Battlemouth

You’ve heard this before: My dad bought an NES when he broke his pelvis falling off the roof while working on it. He was out of work an needed something to do. I quickly took it over. Fast forward a few years and I rented Megaman 2 and instantly fell in love with it.

At that point Megaman 3 just came out, and it was the first one I beat (using passwords from magazines). I then proceeded to rent them all as soon as I could find them. Fast forward again to when I conned my mother into buying me a Super Nintendo. you could send in for a free Super Mario All Stars at that point, so I had asked for that one plus megaman X instead of the one with Super Mario World packaged in.

So when I reviewed Ninja Gaiden II, I said that there were few games that I had played through as many times as the first Ninja Gaiden for Xbox… Well Megaman X is one of them. I can beat the game in two hours, and one time while my friends had band practice I showed them. Since those times I’ve played, and beaten all but four (two because I haven’t played them), of every single non-rpg megaman game ever made.

So here’s a list of them all:

• Megaman 1-6 on NES - I love these games dearly, 2 and 3 are my favorites, I can beat them with my eyes closed, although in 3 you have to fight all the new badguys, all the ones from megaman 2, and then all the ones from 3 again, AND go through FIVE wily castle stages. Whenever I get into an argument about which game is the best, I always win with this.
• Megaman I-V on GB - These were interesting, after the first one they were all half of the bosses of one game and half of the next (so megaman II had four bosses from megaman 2 and four bosses from megaman 3), as well as new single sprit megamen bosses, which you did not see in the NES games until later one. I had to emulate all these. They all have unique stages and are all harder than the NES games
• Megaman 7 on SNES - This came out around the same time as X did, and 7 gets alot of crap because it’s the weaker outing of the two. I still love it, I’ve played through it maybe 4 times. It’s introduced so many things that we take for granted in the series now.
• Megaman X-X3 on SNES - These games are the best Megaman has to offer. Hands down. Even Megaman X2, which is hard and kind of wacky.
• Megaman X4-X6 on PS1 - These I all bought and owned right up until the Megaman X Collection came out. X5 and X6 have since been retconned out. The series technically ended with X4, and they offer little in the ways of gameplay over any of the others. The loading times sucked. the stages and bosses were stupid. The only thing X6 had was that you could use every single armor style from each X game plus about 3 more.
• Megaman Xtreme 1-2 on GBC - Just like the original gameboy megamans, X got his own half of one game and half of the other set in a dream world created by some supercomputer. They weren’t great by any means.
• Megaman 8 on PS1- The 10 year anniversary game of the First Megaman left alot to be desired, it had a weird soccer ball mechanic to try and tie in weird games like Megaman Soccer. I haven’t played through it more han Twice.
• Megaman X7 & X8 on PS2- X7 is a travesty, it plays nothing like any megaman game ever, introduces stupid characters no one should care about, and so on. X8 was at least going bakc to the roots, and a precursor for Megaman: Powered Up and Megaman: Maverick Hunter X, which are the only two games I haven’t played.
• Rockman & Forte - Megaman 8.5 on SNES. it was pretty amazing that they got the same graphics they did from the playstation on the SNES. But this game was only fun because Bass (Forte in Japan) could shoot more directions than forward.
• Megaman Legends 1-2 & The Misadventures of Tron Bonne - I feel so nostalgic about these, if I still had these discs and a working playstation, I would probably stop writing and go play them. If you have never played these you owe it to yourself to find them. theyr’re solid run and gun action RPGs and Tron Bonne throws in some FFTactics-like strategy into the fray
• Megaman Zero 1-4 on GBA - For about 4 years we had no megaman games, and then from the blackness came this shiny diamond. Well, at least the first two titles were awesome. These games bring the plot of the entire series together, and further it in ways you might not think possible.
• Megaman ZX & ZX Advent - The two games I’ve played but not beaten, even better than the Zero series if you ask me. Although it’s still not clear how they’re connected to the Zero series…

So, those’re all the games I’ve played and beaten at least once. And it’s a mighty list. combined with all of the Megaman Battle Network and StarForce RPGs, the weird things like Megaman Soccer, Megaman Battle & Chase, the Wily & RIght board game title, X Command Mission, and so on, it comes to 110 titles…

111 including the newly announce Megaman 9!! Plus if you count all the rereleases like the Playstation  Completeworks remakes and the Anniversary collections it’s even higher!!

But what the hell is it about these games that I love so much? Is it the simple action and platforming? Is the personality of the bosses? The pattern memorization? I’m not sure, But when megaman 9 comes out I’ll be there, bloop bleeping and jumping and sliding. I’m so excited!!

Head on Over to MMHP if you’re like me and need a megaman fix before 9 comes out.