09/07/02 Another Mega Man Article Contra may be a great game and all, but let's face facts, the rest of the games in the series suck. Operation C is ok, but even Alien Wars which people seem to like so much, I can't find myself getting into it. River City Ransom has a bunch of "sequels" as well but half of them are barely mediocre, especially anything post-NES. Only one series stands up to be the greatest series. That of course, is Mega Man. A general plot of the quality of the series can be seen here: Note that each dot represents a different game in the series however due to spacial constraints not all the dots coule be included and none of the dots are labeled. As you can see we have a few peaks and valleys. The series definitely peaks around Mega Man 3. If there is one game I've played more then even Contra it's Mega Man 3. I could tell you pretty much everything about the game backwards and forwards. 8 normal bosses and levels, plus 4 Doc Robot levels and an additional 8 bosses, then another 5 Wily Levels, not to mention the first game to include Rush, Sliding, and Proto Man, anyone who claims Mega Man 2 is the superior game is severely fucked in the head and should be slugged in the ear. Also we have another peak near "Mega Man 9" a.k.a. Rock Man and Forte. Yes I realize this game is officially not Mega Man 9, but it fills the hole in the numbering. See, Mega Man 8, Mega Man 9, Mega Man X (10). This rise stays with us through most of the X series as well. A fine series it is indeed. Take the classic formula, add in nice extras like wall jumping, cool animal themed bosses and Zero and you have a sure hit. Not to mention we actually get a story to go with out game. Well, story is pretty heavy for describing what we get, it's more like a constant speech about how horrible it is that Robots and Humans can't get along. The series is not without it's dark side however. It's horrible dark twisted evil twin if you will. That of course is the Game Boy versions of this game. Most of them are Rehashes of old games, the exceptions being Mega Man V and the Battle Network Series. Unfortunately Battle Network is a horrible monument to slow moving crap. Take everything you love about Mega Man and turn it into an RPG. Now add in everything you hate about RPGS, a.k.a. the random encounters, and multiply them by 500 and add them into the mix. Now remove the usual point to random encounters, i.e. "Leveling up so the random encounters become less of a chore" and remove it completely. What you get is a game that will become a pointless bore after about an hour of playing. It had a lot of promise though and I like a lot of the other aspects of the game. Oh yes did I mention the innovative yet frustratingly lame battle system? You get this weird time based grid based random card thing in stead of the usual "equip and pick a command" fare most RPGs give us. I should probably mention the bright shinning opposite of Battle Network's black hole. That of course is the Mega Man Legends series. It's a shame that Capcom has probably dropped interest in this series, it's so wonderfully nice. While it's more of an Adventure then an RPG, it's close enough to match back to back with Battle Network on opposite ends of the goodness scale. This time we get Mega Man in a fully 3D world with an actual DECENT plot and characters we can enjoy watching and listening to. Not to mention all the Servbots you could ask for. I should warn people though the middle part of this series "The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, doesn't have Mega Man in it and is quite a bit different from most Mega Man games. It's actually a bunch of pretty cool Mini-games. Some people may not like this though, so be wary. What's in store for the future? Probably a 3rd Battle Network game, hopefully a 3rd Mega Man Legends game. Definitely X7 (wasn't this series supposed to be done at 5?), this time X gets the 3D treatment. Not to mention the Game Boy will hopefully get it's first decent original series with Mega Man Zero. While the series has finally started to die down a bit, this one still keeps on ticking. Not to mention it's possibly the longest running series to date, definitely if you count all the remakes and re-releases. if you haven't played a Mega Man game ever I hope someone comes along and kicks the shit out of you, for your sake.