Showdown at Red Gulch

As an asteroid enters the atmosphere, a massive scientific base are spying it and aim to find it once it crashes down in the desert. According to Dr. Light, it's full of radiation that he has never seen before and is nothing like anything on Earth. Unsurprisingly, Dr. Wily is also wanting to get his hands on it, and he's doubly happy when Proto Man informs him it will land within walking distance of a railroad where a train carrying gold will pass by later. The gold he'll use to build a massive army, and the meteorite can make his robots invincible, a pleasant thought while he flies out in his ship.

Elsewhere, at what appears to be a wild west themed park (it doesn't blatantly say it's a park, but there are fat tourists and an enthusiastic guide, so that's a hint), there's a "real wild west showdown" going down, which is apparently going to get "hot and heavy", but the meteorite crashes far away, sending severe winds that makes everyone get unnecessarily panicked. No real danger though, as it landed near an abandoned mine, and the scientists fly over in helicopters. However, Wily's just arriving as well. Look out, nerds!

The scientists get into goofy suits, but before they can get anywhere, Wily's ship lands, destroys their helicopters, and after Guts Man threatens to crush them, makes them dig for meteor fragments. Thankfully, the radio contact with Dr. Light was lost; worried something has gone wrong, he, Roll, Mega Man and Rush set out in a jeep to find them.

Inside the mines, the robots watch over the scientists digging, and Wily infuses shards into some Batontons, claiming it will make them super powerful and indestructible. One of the scientists, Dr. Breen, calls him a sick man, and Wily replies with "can a sick man do this?", and shows him some examples of this power. Cut to a montage of a single Batonton lifting a mine cart filled to the brim with meteorite fragments, Guts Man lifting a boulder quadruple his size, Cut Man bending a girder with his bare hands, Drill Man splitting a rock in half, and Snake Man carrying two mine carts.

Mega Man finally arrives, takes notice of Wily's ship, and hides in a mine cart while Rush pushes him in. Thinking he got in unnoticed, Proto Man tells him to come out and play. Mega Man doesn't want to hurt him, but Proto Man says those days are long gone and he's no longer in his league, so he gives in and shoots him. "I hate to say I told you so but ..." Proto Man says snarkily, shoots Mega Man's cart, sending him flying. "... I told you so." pwnt.

The other robots crowd around him, and all opt to destroy him. Cut Man fires a blade, and although it misses, it cuts a huge chunk out of the wall. Snake Man and Drill Man then fire drills and projectile snakes at him, all of which tear through the wall like butter, but Proto Man still wants some. Despite that, two Batontons head after him, and his shots just bounce off them; they knock him in the cart, which rolls out out of the mine and off a small cliff.

Proto Man comes out and taunts him, saying he's unbeatable, so why not join him; Mega Man refuses, but his arm is damaged, and Rush's attempt at attacking the scarf wearing goon just gets him thrown on the ground like an egg. Proto Man then shoots a cliff behind Mega Man, conveniently causing a huge block of it to come off and fall towards Mega Man.

They just played shocking music and even had a commercial break, so you'd expect something surprising; Mega Man simply shoots the rock, splitting it into pieces, and covers his head. Disappointing.

Roll goes down to Mega Man, Proto Man claims the Batontons will take care of the blue dweeb if he's still alive, and they return to the mines, chuckling. The Batontons do attack, but they begin shorting out, although Mega Man ignores that and says the utterly pointless line "I feel like I'm in a video game!" Fourth wall humour. Roll slides down the cliff, and distracts them by blowing dust at them and they return to Dr. Light, taking a broken Batonton with them.

At a local bar full of cowboys and skanky women, Mega Man tells Light of what happened as he repairs him. Snake Man pops up, wanting to finish Mega Man off, and a bar fight between them ensues. Mega Man's shots bounce right off him, causing everyone to duck for cover. Mega Man is blasted outside by an explosive snake, and Roll and Rush attempt to fight Snake Man themselves, but they haven't learnt and are merely tossed aside. Mega Man leaps back inside, picks up the meteorite shard from the Batonton, and with his power up, throws Snake Man out the door. He, like the Batontons before, begins shorting out, and runs away, but not before saying he'll be back.

Dr. Light's examination of the shard reveals that it can essentially overload whatever it powers, and if used for too long, could possibly destroy them. Mega Man still says it's his only chance to beat Wily's bots.

Back at the mines, the scientists have dug up all the meteorite shards, and herded into a cell while Wily goes to catch the gold train, but Snake Man informs him that Mega Man got a piece of the meteor, causing Wily to clutch his head while screeching like a cat and vow to make "Mega dust" out of him. At the rail road, Guts Man lifts up the tracks, and the train crashes straight into him and is totally destroyed. "This is our stop" jokes Cut Man, but there's no laughter from anyone but him. Mega Man flies in on Rush Jet, explains how he knew they were here to Guts Man, and the robots attack, but he blocks them with minimal effort. He then knocks Drill Man to the ground, throws Guts Man into a cactus patch, squashes Cut Man's blade and throws him on top of Gutsy (and then binding them with a girder), and Drill Man fires drills at him, but deflects them back at him.

He uses this opportunity to take his power, and Wily, atop a cliff on a horse and cart, unleashes some Batontons at him; Proto Man tries to get a punch in, but Mega Man merely uses a drill to blow up the ground beneath him, sending him into a pit. Mega Man then begins overloading, and the Batontons take the opportunity to shoot at him. Cut Man even gets in on the cheap action, cutting the girder around him and hitting Mega Man square in the chest with a blade, shattering the fragment and knocking him unconscious. Rush tries to drag him away or wake him up, but Proto Man leaps out of the pit and the bad guys surround poor defenceless Mega Man, and Guts Man kicks Rush into a wall. Wily, instead of simply destroying him there, ties his leg to the horse and sends it running towards a cliff. Smart.

The bad guys then get around to opening the train and ogling the many gold bars inside, Wily then gets a swarm of Batontons to lift up the carriage and take it off to their base. Elsewhere, Rush turns into Rush Jet to look for Mega Man, and the horse is getting closer to the cliff, but the rope is wearing thin. It jumps across and reaches the other side, but the rope snaps in midair, sending Mega Man plummeting down. You shouldn't even have to be told that Rush saves him at the last minute.

They return to a barn (I guess they were kicked out of the bar or something), where Mega Man says he won't be able to beat Wily's bots without the fragment, but Roll discovers that one of his circuit's has a tiny speck of it left; not enough to power him up, but enough to short circuit the robot masters.

We return to the mines for a moment to see Wily laughing over how much meteorite and gold he has, conquering the world will be easy. And then we see Mega Man again, who uses the old tactic of saying false plans aloud in an unbelievably sarcastic forced voice to make the bad guys screw up, for he claims to have another piece of the meteor. As all this happens, unusually happy people keep looking up at him, which I find pretty weird. A Batonton hears this, and goes off to report it to Wily, while the good guys set up their trap, positioning pots, windows, mirrors and everything so a concentrated field of energy appears in the middle of the street.

The Batonton replays the conversation, and Dr. Wily believes it, and heads over to Red Gulch to take care of him, while Dr. Light configures his little fragment device which will not only short circuit them, but also destroy the fragments. Proto Man and the robots walk through the street looking for the blue bomber, and he comes out. Proto Man gives him "once last chance to have some real fun", but as usual, he declines, and they fire away. They destroy some barrels, two buildings and a stage coach before pretending to give up. They all crowd around in front of him, giving him another chance to switch sides, but he fires a shot at a window, which bounces off everything until it hits them all, even the Batontons. With their shards destroyed, instead of admitting defeat, they simply shoot at him and run away, but not for long.

Mega Man and Roll chase them on Rush Jet and some speeder bike thing, and Wily is about to load the meteorite onto his ship, but a single shot explodes it all, leaving Wily in tears; Proto Man drags him into the ship and they escape. Our heroes don't bother chasing, and instead check on the gold and their scientist friends. Back at Red Gulch, the host dubs Mega Man an honorary sheriff, everyone celebrates, and Mega Man puts on the hat. And that's it.

It's a pretty decent episode, and I haven't much to nag about. Apart from replacing Snake Man and Drill Man with better characters, like Bomb Man and Wood Man.

4 out of 5 panicking cowboys.

When the Batontons attack Mega Man and begin shorting out, they multiply during every cut. First it's only two that attack, then four, six, and at least twelve. An unmentioned side effect of the meteorite, or a typical animation error?

When the train crashes, it's utterly demolished, and you don't see the driver escape or anything; but somehow, the gold bars are in perfect condition, and there are some other people in the train who surrender the carriage of gold to them. How?

Seriously, what is Red Gulch? It seems a bit too in-character to be a theme park, but a traditional cowboy town in 20XX? I don't think so.