Poll: Your favorite Megaman Series?

[VincentX3]

So as a kid, I remember getting the first Megaman Battle Network game for GBA on Christmas and...
oh boy...

For me, that was the start of my love for Megaman. I still remember playing the game non-stop and trying to discover secret area's and such (I also flipped out when I discovered Bass after god knows how many hours by mistake)

Then I got Megaman Battle Network 2 and still as a kid I remember most of the game, even trying to discover even more secrets such as "Maybe there's another Gospel or a hidden ending" which to my surprise there eventually was in the next games.

Point being, I really really love the Megaman Series as a whole and it's a shame there hasn't been any true sequel's or new games so many years down the line. I love the history and lore of the X and Zero series and it's music is beautiful.


So question already in the Poll but I also want to ask:

-Which particular game of the series did you like? And Why?
-Any fond memories?

EDIT: Misspelled "Original" and "Legends" in the Poll, but I can't edit it. *Sighs*

 

[xaszatm]

Hm...that's a tough one. It's a tie, but I choose Mega Man Battle Network as my favorite series.

Like you, this was the series that got me to play all the Mega Man games. 2 is great but 3, 3 Blue was the first game I ever 100%. I love everything about the game from the story to the bosses to the characters. I even enjoyed the differences between the two versions. It was a wonderful game in every way. The rest of the series is great too, even lesser titles like Mega Man Battle Network 4.

However, I do need to mention my favorite 2D Mega Man game: Mega Man ZX Advent. As someone who never grew up on Mega Man Classic and Mega Man X, I never really understood why people kept praising said series as having the best in the genre. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy all those games (Mega Man 6 and Mega Man X4 being my favorites from each) but I always saw each series as improving over the previous one. X improved on the Classic games, Zero improved on X's games, and ZX improved over Zero. Which brings me to Advent. It takes all what I love about 2D Mega Man games and combines them into a great game. Model a's ability to change into the Pseudoroids, the Metroidvania styled gameplay, the different Mega Mans, the varied stages. I love everything about Mega Man ZX Advent and consider it such a shame that we will never get a sequel to that game.

 

[SoreWristed]

Must say legends, because it was the first 3d interactive world that i played as a kid. I know it had it's flaws, but it was the first game in the megaman series that just let me wander off and go see stuff. Also, the idea of exploring dungeons was a first for me in that game.

The bosses were also enormous, i remember fighting buildingsized robots in a destructable town. So points for giving the player a sense of scale as well.

I've never played megaman X until years later on an emulation, and while i applaud that game for being better designed, vissually more stunning and generally more fun, i'd still have to vote for legends. Just for that nostalgic feeling.

 

[major_chaos]

Hmmmm, I actually had to think about this. In the end I settled on X. X6 and X7 may have been colossal stinkers, but at its best the X games were a great balance of challenge and fun with superb weapon and level design. To rank the others (because I love megaman and will take the excuse to talk about it):

#2: Legends. It may only be 2 games, but those two were incredibly unique and charming on top of being simply fun to play. I would love to see a what modern graphics could do with a game about exploring high tech ruins for upgrades and loot.

#3: ZX. A better balenced and more fleshed out take on the Zero games, dragged down very slightly by the pointless pseudo-open world that served no point other than wasting time, the boss transformations in ZXA being nearly useless, and some severely lackluster final boss fights.

#4: Zero: A much more frenetic, flowing, pace made these stand out from the X games, but Zero 1 was awful thanks to cheap boss design and brutal yet uninspired stages that you would sometimes have to repeat, and the later games while much better still bore a bit of the unfair difficult genes. Still incredibly fun however, with a standout award for Zero 4 being the only 2D game to ever make me tear up a bit.

#5 Battle network: The grid based battle system was cool especially in boss battles, but virtualy everything else was poor. The limited amount of moment options reduced levels to overlong padded out "puzzles" that generally loved forcing you down circuitous routs that comboed very badly with the obnoxious random encounter rate. The breaks in this consisted mostly of controlling Lan in the real world to solve more annoying time waster puzzles, although in these bits the lack of battles was offset by the puzzles being much more annoying and badly signposted. Add to that the horrid presentation, with nearly no animations to speak of in or out of battle, and a vapid anime cliche ridden storyline that ins't good even if you can understand it past the appalling translation, and you have a game that I did consider enjoyable for one playthrough, but I'm certainly never coming back.

#NA Original: great for their time, but aged poorly, I feel bad judging a NES game by modern standards, especially a historic one.
#NA Starforce: Never played it, no idea how it compares to the older BN titles.

 

[Risingblade]

I wanna say X is my favorite but I honestly enjoyed Battle Network the most.

 

[Kyrian007]

Megaman 2. It introduced so many of the really good conventions of the series, it had kickass music, and a really good ending (which it needed to be, as difficult as it was a crappy "thanks for playing" would have been awful.) It's hard for me to give "the best" to 2 though. Megaman 3 was a really good followup with great music and an even better ending. But 2 really made Megaman the franchise it is.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I've played the most of the classic series and the X series, and some of Zero and Legends. I've gotta go with the X series, though. Sigma might be the Dr. Wily replacement, but at least there is more seriousness to the story. Also, wall jumping and Zero (in his original incarnation) are both awesome.

 

[Evilsanta]

I only really played the X and Zero series and I like them both but if I would have to choose one...

Hmm... The main X series. It really was fun and challenging.

Finding my first secret room/heart tank blew my mind as a kid.

"More HP/new arm cannon?! SAY WHAT!?" I could finally kill the last boss.

 

[VincentX3]

Interesting read so far, I'm glad that everyone has their own memories with the franchise, since I really do think it's great and of course a shame that they didn't continue it till this day.

Hmmmm, I actually had to think about this. In the end I settled on X. X6 and X7 may have been colossal stinkers, but at its best the X games were a great balance of challenge and fun with superb weapon and level design. To rank the others (because I love megaman and will take the excuse to talk about it):

#2: Legends. It may only be 2 games, but those two were incredibly unique and charming on top of being simply fun to play. I would love to see a what modern graphics could do with a game about exploring high tech ruins for upgrades and loot.

#3: ZX. A better balenced and more fleshed out take on the Zero games, dragged down very slightly by the pointless pseudo-open world that served no point other than wasting time, the boss transformations in ZXA being nearly useless, and some severely lackluster final boss fights.

#4: Zero: A much more frenetic, flowing, pace made these stand out from the X games, but Zero 1 was awful thanks to cheap boss design and brutal yet uninspired stages that you would sometimes have to repeat, and the later games while much better still bore a bit of the unfair difficult genes. Still incredibly fun however, with a standout award for Zero 4 being the only 2D game to ever make me tear up a bit.

#5 Battle network: The grid based battle system was cool especially in boss battles, but virtualy everything else was poor. The limited amount of moment options reduced levels to overlong padded out "puzzles" that generally loved forcing you down circuitous routs that comboed very badly with the obnoxious random encounter rate. The breaks in this consisted mostly of controlling Lan in the real world to solve more annoying time waster puzzles, although in these bits the lack of battles was offset by the puzzles being much more annoying and badly signposted. Add to that the horrid presentation, with nearly no animations to speak of in or out of battle, and a vapid anime cliche ridden storyline that ins't good even if you can understand it past the appalling translation, and you have a game that I did consider enjoyable for one playthrough, but I'm certainly never coming back.

#NA Original: great for their time, but aged poorly, I feel bad judging a NES game by modern standards, especially a historic one.
#NA Starforce: Never played it, no idea how it compares to the older BN titles.

I don't think X6 was that bad. Sure it was overly Nintendo-hard and not forgiving (Wow... Expect a kid to save all the reploids on his first try? in one play through?!)

X7 was really the worst, Camera was everywhere, the new-back-in-the-day 2.5D'ish battles was really awkward to navigate at times and the worst... NO PLAYING AS MEGAMAN AT ALL TILL MUCH LATER!Seriously, what we're they thinking?

X8 was... alright. Not that bad but not really fun or difficult as the previous games. On the contrary with the combo attacks it made everything overly easy. Not to mention Megaman's armors are just recolors now.


#2: Agreed. Legends was amazing (Another game which I only managed to play as a kid via emulation, even then it blew my mind all the freedom and interesting stuff it gave you) The world and setting alone was more than enough to keep me interested and playing all the time.

#3: ZX and ZX Advent I never really... understood it.
Sure it's still a X\Zero styled game but the whole backtracking really lost me. I'm used to metroidvania style game's but in this game it really barely tells you where to go, it vaguely gives you a correct direction ("Go east and talk to this guy" Oh... Sure.. East okay best explanation ever)
There great games and the music is really good too, but the lack of direction really holds it back for me.

#4: The Zero series is one of my absolute favorites! Hands down.
What confused me as a child was why he looked so different (It wasn't till much later that I understood that it was an art style, that technically he still looks the same as in the X series) Other than that, it's a must play.

#5: The Battle network series looking back at it, might not really be the most fleshed out games in the series. Especially the first one. You're right, it does lack animations but since I played the games as a child the charactors felt more alive to me than ever and the very few animations that they had combined with the music and tone of the games made me understand exactly how they felt.

It's kind hard to explain, I would suggest going back to it with an open-mind because they really do get alot better (MMBN2 and forwards, each game only get's better from their)

The Starforce is the sequel to Battle Network, and it plays similarly on a grid but with a different camera perspective and requires a bit more skill since you can only move in 3 directions (But you can block with a shield now for a split second to compensate) It only has 3 games but it's really really well made with a great story, I think you would enjoy it.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I'm really not a connisure but I've play a variety of Mega Man games. I've played a couple of the classics, 4 of the X-games, a single Battle-Network/EXE (I need to play more), Legends and even Battle And Chase. Of those, I think I've had more fun with the X-games. I played through Mega Man 1, 2, 6 and, 7 which I enjoyed despite some difficulties. I don't know how far I would have gotten through 6 and 7 if not for save-states (thank you Virtual Console). The original Mega Man was just too much for me and even Mega Man X Street Fighter was really difficult for me. The X series seemed easier to get into though! I liked the presentation, I liked the new abilities...I really need to play more Battle Network but I hate that from 3 on, they split the games Pokemon-style...

 

[SaikyoKid]

I was probably six or so when I first had my round in the X series, but Legends one and two is by and far my all time favorite of the series. It most definitely had its faults back then, but I'd like to think it more than made up for it with it's charm. The characters were all pretty memorable, the game never took itself too seriously, and the sense of exploration and diving through dungeons was always a blast, even if you'd done it five or six times by then. There was always something small you'd miss and bring back home to see just what kind of new weapon you can play around with. I've still got the CDs I've held onto over the years to pop in and play around with again from time to time.

On a side note though, screw that 100 question quiz. The arm sword thing was super cool, but how in the hell should a little kid know who the leader of the Italian Unification Movement was? On the plus side, I wound up learning a lot about world history and biology thanks to that.

 

[Lunar Templar]

X and Zero are my favorites.

after that, Original, ZX and Legends. never really been a fan of Battle network, fun games but never clicked with me

 

[Duck Sandwich]

Mega Man Zero. I liked 2's Chain Rod weapon. That, and his other weapons pretty much made Zero into a Jedi/Spider-Man/Captain America/Mega Man hybrid. The explosive buster upgrade from 3 was sweet. All of the games, especially 2 and 3, and maybe 1 not so much, had a kickass combination of awesome levels, awesome bosses, awesome weapons, and awesome difficulty. If only I didn't murder the shit out of my DS's L and R triggers by playing the Zero Collection.

Mega Man X is a close second. I loved the fast-pace of the first 3 games. Everything just felt right. Good use of colour (X's colour scheme looks more dull in the Playstation sequels), good weapons (even aside from the overpowered Storm Tornado of X1), and a consistent challenge (as opposed to X5, where it was possible to beat Sigma's final form without him using his one attack that made fighting him an actual challenge - that is, his "giant purple blocks that appear on top of you and eat a massive chunk of your life bar if you don't GTFO of the way" attack)

Of the ZX series, I only played the first one, but the transformations just seemed kind of gimped compared to the ZX form. They lacked the variety of weapons that an end-game Zero or X had in their respective games.

Original series is fun, but its rigid movement and boss attack patterns can kind of sour the experience. "Move right for x amount of seconds, then shoot and jump left at the same time, then repeat, slightly adjusting the amount of time you spend moving right based on your distance from the boss." I haven't played MM3 in a long time, but I'm pretty sure that strategy will get you an easy victory over Gemini Man.... or at least some other boss.

 

[ClockworkAngel]

I was typing out a long post about my experience with each series, but it was all sounding rather samey. I can make it a lot shorter by saying I pretty much love every Megaman series except for Starforce. But I voted for the X series, which is also the series I started with. Though like the originals, I basically only like the first three (though X5 was cool).

 

[2xDouble]

X series, hands down. I loved the originals, and have fond memories beating 3, 4, 6, and V (and not beating 1 and 2) over and over again, but there's nothing quite like the quest for gear in Mega Man X series. There, finding hidden rooms awarded you not only secret bosses or power-ups, but entirely new moves to help you traverse the uniquely-designed worlds and find additional treasures and more secrets. You Got... Metroidvania Explorer!

Here's a funny bit of trivia: By sheer coincidence, I'm sure, the seventh game in every MegaMan series is also the worst one of that series. Every time. (Also true of the seventh series, Starforce)

...and now a bit of flamebaiting: Command Mission is better than Legends in every way; blows both games completely out of the water.

 

[Plucky]

probably get a bit of flak for this, but the Battle Network series. was born in the early 90's and we usually only just started off gaming at around a Master System/SNES age, even worse we only got secondhand games or the games that came with the system, meaning we'd have to wait until Christmases/birthdays. wasn't until the 2000's that i got into the Mega Man series to an extent.

Have to say though, Zero was pretty modern and is enjoyable in its own right, since it isn't blatant about actually being in the future, the gap is just so large that the whole elf wars/maverick virus is probably going to remain unexplained between X and Zero as much as Mega Man 9-10 and X. never wasn't introduced to the 2D platformers until Zero anyway, surprised Capcom stopped at 4 before going all sequelitis about it...then the ZX series happened. eventually Advent never even came to EU...or the US?

Network Transmission isn't bad neither, it took the slight formula of the Classic series with the general battle system of the EXE series, the whole Zero virus feels a little tacked on even if the EXE series is supposed to be an unusual split from before Dr Light went with Robotics. the ShadowMan/Mr Dark thing was great though since it linked up with alluding to WWW being active in some form even before the aftergame of 2.

 

[VincentX3]

I was typing out a long post about my experience with each series, but it was all sounding rather samey. I can make it a lot shorter by saying I pretty much love every Megaman series except for Starforce. But I voted for the X series, which is also the series I started with. Though like the originals, I basically only like the first three (though X5 was cool).

D:
What's wrong with Starforce? It's gameplay and story is amazing!

Here's a funny bit of trivia: By sheer coincidence, I'm sure, the seventh game in every MegaMan series is also the worst one of that series. Every time. (Also true of the seventh series, Starforce)

...and now a bit of flamebaiting: Command Mission is better than Legends in every way; blows both games completely out of the water.

*Weeps silently*

I tried out Command mission but couldn't get into it. It felt way too... linear and hallway like compared to legends.

 

[Duck Sandwich]

Here's a funny bit of trivia: By sheer coincidence, I'm sure, the seventh game in every MegaMan series is also the worst one of that series. Every time. (Also true of the seventh series, Starforce)

I'd disagree. Mega Man 6 is way worse of a game than Mega Man 7. The difficulty is a complete joke, and they had that weird control setup where pressing jump while sliding would stop your movement instead of jumping. Mega Man 7 has at least a few decent boss weapons, a good challenge, (and I'm not just talking about the final boss, which I'd say is the hardest boss out of every game that has Mega Man in the title.)

As for the X series, Mega Man X7 is the only X game I haven't played, but Mega Man X6 has terrible levels/bosses, and the difficulty is either too easy or just plain cheap. I'm pretty sure there's a level that's impossible to beat with X's normal armour. From what I've heard, X7 sounds either just a *little* bit better, if not only slightly worse than X6.

 

[VincentX3]

Here's a funny bit of trivia: By sheer coincidence, I'm sure, the seventh game in every MegaMan series is also the worst one of that series. Every time. (Also true of the seventh series, Starforce)

As for the X series, Mega Man X7 is the only X game I haven't played, but Mega Man X6 has terrible levels/bosses, and the difficulty is either too easy or just plain cheap. I'm pretty sure there's a level that's impossible to beat with X's normal armour. From what I've heard, X7 sounds either just a *little* bit better, if not only slightly worse than X6.

X6 is extremely challenging to complete with just the standard armor (Especially if you're trying to rescue all the reploids, since you only have 1 chance per playthrough to rescue all of them) but I still enjoyed it, even if the story was all over the place and didn't really make sense anymore.

X7 on the other hand...
You can't even play as X till much MUCH later only after completing a set of conditions.
So you're either stuck as Zero (Yay!) or Axyl (Ney!)
Also the camera, it's everywhere at once, you can even glitch through the floor at times.

So I would say X7 is definitely worse than X6 and everything else.