On the chopping block

There's been a fair amount of Mega Man news lately and I think it's worth sharing my thoughts on some things.

First, Capcom community leader, Seth Killian leaks that there are some cool ideas heading our way in the Mega Man department. Speculation doesn't go on for very long before a patent hits the US Patent Office for Mega Man Universe.

The fans reactions vary all over the place with even more speculation, ranging from "I'll never buy this crap again," to, "I'm so excited I can't breathe anymore!" Without anything to go on, everyone begins digging hard to find out what's up with Mega Man Universe. Is it a new series? Is it a new type of game? Does it take place somewhere else? How does it tie into the rest of the franchise?

While this is going on, a Korean game surfaces, Mega Man Online. The details aren't very laid out just yet, but it appears to be a 2D Side Scrolling MMO, starring X and Zero. This game so far is only slated for Asian markets, excluding Japan. Is this Mega Man Universe? The words "Universe" and "MMO" certainly go together, but would Capcom file a US Patent for a game that currently has no plans to be released states side?

Capcom is asking about potential US interest in the title right now, but there aren't any plans yet. It has me wondering... could Mega Man Universe be something else? I guess they could be going with an early plan B and it could be, but you'd think if that was the case, they'd put "X" in the title at least. Interesting note, a few weeks before Mega Man Online surfaced, Inafune said X9 would not be the next X game. Was this cause he already knew this game was on the way.

While this rolls around, the Mega Man fan movie is finally completed, to mixed, but generally positive reviews among the fans. I haven't seen it yet, but it's on my todo list.

Udon meanwhile announces they'll be translating a Battle Network art book, similar to the Mega Man Complete Works, slated for November, which has me pretty excited!
And finally, released Tuesday was the Zero Collection for DS, which I have always considered the strongest series in the franchise.
What a hell of a lot of news huh?

We should get a lot of answers in a few days at the Japanese Summer World Hobby Fair, which has been a decent send off for new Mega Man games the past few years. My initial thoughts were that Mega Man Universe might be the name of the US release for Operation Shooting Star, but this idea isn't a new "rad concept" but more of the same, if anything. I'm also skeptical that Mega Man Online is Universe, for the reasons listed above, plus the fact that the game is being done by a team outside of Capcom, meaning that the Star Force/Battle Network team should be free to be working on something. But of course, that means if Mega Man Universe isn't Mega Man Online, then just what the hell is it? I guess we'll just have to wait and see, but I suspect we'll know in a week or two.
As for me, I've been doing a few things here and there. First off, I've been watching a Fan Sub of Rockman.exe, and have seen some notable difference of which I have a small post planned for in the future. In addition to this, I'm thinking about reviewing Battle Network 5 Double Team, as I recently played it a bit more extensively, and think it is different enough from the initial release of the game to cover more than I originally thought. Zero Collections is on my list of things to buy this week as well, so expect a review on that in the future, and possibly a review on the Mega Man fan movie.

And I'm on break

While I will never tire of Mega Man, I am getting some pretty heavy fatigue with this whole writing thing. The last few reviews have taken forever to do, because I'm dividing my time up differently. It's just as well, because I don't really have much more to say about Mega Man for the time being.

I'm not a big fan of comic books or mangas (and they're expensive enough as it is to get a hold of them) so I won't be heading that direction with Mega Man reviews. I don't really collect toys either, and while I wouldn't mind having some cool Mega Man figures, what would I really say about them?

This isn't a news site, and I have no interest in tracking down every piece of merchandise with Mega Man's face on it. Fan content and games don't hold my interest either (although a few choice items stand out), so for now, I'm out of Mega Man stuff to review. We've got Zero collection slated for summer, and I'll be on that one for sure, but I don't have anything in the que, so to speak.

I've thought about some other projects, such as the Sonic series, Castlevania, or Maximum Doom, but I'm not quite ready to get back into the mood of daily posts, so for now, I'm on hiatus. I'll probably work on fixing up the posts so they look less retarded (no promises!), but I'll be doing that at my own leisurely pace.

I've been doing these reviews for myself, but I've always written as if an audience was reading. While I don't have many readers, checking my stats lately shows I've been getting more and more returning hits as of late that are actually looking at something other than my cache of screenshots, or my poor use of vulgar language stringed together with certain characters names (Christ, why is everyone so obsessed with what's under Mayl's skirt!? SHE'S 11 and a CARTOON!).

Anyway, if you're perusing the posts, feel free to leave a comment. I won't always respond if there isn't much content in your post, but I do read them all. Don't hesitate to post corrections, errors, or general feedback. And if you think the quality of any of the articles is poor, which you'd be right, don't hesitate to let me know.

Mega Man's been a whole hell of a lot of fun to me these past 22 years, and here's hoping he's still fun 50 more years from now!

Mega Man 10: Threat From Outer Space!!

When I started reviewing Mega Man games several months back, it was a leisurely way to escape my own problems for a little bit, and articulate just why I love this whole franchise, starting from the original Blue Bomber, all the way to Mega Man Star Force, and hitting all points in between. After running out of games, I hit up the several cartoon series until I had nothing left to review. With all the sequels, spin-offs, and remakes in this franchise, I find it fitting that my last review (for now) comes back to the roots of the series.

I initially expressed my fears with the series continuing on in 8-bit, stating that I felt the series would become stagnant again. I've always felt that Mega Man has fallen behind the other gaming icons of his day, such as Mario, Link, and Sonic, and, while I don't think Mega Man has anything to prove, I find it sad that he has yet to have a real Next-Gen console game that utilizes the capabilities of any of the systems.

That is a complaint with the series as a whole though, more than anything, and doesn't affect my review so much of the individual game. The game itself is good, higher quality than most Mega Man titles, and it could be the start of something great for the franchise.

New Features

• Play as Mega Man, Proto Man, or Bass (DLC), in three (slightly) separate stories.
• A difficulty select which changes the game quite significantly for all three options.
• Returning from Mega Man Powered Up, Challenge Mode.
• Save and watch replays of your best times, or check out the ranked leader boards videos.

Story
Okay, now I know Inafune knows these stories are just a load of junk. I'm serious, when asked about Mega Man 10's story in that online broadcast a while back, he basically said, "what story?" So yes, Mega Man 10's story is pretty silly, and it honestly could be the plot of one of the Ruby-Spears episodes.

One day, Roll gets sick with flu like symptoms. She's been infected with a virus that makes robots sick, and they've dubbed the virus, Roboenza. The virus soon spreads, and starts causing robots to go out of control and wreak havoc.

Dr. Wily shows up at Dr. Light's lab after having been attacked by one of the robots. Wily's been working on a cure, and has created a machine to help him, but it was stolen by the robots. Mega Man runs off to get back the machine, and Proto Man offers to help him along the way.

From here, you can choose who you want to play as, Mega Man, Proto Man, or Bass (if you've downloaded him), and the story changes slightly depending who you pick. I'm talking like a few sentences at most, hardly anything to get excited about. Even Mega Man and Bass had more variety in the story.

Anyway, surprise surprise, it turns out Dr. Wily was behind everything! After defeating Wily, he's rushed to the hospital with a fever. He escapes from there, but leaves behind the cure to Roboenza.

Aesthetics
Inafune is the type of artist that likes to do more with less. Like a painter who's canvass is a business card, Inafune has restricted Mega Man 10's color pallet back down to 8-bit. Of course, Mega Man 10's graphical prowess is a joke, hardly utilizes any of the consoles to their full potential, but Mega Man just looks at home in his limited color values.

I'd gauge this game aesthetically superior to Mega Man 9, as most of the environments have a lot more detail. By comparison, Mega Man 9's environments were a bit empty. Mega Man 10 transports the player to an icy plain, to a psychotic highway, to a sports arena. Every inch of space is used up appropriately, and there is a great deal to look at. The game is big on some small details too, like the met hat sitting on top of a building in the credits, the addition of Tango and Reggae sprites, and just the overall feel of the game in general.

The bosses are pretty ridiculous looking, and I get the feeling creating these robot masters is getting harder and harder. As stupid as Sheep Man is, you can almost hear the developers snickering to themselves with each bolt of electricity he sends at you. If anything, it's Pump Man that wins the award for stupidest looking robot master, as he literally jiggles the back of his head to attack you.

However, some robot masters made a reappearance in this title, a couple with brand new 8-bit sprites! Wily's first stage is by far the highlight of the game for this reason. I was a bit disappointed with Bass's new sprites however, as I think the Neo Geo sprites of Bass just look better, but this is a minor complaint. Overall, Mega Man 10 surprises you at every turn and gives you something to look at on every screen.

Sound
Mega Man 10 hits the batting average in the music department this time around, which is always good, but far from the home runs of Mega Man 2, X, ZX, or Star Force. The title screen music is pretty good, and the majority of the games tracks are pretty mellow for a Mega Man title. I really wish they were more memorable and kick ass like some of the other games, and I'm not a big fan of the introduction music, but otherwise it's a decent soundtrack. As far as sound effects go, nothing you haven't heard a million times before.

Design
At first, I wasn't too impressed with Mega Man 10. It was better than a good chunk of Mega Man games, but it didn't hit all the right spots in terms of fun that Mega Man 9 did. For example, in Mega Man 9, you're hit with a great deal of new platforming gimmicks and enemies, from the rotating platforms in Tornado Man's stage, to the swinging pendulums in Jewel Man's stage.

Mega Man 10 starts out pretty standard in my mind, sticking with the tired and true type of level design, rather than laying on the gimmicks. However, Mega Man 10 is easily much harder than Mega Man 9, because it doesn't rely on those cheap tricks. More often then not, the stages are designed around wearing you down, while the instant death spots are pretty obvious to avoid with some timing.

Mega Man 10 makes you think about how to beat each screen based on the enemy layout, where as Mega Man 9, you could pretty much just blow through everything with the right weapon. This time around, the weapons are a little more balanced, and require the player to think on the proper application of the weapon to make use of it. Interestingly, most of the weapons are actually pretty weak with a head on direct shot, but quite powerful when you use them right.

Figuring this out can be tough, so it helps that a lot that players are able to upload videos of their best times through a stage directly through the game. Take note of these players techniques, and you'll discover some very cool things, like riding Wheel Cutter up walls, or the weapon switch trick with solar blaze. It's at this point, I began to see the depth of the design of the game start to break the surface.

This game really functions more methodically than other Mega Man games, and each screen presents a sort of puzzle to get through it. Running and gunning won't work this time around, and even after you've beaten the game a few times around, it'll require you to make choices about how you'd like to proceed. For instance, Triple Blade is easily the best weapon in the game, especially against minibosses, but it has the most difficult pitfall sections. You could wait until after you've gotten Rush Jet to get past it, but by then, the utility of Triple Blade might be gone.

Enemy setup aside, I found most of the stages pretty bland, but a few kick ass. Commando Man and Nitro Man's stages are fun, and Wily 1 is probably the best stage ever made in a Mega Man game! (You fight 1 robot from each of the previous nine games!) The levels that I thought were bland, however, instantly became much more memorable in Hard Mode, which is damn near impossible to beat. It's easily harder than Mega Man and Bass, and it adds so much to the game in terms of replayability. The first time a boss hit me with a new attack in hard mode, my reaction was "HOLY SHIT!"

Rounding out hard mode is easy mode, good for beginner and younger players, like my 7 year old cousin. It's a joke to anyone whose experienced in Mega Man games, but hopefully this mode will bring in a new generation of players. Proto Man and Bass also offer their own unique styles of play, giving you quite a chunk of game to see.

Mega Man 10 pumps out some extras as well, as challenges and achievements have returned. The standard "Beat the game in such and such time," and "don't get hit," achievements are there, but now the game has added a multitude of little scenarios to complete, ala Mega Man Powered Up. The scenarios are fun and give you a chance to practice on some of those pain in the ass bosses.

Also returning is time attack, but with a twist. The DLC for the game lets you download new stages with the Mega Man Killers, Enker, Ballade, and Punk, and beating these stages grants you the robot master's weapon as well, even for the main game! How cool is that? Unfortunately, you can't run the time attack with Proto Man or Bass as of yet, which sucks pretty heavily. What's the deal here Capcom?

Between Mega Man 9 and 10, I'd say 9 is the better game, because I enjoyed the platforming much more, but 10 is just barely behind it in terms of quality, and I won't at all be surprised to see people prefer this one over all the others.

Playability
I played my copy on the Nintendo Wii, and had a major problem with accidentally pushing the weapon switch buttons during normal game play. Maybe I just have fat fingers though. I doubt this is a problem for 360 and PS3 owners, and if you own one of the classic controller add ons for the Wii, this would probably eliminate that problem.

The characters all control smoothly, though I found Proto Man's ability to block shots with his shield cumbersome, as it only works when he jumps, and it isn't very reliable. The other playability issue comes from the weapons, which take some time to learn to use properly, particularly Thunder Wool, which is almost entirely useless if pulled off wrong, and difficult to use at that. Frankly, I've resorted to just forgetting about the damn thing against Pump Man.

Extras

• My personal boss order so far is: Chill Man, Nitro Man, Commando Man, Blade Man, Strike Man, Sheep Man, Pump Man, Solar Man.
• Wheel Cutter goes up walls, and is just too fun to use EVERYWHERE!
• It is possible to Rush Jet across the pits in Blade Man's stage, although it can be a perilous journey.
• If you have trouble, check out the replays posted in the ranking charts of other player's attempts, or post some yourself!
• Defeating a Mega Man Killer in time attack will net you his weapon for the main game as well!

Mega Man 10 didn't disappoint, and I keep finding new things to like about it. I'm really liking the community aspect that's starting to come together around Mega Man with the leaderboards and rankings. Mega Man 10 has a lot of polish and features Mega Man 9 didn't have, and while I still think Mega Man 9 was better, I'm liking the direction 10 is taking the series. Yeah, I still wish we had a real Next-Gen title, but at least Inafune is finding new ways to play with the old style.

Rockman.exe Program of Light and Dark

While I'd like to review Stream, Beast and Beast+, unfortunately those series lack complete subtitled translations as of yet. However, there is one last Mega Man cartoon which did get translated, a movie rather. This 50 minute movie from the Mega Man NT Warrior universe puts a final cap on the Dr. Regal saga, and retells the events of Battle Network 5... with quite a liberal use of creative license. For now, this will be my final Mega Man cartoon review.

A bit of background, Program of Light and Dark takes place sometime during the Stream series. Stream followed a story where cross-fusion became a bit more prevalent amongst the cast, and Lan and MegaMan ended up having to deal with a being from outer space named Duo, with the help of a new mysterious Navi named Colonel, whose mysterious operator hides his identity from Lan. Anyway, Bass decides he wants to take MegaMan's ultimate program (the junk from the end of the second season of NT Warrior) to make him self the ultimate navi. He attacks MegaMan a bit, then gets banished to the undernet by Duo's helper, Slur. Fast forward to the movie...

Plot Synopsis
We open up with some sort of cross-over between Rockman.Exe and some other anime series about card battling or some shit. Maybe this was part of a double feature or something. Anyway, once the movie begins proper, Bass is floating around the undernet when suddenly a giant monster thing appears. Then huge laser things start moving around the Earth and absorbing building and people and stuff, and forming strange glyphs in the landscape.

Lan and his friends are at an amusement park while this is going on, NetBattling to the Stream opening theme of "Be Somewhere," and he suddenly gets a call from his dad to go put a stop to it by blowing up some huge server or something at a building called TRINITY. As MegaMan arrives in the server to destroy it, Bass shows up and starts fighting him. Colonel also shows up in the nick of time to help out MegaMan, and distracts Bass while MegaMan blasts at the server.
It's not good enough though, because the strange entity of energy sucks up the data anyway and the monster Bass ran into shows up, who Bass identifies as Nebula Grey. The big laser beams show up again and start sucking up the city, along with all of Lan's friends. Lan is momentarily depressed when his dad picks him up, and tells him he has a plan how to get everyone back.

So basically these lasers aren't killing people, but actually the remains of a program called Spectrum, which is the combination of two programs by Tadashi Hikari (Lan's Grandfather) and Dr. Wily. Essentially, it makes it so people can materialize in the cyberworld, but the project got canceled when Dr. Wily went to work for the Netopian Army.

Anyway, apparently Nebula Grey was hidden in the program, and is trying to suck up the real world into the cyber world. MegaMan wonders if he's strong enough to stop it, and asks Lan if maybe they should give Bass MegaMan's ultimate program to stop it.
Just then, Dr. Regal appears out of nowhere, apparently having survived getting blown the fuck up in Axess. When LaserMan was taken out, his data was sent to the cyberworld, and Regal went with him. Then, Dr. Regal had enough time to find out about Nebula Grey, and grow a pretty wicked goatee. Anyway, he's fused with Nebula Grey and plans to take over the world, but in order to do that, he needs to kidnap Lan's father for some sort of access code with Tadashi Hikari's program. They teleport away, so Lan meets up with Chaud and Raika to form a plan.
Using Chaud's connections with the Netopian army, Chaud learns the location of base where Dr. Wily's program is stored, and presumably where Dr. Regal has taken Lan's father. Raika, Chaud, and Lan all Cross-Fuse with a SciLab dimensional area around the island and attack. They're surrounded by laser shooting mechs, which Raika and Chaud hold off, while Lan looks for his father.

Then Regal activates Spectrum, using the codes found in Dr. Hikari's fucking iris, and this somehow causes a temporal rift in time, which sends Baryl (Colonel's operator) to the future, and he rescues Lan from certain doom. They find the capsule where spectrum is functioning, and Jack MegaMan and Colonel in to stop it. Colonel holds off security while MegaMan goes to deal with Regal, who is jacked inside the machine.
Nebula Grey is starting to materialize in the real world, but luckily, Bass shows up to help fight him off, apparently pissed that Regal manipulated him somehow... I guess? MegaMan and Bass are strong, but not enough to stop Regal, who starts absorbing them in Nebula Grey. MegaMan figures his only hope is to give Bass his Ultimate Program to stop Nebula Grey, even if it means MegaMan's deletion.
Bass is all too happy to oblige MegaMan's request and begins absorbing his ultimate program... but wait a second, it looks like MegaMan is actually taking over Bass's ultimate program! MegaMan fuses with Bass into a Bass DoubleSoul, and then uses his new power to destroy Nebula Grey, and Dr. Regal once and for all.

The process of the Earth turning into the cyberworld stops, and the world is saved. But uh-oh! Regal was a load-bearing villain, and the whole island is blowing up! Also, MegaMan is too weak to escape and Lan can't jack him out. Bass breaks the DoubleSoul Cross-Fusion, and MegaMan is able to jack out while Bass is absorbed in the blast and presumed dead (he's not). Baryl returns to the past, and Lan and his team are picked up by the Net Police as the credits roll.

Critique
If you understood any of that, please explain it to me, because this whole fucking story is beyond comprehension, and is so convoluted and confusing, I can't really say if it's good or bad. This story makes no fucking sense, and I'm speaking as someone who actually is up on the Mega Man canon. Imagine if you were someone that didn't know Mega Man too well, this would be complete drivel to you! Stream isn't necessary to watch before seeing this movie, because it won't make it any less confusing. The plot is just a broken mess.

That aside, the animation, artwork, and music are all top notch. This is what you would expect from a bigger budget movie, and MegaMan has never looked better in this high quality. We also got to see a lot more of Bass in a role much less retarded than his previous ones, which is always a plus, and he actually fought MegaMan this time. This is definitely an eye candy event.

I did like that they cleverly threw away Lan's friends for most of the movie to keep the plot more action focused, because if you had any time to think about the plot, you wouldn't be looking at all the pretty animation. There's a lot of clever effects here, and I especially like the mosaic ending effect.

It's been a while since I've watched a subtitled episode of Rockman.exe, but there's quite a noticeable change of tone between the two shows. MegaMan and Lan both sound much younger, which I think works to their advantage some what, and the musical choices are completely different. The cross-fusion music in particular, which became sort of the theme of the Japanese show feels off when it's used, but it is catchy.

For as stupid as the plot is, I'm glad I watched the movie at the end of it. It looks nice, and as a Mega Man fan, I enjoyed it. I can't say I'd recommend this to anyone besides Mega Man fans, as I was lost enough knowing what was going on. I'd probably hate this movie any other way, but you can't deny the animation is good. I think Star Force carries on this level of quality with its animation in a lot of episodes though, with less of the retarded plot nonsense. As a Mega Man fan, I rate the movie a thumbs up.

Rating: Thumbs up!

And that's it for the Mega Man cartoons. I'd love to do Stream, Beast, and Beast + some day, but I won't touch them until an English subtitled release comes out. Beast is almost done, but that group updates slower than the continental drift, and Stream has been on indefinite hold by so many groups so many times. Right now there is a group working on subtitling the original audio for Axess, and they plan to do Stream and the others, but they just started and I wouldn't count on seeing that done to completion anytime soon, even within five years. Face it, fan projects suck with time tables, and there is surprizingly a lot of drama amongst self important subbers, so with that little egotistical trait they all seem to share, I wouldn't count on ever seeing me review any of the next few series. All well, at least I mostly enjoyed what time I had with Lan and MegaMan.
Next up, the last review (for a while) for Mega Man. The new game, Mega Man 10!

Axess: Dr. Regal's Rampage

This is it folks, the final episode of the American Dub of Rockman.Exe, Mega Man NT Warrior. It's the season finale to Axess, a season the departed from jumping into networks, and instead went for merging characters together to make super heroes. Whether you thought the show was better or worse for it, Time-Warner killed it. So how did the show go out?

Plot Synopsis
Of course, things are pretty bad. Dimensional area covering the whole world, millions of NetNavi's trapped and being messed up, and ShadeMan running amok! Oh hey, Dr. Regal just cross-fused and instantly killed ShadeMan! Well at least the darkloids are out of the picture.

Except now, Dr. Regal has decided to have his master plan come to fruition. Cross-Fused with LaserMan using a lot of Dark Synchro chips, Regal increases his size to tower over sky-scrapers, and being destroying DenTech city! Not only that, but apparently there are other giant LaserMan's all over the world doing the same thing!

Everyone retreats back to SciLab for the time being. The goal is to take out Regal's tower, which is powering up the dimensional area across the Earth. If that goes down, Regal's cross-fusion should break. The power source is in the center of the tower, and using a series of deus ex machina information, fake techno-babble, and some just straight up bullshit, Dr. Hikari knows that there's some ultra firewall thing blocking their NetNavis from attacking, but he also knows what to do to get around it, maybe.

In any case, Regal is heading to SciLab, so Lan tries to stall for time by Cross-Fusing with MegaMan. He loads up five DoubleSouls, giving him Cross-Fused DoubleSoul Ultra Power Extraordinaire Super Duper! (Yeah, I made up most of that...) Even with this extra power, Lan can only really annoy Dr. Regal. Chaud awakens ProtoMan and runs to help out Lan, whose been exhausted so much, he can't even move.

Chaud continues to stall for time while Lan struggles about, unable to get to his feet. Raika meanwhile has arrived at the scene to deal with the power source and firewall. He's enlisted the help of the rest of the cast (Mayl, Tory, Dex, Yai, Shuko, Higsby) to deal with the viruses guarding it. Everyone jacks in, and then we roll the stock attack animations, oh yay? Also joining the fight are JunkMan, ThunderMan, and BubbleMan (looking for revenge for ShadeMan).

While this happens, Chaud is thrown down hard by Regal, and taken out of the fight. Regal continues advancing on SciLab, which futilely tries to protect itself with it's own dimensional area. Regal breaks through, and it looks like everyone is done for!

But wait! All the millions of NetNavis who have been captured begin cheering for Lan and MegaMan. In an act of true anime cliched fashion, they transfer all of their power to Lan's cross-fusion, and he goes super saiyan. His power levels (whatever the hell those are), are so high, they blow up Mr. Famous's computer. Lan gets up, and then puts the beat down on Dr. Regal, all without Battlechips or his Mega Buster. He just straight up beats the shit out of him with his hands and feet!

With Regal on the ropes, Lan fires a charged shot, just as SearchMan destroys the dimensional area generator. Regal gets blasted and lets out a villainous "Nooooooo!" and blows up. The dimensional area collapses, and everyone enjoys a party under the meteor shower. Regal is missing, but ah, who cares right? Just look at the size of that meteor! Oh yeah, and BubbleMan gives back Rush.

Then Ms. Yuri turns out to be alive looking at it, and says some ominous words while looking at the meteor. NOT THAT IT MATTERS! The show is dead, sorry folks!

Critique
As far as ridiculous goes, this episode pretty much tops the entire series. Like a finale, it's big big big, and if you've ever seen any anime, this is about as standard anime as you can get. There's a lot of things wrong with this episode, particularly with every scene involving Dr. Hikari, but the whole package is wrapped up nice enough to keep you from dwelling on it.

You've got all the major players of the season showing up, the big bad guys plan starting up, and all hope being lost until the main character fucks the villains up. The music is in the right spots, the animation is mostly well done, and the ending is satisfactory, if a little hamfisted. It's about what you'd want, and the setup for stream is too minor to really bring it into a lot of focus. There's really no reason to miss this episode.

Rating: Thumbs up!

And that's the end of Axess, and the entire dub. The show was never picked up after that, and later Mega Man dubs would also be completed mishandled by Time-Warner (see Mega Man Star Force). Time-Warner must have felt this series was such a disaster, it never even came out on dvd... ouch.

Axess has it's moments, but I feel it's inferior to the original series due to the complete tonal shift of the show. The break away from the Battle Network style, while still trying to keep a semblance of the original source story, disconnected the show for me. As a whole, I'd still say Axess is worth watching if you're a Mega Man fan, or even if you enjoyed NT Warrior, but I don't know how to gauge it against the other shows that were running at the time.

In Japan however, Rockman.Exe would continue for quite awhile, and transition into Star Force after that, without a break between seasons mind you. The show would continue with Stream, Beast, and Beast +, but after Stream, the show took some noticeable hits. The seasons were shorter, and then the time slot was cut in half. Last I heard though, the show is still airing in syndication over there.

As far as the US is concerned though, I wouldn't count on ever seeing the other seasons continued. In all likely hood, Time-Warner still owns the rights to airing Mega Man related media on television, and they have a history of not working with it. Viz Media did comment as recently as last year that something might happen with the NT Warrior series, but as to what is only speculation. In all likely hood, it'll be the dvd release of Axess, or if we're lucky, subtitles of the original shows, continued on to the episodes we didn't see.

Rebooting the show just isn't going to happen. Aside from the cast having moved on, the only people who care about the show are few and far between. First, you need to be a Mega Man fan, then you need to be a Battle Network fan, then you need to be a fan of the show. That's quite a niche audience if you ask me.

Even the idea of the dvd release is skeptical if Battle Network doesn't have some sort of renewed interest. Capcom is pushing for this with Operation Shooting Star, but if that doesn't hit the states, we're pretty much in the position we're at now. Without renewed interest from a new generation of fans, we're just not going to see more MegaMan.exe in the states.

Is there hope for those of us who don't speak Japanese but still want to see the rest of the show? Yes, and I'll detail that in my very last Mega Man cartoon post, coming up next!

Axess: Dark Vs. Dark

Plot Synopsis
Chaud and ProtoMan are in need of a rest, but a band-aid is good enough for Lan. He'll need his strength, cause shit is about to hit the fan.

Dr. Regal and LaserMan have started to gather millions of NetNavi's with those UFO things from the second episode, and are powering up something big: a dimensional area generator large enough to cover the entire world!

In the meantime, ShadeMan has decided to capture Rush and convert him into his own synchro chip so he can enter the human world without a dimensional area. He goes off in search of Regal, after blowing up a few bits of SciLab. Since ShadeMan isn't exactly using discretion in what he destroys, Lan and MegaMan try to stop him with some dimensional areas of their own.

Lan is still no match for ShadeMan, as ShadeMan breaks his Cross-Fusion. Just as Lan is about ot meet his maker, Regal challenges ShadeMan at the top of his tower. The two have a stand off as the episode comes to a close.

Critique
About what you would expect for the second to last episode of Axess. Lots of buildup for the finale, though it feels like the dubbers cut out a few things, mostly with regards to Lan's injuries. That does little to affect the overall feel of the episode though.

I'm a bit miffed about the whole Rush Synchro chip thing. Rush gets introduced to do something no one else can, but we go along with it for a joke, and they never take it seriously. Well jokes on us, because now it's a major plot element. All well, whatever.

This is a satisfactory episode, but the real question is, are you ready for not only the season finale, but the series finale of Mega Man NT Warrior?

Rating: Thumbs up!

Axess: ProtoMan Returns

Plot Synopsis
SciLab finally has completed their own dimensional area generator, which presumably doesn't run off the souls of NetNavis, and they've also managed to complete the vaccine chip, a battlechip designed to reverse the effects of Dark Chips. With everything in place, it's time to get ProtoMan back.

The cast lay a trap for ProtoMan, knowing he'll show up to destroy SciLab's dimensional area generator for Nebula to retain their advantage. They lure ProtoMan out there, then trap him inside with Lan, who will use his Cross-Fusion to plant the vaccine chip on ProtoMan. Chaud also manages to sneak into the dimensional area before it goes up.

The plan works, almost, but the Dark Chip is regenerated in ProtoMan, and apparently much stronger than a normal chip. ProtoMan blasts Lan, but Lan and MegaMan take the shot dead on, trying to absorb ProtoMan's dark aura. Lan continually suffers the beating, draining off as much energy as he can. Chaud joins the frey, as he jumps straight into ProtoMan and Cross-Fuses with him. Now Lan has to deal with a dark chip corrupted Chaud, as Chaud and ProtoMan duke it out in their combined mind.

Memories have been sealed away in ProtoMan, from earlier times of Chaud and his past. ProtoMan tries to fight back against it, but Chaud is persistent. Chaud even takes direct blasts from ProtoMan, which phase him, but don't keep him down. Chaud gets close enough to ProtoMan, and hugs him, telling ProtoMan that, "no matter how dark your heart has become, you'll always be my NetNavi." This, combined with Lan draining more of ProtoMan's dark aura destroys the dark chip, and ProtoMan becomes free of it's grasp.

ProtoMan is back, although completely exhausted, along with everyone else, especially Lan, who is pretty fucked up from the ordeal. ProtoMan musters some strength to apologize and thank Chaud for saving him. Chaud thinks it's time for a vacation.

Critique
Some episodes in an anime are more anime than others. This episode is definitely a 10 on the anime scale. If you're not exactly sure what I mean, you might consider cutting down your anime intake just a bit. But lets not hold that against the episode. Let's also not hold the title, which is the fucking 5th episode to be titled "Soandso Returns," because at least this time it makes some contextual sense.

This episode doesn't really go out of it's way to make a hell of a lot of sense, but it doesn't dwell on anything like the last train wreck of an episode, and for once, the dimensional area doesn't look like ass. This is one of the key episodes of the season, so you would expect a bit of a higher quality for it than normal, and I think it delivers what it promises. Yeah, it goes off on the power of friendship trope a lot, but that's pretty standard for Battle Network in general. This is a good episode to watch though, and it brings resolution to the biggest story arc of Axess.

Let us bow our heads in a moment of silence though, for the loss of Evil ProtoMan. I've prepared a eulogy..., Ahem...

I knew Proto Man as that asshole in Mega Man 3, who would annoyingly get in my way between Shadow Man, Hard Man, and Magnet Man. I would forgive him though, for he had sunglasses and a scarf, which made him look at least three times cooler than Mega Man, and style matters quite a bit.

In Mega Man 5, Proto Man would stand with his trade mark smirk among eight new worthless robot masters. This Proto Man would turn out to be a phony, but the sentiment remained the same. In Mega Man 7, Proto Man thought it necessary to attack us in Shade Man's stage for the hell of it, but at least he gave us a present.

Proto Man then took his evilness to the next level in the Ruby-Spears production of Mega Man. Proto Man cast away his moral ambiguity for a more conspicuous stance, "being the bad guy is awesome." From his creation of just randomly smashing shit for the hell of it, to attempting to blast Abraham Lincoln, Proto Man reveled in his new found love for doing the wrong thing.

He had a soft spot though, he always tried to convince Mega Man to, "join the bad side bro." And Mega Man would one day reveal, that even Proto Man's awesomeness would not go unnoticed by him. "The truth is, I've always really wanted a brother relationship with you, Proto Man."

And who wouldn't? How many of us can say we've had a brother half as cool as Proto Man, even if he was evil? ProtoMan.Exe would then take stints in the Battle Network series, acting more like an asshole than straight up evil, but the corruption of the Dark Chip would bring back that smugness we all know and love to the role, delivering such memorable lines as, "Chaud, you mean nothing to me!"

Eventually, ProtoMan would cast aside his evil ways, and even actively help Mega Man as recently as Mega Man 10, and that's a damn shame. Evil Proto Man, we hardly knew ye, but at least we still got Bass... for now...

Rating: Thumbs up!