It was 30 years ago that the Blue Bomber made his way into our lives. Since then, he has become one of Capcom’s major franchises. After years of neglect, Capcom FINALLY announced Mega Man 11 for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam. While the announcement received mixed reactions, Capcom’s newly rekindled devotion to the series was a much-needed shot in the arm that the Mega Man community had been patiently (or impatiently) waiting for.
I’ve been a Mega Man fan for the better part of those 30 years. Since The Outerhaven gives me this wonderful platform to voice my opinions, I wanted to do something special for the 30th anniversary of Mega Man. At first, I contemplated ranking every single Mega Man game out there but felt that would be a massive undertaking. I had only played some of the games in the series a handful of times, such as Mega Man Zero, Mega Man ZX, and Mega Man Legends. While I’ve completed all of those games, I haven’t replayed them as much as the titles in the Classic or X series. As such, I didn’t feel I had a strong enough grasp of the later entries to be truly qualified to rank them.
My next idea was to do my own personal Top 10 list. However, after reflecting on that, I realized that while Top 10 lists are popular (and often considered clickbait), they’re overdone and didn’t feel all that original.
So, I decided to speak from the heart. I wanted to use this platform to express what the Mega Man franchise means to me.
For me, it all started back in 1990. I have a lifelong friend named Jonathan who often came to hang out at my house. His mom and my mom have been friends for over fifty years. When he was two years old, his mother brought him to the hospital when I was born, and we’ve been friends ever since. I’ve been on this Earth for 36 years, and I’m proud to say he’s been a friend for all 36 of them. I bring him up because he’s the one who got me interested in Mega Man.
One night, he stayed over at my house, and as boys do, we spent the night playing video games and watching movies. He brought over Mega Man 3 for the NES, and I sat there watching as he hogged my TV and my Nintendo console. The first Robot Master I saw him take on was Magnet Man. Everything about the game intrigued me—the run-and-gun action, the level design, and the boss fight. I loved the music, the sound effects, and the fact that when you beat a boss, you got their weapon. It all captivated me to the point where I begged my mom to buy the game for me. She did, and I remember sitting there playing it over and over again.
As the years went on, my mom once again came through for me, buying Mega Man 4, Mega Man 5, and Mega Man 6. Years later, in 1997 to be exact, when I got an afterschool part-time job, I discovered a mom-and-pop video game trading store in the local mall. They had like-new cartridges of Mega Man and Mega Man 2 for just five bucks each. Since I already loved the series, I couldn’t pass up the chance to try the first two games. While I missed the slide and the Mega Buster introduced in later titles, I still had a ton of fun with them. I was actually surprised to find that the first game featured a scoring system, which none of the other games included. Despite the score being displayed at the top of the screen, there wasn’t a place to input your initials after a game over or beating the game. I often wondered what the point of the scoring system was—and to this day, I still do.
Backtracking a bit to 1993, I remember taking a trip down to Florida to visit my grandparents. While I live in Florida now, I grew up in Massachusetts. That year also marked the release of Mega Man X for the Super Nintendo. I first saw Mega Man X on the cover of an issue of Nintendo Power, and I was thoroughly confused.
Keep in mind, the box art for the Classic series used numbers to indicate sequels (e.g., Mega Man 2), while the title screens in the games themselves used Roman numerals (e.g., Mega Man II). When I saw Mega Man X, my feeble little immature brain immediately thought it was Mega Man 10. I rushed to Blockbuster Video, searching high and low for Mega Man 7, Mega Man 8, and Mega Man 9, only to be disappointed when I couldn’t find them anywhere. I wasn’t alone in this confusion—several of my friends thought the exact same thing.
Upon actually reading the article (because at that age, let’s face it… you just looked at the pretty pictures and skipped the words on the page—or at least I did), I realized that this was a brand-new series set in the future, beyond the Classic series. My mom, once again, came through and bought the game for me while we were in Florida. The biggest problem? My Super Nintendo was back home in Massachusetts, so I had no way to play the game until we returned. I remember staring at the box art, chomping at the bit to play it. I must have read that instruction manual at least fifty times during the one-week vacation in Florida. It was the closest I could get to playing the game, so I had to make do.
I still remember getting home and rushing to my room. I didn’t care about unpacking or anything else. It was around 11 PM when we got in, but I was still on holiday break from school, so pulling an all-nighter didn’t bother me one bit. I slammed that cartridge into my Super Nintendo and played until I physically couldn’t keep my eyes open and passed out from exhaustion.
These are some of my fondest memories of the series. As time went on, I began buying my own games thanks to pre-college financial independence, and my love for the series continued to grow. I became especially fond of the Battle Network series because it offered a whole new spin on the franchise. At the time, I was REALLY getting into computers and technology, so the digital-age setting, where you could traverse the internet using Net Navis, absolutely captivated me. You can imagine my elation in 2007 when a friend, who had recently introduced me to anime, told me there was a show based on Battle Network. In the U.S., it was called Mega Man NT Warrior; in Japan, it was known as Rockman.EXE.
I’m still a bit miffed that the third, fourth, and fifth seasons never got an English dub—especially Rockman.EXE Stream, which I felt was the best season of the entire series.
Thirty years later, my love for the Mega Man franchise still burns brighter than ever. Not counting the recent Mega Man 11 announcement, I’m just two games away from owning every single U.S.-released Mega Man title. I’m missing Mega Man 64 (though I technically own it as Mega Man Legends) and Mega Man for the Sega Game Gear. Once I collect those, I plan to start hunting down foreign titles like Mega Man: The Wily Wars for the Mega Drive and Rockman.EXE Operate Shooting Star for the Nintendo DS, among others.
Funnily enough, I already own Ryuusei no Rockman 2 (Mega Man Star Force 2) because Capcom originally stated that the game wouldn’t be coming to the West. Sure enough, right after I imported it, they announced a U.S. release! Now I own both the English and Japanese versions. Fun fact: the Japanese version is still sealed in its original shrink wrap!
I also have Rockman.EXE 3: Black for the Game Boy Advance—just because it had a different color name, even though it’s essentially the same game.
Yep… I own a copy of each of these!
I also own a ton of Mega Man action figures, some of which are still sealed in their original packaging. My collection includes the Ruby-Spears cartoon on DVD, the Wish Upon a Star OVA from Japan, the entire Mega Man NT Warrior manga set, and even the Mega Man Star Force anime on DVD. I say “went as far” because that DVD was only released in Europe, so it’s a PAL version of the anime. To watch it, I had to look up the code sequence for my Panasonic DVD player to unlock the region settings so it would play the disc!
Beyond that, I have plenty of odds and ends, with my life-sized replica helmet being my latest acquisition. Maybe one day, when I’m insanely bored, I’ll gather my entire collection and snap a photo. Some of my items are boxed up to make room for new stuff, so it would take hours to sift through everything. And knowing myself, I’d probably take the picture, put everything away, and then realize I left something out!
In conclusion, I hope you made it all the way through this long ramble. I just wanted to share my story of how Mega Man became such a significant part of my life. Thirty years later, I’m happy and proud to celebrate three decades of the Blue Bomber!
