Megaman – Upon A Star is not a game but a straight to video 3 episode Megaman series I bought on a whim at one of ADV’s 5$ anime sales… and what a weird thing I got!
First off I asssumed this was a somewhat new as “2005” is the only year indicated on the box. Once I started watching this video it was obvious to me that this was not made last year as the image quality that, while not bad, was obviously not made not made in a digital colouring DVD era world, not to mention the character designs and animation style looked a good 15 years old… and then came the real age indicator. The main character was playing a famicom (that’s a Japanese NES) and Megaman 5 of all games. Well as it turns out this series was made in the early 90s, and dubbed around the same time, but never released in either Japan or North America until last year.
Dubbed by the Ocean Group in Vancouver, the same guys that did the old Megaman cartoon I’m sure we all know and love, the dub is of solid quality, though I didn’t watch it in it’s entirety. Megaman has a different voice as he’s a child in this series, unlike in the old show… which as it would turn out is probably newer than this.
The story is entertaining in that it’s so ridiculous it’s funny.
In the first episode we Dr. Wily, a character in a video game, on a whim one day decides to leave his game and conquer the real world. This is not done through any technological mishap or anything. He just looked to the side one day at the real world he’s been looking at through the back side of a TV screen all his life and comes out. Megaman follows and they run around fighting each other. Young Yuuta, who’s home he lands in, has understanding parents who fully accept the fact that a game character has crossed into our world, but prioritise homework and school over having their son help Megaman save the world from evil robots. Dr. Wily, as his first act against our world, conquers an amusement park and creates an army of robots to play in it. Weird things happen like Megaman is confused by the fact that people in Japan drive on the left side of the road. He comes from a game. How does he even know what a car is? Are we to understand all these robots weren’t made in Japan or what?
All throughout this first episode our hero is, even in the Japanese version, refered to as “Megaman”, which sort of hurt my brain since the Japanese have always refered to him as “Rockman”‘. His girlfriend/sister is still refered to as “Roll” making the pun as ineffective as it was when I first heard it.
Along comes episode 2. Megaman is now called “Rockman” in the Japanese version. How no Japanese child is expected to notice this sudden change is a mistery to me. The characters are all the same but they seem to have half forgotten the events of the first episode. Megaman escapes the game under totally different circumstances. At new years time Yuuta and his sister Akane are fighting over the Famicom and Megaman, frustrated over losing to Wily with no one in the real world to control him, appears in the real world when the Famicom is knocked around. The children are amazed that Megaman can enter the real world, seemingly forgetting the events of the last episode. Everyone seems to remember Megaman’s last visit though as Yuuta’s parents shrug off the visit saying only “I didn’t expect Rockman to show up to offer New Year’s greetings” as if he was a flakey neighbour or something. Do these people actually remember his last visit or is it just so common that characters escape the game world that they don’t bat an eye at it? The rest of the episode then revolves around Wily using a time machine he stole from Light to use the asteroids that killed the dinosaurs to ruin the present… and then he quickly gets confused and uses his powers to steal food from children and such. Other weird things include the fact that Protoman’s name has changed to “Blues” since the last episode and Rush has since lost the ability to talk, conversing only in barks.
Once episode 3 rolls around we’re not even trying to come up with reasons for which Megaman and Wily are escaping the game world on a regular basis. The children simply scream at the TV to call them out of the game to come watch a parade. Can’t say I’ve ever tried that one before. Dr. Wily then furthers his plans to destroy the future by not using time travel and destroying the present. Megaman notices this through the wonders of time travels and jumps from month to month, arriving only at significant cultural events, trying to catch him at the time when he’s being bad and attacking the world with a Typhoon robot of all things.
So go out and buy this DVD if you want the world to stop making sense.
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Out of all the Games that have adopted GTA’s free roaming design, only 3 really stand out from the pack. Spiderman 2, Mercenaries, and Destroy all Humans, the latter 2 designed by the same company, Pandemic. You play as Crypto, an alien looking to conquer an alternate 1950’s America chock full of paranoia and innuendo. You use different gadgets and powers such as an anal probe, flying saucer, and telekenesis (Throwing around cows is always fun). The game is fun, and silly, and it proves that the GTA formula dosen’t always have to be about drive bys and prostitutes. My only regret is that the game is too short and there is nothing much to keep you playing afterwards.
