Top 25 games turning 25, part 2

You may have already heard that 1994 was one of those big years in video game releases.

Sure, it was the year that brought us Rise of the Robots, Shaq Fu and Super 3D Noah’s Arc, but it was also the year of Doom II, System Shock, TIE Fighter and Street Fighter II: Turbo.

…not that any of those seven games are eligible, because i’ve not played a one of them.

So, just to belabor the point, here is the second batch of the Top 25 video games turning 25 this year (that I played; you’ll note it’s light on fighting games and Windows games) presented in alphabetical order. Because I
a) am a coward; or
b) have spent too much time on this already to agonize over ranking them.

After saying all that, I’m going right off the script after noticing I have a bloc of Mega Man games that would otherwise get split over two entries. I figure, why not just Mega Man it up all in one go?

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Mega Man 6

The final NES volume didn’t get a fair shake almost from the start. Capcom refused to publish it overseas, leaving Nintendo of America itself to bring it over (that’s why your copy had one of the “Nintendo” cartridge sleeves).

Coming after an out-of-gas sequel in Mega Man 5 in an era when an endless string of video game sequels was new and dubious territory. To top it off, it stood in the shadow of Mega Man X. It was very hard to make an argument for another go at the same ‘ol stuff.

And that’s a shame. Because a lot of people didn’t take seriously a game worthy of being the swan song for the series’ first console.

Mega Man 6 introduced a lot of wrinkles that were sorely needed to keep the previous game fresh (Gravity Man’s awesome gimmick notwithstanding). Capcom gave an A+ effort to make this sequel stand out with hidden boss rooms, completely re-thinking Rush as being a mode-changer for Mega Man, introducing the weapons energy balancer and daring to actually say “To be Continued…” at the end of the credits (despite jailing Dr. Wily for the first time ever).

The level designs are great and visually well-themed, each with unique gameplay elements. We’ve gone back to gorgeous, screen-filling castle bosses instead of the yawn-inducing tiny designs for the first 4 boss levels in the previous game. And, of course, the music is still tip-top and I’m happy all the robot masters’ themes got out to play in a fantastic medley for the credits.

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Mega Man X

Speaking of the owner of that shadow…

Unlike a traditional Mega Man game, X wanted to open with a bang. Study the attract mode and the opening stage well; Capcom needed to show that they could do more than just “Mega Man with better graphics.” Most of the game hems close to traditional Mega Man structure, so pay close attention to where it doesn’t to see the message Capcom is sending. Each and every part of this experience is meant to send the message that this game is bigger, better, and materially different in terms of gameplay.

Start to finish, Mega Man X is one of the finest in the series and an all-time platforming great.

(OK, so this one has a wobbly release date. Mega Man X came out in Japan in the tail end of 1993, sneaking it’s way west early in 1994. Mega Man X2 would likewise straddle the changeover to 1995. I opted to stick with the North American release date for this.)

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Mega Man V

After years of laying eggs on the Game Boy, Minakuchi Engineering inexplicably learned from their failures and unleashed an all-time great. If Dr. Wily’s Revenge through Mega Man IV were necessary to create this game, it was all worth it (mostly because I only bought one of those kusoge).

Mega Man V is the first, last (by default) and only Game Boy title to use completely original stages and robot masters. It also is the origin of several new power ups for our hero, including the Mega Arm and buzzsaw badass Tango the cat.

The developers learned to design stages in such a way that the greatest enemy was no longer the Game Boy’s small resolution. They also cleverly used pacing to disguise that they could rarely, if ever, spawn more than one enemy on the screen at a time (painfully obvious in the previous games).

Perhaps all they ever needed to do was spread their wings, unburdened by the need to copy what came before. When Game Boy Mega Man stopped trying to be a crappy NES Mega Man, it was finally able to become a great Game Boy Mega Man.

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Mega Man Soccer

The weirdest spin-off for Mega Man since the board game on the NES the previous year, Mega Man Soccer, while less known, is certainly the Kirby’s Dream Course of the series. It’s far too quirky a use of the property not to love.

The game is surprisingly more Soccer than Mega Man, who provides more of a motif for the game than major gameplay alterations in the vein of Super Mario Strikers would a decade later. The main thrust of the strategy is figuring out which robot masters played which positions best given your playstyle… and which special weapon kicks you found particularly handy. It still provided a much-needed injection of variety into the mostly samey soccer games of that era that didn’t have a lot going for them in customization.

Still, this game gets docked slightly for making me want a Mega Man baseball game. It’s already designing itself in your head right now, isn’t it? How unlike Capcom to leave a sequel on the table.

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Mega Man: The Wily Wars

I’m rather hyped that this rare game is making it to the Sega Genesis classic. Long before the Japan-only remasters for the original Playstation, you could play enhanced versions of the first three Mega Man games on the Sega Channel. I’m sure somebody must have had that.

The graphics look 16-biter, the music gets some extra funk with the Genesis synth (though I’m just not having its version of Protoman’s whistle) and there’s a few gameplay tweaks to keep you on your toes. The game also moved from passwords to a proper save system (no cheesing the game by passwording yourself 9 E-Tanks from the get go) and includes a straight-up bonus dungeon that you tackle with a custom weapons loadout choosing from all three games.

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Ruby-Spears’ Mega Man

Yes, this isn’t a video game, but I thought I’d mention it here just to really drive home how big a year 1994 was for the Blue Bomber. Made by Americans, for Americans, this cartoon played with a few fine details. It made the robots adult-sized, placed Dr. Light’s Lab in New York, and removed all nuance whatsoever from Protoman’s character.

While it certainly didn’t rise above the typical quality for video game cartoons in the Western market, (fighting robot) Mega Man has enjoyed a long and luxurious second life in Internet memes, more so than all of its predecessors combined. It’s a nice reminder that the most important thing is to have fun.