Have you ever stopped and added up your recent gaming purchases, just to see how much your hobby is really costing you?
The Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) is an abbreviation that get’s thrown around a lot oil the gaming industry, indicating what most stores charge for new hardware and software as recommended by the publishers.
However, the amount on a price tag isn’t the true cost associated with gaming.
Price ≠ Cost.
Time: You spend much more time equity on a game compared to what’s come out of your wallet. Even if your job pays minimum wage, your time has a high value on it that is quickly surpassed when sinking hours into the latest open world adventure or competitive shooter. (Related: “Making Your Gaming Time Matter”)
Mood: It takes some maturity and self-awareness to think about how you’re thinking. Oftentimes, video games are liable to alter our moods. We usually like our titles to be somewhat challenging (as opposed to a cake-walk), and there’s a fine line between difficulty that enhances your accomplishment and difficulty that causes frustration. It’s okay to walk away from a game that’s interfering with real life, in any way, shape or form.
Opportunity: Related to time management, opportunity cost is a real thing to consider. Sometimes, it’s good to think about what else you could be doing with your time. In other words, what are games causing you to potentially miss out on? Who could you meet, what could you make, or where could you go?
Health: I’d love to believe that there are no health risks with partaking in Nintendo fandom, but my hands tell me otherwise. Carpal tunnel can set in without proper ergonomics, especially if you spend a considerable amount of time on computers on top of your gaming hobby. Additionally, omitting a short stint in the Wii era, time spent gaming is time spent sitting on your God-given cushions. It’s important to balance digital entertainment with some amount of physical activity (don’t ask my advice on this—I’ll get back to you later).
Don’t feel guilty for spending money, time, and other assets on video games. Like you, it’s my favorite way to have fun! Just try to consider the true cost, and avoid debt… monetary, health, or otherwise.
Have you ever been on the outside, looking in on a pop-culture phenomenon?
While the Pokemon games are some of the most popular titles in Nintendo’s stable, I’ve never played a full mainline entry.
I’ve had a weird history with this franchise, and beaten just about everything except the main RPGs: Stadium 1&2, Snap, Colosseum, XD Gale of Darkness, Pokken, a little GO, even Hey You! Pikachu for goodness sake.
I grew up a little bit after the huge wave of Red/Blue/Yellow hype, and have always felt that I missed the bandwagon.
People who have been with the series since its inception are still trading their pocket monsters from game to game, amassing a huge army!
It definitely feels like I would have a hard time just jumping in, although I know they create these games for a younger demographic and take into account franchise newcomers to some extent.
You know what still scares me? It’s all the nuance that’s built up over generations. Developer GameFreak still builds on mechanics that have existed for decades, resulting in an imposing collection of the unknown.
A crossroads approaches. When the Pokemon series debuts on Nintendo Switch, I feel like I’ll have my best shot yet of hopping aboard the speeding train. If I let it pass me by again, I may never catch up.
Even with everything going for it, I just can’t get behind the idea of watching someone else play a video game.
Part of my hesitation is generational; I’m a little bit older than the average LP viewer.
Otherwise, it’s just not how I want to spend my small slice of free time. After work is done, the house is taken care of, and my responsibilities are attended to, I want the controller to be in my hand. That firsthand experience just can’t be replaced.
Ironically, I help run two weekly Let’s Play series, one for Switch and one for Classics. Make sure to tune in live on the weekends!
Two Button Crew patrons voted that we subject ourselves to this torture, so we did. What felt like an hour of agony was really only 35 minutes of trial and error. And a lot of the SNES Classic Edition rewind feature. Thank goodness for that. Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts may just be the hardest game we’ve played on the show, but watch the whole thing to see how we feel about it towards the end.
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Before the Live Show, Simeon and Scott hosted Your Daily Nintendose of Fandom on their YouTube channel by uploading a Nintendo related video every day. It was a blast, and it’s time to look back on the final 250 episodes and celebrate the Top 10 videos from that period. Join us as we laugh, cry, and remember the Daily Show!
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Nintendo just blew the roof off Splatoon 2 by adding in a ton of new content, as well as feature we’ve been asking for since the original’s launch: fast gear swapping. We’ve also got news on the direction GameFreak will be taking Pokemon on Switch, and more! It’s a big news week so buckle up and hit the play button.
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Simeon and Scott scored a copy of Pokken Tournament DX on Switch, so it’s time to battle it out and see how the updated version holds up! There are some odd choices for local multiplayer, so the Crew will test out which one is best for competitors, while showing off all the awesome new additions to the roster!
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Hold the phone – Nintendo’s working on a movie?! Let’s talk about that! And as usual, Nintendo sales are up and more developers are committing to bringing their games to the Switch!
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Note: The following article contains spoilers for Sonic Mania. For those interested in Sonic Mania, I highly recommend waiting until you complete zone 2, act 2 before reading further.
Sonic Mania is amazing. But you probably already know that, either from experiencing it first-hand or from the mounds of praise heaped upon it by the general public. It quickly became my favorite entry into the franchise when I picked it up for myself a few months ago. It’s the “back to basics” game Sega has been promising—but ultimately failing—to deliver for nearly a decade now. Heck, this game is so good, it can even include one of the most egregiously wrong design choices I’ve ever seen and make it one of the most charming set-pieces of the entire game.
And no, that’s not hyperbole, one of the game’s most memorable moments is flat out stupid by conventional game design standards. What moment am I referring to? The Chemical Plant Zone Robotnik fight.
Why It Should be Horrible
The boss of Zone 2 isn’t a boss in the traditional sense; instead, it’s a game of Puyo-Puyo Pop. That’s right, instead of fighting some wacky contraption, Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles faces Dr. Robotnik in a lethal game of Puyo-Puyo. No instructions, no fore-shadowing, just dropped into a game and expected to win.
From a design standpoint, this looks like a bad idea on paper. As mentioned before, the player is given no instructions. Puyo Pop isn’t exactly the hardest game to understand, but the game assumes the player already knows how to play. There’s no pop-up for controls, no instructions on how to clear Puyos from the screen, nothing. If the player is familiar with drop-puzzles like Tetris or Dr. Mario, they may be able to intuit some objectives from the conventions of the format: namely matching colors.
That leads into the more pressing issue: genre shift. While switching between gameplay styles isn’t uncommon in video games, especially more recent Sonic titles, typically levels that dip into different gameplay formats only switch to genres of a similar nature. For instance, many side-scrolling platformer games include one or two levels that switch over to being a side-scrolling shoot-em-up. This is typically considered acceptable because the two gameplay styles have many similarities. Most notably, both are action games, meaning the skills needed to master them are almost identical. These skills include things like quick-reflexes, spacial awareness to assess threats and their proximity to the player, and prioritization of risks and rewards (such as power-ups).
Where switching gameplay styles gets frustrating is when the new style has little or nothing to do with the concepts of the core gameplay style. A pertinent example of such a gameplay switch is the fishing segments of Sonic Adventure. While many people speak fondly of the game those segments’ mechanics were based off of, Sega Bass Fishing, most people object to the inclusion of such mechanics in an action platformer. That’s not to say juxtaposed gameplay styles can’t be paired successfully, but that contrast typically has to be one of the game’s core principles with everything else designed around it (e.g. DS cult classic Henry Hatsworth).
Where switching gameplay styles gets frustrating is when the new style has little or nothing to do with the concepts of the core gameplay style.
Now compare that to Puyo-Puyo Pop. Being good at Puyo-Puyo requires players to plan on the fly. The player has to decide how to stack and group puyos in real-time to set up combos and react to his opponent’s attempts to interfere. I don’t have the background in Puyo-Puyo to know what exactly goes into high level play, but I can tell you it’s a very different game than Sonic the Hedgehog. This means that the player is expected to use an entirely different skill-set from what the game has been training him to use up until this point. Moreover, this is the only place in the game—outside of an unlockable bonus Puyo-Puyo mode, that is—that the player is asked to exercise these skills.
The moment in question.
Why It’s Awesome
So why does this moment work? There’s several factors at play here. First is the design of Puyo-Puyo Pop itself. First of all, Puyo Pop is a fairly easy game to learn: the computer is playing it along-side the player. If the player doesn’t understand how color matching works, he can just observe the computer match groups of four or more puyos of a single color.
Secondly, this battle is pretty easy. So long as the player keeps the board mostly clear, Dr. Robotnik’s incompetence will do the rest of the work sooner or later. Putting the battle so early in the game was actually a smart move: the encounter’s low difficulty allows the player to get used to the new gameplay style while still fitting the game’s expected difficulty curve.
Third, Puyo Pop is good. Many times when a game dips into a different style, the auxiliary gameplay style is under-developed. The majority of the developers’ time and effort (hopefully) goes toward the core gameplay, meaning mini-games don’t get the time and polish needed to fully flesh-out the concept. The Puyo-Puyo battle gets around this by implementing an already established idea. This way the Mania team didn’t have to haphazardly slap together a new gameplay concept, instead they just had to copy something they knew works.
Many times when a game dips into a different style, the peripheral gameplay style is under-developed.
Now that I’ve gotten the minor stuff out of the way, let’s talk about the two biggest reasons this works. I’m sure many of you are grinding your teeth by now with how I keep referring to this moment as “Puyo Pop”. Chemical Plant Zone’s Robotnik fight is actually a callback to the Sega Geneisis/Mega Drive classic Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine (which was technically just a reskin of a Puyo-Pop game, but whatever). This attention to detail and acknowledgment of the Sonic series’ history is a huge part of what makes this bizarre set-piece work. Who in their right mind would anticipate such an obscure reference?
Companies like Sega and Nintendo often reference their past works, but they tend to stick to callbacks that are easy for fans to recognize. Even when a reference is to something more obscure, it’s out of the way and can be easily ignored. Most designers would stick some puyos/beans in the background and call it good. The Mania team, however, decided to put that callback front and center by making it a part of gameplay. If the reference is half of the reason this moment works, the sheer audacity that the designers would even attempt it is the other half. The element of surprise and the obscene amount of creative whimsy this moment embodies is more than enough to make up for any of its “bad” game design.
If the reference is half of the reason this moment works, the sheer audacity that the designers would even attempt it is the other half.
The combination of good implementation, recognizability, and surprise factor all come together to make this one of my favorite game set-pieces in recent memory. While I love analyzing what works and what doesn’t work in games, it’s important not to get too entrenched in sticking to “good” game design. There’s a delight in encountering the unexpected that is all too often ignored in favor of “safe” design practices. Formula is good, but too much results in a game being formulaic.
Our patrons voted that we should try out Earthbound for the SNES Classic Edition, and their wish is our command! This quirky RPG is sure to be weird, if nothing else. Should be entertaining!
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Miles is here to have an important discussion with Scott; what’s it like being an old man? Old men are important to video games, ever since the one in the cave told us it was dangerous to go alone. Miles will share his insight into being an old hero.
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Introducing… MILES! Guest host for the week and TBC’s resident “old guy’ friend, Miles is here to take Rocket League for a spin with Simeon. A famous indie game finally making its way to Nintendo platforms, Rocket League is a blast (even if you don’t typically enjoy soccer or cars). “Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! Here at the Crew, we’re a thankful bunch, and this is the perfect time of year to count our blessings and reflect on the many things we have to be grateful for.
Thankful for Switch
Nintendo’s latest and greatest console has been welcomed with open arms by the faithful few and, seemingly, the masses as well. The R&D team crafted a unique piece of kit that’s exactly what we wanted, and the launch was amazing. In the months following, software support has been both steady and spectacular. With Switch, Nintendo ushered in a new Golden Age of gaming, and it’s really special to have a platform that brings pure pleasure.
Thankful for the Crew
Two Button Crew affectionately refers to our viewers and subscribers as the greater “Crew,” and greater is the perfect word to describe you folks. The Internet can be a nasty and hate-filled place, but none of that comes with the viewers we attract. It’s been magical to see the sincerity and kindness demonstrated by people who tag along with our content. Every few days, we receive a nice note from a Patron or long-time subscriber, telling us how our entertainment has helped them and wishing us to keep going. The encouragement means the world.
Thankful for Podcasts
Nintendo podcasts are becoming more and more prevalent, with long-running ones still pumping out episodes and a number of new ones that popped up with the release of the Switch. Content creators are more eager than ever to discuss news, impressions, as well as an increase in meaningful topics being lobbied. If you aren’t a podcast listener, you’re missing out on some excellent sound-bites from insightful industry reporters and analysts. For hosts, podcasts are a chance to sit back and talk freely about what’s on their mind in the gaming spectrum. For listeners, it’s like having a group of friends (just as dedicated to Nintendo fandom as you are) that meet together weekly to celebrate all things Mario, Metroid, Zelda, and the rest. The podcast we started this year has been a lot of fun.
Thankful for Unforgettable Games
2017 will truly be a year to remember. We now have our modern version of Ocarina of Time vs. Super Mario 64, with the brand new installments Breath of the Wild and Odyssey. The debates between greater game will live on for decades, hopefully not overshadowing the outstanding Splatoon 2, ARMS, Mario + Rabbids, and swaths of indie games flooding the eShop each week. Switch is quickly becoming a home for masterpieces, whether they are brand new experiences, definitive editions, ports, or remakes.
Thankful for a Bright Future
This year was laser-focused on software quality and quantity. I picture Nintendo’s offices being “all hands on deck” to make this new hardware a success. However, there are other ventures that Nintendo is preparing to embark on; namely a theme park, an animated Mario film, more mobile titles, and more. Development on great software will continue as we are promised new entries in the Metroid Prime series (!) and Pokemon, which will sell systems like absolute bananas. The install base is shaping up to be so huge, no developers will be able to ignore it!
When Nintendo bounced back from the Wii U, they bounced back hard. They’re back in the spotlight, which is a huge payoff for people like us who have followed the brand through thick and thin. I’m thankful we’re currently in the thick of the action!
Have a wonderful Holiday, hug your family, and drag them to your room to play some Switch!
Oh my good gracious. Thank goodness for that 10x life code, or else Simeon and Scott would be up a creek without a paddle! We’re attempting to conquer the Contra game known as Super C, but it’s going to take all our patience and focus to make it past a level or two.
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Nintendo is highly proactive with quality insurance, but every so often… glitch’s sneak in and they are real doozies. We’ve collected a top-10 list of our favorite glitches from Nintendo history – see if your favorite buggy childhood memory is included!
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
It seems like Switch is actually picking up steam with third-parties! Sounds like a lot of exclusives are under development right now, just like Breath of the Wild’s winter DLC is! That, and more on this week’s installment of Nintendo news.
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Snipperclips, Switch’s first split-Joy-Con-co-op experience has been expanded! More levels and modes were added as DLC, and sold as a complete physical package! Maybe you have the original game and are wondering if the upgrade is worth it? Or if you’re just ready to have a good time, watch Simeon and Scott snip and clip their way to victory.
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Mega Man is at a weird juncture in its life. It has been five years since the last actual game release with Street Fighter x Mega Man. But since then, there have been fan games released, a “spiritual successor” in Mighty No. 9, guest appearances in fighting games like Super Smash Bros., a cartoon series and movie announced, and a “big announcement” coming in December for his 30th anniversary, not to mention several collections for modern consoles of some of his classic adventures. I guess you could say that he is experiencing his own mid-life crisis, trying to find his identity in these unfamiliar times.
Not to alleviate that, it is my goal today to tell him that the franchise that bears his namesake is not about him. It may be rude to kick someone while they are down, but I want to bring some reality to the situation. First, I want to prove that Mega Man is NOT the central protagonist of his franchise, then present to whom I believe the spotlight has shifted.
Background
In talking about this franchise, I would like to get some terminology out of the way. First, I will be using “series” and “franchise” in very different ways. “Franchise” will refer to all things Mega Man (especially media considered “canon”), and when I use “series” I will denote the specific subdivision of the franchise to which I am referring (i.e. classic, X, Battle Network, etc.)
Also, I will be dealing primarily with the “classic” timeline. For those of you unfamiliar, the Mega Man canon is divided up into 2 main timelines. The first is what I will refer to as the classic timeline. This includes the classic series, X series, Zero series, ZX Series, and Legends series. The second timeline, in which Dr. Light pursued software solutions as opposed to robotics, contains the Battle Network and Star Force series. It is a little more complicated than that, but, as I said, I will refrain from using those sources when I can.
I will also try to refrain from boring you with storyline minutia, though some talk of story points is inevitable. Consider this a spoiler warning… If you ever cared about the Mega Man storyline being spoiled for you…
Who is “Mega Man”?
The difficulty in defining Mega Man as the star of his own franchise begins with defining who you are referring to when you refer to Mega Man. Do you mean the classic 8-bit rendition, or the reploid named X, which bears resemblance? Perhaps you are referring to Mega Man Volnutt, or maybe the persona created by the fusion of Geo and Omega-Xis?
Will the real Mega Man please stand up?
If you were to count characters commonly referred to as Mega Man (by games of fans) you would come up with no less than five, or three in the classic timeline, and possibly as many as twenty or more depending on which renditions you “count”. Even if you were to only count three, all of them are separate entities with their own origins and personalities which they do not share with any of the others. Also, no one of those characters plays a major part in all of those games or series.
The best way around this is to hold to a view that Mega Man is not a single entity, but rather an idea centered around championing peace, justice, and the color blue to a troubled world. At that point, Mega Man is no longer a character, but a loosely-defined set of characteristics that do not find themselves clearly stated in the games, but are then defined by the player. It is an entertaining thought, but hardly a basis of a character.
One champion above the others…?
Now that we are forced to chose one Mega Man, we must choose wisely. First, we should immediately eliminate Mega Man Volnutt from the equation. His series takes place thousands of years apart from the other series, holding only tangential story ties.
Next is the classic Mega Man. It was with him that the franchise began, and I think that it is safe to say that he was the original protagonist of the series. But this Mega Man does not have any direct influence after the time of the classic series end. Though nostalgia may cloud our vision, he had to pass the torch eventually.
Lastly, we have X, which I believe is the best of the Mega Man candidates. We see his origins in the classic series, created by Dr. Light as Mega Man’s successor and an experiment that one day robots might be just like humans. X’s main story begins in Mega Man X, extending through the X series. He fights in the Maverick Wars against Sigma and his underlings. X’s influence is seen through the Zero series (though not being the main protagonist) turning into a cyber elf, still fighting for the greater good, but dying-ish in Mega Man Zero 3. His soul returns in the form of Biometal Model X in the ZX series, continuing in his assistance to the current heroes.
No doubt X’s influence is felt throughout these time periods. His help in defeating Sigma countless times, as well as other threats against the earth cannot be overlooked. But even with all of these points, the developers have not ceased to draw our attention to the real star of the show.
Zero’s the Hero
Was there any doubt when you started reading this article who I would land on as the franchise’s main protagonist? Not only does Zero have a great design, killer moves, and hair that makes all the ladies jealous, but Zero is the central character of the Mega Man franchise as a whole.
First, there is the issue of presence. Of course, Zero is not clearly present in the Legends series (yet), but, once again, the Legends series is so far removed from the rest of the timeline that we must minimize its effect. Zero’s story, as X’s did, begins in the classic series with Wily’s creation of Bass as a rival to Mega Man. Though Bass failed to live up to Wily’s expectations, he studied the energy he had used to create Bass (called Bassnium, lol) to create the ultimate weapon. Here we see Zero’s sinister origins.
Before the events of the first Mega Man X game, Zero is shown to be a maverick (read: “crazed, destructive robot”), unstoppable by any of the Maverick Hunters except Sigma, and only that due to a headache caused by the Maverick Virus, which is released from Zero’s body upon defeat. Sigma has Zero brought back to the Maverick Hunters’ base.
From this point forward, the storyline of the series follows two repeating themes. The first is Zero’s redemption. Though Zero fights for truth, justice, and all that jazz, his primary struggle is against himself. In fact, just about everyone’s struggle from this point on, for the next few hundred years, at least, can be traced back to Zero, either directly, or in the form of the Maverick Virus, or some other “chunk” of Zero that finds its way to a sinister purpose. Sigma, the main villain from the X series, turned evil because he was infected by the Maverick Virus. All of these things set the stage for Zero to not only become the primary hero of the X series (and beyond), but also the primary antagonist, as he must fight to redeem his initial purpose as a weapon of evil and his past (and recurring) destructive actions. X is a hero for good that pretty much stays good. Boring.
The second theme is sacrifice and rebirth. As you may know, Zero dies. He dies A LOT. His deaths are not just the result of his defeats, however, as he routinely sacrifices himself for the greater good (defeating Vile on MMX, Sigma in X5, etc.). But just as the evil part of him is consistently brought back to life by some wicked plot, he always seems to find his way to the land of the living as well. The cycle continues at least through the ZX series, and probably beyond.
The passing of the torch
The last thing I feel I need to address is the “when”. When did the focus shift from Mega Man to Zero? I think the easiest answer is Mega Man X4, as we see a greater, overt emphasis on Zero’s role starting there (X1-3 seem to focus on X, X4-6 focus on Zero, and X7-8 on Axl), but I think we can go back a little further.
At the beginning of the first Mega Man X game, we see X defeated by Vile, and Zero swooping in to save the day. While giving X a pep talk Zero says, “If you use all the abilities you were designed with, you should become stronger…you may even become as powerful as I am.” From this point forward in the game, whenever X gains an armor upgrade, he becomes more and more like, say it with me, Zero (this point is taken from Arin “Egoraptor” Hanson’s Mega Man X Sequelitis video. There is strong language in the video, so follow it at your own risk)! Though X is the central protagonist, becoming like Zero is his ultimate goal. What is the plot of the Second X game? Rebuilding Zero after his heroism in the first game! Even when he is not alive, Zero is given the center stage. Though the plot in X3 does not necessarily revolve around him, he is still given an increasingly important role, as he is finally a playable character, setting the stage for him to be the center of attention for the rest of the series and, after that, the franchise.
So, there you have it. All roads in the Mega Man universe lead to Zero.
P.S. Did I mention that he also appears in the Battle Network timeline as well?
Simeon grew up with Super Mario Kart, but Scott’s only played it once. This should be interesting. We start with a grand prix and end with a fierce balloon battle. Watch until the end for something you probably never wanted to see!
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Black Friday is almost upon us, and Nintendo is gearing up for a big holiday season! Third parties and indies are also joining in the festivities and launching a slew of games soon. Let’s look at what’s coming up!
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
First, there is the issue of presence. Of course, Zero is not clearly present in the Legends series (yet), but, once again, the Legends series is so far removed from the rest of the timeline that we must minimize its effect. Zero’s story, as X’s did, begins in the classic series with Wily’s creation of Bass as a rival to Mega Man. Though Bass failed to live up to Wily’s expectations, he studied the energy he had used to create Bass (called Bassnium, lol) to create the ultimate weapon. Here we see Zero’s sinister origins.
