Welcome to the year 20XX!

Mega Man, or Rockman in Japan, was a very important franchise during my childhood. I don’t remember exactly which game in the franchise was the first one I played, but there’s a good chance it was Mega Man 7. I only remember that it was on the Super Nintendo and that I rented it from a local video game rental store sometime in the 1990s.

At first, I found the game pretty frustrating. I thought it was way too difficult, and I had no idea that the bosses had weaknesses and attack patterns. Even so, no matter how frustrated I got, I would always rent another Mega Man game whenever I found one at the store. I knew I would probably get annoyed again, but there was always something about those games that kept pulling me back.

My first real breakthrough with the franchise happened with Mega Man 7, still sometime in the 1990s. After insisting on it for long enough, I started defeating a few bosses, made quite a lot of progress, and got past the halfway point, even though I still wasn’t able to finish the game back then. Even so, that progress made me even more interested in the franchise.

One day, while looking for something to rent, I came across a Mega Man game I had never seen before: Rockman & Forte for the Super Famicom. The game had not been released in the West at the time, but the owner of the rental store had brought in the Japanese version, so I took the cartridge home.

Since the game featured a new character called Forte, who later became known as Bass in the West, I decided to play as him. Until then, I had never seen another playable character in the franchise. As soon as I started playing, I was impressed by the game’s graphics. I also really liked the fact that it allowed you to save your progress, which was much more convenient than having to write down passwords all the time.

I kept the game for a week, and it became the first Mega Man title I ever managed to finish — still without knowing that the bosses had specific weaknesses. I completed the game as Forte and even unlocked his fusion with Gospel, known as Treble in the West. I was really happy to have finally beaten a Mega Man game. After that, I wanted to explore more and more of the franchise.

Later on, I discovered the Mega Man X series, which felt quite different because of all the new mechanics it introduced. I also have great memories from that time, especially because I would discover all kinds of secrets by talking with friends. It was with the X series that I finally learned about boss weaknesses.

After that, I discovered the Mega Man Zero series on the Game Boy Advance, which eventually became my favorite series in the franchise because of how incredibly smooth and responsive the gameplay felt.

When the first trailer for Mega Man ZX came out, I was a little unsure about the concept at first, but once the game was finally released, I ended up really enjoying it as well.

Mega Man is still one of my favorite franchises to this day. Right now, I’m looking forward to Mega Man Override, and I’m also following the development of a few fangames that look really interesting.