$20 game of the week part 2: Mega Man Anniversary Collection (Xbox, PS2, Gamecube)

Throughout gaming, mega man has been one of the most consistent franchises ever.  There have been over 40 games on nearly every major system, a cartoon show, a comic book, an action figure line, and several spin offs (mega man x, legends, zero, and battle network).  This collection contains the first 8 games of the core series, and two unlockable fighting games that until now, had been only seen in japan.  Also, players can unlock artwork and music.  You can play the games in their original 8-bit form, or in navi mode, which has remixed music,(PS2 and Xbox only) new subs menus, and a hint feature for various level points. Still, you can’t power up until mega man 4 or slide until mega man 3.  For the few players who don’t know about Mega Man, the series stars a blue robot. There are 8 stages in each game (6 in the original) which you can tackle in any order.  After you beat each boss, you acquire their weapon.  The trick is knowing which weapon works on which boss.  Mega man 2 introduced a password feature (although each game on this disc can be saved to memory card), while mega man 3, (considered to be the best in the series by many fans) introduced Rush, mega man’s cyber canine side kick.  Mega man 4 and 5 improved on the formula, while 6 didn’t garner much attention since it was released towards the end of the NES’s life cycle and mega man x made it’s debut on the Super Nintendo at the same time.  Mega man 7, which almost didn’t come out due to the SNES being near the end of it’s own life cycle, was the first game of the original series to hit the Super Nintendo. (until then, there was just the mega man x series) Mega man 8 bought the series to Playstation, with cd quality music and anime scenes.  This compilation is pretty much required for anyone who considers themselves a true gamer.