So you know, here be spoilers for a number of very old games.
Did you hear? Zero didn’t kill Dr. Light, Mega Man, Roll, and the rest of the motley robotic crew they hang out with! What a relief.
I’m not too proud to admit it: I gave a damn about the story in Mega Man. Not so much anymore, but back in the proverbial day, it was a legitimate selling point for me. Even beyond the melancholic future-pastoral in Mega Man 2’s largely implied narrative and into the series’ less-loved entries. The story became too explicit, too ridiculous, too full of whiny, awful voice acting, but, all the same, my imagination was too invested in fleshing out the world of 20XX to give a damn. Take the ending of Mega Man 7, wherein Mega Man defeats Dr. Wily and, instead of carting the irascible coot to jail for the eleventh time, the Blue Bomber put his arm-cannon against Wily’s skull claiming he was, “Gonna do what I should have done years ago.” Madness! This game surrounded Mega Man with cute, cuddly, comedic robot pals like Otto more than any other game in the series and yet here he was threatening murder. How did this happen? But, more importantly, was this a sign of how the dystopian future of Mega Man X came to pass?
See? Stupid or not, I was invested. Continuity is a strong hook but it isn’t especially well-suited to videogames broadly. Mega Man, and a number of other franchises, can afford the luxury of detailed continuity because new entries come out on an almost annual basis. But most of the time, games take years to develop and there are prolonged gaps between games. Look at Metroid. Eight years passed between its third and fourth entries. The story picked up right where it left off, but Nintendo didn’t rush to re-release Super Metroid for players to brush up on their lore. So why retain the story continuity at all? The continuity is a treat for older players, but it’s a barrier for new players who actually want to invest in the game’s characters. The majority of games don’t keep a running narrative thread, only character and thematic continuity (i.e. Ghosts ‘N Goblins will have Arthur the Knight fighting Satan to rescue The Princess.) What does it offer to a game when access to previous chapters is severely limited and not even a source of potential sales for the game’s maker?
Personally, I love continuity in my games. I like knowing characters and settings have history and that, when their series inevitably continues, that history and story will continue to affect them. It doesn’t matter how simplistic that story might be or how superficial an emotional link it creates between player and game. But in order for it to mean something, players need access to the previous chapters.
If you haven’t gotten my point yet, Capcom, I’m saying re-release the damn Anniversary Collection before Mega Man 9 comes out. Sheesh.
Related links:
Mega Man 9 Goes Back To Your Roots. Way Back.
The Ten Greatest Classic Mega Man Levels
For Love of the Game: Rockman 7 FC
What I'm Playing This Weekend: Mega Man Anniversary Collection