3 Things I Love about Mega Man Arcade Fighters
Welcome to Mega Man Month! Every weekday in January I’ll be listing three things I love about the original Mega Man series. Let’s go!
Seeing classic robot masters in Mega Man 7’s art style
So today’s is a little bit of a cheat because I’m covering two games in one, but they’re really similar so just roll with it. These are a bit of an oddity, so let me give you a slice of history. Between the releases of Mega Man 7 and Mega Man 8, Capcom released two arcade “fighting games” based on the Mega Man franchise, Mega Man: The Power Battle, and Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters. They basically play out as a sort of boss rush mode spanning the classic Mega Man series 1-7. And what I thought was especially cool about that was the fact that they went with Mega Man 7’s art style, which is probably my favorite look in the entire series. Seeing what battles with classic robot masters like Guts Man, Napalm Man, and Magnet Man look like with this flashy coat of paint was so incredibly cool. They may not be must-play masterpieces, but at the very least do yourself a favor and watch a YouTube playthrough. They’re just so darn pretty.
Duo’s first appearance
Mega Man 8 released in December 1996, telling the tale of Duo and evil energy crashing into Mega Man’s world. However, Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters launched in July 1996, and gave the world a taste of Duo and his thick right arm several months earlier. Mega Man 8 is pretty close to the bottom of my list in terms of numbered Mega Man classic series games, and Duo never really did much for me as a character, but it’s still cool to see that he appeared in this game first, in Mega Man 7’s art style, no less!
Mega Man remixes
I know I keep coming back to Mega Man’s music in these articles, but hot diggidy dog the series has so much great stuff! And these arcade games are chock full of excellent remixes of some of the series’ best tunes. They all have a sort of beefed up Mega Man 7 style audio aesthetic to them and while they aren’t all the most amazing things you’ll ever hear, they’re all at the very least really solid. Here are a few of my favorites.
And there you have it. Come back tomorrow for my three favorite things about Mega Man’s first venture into the world of professional soccer. See you then!
