Before I started this journal series about Mega Man, the idea to re-beat 4 and 9 seemed like a good idea at the time. Fresh from beating number 10, I feel more inclined on ramming my head into the wall instead. I'm all Blue Bomber'd out. Instead, I'm just going to reflect a little about 4 and 9.

I know it's been about two months since my last entry. Once I wrapped up Mega Man 10, I went straight to my 360 to play Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2. After I've gotten all but one achievement in that game, Halo: Reach became my new go to game. With the Cataclysm release, World of Warcraft has partially sucked me back in but not as much as Halo. Anyway back to Mega Man.

Looking back at the series, I couldn't help but adore the gameplay mechanics. It's simple, yet challenging like the original Super Mario Bros. You shoot nearly everything in sight, topple a boss, grab his weapon, and then move to the next stage. In every game, each robot master has a theme (water, ice, electricity, fire, etc.) and Dr. Wily is always the culprit behind everything going on. From 1-10, very little has changed except adding a minor ability in Mega Man's arsenal. Analyzing why these games are so appealing to so many people is what I think are two components gamers look for, creative level design and a challenge.

In every stage, it reflects the robot master you eventually end up fighting. (Even some of the enemies sport the theme.) This creates an amazing use of creativity from the designers' that show off these worlds. It's a style of their own that people try to imitate. Just look at the artwork involved. They took great care in crafting these games. (Probably not so much with 5 and 7.) But the primary aspect, I believe is the challenge these game offer. I admit, they made me curse like the Angry Video Game Nerd on crummy games but it was satisfying seeing that ending credits scroll from the screen. Mega Man 4's ending did just that; it satisfied my gaming appetite. It was just pure win for me.

Out of the entire robot masters, Dive Man was my dastardly arch-nemesis as he was the one that I had the most frustration with. (Some would say Ring Man but not me.) He would spam his missiles and I would get caught within them almost every time. Eventually, I had gotten his pattern down to the point where I could defeat him without taken any damage to myself. You can say I was a bit obsessed with defeating him.

My most memorable moment with 4 was definitely fighting Dr. Wily for the last time. It was intense as the music was awesome to listen to and it amped my heart rate as I tried to beat him. Very rarely has this happened during gaming and the only other time that has was with another fourth title, Resident Evil during the fight against one of Salazar's bodyguards.

Mega Man 9 definitely sits high as an amazing Mega Man game. To me, it's as good as 2, 3, and 4. It was difficult but not too bad and the soundtrack is on par with 2's, 3's, and 4's. This was my first downloaded game to my 360 and I spent an entire Sunday delved in beating this game. This reminded me why I liked 4 so darn much.

So here's my quick best of's and a top 10 Mega Man music levels. Because everyone likes useless top whatever lists, then debate who goes where and who should be on it.

Best overall soundtrack: Mega Man 2, Mega Man 9 for a close second

Top 10 Robot Master Stage Themes:

1. Snake Man

2. Metal Man

3. Bomb Man

4. Dive Man

5. Skull Man

6. Gemini Man

7. Galaxy Man

8. Crash Man

9. Splash Woman

10. Shadow Man

Bomb Man definitely doesn't get much love but then again, even I don't know why I like his stage so much…