Campus Commandos

Right off the bat, we know this episode is a doozy, as Dr. Light is announcing the opening of his robot university. You read that right. University for robots. I'm undetermined if that is genius or stupid. Dr. Wily listens in, and aims to bring the students under his control. Mega Man and three of the students, Quarter Bot, Kung-Fu Bot and Artist Bot watch the school band play, and Quarter Bot asks why Mega Man hasn't signed up to be a student like his sister, to which Mega Man says his full time job of fighting Wily's bots keeps him busy. Kung-Fu Bot says he wishes to be a hero like Mega Man, and proceeds to fall on his ass in an attempt to do karate. Artist Bot merely says all he has is a paintbrush, and a laser hits the campus.

Speak of the devil, it's Wily! He fires lasers at the building for no apparent reason, but his plan to storm the campus is delayed by Mega Man zooming after them in Rush Jet. They fire lasers at him, all of which miss, and somehow a single shot from Mega Man's cannon sends the ship into major recoil, or as Proto Man calls it, "playing rough". He fires a larger laser, which knocks Mega Man off his dog, but with the help of some wonky camera angles, ends up landing on top of the ship. He blasts a hole inside and prepares to fight them, but Proto Man slightly tilting the ship is enough to knock him off, where Rush catches him. The chase has to be cut short due to their low energy levels, so they land.

The robots leap out of the ship and parachute down, where Dr. Light and the mayor are conveniently hiding in bushes to see this. Even more conveniently, Dr. Light built a force field around the campus, and activates, preventing Wily's goons from entering and knocking them to the ground. Wily is agitated, picks up his robots and flies off; the mayor is relieved and overjoyed, saying Wily could've stolen his plans or inventions. Dr. Light shrugs it all off, and notes that nobody can enter the campus when the force field is up with an ID card; looks like Wily's plan can resume after all.

Roll is about to enter the campus with her card, but she drops a book. Before she can collect it, the smooth-talkin' Top Man (or Toppy as he calls himself) picks it up and lays on some compliments while handing it back to her. He admires her ID card, scanning it with a device behind his back while wishing to have his own sometime; he passes it back to her and heads off, but not without calling her "babe". You devil, Toppy. Roll admires the "new bod on the block" as she goes inside, and is shortly followed by Mega Man, Rush and Dr. Light, who needs to prepare notes for his class. Top Man returns to Wily and gets him the data, where he creates duplicates of the ID cards for his robots, and commands them to put mind control chips in their dessert. Again, I ask my "stupid or genius" question to myself.

Mega Man and Kung-Fu Bot are watching some good ol' rough and tumble American football, where Rush's antics as a cheerleader ruins the game. No hard feelings, though, as everyone just heads back inside for lunch, but Mega Man's aim to get a "Plasma Shake" is cut short by seeing Proto Man, Snake Man and Guts Man stroll into campus. The brother bots exchange some pretty horrendous words before shooting at each other, where after a few attempts, manages to blast Proto Man inside. "Lesson is: Don't mess with Mega Man." You failed good there, Peter Kay. Snake Man then tries his hand, but has a basketball net fall on his head and then knocked into a trash can.

Guts Man then uses the remainder of the basketball net stand as a fly swat, and Kung-Fu Bot rushes into to help our hero, but simply gets knocked into the ground. Proto Man KOs Mega Man with a single shot, and throws the two failures into a store room, where the door is locked, and Mega Man's damaged cannon can't save the day. Rush then notices Guts Man and Cut Man entering the kitchen, stuffing the French accented robo-chef into a cupboard, and putting the mind control chips in the colourful desserts. Despite Mega Man saying they wouldn't get out of there soon, they simply crowbar the door down, and try to find the wrongdoers.

Guts Man and Cut Man serve the desserts to the unsuspecting students, but Rush comes in and tells Roll not to eat anything. As those on her table question this, they notice Wily on a television telling everyone only to obey him, and all the brain washed students confirm this. Good going, Rush, you saved nobody. Mega Man busts in, and all the students lumber after him, so he throws food at them, which is enough of a threat for them all to shimmy and shake. Proto Man takes advantage of Mega's broken cannon, so Roll fights to even the odds, but then Top Man puts her out of commission by spinning into her. The dining students who weren't brain washed make their escape, and the brain washed chase after them, leaving Wily's bots to tie up the defenceless heroes to the cogs in the clock tower that are about to squish them.

Mega Man somehow uses his short circuited buster to rip the ropes to pieces, but instead of saving his buddies, he leaps out of the building onto the clock and swings on it so the cogs stop. Show off. Elsewhere, Dr. Light prepares his lecture on making an anti-gravity machine, and the brainwashed Quarter Bots enter. He just believes them to be early for class, but they grab him by the collar, and Wily appears on a TV and explains his whole mind control thing and how the anti-gravity machine will be his so he can raise city hall. RAISE CITY HALL. jeez. Outside, Mega Man, Roll and Rush join the students who didn't eat the dessert, hiding from "Tackle Bots", whom were previously called Quarter Bots. The students walk away, and Mega Man is asked what they should do, but he needs his blaster fixed, and they don't know what Wily's done with Light.

Rush sniffs out what building Light is in, but Quarter Bots ambush them, although they're defeated pretty simply, even without a working buster cannon. Light is inside, and after untying him, he notes that the damage to Mega Man's cannon is extensive, so his repair is only temporary. The robot masters watch over some students working on the machine, and have no problem beating them up for slacking off; outside, Mega Man gets into the building by creating a diversion for the guards. First they chase after a Cheer Bot, then the Artist Bot draws Mega Man on a wall, and while they're dumbfounded over that, two other students knock bins on their heads. Team work!

The anti-gravity machine is complete, and Wily flies over to collect it, but Mega Man busts in and starts battling the robots. Proto Man is simply shot, Snake Man is dismantled by his own snake, and Guts Man hits Mega with a door, but then he's shot in the face. Before Mega Man can "haul this baby outta here", Toppy shows up, knocks him to the ground, and uses the anti-gravity gizmo to send him flying out of the building and then straight into the ground. Ouch. Wily then believes Mega Man is terminated, reflects a little on this, and claims no one can stop him now.

Roll, Rush, Light and the students crowd around him, and Light claims it may be too late to repair him. Cut Man disables the force field, granting Wily access to the anti-gravity machine. Just in time, Eddie pops up, gives him an energy can, and then jumps on him, which is apparently enough to fix him up good. However, Wily escapes with the machine, re-enabled the force field, and changed the code for the ID cards, trapping them in the campus. Dr. Light suggests something about stealth gliders and Quarter Bot hits some guards with his football cannon, knocking a hole in a building.

Guts Man, Cut Man and Snake Man are guarding a power plant, so Rush, Mega Man and Kung-Fu Bot go to beat 'em up. Snake Man is crushed by a decorative giant globe, Cut Man is crushed by a tree that was felled by Kung-Fu Bot's "Triple Flip Super Roundhouse Kick". However, Guts Man drops a box on Mega, and his plasma power runs out, but Rush drops Cut Man near him, allowing him to steal his power, and cut the top of a flag pole off to land on Guts Man. Top Man comes along, and so does Roll in a stealth glider, plungers Toppy, pulls him high into the sky, and drops him down where he gets pwnt pinball style. Light disables the force field, properly fixes Mega Man's buster, and he heads out with both a stealth glider and Rush Jet.

Wily's about to hit city hall, so Rush departs and Mega Man continues on his glider, and in stealth mode. Conveniently, Wily made stealth detection lenses, meaning Mega Man is spotted, and Proto Man fights him one-on-one with a jetpack. Proto Man states the obvious, and although he gets shot, he hits his brother with two, the dirty skunk. Wily begins elevating city hall, leaving the mayor dumbfounded, but Mega still has Proto to deal with, so he shoots him into a swimming pool and leaves him like that. He reaches the anti-gravity machine, shoots the rope attaching it to Wily's ship, and it somehow flies on it's own. Wily notices his building being stolen, and has a tantrum, pounding on his console, causing his ship to go haywire and fly off. How this guy became a scientist or even an evil dictator, I'll never know.

Back at campus, the mayor thanks Mega Man for saving city hall, but he, as usual, just shrugs it off and says he was merely obeying his programming. Dr. Light then notes he reprogrammed all the students to normal again, and they celebrate. No Rush joke, no moral lesson, nothing. Lame.

A fairly entertaining episode, and it's nice to see that while Wily's plot is really about stealing city hall, the episode doesn't ditch the title theme just so it can take centre stage like in Mega-Pinocchio. However, I can't help but wonder why Snake Man makes an appearance at all. He has two whole lines and is promptly squashed before never being seen again.

4 out of 5 heart faced losers.

It's partly understandable for the students not to see suspicion in the robot masters serving lunch, and Top Man's such a smooth criminal Roll likely never noticed he was a Wily bot, but she's seen Cut Man and Guts Man many times before, why didn't she notice?

What's up with Mega Man's buster in this episode? It has the power to make the skull ship recoil heavily and shake violently, and then blasts Guts Man across a whole room. He didn't even charge up or anything.

Seriously, how the hell does raising city hall grant you control of the city? They could still access it with helicopters or really big ladders.

Apparently when the students were brain washed, they all became football players, as you don't see brain washed cheerleaders, kung-fu fools, or anyone, despite the fact the cafeteria was full of different kinds of students.