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Mega Man is great. You know it, I know it. But it isn’t without it’s flaws, and definitely isn’t without it’s weird moments that make you question what the heck Capcom was thinking when they did certain things. For those strange things, I present to you a list. Note that I’m not going to be lame and be like DURR HURR HARD MAN’S NAME because that’s just dumb. I’m a Mega Man nerd and I look into things a little deeper than making cock jokes about Robot Master names… Here’s the Top 10 weirdest things about the classic Mega Man series.

10. Napalm Man doesn’t use his treads

This has be one of my personal nitpicks but it makes me chuckle. Originally I didn’t notice but now I’ve played through as an adult, seeing this tank jump around like an acrobat just makes me laugh. Napalm Man has to be pretty heavy with all those missiles and crap on his body, and he has treads to indicate this further, so why doesn’t he use them? Because he’s Napalam Man and he can do whatever the hell he wants, that’s why. In Power Fighters/Battles he does eventually use them but he still jumps around.

9. Eddie

I know Eddie has become a staple for Mega Man classic now, and actually has SOME use in the latest instalments (MM9 and MM10), but I’m sure I’m not the only one who thought “What the hell is the point of this guy?” when I first saw him in MM4. He walks up to you, and tosses you a random item. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but what’s wrong with just having the item there waiting to be picked up? Eddie also takes up an entire screen, which could have been used for more enemies or something. It just seems like a wasted idea. Luckily they gave him a kick up the ass after MM6 and gave him a proper use as an item you can use at any time, or an assistant to help you in those shooter parts in MM8.

8. Centaur Man’s Water Stage

Ahh I’m sure you know this story. Lacking a water themed robot master, Centaur Man got the short end of the stick and was left with a water themed stage. So let me get this straight. You have a Centaur Robot, complete with horns and a mythological look to him, and you chuck him in a swimming pool? Where’s the Greek temples dammit?! Now I can understand that they already had Knight Man for their castle looking level, but of all things why a water themed level? Now you may say “Well every Mega Man game has it’s own water/ice themed robot master stage!”, which is true, but those games had Robot Masters that were BASED or LOOKED LIKE they belonged in an ice/water themed stage. Centaur Man DOES NOT. Also without Rush Marine there’s even less need for a water themed stage AT ALL! What were they thinking? Can you imagine if they did this to Flame Man??

7. Toad Man is extremely easy

This is a well known quirk in the series. Toad Man is undoubtedly the easiest boss in the whole of the Mega Man Universe, let alone the Mega Man classic series. Why? Well, while he can jump on you and flood the whole screen with damaging rain, he will never do it if you keep shooting him. Hit him, he jumps. Leave him alone, he hurts you. Considering the other bosses can beat you up easily if you’re not careful or don’t have their weakness, it makes you wonder how or why they made Toad Man so damn easy. Thankfully ROM hacks exist that make him more of a challenge, so Toad Man fans can rest easy knowing that he CAN kill Mega Man… sometimes.

6. Metal Blade ludicrously overpowered

VRRRR VRRRR is the sound of death at the hands of Mega Man. Another well known quirk in the series is that the Metal Blade is the best weapon in the game (if not the entire series). It has a huge amount of ammo, can be thrown in all directions quickly and rips enemies (big and small) to shreds. Only a very few enemies and bosses resist it, making it completely broken. You’ll probably never run out of ammo for it, and everything will be begging for mercy. Even Metal Man himself gets murdered by his own weapon in two hits! Also Metal Man is pretty much the easiest Robot Master in the game, inciting you even more to grab this weapon of mass destruction first and dominate the game with ease. Despite this though it makes Mega Man 2 a delight to play, just ripping through all these enemies with such ease… Until you bump into a Sniper Joe.

5. Wire is mostly unnecessary

Okay seriously, how many of you are thinking “There’s a grappling hook in Mega Man?” right now? Yes there is! You can find this thing hidden in Dive Man’s stage, but it’s easily forgotten about because it almost has no use in the entire game. You have Rush Coil, Rush Jet and Balloon to get you to new heights, so why not add another? A very bizarre decision I have to say, but it is the coolest of the bunch even if it’s fairly useless. If only you could swing on it or pull enemies towards you. It’s a really cool idea but the level design that just didn’t want it to be used. Ever.

4. No Mega Man 3 intro, long intro song

First let’s recap how the first two games open up. Mega Man is just a simple titlescreen, but we can forgive it because it’s just the first game. The second game has a really long tower sequence which everyone is familiar, with a really long kickass song that fits perfect with the story text. Then you have Mega Man 3, which has again another titlescreen. The weird thing with this titlescreen is the music. It’s a really long and awesome tune that not many will hear all the way through because of the lack of an intro sequence. What’s more, there’s even more reason to put an intro sequence into the game because of the confusing story half way through. Proto Man? Gamma? Who or what are they? Dr. Light and Wily teamed up? WHEN? If you look at every other Mega Man game from 3, you’ll see some crazy 8-bit story telling sequences that just crap all over MM3’s titlescreen (but maybe not the music). I believe that an intro was planned but there was no time to finish it. It’s a well known fact that Mega Man 3 was rushed, and a lot of things were unexplained or not included.

3. Top Spin doesn’t work when it should

When it comes to useless weapons, this one takes the top prize. Now before you say “But it can kill Dr. Wily!”, think about this. This weapon only works in mid air, requires you to physically connect with your enemy (which damages you usually), and can randomly remove all your ammo in one go. Yes, Charge Kick is also bad, but it can be used to slide through enemies and avoid them completely. This on the other hand, is mostly a waste. It would make sense if it could destroy weaker enemies that can be killed with one shot right? Well not according to Capcom. Try this with weak enemies, even the bees in Hard Man’s sateg, and it won’t even hurt them. Don’t deny it. This is the worst weapon in the whole of Mega Man. Sorry Top Man.

2. Breakman

When it comes to story, Mega Man isn’t exactly Lord of the Rings. But Mega Man 3 at least TRIED to have some twists and turns and tell you it’s plot. As hard as I try though, I cannot understand Proto Man and his alter ego Break Man. Basically throughout the game you fight Proto Man, who runs away when you damage him enough. On Gemini Man’s stage though, he teleports down and breaks a big metal barrier for you. So this makes you think “okay is he a good guy or bad guy” kinda thing, like maybe he’s testing your abilities. This is fine, I like that kind of ordeal. BUT then near the end of the game you fight Break Man, who is Proto Man in disguise. You beat him once more, and then he goes away again only to be seen in the games ending where he saves Mega Man, and Dr. Light tells you he was your brother.

So I have to ask, why does Proto Man only put on his disguise AFTER you’ve seen him like 5 times already? You know it’s Proto Man when you fight him. He’s got the same attack pattern and looks exactly the same apart from his mask. It makes no sense. I’ve heard different theories on this, like at first he wasn’t working for Dr. Wily and when he went Break Man he was, and visa versa. But my theory is the same as the intro quirk. It was rushed, and they didn’t put it in properly. There’s actually hidden ROM info where Proto Man has a transformation sequence in to Break Man, which I think pretty much confirms this theory.

1. Turret boss REQUIRES Crash Bombs

Yes, this is number one. While others are more interesting, this has to be number 1 for how damn frustrating it is. Dr. Wily has never made anything like this in the past or future games, and it boggles the mind to why Capcom would let this remain in the game. The turret boss (aka Buebeam Trap), fought before the final boss rush and last level, can only be harmed by Crash Bombs. Why is this such a big problem? Well first of all there’s a bunch of barriers around preventing the turrets from being harmed, and guess how you destroy them? With Crash Bombs. There is NO way to get ammo once you’re locked in that room. No W tanks here either, so if you run out and you haven’t beaten the boss, you have to let him kill you and try again. Crash bombs also use a ton of ammo, and there’s BARELY enough to beat this boss using your Crash Bombs in a single run. Even then you have to use some clever use of Item 1 or 3.

The worst thing about this is that when you die, the only enemies you have to farm for ammo from are Sniper Joes and Sniper Joes in jumping mechs, one of the strongest enemies in the game. So you have to run back and forth killing these guys to get your ammo back. When you re-enter the boss room, thankfully the barriers you destroyed previously are gone, but the turrets are back! If you lose all your lives while doing this it’s back to the start of the level AND back to having all the barriers back up! ZOMG!

People sometimes forget about this boss, just because it’s not as memorable as the giant Mecha Dragon or Guts Dozer. But holy crap is it memorable for me. While there ARE wily bosses in later games that can only be killed with one weapon, there’s always a chunk of weapon energy waiting for you OR you have a lot of ammo to take him down. The turrets though, are mean bastards that have scarred me for life with their frustrating defences.

Tags: top 10

Can’t wait to play MM8BDM? Well you’ll have to wait a little longer! In the mean time though, we’re doing a little event. Me and the testers are going to be playing through the whole MM8BDM map set (that’s 54 maps!) as a final test run and to record some footage for my next trailer.

That’s not all though. I’ve invited The Shades along for the ride, for showing his interest in the game. He is also going to stream it live, to you guys, so you can see the full game in action! On top of this he is also going to allow users to ask questions via the chat, and allow me to answer them personally. Yes at long last, my horrible voice will be broadcast all over the internet.

The date is set. We will start playing and broadcasting at 9PM GMT (4PM EST) on the 10th of September 2010. So if you’ve got nothing better to do on a Friday night next week, pop online to The Shades’ channel and check out MM8BDM in action before anyone else!

Visit the Shades’ channel on TheGeekFighters.com

Video announcement by The Shades

Tags: event, external link, MM8BDM, skulltag, video, website

Multi Tap: Classic Console Showcase is a weekly stream (Saturday nights at 9 PM US Central Standard Time) that aims to show off obscure games from the consoles on display as well as highlight the multiplayer aspects of games you already know and love. It is also our hope that by showing these games you may be encouraged to host gatherings of your own and take a break from online multiplayer through PSN and XBOX Live.

The consoles on display are the Atari 7800, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Sega 32X, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation 2, and the Nintendo Gamecube. We will hopefully be able to provide an inventory of our games so you can have some idea of our library and what we have played, but please feel free to suggest any and all games so that we may spotlight them for other people to enjoy!

We plan to have a focus or theme to most of our streams. This means we could possibly highlight a certain genre or system as well as have shows with “festive” games when we’re near a holiday. We may also host Ventrilo panels during the stream for a group of guests to hold discussions on certain subjects related to classic gaming (if you feel you would be a good guest on a certain topic, let me know through e-mail). From time to time we may also have prize give aways tied into games we’ll be playing with the audience, so keep your eyes and ears open for those!

Visit the Multi Tap channel

Post on the Multi Tap forum

Tags: external link, User Submitted, website

Using footage from various videos me, Press Start and Fupoo uploaded, Nexus11 has created a trailer for MM8BDM. This isn’t official, but it could have easily been if it wasn’t for a few things I have stashed away for trailer #2. Bravo!

Tags: MM8BDM, skulltag, video

Today we have two videos of more live impressions and thoughts on MM8BDM. One has been out for some time but I probably didn’t highlight it enough. So let’s see what others think of MM8BDM!

Indie Search Light – SGC 2010 Demo

Mark Carr does reviews, previews and other videos based around Indie Games from all over the place. You probably haven’t even heard of some (I know I hadn’t) so be sure to check him out. He was the one who e-mailed me about taking MM8BDM to SGC, so naturally he has something to say about it! Just FYI I’m not in this video because I wasn’t at SGC. MugenMidget has to take credit for the short interview here! Hit the banner to check it out.

Fandom Paradise – MM8BDM Demo feature

The Shades is the creator of Fandom Paradise, which is a show that talks about fan art, fan fiction, fan movies and now (thanks to me I think) fan games! I first encountered The Shades doing a live stream of him playing and talking about the MM8BDM demo, so I got in touch with him and he decided to cover it on Fandom Paradise. I also have a few comments on this video spoken out by The Shades himself. I also plan to work with The Shades in the future for something. More info on that later. Hit the banner to check out the review.

And now for the mandatory update. Been working on something epic that I’ll keep behind the curtain for now, but I’m gonna get the maps done first. There’s only six maps left, which are Yamato Man, Wind Man, Blizzard Man, Flame Man, Plant Man and Mr. X.

Tags: MM8BDM, skulltag, video