Ruby-Spears: Crime of the Century

Guest Starring: Bomb Man

Plot Synopsis
Proto Man, Guts Man, and Cut Man are in a toy shop after hours trying out Wily's new invention. Proto Man fires some sort of gun that launches a tiny dart at a doll, which brings it to life and under Wily's control. "So what," asks Guts Man. "What can that thing do that we can't?" Well the doll jumps up on top of Guts Man, rips his head off, dribbles it down the toy store and slam dunks his head into a basketball net. Ok, this episode is seriously going to have to go downhill pretty god damned fast for me to not fucking love it at this point!

The next day, Mega Man, Dr. Light and the mayor are discussing a new find Mega Man discovered, a giant black pearl. Mega Man is afraid Wily is going to try and steal it, but the mayor assures him that he has the entire police department as security, so they have nothing to fear. Wily doesn't seem all that interested though as he sends his new toys on a crime spree through town, there's even a shot where a doll holds up a bank! Hilarious!

Mega Man gets a hold of one of the toys and brings it back to Dr. Light who finds the tiny dart that is controlling it and he begins working on a countermeasure. With the police spread thin because of all the crime sprees, the mayor is forced to have Mega Man be the sole security for the Black Pearl which is being transported by train. While covering the train from Rush Jet, Mega Man spots one of Wily's copters and chases it into a cave. It's a setup though, just to lure Mega Man away from the train, and Bomb Man uses his explosives to seal off the entrance to the cave, trapping Mega Man inside. Wily appears on a monitor and lords over his arch nemisis.

"Let me guess Wily, you're going to fill this cave with water?" says Mega Man. "Oh nothing so extravagant as that Mega Man, I'm going to fill it with BOMBS!" There's a line that's pure gold. Mega Man manages to escape as Wily's toys and his bots get aboard the train. I tell you there's nothing funnier than a toy panda wielding a double barrel shot gun, holding people hostage! With Dr. Light at gun point, Mega Man surrenders the pearl to Proto Man, but while Wily's bots are about to leave, Dr. Light reverses the control of the toys, putting them back to normal. Mega Man quickly goes after Proto Man on the top of the train and recovers the pearl.

Critique
The idea is nonsense, the imagery? Fantastic, top work all around this episode, and the dialog is actually decently funny. This is also like the fourth episode in a row where Guts Man laughs at Mega Man, and then Mega Man just immediately blasts him! That will be funny to me every time. This episode is also well animated. If every episode was this good, Mega Man would have survived past this episode.

Rating: Thumbs up!

And that's it for the Ruby-Spears production of Mega Man. You know, I gave this show a lot of shit, and plenty of it rightfully deserved, but I wouldn't go as far to call this a bad show. Not a great show, as there are so many episodes that simply lack any tender loving care that the quality suffers really bad. A few episodes are great though, and Scott McNiel really keeps this show together at it's worst times as the voice of Proto Man and Dr. Wily. The music is also timed well, even though there are only about four or five tracks, and the "Super Fighting Robots" theme is catchy, even if the lyrics are dumb.

The thing is, a show is only as good as it's competition at the time, and Mega Man was at least a generation behind in animation quality. Warner Brothers absolutely dominated the cartoon market once again with Steven Spielberg producing masterpieces like Animaniacs, and Tiny Toons, and Freakazoid! and Earth Worm Jim. In addition, Warner Brothers was also following up with several DC superhero cartoons such as Batman and Superman that were just much more superior animated all around. The production value of all these animations was much higher, had better writers and artists, and a sound studio orchestra. Mega Man's show couldn't possibly compete with that, and the show didn't even air on any single network, but rather ran in syndication it's first run, ouch.

Even if the show had survived long enough in syndication, Pokemon was about to come out and just fucking destroy every single cartoon before it. The competition was just too fierce for the Blue Bomber to hang in there. I often wonder where the show would have gone, had it managed to stay on air. Would we have seen Proto Man switch to the good guys, and Bass come to replace him? Would Mega Man X make a reappearance, or perhaps even have a spin off? What about Dr. Cossack or Beat? The Star Droids? Yellow Devil? Mecha Dragon? Gutsdozer? Or for Mega Man X the appearance of Zero? Truth be told, this series had some potential it never lived up to, and the appeal of it is pretty limited. Kids who don't know Mega Man are watching other, better cartoons, and Mega Man fans are either avoiding the show for it's "impurities" or just not taking notice of it.

Still, one day we might see another Mega Man cartoon of some sort, although to my knowledge there are no Mega Man cartoons currently running, except some reruns of Rockman.exe Beast in Japan, and the original run of Star Force in China. That could change again though, as the classic series is making use of it's resurgence in popularity with the announcement of Mega Man 10. Astroboy hitting the US might also have some impact on the future of Mega Man cartoons, because after all, Mega Man was designed after Astroboy. We'll have to wait and see, but I know my six year old cousin just so happens to love the Mega Man cartoons and the character, but he thinks the games are too hard, although his tastes might change when he starts developing some sense about himself.

Anyway, if you yourself are a Mega Man fan, you'll have a mostly good time catching this series. The DVDs are out now, so do yourself a favor and enjoy Scott McNeil.

Ruby-Spears: Mega X

Guest Starring: Snake Man, Vile, Spark Mandrill, Mega Man X, Dr. Cain and Cigma... wait what? Cigma? They spelled his fucking name wrong? THE FUCKING Σ SYMBOL IS ON THE FUCKING MAVERICKS IN THE SHOW! FUCK!

Plot Synopsis
The episode starts out just like any average episode, Wily wants to steal something from Dr. Light, in this case a new metal called Lightainium (get it? It's named after Dr. Light?) and he attacks the power plant the metal is stored at, but the security defenses, combined with Mega Man are just too much for Wily. Wily retreats back to his skull fortress, distressed that he can't get the Lightainium to build his super laser, when just then, a portal opens up from the future and out walks Vile and Spark Mandrill.... HOLY FUCK THEY'RE FROM MEGA MAN X! Suddenly interest is staring to rise dramatically.

Vile has come from the future to get his hands on some Lightainium which is extremely rare 120 years in the future, and they need it for their weapons to wage war against the humans and Maverick Hunters. Also they mispronounce Reploid... We're going to make a lot of concessions here, trust me. Vile recognizes Dr. Wily and orders him to help him. Wily will do it if Vile will let him keep enough Lightainium to build his super death laser, and Vile agrees as human destruction makes him happy.

The mavericks march on to the power plant, and Mega Man goes to stop them. Unfortunately, the mavericks are made out of a super advanced metal that "won't be invented for centuries," (despite Vile being created only a century later...) and Mega Man's blaster is completely ineffective against Vile and Spark Mandrill. Spark Mandrill fires a shot at Mega Man and it starts to zap all of Mega Man's and Roll's energy. Just as Vile is about to destroy them, another portal opens, and out jumps Mega Man X... who looks incredibly shitty... sigh...

X saves Mega Man and blows the fuck up out of most of the power plant chasing after Vile and Spark Mandrill who escape. Mega Man thinks X is putting to much property and lives at risk, but X will "complete my mission at all costs!" You know, because X is known for being a blood thirsty psychopath...

Good thing we don't dwell on this, because X recognizes his creator, Dr. Light and goes back and shows him a picture of Dr. Cossack... er excuse me, Dr. Cain, and another picture of SIGMA, not CIGMA, and then they head back to the power plant to search for Vile and Spark Mandrill, making that last segment a giant waste of time.

They track down Wily to a dam where Wily's next plan is to flood the power plant and just grab the Lightainium with the security down. They blow the dam, and X and Mega Man are caught up in the flooding water. Wily gets to the power plant, but the security system (did I mention it's a couple of robotic arms?) still activate, and Vile just blows them up. So, plan two was also a failure? They steal the Lightainium and build Wily's laser.

Vile and Spark Mandrill are about to take off back to the future, but Mega Man and X finally show up. Vile orders Wily to blast them out of the sky with the laser, and it causes a huge explosion which turns the whole area black... but he missed em! Mega Man and X team up to take down Wily's bots and the Mavericks, and X himself and the Mavericks back through the portal. Wily escapes, but Mega Man is glad the future has a hero to protect it.

Critique
Ok, let's start by saying that I hate time travel stories. There, I got that out of the way, now let me stress how fucking awesome the premise is for an X and Mega Man story, fuck yes! Now let me express my hatred for X's art and voice, but even so, I still can't let that stop me from enjoying what's going on. I mean, Vile is there, acting like a total fucking prick just like he always is! Also, Spark Mandrill has a Russian accent for some reason and his total of maybe 3 lines are hilarious to hear.

Out of all the episodes too, this is probably the best animated. Still is this episode something that the average person, who doesn't know about Mega Man and X would enjoy? I couldn't tell you, I'm too wrapped up in how awesome I think this episode is for the silly reason that X is in it. Hell, I don't even like most of the Mega Man X plots as it is, but fuck all of that, this episode is great! Zero isn't mentioned or shown at all, but that's probably a good thing because what a can of worms that would open up with the whole Wily/Maverick Virus shit. Unless Scott McNeil would have got to voice him, then it would have been awesome! Or Lucas Gilbertson, but I suppose this show was a little before his career started.

If you love Mega Man, this is a must see, even if it has so much wrong with it. If you're just the average cartoon fan, it's an alright episode I think.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Only one episode to go!

Ruby-Spears: The Day the Moon Fell

Guest Starring: Dark Man, Shadow Man, and Quick Man

Plot Synopsis
Yeah, there's a pleasant image for you.

The episode starts off with Dr. Wily's bots stealing some mechanical parts out of a lab. Mega Man goes after them but gets shot down. Dr. Wily takes the parts and puts them into his new machine the gravitron. His plan this time? To leave the planet in ruins by shifting the moon out of orbit, causing storms, earthquakes and tidal waves. Then when he puts the moon back in the right spot, he'll be the only one left that can rebuild the Earth.

Mega Man heads to skull fortress to stop him, but can't get past his bots, but by now he figures out Wily's plan. Dr. Light builds his own gravitron device to counter Wily's but unfortunately it won't work without a special part called a Tachyon Capacitor. Unfortunately, Wily has the only one in existence, and Dr. Light doesn't know how to build one. He did however come up with some schematics in college while working with Dr. Wily, but his archival footage reveals Wily stealing the plans. Now Mega Man has to get the Tachyon Capacitor back.

He heads to Wily's fortress again in his super stealth hang glider product placement toy, but it short circuits as he grabs the capacitor, dropping his stealth field. He grabs a hold of it, and Proto Man accidentally blasts Wily's gravitron while aiming at Mega Man. Mega Man takes off and Wily's bots follow to Dr. Light's lab. Using a holographic projector Dr. Light created, Mega Man screws with Wily's bots before dropping the holographic projector to the ground (purposely for some reason) and taking them out. He grabs Dark Man's weapon and fires at them, and they escape in Wily's ship. Dr. Light then uses the Tachyon Capacitor to put the moon back.

Critique
An episode that actually seems to have some science behind, although admittedly only enough for suspension of disbelief, and the plan seems plausible enough for the show. I'm sure the actual science behind a gravitron, the moon and tachyons is complicated enough that there are problems all over the show, but I doubt the average adult, let alone child, could understand it well enough to point out. On top of that, the episode flows well enough to be entertaining. It's not amazing in anyway, but it's about the quality level an average Mega Man show should have. Unfortunately the average Mega Man episode is usually way below this mark. This one is enjoyable enough though.

Rating: Thumbs Up!

Ruby-Spears: Bad Day at Peril Park

Guest Starring: Ring Man and Hard Man

Plot Synopsis
The show starts off with some kid running from some strange armored men shooting at him with plasma guns... hmm... they look familiar some how? Anyway, they chase him to a robotic dog show where Mega Man is with Rush. I think the moment we start putting robots in dog shows is the moment our society has really lost its mind personally. The kid starts screaming that the guys chasing him are humans turned into robots and, oh for fucks sake are you serious Ruby-Spears?!

Mega Man tries to take them down without filling them full of hot plasma and finds a wallet on one of them. This is enough to convince him that these strange familiar looking dudes are actually human-robots. This kid, Bobby, apparently lost his parents to this robo-process at an amusement park so Mega Man, Dr. Light, Rush and Roll go to investigate.

Along the way they get attacked by Ring Man. Now, let me describe this sequence for you shot by shot. Mega Man gets out of his helicopter with Rush Jet and shoots at Ring Man. Ring Man fires Ring Boomerang which Mega Man dodges, then jumps on as they are returning and rides them into Ring Man's helicopter, which explodes. Suddenly, the helicopter is sinking down the bottom of the ocean, and then the helicopter crashes into the water. Mega Man is laughing at Ring Man on Rush Jet, then takes off again on Rush, who has switched to the Rush Jet-Ski looking form between shots for no apparent reason.

It's obvious they cut something there to save time for the show or something, but did they have to edit the god damned thing so fucking badly? Ring Man is fucking falling through the water before he hits the god damned ocean! What the hell? Not only that, but this scene accomplishes nothing at all, at least what's left of it now, Ring Man doesn't even show up the rest of the show. Don't they have any fucking quality control on these episodes?

Mega Man finally gets to the theme park and Dr. Light and Bobby, being human, are offered free souvenir rings. They don't put them on, Bobby doesn't want it, and Dr. Light's fingers are too big. The souvenir girl takes off and then we see she is reporting to Dr. Wily! Oh no! Mega Man is accosted by a Kangaroo and Duck Mascot, but when Rush rips off the Kangaroo's tail, Mega Man instantly recognizes GutsMan by his... uh... distinct features.

Cut Man and Hard Man are there too and a battle ensues. Mega Man takes them out, and tries to locate Wily by riding the rides? Some how this strategy actually works and after a couple more battles here and there, they end up at Wily's haunted mansion ride where we see what is going on. People wearing the rings are brought into the ride, hit with a hypno-beam and then given robotic armor and plasma pistols. So they're not actually turned into robots, just hypnotized! Hooray, the premise is almost redeemed!

Mega Man finds the giant Hypno-machine and goes to take it out, but in a battle with Guts Man, Cut Man and Hard Man, loses all of his energy. Just as Guts Man is about to finish him off, Mega Man grabs one of the energy pistols and blasts Guts Man. Mega Man then takes out the hypno machine and everyone turns back to normal and Wily escapes for next week.

Critique
A problem often cited about this show is that it isn't for Mega Man fans, but this one actually is, but not for obvious reasons. The human-robots are designed to look exactly like the original US Mega Man box art, and if you recognise that, you'll get the joke right away. There's actually some Meta Humor going on here, and having Mega Man actually use the plasma pistol at the end is almost a stroke of genius to tie it all together!

Aside from the horrible Ring Man fiasco, the rest of the episode is actually animated pretty decent, and the action sequence in the amusement park is actually pretty enjoyable. And since the premise actually isn't that humans are being turned into robots, it's a lot easier to enjoy in the end as well. It's not like I'm surprised any of the characters believed it was possible, as I've learned from watching the show, Dr. Light, Mega Man and Roll are all morons. At least Bobby has the excuse of being young. As for Bobby, his performance isn't some plucky twat most kids are on this show, so for that he gets a pass.

If you get the joke of this episode though, you'll enjoy it.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Ruby-Spears: Brain Bots

Guest Starring: Dark Man and Snake Man

Plot Synopsis
Ugh. Dr. Light invents a new robot with a super computer brain that makes him ultra intelligent, not that you would believe that with all the stupid shit he does, and in a lack of creativity by the artists, he looks like a green Mega Man with glasses. Why does he have glasses? Did Dr. Light figure his optic abilities could be lessened with more power to his brain, or are they just for decoration because Dr. Light is into fashion???

Anyway, Mega Man and Roll have to escort Brain Bot (I'd complain about his name, but this is from a series where every characters name end with Man) to a California research center. Of course, Dr. Wily picks up the aircraft's signal and wants Brain Bot for himself. He sends his bots to attack, and they end up grabbing Brain Bot. Mega Man chases them down and gets him back, and then he gets an idea. Mega Man and everyone decide to stay at Red Gulch (continuity!) and go to sleep for the night... HOLD ON! Wait a minute, they're robots god damn it! Not only that, we had an episode from THIS FUCKING SEASON in which Mega Man even says robots don't sleep! God damn it!

Well Wily's bots attack them in their sleep predictably and kidnap Brain Bot. When they arrive to Wily's lab, Brain Bot removes his disguise and he's actually Mega Man! Now you might be thinking, "Oh, that's why they look alike, so Mega Man could disguise as him, how clever!" Well no, actually Mega Man uses a morphing device that Brain Bot made for him for the disguise so actually his appearance makes no difference.

Wily's bots take down Mega Man and then leave him to a slow crushing death while they go after Brain Bot. Mega Man gets out of this contraption by just breaking his restraints and goes after them. They catch up with Roll and Brain Bot, who is riding Mega Man's Jet Glider thing, and open fire. Brain Bot fires a missile from the glider, but while playing with the buttons on it, he activates a button that causes the missile to turn around and home on him. So let me get this straight, there is a button on Mega Man's glider specifically made to attract missiles back on him... WHAT!?

Brain Bot flies around running away, but manages to get the missile to hit Wily anyway. Mega Man then shows up in one of Wily's air ships to finish them off and they escort Brain Bot to California... and I guess Dr. Wily loses interest or something because he never tries to kidnap Brain Bot from the low security laboratory... This show... I swear.

Critique
This episode is dumb, it's not funny, and the back and forth crap with Brain Bot is tedious to watch. It lacks so much creativity when they just copy Mega Man's design for an original robot character. The only redeeming feature of this episode is that it's not as dumb as Monster-Bots and it's not as horrible as Curse of the Lion Men, but what kind of standard is that?

Also, what the hell is up with Dark Man? His weapons don't make any sense on how they work. What the hell is he supposed to do?

Rating: Thumbs down.

Ruby-Spears: Campus Commandoes

Guest Starring: Top Man and Snake Man

Plot Synopsis
Dr. Light has completed a university for robots to learn and study at, but Dr. Wily agrees with me that this is a stupid idea and attacks it. To keep Wily out, Dr. Light activates a force field around the campus, so Wily sends in Top Man to schmooze over Roll so they can copy her pass key and infiltrate the facility. Roll is apparently an idiot because she's forgotten who the hell Top Man is and swoons all over him.

Wily infiltrates the campus with his bots and serves the college robots microchips in their lunches(?) that gives him control of them. Only Roll and a hand full of other plucky one time characters don't eat the chips. Wily uses them to complete a new project Dr. Light was working on, an anti-gravity machine. Mega Man of course has been fighting them every step of the way, but nothing really significant until he arrives as they are finishing the anti-gravity machine. Top Man turns it on sending Mega Man flying and his hard hit to the ground terminates his processes. Dr. Light arrives to treat Mega Man as Wily flies off with the gravity machine.

Light isn't sure if he can fix Mega Man, but we know Mega Man isn't dead because Mega Man explodes when he dies, come on! Eddie shows up and revives Mega Man and he heads off to the city where Dr. Wily is trying to lift up City Hall to steal it. After a duel with Proto Man, Mega Man takes back the machine and puts City Hall back, and Wily escapes, defeated.

Critique
I went back and forth on this episode quite a bit. On the one hand, there's quite a bit of stupidity here and there and I question if the writers of this show even know what a robot is, but on the other side of things nothing is so outlandish that we end up with something as atrocious as the last episode. I mean, I suppose technically the idea of robots going to college and stuff is sound within the Mega Man canon if you consider some of the elements of ZX, but that's a bit over anaylsis when the real answer is probably that this show is for kids, who either don't know or don't care.

Even as is, it's not like the stupidity is par for the course for most of these episodes and there were quite a few times that I smirked or cracked a smile. There's actually a few clever exchanges between some of the characters here and there, but a great deal of this episode is mediocre, but not to the point of boredom.

So I basically said, "fuck it, if the show has something either really hilarious or awesome, I'll give it a thumbs up, otherwise it'll be a thumbs down." Ultimately this led to a kick ass jet pack battle between Mega Man and Proto Man. Of course Mega Man is stealthed, probably to save time by not coloring him. This sequence was enough to just barely push the episode into the thumps up category.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Ruby-Spears: Curse of the Lion Men

Guest Starring: Bright Man and Star Man

Everyone knows that the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon is not a good show. Even most fans would, at best, say the show is a guilty pleasure more than anything. The stories are not well constructed, the show consciously and quite seriously deviates from source material, and most of the characters are enjoyed more for their qualities of being a parody of their actual counterpart, more than the character themselves. We enjoy the episodes for the outlandishness of the plots, the great musical track with some really dumb lyrics, the performance of the voice actors such as Proto Man and Dr. Wily, and the occasional really well animated scene, such as the introduction to the show and a handful of other episodes.

Curse of the Lion Men isn't one of those episodes that's even enjoyable for being stupid. It's not enjoyable at all. If you've ever heard of the Mega Man cartoon, chances are you've heard of this episode that not even the most fanatic of Mega Man fans will defend. A lot of people are overly critical of this show, especially when you keep in mind the age demographic here, and those people tend to sound like self-important assholes (such as myself quite frequently). This episode pretty much deserves every piece of harsh criticism and insults it gets though.

Plot Synopsis
An asteroid passes over the Earth on it's normal century old cycle, and the dust of the asteroid lands on an ancient tomb of mummies. The mummies awaken, rip off their bandages and are revealed to be Lion People. They decide they want to conquer the Earth, and Tar, their leader, begins marching them all around Hawaii. The Lion Men have the special ability to shoot lasers out of their eyes that turn other people into Lion Men, while also hypnotizing them to obey Tar. If you weren't on board with how stupid this episode is already, it gets better.

Now of course the laser eyes don't work on robots, so Mega Man goes out to battle these Lion Men, but Dr. Wily decides to butt in and form an alliance with Tar to take over the world. Mega Man is overwhelmed by the Lion Men and Wily's bots so while he is immobilized, the creatures end up capturing Dr. Light who had just finished a Lion Eye Laser Lion Maker Reversal Device. The lion men turn Dr. Light into one of them, and then Tar, pissed off with Wily's ambition, turns him into a lion men too. Then he uses some sort of wave gun thing Wily was holding to reprogram all of Wily's bots and Roll into obeying him.

The rest of the episode is literally scene after scene of Mega Man attacking the Lion Men head on, then getting beaten, then trying again. I swear there is like 5 minutes of this uninterrupted with zero dialog. Eventually Mega Man reprograms Roll by reaching under her shirt and pushing two buttons over and over again and they go back to Dr. Light's hotel room to retrieve the device. But it doesn't work, and Mega Man has to fiddle with it while being shot at to get it to work. He turns all the Lion Men back to normal, so Wily uses his gun to reprogram his robots back and orders them to retrieve the machine to he can use it to conquer the world. Mega Man just blasts the robots in the most half-assed wrap up possible, then destroys the machine to so it can't be reversed engineered to be used for evil purposes.

Critique
I could comment on how stupid this story is, I mean, it's the worst story to ever come out of the entire Mega Man franchise, possibly even worse than those horrible hentai comics fans make of this show... maybe... What is there to be said though? The story speaks for itself, and it couldn't possibly get any worse. I don't even think the weirdest of yiffing furries could enjoy this episode, and that's saying something.

But no, I'm not going to bitch about the story, I'm going to bitch about the production. This episode is a mess, and the animation is the worst the series has ever produced. So many scenes are choppy, the frame rate jumps around all over the place from way too fast to really fucking slow. The characters' artwork is atrocious, and all of the colors are much duller, and theirs a distinct lack of shading. There's a bunch of scenes where characters speak without their mouths moving and the eye laser special effects look so fucking terrible. There's an actual segement where Mega Man and Rush turn transparent!

I've seen better animation from fan-made Mega Man flash cartoons, I've seen less choppy animation from stop motion cartoons, I've seen better animation from the fucking 8-bit NES Mega Man games! Not only is this episode stupid, but it looks like ass and is dreadfully painful to watch. This episode is bad by its own abysmally low standards. It's episodes like these that show why this show didn't last past the first episode of it's third season.

Rating: Thumbs Down.

Extra: Don't take my word for it, watch Diabetus "Let's Watch Mega Man" parts 1, 2 and 3 to see for yourself.

Ruby-Spears: Master of Disaster

Guest Starring: Gravity Man and Drill Man

Plot Synopsis
Dr. Light is with Mega Man investigating some old ruins where some ancient tablets talk about a monster named Lotos which is sort of like a genie, but in a box instead of a bottle. Wily's bots steal the tablets so they can get a hold of Lotos before Dr. Light does. Luckily, Dr. Wily took a photograph of the tablet, so they are able to arrive just as Wily is picking up the box with Lotos inside.

Lotos awakens and asks Wily, his new master, what Wily desires. Wily wants him to crush Mega Man of course, so Lotos uses his magic to turn the trees against Mega Man. Wily uses this distraction to escape and uses Lotos to take over New York City.

Mega Man returns to New York City, and Lotos uses his magic to cause cars, buildings and the statue of liberty to attack Mega Man. Yes it sounds stupid, but god it is awesome! Dr. Light somehow figures out that Lotos is weak when he's in his "true form" with is a giant Hyrda looking monster. Mega Man goads Lotos into revealing his form by calling him names (Lotos is a sensitive guy) where Mega Man is then able to defeat him. Weakened, Lotos runs back into the box, and Mega Man takes it from Wily, who Mega Man shoots at for fun.

Critique
This episode is stupid, but not the same sort of stupid that Monster Bots was. This episode is stupid awesome, in the turn your brain off and enjoy the ride sort of way. One of the most annoying things a series can do is introduce Super Natural elements in a mostly non-supernatural show. Once you get past that tiny annoyance and just accept that suddenly there is magic this episode, you can enjoy it. What can I say? I'm willing to put up with some things if there is a nice pay off for it, and this episode has a pay off by having Mega Man fight so many ridiculous shit, it's well worth it.

There's a number of great moments too where Proto Man is just a dick to Lotos, because he's fucking Proto Man and he can get in the face of an ancient all powerful demon god thing any time he wants. I love Proto Man!

Rating: Thumbs Up!

Ruby-Spears: Bro Bots

Guest Starring: Elec Man, Needle Man, Heat Man, and Bright Man.

Plot Synopsis
If that screenshot doesn't look like a video game set up, I don't know what does. The episode starts with Dr. Light throwing a big robot parade with shoe-in gubernatorial candidate Mr. Deacon. Well Cut Man and Guts Man show up to crash the party, but so does Proto Man, who for some reason is on Mega Man's side this time and helps him out.

They both defeat Cut Man and Guts Man, and Proto Man claims to have turned over a new leaf, but Mega Man is still suspicious. Dr. Light figures Proto Man's ethical programming has finally kicked in and he invites Proto Man to stay with them.

Well it turns out this is all a plot by Dr. Wily to trick everyone into thinking Proto Man is a hero. Proto Man starts getting close to everyone, and even Mega Man starts to lessen his suspicions on him. Mega Man even admits to always wanting a brother relationship with Proto Man, to Proto Man's surprise. Proto Man plants a scrambler chip on Mega Man which causes him to overheat and screws up his circuitry. With Mega Man out of action, Proto Man is appointed chief of security for Mr. Deacon's campaign. Mega Man is watching the election on TV when he spots Guts Man and Cut Man in the background. He gets in his special flying suit (IN STORES NOW!) and heads for the campaign HQ.

Well Proto Man finally shows his true colors here and betrays Dr. Light. Wily shows up and reveals his plan, he's going to use robot clones of all the important people in power to be his puppets. He kidnaps Dr. Light and Deacon and heads back to his robot making facility. Mega Man follows, but when he gets there he collapses. Proto Man reveals to Mega Man about how he placed the scrambler chip on him and gives him one last chance to switch sides, but Mega Man refuses. Mega Man manages to get to Dr. Light who removes the scrambler chip, and Mega Man helps them escape.

At last, Proto Man and Mega Man get into a fight as acid coats the floor they are standing on. Mega Man actually saves Proto Man from getting melted, and Proto Man escapes after one last look at Mega Man.

Critique
This is probably the best episode of the whole cartoon and even though Proto Man goes evil in the end, the play up some ambiguity with his character just a tiny bit. I often wonder if the show had continued on, perhaps even to the point where Bass might have become a major character, if Proto Man would still had stayed with Wily. Proto Man is a great presence on the show even if he's not true to the original character, and an episode built around him is a great way to go.

Rating: Thumbs Up!

Ruby-Spears: Night of the Living Monster Bots

Guest Starring: A Sean Connery impersonator!

Plot Synopsis
Here's an episode about a subject Ken Spears and Joe Ruby know nothing about, Film Making! ZING MOTHERFUCKERS! Anyway, the episode starts out with a mummy attacking a small village with the typical mummy buster cannon... wait? Dr. Wily's new plan is to film this monster movie which he will then use as a warning to what will happen if other cities don't pay him ransom. Why not just attack the other cities? Shut up, that's why!

He decides to kidnap movie star Evelen something or other to put her in his movie and she gets hypnotized into a vampire bot, compete with the ability to shoot lasers out of her teeth and turn into a vampire bat-bot. Also, Dr. Light gets turned into a Wear Wolf-bot by getting shot with the original Wear-Wolf bot's claw gun.

Let's see... Mega Man uses a Wear Wolf disguise to get into Dr. Wily's hidden lab where he destroys all the bots which free Dr. Light and Evelen from their curses and then he fights a Frankenstein-Bot. Roll and Dr. Light film Mega Man beating the robots, thus changing the ending to Dr. Wily's movie and saving the day. Sorry if this synopsis is disjointed, but seriously, this episode is fucking insane.

Critique
This episode doesn't have a single section where it makes a lick of sense. First you're laughing at the hilarious over the top English accents, then you laugh at the mummy with the buster cannon, then the vampire fang lasers and etc. This episode does not give you a single second to digest just how stupid the last thing you saw was, because something new really stupid comes up. It's like that scene in Clockwork Orange where the protagonist is strapped to a chair and watches all those images, except instead of trying to reform him, it tries to lower his intelligence by filling him full of nonsense.

This episode is so stupid, so over the top, so nonsensical, it's a masterpiece. Seriously, there is no way this episode could have been made this dumb on accident, could it? I've given this episode a thumbs down, but trust me, it's still a must watch.

Rating: Thumbs Down.

Ruby-Spears: Showdown at Red Gultch

Guest Starring: Snake Man and Drill Man

Plot Synopsis
A meteorite strikes the Earth and some scientists go out to explore it, but Wily gets there first and imprisons all of them while harvesting the ore for himself. The meteorite ore for some reason super powers all of his robots and when Mega Man finally gets there, his plasma shots can't touch em.

Lucky for him, Roll's stupid vacuum buster power can still take out one of the Battontons and they manage to get a piece of the ore off of it. Yeah, so apparently the ore can stand up to plasma, but not a vacuum? Mega Man uses the ore to damage Wily's bots, but unfortunately the piece of ore he has is flawed, and it causes him to short circuit. He's lying at Wily's mercy, so what does Wily do? He ties him to a horse and sends the horse running off. Do I even need to point out that a titanium robot wouldn't exactly suffer much from that? Not surprisingly Mega Man gets out of that jam (although the way he is rescued is pretty dumb) so he heads back to Dr. Light.

Roll finds some meteorite residue in Mega Man's circuit boards so Dr. Light thinks he can use it to overload the rest of the ore that Wily's bots are using. Mega Man lures Wily's bots back to town where he messed up their ore's this way and then chases them down as they lead him back to Wily. He destroys the meteorite ore but Wily escapes. Also there is a sub-plot about gold and a train robbery, but whatever.

Critique
Not bad, not great, but not bad. Mega Man actually has a funny line or two in this one and the western setting obviously inspires most of the scenarios. Not the strongest episode certianly, but entertaining.

Rating: Thumbs Up!

Ruby-Spears: Robo Spider

Guest Starring: Quick Man and Bright Man

Plot Synopsis
Dr. Light has built a special super computer defense system for the military specifically meant to deal with Dr. Wily. Wily of course doesn't like that, so in response, he builds a giant robotic spider to destroy the super computer, because I guess there aren't enough robots in the Mega Man mythos to draw from for Ruby-Spears? The Mecha-Dragon would have been a nice choice...

Anyway, the spider shoots out webbing that sucks up electrical energy that power downs the city. Wily needs this energy to overload the super computer. Dr. Light gets a piece of the webbing and determines it isn't natural spider web (no shit sherlock, I don't need a PHD in robotics to figure that out!), and he determines that he'll need the webs schematics to reverse it... but don't you have a piece of the webbing directly in front of you Dr. Light? What?

Well Mega Man figures he can use his variable weapons system to copy the spider web's schematics and goes chasing after the spider, despite a butt fucking ton of spider web laying all over the city. Mega Man then copies the web by touching it, proving he's a moron since he could have gotten it from anywhere. A good chunk of the episode now is spent trying to avoid Wily's bots as Mega Man tries to get the schematics to Dr. Light.

Once they get it there, Dr. Light figures out how to reverse the energy flow from what he probably could have learned with the fucking strand of webbing he had to begin with! He gives Mega Man an electrical device where he needs to place the red and blue wires in the right spot (yes, that cliche is coming up too).

Wily with enough juice in his robo spider heads through the military base to the super computer to destroy it... except he blasts through all the computers defenses like it was nothing, so please tell me what the entire fucking point of this episode was if Wily was never threatened by the god damned thing in the first place? Mega Man then gets ambushed by Wily's bots, including Bright Man who Mega Man defeats the exact same way he's beat him every time, by wearing sunglasses. Come on! Not only does Bright Man look useless again, but they couldn't even come up with a new way for Mega Man to fight that power? Mega Man then quickly checks to see which wires to use. Why would a fucking robot have trouble remembering red or blue wires? Did he clear his memory cache or something?! Wily's robot is destroyed, and power is returned to the city.

Critique
This episode is god awful, and there are so many badly drawn sections it's horrible. The robot museum is particularly bad with robots that look like they're made of splattered rubber. Not only that, check out the screenshot below that happens for a split second... is that a hooker in a fucking kids show? It's episodes like this that make the show hard to enjoy. It's so stupid, and there's not a god damned thing here that I'm complaining about that is the fault of ignoring actual Mega Man related material. It's all from the show as an individual episode sucking.

Rating: Thumbs Down.

Ruby-Spears: Mega Dreams

Guest Starring: Elec Man and Bomb Man... again?

Plot Synopsis
Dr. Wily has created a machine that can transport his robots into people's dreams... uh what? Anyway, they get into people's dreams, then convince their target to do something, which causes them to sleep walk to their target, or in their first victim's case, the mayor, sleep drive. The sleep driving sequence does not disappoint as it goes about as well as you would imagine it would.

In any case Mega Man catches on to Wily's device and Dr. Light builds a counter-device. Dr. Wily's ultimate goal is to place the device on a space station so he can use it to spy on the world. He gets the device on a rocket ship which is completely unguarded... that is until Mega Man shows up and Dr. Wily uses his device to get the security to attack Mega Man. Inconsistent much?

Well eventually Mega Man sets everything right, and then uses Dr. Light's counter dream device to enter the astronauts dreams that Cut Man, Guts Man and Proto Man entered. Mega Man convinces the astronauts to destroy Wily's device, which teleports all the robots back to Wily's cave lair. There, Mega Man destroys all of Wily's equipment while he escapes.

Critique
Not a terribly exciting episode although the dream sequences are kind of funny. However, most of this episode is just lazy. The setups are inconsistent and I swear Wily's plan changes halfway through for no apparent reason. There's also a number of small details that are fucked up as well. In one sequence, the animation is layered wrong so a starry background Wily is viewing on a monitor covers the entire background. What the fuck? Also, not that I hate Elec Man or Bomb Man, but do we need to see them again right after the last episode? I try not to hold this show to standards beyond a 7 year old child or so, but this episode is pretty lame.

Rating: Thumbs Down.

Ruby-Spears: Terror of the Seven Seas

Guest Starring: Bomb Man and Elec Man, with Guts Man and Cut Man there as well, it's a Mega Man 1 reunion!

Plot Synopsis
Wily has been going around stealing US Navy battleships for unknown reasons, so Mega Man and Dr. Light are out trying to find him. Wily attacks the vessel they are on, and Mega Man gets blasted with Elec Beam (which we all know how super effective that is) and Roll gets knocked overboard. With the battleship stolen, Mega Man has to get repaired by Dr. Light.

Later, Wily emerges with the fucking death star of pirate ship fortress thingies as he's taken all 6 stolen US ships and merged them into a giant fortress of pain! Roll however, sneaks on board and gets the schematics to Dr. Light and Mega Man. Dr. Light figures out the fortress has a weak point, but Mega Man doesn't have enough Plasma Power to take it down. So what does Mega Man do? He challenges Proto Man into a fist fight! Fuck yes!

Mega Man knocks Proto Man the fuck out, takes his weapon (also awesome) and blasts the fortresses weak point. Mega Man tells Proto Man to come with him, but Proto Man says he's just programmed for the bad side. They go their separate ways as the fortress has the shittiest looking explosion ever. I'm serious, it looks like it teleports off-screen then we hear some explosion sound effects, fuck, put some damn effort into it! Anyway, the day is saved and the US military is out several billion dollars, fantastic...

Critique
Oh man does Elec Man sound like shit, and if there is one thing obvious about this episode, it's the producers trying to shill out some Mega Man toys with Mega Man's scuba suit thing. That said, there isn't a single dull moment this episode, and it packs in a few really awesome moments in it as well. If I had one complaint, it would be that Mega Man stops Elec Man by turning on a fire hose... what the shit? It like touches him for half a second and he's completely disabled! I did find it humorous that Hyper Bomb fucked up Guts Man though.

Rating: Thumbs Up!

Ruby-Spears: The Strange Island of Dr. Wily

Guest Staring: Wood Man

Plot Synopsis
This one is a little hard to follow the setup for. Dr. Wily and his bots are at an island with a bunch of Stone-bots, as GutsMan puts it, "Just like robots except made out of stone." I'm not entirely sure if Wily built these things or discovered them, but in either case the only way to control them is with a neuron-emitter device he's built. This coats the island with a strange radiation field or whatever.

Dr. Light has invented a new weather controlling device, but the radiation field is screwing up the weather on this island and Dr. Light is afraid it will mess up his control for his experimentation, so he, Roll, Mega Man and Rush go to investigate. When they arrive at the island, Dr. Wily and his bots attack, but something goes wrong and suddenly the Stone-bots attack Wily just as fiercely as they do Dr. Light.

Everyone jumps onto Dr. Light's plane, including Wily and his bots. The radiation field has apparently grown even stronger and now they can't leave the island until it's disabled. This means they need to find Wily's neuron-emitter. Wily agrees to help Dr. Light find it and destroy it, but secretly he's planning on fixing it and using it to destroy Mega Man.

Mega Man, Proto Man, Cut Man, Guts Man and Wood Man go out to find the neuron-emitter while Rush, Roll, Light and Wily stay on the ship. They locate the neuron-emitter inside a volcano, which Light deduces if it continues, the island will explode! Knowing the emitter's location, Wily jumps out of Light's jet, and welds the door shut in like two seconds. Ignoring the obvious question of how the hell he did that, where the hell did he get a blow torch and welding mask? Lucky for him Roll isn't as fast at cutting the door out as Wily is in sealing it up.

Everyone reaches the volcano and a battle ensues between Wily's bots and Mega Man versus the Stone-bots. In the midst of battle, Wily sneaks over to the neuron-emitter, which he notices broke down because it over heated, fixes it, and has everyone attack Mega Man. He turns it up to full power, and now some colossal Stone-Bots come to life as well. The neuron-emitter overheats again, so Wily and his bots run for their lives as Mega Man tries to destroy it before the island explodes. He ends up chucking it into the lava, shutting down all the Stone-bots and saving the day.

Critique
Alright, this is actually a great episode. It's a lot of fun, and there's quite a bit of humor with the good guys and bad guys working together. Poor Proto Man, he just wants to work with his little brother... or destroy him, either or really. Wood Man carries a shield shaped like a leaf for his weapon, leaf shield. I guess someone didn't bother to research how the weapon actually works? The action sequence at the end of the episode is probably one the best of the series, excluding the title sequence of course, and one hilarious part to it is where one of the Stone-bots rips another Stone-bot's arm off and swings it like a baseball bat at Mega Man. Classic stuff! After the sea of shit that have been the last few episodes, it's good to see the season finale rose above expectations!

Rating: Thumbs Up!

Ruby-Spears: Future Shock

Guest Starring: Metal Man

Plot Synopsis
Dr. Light has built a time machine (I'm already worried for this episode) and Dr. Wily shows up to steal it. In the midst of combat, Mega Man shoves Dr. Light into the time machine and sets it for a minute in the future. Wily escapes, but when the time machine comes back, Dr. Light is missing. Mega Man, thinking he's sent Dr. Light missing in time, jumps in the machine to go after him and takes off. Uberknownst to Mega Man, Dr. Light was thrown out of the time machine from an explosion and is actually still in the present! Uh-oh!

Mega Man arrives 30 years in the future and the world has been taken over by Dr. Wily since Mega Man went missing. Mega Man goes in search of Dr. Light, but runs into a little girl and her father who are being arrested for trading illegal contraband, in this case a Mega Man comic. If it's the Brazilian version, they should count themselves lucky it's being confiscated. He saves them and they inform him that Dr. Light is being held at one of Wily's prisons.

Mega Man gets himself arrested and runs into Roll in the prison as well. They break out (in the stupidest way possible) and rescue Dr. Light. They try to get back to the Time Machine, but Wily's bots steal it. Mega Man breaks back into Wily's fortress and goes to steal the Time Machine back, but when he does, a bomb goes off in it. It's not enough to destroy Mega Man, but it disables the time machine. Apparently Proto Man didn't set the explosive right purposely so he could be the one to destroy Mega Man. Since that doesn't work though, Mega Man gets the time machine back to Dr. Light who repairs it and sends Mega Man back to the present, fixing the future.

Critique
Why is it required that when a little kid is on camera, they have to have an extremely annoying plucky attitude, and spout the worst lines possible, and for a show where Mega Man makes a horrible pun every other sentence, that's pretty damn bad. I personally find it so grating. Once again though, Dr. Wily and Proto Man help this episode from being a total loss, but they don't really save it.

The concept is decent enough and the action is ok, but the episode is surprisingly more boring than it should be. The only really funny parts are when Proto Man mentions liking the human uprisings because it keeps him from being bored. I just love the homicidal maniac Proto Man in this show. Sadly, his screen time is such a small percentage of this episode, and no one else does anything worth even mentioning.

Rating: Thumbs Down.

Ruby-Spears: Cold Steel

Guest Starring: Spark Man, Gemini Man and Gyro Man.

Plot Synopsis
Mega Man is signing autographs at one of Dr. Light's conventions when a deaf girl named Mary shows up and catches their interests. Mary is the best kind of child actor, A MUTE ONE! HA! Anyway, since Mary likes musical vibrations or whatever, they decide to go to a concert being performed by Roll's favorite band, Cold Steel.

During the concert, all the humans hearing the sounds coming out of the amps get hypnotized by Dr. Wily. Cold Steel momentarily takes off, and suddenly Spark Man, Gemini Man and Gyro Man appear and attack Mega Man. He fights them off and they get away. Suddenly Cold Steel comes back and gives Roll a CD of their latest album. Mega Man must be an idiot though, because he doesn't seem to notice that the band members of Cold Steel have busters on their arms, electrical spikes for hands, and a fucking propeller on one of their backs!

Using Dr. Wily's hypno music thing, he has a Navy Destroyer attack the Golden Gate Bridge. So Mega Man flies from Dr. Light's lab, in New York, to the Golden Gate Bridge, in San Francisco, on Rush, in a matter of seconds. While he's away, Roll decides to show Dr. Light her new Cold Steel CD, because "It's totally Twitchin!" The Cold Steel music hypnotizes Dr. Light, and he heads off to meet up with Dr. Wily.

Mega Man meanwhile gets tied up and thrown off the bridge, so Roll shows up with Eddie to power him back up, in an incredibly awkward looking shot (see the screenshot). Mega Man jumps back up into action, but Dr. Wily has been using his human slaves to build a radio tower capable of broadcasting the hypno music all around the world. What is the first thing Wily does, now that all the humans in the world are his slave? "Destroy Mega Man!" Well, isn't somebody a bit spiteful?

Mega Man heads to the tower while trying to keep from hurting any humans, and finally it is revealed that Cold Steel is actually Gyro Man, Spark Man and Gemini Man, all who speak like stereotypical rocker characters (which is exactly what I imagined the three of those robots would sound like, really). Mega Man beats them and destroys the tower, freeing all the human slaves.

"Why am I surrounded by fools!" yells Dr. Wily. "Because that's all you build Dr. Wily!" says Dr. Light leaving. Oh snap! Dr. Wily escapes and Dr. Light then builds a jamming device for the hypno music that plays Beethoven instead.

Critique
A decent episode despite how obvious it is that Cold Steel is in fact, Wily's robots. There's some great lines all over the place and even though some of the setup is stupid, it's a good episode, especially for Dr. Wily who steals the show. When Dr. Wily has Dr. Light as his assistant, his megalomania makes for some hilarious dialog.

One thing that is interesting, is that Mega Man combines Gyro Man, Spark Man and Gemini's weapons for some utility. It makes you wonder why Capcom has never gone this route with Mega Man and let the player have a few weapon combinations. It seems like something that would have naturally come about after a while. If you think about it, Kirby is a similar style of game (albeit a thousand times easier) and several Kirby cames have let Kirby combine powers. Maybe Capcom should look at this for a future game... but for god's sake not a new series!

Rating: Thumbs Up!

Extras
It's Totally Twitchin

Ruby-Spears: Ice Age

The Ruby-Spears cartoons are not well written, well animated, or well constructed. That said, usually what saves the show are some of the hilarious performances by Dr. Wily and Proto Man, and occasionally something so ridiculous happens it's a must see. This is not one of those occasions.

Plot Synopsis
Ice Man and Air Man break into a refrigeration research plant or something, and kidnap Mr. Zero (no, not The Zero) and force him to give up his liquid nitrogen formula, which they will use to freeze the planet. It becomes apparent very quickly that Ice Man and Air Man do not get along well at all, as they are constantly trying to one up each other and are arguing non stop.

Meanwhile, Mega Man is at the local school trying to reach out to some terrible stereotyped teenage characters. What does it say about your show if you don't think super fighting robots will appeal to kids? Anyway, the teenager characters are horrible actors, have horrible lines and are so stupid they could ruin the show on their own if they were on screen longer. One kid as a "Don't" symbol on his shirt. You know, the circle with the slash through it? I guess he is rebellious for the sake of it? Yay, there's an original character...

Anyway, Mega Man has to cut the party short because of Wily's attack. Of course the teenager are twats, laughing at Mega Man as he fails to stop Ice Man and Air Man from getting away. Anyway, Dr. Wily plans to create a new ice age and starts freezing the city. Mega Man gets to Dr. Light and they come up with the most convoluted plan ever. They're going to trick Ice Man into thinking he destroyed Mega Man, then show him footage of Dr. Wily and Air Man planning to betray him, which will convince Ice Man to attack Wily. This plan even goes so far as to have Mega Man take a direct shot from Ice Man, so we can see how useless Ice Man's attacks are already.

Ice Man attacks Wily, for maybe ten seconds before Mega Man shows up and fights them all anyway making Dr. Light's stupid plan worthless. Mega Man saves the day, and Wily escapes, but what are they going to do about the frozen cities? Oh hey! The Liquid Nitrogen just melts in a matter of seconds, making Dr. Wily's plan fruitless as well. But at least Mega Man and those teenagers finally connected right? I think I'm going to puke.

Critique
Dumb plans, dumb characters and hardly an ounce of anything funny to watch. It's not so bad it's good, it's just so bad it's bad. One part of this I did smirk at, when Guts Man chomps a big ole bite out of a block of ice he's made into a popsicle and only did I smirk because the animation was so awkward.

I don't think anyone out there who is taking the time to watch these shows plans on skipping any of them regardless of what I say, but this is the type of episode that gives this show the label of mediocrity (at best) it deserves.

Rating: Thumbs Down.

Ruby-Spears: Bot Transfer

Guest Starring: Snake Man

Plot Synopsis
Dr. Light and his robots are on a trip to a convention in Geneva, Switzerland when Cut Man and Guts Man show up on the plane. They start a fight with Mega Man, but that turns out to be a dumb idea as they soon take off through a teleporter they accidentally leave in the plane. Dr. Light can't figure out how they escaped, so they take the transporter with them (teleporting, in Mega Man? How silly!)

Well after they arrive at the hotel, Wily lures Mega Man into a trap by having Proto Man pose as a friend of Dr. Light's. They push Mega Man into another transport chamber, and then have Snake Man get into the other chamber. A code is entered, and Mega Man and Snake Man switch personalities. Mega Man, now in Snake Man's body, escapes and tries to warn Dr. Light, but nobody believes him and the police try to arrest him.

Finally getting to the conference, Snake Man, using Mega Man's body, places one of the teleporters at the conference, teleporting Proto Man, Cut Man and Guts Man to the scene. Wily plans to hold all the scientists their for ransom, because he has money to build teleporters, but not money to do anything else I guess. Snake Man shows up to fight Mega Man... or the other way around or something. Dr. Light realizes that Snake Man (Mega Man) was telling the truth all along and they assist him in taking down... himself? Anyway, the personalities get switched back and Wily's bots are defeated. Dr. Light builds a teleporter jammer device to prevent Dr. Wily from using the transport chambers ever again.

Critique
A satisfactory episode with some great lines from Proto Man and a decent amount of action. Nothing exceptional, but entertaining none the less.

Rating: Thumbs Up!

Ruby-Spears: The Mega Man in the Moon

Guest Starring: Crystal Man

Plot Synopsis
A series never really gets bad until it has the "outer space" episode. It took Mega Man 8 episodes to get there, and the show was never that good to begin with. Dr. Light is watching a rocket launch countdown that one of his former students will be on, with his robots, Mega Man, Rush and Roll, along with his former student's daughter. The astronauts are delivering a giant lens for a giant space laser... just what the hell do they need this giant space laser for? Well that's never explained, but Dr. Wily wants it to hold the world hostage and sneaks aboard the launch.

The astronauts daughter, who is so uninteresting I've forgotten her name, senses something weird is going on and sneaks aboard the shuttle as well. Mega Man goes after her and discovers Wily's bots but is too late to stop them from launching into space. Dr. Light sends Mega Man after them with a jet pack. He tells Mega Man, "Be careful, that jet pack delivers a million pounds of thrust!" I'm no astrophysicist, but shouldn't that crush Mega Man? Well it doesn't and apparently Mega Man has no trouble steering something that strong with his bare hands so what the hell do I know?

Wily heads to the space station the lens is being held at, but he takes the astronauts daughter as a hostage, which keeps Mega Man from fighting him. Wily's bots grab the lens and head for the moon, leaving a nice bomb on the station for Mega Man to disarm. Luckily, Rush and Roll head to the space station in a new rocket ship NASA has just lying around somewhere, and Rush tracks the bomb down.

Mega Man now quickly heads to the moon base where Wily has set up the lens on the laser beam. Wily contacts the UN and makes his threats. Mega Man gets close, but Proto Man blasts him out of the sky, disabling him. Luckily, Dr. Light contacts that astronauts daughter who goes over to Mega Man's chassis and hits the big red "Auto Repair" button. Well hell, why does Mega Man bother with those E-Tanks when he has a button?

Mega Man, back to life, uses a nearby satellite to reflect the laser beam straight back at it, destroying NASA billion dollar space death laser project thing. Also Wily gets away. The end.

Critique
A bit of a mediocre episode with some boring extra characters who we'll never see again. The jokes aren't funny and the show is surprisingly devoid of action. There's a lot worse episodes then this one, sure, but this one isn't particularly interesting.

Rating: Thumbs Down.