Anyway, I think it’s funny that ever since Mega Man X came out, Zero has always seemed like one of the more popular characters in the franchise.
The clip above notwithstanding, it’s easy to see why.
He has a flashy and unique design, his theme music was bad ass, and his first appearance in the series involves him saving your ass from Vile, a character who was impossible to beat at that point in the game.
Add in the fact that in later entries in the series he is given a beam saber, and you have the template for a bad ass supporting character more than capable of eclipsing the popularity of the rather vanilla protagonist.
Pictured: Someone who just creamed his pants upon reading the words "beam saber."
In many ways, I think of Zero as the equivalent to Trunks from Dragonball Z.
For whatever fuckin’ reason, back in elementary and middle school, Trunks was the bees knees.
You remember those holographic Dragonball stickers all the kids pasted on their binders?
Well, pretty much all the kids I went to school with that had them, went to great lengths to hoard the Trunks ones.
Remember these? I think I still have a few pasted on my bed frame...
While I admit that Trunks’ design is pretty slick, what with the Capsule jacket, purple hair and (useless) sword, at the end of the day I was always confused with my friend’s appreciation for the character.
Taking into consideration his actual role in the series as opposed to his appearance, I always saw Trunks as being kind of dumb.
Like Zero, he had one of the more bad ass debuts in fiction, however from that point on his abilities are quickly overshadowed by everyone around him, and when he finally does catch up, he’s too dumb to use his powers responsibly.
Pictured: When juicing goes too far.
Indeed, I fail to see the beauty of Trunks’ soul.
That being said, while I happen to like Zero quite a bit, he’s never really been one of my favorites in the series.
Mega Man X4 marked the first time in series history that players were given the option to play through the entire game playing as Zero, and perhaps not surprisingly, his storyline was quite a bit more involved that X’s.
I guess that’s to be expected when you’re dealing with a character like X who has virtually no personality outside of his belief that “Humans = Good, Bad Robots = Bad.”
Over the course of several (poorly) animated cutscenes, it was revealed/hinted that Zero was not only originally a savage and villainous Reploid, he was also responsible for EVERY BAD THING THAT EVER HAPPENED.
ALL HIS FAULT!!!
While I think it’s cool that they made him the bridge between the original Mega Man and the X series, in the form of making him a product of the late Dr. Wily and progenitor of the Maverick virus; at the same time I think it’s this aspect of his story that kind of ruins him.
As with Trunks, I like Zero’s design, and I like his character, but when one factors in all the stupid shit he’s done throughout the series, it’s kind of hard to hold the same level of appreciation for him.
That being said, congratulations Mega Man X4, not only did you plant the seeds for making Zero look like an asshole, you also fucked him over by casting his role with an English voice actor from Mega Man 8.
Yesterday we kicked off our list of the Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights with an alum from the pantheon of Dr. Wily’s robotic warriors, the original Yellow Devil.
The Devil earned his spot on the list through the frustrating nature of his borderline random attack pattern that made battling him a test of reflexes and coordination rather than memorization.
Appropriately enough, battling the #9 entry on the list requires a similar range of skills, however coming out on top is measurably more difficult given their more aggressive stance.
That being said, the next entry on our list of the Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights is:
#9. Shredder – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game
Pictured: The Turtles take on the Shred-Head and his shadow clones.
If there’s any one, constant truth about arcade beat ’em ups, it’s that you can always expect to face a cheap-ass boss or 2 at some point within them.
In the age of the beat ’em up, no other company stuffed their games full of quarter munching bastards quite like Konami.
Don’t get me wrong, Konami was also one of the best when it came to cranking out beat ’em ups, but whether it be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Turtles in Time, The Simpsons, X-Men, or Metamorphic Force; virtually all of Konami’s beat ’em up bosses made use of an infuriating attack pattern that was entirely beatable, but rarely without the use of a continue or 2.
As you may have guessed, Shredder makes use of said attack pattern, both in the Ninja Turtles arcade game, and the NES port of, well, basically the same name.
While I highlighted the arcade version of the Shredder in the pic above, make no mistake, he’s equally tough on either platform, though arguably more so on the NES.
Unlike the Yellow Devil from yesterday’s entry on the list, I’ve beaten Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game numerous times, mostly in my early childhood; however on every occasion I’ve had considerable difficulty in challenging not only the Shredder, but virtually all of the end level bosses.
Especially Granitor. NOBODY, fucks with Granitor...
As mentioned earlier, fighting the Ninja Turtles arcade game bosses is mostly a reflex oriented experience, much like fighting the Yellow Devil; however the difference in difficulty lies in the aggressiveness of their attack pattern.
The Yellow Devil has only one attack sequence, that if you can endure for long enough; (which in my youth, I couldn’t) will lead to your eventual victory.
Shredder, along with virtually all of the Konami arcade game bosses of the day; doesn’t have a distinguishable pattern in his attacks, but instead forces you to enter into a war of attrition with him.
The bosses in all of these games have superior reach and damage dealing ability to your player character, and attack in such a way that there really is no good way to ensure dealing damage to them without taking some yourself due to their split-second reaction times.
Did I mention virtually all of the Shredder and his buddies’ attacks have priority over your own, and have the nasty tendency to fling you across the room or knock you out of the air every time they hit you?
As with yesterday, check out this video to get a feel for what’s it’s like to tangle with the Shred-Head:
It looks dumb, but the player in the video above’s incessant use of the JUMP KICKÂ is basically one’s only viable option in Ninja Turtles 2, especially against the Shredder.
Think of it like a nightmare scenario where you’re fighting a counter-puncher who’s not only got your number, but also has 20 lbs on you.
You’re only real option is to try and remain elusive (read: JUMP KICK) and take potshots at distance, however inevitably; no matter how fast or accurate you are with your attacks, Shred-Head is gonna’ find you and put the hurt on you.
See that spear? That's his beatin' stick, and it's about to go up your ass...
Such is the frustration of doing battle with Konami’s quarter munching stable of assholes.
While one could argue that virtually all of these bosses deserve a spot on this list, I’ve always felt that Shredder’s multiplying ability and one-hit kill anti-mutagen beam put him over the top.
That’s right, Shredder can indeed multiply in this game!
AND kill you in one hit at any given moment!
You see!? THIS is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps!
So imagine every nasty detail I mentioned above, coupled with the fact that during the course of the battle you have to contend with 2 Shredder’s on the NES, and up to 5 in the arcade; any one of which can take a life away with one blast of the blue laser from their hands!
Imagine being like 5 years old and having to deal with that bullshit!
While the arcade version may put you up against 5 Shredders, I honestly think the NES version is more difficult.
When you face 5 Shredders, you do so with the help of 3 other players; not to mention the arcade Shredder has a less overbearing style of attack that rarely knocks you across the room, making it easy to simply swarm him and trade blows until he folds.
Given the lack of an option to pump more quarters into the machine for extra lives, as well as the Shredder’s slightly more annoying style of attack; I’d say the official #9 entry on this list would have to be the NES iteration.
Alrighty folks, I’ve been a lazy motherfucker over the past, uh, month; so I figured it was about time I buckled down and committed to cranking out some real posts for the blog.
That being said, I can think of no better source of motivation, than to start up another epic Top 10 list!
As you’ve probably guessed from the AWESOME banner at the top of this post, this time around our list is focused on a subject that is very near and dear to my heart: videogame boss fights.
For better or for worse, boss fights have been a staple of game design for nearly as long as the medium has existed.
Perhaps a product of the “quarter munching” aspect of arcade games, boss fights were at initially characterized as a clash with a unique character, who’s attack pattern and/or attributes often caused them to represent a significant spike in the games’ difficulty level.
Nowadays, what with the advances in technology and a fairly consistent trend towards favoring narrative based gameplay, boss fights have become increasingly irrelevant.
Hell, I remember reading an article on Kotaku awhile back positing the possibility that boss fights may be an unnecessary artifact carried on from a bygone era of gaming.
Despite being a fascinating read, the viewpoint of said article largely applied exclusively to story driven games, games that boss fights would feel “tagged on” or extraneous in.
Pictured: A good example of a boss fight that meant well, but ultimately didn't need to happen.
For whatever reason, I can’t find the article in question, but oh well; you get the gist of it.
Personally, my background in 8 and 16-bit gaming has left me with nothing but fond memories of battling big baddies at the end of every level.
Maybe it’s just the old school gamer in me, but I play most games expecting there to be big ugly dude with a bloated life bar at the end of every stage, level, chapter, episode, or what have you.
For me, boss fights are both the final obstacle prior to advancement, as well as, on occasion; a reward in and of themselves.
Good boss fights represent some of the finest moments in gaming history.
Bad boss fights can be anywhere from disappointingly shallow, to controller smashing-ly hard.
The latter, largely represents the contents of this list; though not entirely.
Tough boss fights are just another part of gaming, as natural pressing the “A” button to jump, and the “B” button to kill.
That being said, let’s get this party started as we delve in to the 10th hardest boss fight:
#10. Yellow Devil – Mega Man
Pictured: The Blue Bomber chucking a Thunder Beam into the cyclopic eye of The Yellow Devil.
I don’t know what it was about him, but for whatever reason the Yellow Devil from the original Mega Man game always stuck out to me as one of the hardest bosses I ever fought on my NES.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve played plenty of harder games, especially on my NES, however in terms of hard boss fights; few put fear in my heart the way the Devil did.
Ninja Gaiden’s Jaquio and Jashin were tough, as was the sequel’s Ashtar; but I managed to beat both of them in my youth.
Encountered in the first stage of Dr. Wily’s fortess, the Yellow Devil was a wretched beast that kept me from beating the original Mega Man until well into adulthood.
Fighting the Devil was a fairly straightforward experience, but one made difficult by the tedious nature of the bosses’ pattern, as well as his fearsome attack power.
Basically, the original Yellow Devil only had 1 attack in his pattern, but it was a real pain in the pass.
Check it out here:
Disassembling his mustard-y yellow form into a series of cubes, the Devil launches his body, piece by piece; from one end of the room to the other.
While in flight, all of these pieces serve as dangerous projectiles that must be avoided by the player through careful jumps of varying heights and timing.
The actual pattern of the pieces’ dispersal isn’t quite random, however it’s complicated enough to the point of being easier to dodge through reflex than memorization.
The real problem with this pattern, is the fact that damage can only be dealt to the Devil one shot at a time, for only a brief moment following the completion of his reassembling phase.
Many bosses throughout gaming history have employed the annoying as fuck pattern characteristic of, “You Can Only Hit Me After I’ve Slapped You With My Dick For 5 Minutes” but few have done so with the audacity of the Yellow Devil.
With a rather potent weakness to Elec Man’s Thunder Beam, the Yellow Devil doesn’t take all that many hits to kill, however the time one has to devote to frantically hopping about in order to get into position to deliver said hits; more than compensate for any weaknesses he may have.
I was usually good enough to get close to taking out the Devil in Mega Man, but it wasn’t until I was much older, wiser, and entirely less interested in achieving victory that I would actually conquer the beast known in the states as the Rock Monster.
That being said, I feel the Yellow Devil’s #10 slot on this list is entirely warranted, however imagine my disappointment when I stumbled across the glitch/exploit featured in the video below:
As indicated by the Best MAN article lovingly tucked away on this blog, it should come as no surprise that I’m a big fan of the Mega-est of Mega Men; Mega Man.
With the exception of some of the more obscure games in the franchise, namely that of Wily and Light’s Rock Board: That’s Paradise and the EXE and Star Force series; I’ve played and enjoyed the vast majority of Mega Man’s games.
Pictured: Monopoly, Mega Man-style.
A funny thing about Mega Man, is the fact that many of the spin-offs to the linear series are actually some of the better games in the entire franchise.
In example, the Mega Man X series is probably my favorite in the entire Mega Man continuity.
In terms of both art design and gameplay mechanics, I’ve always felt that the X series was a logical and welcome progression to the Mega Man games of old; such that I’ve actually found it somewhat difficult to go back to the basic “run and jump” style of the older games.
I like my dash, thank you...
On that note, today our list of the Top 10 Videogame Songs takes us to a Mega Man series that represents a rare instance in videogames, that of the spin-off of a spin-off.
Said series is of course the uber-difficult but oh so rewarding Mega Man Zero series:
#7. Mega Man Zero 2 – Clover
Mega Man Zero 2 is probably my favorite entry in the Zero series, largely on the grounds that it’s gameplay, story, and features seemed the most cohesive and streamlined out of all of the games.
Taking place far in the future beyond the one depicted in the X series, Zero casts the player as the titular character of the same name that was introduced in the prior series.
The core gameplay between these 2 series wasn’t all that different, however Zero went the extra step of granting the player a number of new weapons and abilities, as well as a complex and customizable upgrade system.
As mentioned previously, the Zero series also went out of it’s way to significantly up the difficulty level, occasionally to obscene levels; but largely for the better.
The real star of the show of the Zero series, at least in my book; was the artistic design:
TALENT.
In terms of outstanding art design, there are few game series that can measure up to the Zero series in terms of creativity and colorfulness, as well as outright beauty.
I bought the Mega Man Zero art collection pretty much as soon as it became available, and to date it’s probably the most flipped through art book on my shelf.
While the visuals of Mega Man Zero were indeed a key selling point for me, I was surprised to find that, upon first picking up the series; the music was also quite good despite being played through a Gameboy Advance speaker.
On that note, “Clover” is kind of unique on this list, as it represents a song that actually is only featured in-game in an instrumental form, yet is included on the Mega Man Zero 2 soundtrack as an actual song.
While some would argue that this should disqualify the song for inclusion on this list, I stand by my decision on the grounds that it’s a awesome fucking song, and probably shouldn’t have been in the game given that it was featured in a Gameboy Advance game and likely would have sounded like shit being played through it’s tinny-ass speakers.
That being said, as was the case with “God Hand,” part of the overall appeal of “Clover” spawns not just from it’s quality as a song; but from the fact that it took some serious time and effort to gain access to.
The instrumental version of “Clover,” titled “Awakening Will,” serves as the ending theme of Mega Man Zero 2, and for my money; I think it was worth the effort:
As I made my way through the Mega Man Zero series, I made it a point to sit down and listen to the official soundtracks of each game in sequence, and I’ll never forget the time when I first had “Clover” play through my headphones.
Sure, there’s better pop songs out there, but much like “God Hand,” part of the appeal of “Clover” to me is the fact that I actually remember most of the lyrics.
As someone who still slips up on lyrics from “Eye of the Tiger,” despite having heard it 6 BILLION TIMES, I think it goes without saying that learning songs is not one of my strong suits.
I haven’t heard “Clover” all that many times, and yet for some reason the lyrics come quite naturally to me… Despite being sung in Japanese.
If that’s not an indication of a well written/catchy song, I don’t know what is.
Anyway, that was #7 on our list of the Top 10 Videogame Songs, check back tomorrow for more!
After an entire week’s worth of posts, today we’ve finally reached the conclusive, ultimate and last post in the Azn Badger’s Top 25 NES Tracks event!
Today we’ll be unveiling the Top 5 of the Top 10 Runner-Ups, so get ready kids, ’cause we’re:
*Ahem!* Pardon me, I found myself suddenly overcome by meatheaded-ness…
Anyway, let’s get down to the Top 5 Runner-Ups!:
#5. Double Dragon 2: The Revenge
“Theme of The Double Dragons”
As mentioned in the Top 25 NES Tracks list, as well as numerous other articles posted on this blog, Double Dragon is THE SHIT.
Pictured: Watered-Down Shit...
I’ve loved Double Dragon series ever since I first played the second one with my brother in my early childhood, and it’s a game series that I continue to treasure to this day.
Chief among my reasons for loving the Double Dragon series, is of course the fact that it possessed one of the most memorable and enduring theme musics in gaming history.
It’s a tune that’s been used in nearly every game in the series, with each iteration making slight changes to the table.
*Sigh* And then there's Double Dragon V...
While Double Dragon 2 is definitely my favorite game in the series, I feel I should go on record and say that my selection of it’s version of theme for this list added no bias to my decision.
Believe me when I say this, I went out of my way to listen to all of the NES versions of the Double Dragon Theme back to back just to come to this conclusion.
The original version was too uppity for my tastes, feeling more appropriate as the background music for the 2 player game mode than a theme music for a pair of characters.
The version used in Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones was extremely well-composed, with the most intricate instrumentation of the 3 NES versions of the theme, but honestly I felt that this resulted in it having a somewhat cluttered and “loud” sound to it that was a little bit too overbearing.
Unlike the game, which as you can see, was kind of bare...
The version featured in Double Dragon 2: The Revenge, the slowest and most laid back version of the Double Dragon Theme on the NES, and yet it feels most right.
Unlike the original version that feels too fast, the Double Dragon 2 version of the theme has a more subtle instrumentation to it, but as a result it sounds the most like a theme music for Billy and Jimmy Lee as opposed to a single scene in the game.
Congratulations Billy and Jimmy Lee, you have awesome theme music!
Anyway, those are my thoughts, hopefully they make sense…
More specifically, it’s a Sunsoft game I’ve never played.
In fact, the first time I ever heard of Journey To Silius was less than a year ago, when I stumbled across a video about produced by LordkaT for his Until We Win series.
Pictured: LordkaT, in all his glory!
Speaking exclusively from what I saw in that video, I thought the game looked pretty fun.
The jumping mechanic, as described by Lordkat, sounded somewhat Castlevania-ish to me though, so chances are I’d probably hate it if I played it…
Anyway, while watching that video of the game, I happened to notice some of the background music playing over Lordkat’s narration.
While he is known to sometimes use music tracks from other games in his videos, I obviously didn’t recognize the music, resulting in me Youtube-ing the Journey To Silius soundtrack to find out what it was.
Sure enough, it was the “Stage 1” theme.
While this is indeed an amazing piece of NES music, I felt it inappropriate to list among the Top 25 due to my lack of history with the game.
Even so, making the Top 5 of the Runner-Ups despite me never having played the game is still quite an accomplishment.
#1 was my pick for the Best NES Track EVER, as well as part of one of my favorite game series ever, so I feel it goes without saying that being my #2 of the Mega Man series is not far from being #2 in all of 8-bit music.
Lookit 'im... Bein' all smug n'shit...
This track was, in many ways, the reason why I instigated the “1 track per franchise” for this list.
Even so, though I like both tracks just about equally; deep down I knew which is one was better, and therefore most appropriate to represent Mega Man on the Top 25.
That being said, “Dr. Wily’s Castle” is an exhilarating piece of game music that was incredibly complex it’s time, and still holds up to this day as one of the better gaming compositions throughout history.
That’s actually kind of interesting to note, as back in the day Simon’s Quest was regarded as one of the finest games on the NES.
I can still recall my one issue of Nintendo Power and how it sang the praises of Castlevania 2, even going so far as it award it the “Nester” award for Best Graphics and Sound of 1988.
Pictured: Nester. Damn I feel old for knowing this shit...
Despite actually wanting to play Castlevania 2 in my youth, like many great games back in the day; I ended up passing it over in favor of repeatedly renting Snow Bros. every weekend…
Regardless, sometime in high school I took the time to check out the soundtrack of Simon’s Quest, and lo and behold, there was gold in them there hills!
While the game might have a bit too much of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sound to it, (understandable, seeing as Konami was cranking out those games like crazy back in the day) like any Castlevania, it truly has an awesome soundtrack.
“Bloody Tears” was my favorite track I ran across in the soundtrack for Castlevania 2.
I have no idea what point of the game it’s used for, but it’s a simultaneously energetic and haunting tune that was this close to usurping the original “Vampire Killer’s” position on the Top 25.
Thank you hipster doofus, for providing us with a visual indication of exactly how close "this close" means. Douchebag...
Like Journey To Silius though, I simply couldn’t justify placing it on the list without ever having actually experienced the track in-game.
#1. Ninja Gaiden
“Ending Theme”
Is it just me or do the Ninja Gaiden games on the NES all have fuckin’ brilliant ending themes?
Ninja Gaiden 3 had a pretty decent ending theme, which was appropriate given that it was a “pretty decent” game.
Beautiful? Yes. Fun? Yes. Half as good as what came before it? Not a chance.
Ninja Gaiden 2’s ending has the distinction of holding the #2 spot on my Top 25 NES Tracks list.
The composers over at Tecmo deserve a pat on the back, ’cause damn they did a great job.
The “Ending Theme” of the original Ninja Gaiden was a fantastic piece of music that I only recently rediscovered.
I heard it when I was very young, and I remember liking it, but for whatever reason I simply didn’t remember it.
Boy am I glad I did, ’cause it is one hell of a roller coaster ride of 8-bit goodness.
As much an action piece as it is an ending track, the “The Ending Theme” of Ninja Gaiden is a terrific composition that really gets your blood pumping.
Uh.... Ryu Hayabusa everyone!
Honestly, if not for Ninja Gaiden 2 having a slightly better ending track, this tune would’ve made the Top 25 in a heartbeat.
Damn sequels… Bein’ all better n’shit…
Well folks, thus concludes the Azn Badger’s list(s) of the Best NES Tracks!
Tune in tomorrow for… Something other than NES music!
Seriously man, I’m done with Nintendo music for awhile…
Well folks, after a week straight of nothing but Mega Man related blogging, we’ve made it to the big finale.
That’s right, today we’re gonna’ be taking a look at the 10th anniversary game of the Mega Man series, Mega Man 8 on the Sony Playstation!
As previously explained Mega Man 8 will be the final installment in The Best MAN series, as I haven’t played Mega Man 9 or 10, and thusly don’t feel qualified to elect a Best MAN for those games.
That being said, let’s dive into Mega Man 8!
8’s story was, much like 7, somewhat more involved than previous entries in the series, largely due to the unprecedented inclusion of hand-drawn anime cutscenes.
At the time of it’s release, Full Motion Video (FMV) was already old hat, however after the release of the Amiga 32CD, Sega CD, 3DO, and other such CD based consoles, many game developers saw fit to include FMV in their games, resulting in the technology being en vogue for much of the 90’s.
Mega Man 8’s FMV sequences were fairly entertaining, and decently well-animated, however the English voice acting was absolutely atrocious.
For real man, Dr. Light sounds like fuckin’ Elmer Fudd after a stroke, no joke.
He also stutters.
Like a fattie.
The end result was a series of fairly entertaining, but often times, all too tempting to skip, cutscenes.
There was 1 scene in particular though that I remember keeping an extra save file (it was a Playstation game, of course you could save!) for just so I could watch it over and over again:
It seems kind of lame now, but when I was 10, that was the coolest thing ever. Even though my Playstation would freeze during it just about 90% of the time…
Anyway, the story of Mega Man 8 is based around a capsule of “evil energy” that falls to Earth.
EVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.
This energy grants it’s wielder great power, and multiplies by feeding off of it’s host’s evil intent.
And now, gentleman, for your viewing pleasure: A T-Rex wearing the Venom symbiote.
Dr. Wily of course gets his hands on this evil energy and uses it to power his latest creations to tangle with Mega Man.
In the meantime however, an intrinsically “good” robot from outer space named Duo (the big dude in Dr. Light’s lab during the video) crash lands on Earth, only to awaken halfway through the game to serve as an ally to Mega Man.
That is, not before trying to kill him, of course.
On the side there’s also a very Dragonball Z-esque “Goku and Vejita” dynamic that plays out between Mega Man and Bass.
Basically, Vejita, I mean Bass; has an inferiority complex, which results in him attempting to use the evil energy to grant him the power to defeat Mega Man.
Oh Bass, we do this dance again and again, and yet you just don't seem to learn the steps, do you?
I like Bass, really, I do; but he’s a total pussy in Mega Man 8.
Haha, get it!? "Bass!"
Mega Man 8 was vastly different from any Mega Man that came before it.
From a presentation standpoint, it was easily the most graphically intense iteration of the series, well, pretty much, ever.
The animations were silky smooth, and the music was excellent all-around, with most of the tracks being quite memorable.
Although from a cosmetic standpoint Mega Man 8 was a drastic departure from the norm, and undeniably, an improvement, the gameplay was merely different, and not necessarily for the better.
One of the comments I received on my Mega Man 7 post from yesterday made note of the fact that the game was slower than the NES games in the series.
I failed to address this in my post, and for that I apologize, however it is an incontrovertible fact.
Mega Man 7 was a much slower-paced game than it’s predecessors, and Mega Man 8 followed suit by being even slower.
THIS FUCKING SLOOOOOWWWW.
The sprites in Mega Man 7 were very large, excessively so, and thankfully 8 addressed this by increasing the screen resolution, while at once one-upping their level of detail.
Despite being a sidescroller like every other Mega Man game, 8 was a much more vertically oriented game.
The screen orientation was “taller,” and Mega Man’s jump controls were changed so that he jumped higher than normal, however, due to his much slower walking speed, his horizontal jumping distance was toned down a bit.
While definitely a much slower-paced, and in-fact, much easier game than it’s predecessors, Mega Man 8 was still quite fun.
TONS OF FUN.
New gameplay features in Mega Man 8 were plentiful (for a change).
The shop from Mega Man 7 made a return, though this time around it was run by Mega Man’s sister, Roll, and the currency used there consisted of an extremely finite, and difficult to acquire, supply of bolts scattered throughout the robot master stages.
Items in the shop consisted of equipment to dampen the “knock-back” effects of getting hit, decrease the charge time for a Mega Buster shot, change the function of Mega Buster, and a variety of other things.
Part of the fun of the shop was the fact that not all of the items were all that useful, such as the one that increases your climbing speed, or the one that disables your Mega Buster!
I greatly preferred this shop system, as unlike 7, where all you had to do was “farm” for money by killing enemies, purchases in 8 felt much more strategic.
A Hummer: THE strategic purchase.
In addition to the shop items, there were also a total of 4 Rush items, all granted to the player after defeating minibosses during the robot master stages.
While virtually all of the Rush items were nothing more than novelty items that could net you a nice item or two here and there, I always thought it was a neat idea to turn Rush into a motorcycle and ride him into battle.
PIMP.
But, that’s just me.
In addition to the changes made to the overall pace of the game, Mega Man 8 also featured some truly inspired level designs.
No longer consisting purely of platforming action, 8 contained a several vehicle segments and a few maze-like stages that couldn’t be completed linearly.
While Mega Man 5 was the first in the series to feature on-rails vehicle sequences, in the form of a jet-ski ride during Wave Man’s stage,
Mega Man 8 took this concept and greatly expanded on it.
Frost Man and Dr. Wily’s tower both featured perilous snowboarding sequences wherein the player would have to alternately jump or slide to survive the course.
JUMP.
Tengu Man’s stage featured an extensive on-rails shooting sequence in the skies.
"FUCK YOU, WHALE!"
This sequence was one of my favorites in the game, as it had you riding Rush while shooting numerous enemies, all while gradually recruiting a huge DEATH SQUAD of Mega Man’s buddies to help you out.
The Mega Man Death Squad in all their glory.
Auto, Eddie and Beat all made appearances in this sequence, with Beat finally redeeming himself as the single most powerful ally you could acquire.
I'm lettin' you off easy this time... Chump.
Sword Man and Astro Man’s stages served as the first maze levels in Mega Man history.
While Sword Man’s stage was not really a maze, but rather a series of trials that had to be completed while making use of specific robot master weapons, Astro Man’s stage was one mother of a maze.
ARRRRRGHH!!!
Seriously, I fucking hated Astro Man’s stage…
Well, I think I’ve said more than enough about Mega Man 8, it’s time we got down to deciding who’s The Best MAN, for the very last time.
The Best MAN of Mega Man 8 is…
Frost Man
FROSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSST MAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNN!!!!!!
Didn’t see that comin’ didja’?
You know why Frost Man’s The Best MAN?
‘Cause Mega Man 8 was the first game in the series to give it’s robot master voices, that’s why.
Okay, okay, that’s not the only reason I picked him, but it had a lot to do with it.
You see, Frost Man’s voice made me laugh as a kid.
His character was supposed to be that of a huge, powerful, dopey idiot, and his voice reflected this very well.
"I will love him, and kiss him, and I will call him George..."
Seriously, when the biggest fuckin’ robot master in the fuckin’ series leaps into the arena, smashing a bunch of Mega Man ice sculptures to show off his strength, only to yell out something retarded like:
“I’m gonna’, crush you! I will…… Beat, you!”
I just can’t help but smile.
Tune to 4:45 for example:
Seriously though, Frost Man has a lot going for him.
His “walking igloo” design is inspired and truly a sight to behold in-game with it’s vivid animations, his weapon, the Ice Wave is fun to use, (although much cooler looking when he uses it) and his stage is lots of fun to play with one of the better background tracks in the game:
If anyone could usurp Frost Man’s position as Best MAN, I’d say it would be Clown Man or Search Man.
Seriously, I actually had to rewrite a big portion of this post on account of me changing my mind about Search Man at the last minute.
The problem with Search Man is that, while he’s got personality up the ying-yang, and a cool weapon to boot, I didn’t care much for his stage.
You see, like Mega Man 7, 8 split up it’s robot masters into 2 groups of 4.
Because I rarely finished the game as a kid, the second group of robot masters were one’s I didn’t end up seeing all that much of.
Sorry Aqua Man, no one likes you...
On top of that, I’ve never actually fought Search Man without having the Flame Sword to pwn his ass with, so I’ve never really gotten to experience a real fight with him firsthand.
Clown Man on the other hand, while one of my favorite designs in any Mega Man game, suffered for exactly the same reason Frost Man was promoted.
He had an extensive repertoire of interesting attacks, his stage was cutesy fun, and his weapon was not all that bad, but his voice was just painful to listen to.
Oh yeah, that and he was WAY too fucking easy…
Protip: Sticking your arms into the ground isn't a viable combat tactic. It just gets you shot. In the face.
Well folks, we’ve named our last Best MAN.
Hopefully everyone had fun along the way, I know I did.
See you tomorrow when I (hopefully) think of some other shit to write about…
Afternoon everybody, and welcome back to the 7th installment of The Best MAN!
Today we’re of course going to be exploring the tragically flat, and only 16-bit adventure in the linear Mega Man series, Mega Man 7.
Ah, I see we've reached the mid-90's era of Capcom's American cover art...
Before we delve into the utterly vanilla experience that is Mega Man 7, I feel it important to address one simple issue surrounding the stigma that seems to have arose in regards to this game.
Case in point:
Now, I can’t claim that this video’s (clever) views on the Mega Man series are at all that of the general public, however I feel that it should be said that Mega Man 7 is far from the worst of the Mega Man series.
*Ahem!* By now it should be obvious that that honor belongs to Mega Man 5…
Pictured: Mega Man 5.
Anyway, despite Mega Man 7’s apparent reputation for being a shit-fest of epic proportions, the game actually had a decent story.
Not that that counts for anything in a franchise that puts zero emphasis on story.
In short, after Dr. Wily is thrown in jail at the conclusion of Mega Man 6, exactly 6 months later, 4 robots he had hidden in an underground laboratory wake up and blow the shit out of the city to free him.
Essentially, the plot is a carbon copy of the first half of Dragonball Zmovie 7.
This was the coolest shit ever when I was in middle school... I'm not even kidding.
Coincidence? I think not!
Nah, I’m just Joshing yah’, it probably was a coincidence.
Anyway, like any Mega Man game, the changes to the gameplay made in 7 were small, but fairly impactful.
Just not as much as in most other games in the series…
Several new characters were introduced, including Auto, Mega Man’s burly mechanic buddy:
"Pull my finger."
And Bass and Treble, the series’ obligatory evil clone characters:
PIMP.
While Auto served as little more than window dressing, Bass and Treble engaged the player at several points in the game, initially pretending to be all baby-faced n’shit, only to turn heel and bash Mega Man over the head with a steel chair.
"MY GAWD, WITH THE STEEL CHAIR!!!!"
Gameplay additions to Mega Man 7 included a new equipment store run by Eddie, wherein the player could purchase new items and abilities, and a brand new Rush adapter called “Super Mega Man” that combined the flight and power functions of the adapters from Mega Man 6.
Mega Man, GATTAI!!!!
It was also the first game in the linear series to allow the player to “charge” the weapons of all of the robot masters.
In addition to this, the game also adopted the “Intro Stage before Stage Select” mechanic that had been pioneered in the Mega Man X series, as well as set it’s own precedent by introducing the “Intermission” stage, that is; an unskippable level forced on the player after defeating 4 of the 8 robot masters.
PHARAOH MAN CAMEO!!!
As you can already tell, outside of 16-bit graphics and sound, Mega Man 7 didn’t really bring much to the table in terms of innovation.
In fact, despite the larger sprites and more detailed animations, the games’ musical compositions were actually somewhat weak for the series.
Even so, there were exceptions:
Just goes to show you that technical advancements don’t always mean much in regards to gameplay.
Mega Man 7 was not a horrible game, nor was it the worst Mega Man game, however; due to the hype and expectations surrounding it, the first 16-bit Mega Man game; it ended up being a pretty big letdown.
Even so, the games’ biggest shame is the fact that it is utterly average, serving as nothing more than a mere hiccup in the vast legacy of the Mega Man franchise.
Enough dour bullshit, let’s get down to who’s The Best MAN!
Spring Man is lame and had one of the most frustrating stages in Mega Man history, right next Astro Man in Mega Man 8.
Pictured: Spring Man.
That leaves us with Turbo Man and Freeze Man, the only 2 MEN that I actually like in Mega Man 7.
Both are my favorite designs in the game, they have pretty cool weapons, pretty fun stages, and are tough cookies when you finally get down to stompin’ a mudhole on their asses.
Despite Shade Man’s relatively crappy design, he trumps both of my boys in every other category, hands down.
He’s got a pimp-ass weapon, he’s tough to fight, and if you hold “B” before selecting his stage, you can play a through his stage with the Ghosts ‘N Gobins intro stage music playing as the stage background music!
Not only that, but his is the only robot master stage that includes a brief story sequence wherein Mega Man runs across an injured Bass and Treble just after they fought, and lost to Shade Man.
Even though it is later revealed that Bass and Treble were in fact working for Dr. Wily, it’s worth noting that Shade Man was considered powerful enough to have believably defeated them.
That’s street cred son, you can’t buy that.
While I don’t really care much for the whole vampire schtick of Shade Man, from a gameplay standpoint, he was a very creative and unique addition to the series.
He had more attacks than most bosses, including a life draining bite and Medusa-like stone gaze.
Clearasil: It's your friend.
More importantly, his weapon, the Noise Crush, was truly awesome, as it would bounce off of walls, growing more powerful as it ricocheted.
Like I said, the thought of declaring Shade Man the best, well, anything, makes me violently ill, however I feel I’d be lying to myself if I elected one of my favorites in his stead.
Just goes to show you, that which you like isn’t necessarily what’s best.
Get your shit kickin’ boots on folks, ’cause today’s gonna’ be a real slobber-knocker!
That’s right kids, today we’re gonna’ be talkin’ about Mega Man 6!
More specifically, we’re gonna’ be deciding just who’s The Best MAN in Mega Man 6.
Mega Man 6 holds a special place in my heart.
I remember I got Mega Man 4, 5 and 6 as birthday presents from my parents on my 11th birthday.
Keep in mind this was 1998, or, more importantly, 2 whole console generations removed from the days when the good ole’ gray box was at all relevant.
1998: The Azn Badger's mother apologizes to him after his annual birthday movie outing for the first, and only time.
Me being me though, I was very thankful to my parents, and went to great lengths to play the shit out of my new Mega gifts.
At this point in time I had yet to play, let alone of hear of a Mega Man beyond #4, making 5 and 6 a special treat for me.
This guy has one more "special treat" and he's gonna' have a coronary... AGAIN.
Based on some of my harsh words regarding Mega Man 5 yesterday, I’m sure many of you can deduce how I felt about that game as a kid.
Well, despite Mega Man 5 sucking a monster of a Blackanese cock, I really enjoyed Mega Man 6.
In fact, of the 3 games gifted to me, 6 was the only one I beat on it’s original cartridge.
Yup, still got it.
The basic plot of Mega Man 6 involved yet another scenario wherein Dr. Wily is not the villain from the get-go.
THAT EVIL MOTHER FUCKER!!!
This time around, a mysterious man named Mr. X hosts a global exhibition of robot engineering, only to use this event as a means to steal 8 of the world’s most powerful robots to use for his evil machinations.
No way, he doesn't look ANYTHING like Dr. Wily...
Long story short, Mega Man sets out to battle Mr. X, only to later find that Mr. X is actually Dr. Wily in disguise (no fucking duh).
Am I really supposed to be intimidated here, or what?
Mega Man 6 added a decent amount of new stuff to the series.
While this once again served to over-complicate much of the gameplay, unlike #5, many of the additions were actual attempts to try something different.
The “Jet” adapter, shown on the box cover, allowed the player to fly to a certain extent by holding the jump button in mid-air.
The “Power” adapter, or “Mega Man Football Pads” as I referred to them as a kid, allowed the player to shoot powerful short range blasts, as well as use charge shots to blow up cracked blocks.
Both of these adapters, while causing Mega Man to become incapable of sliding; served to expand the gameplay by affording the player new options in how to approach each stage.
Consequently, the level design featured numerous branching paths for each stage that often required the player to use these Rush adapters to traverse or reach.
While none of these alternate routes were required to beat the game, clearing 4 out of 8 of the robot master stages via these routes would reward the player with that useless fucking bird, Beat.
Yup, still fat, and still useless...
On a side note, an elementary, but previously unexplored addition to the gameplay of Mega Man 6, was the Energy Balancer, given to the player by Proto Man upon finding him in Tomahawk Man’s stage.
The Energy Balancer allowed the player to pick up weapon power items and have that energy allocated to the weapons that need it most, automatically.
This was a huge time saver, and should’ve been in the series from day one, however Mega Man 6 was the first game to have this feature.
Subsequent titles in the series have since made this a standard feature of gameplay, albeit one that still needs to be purchased or discovered in-game.
Even of this hippie-dippy-gobbledy-gook though, let’s get down to who’s The Best MAN!
While a decent enough MAN, Flame Man was always the first guy that I would take on, (either that or Plant Man) so, like Metal Man in Mega Man 2, even though I like his design a lot, he’s too much of a wimp to be true MAN material.
ANOTHER PUSSY.
That leaves us with 3 MEN to work with: Knight Man, Tomahawk Man, and Yamato Man.
While all 3 have great background music and cool weapons, Knight Man was the first cut due to being a truly pathetic challenge when you finally get around to fighting him.
Yes, he is in fact wearing a lampshade while holding a big black dildo.
Tomahawk Man had my favorite background music in the game:
Despite this, my decision ultimately boiled down to who was the most fun/hardest to fight, and that, for the 11 year old Azn Badger; was always Yamato Man.
Both guys only had 2 attacks, but 1 of Yamato Man’s involved him shooting his spear head at you, and then dashing across the room to retrieve it.
Yamato Man used Skull Bash! It's Super Effective!
Tomahawk Man’s moves were both horizontal projectiles that were relatively easy to jump over.
Tomahawk Man used Feather Dance! It's Not Very Effective...
While I could sometimes squeak by Tomahawk Man without the Plant Barrier, I always needed the Silver Tomahawk to take down Yamato Man as a kid.
After the hootenanny of character design awesomeness that was Mega Man 4, most of us were left thinking, “what the fuck kind of crazy awesomeness can the guys over at Capcom possibly follow this up with?”
The answer, unfortunately, was about 2 thirds crazy, and 1 third awesome.
Ladies and gentleman, it’s time to tangle with the odd bird that is Mega Man 5.
Really diggin' the Mega Man stiff arm.
Mega Man 5 is a really fuckin’ weird game.
The story was some hackneyed bullshit wherein Proto Man was set-up as the main villain, only to have it revealed later that he is in fact innocent, and, guess what, Dr. Wily was the actual mastermind.
THAT EVIL MOTHER FUCKER!!!
In terms of graphics and sound, it was a significant step up from it’s predecessors, and even the gameplay was pretty solid as well.
Yep, they actually gave those little Met fuckers jet packs and space helmets...
It was the design of the game that hurt it.
For the first time in Mega Man history, the player was faced with issue that there were one too many features.
While Mega Man 5 was far from innovative, in fact it was one of the more “phoned-in” games in the series, what little it added was the straw that broke the camels back, the last block pulled from the Jenga tower.
That's right, Jenga mother fuckers!
Some of the (few) features that Mega Man 5 brought to the table were more intricate level designs, a new weapon called the Super Arrow, and Beat, the fighting bird that could be earned after collecting letters in all 8 of the robot master stages to form the phrase “M-E-G-A-M-A-N-V.”
Fuckin' worthless-ass turd burglar...
By the way, despite the level of dedication required to activate Beat, he’s pretty much useless.
He’s like the equivalent of using Zero for 1 third of a stage in Mega Man X3.
The best thing Zero did in X3 was get his ass kicked for me so I could jack his beam saber.
Everybody and their mother thinks he’s the bees knees, suckin’ his cock left and right, but if ever you ask them “why?” they can’t come with anything close to an answer.
Know why he smilin'? 'Cause you suckin' his dick, that's why.
It’s gotta’ be the hair or some shit, I swear…
Anyway, bullshit tangents aside, like I said, while it wasn’t a horrible game by any means, Mega Man 5Â was kind of a lazy effort by Capcom, and was also the first in the series to begin to feel over-saturated.
Oh yeah, and did I mention that the character designs were some of the weirdest in series history up until the fuck-sandwich that is Sheep Man?
Yet another reason as to why I haven't played Mega Man 9 or 10...
Good thing “weird” doesn’t necessarily mean “bad,” (it does when you’re talking about sack-donkeys like Sheep Man) ’cause it’s about time we got down to deciding who’s The Best MAN!
Well, among the side-show freaks and fuck-tards that are the cast of Mega Man 5, The Best MAN would have to be…
Really, that’s all it came down to, but I have to admit it gave me some issues.
Pretty much every other robot master in the game is ass-faced failure, to the point in which I was left with only 2 guys I really had any sort of appreciation for.
You wanna’ know how I made my decision?
Well, I started, of course, by looking at their designs.
I liked both, but to be honest I felt I liked Crystal Man just a little bit more.
Sexy...
Something about his color scheme and strong body shape just “did it” for me.
Next, I moved on to their stage music.
Gyro Man:
Crystal Man:
No contest here.
Point, Gyro Man.
Normally I’d insert a comment here about who was the tougher challenge, but seeing as both guys were pussies, I’m left with nothing more to say other than, well, they were pussies.
"Who, me?"
The final deciding factor ended up being my (fragmented) memories of that goddamn Mega Man cartoon.
While Gyro Man’s appearance in the show WAS RETARDED AS FUCK, at least it wasn’t as bad as Crystal Man’s.
If I remember correctly, Crystal Man fought Mega Man on the moon, got his chest bulb shot out, and generally just got shat on for the entire half hour.
What the fuck is up with American redesigns of Japanese shiieeet!!!??
Gyro Man at least got to wear a wig and pretend to be in a shitty 90’s rock band with Gemini Man and Spark Man…
Lookit' them pointy shoulders... That's how you know it's the early 90's.
Well, we’ve reached the halfway point in The Best MAN series.
Yes, I am aware that there are in fact 10 games in the linear Mega Man series, however; as someone who has yet to play #9 or 10, I don’t feel qualified to determine who The Best MAN for those games might be.
Oh well, that still leaves 8 other games for me to work with.
Speaking of which, let’s get down to the matter at hand: Mega Man 4.
Awkward composition, but clearly an improvement over previous covers. Mega Man's face looks kind of pedo though...
Little known fact: Mega Man's anus is located in his left hand.
This simple change in the mechanics of the gameplay would profoundly effect the Mega Man series all the way until Mega Man 8.
The charge shot allowed the player to power up their standard bullets to form a singular, larger and more powerful shot that dealt approximately 3 times as much damage as a normal shot.
While this made combating the basic enemy fodder a somewhat simpler affair, the charge shot ultimately caused the boss fights to take on a more methodical pace than was customary for the series.
In fighting the robot master bosses, Mega Man’s standard bullets were de-powered to the point in which they only did one unit of damage per hit.
In addition to this, the duration of the invincibility frames given to the bosses (and Mega Man himself) upon being struck, were increased significantly, presumably for the sake of giving the player time to charge another Mega Buster shot.
The following is an example of the horrors of invincibility frames:
In essence, the introduction of the Mega Buster forced the player to pick their shots, rather than try to overwhelm their enemies as was possible in the previous games.
Mega Man 4 also introduced a handful of new characters to the series canon.
Flip-Top Eddie, Dr. Light’s walking briefcase, made his first appearance in Mega Man 4, showing up to give the player a random item during certain stages.
Also, the game featured the first appearance of Dr. Cossack and his daughter Kalinka.
Pictured: Dr. Cossack and Kalinka.
The Russian, and therefore evil; Dr. Cossack serves as the games’ main antagonist until the latter stages of the game when it is revealed that Dr. Wily kidnapped Kalinka, thereby forcing Cossack to do his bidding.
That evil son of a bitch...
Mega Man 4 was a pretty solid addition to the series.
The Mega Buster represented a major change in the series, one that I still can’t decide was for the better or worse.
The game was very difficult, arguably one of the more difficult entries in the NES series of Mega Man games.
The soundtrack was very good, while taking on a dramatically different sound from it’s predecessors, not in composition, but in MIDI instrumentation.
Give this remix of the iconic Mega Man 2 Title Theme a listen to see what I mean:
That’s enough about that crap though, let’s get down to who’s The Best MAN!
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