Mega Man, and its many sequels, are synonymous with quality on the NES. They are classics that still hold up today. The Blue Bomber himself might also be on the same level of an iconic next to Mario, but realistically it is hard to beat the plumber, or even Pokémon on a global scale. The point is these games are great, and the same holds true for the next generation starting with Mega Man X on Super Nintendo.
However, what series is better? For the purposes of this article, it is important to say upfront that again, all of these games are great. Some are better than others of course, but that is beside the point. What we wanted to do was break down both series, feature by feature, and compare what franchise did what better.
10 Mega Man X: Graphics
For an 8-Bit game, the originals are amazing and some of the best the NES has to offer. However, the 16-Bit sprites on the SNES are inarguably better. There is so much more detail in X himself along with the stage’s enemies and backgrounds.
On top of that this made the animations amazing as well. Overall the design is just masterful, gorgeous, and like the originals, some of the best work on SNES.
9 Mega Man OG: Music
The first Mega Man X has a killer soundtrack, but after that the music goes off a cliff. What happened? Not all original soundtracks are equal, but on the whole, their music is a lot catchier.
Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3 are among the best in the series and even stand out on the entire NES library. The fan support for covering Dr. Willy’s stage music alone is unprecedented, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
8 Mega Man X: Glitches
Let’s not forget the technical side of things wherein there were no longer glitches. All the way up until Mega Man 6, it was not uncommon to see enemies, or Mega Man appear broken.
It’s not like the Mega Man X series was without faults, but on the whole it was a cleaner product, showing just how much attention and care Capcom took to make these games special.
7 Mega Man OG: Dr. Wily
Dr. Wily is a funnier villain to crush time after time. Sigma is portrayed more dastardly, and actually evil wherein Wily is on the scale of a Saturday Morning cartoon.
Whenever he is defeated, he would blast off like Team Rocket and scream something like, “I’ll get you next time Mega Man!” His best defeat was in Mega Man 2, where he profusely bows down to Mega Man in tears. Wily is the pathetic villain one can’t help but love.
6 Mega Man X: Balanced Difficulty
The first Mega Man is demonic, and while the rest are also difficult, the challenge was at least toned down slightly. They aren’t impossible to master, but it takes time and patience in order to memorize patterns.
Mega Man X, on the other hand, balanced the difficulty perfectly. Some may say it, and its sequels, were too easy, but compared to the originals, everything must feel like a cakewalk to those that broke their teeth on them.
5 Mega Man OG: Companions
X is like the teenage form of the original. Yes, he is faster, stronger, and cooler, but there is one thing he lacks: cuteness. The original Blue Bomber is an adorable little hero complete with companions.
He has the aide of Dr. Light, the real thing and not some hologram, his sister Roll, his dog Rush, and so many others. Besides Zero, X really has no support for the majority of his games. Once they do start shuffling in Mega Man X4, they are forgettable.
4 Mega Man X: Control
There is something comforting about playing the original games what with their simple jump and shoot mechanics. Besides the later additions of sliding, Rush, and charging up, there isn’t much to them.
X has a lot more to do, which we will delve deeper into later. For now, just on the basis of how X controls, he is just the tighter robot of the two. When one misses a jump that is on the player.
3 Mega Man OG: Proto Man
Zero’s lightsaber equivalent, theme music, and flowing blonde hair all make him awesome. He is the exact kind of hero X strives to be. However, as cool as he is, Proto Man is better.
His mysterious link to Mega Man, along with his battle appearances, always made the originals feel more engaging. Who is he? What are his goals? How can he whistle that good? On that question, his theme song is way more iconic.
2 Mega Man X: Secrets
Now the thing that really makes this game sing are the secrets. The addition of hiding heart containers, energy tanks, and upgradable equipment was a stroke of genius.
Not only did this make levels more engaging to replay, but all of these new features also made Mega Man X more fun to play. The further the series went, the crazier the armor pieces got, which is both good and bad. Overall though, the secrets were amazing.
1 Mega Man OG: Robots
This kind of goes along with what we said about the cuteness of the original games, but we thought this also deserved its own category. That is to say, the enemy designs were fantastic from the simplistic Hard Hats to the Robot Masters.
Every design had a flair of personality. What did X fight? Machines, that’s what. There are some memorable opponents, namely the bosses, but on the whole Mega Man’s foes are more iconic.