We welcome back the one and only Dan to the show this week to chat about an important topic…. the Nintendo Entertainment System. More specifically, the first six MEGA MAN games that graced the NES. But before we could get to any of that, we had to take a step back in human evolution to chat about Dan’s personal life and how he chooses to spend his tax refund. Let’s say he visited a special place that Al Bundy frequented before he landed the gig on Modern Family. Does anyone out there know what a Double Dirty is? He explained it to me on the show, and I still have no clue.
Back to MEGA MAN!
Dan and I grew up on the NES and spent countless hours playing platformers like Super Mario Bros. Probably around 1990, we both received MEGA MAN 3 for our birthdays. Dan got his first that year because he has a January birthday. I, the elder statesman, may have been older, but with a September birthday I had to wait almost 8 months to get my copy. Needless to say, Dan was pretty good at the game.
I vividly remember the shake-ups to the platformer formula that MEGA MAN 3 (and the other MM games) provided. Firstly, Mega Man was a robot. Secondly, he had a projectile-shooting mega buster for an arm. Thirdly, each boss, or robot master, gave you his power when you beat him at the end of a highly distinctive stage. Lastly, and most mind blowingly (for me), the game allowed the player to choose which order to play the stages in. As we quickly learned, the robot masters had a weakness to the weapons of a specific other master in the game. It was advisable to learn the boss order but the game was flexible enough in design that you could complete the stages in any order if you were robot-boy enough for the task.
As I’ve grown, I’ve come to like MEGA MAN 2 the best in the original series, while Dan still holds onto his love for part 3. We want to know from YOU! Which original Blue Bomber game is your favorite?
Oh, and enjoy this episode!