what a funny story, Mark

Granted, maybe you were just so amazed by Megaman 3's incredibly awesome soundtrack that the fact that a song in the game is just pretty good was such a betrayal that you hate the song forever. That would be acceptable logic.

We're 40 pages and a year and a half into this thread and haven't had any issues. Let's try to be civil. It's just an opinion and it doesn't affect your life in any significant way.

Speaking of a year and a half, it was about that much time between the releases of MM9 and MM10 and it's been almost two years since MM10 was release and no word on a MM11. Hopefully we hear something soon.

@StuffyStuff: Wow has it been that long? I still have to play MM9 and 10 I downloaded them awhile ago but still havent touched them lol.

@Waveboy
It's funny that freeze man's theme is the only track in mega man 8 that I like. Anyways, I don't necessarily hate MM2 or anything I do enjoy the game probably more than MM1 and MM3............. until the castle stages. I cannot stand the castle in mega man 2 and that is the only reason I dislike the game besides the fact that I find the later installments more fun. For soundtracks though, MM9> MM2> MM3> MM6> MM4> MM5> MM10> MM1> MM7> MM8

Do i honestly have to type in "in my opinion" everytime i say something like this? You should know that I'm not acting as if it's a fact, 'I' just find this song to be the worst in the series. And yup, Needle man's track is all sorts of awful. I never liked Hard's either...

I completely agree. Whenever I do decide to pop in a little MM2, I always stop playing as soon as I reach Wily's Castle. Forget about that awesome iconic and extremely popular Wily track, the awesome picture of Wily's castle before you enter, and those memorable Bosses including that massive scary dragon, Tank Guts man and the oozy dropplet riddled passage way that led to the Alien Battle at the end......The stages themselves I found were pretty bland, visually drab, unappealing and almost depressing to play. I could never stand them and i still can't. MM1 had awesome Wily stages. I beat it for the 2nd time during Christmas 10' and i absolutely loved the castle, it's bright floaty orange platforms, the bright blue sky-ish backdrop, the way you fought the bosses instead of the typical RM room which was in every other MM afterwards.

Anyways, Dr. Cossack & Wily's Castle in 4 I don't remeber liking either including even MM10's to certain degree....But 2 was the worst hands down.

Finally beat mm 4. Yay

@WaveBoy
Just a thought as I read what you thought about the MM2 Wily stages, but don't you think they were supposed to be "drab" and "bland"? It's Dr. Wily's castle, it's the last area of the game, you don't think he's going to make all the rooms in his fortress pastel colors or put rainbows above all the doors or something? I may be going overboard a little, but think about it. Also I'm not arguing, just saying that's all. Just take a moment and consider that Dr. Wily is the bad guy in a late 80's video game, he's going to be evil and insensitive, I'm sure he'd design his diabolical lair the same way.

Also, I don't think Frost Man has the worst music, just as I don't believe MM8 has bad music at all. Things just don't annoy me as much as some of you guys I guess. It's kind of like the Robot Masters in MM6. Everybody usually says their designs are horrible, but I never thought that. I take one look at, say, Blizzard Man, and I just don't see anything wrong with him like some people do. Same with every other Robot Master in the series, I think they're just fine.

@Waveboy To answer your question a few days ago, Megaman 2 was the first game I played fully(5 was the first, but I only played it at the shops) and indeed I was blown away because I never played any game like it. But going back to it after playing 3-9+MM&B, I still love the game, but it's just that I now can see the flaws after having played the sequels, the fortress particularly being the main flaw. Just felt boring to me after playing the Robot Masters' stages. As for the last level, its easy as heck, all you have to do is run straight without stopping... yeah, pretty anti-climactic. I love 2 but I find 3 better and let's leave it at that. :l

3 will stand out as my favorite in the series because it improved further on 2's mechanics(Which improved on the first) and I consider it to be the series high point, and I can tell you it is just as bright, cheery, colorful, distinct and up beat as 2 IMO. The slide mechanic was a welcome addition that made evading enemies alot easier, the story was arguably the best in the series(Protoman was a welcome addition), the music made an everlasting impression(Snakeman, Title theme, and Blue's Whistle), and the stages were just as good as 2... I could go on about the bosses, rush and such, but I don't want to make this a love letter. It was amazing for its era and still stands the test of time, 3 was a hard game to top that not even 4 with its Charge buster inclusion could beat such a game.

And since we are talking about Megaman music, I'll give you my top ten:
Blue's whistle A fitting end for my favorite game.
Megaman 2 Title theme Obvious answer but for good reasons.
Snake man My favorite Robot master theme coupled with my favorite Robot master stage
Tornado man Had some really high pitched tunes, but the composition was simply awesome.
Enker-MM10 Really improved the GB version which I already liked.
Tengu man A guilty pleasure of mine. Fits his stage perfectly and couple that with the rush shooter segment and it became my favorite stage of the game.
Gravity man Best song in 5 IMO.
Magnet man This song has that uplifting beat that makes it perfect for a first stage.
Metal man Same reason as Magnet man.
Elec man Any theme that resembles a Journey song gets my love.

Also, you want a bad song, then listen to Hyadain's Crash man theme. Ruined the RM for me
Warning: Suggestive themes ahead

On the castle topic, I think that's what made MM4 for me. It would have been nice to have a password that takes you to Wily's castle, but Cossack's castle is good, all of the bosses were well done and the music was good. Aside from Toad Man's flawed AI, I don't see anything wrong with the game. I do get a little bugged with MM2's castle as well. I don't mind that it has a bunch of brown, yellow and purple, it's the design of every stage. And if you mess up or die on the boss where you need the Crash Bombs, you're screwed. The music for the MM3 castle is the best in the series as far as I'm concerned.

This is why I like the series so much. I can find something in each of the 8-bit games where I can say that's my favorite thing in the series as a whole, be it music, castle design, boss design, whatever.

My favorite Robot Master themes:

Spark Man - Mega Man 3

Ring Man - Mega Man 4

Dive Man - Mega Man 4

Skull Man - Mega Man 4

Star Man - Mega Man 5

Gyro Man - Mega Man 5

Wave Man - Mega Man 5

Mega Man 4's music is much better composed than Mega Man 3. The instrumentation is better, and it sounds more polished. Mega Man 3 was rushed, and the music is proof of that. And Mega Man 5 has incredible music. Star Man's bizarre and spacey music is amazing (to me), and nothing beats the funkiness of Gyro Man's music. Wave Man's music is a bit boring, but there's just something about it that I like, maybe it's the catchy rhythm?

I don't know what it is that makes Mega Man so much fun but I can just keep playing the games over and over again. I've beaten all of them at least once and some twice, but by the time I beat them all starting with MM1, at MM10, i'm ready to do it all over again.

@LordTendoboy - I wouldn't say there's "proof" that MM3's music is rushed (pun intended?) Many people think 3 is the pinnacle of the series, and you'll find a bunch of people saying Snake Man's song is among the best in the series. Overall, I like the music in 4 better than 3, but it's all subjective :- )

@iPancakez - What I think makes the series so easy to come back to is the familiarity. Every game is basically the same, but with slight modifications in gameplay. I'm willing to bet if Nintendo made ten SMB games in the style of SMB3, they would have had varying degrees of success, like the Mega Man series, and we'd be having the same discussion in a different thread.

@iPancakez
Same here, except I've beaten many of them more that just once or twice. Beating them just once sometimes isn't enough for me I guess.

@LordTendoboy
Good picks on the music. I'm especially glad that you put Star Man in there, as he has my favorite song in MM5. However, I would not call the music in 5 incredible. If anything, it's mostly just decent, and a lot of the songs sound much too similar. There are a few good ones such as Star Man's, Gyro Man's, and the Wily stage theme, but most are fairly mediocre. We have talked about this before (shortly after MM5 was released on VC), but since you brought up the music in MM5 I thought I'd repeat myself. Five is my least favorite entry in the series, but again, it's been said. It's nowhere near being a bad game, it's just extremely flawed.

If anyone has yet to play the 8-bit remakes of Mega Man 7 and Mega Man 8, I highly recommend you do so.

Download links can be found on their Wiki pages in the "External Links" section:

http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Rockman_7_Famicom
http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Rockman_8_Famicom

They may be classified as "Fan made", but trust me, they're good.

@MegaStoneSmash91
Thanks for the links, I knew about the Mega Man 7 one but the MM8 one was new to me so that's neat. I would play them but I just can't with a keyboard.

Actually, the remake of 8 does support external controllers. I tried it with a standard USB gamepad and it let me set controls for it and it played just fine. I'm willing to bet that an Xbox 360 controller, or pretty much anything else a computer would support/recognize would also work. The remake of 7, however, does require the keyboard or some alternate program to convert key presses into button presses on a controller. I use something called Joy2Key in combination with a controller converter that lets you use PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox controllers on a PC, and it works wonders. I could never play Mega Man with a keyboard either, so you're not alone there.

My top 10 Megaman robot master themes are (in no particular order)
Bombman
Woodman
Bubbleman
Topman
Sparkman
Geminiman
Toadman
Gravityman
Junkman
Solarman

Sorry, Tim. I just found most of Mega Man 3's soundtrack to be average excluding Snake Man, Gemini Man and the Main Theme which were exceptionally awesome.

Then again, these are just my opinions and if you want to chastise me for it, then by all means go ahead.

To get back on topic, here's a pretty funny Egoraptor analysis and explanation video about Mega Man X and the the classic Mega Man games that I recently found:

That is a pretty good video, had a lot of points I would have never thought of. He should do more like those!