PixlBit

Capcom had an amazing run of arcade fighting games in the early 90s and single handedly revitalized the waining arcade market with their blockbuster six-button masterpiece Street Fighter 2: the World Warrior in 1991. They were also responsible for turning arcades into button-mashing battlegrounds via their lucrative Marvel Comics license, beginning with X-Men: Children of the Atom in 1994 and reaching its pinnacle with Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 in 2000.

When I was in high school my girlfriend at the time (who is now my wife) worked at a Domino's Pizza Party Center. It was basically like a smaller version of Chuck E. Cheese, but rather then being populated exclusively with rip-off ticket games, they also had a pretty fantastic selection of arcade machines including a four-slot Neo Geo MVS, Mortal Kombat 2 and Marvel Vs. Capcom. I remember going into visit her at night and getting a giant bucket of free tokens. I would pump coin after coin into MvC and although I was never very good (at fighting games in general) I would keep playing anyway, captivated by the stunning 2D sprites and near cartoon-quality animation. I would always pick Mega Man as one of my characters, mainly because I was in love with the colourful, Mega Man 7ish, fully realized anime character model of the blue bomber. I wanted more.

Now, before I continue you must understand something about the era in which I spent the majority of my teenage years (the horrible, ugly 90's). There was no internet until I was 15 years old, and even then it was dial-up and the web wasn't what it is now. At the time video game magazines barely mentioned arcade games at all, and if you didn't see a machine in your local arcade chances are that you probably didn't have any knowledge of its existence. Therefore it made sense that it wasn't until a few years ago, far removed from my Domino's Pizza Party Center days, that I even heard about Capcom's Mega Man fighting game, Mega Man: The Power Battle. Thats right! A Mega Man fighting game!

Mega Man: The Power Battle was released in arcades in Japan (where it was titled Rock Man: The Power Battle) and North America in 1995. There isn't much info on it out there, but from what I can glean it seems that it was never released in a fully dedicated cabinet. It appears to only ever appear in a generic Capcom branded cab with a custom Mega Man: The Power Battle marquee.

The game play style is that of a one-on-one fighter, which pits the blue bomber against various Mega Man robot masters from the series' first 7 numbered entries. The Power Battle is essentially a Mega Man boss attack mode in arcade game form. The fighting itself isn't particularly deep, with few special moves and no combos to speak of, but that's okay. I am a big fan of The Last Blade 2, but I'll be damned if I really understand the precise minutia of all that games mechanics. With Mega Man: The Power Battle, a deep understanding of fighting games is not necessary: only the understanding of how a Mega Man game works- which is to say 'pew pew pew jump slide jump'.

You are given the option of playing as the blue bomber himself, Proto Man or Bass, with each character having their own unique attacks. Proto Man can use a charge shot and a dash attack. Proto Man's normal shots are some-what larger than that of Mega Man and Bass, and although they do not deal anymore damage, they do offer a higher chance of hitting your target due to their size. Bass again has a charge shot as well as an air dash, although the air dash is kind of a crap shoot due to its proclivity of sending you directly into the danger you are trying to avoid. Mega Man himself has his charge shot and his trusty slide. Mega Man's slide provides a slight advantage over the other two characters, mainly because of how low he gets to the ground, allowing you to dodge many attacks that Proto Man and Bass cannot. Completing the each course with the three characters also offers a unique ending for each.

Mega Man: The Power Battle offers up three selectable game courses. You can either play Mega Man 1-2, Mega Man 3-6 or Mega Man 7. Each mode boasts a selection of robot master from the noted games, each with wonderfully updated designs. Each course also ends with a string of bosses and a final confrontation with Dr. Wiley. The stage and enemy selection is roulette style, giving you the option of facing your each boss with a timed button press. After you defeat a robot master you'll gain their power, as per Mega Man standards. You can then toggle between the powers in subsequent battles. Much like a true-to-form Mega Man game, the rock-paper-scissors mechanic is in full effect, with some weapons working better against specific enemies.

Not all the robot masters from the original games are included in the roster; instead the enemy line up is populated mainly by iconic baddies and fan favourites. In Mega Man 1-2 you'll face off against Cut Man, Guts Man, Wood Man, Heat Man, Ice Man and Crash Man. In Mega Man 3-6 the masters are Magnet Man, Gemini Man, Dust Man, Gyro Man, Napalm Man and Plant Man. Finally, in the Mega Man 7 story mode you'll face off against Freeze Man, Junk Man, Cloud Man, Slash Man, Shade Man and Turbo Man.

After vanquishing the robot masters in your selected story mode, you'll face off against the Yellow Devil (Mega Man 1-2 and Mega Man 3-6) or VAN Pookin (Mega Man 7). The final confrontation is with the giant Wily Machine and finally Wily himself in his pod. If you fail to kill the final pod form of Wily before the timer runs down, you will get the 'bad' ending.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the music in this game; it is filled to the brim with tons of redone versions of classic Mega Man robot master stage and Wily stage themes. Some of the highlights include the stage music of Crash Man, Guts Man and Gemini Man. A full list of music can be found here.

The good news about Mega Man: The Power Battle is that you don't need to seek out one of the extremely scarce arcade boards in order to experience it in all its glory. You can play it as an unlockable bonus is the Mega Man Anniversary Collection games released for the GameCube, PS2 and XBox. This is a good thing, because this is a must play for any fan of fighting games and/or the original Mega Man series.