Mega Man

The 8-Bit Blue Bomber is Back!

HIGH Playing a game that was designed correctly to be a true challenge.

LOW I miss the slide feature of later Mega Man games (and a downloadable character does not count!)

WTF Finally figuring out how to use the Black Hole Bomb correctly! It took me way too long...

Game Description: This latest Mega Man title brings the series back to its old-school roots with retro action platforming gameplay and classic 8-bit graphics and sound. Relive the Mega Man experience with classically inspired bosses, each with their own unique weapons and weaknesses.

I can't thank Capcom and Atomic Planet enough. They've let me into a world I wasn't developmentally ready for 15 years ago, but which still makes me feel like a kid again.

According to ESRB, this game features: Cartoon Violence

Game Description: The Mega Man Anniversary Collection pays tribute to the brainchild behind this multimillion unit selling franchise, Keiji Inafune, and the original games that he created, said Todd Thorson, director of marketing, Capcom Entertainment. It gives gamers, who have not experienced the Mega Man phenomenon, an opportunity to play the titles that redefined the platform genre. In the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, players will be challenged to see if they have the skills to master some of the most extreme Mega Man titles ever released and to unlock a cache of bonus features that includes 30 minutes of anime, producer interviews, footage from the original TV commercials, and a history of the series.

No longer a platform-hopping lil' guy in blue, Mega Man is now a muscular online avatar of sorts, an extension of his offline counterpart Lan. I'm reminded of the anthropomorphic logos that were common in the 1950's but were retired in modern times, because a walking stack of tires (Michelin) just wasn't "cool." Perhaps this MegaMan.EXE avatar was brought to the console by Capcom in order to prove that their gaming icon can stay relevant.

Culture changes. And whatever the intents or purposes of the culture makers (or artists, choose your term), they have to change with the times. On one level, it's a rather cynical process: aging artists and gray-haired entertainment execs trying to stay hip and fresh by copying what the kids on the streets are doing. Appropriation and exploitation is sometimes the name of the game.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Violence

Game Description: In Mega Man: Network Transmission, you must explore the gloomy stark and mysterious Cyber World to deal with a new computer virus harassing the Internet. Mega Man's inly link to the Real World is through friendly character Lan, who offers feedback and advice during play. Mega Man's first 3D action role playing adventure for the Nintendo GameCube; story-line tie-in to the Mega Man Battle Network series; collect battle chips, battle enemies; solve puzzles and uncover secret characters from the Mega Man universe.

So here is a game that centers on a race of human mimicking robots, known as reploids. They are identical to humans in every way, save for the inner circuitry, and have even managed to display signs of emotions. They also happen to be struggling for their self-preservation due to the fact that a human government has ordered, seeing them as a threat, to dispose of every last one of them, an action referred to here not as murder or execution but as "retirement"...