It’s a little late, but my painfully nerdy Mega Man retrospective collaboration with Nadia has moved into week two. This week features her look at how the series tends to overstay its welcome (featuring the maybe-too-clever title of “Jumping the Shark Man”) and my own chronicle of the overarching plotline, which I’m ashamed to admit I was able to write off-the-cuff.
I wish I had taken some time to get into the series’ translation hiccups, like why they had to renamed Dr. Vile to Dr. Weil for the U.S. (answer: Since they had already changed bounty hunter Vava to Vile for the U.S. — whoops). But I guess it’s long enough as it is.
Sorry, Battle Network! You only get a sidebar. Because you’re lame.
Oh and yeah, there’s a new Retronauts, which is frankly all over the place. Specifically: Final Fantasy Tactics, Mega Man 4, why Sharkey hates Ralph Baer and why Duck Tales’ moon stage has the best music ever. It is a very uneven but generally pretty okay episode.
I’ve really been enjoying the Megaman pieces so far, keep up the good work!
Oh, and the nitpicker in me noticed that you called Mr. X from Megaman 6 Dr. X in your plotline synopsis.
I’m curious as to what kind of Hiro-quality time-travel shenanigans Kohler needed to execute to just get back from the “Tokyo Game Show” (1:18). Neat!
He meant TGS ’06, I think.
A couple of minor nitpicks: X did have time to complete his diagnostics, with a few decades to spare as they were originally only supposed to take 30 years. Also, it’s paleontologists that scrub fossils with toothbrushes. Archaeologists wear fedoras and fight Nazis. A subtle but important distinction.
Thanks for the link! Too bad fuitadnet.com hates me and won’t bring it back up.
I have to credit David for Jumping the Shark Man. At first I was like, “No. No way. Well … fine.”
Some of those finer over-arching plot points were very interesting. I was one of many who assumed that the ‘virus’ was Wily’s creation.
If X only knew, he’d probably don his Shadow Armor permanently and write poetry.
Actually, one could argue that X6 and beyond DO matter, since ZX Advent is going to feature an Axl Biometal. I remember hearing once that Inti Creates wanted a shot at continuing the Classic and X series themselves, but were rebuffed by Inafune. Maybe Advent is their way of getting an X8 postscript (enplaining just what happened to Axl at the end of that game) in through the back door?
Besides, if you wanna talk apocrypha, the X series breaks the whole franchise from the outset, since X is supposed to be ‘the first to think, feel, and make [his] own decisions’ but Rock asked to be converted into a fighter from ‘a strong sense of justice’.
But so it goes. Playing Megaman for the story is like Final Fantasy for the mythology.
Yeah, I thought about that, but… meh. Axel is lame. LOL ROBOT DNA
I had completely forgotten about the moon music… *sigh* [wipes tear]
Ahhh, now it all makes sense, Yoshihiro Sakaguchi a.k.a. Yuukichan’s Papa from Mega Man 1 and 2 is responsible for composing the moon music. It’s … all … coming … together. What a tangled web you weave, Mr. Parish.
Yes, I don’t know why I’m wasting my time, but speaking of Megaman, Yoshihiro, X’s, fighting, music, playing Final Fantasy for mythology, the moon, crazy people who speak moon language, and beating generic constantly spawning generic enemies into mochi I assume you’re really talking about
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ShimazuYoshihiro.jpg
I had that Ducktales game. Now I think about it, the moon stage music WAS pretty good. I even have an OC Remix of it somewhere, nerd that I am.
Personally I found the moon stage music to be perhaps the most depressing gaming music ever.
cartman – did you only listen to the first 10 seconds of it? That track gets damn heroic.
Well, now you got me missing your sidebars.
Bring them back when you redesign!
Because I’m a jerk, I’ll point out that the Megaman series roundup thing is missing the Gamegear entry. Not much of a loss, BUT STILL! And you call yourself painfully nerdy!
Best Retronauts evah, by the way. More like this, plzkthnxbye.
I listened to the whole thing. It’s just in such a damned depressing sounding key.
You seem to imlpy at the end that there might maybe kind of be more Legends info on the way somehow.
That is awesome and cruel.
I love your footnote at the end of the Virus explanation sidebar. Brings a real element of class to the entire piece.