Why is Megaman so popular? Your opinions!

[Vaughan]

It's not even debatable that Megaman has been one of the most enduring classic Video games in history, with dozens of related titles, propaganda and even a short-lived TV series. Indeed, the Blue Bomber's fan base rivals that of Nintendo's Mario or Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog.

But the question is, why has it been so popular?

Is it the simple but challenging gameplay? The timeless music? The robot masters?

Post your opinions and comments!

~V.

[ASR]

Lately he's popular for the wrong reasons.

Like Battle Network and Star Force.

[Fatso]

Originally, I figure it was the vibrant colours, tight(-ish, in the case of the first two games) gameplay and brilliant musical composition.

After that, for ten years or so they just kept getting better (basically) and now the franchise is basically riding on its late-90s momentum.

[Xero]

Because of tried and true gameplay, solid music, and excellent characters.

I'm talking about X and Classic BTW.

[Abominator]

And I really don't think he's that popular.

[ASR]

Yeah, most people I talk to had never even heard of MegaMan until they met. To the average person who never even plays videogames, Mario and Sonic are instantly recognizable names for them.

...but MegaMan? At the very least they MIGHT just remember him from the TV show.

But outside of the gaming world, not many people know or care about him. And even inside the gaming world, he's very neglected.

[Winged Warrior]

Back when the world was simple and clean, Megaman was god. Entertaining, somewhat challenging puzzles were creative but not to the point where you had to spend an hour either figuring it out or going to GameFaqs.

Like Alvin and the chipmunks, Megaman is held dearest by those who grew up with him, not the little brats who have the nasty corrupted, LETZ RELATE TO TEH NEW KIDS, story.

Simple clean FUN. Anybody remember what FUN is? It's when you beat up 8 robots, In their own fortress, then chase down their creator, Kick his sorry ass, Then start again and go for the high score!

That is why megaman WAS so popular.

[/thread]

[ASR]

And the high score meant nothing!

[saldite]

Yeah, most people I talk to had never even heard of MegaMan until they met.

Really!?
About 75% of the kids in my town know who Megaman is, and most of them aren't even gamers.

[ASR]

Ugh, I'm lucky if I ever meet somebody who's played a MegaMan game, and usually they've just played Battle Network or Zero.

Though yesterday, I was playing MegaMan 5 in my room with my door open, and some guy walking down the hall peeked his head in and was like "Are you playing MegaMan? Sweet! I used to play that as a kid!"
And then we talked for a bit. And he correctly guessed that it was MegaMan 5, but aside from that he really didn't know too much about the series and hadn't played it at all since he was a kid.

[DeMatador]

Well, here in Argentina only gamers know about MegaMan. And that's a little bunch. I would say most of Argentinian gamers know the MegaMan franchise, but most of them just played Battle Network and Star Force, so they judge the whole saga upon those games (note: poor them.)

The only person I know who knows the classic/good MM games is Slugkid, who basically introduced me into the MegaMan world, so now I'm playing all MegaMan games (when I have the time) as I can.

Answering the topic question, I think it's the combination between the factors which, like WW somehow stated, constitute FUN. FUN=Gets me a bonerEntertaining gameplay, timeless songs, gets me a bonerclean (in contrast with the games that appeared after MegaMan, which ALL contain blood), FUN. Just FUN.
WW is right, games lost their FUN a lot of time ago.

FUN.

[Edgecrusher]

I think it primarily had to do with the fact that it was the first game in which you obtained the weapons of the major enemies you defeated. That was all quite new and inventive at the time.

Combine that with excellent platforming (which had already proven incredibly popular) and shooting and you've got yourself a winner.

[ASR]

I will point out one thing, though: whenever I try to introduce MegaMan (either Classic or X) to someone new, they seem to have a LOT of trouble with it.

It's usually really painful for me to try to watch them get through a level that I know I could do in miniscule fractions of the time. And I've never witnessed one of my friends beat a boss.

The only friend I know who actually owned MegaMan 2 and 3 back in the day admitted to having never been able to get to ANY of the bosses.

[Edgecrusher]

That's because, once upon a time, games felt free to be challenging and require skill.

Now if you can't beat a game, it's the creator's fault, and has nothing to do with your lack of skill.

[Johncarllos]

Well, games nowadays aren't as tight.
They get unfair MUCH more easily, as many enemies in 3D games is just stupid, while tougher single enemies are not nearly as hard in 3D.

Or something.

[preventerWIND]

That's because, once upon a time, games felt free to be challenging and require skill.

Now if you can't beat a game, it's the creator's fault, and has nothing to do with your lack of skill.

Easy mode is for chumps.

MegaMan is cool because he's like any other original classic video game character, hes blue, jumps and shoots. Like Mario or Sonic, he keeps that simplicity, well, until a new series comes 'round.. Nowadays VG characters are some alien/samurai/ninja/king who has some stupid ass special ability that is STUPID, no originality I tells ya, none at all. What happened to the good ol' days when all you needed to be was a robot with a gun or a fat jumping guy?

MegaMan 9 is new hope..

[Abominator]

MegaMan 9 will bring a lot of jockers on board for 5 minutes...

MM has never been and will never be as big as Mario and Sonic, but it's shameful that he's less known than trash like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot and so on.

[preventerWIND]

MM has never been and will never be as big as Mario and Sonic, but it's shameful that he's less known than trash like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot and so on.

'Course not, but he still has that simplicity and classic feel. If MM were given his own console then he'd most likely be a lot more famous. I'm sure none of us can see that happening, heh.

[ASR]

The Capcom Spherebox!

[Mikero]

MM has never been and will never be as big as Mario and Sonic, but it's shameful that he's less known than trash like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot and so on.

'Course not, but he still has that simplicity and classic feel. If MM were given his own console then he'd most likely be a lot more famous. I'm sure none of us can see that happening, heh.

I don't WANT that to happen.

[ChaosVortex]

it's shameful that he's less known than trash like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot and so on.

Spyro and Crash were great on their Playstation debuts. I played those games like mad.

I haven't picked up one in a while because I've heard they've gone wrong, especially Crash.

[Abominator]

They were not great, they were utterly mediocre and remain so.

[preventerWIND]

They were pretty damn fun, especially Spyro. Loved the first 2 games.

[ChaosVortex]

Oh Abe.

I only played the first Spyro and the first 3 Crash games. I enjoyed them.

But now I see all their new games, and I hear nothing about them. Nobody plays them anymore. Especially Crash, since I heard the creator or whatever sold the rights to the game or something.

[ASR]

I hated Spyro, and I used to play Crash at a friend's house regularly, but I really didn't have much fun. It was very... "meh."

I met one of the guys who created Crash Bandicoot, by the way. One of the guys on the original Naughty Dog team.

[Vinchenz Rock]

My Psychology Teacher was the project manager for Crash of the Titans and other games by Radical.

That teacher is also a woman.

No lies.

[ChaosVortex]

I just checked IGN. The game I played the most was Crash 3: Warped. IGN gives it a 9.1.

Crash of the Titans was a 6.5

I also see several other Crash games with bogus scores.

Spyro also got a 9, but his other games have horrible scores. One of them even scored a 4. Most of them are in between the 6 and 7 range.

EDIT: Spyro 2 has an 8.8 and Spyro: Year of the Dragon got a 9.1. Both of those and the first one are available in a Spyro Collection.

[ASR]

I never have and never will listen to game reviews.

[NovaMan XP]

The only game series from Naughty Dog I've played is Jak & Daxter and it was damn good. I heard Crash was fun but I couldn't get into it.

[Winged Warrior]

WW is right, games lost their FUN a lot of time ago.

On topic of playstation games, I miss the FUN playstation games.

[Mikero]

I never cared enough about Spyro or Crash to bother playing them beyond seven minutes COMBINED. They were both very blaghdd.

That teacher is also a woman.

Irrelevant!

[ChaosVortex]

I can't tell you I'd play those games here and now, but I did have fun with them back in the day.

Never played Oddworld.

But Mega Man thankfully has still some kick in him, unlike dead shells like Spyro and Crash.

If you ignore Zero, Star Force and such.

[TheRedPriest]

If you ignore Zero, Star Force and such.

Everyone but Capcom does.

[cut n shred]

If you ignore Zero, Star Force and such.

Everyone but Capcom does.

  I wonder if megaman ZX counts?

Posted on: 20 September 2008, 00:11:09

If you ignore Zero, Star Force and such.

Everyone but Capcom does.

  I wonder if megaman ZX counts?

  Vote for me to be blue preist

Posted on: 20 September 2008, 00:12:25

If you ignore Zero, Star Force and such.

Everyone but Capcom does.

  I wonder if megaman ZX counts?

Posted on: 20 September 2008, 00:11:09

If you ignore Zero, Star Force and such.

Everyone but Capcom does.

  I wonder if megaman ZX counts?

  Vote for me to be blue preist

  i know promthesus

[Vinchenz Rock]

dotdotdot

[preventerWIND]

Hahaha, this ones dumber than usual.

[ASR]

That might be one of my favorite noob-posts.

[Mikero]

Hahaha, this ones dumber than usual.

No, he's not, he's just less creative.

[Edgecrusher]

Or something. I'm not entirely sure what it's trying to do.

Clutter the board maybe?

[Orange Devil]

Uh... sorry to break it to you, but Megaman really isn't popular.

[Chron]

Shhh.
Let them dream, OD.

[Orange Devil]

Childlike egocentrism at it's best.

[Majikn]

You're such a psychology student.

[Orange Devil]

What can I say? I freaking love psychology.

[TheOnly]

Lately he's popular for the wrong reasons.

Like Battle Network and Star Force.

Amen, I can never get into playing those games. For me, its classic, X and Legends. All the rest is crap, in my opinion.

[Mikero]

I love how redundant younger internet users are in making sure we all know they are just stating their opinion, so that no one jumps at them or some stupid thing they think will happen.

[Panda]

I think that Megaman Battle Network is crap, objectively.

[Majikn]

I love how redundant younger internet users are in making sure we all know they are just stating their opinion, so that no one jumps at them or some stupid thing they think will happen.

Well, running into assholes on the internet tends to teach some to stay on a defensive.

I only stopped the "in my opinion" thing when I came here, I'm pretty sure, and I was 17 when I started posting here.

Come to think of it I think I still do the "in my opinion" thing, I just say it in different words.

[Mikero]

Oh I get WHY it happens, it's just funny.





In my opinion.

[Edgecrusher]

I see what you did there.