Released to the United States in 1987, Mega Man has influence the way we play games for years. Rather it is with a close friend, where you pretend that you are part of the Mega Man universe and create your own characters. Or on a game console being drawn in from what seem to be impossible levels, but feel a scene of triumph when you beat the game.

            Mega Man has always been a hard game to master, some say there is no strategy to the game that you can pick whichever level you want to play in any order. I have yet to be able to agree with that, as there seems to always be a certain order that needs to be played in order to get pass certain parts of a board. The first Mega Man has six different Master Robots that were created by Dr. Light who is good and his former assistant Dr. Wily. Wily steals the six master robots and reprograms them to do his twisted bidding. Its up to Rock who is later changed into Mega Man to stop the evil robots and Dr. Wily.

            Now like most kids imagination went a long way. When I was little I would play Mega Man with my best friend, who lived next door. I would be Mega Man X since I was the oldest and my friend would be Super Mega Man X a newer model with some different features. We would spend hours upon hours drawing up different bad guys and going against Dr. Wily. However, I don’t think we ever finished our adventures when we were little.

            Anyway, Mega Man has six robot masters that you have to defeat before you get to Dr. Wily. The robot masters are; Cuts man, Guts man, Ice man, Electro man, Bomb man, and Fire man. Each level has its own difficulty with some levels being harder then most until certain powers are obtain by pasting different things that you wouldn’t be able to by past with out completing other levels first. As you play around you slowly begin to see that there is a pattern as to how to beat each robot master, and that each master has a certain weakness that another robot master has. Example would be Fire man’s power is Bomb man’s weakness.

            In 1989 Mega Man 2 was released in the United States. The Evil Dr. Wily is back this time with eight new robot masters to counter Mega Man. It is up to Mega Man once again to stop Dr. Wily from taking over the world with his evil robots. Mega Man 2 is set up that same way as the first game the only difference is instead of 6 robot masters to fight like in Mega Man there are eight. Also the damage taken by spikes is a lot different as well. In Mega Man the spikes were an instant death. Where in Mega Man 2 you get a recover time so that way you can jump out of the spikes to save yourself. Also just like the first Mega Man each robot master has their own strengths and weaknesses. The robot masters for Mega Man 2 are: Heat man, Airman, Quick man, Bubble man, Metal man, Wood man, Flash man, and Crash man, although a little lame sounding these bots are no push over.

            At first glance it looks like these robot masters are eight different robots, but in retrospect these robots are almost the same as the six from the first Mega Man. Flash Man is like Ice Man from the first game where the board is slippery and your sliding all over the place trying to not slide off a cliff or into spikes. However, Flash Man is no challenge at all. All he does is run back and forth then freezes the screen where he shoots at a certain direction. Very easy to beat him his level to get to him is actually harder then he is.

            Crash Man is a little harder then Flash Man, however, he has a lot of characteristics of Bomb Man. Where he jumps around shooting what looks like little bombs that explode. Manage to dodge the bombs and hit him while he is jumping, as you're shooting then you will have no trouble beating him. My point is it seems like every robot master in Mega Man 2 has the same abilities as the robot masters in the first Mega Man.

            Mega Man 3 was one of my favorites Mega Man’s to be released. Probably because Mega Man 3 was the first Mega Man’s that I actually beat.  This is the first Mega Man to introduce Proto Man, who happens to be Mega Man’s brother. Mega Man 3 was released in 1990 and just like Mega Man 2, Mega Man 3 incorporates a password system so that way you can leave the game and come back to it at a later time. However, remembering back with Mega Man 3 there were some passwords that did not work all the time when they were given.

            Mega Man 3 also introduces the slide, which allows Mega Man to slide under different objects as well as under enemies without loosing any life. Also with Mega Man 3 a new helper name Rush the robotic dog is introduced. As you proceed through the game you get upgrades for Rush. The robot masters in this game are: Spark Man, Hard Man, Snake Man, Needle Man, Top Man, Magnet Man, Gemini Man, and Shadow Man. Like the last two Mega Man’s, Mega Man 3 allows you to choose which level you want to play first. Also like the previous each of the eight robot masters has their own strengths and weakness.

            In 1991 Mega Man 4 was released in the United States. This is also the first Mega Man game that has the new mega buster, which allows you to charge up your buster cannon and shoot one huge blast. Also with Mega Man 4, the spikes are back to an instant kill like the first Mega Man. Mega Man 4 introduces a new villain Dr. Cossack, with Dr. Wily assumed dead from the last encounter with Mega Man. Dr. Cossack creates eight new robot masters that are set to destroy Mega Man. However, we later find out that Proto Man had saved Dr. Cossack’s daughter from the still alive Dr. Wily’s hands.

            Mega Man 4 also explains the story line of pretty much what had happen in the other three Mega Mans. With that Mega Man 4’s robot masters are Skull Man, Dive Man, Drill Man, Toad Man, Bright Man, Pharaoh Man, Ring Man and Dust Man. The game play for Mega Man 4 is much like the past three games, with the addition to the new mega blaster. Where one fully charged blast equals three normal shots, however, if the blast isn’t fully charged then it is equally to what a normal shot would be.

            Mega Man 5 comes up next on this fun Franchise from Capcom and the NES. Released in 1992 Mega Man 5 has a new charge system. In Mega Man 4 you had to shoot once and then hold the fire button to shoot. With Mega Man 5 you just have to press and hold the button to start the charging of the mega blaster. The story line for this game is a little interesting. Dr. Light is kidnapped and Mega Man goes out to try and find him. When Mega Man gets to the sight where Dr. Light was taken he find Proto Man’s scarf and automatically comes to the conclusion that Proto Man has taken Dr. Light for whatever reason. Just when things couldn’t look worst, Proto Man, and eight new robot masters show up and start destroying the world. We later find out that the Proto Man that took Dr. Light was a fake. Dr. Wily had captured the real Proto Man and made a clone version in order to make it look like it was Proto Man that had kidnapped Dr. Light and turned evil.

            Mega Man 5 really didn’t bring anything new to the table. Other then the misconception that Mega Man’s brother had turned evil. The Robot Masters for Mega Man 5 are: Star Man, Gyro Man, Stone Man, Gravity Man, Wave Man, Charge Man, Crystal Man, and Napalm Man. Once again like the others Mega Man 5 allows you to pick which level you would like to play first and the robot masters have their own strengths and weakness as well.

            1993 Mega Man 6 was released for the United States. With this game the first robot masters creating contest takes place with Mr. X as the host of the event. As only eight robot masters remain, Mr. X reviles his true colors by stealing the last eight robot masters. Mega Man asks Mr. X why he stole the eight remaining robot masters. We find out that Mr. X was manipulating Dr. Wily all these years (games). However, we find out later that Mr. X is none other then Dr. Wily. Other than the new robot masters this game really has not change much from the other five Mega Mans. The robot masters for Mega Man 6 are: Plant Man, Wind Man, Flame Man, Tomahawk Man, Yamato Man, Blizzard Man, Knight Man, and Centaur Man. A lot of fans believe that Nintendo and Capcom rushed the released of this game before the 8-bit system was obsolete. However, that really didn’t happen the way Nintendo wanted. Instead Mega Man 6 ended up being on of the last games for the NES.

            In 1995 Capcom release the first original Mega Man for the Super Nintendo. Unlike what most of the game magazines had said about this game. Mega Man 7 is the sequel to Mega Man 6 and not Mega Man X2. Mega Man 7 starts out with flash backs of what had happen in Mega Man 6. Mega Man had finally captured Dr. Wily and for six months Dr. Wily has not been able to escape from his prison. However, unknown to the world and to Mega Man, Dr. Wily had a plan that was being put into action. See Dr. Wily knew that sooner or later Mega Man would catch him. So he made sure to hide four robot masters that would stay deactivated unless for some reason Dr. Wily would not be able to contact them. After being in prison for six months the four sleeping robots activate and cause havoc as they look for their creator. Dr. Wily busts out of prison and Mega Man goes after them.

            Mega Man 7 also introduces something that the Gameboy version of Mega Man has which is the Item Replicator. However, instead of p-chips its bolts that you have to collect. Also instead of Dr. Light running the shop a new robot called Auto is running it. Also the mega blaster shot had changed as well but for the worst. Instead of a fully charged shot equaling to three normal shots. The fully charge shot only equals to two normal shots, which makes it useless in most cases. The robot masters for Mega Man 7 are: Cloud Man, Junk Man, Freeze Man, Burst Man, Slash Man, Shade Man, Spring Man, and Turbo Man. However, unlike the other Mega Man games, Mega Man 7 shows four robot masters at first and as you beat the first four another set of four is unlocked to battle.

            Mega Man 8 was released for both the Sega Saturn and the Playstation. Mega Man 8 added some new elements to the Mega Man Franchise. Released in 1997 to the United States, Mega Man 8 becomes the first Mega Man game on a 32-bit console. Mega Man 8 even though it has some of the classic Mega Man game play has changed a lot of other things in the game. In Mega Man 8, Mega Man can fire his mega blaster even while equipped with a robot masters weapon. This is something that has never been done in a Mega Man game. Also, Mega Man’s current weapon shot remains active even when you switch to a different weapon. Another thing that changed in Mega Man 8 is that Mega Man can now shot while riding on the Rush Jet. Also in Mega Man 8, Mega Man can swim, which isn’t really anything special. However, it is something that has not been introduced in any other Mega Man game.

            Other things have also changed in Mega Man 8 like all weapons recharge after each life, there are no “Tanks” in Mega Man 8, however, some of Rush’s form could serve as such, the robot master levels are actually two different stages. If you were to lose all your lives and hit continue you would start at the second stage if you made it that far in the level, the Rush Jet has infinite energy and can no longer be summon by Mega Man, and the last change in Mega Man 8 is that the robot master’s weapons have a number meter indicating how many times you can use that weapon. The robot masters in Mega Man 8 are: Tengu Man, Clown Man, Grenade Man, Frost Man, Sword Man, Aqua Man, Search Man, and Astro Man.

           The story line for Mega Man 8 is pretty interesting although it looks like the game has gone more towards the cartoon series that was airing on T.V during the time. With animated cut scenes and robot masters actually having some sort of dialog before a battle.  The game starts off with two robots like creatures fight each other through space. Finally, so damaged both creatures fall to earth. Mean while, Mega Man and Bass are fighting. The fight between Mega Man and Bass was interrupted by Roll with a message from Dr. Light. Dr. Light tells Mega Man that a strange Meteor had hit the earth’s surface, and wants Mega Man to investigate it. However, Dr. Wily had noticed that same meteor and had beaten Mega Man to the crash site and taken some of the materials from the meteor. That is where the player is able to play and continue the story.

             The ending of Mega Man 8 has Wily’s fortress exploding with Mega Man unconscious and laying on the ground. Apparently, Mega Man became infected with a Dark Virus. Duo find Mega Man and with the help from Duo and with how much light Mega Man’s processor has stored Mega Man is able to over come the virus. Proto Man comes on the scene and Duo explains to Proto Man what had happen to Mega Man and asks Proto Man for a favor. Mega Man then awakes in Dr. Lights Lab and gets hugged by Roll. Mega Man then leaves and is seen alone on a cliff. Next thing we know we hear Proto Man’s voice and he tells Mega Man what Duo had done for him. Mega Man seem almost in a daze as he repeats Proto Man. Then the credits roll signaling the end of the game.

             There is a Mega Man 9 that is the sequel to Mega Man 8, however, Mega Man 9 was never released on a system or hand held. 2008 Mega Man 9 was release on the X-box live arcade and on the Playstation Network Store. I have not really found a true storyline to this game or what changes where made to the game. I have read rumors that Mega Man 9 went back to what the first Mega Man brought, and that the storyline once again has Dr. Wily as the bad guy. However, I have been to numerous of sites and have not found if any of that is really true or not.