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Mega Man Portable History
Written by Cody Musser on Tuesday, September 12, 2006
We take a look back at portable Mega Man.
Mega Man is undoubtedly one of my favorite gaming characters ever. Be it Mega Man, X, or even his compatriot Zero, I tune in to their travels like the zombies tuning into reality television. I'm such a fan of the series that I'd play through the worst of the games regardless of their shame. I loved Mega Man X7. However, being a fan doesn't necessarily make me oblivious. I might have played the worst of the series, but I did, in fact, know how bad it was.
Mega Man has a curse, and while I could blame it on Old Blue himself, it's probably best to say that Capcom has a curse when it comes to Mega Man. They can't seem to take what is an amazing series, or you could say an amazing series of series', and let them be. They've branded each and every successful Mega Man series to near-death, and Mega Man himself gets treated as more of a joke than a legend. How many titles are there now? 100?
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Therein lies the rub. As a company Capcom must do what it can to achieve some financial sustenance, and as always, that isn't necessarily the best interest of the consumer. If re-treading Mega Man titles with only small changes from one to the next keeps their company afloat, then I doubt Capcom feels very terrible about it. It's mostly a sound decision.
While Capcom may have reached a level far beyond any other company for pushing their characters to the absolute limit of acceptance; they have maintained interest in the Mega Man franchise all these years by using an impressive scheme; a scheme that New Super Mario Bros. seemed to understand very well. Change everything, by changing nothing.
Throughout the entirety of the Mega Man franchise the series has gone through some major overhauls. Mega Man was replaced with X, X with Zero, Zero with the two human protagonists in the upcoming Mega Man ZX. The visuals have gone from simple to utterly lush 2D brilliance, and numerous other additions have been made to increase the depth of gameplay.
Yet, underneath all the glitz and glamour that Capcom has poured into revitalizing Mega Man through the ages, the fact stands, that they've actually changed nothing at all. The same core mechanics that exist in Mega Man on the NES stand true in Mega Man X8, and every other title. Excluding the Battle Network series, Mega Man today is simply a prettier version of Mega Man 20 years ago.
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It's an impressive feat, and while Capcom may be guilty of whoring Mega Man somewhat, we should probably commend them for it first. They've succeeded in selling us the same game for 20 years, and in truth, it's as good now, as it was then. The Mega Man franchise has even made it this far by not necessarily always getting better, or perhaps, getting better, just so slowly we barely notice. Praise is due, but before we could praise Capcom for their efforts, they went and did it again.
Mega Man ZX, and Ryuusei No Rockman are both re-inventions of the Mega Man series that have recently been the most popular: It is traditionally when we see these jumps in series, that Capcom offers players the next evolution in the Mega Man franchise, the next defining gameplay element that will allow the series to maintain its hold for another five or so years.
In anticipation of these new titles, and in reverence of the Mega Man series that have come and gone, we've taken a look at the gameplay elements Capcom has introduced to keep Mega Man fresh in the eyes of we, the ever-critical gamers. Naturally, we've allotted ourselves only the portable titles with which to choose from, that being our creed here at Modojo.
posted September 12, 2006