I don’t know why but Mega Man has never appealed to me. Sure he looks cool, the franchise has a ton of great characters that I recognise via 2000’s YouTube Poop osmosis, and they even based a Pokémon on it (partially anyway). But my brain decided he was just a little dude in a blue mech suit and that’s wasn’t my style.
This weekend I decided to prove myself wrong and with the help of Sean Seanson’s Capcom video, I gave the first Mega Man game on the NES a try. Being a NES platformer—of which I’ve played a ton this year—I knew what to expect and it was fun. Obviously the series has gotten miles better over the years and I knew it wasn’t the quintessential Mega Man experience but I didn’t need the heady heights of platform blasting; bright colours, decent level design, and cool bosses would be sufficient and Mega Man satiated me.
Now I’m the type of gamer who wants to immerse themselves in a series after the first title. I could have carried on in release order but knowing that the X series existed made my next choice easy. I opted for the SNES version and damn, that sprite work. They don’t make ’em like they used to. I liked that you couldn’t just run from left to right to finish everything. Wall jumping is my favourite traversal mechanic for sure and it was great to use in X as was charging up your weapon to unleash on an unsuspecting enemy or boss.
I think I’ll stick to the X titles from here on before I give Legends a try and then who knows. I’m having a good time with that little blue scamp and all his colourful frenemies.