How were you introduced to the series?

[UltraViolet64]

This is a question more for people who are part of Generation Z, as we were born outside of the time frame where we could be kids playing the games when they were brand new, but this is open for anyone to answer, really. What introduced you to MML?

In my case, I was already a fan of Mega Man starting around the age of 13 (so around late 2013), and for a couple of years, my general experience with the franchise didn't really extend past the Classic and X series. I was aware of Legends as early as 2007, because I had watched those Windows Movie Maker Super Mario 64 bloopers by Megaman765 when I was 7 or 8. (God, how the internet has changed.) I'm fairly positive there was clips from MML1 in some of those videos, or perhaps, more accurately, MM64. I had also been asked to play MvC3 numerous times when I was in my early adolescence, and since I was not exactly familar with the majority of the roster, I had ended up using mostly Tron, since I was at least aware she was a Mega Man character.

Flash forward to about 2016. At the time, I was dating a girl who would cosplay and go to all sorts of local conventions to sell crafts and other odds and ends at a booth in the artist's alley. I ended up going to probably thirteen conventions in that single year...which is pretty insane to me, looking back. Since a lot of these conventions were pretty small, I ended up doing very little on those days, since business was pretty low and there was rarely any panels worth going to. I would periodically peruse through the other booths, awkwardly pretend that I was seriously considering purchasing anything when I clearly had no intention of doing so, (I mean no offense to them, they were great artists. I was just a broke teenager.) and occasionally making small talk. One person I repeatedly ended up bumping into was Christina-LY, and we ended up becoming acquainted. Or I was just a teenage pest. I'm not really positive which. Either way, she was a really big fan of Mega Man, but very specifically Legends. I decided at that point, once whatever weird con I was at was over and I went home, I would sit down and play through the series so it wasn't so painfully obvious that I had absolutely no goddamn clue what I was talking about. So I spent the spring break of my sophomore year in high school playing through the MML games, and formally fell in love with this series. It made talking to Christina a lot easier, and I at least feel like past that point I was probably a lot less of an annoying kid and more a genuine acquaintance. We would run into each other for a couple conventions afterwards and catch up with each other, but I don't think I ever ran into her again after UBCon 2017, because she wasn't accepted into the artist's alley that year. I haven't seen heads or tails of her since - hope she's doing alright.

And that's the tale of how I became invested in MML. I'm very interested to see how other people in my age range got into it, but I'd really like to hear everyone's stories.

[Digouter]

Ahahahah, I'm ancient so I definitely do not fit into Generation Z, but I think it's still really nice to reminisce about how you came to love this series. Thank you for sharing your story, and I hope many others share what introduced them to MML as well (and I hope Christina is doing okay too haha).

In my case, Megaman was a consistent part of my gaming childhood. mom knew just what to get us, and I eventually was introduced to Rockman as a kid and played the first couple of games a lot on the famicom growing up. Rockman was special, since he had a tendency to appear on ads and shows and all sorts of things, much more so than most other games I knew of (aside from Mario, I guess). It was actually a crazy experience finally finishing the first game haha, I felt indestructible, even though my thumbs were so sore = v =.

Anyways, while mom was the one who got us the famicom and the super famicom, dad was the one who introduced the PSX to the family. We got it holiday 97, and I was nine at the time. Rockman DASH was one of the games he ended up getting, and I was pretty much blown away from the beginning. I remember him trying to hype it up and how the beginning reminded him of Indiana Jones, but man, I didn't need any hyping up. I was instantly sold the moment I saw Rock. I knew it wasn't the Rockman I knew, but this was special. Really special. I played the hell out of it, and was so frustrated with the Marlwolf hahah. The game over screen also terrified me. It wasn't Rock exploding and going BWAAA or anything of the sort - he just ended up lying there, unmoving. It made me feel that he really died haha, and I would just do everything in my power to never die and see that game over screen.

While I do love Rockman DASH, it wasn't until I started to become interested in the English language and started playing cRPGs like Fallout and the like when I decided to grab Megaman Legends haha. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but the English version sealed the deal for me. Everyone just seemed to have so much life in them, but maybe it's because English isn't my first language? I dunno haha ; v ;. While I'd always be playing DASH, it wasn't until I played Legends (which was about 98 or something) when I truly appreciated the story, funny enough haha. Maybe because I was just a little dumb as a nine year old when I got the first release = v =...

[EmperorMajora64]

I don't fall into Gen Z either since I was born in '91 lol

Anyway; my Mom had a NES as a kid. One of the games was Megaman 2. It was one of the few NES games I got anywhere REMOTELY close to beating, but like the other NES games I had; I wasn't really invested into the franchises. When I got my N64 on Christmas of 1999, so the next couple of years, I was getting N64 games left and right. One that was randomly picked out for me as a summertime present was Megaman 64. I fell in love with the game very quickly. Wasn't like the other games I had (Pokemon Snap, DK64, Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Tooie, Super Mario 64) with its full voice acting, its believable world, its interesting characters (I developed a secret crush on Roll at the time too)
And then later when kids at school - in particular 2 of my close friends - got their hands on the game, we would talk all about it. How far we got, where we got stuck. Our theories on Megaman's mysterious origins (the N64 version's manual gave more info on the characters than the PS1 version's) and our shipping wars between either MegamanXRoll or MegamanXTron.
So many great memories I have as a kid.

[allysprite]

I was introduced by my boyfriend.
He loves the megaman series as a whole and got me into it too so now im probably an even bigger fan now!
One day he was talking about legends and I thought it sounded really fun and I gave it a try a few months later and my god I was right about it sounding fun.
Now the legends series as a whole are my favorite games of all time, Legends 2 has to be my favorite and I'm still hopeful that legends 3 could possibly come out at some point this decade.
My boyfriend also made my pfp lol
Roll Caskett is my favorite character ever

[chris3671]

I was 10 when i got Megaman legends 2 for my playstation back in late 2000 - early 2001, I was hooked to the series since then. I took a very long break from thinking about the games until they went on the PSN store on PS3, then i re purchased the 3 games in the series on my ps3 and now playing them again after all these years. I hope they can make the 3rd game one day, it sucked when it got canceled back in 2011.

[Dashe]

Someday, someone from Gen Z or Gen Alpha will pop up and go "Some crazy person named Dashe forced me to play it against my will, but it turned out to actually be really good and now I'm mad there's no Mega Man Legends 3, too."

[phoenixlafonica]

I first learned about it through an ad that I saw in a Spider-Man comic book almost 25 years ago, and ultimately 3 years later played the N64 Port of it. I watched several playthroughs of mega Man Legends 2 on YouTube as I never owned a PlayStation. I also am very devastated by the fact that mega Man Legends 3 was never released. I think a part of me died that day.

[drudicta]

Around 2001 or so, saw it on the shelf in a rental store and played it so often that it was eventually bought for me. The first game and eventually the second. Only ever got to Rent the Tronne Bonne game and never could find it to purchase, would have loved to have all three.

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

I was in the primary demographic when the first Mega Man games came out, I think. Am I still allowed to play? ;P

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Okay, since I now read the rest of the first paragraph whereas I apparently didn't before...

Actually, I just realized I wrote about this as a part of my article, "Getting Past Bad Early Impressions" on TMMN late last year. Here's the excerpt:

Unfortunately, my memory is a little foggy as to what my first exposure to Mega Man Legends — formerly Mega Man Nova for like a week, and Mega Man Neo before that — was. This was during the rise of the internet, after all, and new information was coming from all sorts of various directions.

That aside, I do remember the first time that really stuck. It was in the November 1997 issue of PSM, the unofficial PlayStation Magazine (the one with Zero and MegaMan Volnutt on the cover).

I think I remember some confusion, because while Volnutt had a helmet on the cover, the first image of him on the inside looked like this:

Image

No helmet. None in any of the screenshots, either. That made me a little uncertain about this new Blue Bomber, who was a little better established at the outset as being a new Mega Man this time around.

Fortunately, my fears were soon allayed. Further in the article was a picture of Volnutt with his helmet, and a caption pointed out that you could put it on and take it off as you please. I thought that was really cool, though I also thought that with all those buttons on a PlayStation controller, maybe one would be dedicated to having it form and, er, unform around his head. You know, like in the intro for Mega Man 2.

I know there’s a little contention about whether he should wear the helmet or not, but keep in mind: with the exception of those in the Battle Network universe, a Mega Man’s helmet is basically his symbol, like the bat or big “S” on Batman or Superman’s chests. And it’s not like I don’t like a helmetless Mega Man; I still really hope I can manage to get my hands on the Kotobukiya Mega Man 11 model kit for that very reason, since he can have it both ways.

As for Mega Man Legends, I wear the helmet while in serious battle or in ruins, and take it off when I’m running around town and such. Yeah, a button would make that easier, but I’m just that dedicated to the bit that I do it anyway.

All that stuff aside, I was unsure about some other things, like the general aesthetics of the armor and the “LEGO men” and other strange things. But I remembered my initial misgivings about Mega Man X, and decided to wait it out and see for myself.

Suffice to say, I’m very glad that I did. I tried an imported demo disc of Rockman DASH at my local Microplay, and even in Japanese I couldn’t read or understand, I fell in love instantly.

Check out the full article if you want to see my early impressions on Mega Man X and Mega Man Battle Network, too.

I am happy to say that thanks to Mega Man World, I was recently able to acquire a copy of that very demo that made me fall in love with the game. I don't think I have anything to play it on, and will probably keep it sealed, but it's a sentimental addition to my collection that I've been after for a while, and am glad to finally have.