A few months ago, I made the commitment to replay the mainline Mega Man series leading up to Mega Man 11. The only real question was how.

I could go back and buy each game on cart, which would be cool if financially ill-advised. There's the recent HD collections, and I could emulate each game on my Retropie, but then I would find myself encouraged to abuse save states. I suppose it's a good thing I have so many options when it comes to replaying classic Mega Man, but only one stood out as having no drawbacks: the Mega Man Anniversary Collection for the Nintendo GameCube. Ok, yes, the jump and shoot buttons are reversed, but whooo cares. I'm a human animal, I'm a Mega Man, I can adapt.

As a Mega Lad, I only put significant time into Mega Man 4, but for almost everything else, the Anniversary Collection served as my gateway. It was the first time I played Mega Man 7 (barf) and Mega Man 8 (yaaay!), and I have fond memories of going through each game, one per day, while staying at my mom's one Summer. So, admittedly my nostalgia for the Anniversary Collection goes a long way in making it my preferred way to play the classic games. It helps too that my current retro gaming setup is ideal for this specific compilation, as I'm able to run it through a CRT and my Retrobit classic GameCube controller allows me to bypass playing these with an analog stick, or worse... The GameCube's D-pad.

Not everyone is going to have the means or desire to experience these games the same way, however, and it becomes a lot more difficult to recommend the Anniversary Collection unless you're able to enjoy it under the same specific circumstances. I see zero reason to emulate this game or upscale it when the HD collection exists. Likewise, the bonus content present in the Anniversary Collection takes a significant amount of time to fully unlock, and you can probably just absorb all of it on YouTube. Nevermind the fact that the HD collection is also more comprehensive in this regard. Although, not for nothing, the included G4 documentary is part of what's gotten me back into watching Cinematech recently, which has been a great show to watch alongside GamesMaster. Mega Man hasn't shown up on that yet, but I'm waiting in breathless anticipation for the GamesMaster to demean some young child for not knowing where to find, like, an E-Tank and then say a slur unprompted. Classic British media, right there.

As for the games themselves, they all play fine. I think. I'm not nearly sensitive enough to tell you whether there's input lag or performance issues not present in the original games, but I definitely didn't feel like any deaths were the fault of this collection so much as my own inputs and bullshit that's hard-coded into these games. If you want to know what I think about each Mega Man, I'll provide links to reach review at the bottom of this one.

I'll be swerving right past Mega Man 9 and 10 on my way to 11 as I've already replayed those within the last year, meaning my foray into the classic series is near its end. I hope everyone who has humored my silly little excursion into this series will be with me at its close, but in the meantime you should probably read BlazingWater's review if you haven't already. I doubt I'll be able to provide commentary quite so insightful, but I'll endeavor to try.

Mega Man
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 4: The Voyage Home
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 6
mega man 7
Mega Man 8
Mega Man: The Power Battle
Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters

Be a man. Be a human animal. Be a Mega Man. Be a Mega Man.