Mega Man Anniversary Collection

[EdenMaster]

I only got it used a few months ago. Maybe I said that before I got it.

[Dark Jaguar]

Yeah I figured that might be the case. Anyway, I sure hope they make a Megaman 9 to finally finish off the series. I want to see what actually happens and what Zero did after Wily first awakenened him (as seen in MMX4), and more importantly, when Dr. Light decides to get all that stuff done for X (like his hundreds of powerup capsules he worked on and spread EVERYWHERE). I'd also like to see Dr. Wily get killed by Zero :D or something, and what happens to Bass, Megaman, and Protoman. Anyway, it would most likely have to be the darkest story in the original series, but they should include something like Toy Man, and just make Toy Man be somehow important :D, that would be funny. It's funny when totally ridiculous seeming characters get all serious, like if the Trix Rabbit suddenly started talking about the meaning of life.

[EdenMaster]

I don't think they'd do it just because of how dark it would be. Who wants to play a game where all the good guys DIE in the end?

I think that part of the story will forever be left to the imagination of gamers (and the Cataclysm)

[Dark Jaguar]

And most of the bad guys, but hey Dr. Light would still need to be left as well as X.

Yeah, it would be dark, in contrast to the lighter moods of the previous games, but that's the X series for ya. Actually, the other way is to simply have X find out in a revelation type story in a future MMX game.

Besides, it's not like a story where everyone dies is all that bad. Sure, when you're in a video game and you are struggling to keep that character alive the whole time only for them to die in the end it's a bit of a defeating moment :D, but at least you took a lot of other people, and robots, with you in the process :D. Oh yes, there's always the theory that X is actually a remodel of the original Megaman, with his memory wiped clean so he could have a fresh start.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, if the story is good enough, having your characters die can work. I'd say more if ... no, even that much would be a bad idea...

But with a good story you can do just about anything, if it seems plausible and works in the story. It would be quite a departure for a classic-style MM game to be like that, but if they want to end it they'd have to... (though MM9? Sure Capcom says otherwise but I definitely think of MM&B as MM9...) But I don't know if it'd really be a good idea, actually. Maybe leaving it up to the imagination, or described somewhat vaguely in an X game, would be better... that kind of story would certainly fit X a lot better.

[Dark Jaguar]

[A Black Falcon]

IMO, they don't have to CALL it the 9th game for it to BE the 9th game... :)

I don't know if they'll continue the classic MM series. After all, it's simlistic in features compared to X, hasn't gotten a new title in some years now, etc... I just don't know if it would work well. Especially if they went 3d... that would just be wrong... (but good! Not mediocre like the MMBN GC sidescroller!)

Kill Wily? That wouldn't be nice... :) Just put him in jail again or something and don't make a sequel that gets him free. :D

[Dark Jaguar]

Ah c'mon! That's never enough and no one would be satisfied with that. The people cry for WILY BLOOD! (Wily blood... interesting...)

One word: Bassium (a made-up energy that fuels Bass) I have no idea why I said that, I just found it funny in the Bass ending in the arcade games :D.

You're right, but really MM&B isn't the 9th game. What about the GB games, and Wily Tower? They are also pretty much exactly what you want from a Megaman game, though the first 4 GB games are just remixes of NES game bosses, the 5th has original bosses. Also, remember that MM&B makes it very clear via the CDs that, yes, the GB games ARE part of the main storyline, not some sort of alternate version of the story. MM&B, with that in mind, can easily get away with not being Megaman 9 with those precedents.

[A Black Falcon]

There have really been 14 MM games, sure. 15 if you count Wily Tower as a game too. But they can call the games whatever they want, really. Hey, if they wanted they could call a next MM game "Mega Man 2" or something, I'm sure... :)

And how many people exactly are calling for Wily's blood? I don't see them lining the streets in protest that he hasn't died... *looks around* ... Nope, didn't think so. :D

Finally, okay, a couple classic MM games have had somewhat dark plots. But dark on the level the game you suggest would have to be? No. X has, though (characters are dying left and right in that series!), which is why it'd be a much better fit for a story like that to show up.

[Dark Jaguar]

I agree, as a game that focuses on revealing the past, likely via a Dr. Light capsule, it would work well. Actually PLAYING through that story might not work, or it might, depending on how well the mood can "flow" from original to X just right, as I'm thinking.

Yeah, they could do that very well, though honestly I think they figured out with the GB series (called the Rockman World series in Japan by the way), that messing with the numbers just confuses everyone. I'm still trying to noodle out where all those GB games fit in the story exactly. Somehow they would all sorta have to be between 4, 5, and 6 I think... And oh yes, MM&B also makes it clear that the Wily Tower part of Wily Wars is in fact an official part of the story. Same way it showed that the GB games all were part of it really. It'd make sense if you played it... Anyway, it's all very muddled up at this point, but if you look at it from a distance like that infamous painting of a room filled with impossible geometry, it sorta makes sense as a concept (Japan sure loves that painting, I see it parodied a lot in anime and video games, also Futurama... *falls down stairs and then suddenly up stairs and left/right the twist...*). Anyway, it all works out except what is WITH those alien robots? They certainly haven't shown up yet in the X or Zero series...

[A Black Falcon]

You mean the Escher painting with staircases and doors all over and people walking on all of them? Great picture... :)

As for continuity, I don't think that fitting all the parts into the stories is exactly a priority for a series like this. The GB games fit in somewhere. I'd prefer to think that they go after the pairs of games they are like -- an idea reinforced by how Mega Man has the powers from those games, in general -- no Mega Buster until MM3 (4? But I think it was 3. Though I haven't played it, it does have 4 MM4 bosses...), no sliding in the first game or two, no Rush in the first game, etc... they've got to go after the games in question, I would think. Though it does bring up the question why MM4 for GB has the added store to buy items in and P-Chips to buy them with while MM6 for NES doesn't have that stuff (though it did show up in MM8 (and MM7 in some form too, right?) as well as MMV of course)... oh well, Dr. Light "forgot" for a game. No explanation for that is really needed. :)

Uh, alien robots?

[Dark Jaguar]

[EdenMaster]

You're right about the sound in MM8. When Grenade Man blew out the floor during my battle with him, my speakers just about blew up.

I never liked MM8s sound very much. What was with that annoying little sproingy sound Mega Man made every time he jumped? I can see a soudn when he lands, but when he jumps? Making a pointless sound during a jump is Mario's trademark!

All in all, I've had the most fun so far with MM3, my favorite MM game of them all since it was on the original NES. MM4 is a close second though.

[Dark Jaguar]

Hmm, honestly I never thought about that, but come to think of it, no, the previous Megaman games didnt' have a sound effect for when he actually jumped, but they DID have a very silly sounding effect for landing :D. Oh well, I didn't mind it so much anyway. I do like the music in MM8 though. In fact, the one Megaman game where the music disappointed me was Megaman & Bass. Don't get me wrong, the songs are... adequate, but only a few of them really stick out. Most of them are just sorta... there. Cold Man's music, most of the Wily stages music, and the boss music (thankfully) are the only real memorable ones if you ask me.

On another note, I noticed something about the save system. I know for a fact I reached Wily's castle in MM2 with full e-tanks, and it saved, but when I loaded that game it gave me 0. Now, I also know for a fact that the password system in that game records E-tanks, because that's the first password system I ever used as a kid and I played around with it all the time! I even memorized MM2's ultimate password! I happened to see it checking with the select menu, and there that ultimate password was. Also, inputting it directly WILL get me all those e-tanks, but the save system doesn't seem to actually save the password itself in that game, rather just storing certain variables in it's own way. Kinda silly, because they forgot e-tanks. Now, it doesn't really matter too much to me (being that whenever I play this game, I do it from the start), but I just thought I'd note it. MM3's save system records all the e-tanks though. MM4, from what I remember, didn't remember e-tanks anyway in the password system, and nor does it now in the save system. I wouldn't know about MM5 and MM6's password storage abilities, yet, except the save system doesn't record e-tanks for those (MM7 records everything that the password does, fortunatly, and MM8 records everything that the save system originally did, except only one save slot). Just thought I'd mention one little save system error for MM2, not that it's that important really.

[EdenMaster]

Ah, E-Tanks were so easy to find in MM2. They were just there for the taking, most of the time. Not until later games did their true value come through, and you had to actully work a little to get them.

By work a little I mean "probably just need to use Rush Coil", but at least they weren't just sitting there! I really wish they would have come out with W-Tanks earlier. Those are incredibly helpful. I hate using my weapons to beat the Robot Masters a second time, only to find myself short of the weapon I need to beat Wily! Especially if I should use some of the weapon energy and then die.

Although I am proud of myself, I managed to defeat Wily's flying skull thing at the end of MM4 on my last life, with no E-Cans, and only my Mega Buster remaining. It was one of the few times I've yelled "YES!" while playing a game, and that's good :D.

I think the only other time I can recall doing that is when I beat the final boss in Cubivore. Man, that was tough...

[A Black Falcon]

I wasn't going to get this, just NES Zelda, but... it was there, and I couldn't help it... so now I'm kind of broke... but MM games are good, so... oh well. :D

MM7... just played the start, but as I thought I'm not too impressed. MM is much bigger on the screen than the NES games, which isn't that good. Also he's very slow and has a stupid looking walk movement... and in going to the SNES they upped the cartoonishness of the graphics several notches. It's okay but I prefer the classic look... MM8 is an improvement over 7, though. MM still walks funny and moves like a slug, but at least he's smaller on the screen again... oh well, the NES games are the centerpiece of the collection anyway.

Oh, and MM8's "voice acting" trumps MMX4, by miles. And I thought that game's was bad... compared to THIS, that's fantastic. :D

[Dark Jaguar]

Ya know, it kinda got cartoony around 5 if you ask me.

And, yes, that voice acting is...

Dr. Light: Stop that waskewy Wiwy!

[A Black Falcon]

Some of the worst "voice acting" (using the term loosely...) ever? :) It's got all the classics -- words not lined up with mouth movements, awful acting, awful-er acting, voices that are totally wrong for the characters, nearly unintelligable sentences...

The intros and stuff were always more cartoonish... yeah, especially in the later games. But the NES couldn't do much more graphically so they were limited there... but if 7 had been more similar in style to the NES games I wouldn't have minded as much. But they messed it up, so it makes other things look worse as well, I'd say. Not an awful game but not as good as the NES ones for sure.

[Dark Jaguar]

I actually liked the look of them, but that's me.

[A Black Falcon]

... but as I said, the look is only part of the problem with MM7...

[EdenMaster]

Takes up too much room on the screen? What the hell does that have to do with anything? I never even figured that made the game any better or worse. He does look odd when he walks, though.

I still pronounce Bass as "Base", because since he's with Treble, that's how the musical bass is pronounced. Judging from the voice acting in MM8, I'm not taking the fact that he said Bass like the fish too seriously.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, he looks dumb as he walks, and in addition he walks SLOW. You notice it? Play 7 or 8 then 1-6 and it's very obvious... as is the size thing. MM is a small sprite in the classic games! 7 looks like it took a lot of inspiration from the Game Boy games in some aspects -- 4 bosses at a time instead of 8, the machine where you can buy items with money you collect, the Mega Man that is larger in proportion to the screen... It's not worse, it's just different. And it changed, as I said -- he's much smaller (but walks the same -- but it's not as noticable on a smaller sprite. The speed is though...) in 8.

I pronounce the name "Bass" Bass because... well, I do. Though I agree that I wouldn't take anything from the way anyone said anything in MM8 to be canon. :)

Oh, does Roll show up in the Famicom versions of 1-6? I know the US intro to 4 mentioned her name and nothing more, but I thought that I'd heard that she was in the Japanese ones more... but I don't know... But Bass is only in 8 and MM&B, right?

[EdenMaster]

Bass made his debut in MM7. Roll on the other hand...I want to say I saw her once before, but I could be wrong...

OH YEAH! At the very end of Mega Man 4, you see Roll waiting with Rush to see Mega Man return.

[A Black Falcon]

I just thought I'd heard somewhere that she had a larger role in the Japanese versions, but I don't know...

And the movies in MM8 are on par with the worst I've ever seen. They are easily that bad... funny bad? It's almost so bad that it's just painful and not funny...

Like in X4, near the end as Zero there was this cutscene where Zero is questioning why he is fighting, and it's supposed to be serious, but the way it was said it seemed humorous. This stuff is just so bad that you wince. The game is fun though...

[Dark Jaguar]

Actually, since Bass is Forte in Japan, the pronounciation of the America-only name by the American version IS canon. Treble is Gospel in Japan.

I hadn't heard anything like that ABF, but Roll was even in Megaman 1. She's right there with Dr. Light when you beat the game and Megaman returns home (walking the whole way, must have forgotten he could teleport again...).

As far as the look of the newer ones, sorry, I just don't see it. I like the updated looks of those games.

Bass being "base" for the musical sense never made any sense anyway. I mean, why not SPELL it that way too? There's already a word that's spelled like that AND said like that, the normal word "base", and it's MEANING, the base of a platform or something, actually RELATES to the musical term in a way! Why did they have to spell it in a way where the only other word has NOTHING in common and is pronounced in a totally different way? It's stupid!

[A Black Falcon]

As far as the look of the newer ones, sorry, I just don't see it. I like the updated looks of those games.

*sigh*

How about the slower speed, then? MM walks so slowly... and you see nothing strange at all about how he walks in 7 and 8? Really? And you do get what I mean by 'MM is much larger on the screen', right?

Actually, since Bass is Forte in Japan, the pronounciation of the America-only name by the American version IS canon. Treble is Gospel in Japan.

But sensibly it should be pronounced 'base' -- Rock, Roll, Treble, Bass... music, so naturally it'd be base and not bass... but I agree, pronouncing "bass" "base" is stupid so if I don't have to I'd rather not. :)

[EdenMaster]

Well, if you think about it, ABF, the slow speed of the later Mega Man games (7 in particular) is directly tied into the larger size of Mega Man, as well as the Robot Masters and even the random enemies. Everything is bigger, and takes up more room on the screen. If Mega Man moved any faster, your reaction time to approaching hazards or enemies would be lessened greatly.

So really, the slower speed is a good thing. Think about it, if you went even twice as fast, you'd be blazing through those levels in no time, running into every single enemy that jumped out from off-screen suddenly.

[A Black Falcon]

True... but it still feels slow. Oh, you get used to it, but play one of the originals and it's obvious... and 8 has much smaller sprites but still you don't move too quick. But you are right that speed is linked to the sprite size...

For comparison, on the SNES or PSX, I've never had any complaints about sprite size or speed or any of these things in the X games. I'd say that those games, like the classic games (though in a different way of course), get it right...

[A Black Falcon]

I still haven't beaten any of the MM games...

In related news, the farthest I've gotten is to the Yellow Demon in MM1. I wonder why I haven't beaten any of them yet... :D