in the anniversary collection.  It featured six bosses to which one can start with.

Megaman 2 went from six robot masters to an eight as Dr. Wily wishes to avenge his defeat from the first game.  Also the "Atomic Fire" was probably the charged buster's spiritual ancestor of sorts.  In Megaman II it had the use of the three Items which are an extra platform, a rocket board and a wall crawler.  The password system was introduced.  The most frustrating boss had to be the Orb Room.  What was also quite painful was that dying and getting a game over meant losing ALL your energy bottles.  I really will find this the hardest game ever.  

Megaman 3 managed to balance the difficulties of the first two games, making it a more fun game than frustrating.  Okay don't expect much but the game managed to utilize the use of Rush who could be used as a coil, a rocket board you can control and a submarine.  It also introduced Protoman (Blues) who would be Megaman's "older brother".  So far, it was reasonably hard considering the controls are easier and if a boss defeated you while you still had an spare life, you immediately start at the boss door.  Only problem came when you're out of weapon energy but bosses are not unreasonably hard either.  The story revolves around Dr. Wily's faux reformation where he actually plans to use the Gamma Robot for himself.

Megaman 4 used the first charged buster which could be done UNLIMITED times.  One held the fire button, Megaman glowed and he could fire that really POWERFUL shot.  It also introduced two fortresses instead of one.  Sadly there was no password save for the second fortress but while the fortress levels were difficult, they were not unreasonably difficult.  The story revolves around Dr. Wily's dastardly deed of kidnapping Calinka, forcing Dr. Cossack to help him build stronger robots that Megaman required the charged Mega Buster attack.  I pretty thought that this game had its fun, unique bosses.

Megaman 5 introduced the robotic bird Beat into the franchise which one collected the words MEGAMAN V (or ROCKMAN 5 in Japanese version).  The plot revolves around Dr. Wily's use of the Darkman robot to frame Protoman.  Dr. Wily had kidnapped Dr. Light with the use of a fake Protoman to punish the former's defection to the side of good.  The Beat bird did manage to come in handy when it came to defeating Dr. Wily in the final battle.

Megaman 6 would the the final Megaman game for the NES.  Rather than use Rush as a coil or a jet, Rush can now combine with Megaman as either Power Form or Jet Form, each one to help him in his difficult travels.  Mr. X (actually Dr. Wily, it's too obvious) holds the first world robot tournament which had eight new robot masters to carry on his plan.  Also this was the game that supposedly was the "final battle" as Dr. Wily went to jail in the end, but then again an evil genius doesn't fall so easily.

Megaman 7 introduces where 6 left off.  Dr. Wily had backups that allowed him to break out of jail.  A faux Maverick hunter by the name of Bass (Forte) and Treble entered into the world of Megaman.  While they seemed to be nice and friendly, it turns out to be Dr. Wily created them to steal the adapter blueprints that coudl be used for Bass and Treble.  Bass is introduced as the new counter Megaman but unlike Dr. Wily's other robots, he is more of an anti-villain as he wants to be the only one to defeat Megaman.  There are times he shows his good points even as a villain, however his only interests were to defeat Megaman.  Later he became a nuisance than a real villain.

In Megaman 8, this introduces the concept of more ridiculously hard level designs at the same time stuff to make your life easier.  Instead of dying and not having a refill of weapon energy, you get it to make your life easier against the tougher enemies the game has to offer... a good balance if you ask me.  In this game, we are introduced the mysterious Duo who seeks to hunt down the "evil energy" which Dr. Wily seeks to use.  Dr. Wily himself may have used this to create the Maverick virus which was later introduced in the X series.  

(Sorry I won't be tackling 9-10 which managed to revert back to NES format, it's actually download than a real game, I wish Capcom will remake those games with the Megaman 8 format and SELL them)...

Now on to...

The Megaman X series.  Unlike the original Megaman, this is darker and edgier featuring the meaner and more evil villain in the full cyborg Sigma.  Unlike Dr. Wily, Sigma doesn't whine nor does he beg for mercy.  He really is a much cooler, very evil villain that makes X SO SPECIAL!  Now to the rundown of the games.

The first Megaman X game managed to raise the challenge of Megaman since unlike his predecessor one hundred years back, he had to find four pieces of armor to beat the game easily and eight heart tanks to increase his life bar.  There's kind of a hint that he and Megaman are the same person, evidenced by Dr. Light's message about him or his familiarity with Dr. Light... perhaps his memory was erased.  Megaman X introduced animal-themed enemies rather than the standard "man" suffix for the robot masters.  Sigma also happens to be the real menace that I'll love to have and beat up.  Overall a huge jump in the Megaman franchise.  The game also introduced Zero whose origins we'll LATER discover.  A bit of nostalgia was also at the fortress stages since like in Megaman 1, one would face the bosses in a rush manner rather than the teleport capsules.  Hardest boss for me here is the Spider who is just PLAIN HARD to aim.

Megaman X2 introduced the three Mavericks in the person led by Serges (who could be a mechanical replica of Dr. Wily or even Dr. Wily as a cyborgs) while Sigma remains as the series' real antagonist.  One had to face the difficult challenge of finding Zero's three parts scattered throughout the areas which could lead to an easier outcome later OR fighting Zero which was super-duper hard.  Also, we learn that Sigma had used decoys of sorts and can become a virus-like form to attack.

Megaman X3 was the "template" for the use Zero plan.  Okay Zero is usable BUT not fully usable- he cannot fight bosses and hew as just there to help in some areas.  The PS1 version had the first fully animated screenshot opening (the Japanese version had the cool theme song "One More Time") while still having the limitations of the Super Nintendo version like no refills for weapon energy when one loses a life.  This one involves Dr. Doppler who was being used as a pawn by Sigma to create the ultimate body.  If you ask me, Sigma's at his BEST in this game.  The Kaiser Sigma his final form had NO weapon weakness and it gets really frustrating and challenging to beat him.  However it can be fun when one gets the hang of it and I'd rather fight Kaiser Sigma than the spider in Megaman X1 or the Orb Room in Megaman 2.

Megaman X4 managed to have the concept of harder level designs while compensated with stuff like free weapon refills every time you start all over like in Megaman X8, quit anytime, sharper graphics and the use of FMV videos.  Aside from that, Zero had his own separate adventure.  This game plays four is death quite straight since you have Colonel, Iris, Double and the General ALL DYING and that's four characters.  I really do have my question on how Sigma survived Megaman X3, probably again that was a decoy they destroyed and Sigma prepared his plans to conquer the world.  In this one, it's the first time that not all the robot masters are really evil, some of them are dragged into the conflict by Sigma's master plan to rule the world.  Sigma despite having three rounds to beat and having a reasonable difficulty, he's much easier than Kaiser Sigma due to the control scheme and the weapon refill every time you start all over.  Zero IMO is a more fun character to play than Megaman X but it hurts me to kill Iris plus his ending is somewhat moronic, he can't save anyone?  Come on, he just saved the whole Earth!  Also Zero's backstory traces all the way back to 100 years in the past when Dr. Wily created him to destroy Megaman and also to become the late doctor's successor.

Megaman X5 well... the FMVs are gone presumably due to the lack of memory.  It introduced more than one armor type for more than one type of errand.  Unlike in Megaman 6 where you can switch armors, Megaman had to select only one armor per mission.  Also in this one, Zero and Megaman may switch turns within the game regardless if you start with Megaman or Zero.  For example, the first mission as Zero, you may use Megaman for the second mission.  There's also the 16 hour countdown to which if it goes to zero, boom it's really a real disaster.  Also there's some classics coming back here like the cyclops BACK from Megaman 1, Rangda Bangda from the first X game and even a battle with either X or Zero.  Even Sigma's final battle would remind some of Megaman X1's final battle except no Velgauder.

Megaman X6 is what I'd say Capcom had EVERY reason to soup up the difficulty.  If they didn't give easier controls and refills for weapon energies or did that IRRITATING feature in Megaman 1-2 where a boss loss meant fighting through a horde of enemies again, I'd go nuts.  But there were good reasons to do so aside from the quit anytime feature, this game would be horrendous.  No, just no- they still gave some good compensation for this game's otherwise really WTF level designs.  The story is where Sigma was supposedly dead, Gate enters in as the new antagonist or is it?  Well Sigma does return eventually thanks to Gate but he's still in his mentally incapacitated state- then again when was Sigma ever sane?  Also this game makes me question on Zero himself- he was destroyed in X1 and came back in X2, he was destroyed in X5 yet he returns in this game.  Wow- just like Sigma.

Megaman X7 is where Axl was introduced... and I really assumed Axl could be Bass but there's no proof to that.  You start off with Axl before you can play Megaman or Zero.  It introduced the tag team system which is quite reasonable considering how DIFFICULT the robot masters are.  Of course, hearing Megaman going whiny and traumatized before he returns to his former self was realistic considering he just wants to be a peaceful reploid.  

Megaman X8 well, I just thought that the game in itself was infuriatingly hard and yet there have been goodies and some stuff to make the game easier.  There was the use of metals (as a form of currency) to upgrade one's self, get energy bottles and while searching for the "rare metals" which while they can be infuriating, the easier controls make the challenge balanced.  I just really was intrigued to how Sigma in here for the first time was just a pawn to who we thought was a good guy- Lumine!  Lumine does look like Megaman Juno to a certain extent from the Megaman Legends series, which Volnutt may nor not be Megaman as Roll Caskett is obviously NOT the Roll from the first game!  Again, Lumine COULD BE Megaman Juno but that's not even confirmed.  So far, the game's replay mode does make the game easier but also it could get pretty boring afterward.  But still, it's nice to punish those Mavericks with your newer items.

Sorry I can't have any say on the Megaman Zero series either but I'd love to play the spin-off...