Capcom’s Blue Bomber: Mega Man

Written on: Mar 12 2008
Featured on: Write The Game Video Game Blog

Megaman Over The Years

In 1987 Capcom released Mega Man to the world, and an icon among gamers was born. However, this was not Mega Man as we commonly refer to him today. Between his looks on the box art, the fact that only six robot masters appear, and his patented power-ups (slide, charge, and Rush abilities) being missing; Mega Man had some growing up to do. Boy did he grow up since then! Mega Man has appeared in more then one hundred games in the last twenty years with no signs of slowing down.

The Blue Bomber’s fame amongst gamers was near instant, and he is still a force to be reckoned with to this very day, but what makes Mega Man so popular? Well many fan sites say that his initial success was due to the beautiful graphics his games had on the NES compared to other side-scrollers of the time, others credit it to the amazing and catchy music soundtracks found in every one of the games, finally a last group say it was because of the interesting gameplay and storyline twists. Personally, I’d say it was a mix of all three.

You may be asking, “wait, where is that original Mega Man now?”. Well that storyline has long since ‘ended’, (though that doesn’t keep me from wishing Mega Man 9 will be announced at some point) and we are in a new age of Mega Men. As the timeline of the original series went forward, we were introduced to a new Mega Man, known commonly as X. While the style of gameplay was the same, we were told right away that this was -not- our young robot friend from the year 200X (or 20XX). X’s storyline continues in 21XX, a hundred years after the end of Mega Man, and takes a more serious tone then it’s predecessor. Death, deception, and destruction are common themes in this series, but storyline elements from the original series leak their way into these games creating one heck of a plot twist.

Before X’s storyline ended with X8, we were introduced to two new Mega Men. Mega Man Zero (a revived Zero from the X storyline) and Rock Volnutt (aka the Legends series Mega Man), but how do these new comers fit in to the plot? Believe it or not, Capcom has already thought of this. Taking place quite possibly hundreds of years into the future after X’s storyline ends, Zero unfrozen after a century of hibernation is introduced to a new violent force, Neo Arcadia. If X’s dark tones were too much for you, Zero delves deeper into corruption as the story continues to get a darker tone. There is far more blood and violence in this series then any other to date (more specifically if you’re playing the Japanese version).

Rock Volnutt appears in the Legends storyline, a 3D Mega Man series that starts several thousand years later, it is commonly thought that these games start in the year 8XXX. Many people didn’t like this game, as it wasn’t the style of Mega Man they were used to, though most who had their doubts in the beginning grew to love the series and it’s characters.

Recently introduced into the main storyline has been Mega Man ZX, which is set around two hundred years after the Zero games. These games are seen as a bridge to the Legends series, as the ability for humanoids to turn into Mega Men was introduced here. While the gameplay does return to the normal style of the Mega Man games of the past, this series has, and still is, introducing new twists to how you play.

You say I missed some? Battle Network and Star Force are set in an alternate universe taking place in 200X and 220X respectively. They also create yet another twist to Mega Man’s game play style, more RPG game then an sidescroller, these games introduce old familiar faces in a completely different context. While some argue that the events of Battle Network and Star Force -can- be linked to the main stream timeline, no official evidence has been produced to soundly solidify that theory.

It’s been an adventure with Mega Man and his spinoff series. With games, cartoons, books, cameo appearances, toys, etc. of the helmeted hero continuing to be created there seems to be no stopping him, even with some of his games getting mixed reviews. Will we finally be able to see the chain of events that fully links the original series to X? Can we expect to see a Mega Man Legends 3 on the new generation systems? When will the next series of Mega Man appear and what new twists will it bring? No one knows but Capcom at this point, and anyone who gets an interview with them asks them that same question with little divulged in these meetings. Everyone has their speculations, but one thing is for sure, the Blue Bomber lives on!