Mega Man!

[KentaRawr!]

I think we just have a different idea of what bad music is. To me, bad music is when someone doesn't present the emotion they wanted to because they messed something up musically, like going off rhythm or putting notes together that make a bad sound. But I'm not exactly a musical scientist or anything like that, so I'm not really one to say.

Edit: To clarify, I didn't really like the style of Mega Man 5 and 6's music either. I don't like their soundtracks.

[Polnareff]

IMO most of the Mega Man games had great music, with the exception of maybe MM7 (and some songs in Rockman & Forte/Megaman & Bass). Even MM8, considered a black sheep by many, had some really great tracks. The MMX series had awesome soundtracks too, but dammit, MMX2's soundtrack can tie itself up with bricks and jump off the Golden Gate Bridge for all I liked it. One of the worst soundtracks ever made.

Anyway I'm probably one of the biggest Mega Man (and Capcom) fans-- ever and this series in particular helped me get through a lot of tough times, so it's near and dear to me, much like Street Fighter (and if you doubt my fandom, you will soon see ;D).

My favorite Mega Man series, however, is not the original, but Legends. Legends was one of the best 2d-to-3d adaptations released at the time, and although it wasn't completely a Mega Man game in every sense of the word, it had many traits from the original games. Basically it was a little dude blasting the hell out of robots just like the old days, and done with great characterization, gameplay, and weapon selection. Just didn't get better than that.

Like Bolivar up above me said, it introduced a 3D sandbox world before most other games could even think to. The story part of the game was convoluted at quite a few points but mostly understandable once you put all the pieces together. Just remember: all the humans in the MML world are artificial humans called Carbons. If you remember that the story makes a lot more sense.

The characters were very well fleshed out, especially the Bonne family. Tron was a very believable rival for Rock, and had the ironic tinge of actually being in love with the guy for saving her from an angry dog named Paprika in the first game. Teisel had some crazy one-liners and was just overall comic relief. Bon was essentially just a big lovable baby.

There are many other notable characters from the series, too, such as Klaymoor, Glyde (Glyde later got his own NetNavi form in Battle Network), and Sera, who are all pretty much rivals to Rock throughout the series. Don't forget the main characters, like Rock, who have real convictions and motivations for digging, and Roll, who is a generally sweet and helpful character.

Voice acting was great, especially for a game from 1997/1998. Much better than Mega Man 8 and Mega Man X4 by far. Dang near every line is well acted and makes you emphasize with the characters that much more. I do remember all the crying about Volnutt's voice actor from the English version of the first game (Corey Sevier) being changed to Susan Roman for the second game.

Gameplay was just addictive. I mean, in the first game, having to use the L1/R1 buttons to turn was awkward at first but then you got used to it. What made the gameplay in the MML series so fun are three things: the weapons/accessories, the ruins, and the enemies, especially the boss fights. I'll touch on this at a later date.

The Legends series was mostly overlooked after the first installment. The first game sold well in Japan and sold well enough in the US to get the Greatest Hits label, while the second did moderately well in Japan and not so well in the US. Misadventures of Tron Bonne was a lead weight in the US due to Capcom lowballing the amount of copies but from what I heard did well in Japan.

In the past few years, other than some cameo appearances from the Legends characters in games like the PSX version of Pocket Fighter (Rock Volnutt/Trigger and Roll show up in the background of the Running Battle mode), Namco X Capcom, and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, where Volnutt is playable, not much mention has been made of the Legends series in past years. Its relatively small fanbase compared to other Capcom series and lack of more MML games that weren't for mobile phone are probably to blame.

Capcom did release 1 and 2 for PSP and were gonna put it out in the US but they were rejected by Sony, so no go there. There have been a few cellphone games, including one MML game that could somewhat be called a sequel, or at least a prequel, but they are all Japan-only.

However, the creator of Mega Man, Keiji Inafune, has stated a desire to do an actual third Mega Man Legends/Rockman DASH game, but has stated that the budget he'll need to do it is quite high (IIRC, it was something like US$15,000,000). So while there's a glimmer of hope for the franchise to come back, the hurdle that will need to be climbed is a high one indeed.

[qwertysaur]

Servebots are really cool

[Levian]

MM7 has decent music imo. I agree Turbo Man's stage is mildly annoying but then there's the awesome opening stage theme, which is one of the most epic MM tunes ever, and then there's Shade Man's stage, which is a personal favorite of mine. Freeze Man also has a very nice theme, always gets me pumped up. The soundtrack of MM7 is better than MM5, MM6 and MM1 in the numbered series imo.

Opening theme
Shade Man
Shade Man Remix - This is the best remix of a megaman theme I've found online.
Freeze Man

[Polnareff]

Servebots are really cool

I approve! Servbots are cool and cute. I'm almost ashamed that I didn't mention them in my last post.

Now that somebody replied (thanks qwertysaur) I like every Mega Man series there is. Every series save maybe Legends has its bad games, though, and with each new generation of gamers, the newer something is along with the most different, the more it will be looked down upon (such as in BN and SF's cases).

This is my ranking as to my favorite series:

Legends
Original
Star Force
X
Battle Network
Zero
ZX

Also I agree with Levian that there were a few good tracks in 7 (he named a few), but IMO, and only IMO, a lot of the tracks weren't that good.

[Shoeberto]

The X series was what I started out with, and it was pretty hard for me to try and play the original series after that just because there's so many differences.

[I Took the Red Pill]

actually, I had completely forgotten how utterly awesome Megaman Legends was. Definitely one of my favorite PS1 games.

[RedPouch]

The soundtrack of MM7 is better than MM5, MM6 and MM1 in the numbered series imo.

This isn't saying much because MM1, MM5, and MM6 soundtracks were trash. I guess Freeze Man's music was okay but too many musics in MM7 drove me nuts. They chose the poorest selection of synth instruments and the construction was also terrible.

[Levian]

Well, it's saying that it's only surpassed by 2, 3, 4 and 9. But yeah, they were pretty crap indeed. Megaman 1 only had Cutman, which is awesome. Dr. Wily stage 1 is allright and maaaybe I would give them Guts Man too but that would be stretching it.

Not really any memorable tracks from MM5. Charge and Stone were OK at best.

The only decent track I remember from MM6 is Flame Man.

[Polnareff]

There's also Knight Man, Blizzard Man, and Yamato Man.

And IMO MM1's soundtrack is full of win and god.

[RedPouch]

There's also Knight Man, Blizzard Man, and Yamato Man.

And IMO MM1's soundtrack is full of win and god.

Really? The only music I liked from MM1 was stage 1 and 2 of Dr. Wily's castle. It was extremely good, but I didn't like the others.

[qwertysaur]

Elecman has really cool music too

[Polnareff]

Yes, IMO, Khalin, most Mega Man soundtracks are pretty awesome. There are definitely some that aren't though.

The main thing with Mega Man's soundtracks is that the ones for the NES games in lots of cases did things that no other NES games could do with regards to game music, which is why the series' soundtracks are so respected.

Also, Khalin, you definitely have to play the Legends series, ZX Advent, the Zero series, and several other MM series games. Classic and X are all well and good but there's other great MM games just waiting to be played! ;D