Mega Man: Classic Games

The Mega Man series celebrated its 25th anniversary late last year on 17th December 2012. This anniversary is from the date the first Mega Man game was released on the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) and Famicom (as 'Rock Man') in Japan.


The Mega Man games are usually 2D platform games which allow the player to use weapons to defeat enemies instead of the traditional jumping on them as seen in another 2D platforming series; Super Mario Bros. Oddly enough, according to Shigeru Miyamoto, the man who helped create most of Nintendo's most iconic series'such as Super Mario and The Ledgend of Zelda, said in a recent interview with Famitsu Magazine that Super Mario Bros/ would have originally had guns, similar to Mega Man. 
Fortunately, the development team realised that with Super Mario Bros. relatively slow moving enemies, using guns would make Mario way to over powered and would take the fun from the game. Because of this change in decision, two great series were able to form.
The games are based heavily around the idea of futuristic robots where almost everything in the games are robots. Each stage in the classic games are named after the boss at the end of them which grant Mega Man a power if he defeats them. To get through the levels the player must run, jump and fire weapons upon the enemies while avoiding projectiles all at the same time. For this reason, Mega Man games have often been said to have been difficult. This also could be also because at the time games were quite short, so to make them last longer developers would make them difficult to make them last longer. Notable examples of this are Battletoads (I know this from personal experience) and Ninja Gaiden.

Here is a timeline of the classic Mega Man games on NES:
  • Mega Man 2 (200X, as shown in the opening. Starts in June 9,[1] one year (and 2 months) after the first game.[2])
  • Mega Man 3 (200X, as shown in the Virtual Console manual. Gamma is stolen in August 28.[1])
  • Mega Man 4 (One year after Mega Man 3, as shown in the NES and Virtual Console manuals.[3])
  • Mega Man 5 (20XX, as shown in the opening. About two months after Mega Man 4.[3])
  • Mega Man 7 (Six months after Mega Man 6, as shown in the opening)


Mega Man games were also set in a futuristic setting, in the early 21st century. A few of the games reference this by saying either that the year is 200X or 20XX. The basic story for these games is that Dr Light and his robots (Mega Man and a girl named Roll) are constantly fighting with an evil Dr Named Dr Wily.


References:
Information on the interview with Miyamoto (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-10-20-miyamoto-mario-originally-had-a-gun)


Mega Man Timeline and general information (http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Mega_Man_(series))





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