Mega Man

Mega Man (aka Rockman) is a platform game developed and published by Capcom in 1987 for NES. It is the first in the Mega Man franchise, boasting a voluminous game library. Three years later, it was released for MS-DOS.

The PC version was developed by Hi-Tech Expressions, the studio that also created Mega Man 3: The Robots are Revolting.

Mega Man began his life as a humble cleaning robot named Rock (hence the Rockman moniker). He was created in a lab with several other robots, eventually becoming his enemies when one of the scientists decided to use the creations for world domination. Volunteering for an upgrade, Rock becomes Mega Man to try to stop the evil scientist and his mechanical minions.

Mega Man is a classic side-scrolling platform game. MM has been equipped with an arm cannon for taking out enemies. You gain points for enemies slain, and they will drop life and ammo refills, as well as the occasional extra life. Most enemies can be taken out with MM’s regular gun, while some are best handled after acquiring the powers of the six bosses. As far as which boss to go after, you have free choice. Nothing linear makes you do them in a specific order; you pick your favorite and go with it. Once the boss is defeated, MM gains the power of their weapon (as well as a hefty point haul). Each has a use beyond killing and could be the key to unlocking a few level secrets. After gaining all the weapons, you can head off to face the evil scientist himself.

Mega Man was one of the first games I fell in love with as a kid. I thought it was so fun and challenging (at the time) but rewarding when you finally finished a level. It’s one franchise that I have played as many of the games out of as I can. I recommend it: you need to play it.