That is, unless I'm wrong. But right or not, I felt a deep, primal need to offer a kind word to my (still-)favorite game franchise.

P.S. I myself am fine, and will probably get back into regular posting proper in the next 2 days. Missed this place.

Hear Hear!
Here's to another 20!

Also: SonicPanda's back! Yay! Where have YOU been?

Has he figured out the concept of ducking in those 20 years? I've lost touch...

If anything's gonna flush Sonic outta hiding, it's gotta be something as momentous as a 20th Anniversary.  Good to see ya, Panda - and yes, a big ol' Happy to the Blue Bomber.  Now where's that Gameboy compilation already?!

Seems most of our old-school series faves have hit the big 2-0 benchmark by now.  We've had Mario, Castlevania, Metal Gear, Contra, and now Mega Man...... how about Double Dragon? 

X5 and X6 allowed ducking, though I can't remember if X7 or X8 had it.   ZX allowed you to duck and crawl in your non-offensive human form, though I'm not sure about Advent.

How is Advent, by the way?  Any opinions?

That's the form in which he doesn't make jokes about people in wheelchairs? You know, as opposed to the 'offensive human form'... it was funnier in my head.

You know, I should be happy it's Mega Man's 20th Anniversary but I'm really not - I'll probably sound like a broken record and a repeating piece of shit but after the mishandling of the X series (which I was totally devout to even when the games were terrible) I'm bitter. All these new series' just don't seem to have the same appeal as the original "trifecta" - original, X and Legends - had on me; but then I'm one jaded gamer so I'll shut up.

Anyway, the only reason I look forward to MM Anniversaries is the music releases the usually accompany them. Mega Man & Bass soundtrack in five years? I can only hope.

You can also duck in X7 during the 2D parts but can't in the 3D parts because it controls what direction you're moving in in that case. In retrospect I always thought this was rather crappy.

I like the idea of the celebration, but I think Capcom can go suck an egg for the way the picture they're using to celebrate:

http://www.destructoid.com/elephant//ul … 020ths.jpg

Just look at that shit. They have five different GBA Zero/ZX/AX/GX/FX/Advent/Christmas/Easter whatever characters in the picture, but they don't have classic Zero or Forte. Or Blues/Protoman. Ok, that's cool, I get it, secondary characters, blah blah. What I'm really heated about is that classic Megaman is just kinda kickin' it on the left hand side, and X is WAY in the back on the right behind those post-op trannies from the aforementioned new ZX-whatever series. Megaman, X and original Zero should be right in the center since they're what started this whole damn franchise and every other one that it has spawned since then. I'm surprised they didn't have the original Megaman lying dead in the middle of the picture with all these awesome looking anime characters raping his corpse.

Whew. Now that I've pissed all that vinegar out, I'm going to go hug a kitten.

The latest issue of Nintendo Power has a nice six-page spread celebrating MM's 20th.  The spread includes a twenty question interview with Takeshi Horinouchi, and a twenty-reason breakdown as to why we love Mega Man.  Fun read.

The most interesting part of the interview was Horinouchi stating that, in honor of the anniversary, he was playing around with the idea of doing a massive Power Battle-like game, encompassing every single Mega Man character to date -- but the project was ultimately scrapped due to lack of resources and time.  He's still open to the idea in the future, though.  Let's hope!