The “Blue Bomber” Was Named After a Rock ’em, Sock ’em Robot?

I was 9 years old, standing in the video rental store. It was in a strip mall and was one of those places that always seemed to smell like popcorn. Too-salty, too-buttery popcorn. Their Nintendo cartridges probably had popcorn grease on their connectors, that’s why you had to blow on them about 20 times to get them to work.

It had already been a couple of big years for my little video-gaming brain, and I was feeling like nothing could possibly top some of the adventures I’d been having through that clunky gray Nintendo box.

I’d explored dungeons and collected pieces of the TriForce while battling Ganon’s evil creatures as Link.

Such a style icon even back then!

I’d mapped out the tunnels of Zebes and destroyed the Mother Brain as Samus Aran.

Girls can run and jump and shoot things, too, ya know.

I’d rescued the Princess (or at least tried) a few too many times as Mario.

Let’s face it, she needs better security. “Maybe some bars in the windows so that giant lizard can’t keep grabbing you, Your Highness?”

I’d gone after Dracula and his minions with a chain whip as Simon Belmont, for crying out loud!

This moment, yo. If it’s possible to feel like a bad-ass when you’re 9, this is one of the ways.

And then there was this “man” — this Mega Man, apparently  — staring awkwardly out from his game box. It was like he was so embarrassed by his own cover art that he couldn’t even look me in the eye. He just looked empty-eyed out over my right shoulder.

Is he … is he doing a squat? What is that??

Then I picked up the box and looked at the back. The first thing I saw was the picture of the game’s 6 “Bosses”. At this point I became slightly intrigued, as it was obvious the game had a much more cartoonish vibe to their characters than the front of the box leads one to believe.

What the heck is a GUTSMAN?

I began to read the description on the back of the box to learn more.

The following is a direct quote:

It’s MEGA MAN versus the powerful leaders and fighting forces of Monsteropolis — that strange multi-layered land of robot-like Humanoids created by the wrongly performed experiments with human beings by Dr. Wiley. ———- MEGA MAN — the chosen defender of the human race. For he dares to single-handedly penetrate Monsteropolis’ seven separate societies to stop the rapid expansion of strange misrepresentations of humans. ———- The action involves MEGA MAN, armed only with laser beam weapons, encountering strangely-configured Humanoids. They’re atop, in and out of fortified prison-like structures strengthened with thick walls. Below icefields. Hidden amid gun turrets imbedded in concrete uprights, even in subterranean passages under icefields. WOW!

Will you and Mega Man penetrate the seven separate societies of Dr. Wily and preserve the human race? You’re in control!

That is some heavy stuff to be throwing at a 9-year-old, man! Human/robot experimentation? A game that could use “rapid expansion of strange misrepresentations of humans” in a sentence? Plus, I was pretty sure there were going to be icefields, you guys. Just a guess. I mean, WOW! indeed.

So I slapped down my three dollars to rent it for the weekend. No popcorn for me today, thanks, just the game.

Me about 30 minutes later.

Over the next couple days I proceeded to have my mind blown and my frustration factor sent through the roof. I thought it was in a good way, even when poor Mega Man just kept dying over and over. My mother may disagree with me on that one.

Mega Man (or “The Blue Bomber”, as he’s come to affectionately be known by his fans) is one of those games, as so many were in that era, that sought to separate the casual player from the intense gamer. It doesn’t once shy away from its incredibly sharp learning curve, but will reward pattern recognition and quick reflexes with new weapon upgrades and some of the most memorable boss encounters in gaming’s early years. Figuring out which bosses had weaknesses to which particular weapons was like a 6-layer game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. (Bomb, Guts, Cut, Elec, Ice, then Fire. Of course.) Clever platforming and enemy design, a brutal trial-and-error feel to gameplay, and insanely catchy music created a game I couldn’t wait to sit down and figure out.

But it was extremely hard. Yell-at-the-TV-throw-the-controller hard. Harder than Contra, even, I thought.

Yeah, I said it.

I actually could not, despite my efforts, beat the game without the help of the infamous Game Genie. Although, to be fair, I did manage to make it all the way to Dr. Wily’s (they used two versions of his name on the box but settled on “Wily” instead of “Wiley”) final flying machine before he demolished me. With one hit. And I had no extra lives saved up. It was a moment so agonizing in its almost-within-reach-ness that I think I may have even started crying from sheer rage and frustration. Then at one point my mom told me the same thing that’s infuriated so many gamers before and since … “Honey, it’s just a game. There’s no need to get so worked up about it.”

She was right, it is just a game. But when a gamer gets really absorbed in the game he/she’s playing the experience starts to take on qualities that belie the “just a game” argument. We become invested in the character because we’ve guided him/her through their adventures. We want to know how the story turns out because the villain’s set so many traps and pitfalls in our way we just have to take him down. We become intrigued by the nuances of each level and how we can get all those cool secret items. We feel a need to finish the game sometimes in order to give ourselves a sense of finality amongst all the button-mashing.

Mega Man 2 went on to become my favorite of the series, and many gamers argue it remains the best to this day. My cousin Eric and I would get up at 6 in the morning on a Saturday to play it before everyone else in the house woke up. More bosses, more varied environments, and some of the most memorable music from the 8-bit era. Good stuff. Except …

“Ummm … YEAH, Capcom, that IS really good cover art! You did … so much … better. I’m just gonna put this up on the fridge over here …”

There are now 10 entries in the main Mega Man series, with numerous spin-offs and side entries to the canon. But when Keiji Inafune and Akira Kitamura created the original Mega Man they made a game that stands the test of time even nearly 30 years after its release. It gets measured against and built upon by all its successors and can still shoot a mean Mega Buster of its own.

Thanks for the memories, Blue Bomber!