When I first saw the box for Mega Man X (it was the first time in a while that I'd laid eyes on any Mega Man box), I thought "Whoa! Mega Man Ten? I didn't know that I'd missed that many Mega Man games!"
Silly me, I didn't know that the 'X' on the box represented a whole new Mega Man series, and not the roman neumeral '10'. Although I know better now, there are still some people left in the dark about the difference between the X and regular MM series. And believe me, there are quite a few especially regarding storylines and characters.
The original series takes Mega Man as a little blue guy through game after game of colourful romps o' fun in the year 20XX. Mega Man used to be a simple lab assistant robot to his creator, Dr. Light, until the fateful day that Dr. Light's former partner, the oh so evil Dr. Wily, reprogrammed some of Dr. Light's robots and turned them against mankind in an attempt to take over the world. Mega Man escaped the tinkering, and volunteered like a good boy to undergo the transformation to become a 'superrobot' of sorts to fight the oh so evil Dr. Wily's twisted plot to enslave mankind.
The end of every game will take you, without fail, to a final showdown against the oh so evil Dr. Wily. He's a stubborn bastard of a bad guy who just doesn't know when to call it quits. In some of the games, Capcom tries to mislead you by giving you this flak about a 'new evil guy in town'. A prime example is Dr. Cossack from Mega Man 4. It turns out, however, that the oh so evil Dr. Wily forced Cossack into fighting by kidnapping his daughter, Kalinka. One game later, we're told that Mega Man's mysterious (and neutral) brother, Proto Man, has kidnapped Dr. Light (GASP!). Later on in the game, though, it turns out that Proto Man was framed by the oh so evil Dr. Wily. (Are we noticing a trend here? :) This is not to say that these predictable plots annoy me...in fact, I sorta like them. I think it would be too much of a shock for every Mega Man fan if someone else other than Wily actually did all the bad stuff just for one game.
Many characters and bosses (most of which end with the prefix 'man') have come and gone through the 13+ games of the original series. Some mean, some naughty, some nice. One thing's for sure: Each of the games in the series will take you on a colourful, captivating journey that will make you forget your troubles, your sorrows, your dinner, and your homework.
The X games take place in the year 21XX. They involve a superadvanced breed of robot known as 'reploids' (robots with human thoughts and feelings). Reploids and their human creators are unable to play nicely together, and as a result, some of the reploids go 'Maverick' and off or injure any human who peeves them. The head of the Mavericks is Sigma, a nasty old reploid who believes that the humans are the inferior species, and that every human should go belly up as a consequence.
Is this the end of the human race? C'mon, you know better than that! To counter the violent actions of the Mavericks, 'Maverick Hunters' have been recruited to destroy any reploid that shows any desire to rebel against the humans. Needless to say, the Mavericks regard the reploid members of the Maverick Hunters as traitors to their own kind, and are not exactly happy with these 'betrayers'. Over and over again, though, Mega Man X, the first reploid ever created and one of the greatest Hunters, has shown Sigma and his cohorts exactly where to go.
The Mega Man X series sets a more sombre mood and environment in contrast to the happy Never-Never land of the original games. In the X romps, you've got stories dealing with blood, death, and mass rebellion. Because of its darker mood, some MM fans shun the X series. Personally, I prefer the X games. I guess I just like the setting of the stories...a world on the edge of Armedgeddon. It's the kind of setting that I like to brighten up with crazy humour in my fanfics. :)
Now, this site focuses more on the X series than it does on the original series. That's because I enjoy the X series a bit more, thus I feel more confident about creating this page to cover the X side. Besides, Phaelin has everything and anything on the original games covered at The Mega Man Homepage .