Just came to mind after playing Mega Man 3 on emulator and going through some GameFAQs writeups.
As iconic, generation-spanning, multiple-incarnation video game franchises go, I honestly have to say I’m startled and more than a little puzzled by Mega Man’s success. The whole NES run screamed “treadmill” to me (and the spinoff “X” series took it to a new level), the storylines are at best inconsistent, and, of course, it’s a shoot-'em-up, probably the most vehemently maligned genre of all. That it survived to the Playstation alone is nothing short of miraculous.
I never played 4-7, and it’s been ages since I touched 8 or X4. Could someone give a quick primer on where, er, this world is at, Mega Man/X’s development, any link between the two, etc.?
I know that the original series ended with 8. I think the X line is done. Of course, I know better than to expect a “conclusion”. It’s just like the Friday the 13th series: when it stops making money, it’s over. Now the active line is apparently a Digimon-esque handheld series. That’s about all I got right now.
A few specific questions, two directly related to Mega Man 3.
Anyone ever figure out where the “Dark Masters” in MM3 (identical robots infused with the MM2 templates or whatever) came from? They just appear without any notice whatsoever.
How the hell did Dr. Wily survive being crushed by a metal block? He’s an incredibly slippery villain with the Devil’s luck; I have no reason to believe that he had an indestructible body.
How did he die? We don’t see him bite it in 8, but he never threatens the world again and he’s definitely dead before the X series (and I’m pretty sure he has nothing to do with the handheld series). Am I to believe that after all the chaos he’s caused, all his mind-blowing escapes…he just gives up and eventually succumbs to natural causes? Yeesh…but then again, given the fate of real-life megalomaniacs like Josef Stalin and Pol Pot, maybe that’s only to be expected.
You mean you were playing it on the Mega Man Anniversary Collection for the PS2 right? Wouldn’t want to mention the devil piracy would you?
X8 is actually really fantastic and while I don’t think Capcom ever officially said the X line is done, they’ve jumped to an even further flung future with the Mega Man ZX series (which is separate from the Star Force Digimon-like MM series) on the DS.
There have been rumors forever of a Mega Man 9 that would tie the classic series and the X series together (making X “Mega Man 10”). But nothing has ever come of it. I still hold out hope however. Although one of the games (I think 7 or 8) reveals that Wily created Zero.
Here you go…
The Dark Masters were created by Wily to slow Mega Man’s ascent to his castle.
Wily survived because he’s like the Wily Coyote. Nothing can kill him, his hair just gets singed and he always comes back for more.
Wily never “died” onscreen, but one of the Mega Man X games said that someone who looked like Wily (and acted like Zero’s father) met with Sigma.
I’m a huge fan of Mega Man games, and I have to say the reason I’m a fan of them isn’t because there’s a plot. Quite frankly, trying to understand the overall storyline of the Mega Man games is like pondering the existential importance of a tomato. I’m not quite sure what that means, but I just wanted to say that.
The Mega Man X series was supposed to end with X4, but Capcom likes to milk franchises for all they’re worth, then milk their corpses. After X, there was the Mega Man Zero series for the Game Boy Advance, which is really good but extremely difficult. That series ends with the fourth, and there’s a definite END to that series. They’re now on ZX for the DS, and I don’t know how long that’s going to go.
There’s also a Mega Man X RPG, and the Battle Network series but as far as I know they’re like side stories and “non-canon” if you can really consider Mega Man games to have a canon.
Every Mega Man game has the same story - there are 8 robots (sometimes 4, sometimes 6) each of which have a characteristic which matches their appearance, weapon and stage. You must beat each robot and take its weapon, and then go to the fake villain’s castle, beat a couple of stages and then go to Dr Wily’s castle and beat him. Beyond that, who cares what the stories are? Since each game has totally unique stages, you can keep playing the next game in the series without getting bored.
Unfortunately, the current status of Mega Man is that they keep bringing out these REALLY lousy spin off games and haven’t stuck with the pattern.
Quite frankly, trying to understand the overall storyline of the Mega Man games is like pondering the existential importance of a tomato. I’m not quite sure what that means, but I just wanted to say that.