Why Mega Man - The Power series rules   It's fairly common behaviour to have discussions over what is the best. Among all kinds of people, from nerds to jocks to giant flaming stereotypes there'll always be these discussions. Being a nerd, a discussion I often get dragged into is "which game do you think is best?" I usually reply with something among the line of "well you know I thought this one had good qualities but this other one had better execution" and then try to look less nerdy by changing the subject to something entirely different. Usually toast. With it being such an expansive series, it's no surprise that there are tons of discussions about which Mega Man game is the best of them all. Mega Man 2 and 3 are always the most popular, but there's always the people who feel the need to be rebellious and wacky by mentioning any of the other games. However, there are two games that are never included. Mega Man - The Power Battles and Power Fighters. "Why these? Why do you consider these to be the best in the series?", you ask? Well making me work three question marks into one sentence is worth a fist in the face, so shut up. But seriously, while the Mega Man games are fun, they're often exercises in frustration. The best parts of the games are usually over in seconds and the rest is mediocre filler. Power Battles and Power Fighters centre entirely around those best parts with none of the mediocre. Here's my reasons for why they're the best Mega Man games ever.   REASON 1: BOSS BATTLES This may look like a regular stage select.   And this may look like your usual "who you'll be fighting after five minutes of jumping over and shooting things" screen.   But BAM BITCH, it's straight to the boss battle! This is quite possibly the best design change ever to be made to Mega Man gameplay. None of that dealing with enemies who knock you pits and crappy collision detection that throws you into pits and simply falling into pits. Just straight to the boss, and therefore, straight to the reason I play the games in the first place.   REASON 2: CO-OPERATIVE Mega Man games are a solitary experience, and to be honest, it's pretty lonely when you think about it. He's got all these Metools, Bubble Bats, spikes and pits to contend with, not to mention the Robot Masters and Wily himself, and the most assistance he gets are from his animal companions to provide minimal help, and occasionally his brother who either tries to kill him or do something insignificant. That problem is solved, as a second player can join in on the battle for everlasting peace. That's radical. If a third or fourth player could join in then it would be beyond radical! =O   REASON 3: SPECIAL MOVES When Busters aren't enough, that's where the Street Fighter moves come in, without the wacky button combos that hop you all over the place before you can use them. Just charge to max, hold Up and bikka wow. If only all fighting games were that simple.   REASON 4: THE PARTNERS ARE ACTUALLY SLIGHTLY USEFUL Rush, Beat and the like may have helped in crossing treacherous territory, but they weren't that great for battles. Beat could attack baddies for you in two whole games, but after that was reduced to rescuing you from pits. Although Rush remains pretty useless aside from ramming into an enemy when you fire a charged shot, Beat is awesome because he provides you with a shield and Treble is surely a lot more useful than Rush, although he can't compare to transforming into a car or a flying suit of armour. None the less, they're certainly all more useful than Rush Search.   REASON 5: PROTO MAN IS PLAYABLE After Mega Man 3, Proto Man barely did a thing. He made a blink and you'll miss it appearance in Mega Man 4, was framed by Dark Man in Mega Man 5, and after that didn't do much more than be an extra-elusive version of Eddie. And outside of these two games, he's only ever playable in Mega Man Soccer and Mega Man Battle & Chase, games only five people know of. So yeah, Proto Man is playable! With the ability to use Chun-Li's Kikouken, even! He can't use his shield, though, which is a major bummer.   REASON 6: BASS IS PLAYABLE Bass had slightly better luck than Proto Man, as although he's also only been playable in two other games, one of those is a traditional gameplay one, where he has a rad-awesome double jump, but his Buster is so pathetically weak the fact it can shoot in eight directions is pretty much redundant. Here, he loses the double jump in favour of actually being able to kill things in under an hour, plus a Flash Kick!   REASON 7: DUO IS PLAYABLE Duo is pretty boring, really. His special attack is dull (I mean it's not even a Street Fighter move), his partner is the same as Proto Man's, and despite the fact his slide damages enemies, it only works half the time, ending up with you taking damage by colliding with a dorky robot. So why do I include this? Because of this. At the end, it turns out everything was a fraud and you'd just been playing an advertisement. A bit like The Wizard, except I never saw it and this actually has gameplay.   REASON 8: MEGA MAN IS PLAYABLE lol j/k :]   REASON 8 (for reals): MEGA MAN HAS A SHORYUKEN I don't see why I can't list this as a valid reason. Plus I liked this picture.   REASON 9: IT DICKS ABOUT WITH FANATICS For gameplay which is so basic in comparison to all the others, two of the endings in Power Fighters have sparked so much debate and discussion on forums that it's almost stupid. Bass's ending is fairly typical of something involving him, until DUN DUN DUN ZERO FROM MEGA MAN X IN AN ORIGINAL SERIES GAME This would logically debunk the "PROTO MAN IS ZERO" or "BASS IS ZERO" or even "RUSH IS ZERO" theories, but apparently not. They still get thrown into discussions despite the fact they're so hideously stupid that a brain is sure to be burst somewhere among the line. Proto Man's ending involves Dr. Light worrying over the fact there's something screwed up in Proto's circuitry, and if it isn't fixed HE WILL DIE. He doesn't get it fixed and runs off, and the game asks questions that members of every forum ever are asking. The real question is, does anyone care?   REASON 10: IT'S NOT A BATTLE NETWORK GAME I just can't get over what wasted potential that series was. They make a great battle system that gets a little obnoxious for random battles but it's sure as hell more involving than menus, but then they shoehorn it into a story about whiny fatty kids who battle viruses on the internet while going to school. Essentially, it's your generic kids anime with a good battle system.   So yeah, there are my reasons for why these two games are the best Mega Man games ever and they should totally make a sequel to them.