16 bits, 2 bytes - Twelfth Event

Mega Man X, Capcom 1993

Summarising Dr. T. Light’s blurb recorded on September 18, 20XX.

X is a new generation of robots which contain an innovative new feature – the ability to think, feel and make their own decisions.

To confirm reliability, robot must be sealed in a capsule and left untouched for 30 years.

Gameplay is pretty much as you were, but sound and graphics have certainly changed for the better.

Metroid-esque stages include environs of factory, forest and power plant.

Nicely, passwords are given after each area.

When new abilities are gained, already completed stages should be revisited to obtain upgrades and power ups in otherwise unreachable areas.

Being able to escape at any time eliminates the chore of wading through whichever stage again.

Reploid names remain typically silly.

Chill Penguin, Spark Mandrill, Launch Octopus, Boomer Kuwanger (based on kuwagata, Japanese for stag beetle), Storm Eagle and Flame Mammoth.

Dr. Cain’s fortress and defeating Sigma is your ultimate goal.

King Reploid goes through various forms and becomes huge robot.

Like Sardius of Super Ghouls fame, using platforms to attack head must be employed.

With 3D visuals, anime movies and extra mode allowing you to play as a really Vile baddie, it was remade for PSP in 2006 as Mega Man Maverick Hunter X.

Mega Man X2, Capcom 1994

6 months later, X and his band of merry Maverick Hunters are on a mission to kill remainder of Sigma’s followers at abandoned Reploid factory.

Same great stuff and all that, but the introduction of new enemies X-Hunters sprinkled extra spice.

Cx4 chip permitted complex wireframe objects and sexy transparency effects.

Across desert, junk yard, ice cave and aboard dinosaur tank, eight Mavericks stand in your way.

Wheel Gator, Bubble Crab, Flame Stag, Morph Moth, Magna Centipede, Crystal Snail, Overdrive Ostrich and Wire Sponge.

After beating X-Hunters (Agile, Serges and Violen), we get Zero’s parts and resurrect hero, who sacrificed himself to protect X in previous game.

During final stage, A, V and S reappear in upgraded form at North Pole base.

Sigma (now Neo) returns as end boss, who eventually becomes a fabulous head.

Mega Man X3, Capcom 1995

21XX.

All Mavericks have been neutralised by Dr. Doppler.

Despite suppressing abnormal behaviour, Mavericks apparently dead run riot and under their new mentor, advanced Reploids form utopian community ‘Dopple Town’.

Invasion imminent, and guess who's behind it?

Hmmm.

For the final time, Cx4 chip does its thing.

Cohorts Bit and Byte must be taught a lesson, with Blizzard Buffalo, Toxic Seahorse, Tunnel Rhino, Volt Catfish, Crush Crawfish, Neon Tiger*, Gravity Beetle and Blast Hornet providing boss challenges.

*By pure coincidence, also a track by The Killers.

Backgrounds include snowfall, sewer, caves, forest and factory.

Doppler reveals Sigma was his master.

Baddie is endeavouring to create a new battle body by collecting special abilities from new breed of Reploids.

Shit ain’t for him though.

Sigma? Surely not.

After reaching lab and beating Doppler (who uses part of Sigma’s new body), the good doctor tells us Sigma’s true form is a computer virus, which corrupted Doppler - hence why he created a new body.

Recurring boss becomes Kaiser Sigma (smacking of Apocalypse from X-Men), and unloads a troublesome amount of firepower.

With some effort, beast is tamed.

Sigma attempts to possess X, but Zero restores peace by using anti-virus program.

Epilogue states to save mankind, X must destroy Zero.

Dur dur dur.

X4, X5 and X6 came to PS1 and Saturn.

X7 and X8 (currently the latest game in series), both came to PS2.

Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 and 2 turned on the Switch and contained every game.

New features included museum and X Challenge mode.

Mega Man 7, Capcom 1995

After a two year hiatus, Dr. Wily is back to wreak more havoc.

20XX AD.

Knowing that he (Wily) would probably fail, four robots were hidden away, and if after 6 months he doesn’t make contact, they’ll auto-activate and begin searching for their master.

Rush the dog is commanded to search and dig for items, provide a spring for extra height and combination tactics gives extra firepower.

Wily's creations Bass and Treble act as mid bosses.

Expect to fight:

Burst Man, Cloud Man, Junk Man and Freeze Man.

When all four drift to android heaven, Wily appears elsewhere in the city with four new bad-asses.

Namely:

Slash Man, Spring Man, Shade Man and Turbo Man.

Surroundings range from dinosaur jungle, spring factory and robot graveyard.

After acquiring R, U, S, H circuit plates (resulting in Super Armour), Bass and Treble steal them.

At Wily's fortress, we must take on thieving mutts, various new bosses and those previously defeated before inevitable showdown.

As hero doesn’t have the balls to kill Wily, he legs it.

Bass and Treble rescue master and vow to be back, but that's another story.

8 came to PS1 and Saturn in 1996.

To play 9 (2008) and 10 (2010), both had to be downloaded on Wii, Xbox Live and PSN.

Who knows when Capcom will retire iconic series, but boasting 2.5D graphics and new Double Gear System, 11 can be tasted on PS4, Switch and Xbox One.

Tip of very large iceberg

Zero got his own series on GBA, with Collections, Battle Network, ZX (not Spectrum), Star Force and Xtreme spanning several systems.

Some of the above had multiple spin-offs, including sports, racing and fighting games.

Final game to appear on SNES was Mega Man & Bass (Rockman & Forte in Japan), and was ported to GBA in 2002.

Spin-off takes places one year after the events of Mega Man 8.

Confusion reigns

NES                                        Game Boy

Mega Man 2 (1988)                Mega Man II (1991)

Mega Man 3 (1990)                Mega Man III (1992)

Mega Man 4 (1991)                Mega Man IV (1993)

Mega Man 5 (1992)                Mega Man V (1994)
Mega Man 6 (1993)                N/A

Why didn't they bother with VI?

Pass.

1991 Game Boy effort Mega Man: Dr Wily’s Revenge is actually a remake of Mega Man and Mega Man 2.

The rest followed suit.

II (2 and 3), III (3 and 4) and IV (4 and 5).

V chose not to remake 5 and 6.  Instead, entry is unique in portable series for introducing original bosses Stardroids.

Just for a laugh, 1995 Game Gear entry (also called Mega Man), was the second to remake 4 and 5.

1994 Mega Drive compilation Mega Man: The Wily Wars not only contained remakes of first three NES games, but also served as a sequel of sorts to those mentioned.

To add light relief, Mega Man Powered Up (the ONLY solitary remake of 1987 NES original), came to PSP in 2006.

Now things get weird.

In 1990, another Mega Man was released exclusively in North America for DOS.  Its sequel, Mega Man 3: The Robots are Revolting, followed in 1992.

What happened to Mega Man 2?

One of its bosses (Bit Man) is nigh on identical to bastard displayed on box art for Mega Man 3 (NES), and baddie was subsequently recycled.

Great excuse.

Apart from handing licence to Hi-Tech Expressions, Capcom were not involved in either game.

When head's stopped hurting, please move on.

Metal Marines, Namco 1993

A war has broken out on Earth between the Space Colonies Allied Forces and Zorgeuf’s empire.

Icon driven isometric mech-based RTS is very Populous, Syndicate et al, and pretty good to boot.

Gameplay mechanics are what you’d expect.

Deploy units (which can be upgraded), build defences and attack enemy units, like silos, radars and gun pods.

Situation can be assessed via map and launching weapons show pretty cool animation sequences.

While enemies can only attack at random, player isn’t so hampered.

Blast the shit out of everything to beat each operation (Bison, Cougar, Eagle etc) and story is held together with impressive screens.

Simple enough passwords are given after each mission.

Enemy AI grows more intelligent and while 20 stages is enough, I'd like to sink strategic teeth into more.

Main difference between console and PC version is story, as we control a member of the United Earth Empire, a futuristic version of the UN.

Super Earth Defence Force, Jaleco 1991

Earth is under attack from the evil Azyma Empire.

Jaleco made a great fist of bringing their cult horizontal arcade shmup home, but 2P co-op is understandably given the finger.

Like Gradius III and UN Squadron, stages and bosses replace some from insert coin.

Stage 3 - Rocks and lava becomes cave and water.

Shrimp face-hugger thing is actually the boss from arcade’s stage 4.

Stage 4 –  Just above drink switches to deep space with mothership.

Stage 5 – Base scrolling at a moderate pace is swapped for big black.

Stage 6 – Tinkered version of arcade’s fifth.

End boss (a huge and static mechanical robot) remains, but instead of getting a Gradius-esque barrier thing that just sits on its ass, stage scrolls backwards and new turtle head opens fire.

Oh, ending was changed too.

Super Off Road, Software Creations 1991

1989 stand up Leland arcade had three steering wheels with necessary pedals.

Although most had speed issues, majority of home conversions were remarkably good (particularly C64).

In terms of co-op play, NES game upstaged its coin munching counterpart, as using Four Score and/or Satellite peripherals allowed up to four players to participate.

Yes, this is before the Multitap.

In any case, only 2P is possible here.

Toyota brand is plastered all over but due to licensing issues, references made to Ivan Stewart are replaced with Mickey Thompson.

Before each race, it’s obligatory to splash the cash and upgrade motor.

Cash prize is dependent on place, but currency and nitros appear at random during race.

16 courses are eventually tackled in reverse and whoever finishes season stinking rich wins.

Danny Sullivan’s Indy Heat on NES looks like a steaming rip off, but as said effort was published by Leland, I'll let that slide.

Super Off Road: The Baja, Tradewest Sports 1993

Exclusive sequel is based on the Baja 1000 Race, and does feature Ivan Stewart.

Overhead view is sacked off in favour of third-person, but result is not nice.

Three courses (Mexico 250, Ensenada 500 and Baja 1000) comprise of 4, 6 or 8 legs.

Are we playing fucking darts?

San Felipe, Camalu, El Arco, Guerrero Negro, San Juanico, San Javier, Santa Rita and La Paz will bore the hell out of you.

Not that we need it, but main man gives pointless tips before each track.

3D effect is extremely ropey and cars themselves look completely out of place.

Thanks to a distinct lack of variety, the only way to tell difference between course is skyline.

Damage can be taken from bumping into other vehicles (a la F-Zero) and during obligatory pit stops; it’d be foolish not to upgrade nitros, brakes, shocks, tyres, engine and lights.

Running down spectators and animals incurs a cash penalty.

Graphics representing annoying hazards are that fucking pathetic, a gentle breeze would blow cardboard cut-outs over.

Passwords are 28 characters long and game recommends you write them down as you may forget.

No shit.

Robocop Vs The Terminator, Interplay 1993

Adapted from 1992 four-piece Dark Horse comic of same name, half man, half machine must take on terminators, ED-209 and Hunter Killers.

Resistance soldier Flo activates time displacement equipment and is sent back to destroy Robocop, because in a few years time, OCP's creation will connect to Skynet and begin the war.

Knowing Robocop will be partly responsible for creating Skynet, head terminator (Arnie?) sends army of endoskeletons to kill Flo and protect him.

Flo and Robocop team up and decide to fight Skynet together.

This could have made a really great film, but sadly never came to fruition.

Decent enough action platformer gives protagonist Strider-like abilities, as Robo can hang about and cling to walls.

Viewed from inside cockpit, Mode 7 FPS shmup stages briefly breaks shit up.

Story book intermissions add glam to presentation.

Robo inevitably plugs mind in to Skynet, giving insane supercomputer licence to take over the city, so now he must destroy the core (insert Gradius reference here).

Skynet complex is a long drawn out affair and floating Terminator head serves as end boss.

Our hero rebuilds world he helped to destroy.

Virgin Games USA's Mega Drive alternative boasted better visuals, funkier music, visceral gore and digitised speech samples, but lacked shmup sections and story sequences.

Premise is also different, as Flo is a distant memory.

In the future, after Skynet becomes self-aware, mankind is identified as its enemy and launches genocidal terminator attack.

As Robocop knows grey matter helped begin war, Robo fixes himself to make amends.

With Skynet CPU destroyed, history is altered and human race breathes a sigh of relief.

Ending sucks, as rather than animated sequence, we just get text.

To mop up, Master System and Game Gear versions (both devved by NMS Software), are the same kind of bloody thing as Mega Drive.

NES game is based on SNES (less Mode 7), as was Unexpected Development's scaled down Game Boy effort.

Packy and Marlon, Wavequest 1995

And now for something completely… bizarre.

Diabetic elephants must gather necessary supplies and fend off rodents at Camp Wa-Kee.

Along the way, you’ll need to eat prudently, take insulin and monitor Packy and Marlon’s blood glucose.

Chatting to animals instigates a multi-choice quiz.

Yeah I know it's educational, but honestly - what the FUCK?

Around the same time, Bronkie the Bronchiasaurus dealt with asthma.

Rex Ronan: Experimental Surgeon, Sculptured Software 1993

From one extreme to another.

Determined to rescue Jake Westboro, said medical professional shrinks himself and enters body to fight smoke-related diseases.

So Fantastic Voyage-esque then.

Blackburn tobacco company fears that if Jake lives, heavy smoker will sing like a canary about the dangers of smoking, so deadly microbots are dispatched to stop Rex.

Effects of smoking are shoved down our throats and throughout whole sorry affair, correctly answering statements act as smart bombs.

Shmup taking place inside Jake’s body consists of mouth, trachea, lungs, arteries, heart and brain.

I swear shit rips off Microcosm.

Jake bankrupts corporation after successfully persuading millions to quit.

A few years before Packy and Marlon, same company also gave us Captain Novolin (named after Novolin human insulin).

Eponymous hero is called upon to fight aliens (disguised as sugary foods) and rescue the diabetic Mayor Gooden of Pineville, who has been captured by evil invaders.

HA HA HA!

Jelly Boy, Probe 1995

Also on Game Boy, fun action platformer was a European exclusive.

Jelly baby (looking suspiciously like a taller relative of Kirby), must scour factory to collect items so doorman will allow him to meet man in charge.

Err, okay then.

'Items’ from ? blocks (ripped straight from Mario), gives sprite licence to morph into various shapes and exploit new abilities for a limited time.

For example, hammer (bashes blocks), bottle of pop (shoots tops) and bubble (floats).

If you ‘duck’, he becomes a…

Absolutely quackers.

Musical notes act as a one-hit shield, with any collision thereafter resulting in death.

Sonic perhaps?

Hang on a sec…

No, surely not.

Yup, it’s another freak of nature that has to load.

At least message is a bit more polite than Batman Forever’s ‘Hold On’.

Ninja Gaiden Trilogy, Tecmo 1995

Despite the inclusion of new story screens, enemies and bosses, NES conversion of 1988 arcade (later called Shadow Warriors in Europe) was notorious for cloning layout of Castlevania.

I find that amusing, as insert coin played more like Double Dragon.

Trend continued in exclusive sequels.

Game Gear and Master System games were part of franchise, but both had completely different stages and plots.

Title of Ninja Gaiden aside, Lynx was the only handheld to host direct conversion of arcade.

For some reason, same system skipped NES sequel and got piss poor port of third.

Ninja Gaiden Shadow on Game Boy served as a prequel to NES trilogy and to really grind my gears, was called Shadow Warriors in Europe.

Anyway...

Ryu Hayabusa in:

Ninja Gaiden (1989), The Dark Sword of Chaos (1990) and The Ancient Ship of Doom (1991).

Cinematics are redrawn and we get passwords, but would it have broken their fucking hearts to give in-game graphics and sound a makeover?

Apparently so.

Straight ports are actually technically inferior to originals, as music suffers and parallax occasionally dips.

Triple hit combo was included as a bonus unlockable in 2004 Xbox reboot.