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Episode 365: The Mega Man Ranking Hootenanny (Patreon)

Published:
2021-03-15 12:59:59
Imported:
2026-06
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You know what's nice sometimes? A low-stakes episode where we can just sit around and chat for a while instead of recounting the rigors of video game history. And that's what we have this week, as I summon Nadia Oxford, Diamond Feit, and Stuart Gipp to basically banter for two hours about which Mega Man games are good, and which are not, while quantifying precisely how good or not-good they are in relative terms to one another. 

This episode will not make the world a significantly better place. It is, however, an enjoyable little palette cleanser before we get back to the Extremely Serious Business of Exploring Video Game History. 

I think in the end, however, we can all agree that the best-ish game won. Probably.

Art by Nick Wanserski. Edits by Greg Leahy. Music this episode:

16:20 - Mega Man: Guts Man

25:24 - Mega Man 2: Wily Fortress 1

32:44 - Mega Man 3: Shadow Man

41:47 - Mega Man 4: Dust Man

48:09 - Mega Man 5: Gravity Man

53:55 - Mega Man 6: Yamato Man

1:00:34 - Rockman 3 Complete Works/Mega Man Legacy Collection: Title Theme | Mega Man 7: Wily Stage 1

1:07:16 - Mega Man 8: Intro Theme

1:14:04 - Rockman & Forte (SFC): Boss Battle

1:21:57 - Mega Man 9: Tornado Man

1:30:16 - Mega Man 10: Strike Man

1:37:10 - Mega Man 11: Acid Man

1:45:14 - Mega Man 10: Sheep Man

Closing - Mega Man ???: Staff Roll

Files

Comments

Normallyretro

I the crew's approach to this ep. A lot of laugh out loud moments.

Ben Gracia

Fun episode. Do more like this!

Colbin Erdahl

Love this format, and as much as I love deep-dives on single games, it’s really fun to hear a series review like this as well, and see the evolution of a series or genre. (And varied opinions, correct ones and incorrect) My vote is for Mega Man 9 incidentally, which basically resurrected my personal love for 2D action games. I view it as old school Mega Man perfected. (Just edging out 2 & 3). I was also happy to hear Diamond’s and Nadia’s opinion on MM4, which was special to me as the first brand new video game I ever bought with my own money. I still remember picking up that purple box at the store, and becoming a proactive member of consumer society. It’s funny, as much as I loved this game and played it to death, it couldn’t keep me from passing on MM5 & MM6, and spending my time with MMX instead. In summary, I agree with Jeremy and Stuart on MM9, where Nadia and Diamond are clearly wrong, and I agree with Nadia and Diamond on MM4, where Jeremy and Stuart are clearly wrong. I also will stick up for MM11, Nadia. Can you do this format for every other video game series ever please? (Specifically I’m thinking of Super Mario, Sonic, Metroid, Zelda, Castlevania, Metal Gear and Mega Man X) Some of those may be harder and more disparate than others I guess. Maybe split up 2D/3D for Mario and Zelda? This could be content for years!

Paul

Game boy games mostly warmed over NES games!? How dare you! Even apart from 5, they had new level designs, new enemies, new fortresses and fortress bosses, new music, the Mega Man killers, and in 4's case animated cutscenes! They introduced the shop mechanic to the series!

Andrew O.

I love you guys. However this will be a harsh, but honest criticism... First I'm on the fence about the inclusion of Mega Man & Bass. Probably best if it were left off altogether. Regardless, Mega Man 4 and 7 are the worst in the series and I'm astonished they were ranked so high. Mega Man aside, I like the concept of this episode but not the execution. I see people here saying they like the format and wanting more, which scares me. Perhaps Mega Man was too big to tackle right out of the gate? There was no time to dig in and discuss details. No challenging of anyone's opinions. Everyone went in knowing where they ranked the games, which is fine, but combining those without any scrutiny just loses all credibility. It felt more like rambling thoughts than deliberation of knowledge, which to me isn't Retronauts. That's the HG101: Top 47k Games podcast and they already do a terrible job of ranking tons of games. Edit: I kind of feel bad saying all that, but I stand by it. Retronauts is better than this. There's plenty of other podcasts that don't offer the breadth of knowledge you do. That's why I love this podcast. If you really are considering this route, consider another funding goal. Do an extra long podcast like Bob and Henry do each month, where you can actually do the concept justice and not water down what makes Retronauts special.

crystalhearts

I liked this! I saw it come up in the feed and was delighted that it was the nice breezy ranking the title promised. I like your usual format too but it doesn't have to be deep investigative history of the Rampart trackball or some damn thing all the time.

Nicholas Wilhelmy

I thought this was a really fun episode, and would love to hear more of them. Bring the Axe of the Blood God crew in to rank Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest!

James Krusling

I really really enjoyed this, and I would kill for the Mario or Zelda version of this just for the internet to explode. Honestly you guys’ rankings kinda track with mine! I didn’t love 11 but once I kinda figured out how to play it I liked it more. I think your top 3 are unassailable although I actually oscillate between 3 and 9 being my favorite. Part of that might be because 3 was the first one I ever played and 9 helped keep me from losing my mind in Organic Chemistry in college, so I have a soft spot for both! But yes, please do another one like this sometime, I dig it!

Phoequinox

I agree that there should be more episodes like this, but I also know how indulging too much in these fun episodes can start to cheapen the experience for the creators. But if you guys get exhausted from research or serious discussion about games, I'd be happy to listen to more friendly banter about favorites and least favorites. The SotN vs. Super Metroid panel remains one of my favorite episodes. On the subject of the episode itself, back in the late '00s, I played through the whole Mega Man series up to 8, and my ranking would be 2>4>3>1>7>6>5>8. Also, I always feel incredibly stupid listening to articulate, knowledgeable people, so when someone with a very attractive British accent says he's bad at geography, I take a hefty, American sigh of relief.

Ned Mulka

Get Kat Bailey on and do all the Madden games.

Brian Rude

This really was a lot of fun. It was interesting how I agreed with different people about different games. I felt validated to hear 4 get some good scores (although criticisms about things like the charge shot are totally valid). I've beaten every (numbered) MM classic game many, many times, with the exception of 8. I played it when it was new and every few years after that, but it never clicked with me and I hated it. A few weeks ago I replayed it and finally beat it (like Stuart said, you have to learn to properly control that damn ball) and, for whatever reason, I found myself enjoying it a lot more overall. It's still way down on my personal list, but that's only because there are so many others that I think are even better. I agree with the comments that this episode needed a much longer time to really dig into everyone's opinions and feelings. I don't know if it would be possible to do a two- or three-parter for future rankings with other long-running series, but I would love to hear it.

Joe Drilling

Parish: I wish I'd kept [Rockman & Forte]. I'm sure it's worth a lot now. But you didn't, you sold it... TO ME. I still have it, I'm not planning to sell it anytime soon. Also, it's not that expensive, more than it was in 2007 or whenever that was, but not Little Samson money or even what Wonderswan Rockman & Forte goes for.

Guillermo Jiménez

Very fun episode. My own ranking goes: Mega Man 1.- Mega Man X 2.- Mega Man 2 3.- Mega Man V (GB) 4.- Mega Man IV (GB) 5.- Mega Man 6.- Mega Man 3 7.- Mega Man 6 8.- Mega Man 4 9.- Mega Man 5 10.- Mega Man Maverick Hunter X I haven't played 7-11 but I just got the Legacy Collection 2 on Switch so in the future I will go back and rank only the mainline games. In the meantime, this is it.

DarthObvious

Love this episode concept, but I wouldn't make it a regular thing. I like a good mix of episodes. As of this typing, i haven't finished the episode yet, but I want to go to bat for 4, 5, and 6. Mega Man 5 is the one I have the most nostalgia for, because its the only one I ever owned. Yes, it took them until 6 to figure out a good balance on the charge shot, but as a kid who couldn't get an SNES for a couple of years, having more new, and good (not great) games on the NES was a pretty nice consolation prize. My personal ranking. 3 2 6 5 4 9 1 8 7 If I left it out, I haven't played it (enough) to judge. 9 gets low marks for being insanely difficult, but I absolutely appreciate what its doing.

Gus Pineda

Great episode! Hope you do more episode like this.

Galbana

It's actually Bubble -Read-, cause you're -reading- the surface for invisible holes. Thank you for joining my TED talk, I will not be taking anymore questions. (But seriously, this was a great episode and I welcome more ranking hootenannies)

CitizenMeh

Never touched a Mega Man game in my life, but this was a very enjoyable episode with a well-curated selection of guests. One thing I love about Retronauts is the variety, so adding another episode format that can be rolled out every couple of months or so sounds great to me.

Andrew Dausman

This was delightful! One of the reasons I like Retronauts is that you tend to be a bit more historical and contextual than the usual gaming podcast. I still learned new things about my favorite series in this one. All that being said, I very much enjoyed the lighter mood. Great episode, and great cast chemistry.

Alexander Pero

I’ve owned Nadia’s book for literally YEARS and only just now found out that she wrote it. No way!

Adam

Like so many others have said, I had a great time listening to this episode. While I've been a Mega Man fan since the NES days, I have honestly not played about half of the numbered entries. This episode has given me some inspiration to go back and check out some of them! I'm really hoping this is only the first in a Retronauts rankings series.

PurpleComet

While it certainly has issues, I enjoyed Mega Man 11. The Power Gear meant each weapon essentially had two attacks. I got a lot of use of showering enemies with Block Man's bricks. The Robot Masters had a lot of personality in their cheesy-but-fun one-liners. My favorite was Acid Man who'd nonsensically cry out "Chemistry!" upon dying. The Robot Master fights were more fun as well, they used the Gear system themselves to switch things up. I just wish the stages weren't so long. Replaying Mega Man 9 I was struck by consistently inventive it was. The Dr Wily stages seem kind of perfunctory in some entries, but here they keep throwing new ideas at you.

Eino Keskitalo

I want to thank Nadia! I've long been wanting to check out Inti Creates' retro-style Mega Men, and had the impression that I should go for 9 over 10. But her description of 10 being the looser, more fun and less strictly challenging entry made me realize that's exactly the game I need right now. I went and got it and I'm having a great time!

Shel Freezes Over

I don't remember what inspired me to play Mega Man 2 back in the day, but it was my first MM, and to this day remains my favorite. Since then I've played every one in the series except 11 (which Nadia has actually inspired me to play now), and to some degree I love them all. This episode was a blast, and I vote for more like it--Mario, Zelda, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Castlevania, etc.

etc etc

This was surprisingly fantastic for being a more loose and low-stakes. A great listen. I'd be happy for there to be a million more eps just like this about different franchises.