|
It's an age old question. "Why the hell do so many people love this damn game?" Over the years, I've seen quite a few games receive rave reviews and cult-like fan followings, while I'm left scratching my head, trying to see what everyone else sees.
One of those games is the Mega Man series. While there are certain qualities I love about the games, to me, the bad outweighs the good. By far. Hit the link for my renouncement of the blue bomber.
First, let's take a look at the series as a whole. By my count, there are nine installments in the original series, seven in the portable series, eleven in the X series, three in the Legends series, 21 in the Battle Network series, four in the Zero series, two in the ZX series, and seven in the Star Force series. Holy shit. And that's not even counting odd-ball spin-offs, remakes, or cell phone games.
And how many of these games are good? After adjusting for nostalgic inflation, a small selection in light of the vast amount of releases can be considered well-made. The realists among us will accept that most Mega Man games are simply average or below average. The first few titles in the original series and X series get a good rap, as do the Zero games, and Legends installments. More recent critical successes were Mega Man 9 and the slightly above average ZX games. For such a mixed bag, Mega Man sure is held in high regard. Why?
To be fair, some of the games in the Network Battle series have gotten pretty high scores, but I somehow doubt that people get that shimmer in their eye when they hear the name "Mega Man" thanks to the RPG / card game.
The thing I hate about traditional Mega Man games is how difficult they are. Don't get me wrong; I love my games hard - Ikaruga, Viewtiful Joe, Nocturne - you name it. But there's a big difference between Mega Man and those games. To distinguish between them, I'd call Mega Man "stupid hard" and those other games "intelligently challenging." Where Ikaruga is meticulously weaved together, and where Viewtiful Joe is always hard but never cheap, Mega Man is carelessly unrefined. When you get blown to bits in R-Type, the reaction is "I should have seen that coming. That was all my fault." In Mega Man, it's "What the shit was that?"
It's as if the designers just told the programmers, "OK, put a ladder there, but make sure the player can only reach it by a single pixel's distance." Or, "Have the walls of that room attack Mega Man. Oh and make the room smaller so he has virtually no where to go." (I realize this was done purposely in Mega Man 9 as a sort of in-joke, so I can't criticize that particular installment this way.) In Mega Man, there is no room for error. Where Ikaruga always gives you a way out of a sticky situation, Mega Man kills you long before you realized where to jump. Other than a small handful of older first person shooters which make my brain hurt (due to their fast speed), Mega Man is the only series to give me a headache. What I'm really trying to say here is, "Fuck you, Mega Man. And why the hell can't you duck or shoot upwards?"
With that out of the way, I'd like to reiterate my love for certain aspects of Mega Man. Main character designs are always either super cute or super awesome (excluding shitty GBA games). I'll even give Capcom a pass for pretty much stealing Astro Boy from Osamu Tezuka. Along with the characters, the Mega Man series has some of the best game music around. The Mega Man 3 intro and Wily Stage of Mega Man 2 are pure classics in my opinion.
Other than that though? Yeah, mostly shit that gets too much praise, probably thanks to childhood memories.
|
Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site.. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account! 
I actually never played a Mega Man game until I was about 18 or 19 and I remember my initial reaction being "how the fuck could anyone like this!?" because it was just so damned hard. The enemies had no patterns and they just randomly fucked you up out of nowhere.
After playing some of the games (and still never beating a damned one) I've come to appreciate them a great deal and respect them for what they are (pretty, but cheap), but I'm a bit masochistic when it comes to gaming.