Decades since its debut, no side-scrolling action platformer hits quite like Mega Man. Maybe that’s why they made so many sequels and spin-offs. And currently you can grab them all, including every Mega Man X and Mega Man Zero game, for just $44 on Steam in Capcom’s current end of sumer sale.
The Japenese publisher has spent the last eight years collecting all of the games into new “Legacy” collections, making it easy to grab them in one place with decent enough emulation and limited latency. They’re not perfect but, for this price especially, it’s a great way to dive back into some arcadey robot action.
If you’re not already intimately acquainted with them, the Mega Man games follow the blue bomber has he hops, blasts, and sometimes slides his way through futuristic 2D stages infested with evil robots, spike pits, and other hazards, with the central gimmick being that he absorbs the signature powers of each boss as he defeats them. Mega Man X takes that formula and speeds it up with dashes, melee attacks, and other upgraded abilities. Then the Zero/ZX games remix the franchise for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, adding RPG-lite mechanics and lots more story beats.
But if you’re not looking to overwhelm your 2023 eyeballs with 25 games’ worth of vibrant pixel animated action, maybe just start with the first half of the Mega Man and Mega Man X collections. It’s just $16 and you’ll get the four best games: Mega Man 2, 3, X, and X2.
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