Welcome back to the final installment of my look back at the Classic MegaMan series. While the games I covered in the first three articles took place in roughly a decade-long period, ranging from the late 1980s all the way to the end of the 20^th Century, the original MegaMan franchise would go into something of a hiatus for almost a decade. Apart from collections, individual re-releases and even a remake of the original game, no new mainline games starring the original Blue Bomber would hit the scene until 2008, just past the Blue Bomber’s 20^th anniversary. Of course, various spinoffs and sequel series got their time in the sun during this period, introducing new generations to the MegaMan universe in unique ways, but seeing the original return in a familiar form was enough to get people excited. Unfortunately, this brief renaissance ended as quickly as it would start, taking the entire franchise with it. We know of only a handful of games that Capcom cancelled after the departure of Keiji Inafune, the man long called “the Father of MegaMan” (erroneously, but hindsight is always 20/20) and since then, the entire franchise has languished, appearing in ancillary media and the occasional video game crossover. I wrote these four articles well before the actual day of MegaMan’s 30^th anniversary – a deadline I imposed on Capcom after a disappointing 25^th. I don’t know whether I’ll be right or wrong, but as we conclude this look back at MegaMan’s history, I would also like to take a shot at speculating directions the franchise could take as a whole – not just Classic, but every MegaMan, past and future. I’m sure that all of my speculations will end up less like predictions and more as a wishlist, but honestly, the latter seems more fun than the former anyway.

MegaMan 9

I’m always intrigued by cases of video games being ahead of their time. While not exactly the first time the MegaMan series could be considered visionary, the shift back to the classic 8-bit style in MegaMan 9 was definitely one of the earliest cases of the modern “retro throwback” movement. The problem is, the game came out back in 2008, long before the actual movement itself took off. Fortunately, just simply due to the lack of traditional MegaMan games released in the 2000s, not to mention the sheer novelty of an official game release using the classic NES aesthetic,  gamers came back in droves. MegaMan 9 could be best summarized as a love letter to MegaMan 2, generally considered to be the best game in the entire Classic line of games. Personally, I think they were a bit excessive in this regard, but the game still holds up today.

…8, 9! Told ya MM&B was canon.

As early as 2004, Keiji Inafune expressed interest in creating MegaMan 9 as a “throwback to the super old school”, but such games didn’t fit into the “grandiose and expansive world that the consumer gaming industry has become, and so you have to make games that match the current expectations”. He also figured that a classic MegaMan game made in the same vein as the 8-bit games “would be quickly criticized for things like being simplistic, outdated, or too expensive”, which made justifying a project in this style difficult. However, with the rise of such retro gaming-themed services, most notably the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console, it was decided that the seventh generation would be the perfect time to revisit the original Blue Bomber. Recruiting the developer Inti Creates – a company of ex-Capcom developers who previously created the woefully underrated MegaMan Zero and ZX games – MM9 was built from the ground up as an homage to the first two games in the series, particularly MegaMan 2.

Capcom’s management supported making MegaMan 9 as a downloadable title, but originally wanted to make it in 3D. This would eventually lead to a compromise, allowing players to choose between 8-bit and 3D graphics, but eventually, the 8-bit style won out. During the development of MM9, Inti Creates sought to create a game that would surpass MM2 (as opposed to MM8), as it was considered the pinnacle of the series. The game’s producer Hironobu Takeshita referred to MM9 as “the new MegaMan 3” because of this. He also clarified that despite the aesthetic being a complete recreation of the 8-bit era, MegaMan 9 was far too large to fit on an NES cartridge. Keiji Inafune designed Plugman and Splashwoman, while the other six Robot Masters were designed by Inti Creates staff. Plugman was designed as a template for the younger designers to base their own concepts on, while Splashwoman was the series’ first female Robot Master and requested by the planning team. Originally, Splashwoman was intended to be a male Robot Master, while Hornetman was originally conceived as “Honeywoman” before Inafune presented Splashwoman’s design. Having said that, many of the Robot Masters in MegaMan 9 appear to draw inspiration from earlier MegaMan games: the most prominent examples being Splashwoman and Tornadoman, who have been compared to MegaMan Zero’s Leviathan and Harupia respectively. The game was first released on the WiiWare service in September 2008, likely as a nod to the Virtual Console’s contribution to the game’s creation. It would release soon after on both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, via the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade services, though the Japanese Xbox release was delayed almost an entire year.

Bees: the mermaid’s natural predator.

Since Dr. Wily’s most recent defeat, the Blue Bomber has been able to retire to a world at peace. Unfortunately, one day, robots all over the world begin going crazy once more. However, this time the robots were the creations of Dr. Light. As phone calls began pouring into Light Labs, Dr. Wily hijacked all television signals to announce that he was not behind the latest batch of robotic riots. The mad doctor put the blame on his former rival, Dr. Thomas Light, even producing video evidence of the beloved roboticist trying to recruit Wily in his own plans for world domination. Dr. Wily announced that he would try to build his own army of robots to counter Dr. Light’s, but needed donations to his Swiss bank account to make it happen. It doesn’t take long for the police to arrest Dr. Light, leaving MegaMan, Roll and Auto to find out who was really behind the revolting Light bots. I’ve seen a lot of people criticize the storyline of this game, but personally, I think it’s my favorite in the entire series. I especially like the way that the game’s story is told through several cutscenes after completing a certain number of stages, turning MM9 into what may very well be the most story-driven game in the Classic series.

When I said that Inti Creates took inspiration from MegaMan 2, I meant it. This game practically plays like a ROM hack of the NES classic. As such, MegaMan’s abilities take a bit of a nosedive. The Blue Bomber loses his charge shot and slide abilities, opting for the purely jump-and-shoot gameplay that made MM a household name in the first place. In spite of this, a few elements from future titles do manage to make their way into the game. For example, the pause screen layout matches those of MegaMans 4-6. Also, the game utilizes a save system similar to MM8 and MegaMan & Bass, as opposed to using the traditional password system. There was one popular feature from more recent games that was omitted in MM9: the ability to swap weapons in real-time. Most people assume that this was dropped due to the fact that the game was originally developed for the Nintendo Wii. The standard layout for the console relied on holding the Wiimote sideways, leading to a layout similar to NES controllers, which apparently lacked any viable equivalent to the shoulder buttons generally associated with the feature.

Spin on, you– wait, I already said that.

MegaMan 9 also went for a more traditional approach to Support Items. The Rush Coil and Rush Jet return and are functionally identical to their MegaMan 4 iterations. While the Rush Coil is available from the start, the Rush Jet is unlocked by defeating five of the game’s eight Robot Masters. MM9 also brings back the shop system from the most recent games in the series. Screws (formerly Bolts) can be found throughout stages, either as standard power-up or as items dropped by destroyed enemies. Staples such as the Energy Balanacer, extra lives and both E-Tanks and M-Tanks return, but are joined by new items. The Eddie Call summons MegaMan’s flip-top robot companion, who drops random power-ups for 10 seconds. The Beat Call acts similar to the Beat Whistle in MM7, allowing Beat to save MegaMan from pitfall-related deaths. The Shock Guard prevents death from spikes and the ½ Damage Guard reduces damage by half for an entire stage. There’s also the Costume Change and Book of Hairstyles items, which changes Roll’s outfit and allows MegaMan to remove his helmet respectively. These items must be purchased again – though the Book of Hairstyles gets replaced with MegaMan’s helmet – to reverse their effects, but they don’t really have any effect on gameplay.

With the charge shot being retired, one would expect that the weapons would simply go back to their traditional place of just being stronger weapons. Fortunately, MegaMan 9 decides to offer the best of both worlds – the weapons are still powerful, but many of them have alternate uses as well. As per usual, I’m going to be ranking the game’s weapons by how effective I think they are. The game’s best weapon would have to be Jewelman’s Jewel Satellite – essentially the Leaf Shield taken to its logical conclusion. MegaMan can move freely while using it, and pressing the button a second time fires it off, where it can destroy several weak enemies at once. It can also reflect most enemy projectiles in the game and only costs energy once activated. Coming in second is the Hornet Chaser, obtained after defeating Hornetman. This allows MegaMan to shoot out hornet-shaped robotic drones that can either home in on enemies or retrieve most power-ups. Number 3 would have to be MagmaMan’s Magma Bazooka. MegaMan fires off three fire balls in a spread shot formation. The shots can also be charged, similar to MM2’s Atomic Fire. Fourth best weapon would have to be the Black Hole Bomb, taken from Galaxyman. MegaMan fires off a pulsating purple orb, hitting fire a second time detonates the explosion, which sucks up any nearby enemies and deals big damage. I tend to rank this one so high due to its spectacle more than its practicality, but it’s still pretty useful all the same. Concreteman’s Concrete Shot would have to go down as weapon #5. MegaMan fires a glob of concrete at an arc, which generates a concrete block that acts like a stepping stone. Enemies take a great deal of damage from the attack and those destroyed by it are also turned into blocks. The concrete shot can even petrify certain hazards, like magma barriers and even laser beams. Laser Trident, Splashwoman’s special weapon, is the sixth-best weapon in the game. Effectively acting as a more powerful Buster Shot, the Laser Trident can also pierce enemy shields (and even destroy those aforementioned concrete blocks). Number seven would have to be Tornadoman’s Tornado Blow. A full screen weapon similar to the Centaur Flash and Astro Crush, it fills the screen with tornadoes. MegaMan’s jump height also increases while it’s active and it can be used to activate various air-based platforms. Fire-based enemies are also susceptible to the winds. Finally, there’s the Plug Ball, Plugman’s weapon. Similar to weapons like the Bubble Lead and the Search Snake, the Plug Ball is a spark ball that travels across the ground and can climb up walls and even ceilings. Unfortunately, this means that airborne enemies are practically invulnerable to it. It’s not a bad weapon by any means, but it pales in comparison to the rest of MegaMan 9’s arsenal. Still, that might just make the Plug Ball one of the best “worst weapons” in MegaMan history.

Diamonds are a girl’s robot’s best friend.

What is there really to say about MegaMan 9’s graphics? Inti Creates did a pretty good job trying to recreate the aesthetic of the NES games. They recycled what they could, but aside from a few characters, they pretty much had to either heavily modify existing sprites or draw entirely new ones from scratch. MM9 aimed to emulate MM2 in many ways, to the extent where many of the levels have simpler backgrounds than even the late-era NES MegaMan games. Having said that, the artstyle achieves what it set out to, to the extent where some of the bosses are miscolored due to the limitations associated with the NES’s color palette. While the game was designed with widescreen (16:9) TVs in mind, the game uses the traditional 4:3 ratio, with black bars on the sides of the screen, similar to how older TV programs are displayed on modern televisions. MM9 even adds in a feature strictly meant for retro purists: the option to emulate the NES’s flickering when there are too many sprites onscreen. I personally never used it – like most people, flickering always bugged me in NES games – but it shows the amount of attention they paid to detail when attempting to recreate MegaMan 2 on far more advanced hardware. In that sense, MegaMan 9 was a complete success.

For the most part, a lot of MegaMan 9’s sound effects were recycled from previous games, especially MM2. There were also some sound effects designed exclusively for MM9 itself, though all of the game’s audio was modelled after the NES’s sound chip. The game’s soundtrack was composed by Ippo Yamada, Ryo Kawakami, Yu Shimoda (who also worked on the game’s sound effects) and Hiroki Isogai – all members of Inti Creates’ internal sound team, referred to as III. Ippo Yamada previously worked on MegaMan 7, as well as the MegaMan Zero and ZX series. Of course, some of the game’s music – the menu screen tune, as well as the jingles for selecting a stage, getting a weapon, Game Over and the map screen for Dr. Wily’s Castle – were recycled directly from MegaMan 2. Aside from that, however, I’d say that the musical compositions deviate from MM2’s framework more than any other aspect of the game and frankly, I’d consider that a good thing. Despite the fact that most of Ippo Yamada’s compositions for the MegaMan series were built on more advanced sound hardware, he’s able to slip into the 8-bit style seamlessly. My favorite themes in the game are the stage themes for Galaxyman, Hornetman, Magmaman and Concreteman, as well as the standard boss fight music and the third Dr. Wily stage – though most people tend to prefer the first two. The music that plays over the game’s credits is also amazing. Of course, much like the Zero and ZX games, Inti Creates’ involvement with MegaMan 9 meant that an arranged soundtrack was released around the game’s release. While these tracks weren’t present within the game itself, they do offer some interesting rearrangements to the game’s compositions. Some were even handled by other composers from the Classic series, such as Akari Kaida, Shusaku Uchiyama, Yasuaki “BUN BUN” Fujita and even Manami Matsumae herself. I wish that these could’ve been incorporated into the game itself, but with WiiWare’s size restrictions, it would’ve been completely impossible.

There are also a few bonus features added to the game, to increase replay value. For example, there are 50 challenges hidden in the game – akin to in-game achievements – ranging from beating a boss with the Mega Buster or clearing a stage in a certain amount of time to beating the entire game without taking damage once. There was also a Time Attack mode, which allows players to replay any stage – though the Wily Castle stages have to be unlocked by beating them – in order to rack up the best possible time. Time Attack mode made use of all 3 systems’ capabilities to connect to the internet to maintain online leaderboards, allowing players to compete with people all over the world to complete each stage with the best possible time.

Somehow, I always pictured him being more dignified than this.

MegaMan 9 wasn’t the first game in the series to toy with downloadable content – more on that later – but it was the first to actively charge extra money for it. Having said that, I’d have to say that Capcom actually managed to price things fairly at this point. First off, there were two additional difficulty settings, labelled “Hero Mode” and “Superhero Mode,” which were available for $1 apiece. $1 was also the cost for an additional Special Stage, an extended-length level that pit MegaMan against the devious “Fakeman”, a police robot modelled after the one that apprehended Dr. Light in one of the game’s cutscenes.  Endless Attack was a special mode that pit players against an endless onslaught of stage segments – both taken from existing stages and some completely original – to see just how long they could last for a mere $2. The main attraction, however, was the ability to play through the game as Protoman, MegaMan’s mysterious older brother for a mere $2. Protoman plays fundamentally differently from the Blue Bomber, inheriting both the slide and Charge Shot MegaMan ditched in MM9, as well as gaining the ability to reflect certain shots with his Proto Shield while jumping. In exchange, Protoman takes twice as much damage as his little bro and can only fire two shots at a time, as opposed to the traditional three. He also replaces the Rush Coil and Jet with the Proto Coil and Proto Jet respectively – both themed around his trademark shield as opposed to the Blue Bomber’s canine companion – which he starts the game with. Of course, Protoman also lacks any of the game’s story cutscenes, as well as the ability to use the game’s shop. Honestly, I think that’s kind of fitting: Protoman was always depicted as something of a “lone wolf” character and completely rewriting the story around him seemed like a waste of time. Using Protoman also disables the ability to unlock in-game achievements, but I think that’s a small price to pay for something that should probably be saved for repeat playthroughs in the first place.

MegaMan 9 is really a hard game to gauge. Its Japanese subtitle “The Ambition’s Revival” was definitely fitting, as it provided a necessary in for both the Classic MegaMan series as a whole, which lied dormant for at least a decade – relegated entirely to re-releases and the occasional remake – as well as the retro-inspired aesthetic, which would eventually lead to a throwback trend that still exists to this day. I definitely enjoy it for the most part, but the fact that it essentially tries too hard to be a second MegaMan 2 sort of rubs me the wrong way. Ironically, despite being held up as a stellar example of what developers should try to achieve when building retro throwbacks, it’s a perfect example of one of the flaws so many people criticize when bashing the entire trend: it sticks too closely to the source material. I think most of the negative reviews I’ve seen for this game since its release nearly 10 years ago – has it really been that long? – have claimed that it was nothing more than a ROM hack. Now I’m not stupid enough to go that far when criticizing the game, but it’s obvious that Capcom went out of their way to try to recreate the magic of MegaMan 2. It was definitely a success on that front, but I’d argue that they might have done too well. If I haven’t already made myself clear in the earlier parts of this retrospective, let me make something crystal clear: I think that later games in the Classic series – not all of them, mind you – actually managed to exceed MegaMan 2 in terms of quality. Shooting to match something that’s already been improved on feels pointless to me, regardless of popular opinion. If the teams at Capcom and Inti Creates had been trying to make a game that was better than MegaMan 2, I’d be a lot more forgiving. Unfortunately, that’s not what they were aiming for. They simply wanted to match a standard that was topped years back. As such, I’d say MegaMan 9’s a good game, but definitely not the best the series has to offer.

MegaMan 10

The praise that MM9 received for being “a fresh breath of air for the entire franchise” makes the criticism lobbed at its successor all the more infuriating. Dismissed as a “lazy retread” by most members of the fanbase by the time the game was launched, MegaMan 10 continues the series tradition of later games being dismissed out of hand. In that sense, MegaMan 9 truly was a successor to the legendary second game in the franchise: no follow-up could have possibly lived up to the lofty expectations it inspired. If MM9 planted the seeds for the retro throwback trend that continues to thrive to this day, then MM10 clearly suffered because it hadn’t taken root by 2010. Likewise, whether indirectly or not, MM10 clearly took inspiration from the later games in the series, delivering a more developed project that would go down as my favorite mainline game in the Classic series.

Pleased with the success of the previous game, Capcom commissioned Inti Creates to develop MegaMan 10. Keiji Inafune felt that MM9’s “retro style” had contributed to the game’s success, so they decided to continue the trend in this new title. However, according to Ippo Yamada, while MM9 was developed as a spiritual successor to MM2, 10 was made up of “original pixel art and chip music, neither a remake nor a revival”. The development team decided that when developing this new installment that they should listen both to old-school gamers and former gamers who hadn’t played any video games recently. This led to the inclusion of Easy Mode, due to the complaints surrounding MM9’s extreme difficulty.

Seriously, this will never not crack me up.

After Dr. Wily’s scheme to frame Dr. Light failed, peace has returned to the future of 20XX. However, soon after Roboenza, an illness that only affects robots, begins spreading throughout the world. Without the assistance of their robot helpers, humanity finds itself incapable of finding a cure. Eventually, even Roll, MegaMan’s sister, is infected with the mysterious disease. Matters only get worse a month after the outbreak begins, as the afflicted robots begin going berserk and attempt to take over the world. One day, Dr. Wily’s flying saucer appears at Light Labs, heavily damaged. Wily claims that one of the robots attacked him and stole the parts to a machine he’d be working on to cure the virus. MegaMan vows to retrieve the stolen parts from eight Robot Masters, but before he’s able to jump into action, Protoman appears. Believing that the job is too big for the Blue Bomber to complete alone, he offers his assistance and the two join forces to acquire the cure.

For the most part, MegaMan 10 – bafflingly subtitled as “Threat From Outer Space!!” in Japan – resembles its predecessor in terms of its gameplay. MegaMan retains his abilities from the previous game, though this time around Protoman is playable from the start, also retaining his quirks from MM9. Both characters have their own unique storylines, which makes Protoman’s involvement feel a lot more organic than it did in the previous game. Aside from that, gameplay is mostly unchanged from the previous game, though the addition of multiple difficulty levels in the base game does allow for more variety than previous games in the series. One welcome addition is the return of the ability to switch weapons without pausing, assigned to the shoulder buttons on most controllers. Considering how easy it was to implement – the Wii Remote uses the A and B buttons – I’m still shocked that the previous game lacked this quality of life feature. Easy Mode actually manages to have more of an effect on the game than previous iterations: special propeller platforms are placed over gaps to make jumps easier, certain enemies are entirely missing from the difficulty setting, some enemies have completely different attack patterns and all damage is halved – just like in MM2’s “Normal” mode. However, beating the game on Normal difficulty unlocks Hard mode, which is the exact opposite of Easy Mode. Item drops are reduced significantly, nearly every enemy has an upgraded version and bosses even have entirely new attacks. These new features definitely add to the game’s replay value.

The support items from the previous game also return in full force: MegaMan has access to the Rush Coil and Rush Jet, while Protoman wields the Proto Coil and Proto Jet. As with the previous game, Protoman starts with both support items, while MegaMan only starts with the Coil. Fortunately, the Blue Bomber only needs to beat four Robot Masters to unlock the Jet this time around. The Shop also returns from the previous game, but this time, Protoman has access to one all his own. Both characters’ shops are completely different: MegaMan’s is run by Dr. Light and Auto, while Protoman’s is run by “?????” – in reality, a disguised Auto wearing a hard hat – accompanied by Tango, the robotic feline from MegaMan V. MegaMan’s offerings are essentially identical to the previous game, except Roll’s Costume Change is replaced with a W-Tank. Protoman’s offerings, however, are significantly more limited: he can buy extra lives, Energy and Weapon Tanks, Beat Calls, Shock Guards and the Energy Balancer. Kind of ironic that the character who takes twice as much damage can’t buy the item that halves it. I guess that would make the game too easy.

A mystery wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a Hard Hat.

Just like in its predecessor, MM10’s Special Weapons attempt to bridge the gap between the early games’ power and the later games’ practicality. In this case, it seems like they tend to evoke more of the latter quality compared to the previous game. In the end, they end up coming across like a mixture between the experimental qualities of the weapons found in MM5 with the non-combat applications of those found in MM8. While 10’s arsenal may not be the most devastating of the series in terms of firepower, they’re definitely among the most fun weapons in the entire series. My personal favorite weapon would have to be Pumpman’s Water Shield. A unique take on the traditional “Leaf Shield” weapon, MegaMan (et al) summons 10 orbs of water to act as a shield. Firing again shoots them off in random directions, sort of like a more chaotic version of MM7’s Junk Shield. The unique part is that each hit the shield takes only manages to dissipate one orb, but the wielder can still take damage from attacks that slip in between the gaps left in the barrier. Next up would be the Solar Blaze, Solarman’s weapon. It essentially fires off a bomb that splits into two waves of fire, each careening in opposite directions. It sort of reminds me of the Pharaoh Wave attack from MegaMan 2: The Power Fighters. Coming in at number 3 would have to be Nitroman’s Wheel Cutter. Similar to the Spin Wheel from MegaMan X2, it fires off a buzzsaw that travels across the ground when the fire button is released. However, if the button is held, the saw remains on MegaMan’s buster, which can allow him to scale walls quickly. Then there’s the Chill Spike, taken from Chillman. It fires off a glob of icy gel which forms spikes when it lands on the ground, but hitting an enemy with it directly freezes them temporarily, much like the Ice Slasher. Blademan’s (not that one) weapon, the Triple Blade, is my fifth favorite, firing three katana-shaped blades in a spread shot formation, though the pattern varies depending on whether it’s fired on the ground (straight, diagonal up, further diagonal-up) or while jumping (straight, diagonal-down, further diagonal-down). A little tricky to aim at times because of this, but it works well for the next part. The Rebound Striker, obtained by defeating Strikeman, is essentially an improved version of the Gemini Laser from MM3. The ball still ricochets around the screen, but this time it can be aimed in three different directions from the start – straight forward and diagonally up or down – which can allow for greater accuracy. Coming in at seventh place is Commandoman’s Commando Bomb, an explosive missile that can be aimed after firing by pressing up or down on the D-Pad, forcing it to turn at a 90 degree angle. Once it makes impact with a wall, ceiling or floor, it creates a large explosive wave that follows the contours of the landscape. This is where the majority of the damage comes from: the missile itself is a dud if it hits an enemy directly. Finally, there’s the worst weapon in the game, the Thunder Wool, courtesy of Sheepman. MegaMan fires off a slow-moving thunder cloud that slowly rises into the air and drops a powerful lightning bolt. Two clouds can be combined to increase the attack’s range and damage, but the cloud is so slow and fragile, it’s almost not worth bothering with the attack in the first place.

A lot of weaknesses feel too esoteric, but this seems way too obvious.

While MegaMan 9 set out to imitate MegaMan 2 exactly, MM10’s aesthetics were clearly meant to be more of an homage to the classic 8-bit games, attempting to ape the classic console’s look while utilizing artistic tricks that the NES was clearly incapable of. For the most part, the game’s graphics are similar to that of the previous game, but the presentation is improved significantly, much to any retro purist’s chagrin. While various traits of the classic 8-bit system are retained in the game’s spritework and cutscenes – particularly the limited color palette – MegaMan 10 also decides to use graphical tricks that the classic console would clearly never be able to do within actual games. I think my favorite bit of presentation of the game is what happens when one of the Robot Masters’ stages are selected. A cyan rectangle, surrounded by a darker blue background above and below it. The background contains silhouettes of each of the eight Robot Masters – four above the cyan part, four below – and the chosen boss hops into the center, introducing itself. As each boss robot is defeated, their shadow is removed from the line-up. I don’t know why, but something about that just struck me as a nice touch. Compared to MM9, the game’s aesthetic clearly draws more inspiration from later games in the NES library but doesn’t tether itself to the system’s limitations. Perhaps the most evident shift away would be the fact that the flicker setting from the previous game is completely absent this time around. As with the previous game, MM10 uses a 4:3 aspect ratio for its gameplay. This time, however, there are graphical borders that vary based on whether the player is on the main menu or selected a character. Some players found this addition distracting, but I didn’t really mind one way or the other.

The sound team from the previous game returns. Ippo Yamada returns as the Sound Director, Hiroki Isogai joins Yu Shimoda on Sound Effect Design and Ryo Kawakami composed many of the game’s tracks. However, this time around, an all-star team of composers from previous MegaMan games return, each providing one of the Robot Masters themes. Manami Matsumae (MM1) composed Nitro Rider, Yasuaki “BUN BUN” Fujita (MM3) wrote Solar Inferno, Desert Commando was MM4 composer Minae Fujii’s contribution to the soundtrack, Mari Yamaguchi (MM5) scored the catchy Cybersheep’s Dream, Yuko Takehara of MegaMan 6 & 7 composed Polluted Pump, Makoto Tomozawa (Dr. Wily’s Revenge, MegaMan X, MegaMan 7 and the Legends games) produced Fireball Strike, Absolute Chill was composed by Shusaku Uchiyama (MM8) and Akari Kaida (MM&B) contributed King of Blades. In fact, Takashi Tateishi, the composer of MM2, even rearranged the standard stage clear jingle, while Manami Matsumae handled the trademark stage selected tune. As such, the game’s soundtrack comes across as eclectic, but also memorable in my opinion. MegaMan 10 also sets the record for having the most unique boss battle songs in the series history: there are unique themes for the Robot Master fights, the fortress bosses, the Wily Machine battle and the Wily Capsule, bringing the grand total to four. likely has my favorite soundtrack in the entire series, which makes it difficult to choose my favorite songs. Sheepman, Nitroman, Pumpman and Chillman’s themes are my top choices, as well as the third Wily Castle level theme (though the first and second theme are also great), the Wily Fortress Boss Battle and Protoman’s unique shop theme. MM10 also received an arranged soundtrack around the time of its release, though it was referred to as an “Image Soundtrack”. It’s a shame that not every song in the game gets remastered, but what manages to make it in sounds great.

Somehow, Protoman even manages to make the MM4 charge shot look cooler.

The Time Attack mode and in-game achievements also return from the previous game. MegaMan 10 also adds a brand-new challenge mode, consisting of 88 mini-stages, each with their own unique layouts and requirements from completion, generally involving reaching a goal or defeating an enemy. Some of the earlier Challenges end up resembling a tutorial mode for the base game, while later stages put player to the test to prove their mastery of the game. These challenges also have various ranks, which can be unlocked by completing each challenge while meeting specific criteria, like finishing in a certain amount of time or beat it without taking any damage. It doesn’t really add that much to the overall game, but it is a nice extra feature that I would love to see return in future games.

Did I mention just how much I love the references in this game?

As with the previous game, there is some paid DLC to extend replay value. This time, there are three special stages, which cost $1 apiece. This time, each stage is topped off with a boss fight from one of the three MegaMan Killers: Enker (from the first Game Boy game), Punk (MMIII) and Ballade (MMIV). These stages are only accessible in the game’s time attack mode by MegaMan, but defeating each boss adds their Special Weapons to the Blue Bomber’s arsenal permanently, in every game mode. Endless Attack also returns as additional DLC, costing $3 this time around. The game’s most important addition would have to be Bass as a third playable character, costing $2. Bass retains his aimable shot from MegaMan & Bass, but loses his double jump. He can also dash instead of sliding and comes equipped with the Treble Boost from the get-go. Unlike Protoman in the previous game, Bass even gets his own storyline and has access to a shop, run by Dr. Wily’s robotic bird Reggae. Bass’s shop selection is similar to Protoman’s, though the Beat Call is replaced with the Treble Item and Treble Rescue, which are functionally identical to the Eddie and Beat Calls respectively.

A literal game-changer.

In the end, MegaMan 10 feels like more of a tribute game than an outright retro throwback. The fact that it was released after MegaMan 9 definitely hurt its reception – especially given the series’ reputation of low-effort sequels – but it seems that unlike the other MegaMan games that went unappreciated, MM10 still suffers from the poor reactions that plagued it upon its original release. I’d like to think that its position was exacerbated by the fact that it was the last true MegaMan release up to the present. While I hope time will heal the wounds this game has suffered in the past seven years, I grow more and more skeptical as time goes on. MegaMan 10 is still presently my favorite game of the entire Classic series and I think a lot of that has to do with just how perfect of a game it was to precede the great hiatus we’ve been suffering for over five years at this point. The game contains references to several earlier games in the series: the Weapon Archive boss fights in the first Wily Castle stage recreate Robot Masters from nine of the previous games; Bass’s gameplay is reminiscent of his previous playable appearance in MegaMan & Bass and Tango, Reggae and the MegaMan Killers all make appearances representing more obscure titles in the series. In a sense, if we had to say goodbye to the Classic MegaMan games – whether permanent or temporary – MM10 felt like a perfect note to end it on as it pays tribute to the franchise’s rich history, instead of just paying lip service to a single title. I’m still holding out hope that we’ll see a MegaMan 11 sooner or later, but until then, this game has left me satisfied for the time being.

MegaMan Powered Up

While MegaMan 9 didn’t arrive on the scene until 2008, there was one other title released between it and the delayed Western release of MegaMan & Bass on the Game Boy Advance. Releasing in 2006 on the PlayStation Portable, MegaMan Powered Up – known as Rockman Rockman in Japan – was a total reimagining of the 1987 classic that started it all. While remaking the first game in the series may seem frivolous by today’s standards with multiple re-releases of the NES version over the years, MMPU delivers a package that I’d count as the gold standard for video game remakes. Powered Up attempts to fix many of the flaws of the original game while maintaining the things that made it great in the first place and adding entirely new elements to keep the game feeling brand-new. In that sense, MegaMan Powered Up feels like the most substantial game in the entire series, no small feat for a game exclusively released on a handheld system.

MegaMan Powered Up was developed alongside a similar remake of the first MegaMan X game – MegaMan Maverick Hunter X – on Sony’s PlayStation Portable fairly early into its lifespan. Both games were intended to start an entire series of remakes, but unfortunately, due to the handheld’s lack of sales in any region when the games were originally released, these plans were inevitably scrapped. MHX was released first and as such, it included a demo for Powered Up as a bonus. The PlayStation Portable’s design actually had quite a significant impact on the development of the game. Due to the PSP’s widescreen aspect ratio, the super-deformed chibi artstyle was chosen to better emphasis the character’s facial expressions. Keiji Inafune expressed interest in using a similar style in the original MegaMan game but was unable to realize his vision due to the limitations of the NES hardware. The game’s aesthetic, especially the character models were designed around the concept of “toys”, specifically trying to design them to resemble “the kinds of characters that you’d see hanging off keychains and such”, according to character designer Tatsuya Yoshikawa. The extra screen space afforded by the widescreen also inspired the developers to expand the sizes of the stages, as they were given more screen space to work with. Keiji Inafune mentioned that there were originally going to be eight Robot Masters in the original MegaMan on the NES, but ended up with six due to tight scheduling. Inafune originally considered using one of the abandoned concepts – Bondman, a adhesives robot – in Powered Up, but decided that due to his cult status, he would leave the character as a “legend”. Instead, Inafune designed two original bosses: Timeman and Oilman – not that one – who had to be slightly redesigned outside of Japan, due to his resemblance to a racial caricature.

As one might expect from a remake, MegaMan Powered Up essentially retells the story from the first game, albeit in greater detail. In the year 20XX – I guess they figured “200X” didn’t sound futuristic in 2006 – humans have been able to create industrial humanoid robots. At the forefront of this technology is Dr. Thomas Light, a brilliant roboticist, who created two human-like robots with highly advanced artificial intelligence: “Mega” – I will never get over this change – an android resembling a young boy built as the doctor’s lab assistant and his sister Roll, a helper robot designed for housekeeping. After the success of these two robots, Dr. Light would build eight more “Robot Masters” designed for industrial use. Dr. Wily, a former colleague and rival of Dr. Light, becomes jealous of Dr. Light’s achievements and decides to attempt world domination. He steals and reprograms the eight Robot Masters to aid him in his megalomaniacal scheme. To add insult to injury, he leaves Mega and Roll behind, declaring them as nothing but useless scrap. With the world in chaos and Dr. Light fearing the worst, Mega volunteers to be converted into a super fighting robot. Rechristened as “MegaMan”, the Blue Bomber sets off to rescue his fellow robots and stop Wily’s evil plot. Of course, this game doesn’t take itself nearly as seriously as other games in the series, and considering that this is a Classic MegaMan game, that’s really saying something. I think MMPU is a pretty big part of the reason why I prefer the Western storyline of the original game – where Dr. Wily was Dr. Light’s assistant rather than just a colleague. I always used to wonder how Wily would’ve been able to steal Light’s robots if he weren’t working for him and ever since Powered Up’s release, I can’t help but think of him literally putting all of them in a giant sack and flying away. It’s both hilarious and impractical, but I really can’t think of any better way for Wily to have reprogrammed the robots if he didn’t do it under Dr. Light’s nose as his assistant.

What, did you think I was joking?

The gameplay is pretty much what you’d expect from a MegaMan platformer. Stages are generally longer than those of the original game, and returning stages mix new obstacles into existing stages to create entirely new layouts. In fact, elements from future games – namely a few enemies and obstacles – manage to make their way into MMPU, paying homage to other games in the series. For example, the game starts with a unique introduction stage, much like MM7, MM8 and MegaMan & Bass, capped off with a brand-new, yet surprisingly familiar boss fight. Likewise, MegaMan can switch Special Weapons on the fly by using the shoulder buttons. Despite being a relatively early attempt at a 2.5D game – that is, a game with 3D graphics but gameplay limited to a 2D plane – Powered Up pretty much nails everything. It’s especially jarring considering this game was released in 2006 and on a portable game system of all things, when many of the game’s console contemporaries were still suffering from the  problems commonly associated with 2.5D games at this early stage in their development, let alone a platformer which requires more precise controls than most other genres. Look no further than the game’s counterpart – Maverick Hunter X – where the 3D models didn’t allow for the precision 2D platformers are generally afforded with sprites and other more traditional 2D artstyles, leading to ill-timed jumps and other unintentional difficulties for the player. Speaking of difficulty, each stage in the game has three difficulty settings: Easy, Normal and Hard. The difficulty is always chosen at the beginning of each stage and after the eight Robot Masters are defeated, the Wily Fortress stages can only be played on difficulty settings all of the previous stages were completed on or lower. Similar to MM10, each difficulty setting has its own enemy layout and boss characters even gain access to more powerful attacks on the higher settings.

The addition of two new Robot Masters actually changes quite a bit about the game compared to its source material. For starters, the boss weakness order has been heavily modified, even beyond the obvious way of just accounting for the additional bosses. To name a few, Rolling Cutter defeats Bombman now and Oil Slider is Elecman’s weakness, whose Thunder Beam now defeats Timeman. It may feel like just a small inconsequential change to the game itself, but honestly it refreshes the entire concept and keeps long-time fans on their toes. Another important change comes to the boss fights themselves, each Robot Master’s attack pattern has been expanded greatly over the 1987 original. Most importantly, they gain powerful special attacks that render them temporarily invincible. While these attacks are limited to when they’ve lost half their health, the difficulty setting affects how often they’re used. Frankly, I love the entire concept and wish that other games in the Classic series could have done something similar.

Jump, jump! Slide, sl–whoops, wrong game.

Powered Up brings back a majority of the weapons from the original game, with the sole exception being the Magnet Beam. In its place are two new weapons: the Time Slow, which temporarily slows down time for a brief period and the Oil Slider, which fires a glob of oil that MegaMan can ride like a snowboard. Neither new weapon is particularly useful, but they are interesting concepts. I’d probably put both weapons below even the Hyper Bomb in terms of usefulness, but otherwise, my rankings for the weapons in the original NES version still hold true.

As I mentioned earlier, MegaMan Powered Up’s aesthetics deviate from the series in general, ramping up the cutesiness substantially even when compared to the Tezuka-inspired artwork of Keiji Inafune’s original designs. And yet, it’s probably one of the most gorgeous game in the PSP’s library, despite being released fairly early in the game’s lifespan. The character models are very expressive and all of the stages are colorful, with surprisingly detailed backgrounds despite the system’s small resolution. The lifebar and weapons meter also showcase MegaMan’s remaining lives and how many shots of each Special Weapon MegaMan has left, similar to both MegaMan 8 and the Complete Works games. Some people may be turned off by the game’s aesthetic, but frankly, I still think it holds up even to this day.

The entire soundtrack from the original game returns in MMPU, totally rearranged by Toshihiko Horiyama, who previously worked on MegaMan 7, the original MegaMan X, MMX4 and various other games across the entire franchise. Horiyama’s arrangements have lighter instrumentations, fitting with the game’s more light-hearted tone. Some of the games songs – notably Cutman, Gutsman and Fireman’s – were shifted from minor to major key, leading to them sounding a bit different. What’s really surprising is just how much of the music ends up getting recycled within the game itself. The boss theme from Dr. Wily’s fortress gets rearranged several times, quickly becoming the mad doctor’s leitmotif. So much of the music gets rearranged that there actually doesn’t end up being that much in the way of original music. What’s there – specifically the new main theme (which gets recycled even more heavily than the Dr. Wily theme), Oilman and Timeman’s theme – fits in perfectly with the new takes on the original compositions. My favorite songs in Powered Up’s soundtrack would have to be Timeman’s theme, the Fireman rearrangement, Cutman’s stage, the introduction stage, and the theme for the Wily Fortress boss fights.

In addition, Powered Up was fully voice acted, to an even greater extent than MegaMan 8. There were Japanese and English dubs, though the PSP’s UMD format could likely only handle one version per disc. As such, I’m only really familiar with the English version. The game’s English dub was handled by the Ocean Group, a production company based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, well known for many anime dubs. They also ended up providing the voices for the MegaMan cartoon in the 1990s, as well as the dub for the Rockman: Wish Upon a Star OVA. The game’s voice acting actually manages to give the characters even more personality than they did back in MM8: Elecman is a narcissistic pretty-boy, Gutsman becomes a total workaholic, Iceman becomes bi-polar – see what they did there? – shifting from wimpy snowman to drill sergeant and Fireman turns into a cross between a superhero and a fire and brimstone Southern preacher. Even the Yellow Devil gets voice acting! My personal favorites are easily MegaMan, who manages to sound like an actual child, and of course Dr. Wily, who sort of comes across like a shriller version of Wallace Shawn.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of MegaMan Powered Up is the sheer amount of extra content crammed into the game. For starters, there are actually two entirely different modes of gameplay. The full-on remake is labelled as “New Style” upon starting a new game, but there’s also an “Old Style”: essentially a perfect recreation of the original MegaMan using MMPU’s art assets and control scheme. Personally, I think it’s the most playable version of the original MegaMan out there, making several concessions to recreate the game as closely as possible. This includes shearing down the PSP’s screen to an accurate 4:3 aspect ratio, bringing back the Magnet Beam as an unlockable support item and even bringing back the original 8-bit version’s music in its full chiptune glory. While a few concessions were made due to the difference in some of the designs between both versions, these have little effect on the actual gameplay. Granted, the gameplay itself did receive a few tweaks, but these were made to make the game more in line with the later NES games, fixing various oversights the version from 1987 never thought to change.

I’ll never understand why the PSP had so many 4:3 games on it.

New Style has a few extra tricks of its own, mainly in the form of unlockable characters. For starters, all eight of the game’s Robot Masters are playable characters: to unlock them, just defeat them with the Arm Cannon alone. This allows the damaged robots to survive and be brought back to Dr. Light’s Lab and deprogrammed. Each Robot Master is only equipped with their respective weapon, giving each of them unique challenges. Fortunately, they also have other special abilities. These range from the mundane – Fireman’s immune to fire attacks and Oilman doesn’t slip on oil – to the practical – Timeman retains his clock-hands attack and Cutman can wall-jump. The most impressive change would have to be Gutsman, who can summon a set number of tossable blocks at will, turning the Super Arm from a mere gimmick into the devastating onslaught it always should’ve been. Each Robot Master has their own take on the story, fighting a MegaMan doppleganger (referred to as “MegaMan?”) at the end of the stage they usually occupy. Beating the game on each difficulty setting also unlocks a new variant of MegaMan: Easy Mode unlocks “MegaMan S”, capable of sliding like in MegaMan 3; “MegaMan C” is unlocked by clearing the game on normal difficulty, still boasting the slide but also regaining the charge shot from later games in the series; while Hard Mode “rewards” players with “Mega”, who trades his blue armor and Mega Buster for a pair of comfy shorts and a swift kick. MegaMan’s sister Roll was also available as free DLC. She fights by swinging a broom, almost acting as a parody of Zero. Better still, Roll also has access to 12 alternate costumes, ranging from her MegaMan 8 outfit and a raincoat that evokes Toadman.EXE from the Battle Network games to a witch’s robe and a knight costume that resembles Sir Arthur’s armor from the Ghosts ‘n Goblins games. Finally, MegaMan’s older brother Protoman is also unlocked by completing all 100 in-game challenges – more on those in a bit – but Capcom eventually offered him as a free downloadable character too. Unlike other games in the series, Protoman’s only weapon in Powered Up is the Proto Strike, which fires off giant, powerful shots similar to a fully-charged Mega Buster shot, though only two can be on-screen at a time. He can also block various projectiles with the Proto Shield by standing still, though it can be knocked away with powerful attacks, requiring it to be retrieved. To compensate for these advantages, he takes twice as much damage as any other character in the game. Considering the sheer amount of playable characters, not to mention the 3 difficulty settings, some people have claimed that the game has 468 levels, but this seems like a bit of a stretch.

I’m still a bit rusty, but does fire beat scissors?

There are also two more additional modes. First, there are the Challenges. MegaMan and each Robot Master have 10 unique challenge mini-stages, coupled with 10 Boss Rushes to make a total of 100 overall. The real star of the show has to be Construction mode. Long before games like Super Mario Maker and even the Little Big Planet series, MegaMan Powered Up allowed players the chance to create their own unique stages. While the interface was a bit clunkier than future titles – the PSP’s small screen and lack of touch controls didn’t help matters – the customizability allowed players to create stages on par with the ones already found in the game. There were also various special expansion packs, adding new stage elements, hidden throughout stages in New Style mode. In fact, there were even tilesets based on the original 8-bit NES game stages – even Timeman and Oilman get some love in this regard – that I wish Old Style had used as opposed to the standard Powered Up backgrounds, but you can’t get everything you ask for. On top of this, there was also an Online Infrastructure mode, allowing players to share their stages with each other all over the world. In fact, even Capcom themselves got in on this action, regularly releasing custom-built stages of their own throughout the game’s first year of existence. With these various features, MegaMan Powered Up’s size was only limited by the player’s Memory Stick, which was generally either small or quite expensive, especially when the game was first released.

Literally hundreds of hours of gameplay. And that’s just figuring out the interface.

I’d generally count MegaMan Powered Up to be among the best games in the entire MegaMan series, as well as one of the best video game remakes of all-time. As such, I’d also say that it’s the perfect game for anyone trying to get into the series: it’s a perfect retelling of the first game, with top-notch gameplay and several bonus features. There’s only one problem: it’s not available on modern platforms, at least outside of Japan. You see, while many PlayStation Portable games are available as downloadable titles on the PlayStation Network, the North American version of MMPU had various technical difficulties that neither Capcom nor Sony were able to fix, leaving it in a state of limbo. While Rockman Rockman did end up seeing release on the Japanese PSN store, the difficult nature of the PlayStation Vita – the only platform still in production at the time of writing capable of playing PSP games – and dealing with other regions will make this difficult to obtain for gamers outside of Japan. Ironically, despite the game’s critical success, Capcom has never attempted re-releasing the game on any other platform, which just seems like a mistake to me. Bundling the game with Maverick Hunter X and selling it as a digital title on modern platforms (including PC) just seems like a brilliant move for these games that many fans of the series never got the chance to play. Better still, platforms like the Nintendo Switch and PC could easily improve the admittedly awkward Stage Construction interface – the mode’s only major limitation. Considering all of the re-releases Capcom’s been doing lately, I hope the PSP MegaMan games eventually get their day in the sun.

Interlude: MegaMan Universe

Of course, while MegaMan Powered Up didn’t see a direct successor, Capcom attempted to revive the stage builder concept in a game years later. MegaMan Universe had a unique artstyle – which I liked personally – and included cameo appearances from characters like Street Fighter’s Ryu, Sir Arthur from Ghosts ‘n Goblins and even the infamous “Bad Box Art” MegaMan from the North American cover of the original game. In addition to these unique features, the game appeared to be taking much of its inspiration from MegaMan 2, including all eight of the Robot Masters from MM2 in the game’s promotional material. In addition to customizing stages, players would also be given the opportunity to build their own playable characters by combining various pieces from existing models and customizing them with a unique name. The game was set to be the next release in the series after MegaMan 10, but it was unceremoniously cancelled soon after it was originally announced.

Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

The reason I bring this game up is that I actually played it. Back in late 2010, I attended New York Comic Con for the first time and visited Capcom’s booth. It was quite popular that year, with announcements like Okamiden on the DS, the similarly-cancelled MegaMan Legends 3 Project on 3DS and the original Marvel vs. Capcom 3. I was a Classic MegaMan fan at heart, so I had to get my hands on the game. I only got to play the demo at the kiosk once, but I still remember quite a few details. For example, the demo offered three different stages, each based on their difficulty – I obviously chose the most difficult stage. Each play session afforded the player with the standard 3 lives and I managed to complete the on my last life. For my troubles, I won a nice little prize, given to everyone who completed the most difficult stage: an inflatable lance based on Sir Arthur’s, marked with the MegaMan Universe logo, which I still have to this day. Honestly, there really wasn’t that much to hate about the game. At worst, the controls felt a bit wonky compared to other games in the series, but considering how early in development the game was, it could’ve easily been tightened up in future builds.

Brown and gray? Has MegaMan finally gone AAA?

However, this wasn’t taken into account by either the gaming press or the public in general. The game was considered an abomination at first glance. The artstyle was “hideous”. The controls were incompetent. Everything about the game was irredeemable. Just ignore the fact that MegaMan 10 was derided for being too similar to the previous game in the series, Universe was far, far too different. Soon after the game was first announced, news about the game began to dry up. I remember a short time before the game was officially cancelled, I asked Christian Svensson – then-Senior Vice President of Planning and Business Development at Capcom USA – about whether or not MegaMan Universe had been cancelled on Capcom-Unity’s “Ask Capcom” forum. He stayed cryptic, simply stating that the game was going in a new direction. Not long after, the game’s cancellation was officially announced. The games media in general was shocked – a MegaMan game getting cancelled? Unthinkable! – but not remotely disappointed. Everyone was more excited about MegaMan Legends 3 anyway, Universe was nothing more than a terrible game that no one wanted.

Low on cash, Roll scores a part-time job at Build-A-Bot.

Public perception of Universe did a complete 180 after Legends 3 was “cancelled”. Suddenly it had gone from a waste of Capcom’s resources to yet another innocent victim in the wake of the company’s sudden anti-MegaMan sentiment. I still consider most of the people who began mourning the demise of Universe once MML3 had met the same fate to be hypocrites of the highest order. A game that was literally smothered in its crib due to sheer antipathy from the very fanbase holding it up as an example of Capcom’s mistreatment of the franchise in general. My stomach still turns whenever I see people bring up MegaMan Universe and there’s one question on my mind every time I see anyone bring up the game’s existence: did you always care or just when it suited you?

At the very least, having a bigger screen would’ve been nice.

Of course, there have been more cancelled projects since then. A Korean MMORPG called “Rockman Online” was in development by NeoWiz Games and was set to feature characters from both the Classic and X series was announced around the same time as the other two projects, but wouldn’t be officially cancelled until 2013. There was also a gritty reboot planned for the MegaMan X series, a first-person shooter codenamed “Maverick Hunter”, set to be developed by Armature Studio, comprised of several developers who worked on Nintendo’s Metroid Prime games. The latter was only discovered long after it had been discarded, and while I joke that it’s the game the MegaMan X fanbase deserves, it honestly looked somewhat interesting.

Street Fighter X MegaMan

1987 may very well be the most important year in Capcom’s existence. It was the year that two of the series that led to them becoming household names were first released. I’ve already mentioned that the original MegaMan was released in December 1987, but the first Street Fighter – not Street Fighter II – was first released in arcades that summer on August 30^th. Just think about that, most companies these days would kill to start two brand-new highly-successful franchises in the same decade, let alone the same year. In 2012, Capcom celebrated Street Fighter’s 25^th anniversary with a massive media blitz and the release of Street Fighter x Tekken. Capcom decided to float MegaMan’s celebration to the following year – the less said on that, the better – but decided to give a small nod to the Blue Bomber during the World Warriors’ massive celebration. On December 17, 2012 – exactly 25 years after the release of Rockman on the Famicom in Japan – Capcom paid tribute to two of their flagship series with Street Fighter X MegaMan, a free downloadable PC game made available exclusively on the Capcom-Unity website.

The game originally began development as a fan-game back in 2009 by Seow Zong Hui, a Singaporean Engineering student going under the alias “Sonic”. He tried to recreate the MegaMan physics engine to practice his programming and due to the prevalence of 8-bit Street Fighter images drawn in the MegaMan style, he decided to put Ryu in the project on a whim. In 2012, he presented a work in progress build of the game to Capcom USA who decided to fund the project, in exchange for providing creative input and the exclusive rights to distribute the game online.

MegaMan blasting animals? This truly is a PC game.

Pretty much everything about this game resembles the classic 8-bit MegaMan games of the NES era. This time around, MegaMan regains his slide and charge shot from the later games in the series, but considering that he’s facing off with eight of the strongest fighters in the world, he’ll need them. All things considered, Seow Zong Hui did a pretty good job recreating the physics of the Classic MegaMan games. SFxMM takes bosses from various games in the Street Fighter canon: main protagonist Ryu; Blanka, Dhalsim and Chun-Li who made their debuts in Street Fighter II; Rose from Street Fighter Alpha; Rolento from Final Fight – who would go onto appear in the Alpha series; Urien from the Street Fighter III games and Crimson Viper from Street Fighter IV. The Wily Fortress in this game is themed around Shadoloo, with Balrog, Vega and M. Bison – or M. Bison, Balrog and Vega, if you go by the Japanese names – acting as the game’s fortress bosses.

Balrog’s stage literally just consists of running away from him. It’s perfect.

The game’s stages are standard MegaMan fare, each using settings that are associated with the origins of each Street Fighter. For example, Blanka’s level takes place in a Brazillian jungle, Dhalsim’s stage is a maze resembling his stage from SF2, Urien’s stage takes place in an Olmec temple and Rolento’s stage takes place on a construction site. Most of the stage enemies come from earlier games in the MegaMan series – Sniper Joes armed with laser and Mettools riding bicycles are among the highlights – but there are also some unique enemies, like flying swords, giant roses and even robots based on members of Gill’s Illuminati. The boss fights have also been tweaked from the traditional MegaMan games. In addition to the standard health meter, each boss also has a Revenge Meter – like the one found in SF4 – which fills as the boss takes damage. Once it’s completely full, the boss can perform a powerful Ultra Combo, which deals major damage in MegaMan gets hit by it. I liked this addition, as it managed to implement some elements from the Street Fighter games into the gameplay itself.

Brown and gray? I already made that joke!

On January 18^th, 2013, an updated version of the game – dubbed “v2” – was uploaded to Capcom-Unity, replacing the original. This new version added new features like improved controller support, bug fixes and most notably, a Password system based on those from the NES MegaMan games. Originally, SFxMM was intended as a one session game, but many players requested some kind of a save system. The game was also tweaked to be more user-friendly: confirmation prompts were added to the game’s quit and reset functions and a screenshot function was added, which made keeping track of passwords easy. This new version also increased the difficulty of the game’s final boss, making M. Bison a truly challenging foe.

The game also had a whole host of secrets. Originally, SF3’s Yang was planned as a boss character, but replaced by Chun-Li in the final game. His weapon, the Sei’ei Enbu, can be unlocked in-game via a secret code. There’s also a code to replace the entire game’s soundtrack with a recreation of Guile’s theme, relating to a popular internet meme. MegaMan could also sport a helmetless look with a special code on the boss select screen. There were also two secret bosses that could be unlocked by performing specific requirements before the game’s final stage. To unlock Akuma as the game’s secret true final boss, players must defeat four or more stage bosses with full health, earning a Perfect Victory. V2 added Sagat as a second secret boss, fought right before taking on M. Bison. To unlock that boss fight, players need only score four or more Perfects during the boss rematches in the third Shadaloo Fortress stage.

Does he or doesn’t he? Only his hairdresser knows for sure.

Of course, defeating each of the initial eight Street Fighters grants MegaMan a Special Weapon. In most cases, they’re actually based on real moves from each character’s moveset, but there are exceptions. As usual, I’ve decided to rank these from best to worst. My favorite weapon is easily Rose’s Soul Satellite, which surrounds the Blue Bomber with two spiritual orbs, acting sort of like a Leaf Shield. While active, MegaMan can fire another orb at no energy cost. The best part is that if MegaMan swaps weapons while using it, the orbs stay out, changing color to match Rock’s current weapon. Aegis Reflector was one of Urien’s Super Arts in SF3 and it produces a shield that reflects projectile attacks, disappearing either after 5 seconds or deflecting 3 shots. As with the Soul Satellite, the Reflector stays active while switching weapons. Then there’s the Optic Laser, originally one of C. Viper’s special moves in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 – which was, in turn, a reference to the X-Men character Cyclops. MegaMan fires off a powerful beam attack, consisting of four segments, each dealing its own share of the damage. Then there’s Ryu’s classic Hadouken, which can either fired normally or charged to become more powerful. Of course, MegaMan can also use this attack without even defeating Ryu in the first place: just perform the traditional Hadouken motion (down, down-forward, forward) followed by the fire button and MegaMan performs the signature attack, even without equipping a Special Weapon. Then there’s Dhalsim’s Yoga Inferno, which fires a stream of flames, while leaving MegaMan immobile – similar to the Wave Burner from MegaMan & Bass. The trajectory of the attack can be changed by hitting up or down. The Mine Sweeper, obtained after defeating Rolento, lobs a grenade at an arc. When it collides with anything, the bomb explodes, causing multiple hits of damage. Blanka’s Tropical Hazard is a random attack that isn’t really based on any of the Brazilian beastman’s attacks, rather one of his victory poses. MegaMan drops a watermelon right in front of him, which he can slide into or kick. He can also jump on top of it, bouncing into the air. In this sense, it’s much like MM8’s Mega Ball. Finally, there’s the Lightning Kick, Chun-Li’s signature attack. MegaMan does several quick kicks in succession, dealing decent damage at severely limited range. As for the unlockable Sei’ei Enbu technique, MegaMan is capable of moving faster, jumping higher and generating afterimages as he moves. These afterimages mimic MegaMan’s actions and even shoot Mega Buster shots when he does. Of course, MegaMan is limited to his standard weapons while using it and the energy meter counts down while the weapon’s in use. After inputting the secret code correctly, the Sei’ei Enbu can be activated by hitting the Left Weapon Change and Fire buttons at the same time.

20 takes and that was the best one.

As with pretty much everything else, SFxMM’s artstyle mimics the NES MegaMan games. MegaMan is accurate to the original design, while the sprite work on the Street Fighter characters seem similar to Capcom’s own 8-bit take, but they also manage to be animated fluidly, which is impressive. The game’s backgrounds are hit-and-miss, some stages exceed the NES’s capabilities, while others end up looking a little plain but accurate. The various menus and map screens do a good job of blending 8-bit MegaMan and Super Street Fighter IV aesthetics, which is a nice touch. I also appreciated seeing Dan in the game, even if he was essentially a training dummy to show off all of MegaMan’s new weapons.

The game’s soundtrack was composed by Alex Esquivel, better known by the pseudonym “A_Rival”. If I’m going to be honest, I think it’s perfect for this game. A_Rival essentially transposes various Street Fighter themes into a style that’s practically identical to 8-bit MegaMan. In some cases, he even blends together each Street Fighter’s stage music with classic MegaMan tunes, like Dhalsim who takes riffs from Snakeman’s theme in MM3 or Rolento who takes cues from Heatman’s stage. I think my favorite themes in the game would have to be the Boss Battle music, based on the Drive-In At Night stage in SF4; the Get A Weapon theme, based on Dan’s Stage; the first Shadaloo stage, based on Balrog’s theme; as well as the songs from Rolento, Blanka, C. Viper and Urien’s levels.

There’s really little to complain about when it comes to Street Fighter X MegaMan. Considering it literally costs nothing, it’s actually a really touching tribute to the two franchises that made Capcom a household name in the first place. The only thing that really makes it bittersweet is the fact that many people assumed that this was a sign of big things to come for the Blue Bomber. After Keiji Inafune left Capcom, MegaMan in general has been ignored by the company – quite a massive shift for a series that, at its peak, would receive roughly half a dozen games per year. And yet, the hiatus never really ended. MegaMan’s seen several licensing deals since then, not to mention a major cameo in Super Smash Brothers for 3DS and Wii U, but nothing in the way of actual new releases. The fact that the game’s still just relegated to the Capcom-Unity website also feels like a crime to me. You’d think that Capcom USA would at least consider putting the game on Steam as a free download. Maybe they’ll do that this year for the 30^th anniversary. At the very least, it’d be nice to see it on a more permanent and accessible platform. Worse yet, since SFxMM’s release, there have been several other high-profile fangames – which I won’t refer to directly for obvious reasons. I’m surprised that Capcom USA hasn’t considered making similar deals, at the very least, it would probably help to quell the fanbase’s lamentations over the Blue Bomber’s perceived demise.

Interlude: MegaMan Legacy Collection 1 & 2

This brings us to the latest releases in the MegaMan series, which are ironically enough just compilations. On the plus side, the games had been pretty much relegated to the Virtual Console on the Nintendo Wii, 3DS and Wii U for the past few years, so allowing other platforms some form of re-releases is nice. Better still, these are the first official releases of mainline Classic MegaMan games on the PC – the Hi-Tech Expressions games obviously don’t count. At this point, the sheer lack of releases in the franchise has left many fans listless, so seeing the series make an appearance on modern platforms, even if an extremely familiar one, was welcome.

Before I get into the Legacy Collections themselves, some of you may be wondering why I didn’t cover the MegaMan Anniversary Collection, released in 2004 on the PlayStation 2 and GameCube, with a delayed Xbox release the following year. Quite frankly, I did bring up the Anniversary Collection twice before – when discussing Rockman Complete Works and the arcade games – and the remainder of the package seems to be hardly worth any mention. The extras consist of a few “interesting” remixes of classic MegaMan songs, an image gallery and a variety of video extras that vary between versions: the first episode of the Ruby-Spears MegaMan cartoon on the PS2, the GameCube version including an interview with Keiji Inafune and bafflingly, the first episode of MegaMan NT Warrior (the English dub of the anime based on the Battle Network games) on the Xbox version. In fact, what few people tend to realize is that MMAC also had several technical issues, including terrible ports of both MegaMan 7 and 8. Various audio cues and songs were distorted heavily in every game and worst of all, the GameCube version reversed the jump and fire buttons and the controls couldn’t be altered. The fact that so many people considered the Legacy Collections to be ripoffs compared to the previous abomination of a compilation reeks of rose-colored nostalgia. And that’s a pretty damning statement coming from someone who has essentially written a novel’s worth of words on a video game series that started in the late ‘80s.

I love that there’s the option to just fight bosses in these collections.

The first MegaMan Legacy Collection was released in 2015 by Digital Eclipse for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC platforms in North America, Europe and even Japan, where it took on the name “Rockman Classics Collection”. A 3DS version with additional bonus content was released the following year. It was originally billed as having perfect recreations of the first six MegaMan games, when in reality, it used an emulator. While the game did launch with various issues, bug fixes allowed the collection to reach its full potential. Compared to the aforementioned MMAC and the Virtual Console releases on various Nintendo platforms, these are probably the best official releases of the NES games to date. Digital Eclipse also managed to include several visual options. Aspect ratios include Original, a pixel-perfect recreation of the NES’s original resolution; an extended “Full” setting, which increases the resolution while keeping the original’s aspect ratio and Wide, which renders the game in a 16:9 for people who love seeing the 8-bit classics squashed beyond recognition. The first two settings also have the option to add a border, consisting of artwork from the Japanese box arts and there are also three filter options: the option to run the game without a filter, one that emulates a classic CRT TV (fittingly labelled “TV”), and Monitor, which essentially acts as a happy medium. The game also has full controller customization – including a rapid-fire button – and settings are maintained between games. MMLC also included savestates, allowing players to save their game at any time and return to it at their leisure. Digital Eclipse and Capcom would end up partnering for a second collection of NES re-releases – the aptly-titled Disney Afternoon Collection – which released in 2017.

NES Remix, eat your heart out.

Meanwhile, Capcom ended up developing MegaMan Legacy Collection 2 in-house and released it the same year. This game consisted of MegaMans 7 through 10 and the ports were about on-par with Digital Eclipse’s work in my opinion. The collection, like its predecessor, was released on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, though oddly, not on the 3DS. The game’s menus are based on MegaMan 8, utilizing existing art assets and music, as opposed to the more generic theming from the first Legacy Collection. The save system is different from the previous game, focusing on checkpoints rather than save states. Many players complained about this change, but I prefer it: it does a much better job of balancing the games’ difficulty, acting more like an infinite lives code than a rewind button. The aspect ratios from the previous game return, though the “Monitor” filter option is removed from the first MMLC. In exchange, players now have the choice of 4 different background borders. Controller layouts differ between games, simply due to the fact that the games themselves had different control options and auto-fire is only an option in MegaMan 7, 9 and 10. Likewise, MegaMan 9 has a different aspect ratio compared to the other games in the collection, appearing smaller in the Original and Full resolutions. This ends up making for a less cohesive package compared to the first MMLC, but everything ends up working out.

Is it just me or does Frostman’s concept art look way more like Coldman?

Both collections have similar extras. There are music players containing the soundtracks of every game in each respective compilation, as well as art galleries. Digital Eclipse definitely provided a more robust package in the latter’s case, but Capcom managed to scrounge together a decent collection. A nice feature present in both games is the ability to access boss fights through the Database and Art Gallery respectively. There are also a unique set of challenges in both games and this is where the first Legacy Collection really shines compared to its sequel. Due to the fact that the NES games all essentially run on the same engine, Digital Eclipse was actually able to mix and match segments from all six games. The second collection’s challenges are similar, but generally limited to a single game at a time. There are also boss rushes in the challenge mode. To make up for its shortcomings, MMLC2 also includes all of the extra modes from MM9 and 10 in the Challenge section. Likewise, all of the DLC for both games can be unlocked by completing each game once – or by inputting a special code on each game’s title screen, for people not willing to replay the game all over again.

Not as awesome as the first game’s challenges, but still a nice extra.

Of course, both collections are great additions to modern platforms, bringing back 10 Classic MegaMan games to modern and long-time gamers alike. I’d honestly say that both Legacy Collections are perhaps the ideal way to enjoy the Classic MegaMan series. Some have speculated that Capcom may work on a similar collection for the MegaMan X series next, but personally I’d love to see at least one more compilation for the Classic games. While the first two definitely scratch an itch, there are so many games left in the Classic series that I believe deserve the same treatment – I’d personally love to see an official English translation of the Super Famicom version of MegaMan & Bass, console releases of the Game Boy games, another port of the arcade games and even the first official North American release of MegaMan: The Wily Wars! There’s still so much left that could be put in a third Legacy Collection.

The Future of MegaMan

So we’ve reached the end of the existing games. Before I move on to discuss my own thoughts for the franchise as a whole, there’s one oddity present in MegaMan Legacy Collection 2 that I’d like to discuss. Tucked away in MegaMan 8’s art gallery is a strange piece of artwork. Resembling the Blue Bomber’s design from Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, but utilizing a transformation not unlike the Soul Unison concept from the Battle Network series. Matters were complicated when a Nendroid figurine of MegaMan’s sister Roll was announced this past September, sporting a brand-new design with a similar artstyle to MMLC2’s mystery artwork. Speculation has run rampant since then and frankly, I don’t know what to make of either image. I guess I’ll just hope for the best.

Seriously, I’m digging these designs.

As I said in the beginning of this segment, I’m not going to pretend I know what the future holds in store for the Blue Bomber or any of his offshoots. The best I can really do is speculate on the directions I’d love to see the series take. Whatever impact the departure of Keiji Inafune had on the series as a whole will probably remain a mystery for all times, but considering the sheer amount of merchandising associated with the character, as well as the backlash at the 25^th anniversary’s anemic offerings, I’m almost positive that Capcom has to be gearing up for something big. Whether that’s a good or bad thing remains to be seen – after all, I obviously wrote all of this before the actual 30^th anniversary – so until then, all I can leave you with are my opinions on the franchise itself.

For starters, three sub-franchises in the MegaMan brand have come to a conclusion: MegaMan Zero, Battle Network and its successor, Star Force. Considering the fact that one of the challenges surrounding the MM brand as a whole is the splintering of the franchise, leaving any series that has reached a satisfactory conclusion in hibernation is probably the best bet for the intellectual properties’ health. At best, I could see another compilation title for the Zero games and especially the Battle Network series. Star Force, on the other hand, will likely remain dead for the foreseeable future, considering its overall unpopularity. Likewise, I wouldn’t expect a follow-up to Rockman Xover: the game was so unpopular, that North Americans campaigned to prevent its release in their region and the mobile game ceased operations back in 2015.

The MegaMan ZX series, on the other hand, ended on a cliffhanger. MegaMan ZX Advent, the second and as-of-right-now final entry in the series, seemed to imply that a third game would’ve provided a finale. Unfortunately, out of all of the games I’d consider possible, it’s the long shot. I don’t know if Inti Creates and Capcom have maintained a working relationship – especially considering the former’s partnerships with various other companies, as well as their own independently published titles – but even if that were still viable, the ZX games didn’t have the largest fanbase – though Advent did manage to outperform the original in sales. I would personally love to see a MegaMan ZX3, but I’m pretty sure I’m in the minority as far as the overall MM fanbase is concerned.

Then there’s the game that almost was: MegaMan Legends 3. On the surface, it seems like an obvious choice, especially if Capcom intends to get back on the fanbase’s good side. I’d argue that there are far too many open wounds involving the game’s development and regardless of his present reputation, doing the game without Keiji Inafune would probably be a massive mistake. MegaMan Volnutt was the first iteration of the character that Inafune himself designed and given his schemes to get the game made in the first place – Capcom’s MT Framework engine was even named after MegaMan Trigger – I just feel like there’s a chance that a game without Inafune at the helm wouldn’t live up to anyone’s expectations. The excitement surrounding the MML3 Project and its unreleased prototype only serve to complicate matters. Considering the fact that Keiji Inafune seems to have moved on, supposedly working on the suspiciously similar Red Ash, I think the ship may have sailed on this one. Still, if Capcom’s willing to take the risk and if Inafune managed to create an entire outline for the game’s plot, it could be viable to some degree. I just wouldn’t hold my breath.

Of course, who’s to say that a new MegaMan game would necessarily have to exist within an existing sub-series? Capcom seems to be gearing up for a massive marketing push surrounding the upcoming cartoon, developed by Man of Action Studios, and set to premiere sometime next year. This new animated series is set to take place within its own continuity and several people have speculated that any new MegaMan game would likely be a tie-in game. I’m apprehensive toward the idea: Capcom hasn’t had the best track record with releases and tie-in video games for similar multimedia projects – Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures and Sonic Boom – have generally ended up mediocre at best. The fact that this new cartoon itself seems to have been designed from the ground-up to make me hate it as much as humanly possible doesn’t help matters much. Frankly, I’d rather see a title based around Bad Box Art MegaMan. Honestly, ever since his cameo appearance in Street Fighter X Tekken, I’d been hoping for a title based around the character, maybe designed as a more modern incarnation of the Legends series, combining action-RPG and third-person shooter mechanics. There’s absolutely no chance this would happen, but I can dream, right?

I’m not kidding. I’d buy a game starring this guy in a heartbeat.

The recent appearances of MegaMan X and Sigma as well as the return of Zero in Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite has led many people to speculate that MegaMan X9 may be a part of Capcom’s upcoming plans for the franchise. I’ve already gone into details about my concerns with the project years ago, and I’d say many issues with the concept still apply to this day. I supposed it would at least be interesting to see what Capcom ends up putting together for this kind of release. A SNES-inspired continuation from X8’s cliffhanger ending seems like the safest bet, though I could also see a full-on reboot based on either the 16 or 32-bit era’s artstyle happening just as easily. Whatever Capcom decides, I’m almost certain some major portion of the MMX fanbase will feel overlooked in the process.

I wonder if they just recycled Zero’s alternate costume from the last game to make X’s model.

It’s funny, roughly a decade ago, I actually ended up coming up with some concepts for fan-games in the MegaMan series, three in total. MegaMan 9 obviously happened, but the other two were a bit more out there. First off, there was MegaMan VI – quite literally, a successor to the Game Boy games. The other was a MegaMan & Bass 2, which would essentially expand the playable roster to 3, with the inclusion of Protoman, and focus on the first game’s gimmick of different paths per character to a greater extent. The actual design documents I came up with all those years ago don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, but I’d love it if Capcom effectively did either of these concepts. Of course, by this point, I’d probably prefer seeing Roll as a playable character over Protoman in future MegaMan titles, but honestly, the more the merrier. Unfortunately, as the release of the Nintendo Switch effectively means that there are no longer any dedicated handheld consoles any more, making a successor to the Game Boy games sort of feels pointless. Likewise, MegaMan & Bass’s major gimmick of having multiple playable characters was implemented into MegaMans 9 and 10, so there’s really little point in making a direct sequel to that either.

At this point in time, if you asked me what I feel like Capcom should do with the Classic MegaMan series, I’d have two answers for you, answers that honestly go hand-in-hand. A while back on Twitter, someone mentioned the idea of making a “MegaMan Mania”: not the failed Game Boy Advance compilation, but rather another Classic MegaMan throwback title in the same style as the recent Sonic Mania. I’d essentially pitch the game as a pure anniversary game, effectively taking Robot Masters from the previous games – MegaMans 1 through 10, MegaMan & Bass, MegaMan V and a few others to round things out to a grand total of 16 – built in a style that is inspired by the NES games, except more advanced. The other game would be MegaMan 11, which would essentially deviate from the NES style entirely. People complained about MM10 continuing the throwback trend 9 started, so it’s only fair to finally bring the series back in a more modern light. MM11 would effectively try to modernize the series in the way that 7 and 8 attempted, but without making concessions to the NES era’s pixel-perfect gameplay. I can’t really say much about the concept except that the gameplay would still be 2D. Whether that comes with some sort of faux-retro look more advanced than the traditional 8-bit style, a 2.5D game with 3D models on a 2D plane or even hand-drawn artwork, if the core of the series remains intact, I’d love to see just what kind of crazy directions the series could go through if Capcom decided to try an entirely new style.

That brings my retrospective to its conclusion. I guess I felt the need to speculate on future releases, not only because the MegaMan line-up is sparse compared to the other series I’ve covered – Zelda, Tekken and Ys all had big releases this year – but also to give myself a sense of closure. I wrote this whole thing over the course of a few months to have it ready in time for December 17^th, 2017: the 30^th anniversary of the day the original Rockman was released in Japan. We’ve all been expecting some big announcement to come either on or around that day. In that sense, that’s essentially my deadline before I decide whether or not Capcom has given up on the series entirely, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that regard. Compared to the other Retrospectives I’ve done so far, this feels bittersweet. It almost feels like I’m saying goodbye to one of the video game franchises that got me into the medium in the first place. Compared to various other series I consider important, MegaMan’s really the only one that seemed to have a distinct point where it felt like it could be ending, and it happened for some very petty reasons. I know that the series may not be dead, but I also worry that if it does come back, it may return as little more than a shambling shadow of its former glory. I guess in that sense, this whole retrospective feels almost like a eulogy. For a while, I considered doing a section on games that were clear spiritual successors to the Blue Bomber’s jump-and-shoot legacy, but it sort of came across to me as bitter. In the end, they do provide comfort: even if Capcom decides to never make another MegaMan game, there are still developers that were inspired by these classics and create brand-new legacies all their own.

[Postscript: Since I wrote these articles, Capcom has announced re-releases of the mainline MegaMan X games, as well as a brand-new 2.5D MegaMan 11 for all major platforms. I’m happy about this news and can’t wait to see what the future has in store for the Blue Bomber, but decided to leave this article intact, simply because I thought it was important.]