Classic Era Mega Man
Game 1: Mega Man 2 - Nintendo NES
Mega Man 2 was perhaps the first mega man game I ever played (I don't remember playing Mega Man 1 till later). Mega Man 2 is arguably one of the hardest and most challenging Mega Man games I have played (I thought Mega Man 9 was pretty challenging too). I remember when I first played Mega Man 2, I was just a little kid (maybe 7 years old?) living in Illionois and used to have friend (his name was Stephen) and he had that game and I used to go to his house sometimes ad play that game with him (of course, now days I have the Anniversary Collection version of the game). Mega Man 2 was quite fun, yet perhaps one of the most challenging games in the classic Mega Man franchise. Noteworthy moments and notes about the game:
- First mega man game to feature 8 robot masters (if I remember correctly, Mega Man 1 only featured 6)
- First mega man game to feature Dr Wily's castle. While Mega Man 1 did have Dr Wily levels, it did not have a full castle to play through like Mega Mans 2-10 does.
- To date, currently this is the only mega man game where the boss music remains the same throughout the whole game. The robot masters, Dr Wily stage bosses, Dr Wily's first form, and Dr Wily's Alien form (his final form) all have the same boss music. Even Mega Man 1 had 2 different boss musics (the robot masters boss fights and later Dr Wily stage boss fights) .
- Noteworthy boss fights includes: Metal Man (interestingly he is very weak to metal, which can kill him in 2 hits when you fight him in the teleporter room), Wood Man (he had the wood shield), Quick Man (his primary weakness is Flash, but it only takes out half of his energy bar), Mecha Dragon, the turret boss battle (the one that you have to use crash bombs to defeat), as well as Dr Wily in his alien form.
- Another unique thing to Mega Man 2: the infamous Wall turret boss (4th stage in the Dr Wily castle). This is the only boss in the series I am aware of where one popular strategy involves using the crash bombs on the explodable walls, die, refill crash bombs, and face the boss again (the second time around has those walls gone) with all of the turrets exposed. Apparently, there is another way to do it without dying at least once, but that sees trickier in my opinion.
- Mega Man 2 has perhaps one of the most the most Dr Wily castle levels in the series (6 levels long).
Game 2: Mega Man 3
Mega Man 3 was definitely a gem in the classic Mega Man series in my opionion. This game was the 3rd installment in the series. I remember I first saw the game when an old friend of mine brought a copy over to my house and played through the game with me, though eventually I would get my own copy of the game (especially the Anniversary Collection of Mega Man for Xbox). This game was pretty addicting too, as sometimes would spend hours playing the game from the beginning to the end.
Notes about Mega Man 3:
- This game has perhaps that longest robot master section of the game. In addition to the usual 8 robot master levels, you have to play through 4 of them a second time through and fight robot masters from mega man 2 (reincarnated as "gamma robots"), with 2 major boss fights in each level. After those, there is a boss fight with "break man" (protoman?) and then after that is the Dr Wily levels.
- To date, Mega Man 3 marks the only game in the series that I am aware of where all 8 robot masters from a previous mega man (from mega man) game make an appearence in the sequel version. Sure Mega Man 7 has a resurrected version of Guts Man, and in Mega Man 10 "The Archives" boss fights in the first Dr Wily stage have abilities from various robot masters in the previous games (i.e, Wood Man, Slash Man, Tornado Man, etc), but those ones are not quite the same as how it was in Mega Man 3, where all 8 robot master from a previous game make a reappearence
- First game to feature Protoman, this time more as a "close associate". I think at the time the creators of Mega Man weren't sure if Protoman was going to be an ally or enemy, though Protoman does eventually become an ally of Mega Man (probably after being framed by Dr Wily in Mega Man 5 as well as turning on Wily in Mega Man 4).
- To date, Mega Man 3 is probably the most creative game when it comes to the final boss fights with Dr Wily in both forms. In his first from, he attacks Mega Man in a huge spider walker machine (not sure what else to call it), and in his final form he pilots a huge gamma robot (the one with the horns)
From Mega Man 4, onwards, while the creators are pretty creative with Dr Wily's first form, his final form is more or less the same where you are in a room and he teleports around the room (much like what Count Dracula does in the Castlevania series, where he teleports around and attacks when reappearing).
- Mega Man 3, in my opinion, has probably the easiest Dr Wily stages compared to most of the other games in the series I thought the Dr Wily levels in Mega Mans 2 and 4 were much more challenging. Also, some of the bosses (such as the turtles and mega man clone) can easily be beaten by the regular mega buster. Even the blog monster has a pattern that is relatively easy to remember (he is more challenging in Mega Man 1 and Mega Man X5).
- Interesting cheat: if you think the game is too hard, there was a cheat where if you had 2 controllers, one person can hold down "right" on the d pad on controller 2 and if you fall down a hole, you would lose all of your health bar, but would not die an would pretty much become invincible. The only way he could die then would be to fall on spikes or get smashed.
- One of 2 mega man games to feature Rush Marine. He can be very useful for some of the underwater sections of the game, such as gemini man stage as well as the first Dr Wily castle level. Rush Marine seems to have disappeared from Mega Man 5 onwards. Also, there is a cheat using the password menu that makes it so that you can start with all 9 E tanks as well as one that makes it so you can start the game with at least one robot aster already defeated
- Mega Man 3 is also the first game in the series to feature Rush the dog (aka Rush Coil, Rush Jet, and Rush Marine)
Game 3: Mega Man 4
Mega Man 4 was definitely another classic in the series. This game does seem to several firsts in the series. Here are some notes about Mega Man 4:
1. First game in the series to feature the powered up version of the mega buster. Starting with Mega Man 4, players could hold down the attack button to charge up the mega buster shot and shoot a charged shot at enemies (can be somewhat effective against bosses and stronger enemies).
2. First game in the series to feature balloon and wire power ups that Mega Man can get The balloons function much like their counterparts in Mega Man 2 (they have the helicopter blade underneath and mega man can use them to move upwards and is an alternative to rush jet and and rush coil)
3. First game in the series where Dr Wily is not the only primary antagonist that Mega Man is up against (aka Dr Cossack). Dr Cossack is a russian doctor that unwittingly became a pawn of Dr Wily after Wily kidnapps Dr Cossack's daughter and forces him to fight Mega Man. Interestingly, for first time through players of the game (especially back when it was first released back in the 1990's long before the internet as we know it became main stream), they wouldn't know about Dr Wily until after defeating Dr Cossack (the game makes no mention of Dr Wily before that point) It is only after you defeat Dr Cossack when Dr Wily is revealed as the puppet master behind Dr Cossack and then the Dr Wily Stages of the game begin.
4. This is also the first game in the series to feature 2 castles players have to play through (first Dr Cossack's castle and later Dr Wily's castle). By the way, there is no save point or codes in between the 2 castles, so players had to play through both on in one setting (otherwise if they turn off the console they would have had to start over in the game's final levels).
5. First game in the series to feature Dr Wily's usual final form, where you are in a room and Wily teleports around and attacks after reappearing. This version of Dr Wily's final form is pretty much the same in the remaining classic Mega Man games (though in Mega Man 10, Mega Man is up against 2 Wily saucers) .
6. This game is the first game in the series where the boss music remains the same in the robot masters, Dr Cossack, and Dr Wily Castle bosses of the game. The boss music does not change until you fight Dr Wily's final form (that is also pretty much the same kind of deal in Mega Mans 5 and 6 too).
7. This game also marks the first Mega Man game to feature a giant Metalloid as major boss fight (sure there were some large metalloids in Mega Man 3 during the second time through in Needle Man's stage, but it was not a major boss fight, like it's counter part is in Mega Man 4).
Game 4: Mega Man 7
Game 5: Mega Man 10
Mega Man X era
Game 1: Mega Man X1
Game 2: Mega Man X4
Game 3: Mega Man X5
Game 4: Mega Man X8
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