Fourthed!

Gatac

The first Mega Man Legends game is also out for the Nintendo 64 (as 'Mega Man 64') and the PC, so you might want to try one of those versions.

Grah. I can't stand Legends. It was a cool concept, but it's frustrating as hell to play. *has the N64 version* Then again, I'm not so go at FPS games.

*wonder of wonders, may become bored enough over the summer to attempt to five an NT Warrior/Rockman.EXE episode. In fact, has determined to do so. Gasp!*

You go right ahead, Mav. Looking forward to it.

If some of you are still on the fence about Wii/Revolution, consider this: Many games for the N64 had "64" after their names, right? And a lot of GBA games have "Advance" after their names. Ditto for the DS. Now compare these:

Super Mario Revolution
Super Mario Wii (yeah, I know it's Super Mario Galaxy, but go with me here)

Metroid Prime Revolution
Metroid Prime Wii (only if it has zero-suit Samus, right? Zero-suit Samus, weee! :))

Pokemon Revolution
Pokemon Wii (risque connotations, if you have a dirty mind)

Sonic Revolution
Sonic Wii (ditto, no idea if Nintendo would do this anyway, or even if Sega would let them. The new Sonic games are for the Playstations, right?)

I think I've made my point.

No, you haven't. Those aren't the actual titles to the games.

I'd say Nintendo was being cautious, but...you know. Wii Sports.

I dunno. There's one problem with the Zero Mission bodysuit: it's a bodysuit. I think that was a good choice on the designers' part (fanservice should stop somewhere), but still... look at her little blue number in the Fusion endings. I would pay triple if she wore that in Prime 3. I exaggerate, but only slightly.

Also, while the bodysuit was well modeled in Prime 2's ending, Samus's face wasn't. It looked much more natural in Prime 1.

Geez, you people. Back in my day, we didn't even know she was a woman until we beat it. Bodysuits indeed. :)

I can't say I've ever fancied a video game character. Comics, of course, are completely different.

The zero-suit Samus joke was just that, a joke! I've never played a Metroid game, so I really wouldn't know. My first real experience with Samus is Smash Brothers, and the concept of her being a woman really never entered the equation.

My point was that if Nintendo intends to continue their practice of naming games after the consoles rather than number them into the dozens, Revolution is preferable to Wii.

For that matter, let us consider the main reasons for the name Wii, according to the press release:
1. The two "i"'s are two people playing a game and/or the Wii remote next to the joystick dongle. Silly, as I've seen precious few two-person gaming being done. I've usually played alone or as a group of four. Wiiii, anyone?
2. You don't need region-specific names; everyone can pronounce Wii. Erm, since when is this a major consideration? I'm not loosing any sleep over us calling it Nintendo and them calling it Famicom.
3. Wii connotates "we." Uh, guys, that's only in English. For all we know, the mudmen of South America interpret that sound as "person who has a predilection for feather boas and Zima."

To return to a lighter topic, how many Mega Man games are there? Are there any more series than Classic, X, BattleNetwork, and Zero?

There's the new two series, ZX and ZN, but they haven't been released yet. There's also DASH/Legends, which in my eyes barely counts but has the name so should be mentioned anyway. It's more of an FPS/Action RPG than the other series' sidescroller/card RPG-type styles.

I've also heard Wii connotates holding up three fingers on one hand and two on the other, but that was just so stupid I couldn't really think of it for long. I'll call it an eye-dee-ten-tee error on Nintendo's part. (For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, write out those letters and numbers together on a piece of paper.)

To expand on Mav's comments and clarify a bit (as he tends to use the Japanese names a lot), here's a little list. A gaiden is a sidestory, not part of the main series, and often made in a different style. Think Metroid Prime Pinball or Pokemon Snap.

Mega Man (Classic)
Japanese name: Rockman
Primary console: NES
Games: 8 in main series, 5 in Game Boy series, two arcade games, many remakes, a few gaidens

Mega Man X
Japanese name: Rockman X
Primary console: SNES, PSX
Games: 8 in main series, 2 in Game Boy series, one RPG

Mega Man Legends
Japanese name: Rockman DASH
Primary console: PSX
Games: 2 in main series, one gaiden

Mega Man Zero
Japanese name: Rockman Zero
Primary console: GBA
Games: 4 in main series

MegaMan Battle Network
Japanese name: Rockman EXE
Primary console: GBA
Games: 6 in main series, several gaidens, anime, about a zillion other things that are Japan-only

Mega Man ZX
Japanese name: Rockman ZX
Primary console: DS
Games: First one released (arrives here in September), anime in development

Battle Network sequel series (American title not yet announced)
Japanese name: variously "Shinsei Rockman ZN" and "Ryuusei no Rockman"
Primary console: DS
Games: One in development

There have been around 100 games with the Rockman name on them. The ones in the main series tend to be better than the gaidens. Classic, X, Zero, ZX, and Legends take place in the same world (in that order), with centuries separating each series from its successor. These series deal with robots of various kinds. Most of the games are sidescrollers (and damn fine ones). Battle Network and its sequel take place in a different world and deal with computer programs instead. Most of these games are fusion RPGs with a really nifty battle system that's better tried out than explained; suffice to say it's not just "pick an attack off a list."

Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that Capcom seldom finishes a series before starting a new one. We've been waiting ten years for Mega Man 9.

(By the way, it's "connote," not "connotate.")

Yikes. If there were fivers for all of those, you'd have to split off a separate Five-Minute Mega Man exosite, wouldn't you?

What do you mean by gaiden? My understanding of the word is that it's an alternate or "another" version. For example the two 64DD add-ons to Ocarina of Time are Master Quest and Zelda Gaiden AKA Majora's Mask. What with the plethora (no Three Amigos jokes, please) of parallel Mega Man universes that we already have, the concept of "gaiden" would seem to be implied and an unnecessary addition.

Yes. There's also the original Mega Show cartoon and possibly Captain N to work with. As well as possibly the various manga/serial comics etc. Though we've never done books before, the comics are a whole different continuity line.

It'd very popular in Japan, hence they make a lot of it. Not all of it gets translated. (And I do use the original names when I can.)

It's summer. I can't spell.

You know, Metroid Prime Pinball is the only way - without being arrested, judged, and/or condemned - to hit a woman with paddles and knock her across a table. A lot.

OTOH, there is no excuse for Pokémon Snap.

Unfortunately, I only learned that after buying it.

I rented Pokemon Snap once, and it was okay. My only real problems are that it's too short for the money they're asking, they really dumbed down the controls (in all realism they should've had an autopilot option for the kiddies and let the older folks drive the thing around), and that it was only the first 150. I think it was at least the Gold/Silver generation, so they really had no excuse not to have 251.

On a totally irrelevant tangent, I recently saw some older Pokemon merchandise, and they're always "150 Pokemon." Putting aside the fact that we knew Ho-oh existed, Mew should've been in the original count. Always 151, not 150.

Yeah, but if you advertise 150, number 151 becomes a big deal. And so on and so forth. Besides, while Mew was coded into Red/Blue, it was completely inaccessible -- you needed inside information just to know it existed. The only way to get one (outside of cheating or very clever glitch exploitation) was to attend a Nintendo event where they were giving them out.

This is another Pokemon/Battle Network parallel, incidentally. Each game has had BattleChips which could only be obtained at special events in Japan, barring some miracle with the chip traders. The most notorious example is Darkness, the deadly Program Advance from BN2 which does 3000 damage but requires Japan-exclusive chips. (It's a combined attack by Forte/Bass and Gospel/Grave.)

Since gaiden means "side story", I use it for any game which isn't part of the main series. For example, the main series of Mega Man Classic is the sequence of numbered games, Mega Man (1) to Mega Man 8. Games like Mega Man & Bass and Mega Man Soccer aren't in that series, so I call them gaidens. Similarly, Battle Network's main series runs from BN1 to BN6; Network Transmission for GameCube and BattleChip Challenge for GBA are gaidens.

Zelda is an interesting example, because it's unusually hard to draw the line there. Not only is the whole idea of "Zelda canon" murky, but Link is constantly having non-Hyrule adventures that seem kinda like gaidens but are definitely in the main series. Link's Awakening and Majora's Mask are perfect examples.

Hejira... no, I can't add anything to that. Wow.

Oh, right, the battlechips. That brings me back to when I learned about the Battle Network games. I thought that the idea of battlechips was kinda neat and was wondering how they'd pull it off. I assumed that they would be incorporated as e-Reader cards. That made sense to me. If they had, Nintendo would've sold a LOT more merchandise.

As a sidenote, along with Mario Advance 4 I got some e-Reader cards. I looked into it and was surprised to see that you need a second GBA, a link cable, and an e-Reader to use the cards. Why, why, oh WHY didn't they add a cartridge slot to the top of the e-Reader? Why? I assumed that accesories like the e-Reader would've been built like Game Genies. Stick the game into the e-Reader, stick the e-Reader into the GBA. Obvious, logical approach, right?

For that matter, I think that that was why e-Reader failed. They never considered what was obviously possible. Have Pokemon e-Reader cards that will transfer a Pokemon into your Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/LeafGreen/FireRed (based on probability distributions, of course. Oddish would be a common, find one every five packs or so, one in a hundred chance at Moltres, one in a thousand for Mewtwo, etc). Sell e-Reader cards with five random Potions, Rare Candies, etc. Create Yu-gi-oh e-Reader cards for the more powerful cards in the game and do the same probability distribution. Make a game based on Digimon Tamers similar to Battle Network.

Don't you think that e-Reader would've sold a hundred more copies if they'd done it right.

A hundred TIMES more copies, duh. Sorry about the slip. A hundred copies wouldn't have kept it on the market for long.

You're missing the half-dozen Japan only arcade games and of course, 4.5.

I have an official Mew as well as an official Darkness PA. I used to know someone who used to play video games and went in for all those events, but got bored of them eventually and gave the stuff to me because I still played. And yes, Darkness PA is awesome. Mew is good, but kind of overrated.

...I like Pokémon Snap. It's rather nifty.

Personally, I would've been happy if some of the stuff they cut out of BN6 made it to e-Reader. Very happy. BN5 as well. And 4.5, and the BattleChip Gate to go with it. And a whole load more Pokémon stuff. But they don't usually do things the fans want.