all games are not created equal

Mega Man 2 was one of the first NES games I owned. With its classic gameplay and memorable music, it was a wonderful entrance to the world of Mega Man (still haven't played through the original...the presence of points and lack of 8 bosses is still weird). To this day I still play this game through.

Last summer I decided it was time to give another game a chance. I loaded up Mega Man 3 and was immediately greeted with a lot of the same, but something didn't feel right. Gone were Dr. Wily's bots with cool elemental influences (Heat Man, Air Man, Metal Man); in their place were bots with odd influence (Hard Man; seriously, Top Man?) I decided I had no choice but to play it through until the end.

One of the classic features of the Mega Man series is the opportunity to re-battle fallen bosses during the Dr. Wily stage. By this point you probably have figured out their weakness, so the battles aren't too difficult. Imagine my surprise as I was playing through these levels and found those same teleporters at the end of these new stages.

*SPOILER ALERT*

Those teleporters brought me into battle against all the bots from Mega Man 2. This was not just unexpected but it brought back great memories previous years. Lost in this nostalgia was the need to figure out what their new weaknesses would be (Magnet Man for Metal Man wasn't too tough). As if this wasn't enough, you also get to fight the cyclops that constantly disassembles itself (a definite throwback to the original Mega Man).

These battles made Mega Man 3 a wonderful experience, but since the throwbacks to the past made it so memorable, I am going to give the nod to Mega Man 2.