Right from one of the most forgettable Mega Man games straight into absolute peak Mega Man. When I was replaying so much of the Mega Man series this year, I had to replay this one. It's one of my absolute favourites of the entire series and one of the first Mega Man games I played.

Released on the PSP back in 2006, Mega Man Powered Up is a full blown remake of the original NES Mega Man game, and frankly - the best way to experience this game in any form. Not only does it have a Classic Mode that completely remasters the original levels and gameplay with new graphics, but there's a full-blown New Mode that completely and totally redesigns the game's structure and level design, making it more than eligible for this challenge. 

When I was getting into the Mega Man series thanks to the Archie Comics and Worlds Collide, my first games was Mega Man 2, and Mega Man 9. But this game, I went out of my way to order off Amazon, and in spite of getting a US copy, thankfully it was region free, so playing it wasn't a issue, even if the cover art isn't nearly as good as the EU and JP arts.

So this time, we've actually got the first major boom of this game - there's not only brand new original levels, but some of these are featuring brand new robot masters - Oil Man and Time Man, although there was of course - a infamous controversy that arose due to Oil Man's design that caused not one, but two different redesigns for him - the Mega Man Powered Up variation, that made efforts to redesign his appearance, and the Archie design, that instead gave him a cool scarf to obscure parts of him. Either way, unfortunate implications aside, both are more than welcome additions to the series, and fit right at home with the industrial uses of the other six robot masters. 

With these new levels, we also got an actual story this time around! Indeed, we get actual written dialogue, as well as seeing Rock's transformation into Mega Man first-hand thanks to the addition of a new tutorial prologue level. Even better than that - ALL of the robot masters get written dialogue with Mega Man prior to each of their fights that give new insight into their characters, their dynamics with Mega Man, and would even inform some of their personalities later on. 

From Cut Man being a kind soul who's reprogramming was done to make him believe Dr. Light and Mega Man were evil, making him think he was doing the right thing, to Time Man's strict punctual personality, and of course - Fire Man's justice loving, superhero-esque personality, it does wonders for giving these enemies so much personality, and would go on to later inform the Archie comics' takes on the robot masters, which also did a wonderful job of the robot masters as well. 

It's also very important because another massive part of this game that is so cool is the fact that ALL robot masters are playable! That's right - buster only isn't just some self-challenge this time around - if you defeat each and every single Robot Master with the Mega Buster, they will be kept in-tact following their battles, and Mega Man will return them to Light Labs, where they'll receive repairs and be programmed back to normal by Dr. Light, unlocking their campaigns.

More than that, while the levels remain the same, every single robot master gets unique dialogue with every boss, including a Copy Robot that impersonates Mega Man. It does so much for world-building, and breathes so much life into the Mega Man universe that I genuinely cannot imagine a better way to play through the game's plot, other than maybe reading the Archie comics. While it's not all good, with some bafflingly terrible lore changes and decisions, especially concerning Roll, the majority of the characters are really well written. 

That's not even all with the changes. There's multiple difficulties for both those seeking a challenge, and those who want a easier time. Proto Man and Roll are both playable via unlockable challenges, and DLC that can now be found by finding save files online (unfortunately). The graphics are incredibly charming, and look really damn well when upscaled, almost to the point of looking like a remaster. The multiple characters offer a whole ton of replayability, and the game's weapon selection is mostly still really damn good, with some weapons having gotten well deserved upgrades, but others getting some unfortunate downgrades. 

That's not to mention it also features a full blown level creator, long before Mario Maker and the fan made Mega Man Maker existed, tying into the single player experience by having various level portions that you can find throughout the levels, encouraging replays and using other robot masters to find them all. I've never personally used it in-depth, but from the sounds of it? It was great fun, especially with how you could get custom levels from others too, much like Mario Maker.

And the sound track. Oh GOD, the soundtrack, it is SO insanely good!

It's not all good. The game's 100% requirements is so utterly ridiculous and inexcusable that for the sake of this challenge, it was agreed to be a lot more reasonable, and only require the full campaign being beaten, and all characters (with exception to Proto Man and Roll) unlocked. But normally? The game expects you to play every level, with every single robot master, on every difficulty - totalling up to a total of 300+ level replays! That's utterly insane for a platformer, on par with something like Crash 4, but with no tangible reward for the effort. Given the challenge's stance on not requiring multiple character runs, that meant this 100% completion requirement is thankfully not needed.

On top of that, not all robot masters are born equal. A robot master essentially just uses their normal weapon, but with unlimited ammo, but this means that while they can be strong against a certain robot master, they're also weak against one as well. So for certain robot masters with great weapons? It's little issue. The likes of Cut Man, Ice Man, Elec Man and Fire Man won't have too much difficulty. But the likes of Oil Man? It's really bad. Especially on harder difficulties, which again, the game expects out of you for 100% completion normally. That's also again not including some of the unfortunate implications or horrible lore changes and writing for certain characters.

But honestly? Even with the flaws considered? This is a damn fine Mega Man game. One of the best Classic Mega Man experiences you can EVER have, frankly. I cannot recommend it enough. It is just that good, and it's a shame that to this day, it's not been given a re-release, requiring either emulation, or tracking down a original copy of the PSP game and playing it on a PSP. 

It's also a damn shame that this was intended to be a full blown line of remakes of the entire Classic series, being remade alongside the X series with Maverick Hunter X meant to spark off a Mega Man X remake series. Yet unfortunately, both games being on the PSP, and being 2D games on the PSP meant both ultimately didn't sell well, killing off any hope of those remake series continuing.

But still, I'm glad we at least got both of those two games. Do not sleep on them. They're fantastic. Play them. We'll be tackling Maverick Hunter X at some point in this series too, don't worry about that.