Megaman - Gaming

Known as Rockman in Japan, Megaman is an iconic video game character who got his start on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. His popularity has spawned countless sequels on a variety of systems, with six alone for the old NES. As of 2009, there are at least 100 different Megaman games that have been published with more on the way.

The typical Megaman game is an action platformer with a common theme. Megaman, himself a robot, must prevent a team of evil robots, each armed with their own unique weapons and abilities, from taking over the world. Each time Megaman defeats a robot, he acquires their weapons and abilities which must then be used against the other robots in a correct order according to their individual vulnerabilities. This theme has varied little over the years much to some fans’ chagrin. Indeed, Megaman’s archvillain, Dr. Wiley is famous for making continual comebacks over an endless stream of sequels as opposed to just simply dying off. The result has been a great deal of criticism over the game’s constant recycling of ideas. Capcom, Megaman’s developer, has tried to compensate by adding extra storylines and friends for Megaman. Regardless, the series shows little signs of slowing down and fans continue to clamor for more.