3 Things I Love about Mega Man: Powered Up
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!
That music. Oh man, that music.
In case you’re unfamiliar, Mega Man: Powered Up is a full-on, modern remake of the original Mega Man. IT tells the story with modern sensibilities, including full voice acting, and it does a pretty magnificent job. The art style was pretty divisive, and I’m pretty sure that’s what stopped most people from giving this game a fair shake, which is areal shame because these new takes on the original Mega Man’s music are incredible. Matching the game’s more colorful art style, many of the songs were changed from minor keys to major keys, and the results are pure joy. Here are a few of my favorites.
Time Man and Oil Man
The thing about the original Mega Man that stands out the most against the rest of the games in the series is the fact that there are only six robot masters as opposed to the series standard eight, set by Mega Man 2. In an effort to fix that, Powered Up introduced two new robot masters to the mix, Time Man and Oil Man. Both of these characters have cool personalities (especially in the sadly cancelled Archie Mega Man comic series) and some really great powers. Especially Oil Man’s surf-able oil slick move. Sure, Oil Man’s design is a little… problematic, but all in all these are some really great additions to Mega Man’s lore.
Playing as the robot masters
You read that right. This game allows you to play as the robot masters, which is freaking awesome. If you manage to beat the robot masters without using special weapons, Mega Man brings them back to Dr. Light to be reprogrammed. You then get the opportunity to start a new game where Mega Man is one of the eight robot masters stolen by Dr. Wily, and whichever one you choose to play with is the one left behind to go fight everyone else. Playing the game as someone like Elec Man makes perfect sense, but when you try to play as someone like Guts Man, it takes on a whole new life. I can’t believe this mode hasn’t been included in any future Mega Man games, because it’s unbelievably cool.
That wraps it up for today. Come back tomorrow for my three favorite things about Mega Man for Game Gear.